The Bad Apothecary

Diwu stumbles into the capital half-dead, wounded by something no healer can cure. Nestled in her flesh is a strange pathogen carrying corruption, the antithesis of the Natural Order.

Desperate, she trades freedom for survival and falls into the grip of the Hierarchy, a ruthless organization that keeps power in check by any means necessary. Their offer: treatment in exchange for loyalty. Service. Obedience.

Her first assignment entangles her with Nex Teres, a battle-hardened cultivator with no interest in playing agent. But the Hierarchy doesn’t ask—it coerces. Bound by duty and circumstance, they’re sent to a lawless outpost where Diwu was first infected, and where whispers swirl around a long-dead legend: the Bad Apothecary.

As bodies drop and corruption spreads, Diwu finds herself caught between mad cultists, power-hungry extraordinaries, and beings who’ve transcended humanity—or lost it. A blade whispers. Old enemies stir. And Diwu must navigate forces she barely understands… before they decide what she’s meant to become.