Chapter 240 Entering Shennong Valley

“Cough, cough…” Yu Qing couldn’t help covering her mouth and nose; the physiological nausea was so strong that tears nearly sprang to her eyes.

“What kind of immortal valley is this? This is straight out of Resident Evil—the Umbrella Corporation! So disgusting!”

Lu Yan’s steps faltered slightly, and his fingers unconsciously tightened around the hilt of his sword.

He didn’t understand what Resident Evil was.

But he could feel it—there was a terrifying aura of death emanating from the canyon ahead.

“Everyone stop.”

Shen Jue suddenly raised his hand, his eyes darkening!

Through layers of overlapping purple vines, a massive cave suddenly came into view before the four of them.

“This… is the entrance?” Su Hewan frowned.

“We’ll know once we check it out,” Lu Yan said, stepping forward first.

The four of them walked side by side through the cave.

This was nothing like a paradise of immortals!

Once they emerged on the other side, they saw hundreds of crude black wooden huts densely packed together.

Around the huts were vast fields of medicinal plants, growing eerie blood-colored flowers taller than a person.

But what truly sent chills down their spines were the “people” laboring mechanically in the fields.

No—these could no longer be called normal humans.

They wore tattered clothes, their bodies covered with patches of purplish-blue poisonous sores. Under their exposed skin, veins twisted in an appallingly dark purple-black.

They moved through the fields like puppets with stiff, jerky motions, expressionless, their eyes like black holes—completely devoid of any glimmer of soul.

“Th… these… what kind of monsters are these…”

Yu Qing was so frightened she clamped her mouth shut, forcing back a scream.

Zombies! This can’t be zombies, right? Help! I want to go back to the modern world!

Lu Yan shifted slightly, using his tall frame to block Yu Qing’s view, his jaw tight and stern.

“They’re not monsters. They’re alive.”

Su Hewan’s expression was grim.

She fixed her gaze on the puppets in the fields.

“If I’m not mistaken, these are ‘medicinal humans’! They’re created by immersing living people in venom for extended periods and forcibly feeding them parasitic worms!”

“Ancient texts say this forbidden technique is extremely cruel: the victims first lose the sense of pain, then their sanity, and finally become killing machines that obey their master’s life-and-death commands!”

Shen Jue and Lu Yan’s eyes both went cold.

They hadn’t expected that even in mighty Da Wei, someone would commit such atrocities!

“Shennong Valley, the miraculous healer who dispenses medicine…”

Shen Jue’s anger twisted into a bitter laugh, his voice soft yet chilling, making one’s scalp tingle.

“This is clearly a living human experimentation hell!”

“Right under the emperor’s feet, within Da Wei territory, such a horrifying cult hideout exists—it’s utterly unforgivable!”

“Now is not the time to lose our heads.”

Su Hewan took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.

“They have numbers on their side, and those medicinal humans are impervious to blades and spears. If we alert them, none of the four of us will get out today.”

“We need to find a way to sneak in, figure out exactly what medicine they’re making, and who’s behind it.”

Shen Jue glanced at Su Hewan with admiration; this woman’s composure always managed to strike a chord in him.

“Change clothes.”

Shen Jue’s eyes locked onto several guards at the canyon’s edge, pushing wooden carts out to dump medicinal residue.

One incense stick later,

the four of them were dressed in the coarse hemp clothes they had stripped from the unfortunate guards.

To cover their human scent, Su Hewan even forced herself to grab a handful of the foul-smelling medicinal residue mud and smeared it over her and Yu Qing’s faces and clothes without hesitation.

“Put some on yourselves too. Endure it—if you smell too much like a living person, those apothecaries will notice.”

While smearing mud on Yu Qing, Su Hewan whispered instructions.

Though Yu Qing felt nauseated to the point of gagging, she obediently kept her eyes shut and let Su Hewan work.

“Wanwan’s right. Compared to life itself, a little disgust is nothing!”

“Let’s go.”

The four of them pushed the foul-smelling wooden cart, heads bowed, imitating the sluggish pace of the guards. Step by step, they passed the hidden sentries at the valley entrance without incident.

Once inside the valley, an oppressive suffocating atmosphere slammed into them.

In the enormous central clearing stood dozens of bronze cauldrons, each taller than a person.

Fierce flames roared beneath them, and inside churned a blood-red liquid of unknown origin, bubbling with nauseating froth.

From the direction of the nearby dungeons came continuous, heart-wrenching screams, echoing through the empty canyon.

The four pushed the cart, heads low, carefully approaching an immense black stilted building deep within the valley.

The guards were extremely vigilant here—it was clearly the heart of the valley master’s domain.

“Shh.”

Su Hewan signaled, and the group silently took cover behind towering stacks of herbs, creeping to the lower-level ventilation shaft of the stilted building.

Through the gaps in the wooden boards, they glimpsed the interior.

At the center of the hall stood an extremely luxurious white skeletal throne.

A man entirely cloaked in a broad black robe sat there with his back to them, holding a crystal-clear jade bowl in his hands.

“Immortal Physician, this is the freshly prepared third batch of Divine Pills.”

A gaunt steward knelt on the floor, holding a brocade box high with both hands.

The man in black slowly turned.

The moment Su Hewan, Shen Jue, and Lu Yan saw his silhouette and side profile, all three pupils constricted sharply!

Though he wore a half bronze mask, his figure, the predatory aura in his movements, and that uniquely hoarse voice—there was no mistaking him.

This was the same black-robed man from that night at the Zhen’nan Prince’s mansion!

The so-called “Immortal Physician”!

“So this is the final product you’ve been struggling over for half a month?”

The man in black sneered. With two pale, withered fingers, he picked up a dark-red pill from the brocade box.

He brought the pill to his nose and sniffed; his gaze instantly turned cold and merciless.

“Bang!”

“Trash! All of it is trash!”

The black-robed man roared in fury, his voice shrill like a night owl.

“The master’s grand plan is at hand! What’s needed are perfect death warriors who can fight a hundred opponents, tireless, fearless of death!”

“What garbage have you produced?”

The steward panicked, pounding his forehead on the wooden floor until it thudded repeatedly, blood flowing freely.

“Please, my lord, calm your anger! Calm your anger!”

“The formula for the Flame-Blood Pill is absolutely correct!”

“Just one dose allows a normal person to unlock ten times their potential within half an hour—strength beyond measure, impervious to blades and spears!”

Hearing the steward speak, Su Hewan, hidden below, felt a storm surge in her chest.

【Flame-Blood Pill?】

【I remember now! Those masked death warriors we encountered in the swamp—the superhuman power they unleashed at the moment of death wasn’t martial arts—it was drugs!】

Shen Jue’s eyes immediately darkened with danger.

They hadn’t expected this former dynasty cult to have its main base hidden deep in these hundred-thousand-mountain ranges!

And they were mass-producing this terrifying forbidden drug!