Chapter 14: Even Ascenders Can Catch a Cold — and Nearly Kicked the Bucket!

Just what kind of terrible illness could bring two Ascenders to the brink of death?

It didn't take long to find out.

Kunlun Immortal Maiden and Li Qingxuan were carried out by the other Saints on makeshift stretchers woven from weeds.

The two of them lay there, pale and listless, completely drained of energy.

The weed-woven stretchers were crude at best, but they were the finest tools the Ascenders could manage at this point.

"Immortal Senior, please take a look."

"We have no idea what illness this is, but it's brought them both to the edge of death overnight. This disease is truly terrifying." Abyss Devil Lord's face was etched with worry.

The Immortal Realm was truly a place of extreme peril.

Not only did they have to constantly guard against fearsome Chaos Creatures and all manner of strange, lethal rules — now they had to worry about diseases that could erupt without warning.

This illness… even Saints couldn't resist it.

In the lower realm, forget falling ill — no harmful force of any kind could invade their bodies. Their indestructible golden forms had been the envy of countless cultivators.

The Nine Great Saints had long since forgotten the last time any of them had been sick.

The Immortal Realm surely held opportunities to grow stronger, but it also came hand in hand with terrifying crises.

They simply hadn't imagined that surviving in the Immortal Realm would be this difficult.

It was practically hell-mode survival.

This time, Exalted Immortal Su Ning had been by their side, carefully looking after them. If they had been left to fend for themselves…

They couldn't even imagine how long they would have lasted.

The bones of countless predecessors scattered around them served as a constant reminder.

This place… was a land of great terror.

They absolutely could not afford to let their guard down.

And once again, they were reminded of just how vital Su Ning was to them.

If Su Ning ever gave up on caring for them, their lives would reach their end.

"What's this?" Su Ning leaned in and carefully observed the condition of Kunlun Immortal Maiden and Li Qingxuan.

The two of them were indeed gravely ill — they looked like they were on the verge of checking out for good.

But he wasn't a doctor…

What was he supposed to do?

Call a doctor to treat a bunch of tiny people?

Yeah, right. They were so small that even if he did bring a doctor, there was no guarantee the doctor could actually treat them.

"Immortal Senior, they fell ill last night," one of the Saints reported.

"Both of them kept alternating between chills and fever. Their foreheads burned like fire, their throats were making strange sounds, and they wouldn't stop coughing…" Abyss Devil Lord described their symptoms to Su Ning.

Su Ning leaned in for a closer look.

The tiny people lying on the stretchers were just so small…

After staring for a long while, it was completely useless.

Su Ning sighed helplessly. He had no choice but to pull out his phone and head back to the online monster forum to ask:

"Question: if you had a tiny kingdom of little people and one of them got sick — symptoms include alternating chills and fever, burning forehead, swollen and sore throat, stuffy nose, runny nose — what would you do to cure them? What disease do you think they have?"

"They're flat on their backs right now and can barely get up. Waiting online for answers, urgent urgent URGENT!!!"

Responses came quickly:

Reply #1: "Bro, you've been reading too many novels… 'What if you had a tiny kingdom' — why don't you just say you're out here cultivating immortality while you're at it?"

Reply #2: "Are there any girls in this tiny kingdom? Did any of them get sick? If so… maybe have her take her clothes off first so you can give her a thorough examination. Make sure you don't miss any serious conditions!"

Su Ning rolled his eyes in exasperation.

He recognized that username — it was the same person who'd suggested the "examination" last time too.

What an absolute idiot.

Reply #3: "The guy above is such a disgusting creep… crack open his skull and it's all mango-colored in there. Pathetic."

Reply #4: "Based on my thirteen years of experience as a veterinarian, if nothing unexpected happens to your little people… then something unexpected is about to happen. Because if they're too sick to get out of bed, that's serious. But as a vet, I have a technique that guarantees a cure!"

Su Ning tagged Reply #4: "What technique?"

The vet in Reply #4 answered: "If I'm not mistaken, your little people just have a common cold. A few cold medicine tablets taken orally and they'll be cured on the spot."

A cold? That simple?

Reply #5: "Are you sure, Reply #4? You're a vet — you can treat human illnesses too?"

Reply #4 shot back: "What's the difference between humans and animals? Besides… if the OP is delusional enough to claim he has a tiny kingdom, why can't I, a vet, practice the art of immortal medicine? Furthermore, the symptoms the OP described — any medical student would know it's just a cold. Take one cold medicine tablet, sleep it off, done. Is it really that complicated?"

The forum users kept roasting each other with adolescent delusions in full force.

Su Ning, meanwhile, closed his phone.

"Just a cold?"

With the vet's reminder, Su Ning took another careful look at Kunlun Immortal Maiden and Li Qingxuan's condition. Sure enough — it really was a cold. A bad one at that.

"Did they catch a chill last night?" Su Ning asked the Saints.

"Yes… last night a cold air swept in. It was freezing — enough to stiffen everyone's hands and feet. The rest of us retreated indoors to shelter from the cold. But those two are stubborn by nature, especially after being flicked away by Immortal Senior so many times. They felt they couldn't keep being so weak and falling behind, so they kept on cultivating through the night… and then… well, there was no 'and then.'" Abyss Devil Lord explained.

Su Ning nodded.

He was certain now.

These two tiny people had caught a cold.

The weather had already begun to turn to autumn, and the nights had grown quite chilly.

Never mind these completely powerless little people — even a healthy adult would catch a cold in these conditions.

"Wait here. I'll go get them some medicine." Su Ning went back to his room, boiled a bowl of hot water, and retrieved the strip of cold medicine tablets he'd used before and had some left over.

There was no way the tiny people could swallow a whole capsule.

He thought for a moment.

Su Ning opened the capsule and poured out the powder.

He mixed it into the hot water and stirred.

He used only a tiny amount.

The rest was discarded.

Once done, Su Ning carried the small bowl of medicine back to where the tiny people lived.

He set the bowl on the ground.

"Ladle some of this medicine and have the two of them drink it," Su Ning said.

"Immortal Senior, what kind of medicine is this?" Abyss Devil Lord and the other Saints asked curiously.

"Medicine that cures illness," Su Ning said, offering no further explanation.

Seeing that Su Ning wasn't going to elaborate, the tiny people didn't press further.

If it came from Immortal Senior, it had to be some miraculous elixir capable of raising the dead.

They ladled some of the medicine and had Kunlun Immortal Maiden and Li Qingxuan drink it.

What astonished the tiny people was that this mysterious medicine — whatever it was — showed results almost immediately after the two drank it. They began to improve.

The Saints' expressions shifted dramatically.

"This medicine… it's incredibly effective!"

"Worthy of an immortal's remedy!"

"It truly has the power to bring the dead back to life."

The way they looked at Su Ning was filled with even greater reverence than before.

The things of the Immortal Realm… the people of the Immortal Realm… were truly unfathomable.

Especially this Immortal Senior — he seemed capable of anything.

A god… truly a god!

In the lower realm, they had been Saints — existences akin to divine beings. But here, Su Ning was to them what a god was to mortals.

And Su Ning, seeing that the cold medicine had worked, let out a quiet sigh of relief.

As long as it cured them, that was all that mattered.

Then he couldn't help but feel utterly exasperated.

Other people's Ascenders were peerless under heaven — slaying the sky, slaying the earth, slaying the very air itself. But his Ascenders? They stayed up late cultivating on a cold night and caught a cold.

And what made it even more absurd was that a mere cold had nearly taken the lives of two of them.

You tell me — were these Ascenders worth worrying about, or what?