Chapter 12: Uncle I died

Mei Zheng was still resting inside the Medical Grass, waiting to fully recover. His right hand was better than the day before, but it hadn't fully healed. He fell on top of it, so it brunt most of the damage.

There were few people healing aside from him. The majority of those who had been recuperating the day prior had been discharged as they were now alright.

Most of the accidents in the fights weren't severe, as those participating weren't strong enough to accidentally kill or cripple someone. Yi Ren and the boys were the exception, though.

Because of that and the pale-white color of the elongated room, the area seemed slightly deserted.

Mei Zheng was reading an old scroll, using it sideways. He held one of its sides with his left hand and used gravity to keep the other extended, because he couldn't use his right arm yet.

'Gray Grass Salad Recipe' was the title of the text, containing precise instructions to prepare one of the many unique dishes of the sect.

[Ingredients: Regular grass, salt, fresh water, regular sized rocks (2), herbal spices (optional), animal feces, fruit.]

"Knowledge is power, I say. There may be a day when I'll only have grass to eat. This information is worth gold!" He spoke to himself, grinning, while scanning the content with his eyes.

"Could you shut up Stick-boy?" An angry boy's voice came over to disrupt Mei Zheng's concentration. It was a little man with fat arms and red skin, showing an unpleasant smile. His neck was covered in bandages and his voice sounded raspy, it was Tai Tu.

"Who the tarnation are you to shut me up?" Stick-boy also got angry.

"Oh so that's it? Disrespecting your senior? Wait until the Disciple Council finds out!"

"You? Senior? Someone weaker than me can't be my senior! Leave me alone or I will be forced to use the stick!"

"Hah? Your trashy stick? You got your pillion handed over to you on a plate because of it. Don't threaten people with useless things!"

"Who are you to tell me anything? I heard that a nobody who just joined the sect and had a lower cultivation destroyed you, yet you're here talking poop!"

"If it was you, you'd be dead! I was unlucky and got matched against a maniac, yet you have no excuse!"

"You ugly piece of flummery, you don't know when to shut up do you?"

Mei Zheng dropped the scroll he was holding and used his index finger to pick his nose, taking out a giant piece of yellow snot and throwing it to Tai Tu, who was two beds away to his right. The snot flew in the air at the exact time that Tai Tu was about to speak, entering through his opened mouth into his throat.

He reacted too late; he had already swallowed the yellow snot and started coughing madly, turning redder as recent memories started to flow into his mind.

"I'll… cough, cough. I'll kill you!"

While Mei Zheng and Tai Tu were about to fight, a group of people entered the room carrying a person. There were 5 in total; two women, two men and the boy they brought. One of them was Ming Daiyu, who followed the eye-patched kid in order to see if she could be of help to Average-guy.

The kid, however, hadn't arrived. It seemed he had left on the way here becasue he was busy; he was an elder after all. They put down Average-guy on the bed that was in the middle of Tai Tu and Mei Zheng.

Tai Tu was forced to swallow his anger, which made his skin even redder from the stress. Mei Zheng, on the other hand, didn't care at all, and resumed picking his nose, preparing his artillery.

"You! You little…!"

"Quick, pass me the pills!"

"The pills aren't working. It has something to do with his meridians! His spiritual energy is erratic!"

"What do we do? If this continues, he will become a cripple at best!"

"Don't we have anything to control the flow of energy?"'

"It's not about controlling it, but calming it. We don't make those kinds of pills here."

"You mean like a… drug?"

"Something like that could work."

"I know where to find one, try to keep him stable! I'll be back soon!"

Ming Daiyu said as she swiftly left through the door. The hurried steps that echoed after signaled that she ran off somewhere. Tai Tu, whose breakdown had gotten interrupted by all the fuss, tried once again to calm himself, controlling his breathing and counting in his head. He was not someone to get easily angry, but he was furious for some unknown reason.

The three remaining people trying to stabilize Average-guy's condition weren't focusing on the rest of the patients' behavior, being consequently ignorant of the rigid atmosphere around them. Seeing this, Mei Zheng didn't let go of the opportunity to attack Tai Tu again, taking his finger out of his nose and readying his shot.

"AGHHHH YOU FORCED ME!!!"

Tai Tu finally broke down and, even injured, jumped out of his bed as his eyes turned completely red.

…

Bam Bam Bam!

"Ling Zhou! Ling Zhou, let me see your pills! Open the door! It's me, Sister Ming!"

Ming Daiyu had gotten to the place outside where Ling Zhou lived, demanding to see his pills in order to treat Zheng Lu, a.k.a Average-guy. She had to ask around to find the location, but it didn't take long; few people knew Ling Zhou but many knew there was a new guy in the sect.

"Someone is in danger, open up!"

Bam Bam Bam!

She kept knocking the door, making loud sounds, awakening the sleeping neighbors nearby.

Inside, the invisible Ling Zhou was shaking from nervousness. He was surrounded by small mountains of paper sheets –or at least that's how it was supposed to be since he was invisible– which made the room look like a mess.

"My plans have been discovered this fast. Even my location was exposed! It had to be expected from Sister Ming… I underestimated them all."

"We'll have to bring the plans forward; I'll have to inform my uncle."

After he whispered to himself, still invisible, Ling Zhou took out a ball of white mist with one hand and a piece of paper with the other. He couldn't be seen, so both objects appeared to be floating in the air and getting attracted to each other until the paper entered the mist-ball.

"It turned out to be the 48th one! Good thing I spent the entire time writing letters of every possibility that occurred to me just in case I needed to send one immediately!"

He threw the ball of mist through the window with all his might, letting out a sigh of relief when it merged with the clouds of the sky in the distance. He was now about to take his bottle of pills when the door suddenly came flying.

BAM

"Don't take it personal, Junior Brother, this is urgent." Ming Daiyu announced her intrusion.

Ling Zhou, who was still in the middle of eating his pills, jumped from fright, dropping the bottle of pills to the ground. In a desperate act, he threw himself out by the window, escaping successfully.

"W-what just happened?" Ming Daiyu asked herself in confusion. As Ling Zhou was invisible, the only thing she was able to see was the bottle of pills falling to the floor, so she was caught off guard.

She shook her head in dismissal and walked over the clothes on the floor –which Ling Zhou had taken off at night to become invisible- and the mounds of paper sheets, picking up the already half empty bottle of colored translucent pills, storing it inside her storage ring.

She was about to turn around and leave, but certain words on one of the sheets of paper caught her attention.

[Uncle, the dog that I tested my pills on, which was supposed to be dead, resurrected with superior intelligence and discovered I was a spy! We need to act early!]

"Wh- What?" Ming Daiyu was startled by the piece of information she unintentionally read. Her eyebrows furrowed as she took another letter from the pile and started scanning it with her narrowed, pink eyes.

[Uncle, I got diarrhea! I need medical services! You need to attack now!]

"Huh!? Attack?" Her confusion grew the more she read.

[Uncle I fell in love. I will stand on Gray Grass Sect's side now! Please stop the attack.]

"…"

[You don't need to act anymore, uncle. I got rid of them all with my incredible skills! Come pick me up.]

"What 's all this?"

[Uncle, I won the 13th Outer Disciple's Talent Competition of Gray Grass Sect! You don't need to do anything, I'm only informing you.]

[Uncle I died. I'm sending this to you from heaven. My last wish was for you to commercialize my pills.]

"This... can't be."

...

Dozens of kilometers away from where the giant gray grass stood, above a hill, a gray-bearded old man that resembled Ling Zhou received a ball of white mist that came out of a cloud.

As it fell into his hand, the mist started dissipating, revealing a small sheet of paper that contained a message written with a very ugly calligraphy.

[Uncle! I found a treasure! It's called friendship... No, just kidding, I just got caught. Please come rescue me.]

"Sigh... Little Ling, what did they do to you?"

The old man gazed at the sky for a moment before raising his extended hand solemnly.

"It 's time."

He didn't raise his voice, but it seemed he had screamed with everything he had as hundreds of people crept out of nowhere, staring straight at the long grayish structures that delved into the horizon.