Calder's brow remained tightly furrowed. Complicated emotion entered his eyes as he turned to Jared. "Can you treat them?"
Jared gave no verbal reply. He simply placed his palm over the young cultivator's chest.
Gray chaotic force flowed from his hand into the patient's meridians, silent and unwavering, like gentle water entering a dry riverbed.
Chaotic force was the source from which all forms of power arose. It could devour and purify any foreign energy. The nether energy could offer no resistance.
Like snow cast into a furnace, it rapidly melted and disintegrated. The chaotic force devoured every trace, refined it into pure energy, and returned it to the cultivator's core.
Moments later, healthy color began to return to the young man's ashen face, and his weak breathing grew stronger. His eyelashes trembled. Then his eyes slowly opened, and he stared around him in frail confusion.
Without wasting a moment, Jared got to his feet and began cleansing the next unconscious cultivator in the same manner.
Gray light formed over his palm again and again, entering each patient and cleansing them. One by one, the cultivators corroded by nether energy regained consciousness.
The oppressive atmosphere in the infirmary gradually lifted, and hope appeared on the faces of the worried relatives nearby.
Within half an hour, all 17 poisoned cultivators had awakened.
Their faces were still pale, but the nether energy had been completely removed. Inch by inch, Jared had dispelled the shadow of death hanging over them.
Calder stood nearby and watched him save one clansman after another. The emotions in his ocean-dark eyes grew increasingly complex.
When Jared finished treating the last patient and rose, Calder approached. He remained silent for a long time before asking, "You said this nether energy is identical to what you encountered in the fissure beneath the Nether Abyss?"
Jared nodded. "Yes. I absorbed a tremendous amount of it there. I could never mistake that aura.
"It carries an ancient, decaying power, as though it were emanating from an ancient being that had slept for countless years.
"It is an extremely old primordial yin force, the direct opposite of the Water Clan's yang-aligned origin power."
"Is that what contaminated the sea beasts as well?"
Calder asked.
"Most likely," Jared answered with confidence. "The beasts live for long periods in waters polluted by nether energy, so it accumulates inside them.
"When Water Clan cultivators hunt and eat those creatures, the nether energy enters their bodies and corrodes their meridians and cores.
"The closer a beast lived to the source of the contamination, the denser the nether energy inside it and the more severe the poisoning."
Calder remained silent for a long time. Looking out through the infirmary entrance at the sea churning beneath the city's blue-green glow, he spoke in a hoarse, heavy voice.
"You're right. Large sections of the waters around Deepblue City have been polluted by nether energy over the past few months. More sea beasts are becoming contaminated by the day, and the Water Clan's food supply is shrinking quickly.
"Some of our people have had too little to eat and taken the risk of hunting creatures that showed obvious signs of contamination. The result is what you saw today: mass poisoning, unconsciousness, and even death."

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Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: A Man Like None Other (Jared Chance)
Dropping of 4 new chapters a day is too small, please increase it to 10. Thanks...
Josephine's first time seeing Jared kill isn't with Leyton but with Falcon. Pay attention to your work....
You need to correct yourself,dear author. Josephine was in the City of Herbs when she was a kid, so why is the city's smell surprising to her?...
I need more chapters...
When can I get the next chapter...