At first, there was only a patch of white light in his field of vision.
Su Mu held his breath, his fingers finding the elevation screw on the side, twisting it down little by little.
The brass threads engaged, making a faint grinding sound.
The halo dispersed at the bottom of the lens barrel, and the blurred white light gradually focused.
The drop of murky well water on the stage, under the overlapping of the two convex glass lenses, revealed its true inner appearance.
Something else appeared in the water.
He actually saw that it was filled with swamp-like impurities.
Tiny bits of grass and sand were magnified dozens of times, scattered haphazardly within the liquid.
Su Mu's breathing stopped.
Because he saw living creatures.
Several tiny, transparent bugs were dragging long antennae, swimming back and forth among the sand and debris.
They had no bones, their bodies twisting with the water's ripples.
However, it was still too blurry.
One, two, ten...
Densely packed, they tumbled within this drop of water that was smaller than a fingernail.
Su Mu had studied medicine for thirty years, read through countless rare and fragmented manuscripts, and memorized the illustrated manuals of the hundred trades left by the successive patriarchs of Sunset Valley.
Medical books said that water could be sweet or bitter, and possessed cold or hot properties.
But no medical book had ever told him that there were living things in water!
These transparent bugs were right in the water he drank every day.
Could it be that whether it was the wooden basin used for washing his face and rinsing his mouth, or the meals he ate every day... they were everywhere?!
Su Mu was so shocked that he stumbled backward.
His heel caught on the round stool behind him, making a dull clatter.
The round stool tipped over onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Valley Master Su? Li Sheng was startled and quickly reached out to help him.
Su Mu threw off Li Sheng's hand, pointing tremblingly at the brass lens barrel.
Jenny Huang grabbed the iron hammer on the table, her eyebrows shooting up in anger.
Are you crazy? I stayed up for three days and three nights grinding those lenses.
If you dare say they don't work well, I'll stuff you into the furnace to burn as charcoal today!
But Su Mu seemed completely unable to hear Jenny Huang's scolding.
The books of the hundred trades passed down by the patriarchs of Sunset Valley, even the medical theories and pulse cases revered as golden rules in the Imperial Hospital of Great Qian.
At this moment, they all became waste paper.
There were bugs in the water.
Bugs invisible to the human eye.
Su Mu had drunk water for twenty-three years and brewed medicine for thirty years.
All steeped in these bugs.
Su Mu's legs went weak, and he slid down the dirt wall to sit on the ground, panting heavily.
Lao Sun stood by the threshold, still holding the unfinished medicine mortar in his hands.
He looked at Su Mu's state and snorted coldly.
Playing the devil. I have practiced medicine for most of my life. What kind of foul sores and rotting flesh haven't I seen? A few drops of water can scare a man into paralysis?
Lao Sun knocked the mortar against the threshold and strode over to the table.
Move aside. I want to see exactly what kind of deity is hiding in Lord Xu's heavenly eye!
Lao Sun pushed aside Li Sheng, who was blocking the way, and imitating Su Mu's previous actions, bent down and leaned close to the barrel.
Squinting his right eye, his line of sight fell down the brass tube.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three breaths.
The color visibly drained from Lao Sun's weather-beaten face.
Lao Sun saw it.
He saw it more clearly and vividly than Su Mu had.
Because he was a military doctor.
At this moment, countless images flashed through Lao Sun's mind of their own accord.
Those dead wounded soldiers surfaced in his mind.
That young soldier named Ergou, who got a gash on his leg from a Helian scimitar.
Lao Sun had washed his wound with well water and applied golden wound medicine.
Three days later, Ergou's wound oozed yellow-green pus, and his entire leg swelled unbearably.
On the fifth day, Ergou developed a high fever, crying out for his mother as he burned to death alive on the straw mat.
Lao Sun had always thought Ergou just had a fragile fate, unable to withstand the invasion of evil qi.
Now Lao Sun understood.
It was he who had personally washed these bugs into Ergou's wound!
He was the one who killed Ergou!
In the iron pots of the army cooks, this kind of water boiled the rations for the entire army. Under the rolling white foam, how many of these transparent bugs were hiding?
Lao Sun had personally carried bowls of medicinal soup brewed with this water and poured them into the mouths of sick soldiers suffering from unyielding high fevers.
Lao Sun thought he was saving people.
But those transparent living creatures dragging long antennae, tumbling and swallowing in the lens barrel, were baring their fangs and brandishing their claws, mocking his medical skills.
Evil qi invasion?
Unacclimatized to the local environment?
All bullshit!
It was bugs!
It was these invisible living creatures, following the water, following the wounds, drilling into the flesh of the wounded soldiers, drilling into their internal organs!
Lao Sun had personally delivered these lethal things into the bodies of the wounded soldiers!
His stomach churned.
Strong stomach acid rushed straight up to his throat.
Lao Sun kicked aside the wooden basin blocking his way and stumbled out of the blacksmith shop.
As soon as he grabbed the courtyard wall, he bent over and vomited violently.
The sound of his retching was intense, as if he were going to throw up all his bile.
The physical nausea rushed to his head; his past understanding was completely shattered.
The medical path Lao Sun took such pride in was smashed to pieces in this moment.
In the courtyard, Lao Sun vomited until he couldn't stand straight, while Su Mu lay paralyzed at the base of the wall, trembling.
Jenny Huang gripped her hammer, looking outside the door, then at Su Mu on the ground, completely baffled.
Did these two take the wrong medicine?
Jenny Huang threw the hammer onto the ground and strode over to the table.
I ground these lenses myself. I want to see exactly what kind of monsters and demons are inside!
Jenny Huang bent down, her large eyes widening as she leaned into the barrel.
After clearly seeing the scene in the drop of water on the stage, Jenny Huang also gasped like the other two, stumbling back two steps.
Heavens! There are maggots growing in this water!
Jenny Huang turned to glare at the water basin. Usually, when she got thirsty from forging iron, she would just scoop up raw water from the basin and pour it down her throat.
The moment she thought about how her stomach might be filled with these transparent bugs...
Jenny Huang's face also turned green. She dry-heaved twice, forcefully suppressing the acid in her stomach.
The apprentices in the corner hid in the shadows, watching the usually hot-tempered Manager Huang dry-heaving.
Although the apprentices hadn't seen what was in the microscope, the fear of the unknown already made their scalps tingle.
A timid apprentice quietly hid the water gourd in his hand behind his back, not daring to look at the vat of raw water ever again.
Xu Zhan frowned tightly, striding over to the table, also wanting to lean in for a look.
Second Brother, it's better if you don't look.
Xu Qinghuan's voice echoed in the room.
She remained seated in her original spot.
Now, you all should understand what it means when they say illnesses enter through the mouth.
Xu Qinghuan stood up, walked over to the microscope, and gently tapped the brass barrel with her fingertip.
In this world, perhaps there isn't so much of that illusory evil qi.
The festering wounds in the wounded soldier camps, the dead soldiers with unyielding high fevers—the heavens didn't take them away. It is these things causing the mischief.
Xu Qinghuan looked around at everyone present.
Great Qian's medical books have been written for thousands of years.
Today, I have opened a door for you.
Inside the door, is another world.
Su Mu finally caught his breath, scrambling up on his hands and knees, staring fixedly at Xu Qinghuan.
Lord Xu... this water... this water can't be drunk! All the water in the world can't be drunk!
Xu Qinghuan sneered.
If you don't drink water, do you plan to die of thirst?
Then what should we do? Those bugs... those things... Su Mu was incoherent.
Boil it.
Xu Qinghuan spat out two words.
Boiling water can kill a hundred poisons; naturally, it can also kill these microscopic creatures.
