Chương 133: The Search Begins

"I require your expertise, my dear Esh. I need your help in tracking down…" Joe paused, glancing around to make sure no one was listening, before leaning in closely.

"Malcolm." Esha's eyes widened as she understood which Malcolm he meant.

"He is still alive?" she whispered, leaning in as well. Joe shook his head.

"Not exactly. Let's find somewhere more private to talk." Esha took in the bustling activity around them as more people arrived to repair the buildings that had collapsed, then gave a sharp nod and led Joe toward a nearby official-looking structure. Before long, the pair found themselves in a private room within one of Kunlun's office buildings, sealed off by a privacy array that allowed them to speak freely.

Joe explained everything he had seen when he encountered the undead army, from the blight to the shield that had negated his attack. To his surprise, Esha knew very little about the army's appearance or its growing threat on the western side of the continent.

"Gao and I try to keep our heads low," she said with a shrug.

"We haven't been keeping up to date with things." Joe nodded, feeling a twinge of envy that they could distance themselves from politics while he seemed permanently entangled in it.

"Well, Sarah has plans in motion to move the city pillar they are heading for. So there is no immediate danger," he said.

"But leaving an undead army to roam as they please is probably a bad idea. But I genuinely don't think I can stop the army without first dealing with the source of that cloud, or separating it from the army somehow." Esha nodded slowly.

"But first, you want to recover Malcolm's remains for a burial?" Joe nodded.

"Do we need to go through the trouble?" Esha asked flatly.

"He wasn't a likeable person. I say just leave him be." Joe shook his head.

"Even he doesn't deserve to be bound to an undead army for all eternity. The least I can do is put him to rest. If not for him, then at least for those who remember him, before he lost his way." He didn't need to say their names for Esha to understand he meant Alice and Felicia.

"You have a point," Esha conceded.

"But I'm only helping because you asked. If it were my choice. I'd leave him to rot." She began pacing the room, deep in thought.

"So what's the plan? I might be able to locate him, but my skill only works at close range. Very close."

"That leads me to my first concern," Joe said.

"How good is your poison resistance? Do you have any skills that can protect you from the blight?" Esha shook her head.

"I don't have any skills that prevent poison or blight," she said, almost spitting out that last word.

"Maybe we can purchase some pills to help?" Joe grimaced. After what he'd experienced inside the cloud, he doubted any pill would be strong enough to matter.

"Do you have any skills to help?" Esha asked.

"I do," Joe replied.

"I have a skill that practically negates the infection and protects me. But if I use it on both of us, you'd need to stay in physical contact with me the entire time."

"As much as I enjoy riding on your shoulders at times," Esha said dryly.

"I'd need to be able to move freely to track him accurately."

"I thought as much. So I was thinking, how about we recruit a temporary teammate? Someone who specialises in purification or at least resistance to blight and pestilence?" Esha stopped pacing and studied him for a moment.

"That could work," she said slowly.

"And I know just the people to help us recruit someone adequate." Now, this was Esha's domain. She straightened, a sharp smile forming as she tapped into her old connections, already moving to issue a discreet call across Kunlun for someone capable of surviving a second journey into the undead army's cloud of death. __ Xu Xingyu sat at her workstation, absorbed in new research on mana-crafted hospital equipment.

As effective as skills were for curing and treating patients, nothing replaced proper equipment for pre-care and after-care. There were only so many people available with healing skills at any given time, so ensuring that patients could be stabilized while waiting for a healer was critical. She was midway through a promising section when her communicator blinked with an incoming message from her supervisor.

"This is Xingyu. How can I help you, Caixia?"

"Xingyu, are you able to come to the offices opposite the hospital right now?" Xingyu's brows knit together. As a specialist focused on disease and cure research, she was rarely summoned in person and seldom without notice. If they were calling for her directly, it had to be important.

"Yes. I can be there in ten minutes," she replied, rising to her feet and reaching for her jacket. She grabbed an apple from the counter as she headed for the door.

"Xingyu, make it twenty," Caixia added.

"And wear your best outfit… the Progenitor is here." Xingyu froze. The apple slipped from her fingers and hit the floor as she stood there in stunned silence. Nineteen minutes later, Xingyu stood in her finest business suit, taking a steadying breath as she tried to calm her racing heart. She had no idea why the Progenitor had requested her specifically. All she had been told was that it related to her profession and her specialized skill set in purifying decay and disease.

Her thoughts raced as she was ushered into a brightly lit room. For the first time in her life, she stood face to face with one of her world's Progenitors. He looked almost exactly as she had imagined from the countless paintings and images she had seen. Even seated, he carried a presence that seemed to fill the room. He wore a casually draped toga that left his arms bare, the fabric falling over a powerfully built frame with effortless ease.

His arms looked sculpted, as though carved to embody an idealized vision of human form. He was strikingly handsome, with short brown hair and his signature spiderwebbed sunglasses resting on his face. At his side stood the familiar presence of Esha Bakshi, whom Xingyu had seen only once before, years ago, back when she still lived in the city. Xingyu stood in awe of the absurdly good-looking pair.

Being in the presence of such overwhelming beauty was almost too much for her, when suddenly a sharp grunt broke the moment, and she watched as Esha punched the Progenitor in the stomach.

"What was that for?" Feormere coughed, rubbing his belly.

"I told you to stop doing that. It's bad enough we have to deal with all these foolish people in awe of you. But with you leaking your aura everywhere. I'm at my limit," Esha complained as she stamped her foot.

"Fine. I'll stop. I was just having a bit of fun," Feormere replied. Only then did Xingyu notice that the suffocating sense of awe she had felt moments before had vanished. She now stood before a surprisingly normal pair of bickering friends. She straightened her posture and gathered her thoughts.

"And take those damn things off," Esha added, roughly pulling Feormere's sunglasses from his face. He didn't resist as she placed them on the table in front of him. Then she turned to Xingyu for the first time.

"Xingyu, please come forward. We have something important we'd like to ask you," Esha said, motioning to the chair opposite as she took a seat beside Feormere. Xingyu gave them a polite bow before sitting down.

"I am Esha, and this is Joe. Ignore his odd antics. He is harmless," Esha stated. Xingyu blinked in confusion, then remembered that his real name was Joseph, before he had taken the title of Feormere when the two worlds were fused.

"It is a pleasure to meet you both," Xingyu stammered once she was settled.

"The pleasure is all ours," Joe replied with a smile so warm it nearly stole her breath. Xingyu felt her cheeks heat just from looking at him, and he chuckled softly at the sight. Esha swatted at him once, but he ignored her and leaned forward instead.

"Now. What we are about to discuss must stay between us," Joe said calmly.

"We ask you not to share any information with anyone outside this room." Xingyu's heart began to race as she began to suspect that this was not just an important meeting, but a deeply secretive one.

"You've probably heard rumours about an undead horde currently roaming the western part of the continent?" Joe asked. Xingyu nodded, her eyes widening as the weight of the question settled in.

"I thought they were only rumours. Is there really an army of undead heading toward one of the Volduran pillars?" she asked. Joe nodded once.

"Yes. But that is only part of why we requested this meeting today. Esha and I are looking for someone who specialises in purification and anti-blight skills." Xingyu couldn't hide her surprise.

"Blight?" she murmured.

"That would explain a strange case we had about a week ago. I couldn't identify the disease at the time, but if it was blight…" She pulled out a notebook and began scribbling furiously. Joe and Esha watched in silence as Xingyu rapidly wrote down observations, hypotheses, and half-formed conclusions, before she suddenly froze and looked up.

"Yes. It all makes sense now. I can't believe I missed it. It's so obvious," she said, before remembering where she was and who she was sitting opposite.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly.

"I just remembered something important and didn't want to lose my train of thought."

"It's quite all right," Joe said warmly.

"In fact, this reaction is exactly why you might be the perfect person to help us." He made a brief motion with his hand, and the Kunlun officials standing along the far wall quietly excused themselves, leaving the three of them alone. Joe then extended his palm, and a glass container appeared on the table between them. Xingyu stared in awe at its contents. Inside the container floated a blackened fragment of bone, from which a strange, frozen cloud of darkness leaked and coiled in place.

"This is part of a skeletal figure I encountered a day ago while investigating the undead army," Joe explained.

"I took a sample in the hope that it would help us find someone capable of stopping the blight from spreading." A day ago? Xingyu briefly wondered how he could have travelled from the western edge of the continent in such a short time, but her thoughts were quickly pulled back to the object before her.

"What is that cloud leaking from it?" she asked, her gaze fixed on the drifting darkness.

"That is partly blight, partly pestilence, partly something unknown," Joe replied.

"Pestilence and blight?" she asked in shock.

"And it originates from inside the bone?"

"From what we can tell, yes and no," Joe said.

"As soon as I separated the skeleton from the army and the cloud surrounding it. It severed the connection, and the flow of blight stopped. I was only able to capture this fragment mid-flow because I knew that the flow would cease the moment I removed it." Xingyu's eyes fluttered as understanding dawned.

"So these skeletons are acting as conduits, spreading blight as the army marches? That's terrifying." Joe nodded.

"Thankfully, the army moves very slowly. At their current pace, it would likely take years for them to reach Kunlun." The reassurance was thin at best, and Xingyu clearly felt the same. An army that poisoned the land as it moved was still a nightmare, no matter how slow it was.

"I was hoping you might have a skill capable of shielding someone from the blight," Joe continued, "or, ideally, purifying it entirely." Xingyu smiled, confidence settling over her features.

"Yes. Now that I know what I'm dealing with, it should be quite simple. My shielding skill doesn't identify ailments, but once I understand the nature of a disease, I can protect against it without much trouble."

"Fantastic," Joe said, clapping his hands together.

"You wouldn't mind a quick test, would you?" Before Xingyu could properly protest that this sounded like an exceptionally bad idea, Joe opened the container. The frozen cloud immediately flowed out, washing over all three of them as Xingyu screamed. You have been afflicted with Blight. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. You have been afflicted with Pestilence. __ Joe coughed as he crouched beside the table, recovering from yet another punch from Esha.

She was busy consoling Xingyu, firmly assuring her that Joe was not, in fact, attempting to kill them all. Joe considered mentioning that he could purify the blight himself without issue, but one look at Esha's glare convinced him that now was not the time. He stayed quiet. He was honestly surprised by how gentle she was when she wanted to be, and it was strangely reassuring to see her calming Xingyu instead of setting something on fire.

After a short while, Xingyu steadied herself and returned to normal, though any lingering awe she had felt toward him was clearly gone. She gave him a sharp side-eye, the kind usually reserved for an exceptionally foolish child.

"Well," Joe said with a sheepish smile, "we've confirmed that your skill is extremely effective against blight." Both women simply shook their heads at him. Joe sighed inwardly, once again wishing he wasn't constantly surrounded by women who had absolutely no hesitation when it came to ganging up on him.

"So, do you think you can help us?" Joe asked once they had all returned to their seats. Xingyu nodded.

"Yes. This would also help me improve my research and boost our medical knowledge to a much higher level."

"Fantastic," Joe said as he rose to his feet.

"We leave in the morning!" He turned and started toward the door to inform the officials that they had found their candidate, but Xingyu spoke up.

"Erm… Sorry. I'm a little confused," she said.

"Where are we going? Are we heading to Landradad?" Her eyes filled with cautious wonder.

"To the undead army of course," Joe replied as if it were the most obvious destination imaginable.

"You'll be in charge of making sure old Esh here stays safe from the blight while we infiltrate deep into the army." With that, Joe left the room, abandoning a stunned Xingyu and a laughing Esha behind as he went to make arrangements. That evening, Joe lay in a small park in central Kunlun, staring up at the night sky as he quietly prepared himself for a second venture into the tide of undead.

He wasn't overly concerned about Xingyu's initial shock at the sudden expedition, trusting that Esha would convince her of the importance of her role and, more importantly, reassure her that she would be kept safe. He had taken extra precautions on that front as well, purchasing a small fortune's worth of protection charms and defensive treasures from his pillar shop to ensure Xingyu had every possible safeguard. He had no intention of dragging her into direct combat.

Her task was to assist with tracking Malcolm, and once he was located, Esha would escort her to safety while Joe handled the rest. As far as plans went, it felt solid. He smiled faintly at the stars as the last pieces settled into place. The next morning, Joe waited aboard his skyboat outside the main hospital in central Kunlun, hovering patiently as the city stirred below. He didn't have to wait long before Esha arrived with an extremely timid-looking Xingyu in tow.

Xingyu looked as though she might object one final time, but Esha gently patted her arm and guided her aboard. Before Xingyu could gather the courage to reconsider, Joe sent the skyboat surging forward. They headed west, toward their destination, and toward the tide of undead where their target waited. __ When the undead army came into view, Xingyu stared in awe as Joe guided the skyboat lower, skimming just above the treetops.

They came to a halt several miles north of the army, and Joe vanished shortly after to make his preparations, leaving Xingyu alone with Esha while they went over the plan one last time.

"So I'm going to be strapped to your back while we move around that huge cloud of blight, and you'll use your skills to locate someone inside it?" Xingyu asked again, needing reassurance.

"Yes. You only need to keep the shielding active while I work my magic," Esha replied calmly.

"Once we find… it. We leave the rest to the Farmer… I mean Joe," she added, correcting herself at the end. Xingyu tilted her head slightly. She didn't understand why Esha kept calling Joe 'the Farmer', but she assumed it was an inside joke between them. Her curiosity, however, finally got the better of her.

"Is it true that he's married to a Volduran princess?" Xingyu asked eagerly.

"All the nurses at the hospital talk about it every day."

"Princess?" Esha scoffed lightly.

"There are no princesses among the Voldura. But yes, he is married, and his wife is very nice. I can introduce you when we get back." Xingyu's face lit up.

"The nurses will be so jealous when I tell them. Do you think I could take a picture? As proof?" Esha laughed and promised her plenty of pictures. When Joe returned from what he called seed planting, something Xingyu didn't quite understand, as she couldn't fathom why he'd spent nearly an hour planting seeds before they even began, she wisely chose not to ask. Soon after, Joe wrapped her securely in a strangely rigid purple vine that felt closer to metal than plant life and fastened her to Esha's back.

"Is this really necessary?" Xingyu asked as she peered down at Esha, who seemed completely unfazed by having someone strapped to her.

"Yes," Joe answered simply.

"We don't know where inside the army our target is, but we do know he'll be moving and likely trying to avoid being found. We'll have to stay in constant motion, and no offence, but you won't be able to keep up on your own. This way, you stay shielded and out of danger." Xingyu nodded in understanding just as Esha leaned in and whispered near her ear.

"The Farmer, sorry, Joe, has a thing for piggyback rides. He really gets a kick out of women riding on his back." Xingyu couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey! I heard that!" Joe called back, indignation clear in his voice. The group of three waited beneath a cloaking array as the army of undead slowly approached from the south. As it drew closer, Xingyu could finally make out individual forms moving within the shimmering cloud. Grotesque zombies staggered alongside massive undead beasts and countless shambling skeletons, and for the first time, she truly understood how real this was. Her heart raced, sweat beading along her temples as doubt crept in.

She was not a field medic; she had never stood on any kind of frontline, and she suddenly wondered what possessed her to join this clearly insane pair in the first place. Her gaze drifted to Joe, crouched calmly nearby, and she was just about to ask if she could still turn back when she paused. He looked completely composed. There wasn't a single trace of strain on his face, and from this close she could see the faint glint of stars beneath his sunglasses.

His focus was absolute, unwavering, and there was an unmistakable sense of confidence, almost arrogance, about him, as if the very idea of failure simply did not exist. That single awe-inspiring look in his eyes steadied her. Her breathing slowed, and her racing heart began to settle. She felt Esha give her leg a reassuring pat, and Xingyu returned the gesture instinctively. Then Joe glanced at her, only for a brief moment, but it was enough. No words were needed.

That glance told her everything: he would protect her, and they would find the target hidden within the undead tide. Xingyu took one final deep breath as Joe gave the signal, and the cloaking array dropped. She wrapped her arms tightly around Esha's waist as Esha burst forward at a speed that nearly stole the breath from her lungs. As fast as Esha moved, Joe was even faster.

He surged ahead in a blur and, to Xingyu's horror, plunged straight into the cloud without the slightest hesitation, while Esha veered off to the side and began running parallel to it, keeping just enough distance. Even from a distance, Xingyu could feel the blight pressing in, thickening the air around them. Her shielding skill flared to life a heartbeat later, and she focused intently, coating herself and Esha in its protective glow. She had one job: to keep them safe, and she had no intention of failing it.

As they moved, a notification flashed into the party chat she had joined at the start of the mission. [Clearing the way. Let me know as soon as you sense anything.] - Joe. [Just try not to blast any undead our way, Farmer, I mean Joe.] - Esha. [Roger that.] - Joe. Xingyu could hear the sounds of battle nearby, but with how fast they were moving, all she caught were fleeting blurs of motion within the cloud as the search began in earnest.

Twenty minutes into the search, Esha skidded to a sudden halt and cursed under her breath.

"What's wrong?" Xingyu asked, her grip tightening instinctively. At first, Esha seemed reluctant to answer as she edged a little closer to the cloud's boundary.

"I think we might have to move closer. I can't track anything from out here. It's like something is blocking my skills," she said, frustration clear in her voice. Xingyu bit her lip. She had feared this outcome when their efforts turned up nothing despite all that time spent circling the cloud. Drawing in a steadying breath, she made a decision she had hoped to avoid.

"Go inside. I should be able to shield us… for a while at least," she said, forcing a note of confidence into her voice.

"Are you sure? We don't have to do this. The Farmer will understand," Esha replied, forgetting to correct herself for the first time. Xingyu nodded, doing her best not to show the fear crawling up her spine. Esha took a long, steadying breath. [We're coming in. I can't locate a thing out here. Can you clear us a path?] - Esha. [On my way. Give me five seconds.] - Joe. Joe arrived in four seconds, heralded by an explosion that sent every nearby undead flying in all directions.

Esha quickly pulled out two gas masks and handed one to Xingyu.

"For the smell. He said it's pretty bad inside,'" Esha said as she strapped hers on. Xingyu followed suit, briefly wondering why Joe wore nothing of the sort and how he could move and fight within the cloud completely unharmed. She pushed the thought aside, refocused her mind, and poured everything she had into maintaining her shield before giving Esha a firm nod. Five seconds later, they crossed the cloud's boundary, and it felt as though they had slid into deep water.

The air inside was thick and oppressive, reeking of death and decay. Even through the gas mask, Xingyu nearly gagged. If she had not been concentrating so intensely on sustaining the shield, she might have lost control entirely. Instead, she locked her focus onto her single task as the weight of blight pressed down on them like an ocean, threatening to crush her resolve. [Are you okay? Should we go out?] - Esha.

Xingyu could feel Esha tense beneath her as she poured more focus into the shield, and the pressure around them intensified. [Keep going. I can hold the shield for now. But not forever.] - Xingyu. [As soon as you feel overwhelmed, I'll light the way and take you guys out.] - Joe. Xingyu grit her teeth and focused as Esha began to sprint through the cloud, with Joe carving a path ahead of them. As Xingyu looked forward, she finally saw Joe in full motion.

He was like a living storm tearing through an ocean of death; every undead that came close was reduced to fragments in violent bursts of mana and shattered bone. She tried to look away from the carnage, but there was something almost hypnotic about the way he moved. His motions were fluid and precise, more like a dancer crossing a stage than a warrior wading through slaughter, and the contrast left her conflicted between awe and unease.

At last, she shut her eyes as she felt thin threads of blight press harder against her shield, and she redoubled her effort, tightening her control until her head throbbed with the strain.

"He's quite a sight, isn't he?" Esha said during a brief lull between detonations. Xingyu could only nod, her concentration absolute as she held the blight at bay. Minutes stretched on, and she was just about to ask for a short retreat to recover when Esha suddenly stiffened and surged forward, increasing her pace. [I found him! South east, half a mile!] - Esha. [On it!] - Joe.

Joe launched forward like a torpedo, ripping a clear tunnel through the undead mass and opening a path that allowed Esha and Xingyu to dash through without resistance. Xingyu pushed herself harder still, abandoning every thought except maintaining the shield. Any notion of stopping vanished as determination took hold. They were close now, and she refused to be the reason they failed. Esha swore as they reached the point she had marked. [He's moving weirdly. Go east.] - Esha.

They continued for another five minutes, tension mounting with every step, until Esha skidded to another abrupt halt. [Someone nearby is blocking my skill. I have to keep recasting it, which is making keeping track… hard.] - Esha. [Shit. Can you target the one blocking you? Even in a vague area, I might be able to disrupt them. How's Xingyu doing?] - Joe. Esha began to gently tap Xingyu's leg, and Xingyu nodded in response, trying to signal that she was fine without breaking her focus. She wasn't fine.

The blight had begun to gnaw at her from the inside, forcing her to split her concentration between maintaining the shield and actively suppressing the corruption creeping through her body. She felt Esha tense beneath her and understood with a flicker of panic that she might pull them out of the cloud. [Stay. I can hold on for a minute more.] - Xingyu. [Are you sure?] - Esha. [Yes!] - Xingyu. [Thirty more seconds. Then we break. Farmer, we do this now, or we lose the advantage. South!] - Esha.

Xingyu clenched her jaw as Esha activated a movement boost and surged forward at a speed her strained mind could barely process. Joe moved faster still, detonating precise blasts of mana through the cloud as he searched for whatever was interfering with Esha's skill. For a brief moment, it worked. Esha abruptly veered north and sprinted ahead so quickly that even Joe struggled to keep pace. [Found him! There!] - Esha. She pointed sharply to the right, and then everything went wrong.

The shield Xingyu had been desperately holding together, shattered, and she screamed as the full, crushing weight of the blight slammed into them both. Esha cried out as she collapsed, dragged to the ground by the sudden burden, while Xingyu fought in vain to re-form the barrier. She had nothing left. Her mana was gone. In her desperation to maintain the shield, she had lost track of her reserves entirely.

The blight tore through her body, burning and suffocating, and if she had the strength, she would have cursed herself for the mistake. Through the haze of pain, she faintly heard a massive clash of mana nearby and realized Joe hadn't noticed their failure yet. He must have reached the target. At least we found him, she thought dimly, as the darkness finally closed in and she lost consciousness. __ Joe swore as he heard a loud crack behind him, but his focus wavered only for a heartbeat.

Malcolm stood before him, shield raised, pitch-black eyes locked onto his like cold orbs of certainty. Joe knew exactly what that sound meant. Xingyu's shield had shattered. That gave him, at most, two seconds before the blight overwhelmed them both. He didn't hesitate. If he lost Malcolm now, everything Xingyu had endured would be for nothing, so Joe gambled on something he had never attempted before. He activated Scarecrow, and a straw-filled duplicate of himself appeared at his side.

Both surged forward toward Malcolm, who raised his shield in protection, his gaze vanishing behind the dark barrier. Joe reached out and seized his Scarecrow. He flooded it with Uriel's light and Space-Jumped it straight to Esha's location. In the same breath, he executed a second Space-Jump, reappearing behind Malcolm. To his surprise, Malcolm was half-submerged in a puddle of black, putrid mana. So that was how he moved unseen.

Joe grabbed hold of the former Divine Sword before he could slip away and wrenched him free, pulling him out of the void-tainted pool with a sickening pop. At the same instant, Joe felt his scarecrow disintegrate as the blight consumed it, burning it down to nothing. But it had been enough. His Scarecrow had already passed on Uriel's light, flooding the last embers of his skill into both Xingyu and Esha. The blight inside them was scoured away in an instant, and Joe felt Esha snap back to her feet.

The reprieve wouldn't last. Joe Space-Jumped again, dragging the violently thrashing Malcolm with him, and reappeared directly above his companions. In one fluid motion, he hurled Malcolm out of the cloud of blight and into the open air beyond. Esha leapt into his arms a heartbeat later, already grimacing as the corruption began to press in again. Uriel's light poured out from Joe, flooding into both women as he wrapped them tight, and then he Space-Jumped once more.

They emerged beyond the cloud, into clean air and open ground, where the blight could no longer reach them. Joe set his feet, still holding Esha and Xingyu, and turned his eyes toward the figure he had torn free from the tide. They had their target at last.