bookbashuk Page 9
Page 9
Mu Ci couldn't sit still any longer. He quickly led his servants out from nearby and shouted, "Wait a minute!"
The sudden appearance of Mu Ci and his group drew the attention of both sides present.
"Halt! Who are you!" The captain saw the group approaching and quickly ordered them to stop.
Half of the archers beside him were also pointing in this direction, looking wary.
"The family of immortal trees, Muci!"
Mu Ci, accompanied by two attendants, walked to a distance of twenty paces from the captain, took out the Mu family token from his soul tool, and loudly announced his name.
Upon hearing the name of the Mu family, the cavalry captain's expression changed drastically. He hurriedly dismounted and came to Mu Ci's side, bowing and scraping with a fawning expression.
In Shenmu City, you may not know the city lord or other Soul Master families.
But you can't be unaware of the Mu family's reputation. The Mu family has two Soul Douluo powerhouses: one is the dean of the Advanced Plant Academy, and the other is the bishop of the Martial Soul Hall in Shenmu City.
In Shenmu City, the Mu family is the uncrowned king. Although they have no noble title, even the city lord has to give way to the Mu family.
"I am Reed, the captain of the 100-man squad. You must be the young master. I'm so sorry, I didn't recognize you! I almost surprised you!"
Reed bowed to Muci with a fawning smile, his hands gesturing to the archers behind him to put down their weapons.
Looking at the white-haired boy who looked about eight or nine years old, Reed's eyes were filled with unease. He never expected to encounter such a person here.
Looking at the captain in front of him, Mu Ci asked with a serious expression, "What's going on here? What were you trying to do just now?"
"Young master, according to the patrolling soldiers, the villagers here have been infected with an acute epidemic, and we have come out to deal with it," Reed replied tremblingly, his back bending even more.
Although such things are not uncommon in aristocratic circles, it's still embarrassing to talk about them.
Given the size of Shenmu City, finding a few healing-type support Soul Masters would be feasible; it's just that the nobles above don't want the trouble.
Now that Mu Ci understood the whole story, his face grew even angrier. He didn't comment on Reed's public and private behavior, but what Reed was about to do had crossed his line.
Although they knew that Douluo Continent was an ancient world where commoners had almost no human rights and few people would care even if they died.
In the event of an acute epidemic, it is standard practice for the local lord to seal off the village in order to prevent the spread of the disease.
After all, it's too troublesome to ask a Soul Master for treatment, and those nobles would never do such a thing.
The existence of healing-type martial souls in Douluo Continent has led to very slow development in the field of medicine.
Most folk remedies for treating colds and fevers are circulating, but they are not systematic and their effectiveness cannot be guaranteed.
In contrast, the medicine and poison system for Soul Masters has developed quite well.
Besides the Yang family of Pohun, all the major sects and families have their own medicinal bath recipes.
Looking at Reed in front of him, Mu Ci was furious.
Chapter 13 Plague Village
Although such things often happened in ancient times as described in history books from my previous life, it is not surprising.
But while she could understand, Mu Ci, as someone who came from the era of order, still found it hard to accept all of this.
"Young Master, doing this was not my intention. I was just following orders. It has nothing to do with me."
Captain Reed looked bitter. He understood the boy's state very well; he had also been through a period when he wanted to seek justice when he saw injustice.
But he has long since come to terms with reality; he does whatever his superiors tell him to do.
It was Mu Ci in front of him; anyone else would have been driven away long ago.
But now, faced with both Mu Ci and the orders from above, Reed is caught in the middle, and no matter what he does, he can't succeed.
"Alright, you two are in charge of maintaining order. I'll take a look at their epidemic."
Looking at Captain Reed, Mu Ci spoke directly.
These words startled Reed, who quickly stopped him, saying, "No, young master, their illness is progressing extremely rapidly. According to the guards, they reached the point of being terminally ill in just two days."
"If anything happens to you inside, I wouldn't be able to pay for it even with ten heads."
Reed looked at Mu Ci and desperately tried to stop him. If the young master of the Mu family got into trouble, none of his team of over a hundred people would be able to escape.
"Alright, I understand. Go and inform your family and explain the situation here."
"Moreover, I am a Soul Master and I have healing Soul Skills. I can help them. Every second you hold them off, they are in greater danger."
Mu Ci pushed Captain Reed aside and walked straight inside, casually instructing a servant to return to the Mu family home to explain the situation.
Reed stood outside and watched Mu Ci walk in, looking dejected. He was just an ordinary person who had finally made it to the captain of the 100-man squad after a long and arduous journey, only to encounter this situation.
The Mu family, his superiors, and the plague—none of these are things that an ordinary person without soul power can easily solve.
Mu Ci, who was walking in front, didn't have so many problems. With the power of abundance protecting him, there were very few viruses in the world that could make him sick. Once his power of destiny reached the middle level, even Poison Douluo wouldn't pose much of a threat to him.
The main problem is that Poison Douluo relies too much on the game's mechanics, using poison to deal damage. For Abundant Walker, this is far less reliable than directly inflicting damage, and the amount of health lost from applying abnormal statuses is less than the amount recovered.
Sending a servant to inform the family was mainly a backup plan, and also to have Lin Ya notify the Spirit Hall to send some auxiliary spirit masters to help out, as Mu Ci probably couldn't handle the situation on his own.
He strode past the many soldiers and came to the kneeling villager.
The burly man kneeling on the ground heard footsteps, raised his slightly purple face, and saw the boy walking away quickly.
As if grasping at a straw, she trembled and hoarsely cried out to Mu Ci, "Save me, save my child."
Upon hearing the cry for help, Mu Ci rushed forward and helped the person up.
At the same time, the azure-gold soul light on his body surged like waves, and his martial soul possessed him.
The abundant Jianmu tree rose from the ground behind him, and a deep yellow soul ring appeared beneath his feet, beginning to shimmer.
"First Soul Skill: Healing Aura."
A five-meter radius cyan domain unfolded, enveloping the dozen or so men in front of him who were slightly weaker.
Within the halo area, green light spots began to appear out of thin air around all the patients, gradually merging into their bodies.
While maintaining her soul skill, Mu Ci's expression was somewhat unpleasant as she sensed the power of abundance. These ailments seemed extremely stubborn even as her soul power healed her body.
Instantly, the output of soul power increased, the branches of the Abundant Jianmu tree behind him swayed, and blue light spots fell like rain.
In no time, the bluish-purple skin of these people began to fade, their breathing became calmer, and their coughing subsided.
The middle-aged man at the head of the group became much more lucid, and his strength returned somewhat. Seeing Mu Ci using her soul skill, he quickly kowtowed and said:
"Thank you, Soul Master. Please, Soul Master, save the children."
Mu Ci did not reply immediately. His face was slightly pale. Treating just a dozen or so patients with milder symptoms had consumed more than 60% of his soul power.
The effects of the Abundance Power enhancing the Soul Skill are comparable to those of a Soul Master of the Nine Heart Begonia level. Even so, healing these people is still very difficult.
The main problem is that the procedure is too delicate, requiring deep penetration into the body to remove the lesions. If it were a superficial injury, it would be easier to treat.
Looking at the 120 or 130 people in the distance, Mu Ci's expression became even more grim. Even if there were ten of him, they wouldn't be able to treat them all in a short time.
Even with the support of the Spirit Hall, at most they can ensure that these people's conditions do not worsen. To recover quickly, they would need the help of a support-type Spirit Master at the Spirit Emperor level or above.
However, there are no support-type Soul Masters of this level in Shenmu City and the surrounding cities. The closest one is the Ye family in Tiandou City.
Given the Ye family's character, they certainly wouldn't refuse such a thing. However, the two places are thousands of kilometers apart, and even with the speed of a Soul Master, it would take several days to arrive. These villagers might not even survive two days.
Healing solely with soul power is too inefficient; just restoring soul power takes too long, making it impossible to save everyone in time.
Mu Ci pondered that he had to think of other solutions, but first he needed to figure out the origin of the disease, otherwise even if it was cured, it might relapse in the future.
Mu Ci sensed the dozen or so people in front of him and found that they were almost recovered. He quickly stopped his soul skill. In just a short while, his soul power dropped by another ten percent.
Mu Ci led everyone to a deserted corner.
He stared intently at these people and said sternly:
“I will treat the person, but before that, I have some questions to ask you about the illness. I hope you will not hide anything from me and will think more about your families.”
The villagers looked at each other, unsure how to respond.
Seeing that no one responded, Mu Ci assumed that her age was causing them to hesitate, so she continued:
"If you don't trust me, you can wait for the deacons of the Spirit Hall to arrive before we talk."
At this moment, a man in his thirties finally stepped forward, looking embarrassed, and said, "Let me speak. I am the village chief, Du Lan."
“We’re not saying anything because we don’t trust you, our benefactor. It’s just that we don’t know how we got sick. We were fine yesterday, but we’re like this today.”
Mu Ci nodded at Du Lan, not surprised, and said, "Then give a general account of what happened in the past two days."
Hearing Mu Ci say this, Du Lan nodded, thought for a moment, and said:
"These past few days have been the same as usual, nothing major has happened. The biggest thing was that a hunter in the village hunted down a severely injured hundred-year-old soul beast a couple of days ago and shared some meat with everyone in the village."
Upon hearing this, Mu Ci frowned and immediately interrupted, "Describe the appearance of the soul beast, or do you have any soul beast corpses? Show them to me."
"Oh, yes, there's still a whole head left. I'll send someone to get it." Du Lan nodded hurriedly and called someone to fetch it.
After a while, a villager came running over, panting, carrying the head of a spirit beast the size of a wild boar's head, and put it on the ground.
His face was a little pale, and he looked somewhat weak as he said to Mu Ci, "My benefactor, this is it, please take a look."
Looking at the ugly head of the soul beast on the ground, Mu Ci already had a general idea of how this acute plague came about.
Black-spotted rats are low-level soul beasts. Their bodies are covered with gray fur and irregular black spots. They are characterized by their preference for living in dark and damp environments and their love of eating carrion.
A ten-year-old spotted rat is about the size of an average wild cat, and its size will continue to increase with age.
Based on the symptoms of the villagers on site, the source and cause of the disease were identified.
Chapter 14 Plague
plague.
Mu Ci thought of this highly contagious disease that was classified as a Class A disease in her previous life.
Looking closely at the critically ill patient in the distance, whose face was bluish-purple and trending towards black, accompanied by coughing, clutching his chest, and coughing up bloody sputum.
The more Mu Ci looked at him, the more serious his expression became. This was no longer ordinary plague, but the more dangerous pneumonic plague.
He had read popular science explanations and knew how terrible pneumonic plague was. Historical records from his previous life stated that "at the end of the dynasty, a great plague struck the capital, killing tens of thousands of people every day, and wiping out entire families."
Thinking of this, Mu Ci felt that he couldn't wait any longer. The pneumonic plague was spreading too quickly. If he waited any longer, no more than 30% of the people in the village could be saved. His strength alone was simply too small.
Moreover, some medications must be used as an aid, not necessarily to cure the disease, but to delay the disease as much as possible.