Chapter 303: The Third Hundred and First Chapter – Debating Scripture
On the fourth day of the expedition, with the assistance of Ji Ma’s divination, they finally pinpointed the location of the Naguo cult’s stronghold mentioned in the intelligence report.
Despite witnessing with their own eyes a horde of “humans” crawling out from the decayed mountainside, covered in festering sores and infested with maggots, and a colossal maggot that looked as if it had emerged from a can of herring, rotten and foul-smelling, many soldiers in the expedition instead secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The hardships along the way had been unbearable. The prepared jerky was breeding maggots, and during mealtime, swarms of flies wouldn’t disperse.
Every night, fleeing soldiers were executed, and their bodies had to be burned that same day to prevent their decaying corpses from affecting morale.
Even more terrifying were the invisible diseases brought by those foul entities. Many suffered from vomiting, fever, and complete exhaustion. Priest Sigma and Jenna worked hard to treat them and battled against the evil forces.
The soldiers endured great suffering, like the rope in a tug-of-war, being pulled on both sides.
Those who could persist and reach this point were either numb to their senses, like zombies, or had become fanatical followers of Sigma.
Next, the expedition encountered a nightmarish battle.
People with bells tied around their necks rushed forward, arrows and throwing spears piercing their bodies, which were riddled with dozens of coexisting diseases. Yellowish-black pus flowed without a trace of blood, yet their faces showed no pain; they laughed, they roared with laughter.
They then engaged in close combat with the shield-bearing imperial soldiers.
They were furious, shouting, barfing up human-faced flies:
“False god followers!”
“If you’re not devout enough, then suffer from disease? Let’s see this!”
“Die!”
They vented their rage toward the imperial soldiers, expressing their frustration from their sickness and fervently attempting to spread their diseases to the soldiers.
Vomit splattered on the wounds of an imperial soldier’s face, causing him to drop his shield in fear and hurriedly wipe his face with dirty hands. But the human-faced flies burrowed intensely into his wounds, piling up more and more.
He was terrified to the point of tears, believing that being sick meant he wasn’t devout enough; otherwise, why wouldn’t those priests become ill? But based on his observations, he also believed that the vast majority of people would indeed fall ill.
The laughing man was stabbed to the ground by the remaining soldiers with swords and spears.
Although they had little armor and their weapons were rudimentary, the invisible weapon they wielded instilled greater fear in the soldiers, especially as the battle reached a fever pitch.
Some soldiers went mad; their cotton armor was soaked in filth, and their minds were tortured by fever during the march. The thread of rationality snapped, and they even extended their tongues to lick those things.
The other soldiers had to kill their crazed comrade.
The number of madmen increased; eventually, morale couldn’t hold out, and nearly half the soldiers fled, with even their officers leading the retreat. Some soldiers near Priest Sigma, inspired by his shining bald head, were the only ones to hold their ground.
Jenna looked around and found only a little over thirty soldiers left beside her, fewer than those near Priest Sigma.
Ji Ma, who was clean all over, disgustedly wiped the filth off the axe blade with a cloth and said, “This fight’s been truly disgusting. Clearly, it went so smoothly, yet everyone ran away in disgust. What cowards!”
The number of enemy corpses on the ground far exceeded that of the imperial soldiers. Disease might be frightening, but ultimately it wasn’t as swift as blades and swords, nor as hard as iron armor. Moreover, the imperial side had enough powerful supers to withstand it.
“I don’t blame them,” Jenna said, her expression grim. “Not everyone can be like us, not tainted in the least, nor can resist disease.”
Among the mortals who could reach this point, aside from the luckiest of the fortunate, there was at least one disease beneath the surface.
After a brief interlude in the battle, Jenna led her troops in counting their numbers, discovering they had fewer than a hundred left. Jenna steeled herself, casting “Group Cleansing” to clean the filth from their bodies, healing them, and they continued to advance.
Not long after, they arrived at a cave in the mountain hollow.
In front of the cave, a chubby old woman with a kind face stirred a pot of green potion. Beside her sat nearly two hundred soldiers clad in rusty chainmail, their shields nearby bearing black eagles, war hammers, skulls, and other imperial insignias, all painted over and replaced with heretical symbols like triangles and flies, which would raise the blood pressure of witch hunters.
A bald priest from Sigma approached, shouting, “Traitors!”
The rebels all stood up, looking at the Sigma priest with resentment, some cursing, “False god’s lackeys.”
They employed imperial tactics, forming a shield wall, marching toward the imperial army to protect the kindly old woman.
At that moment, Jenna finally noticed. Next to the pot beside the gentle old woman lay several rows of plague victims with blackened skin, some still vomiting black bile.
Jenna, with her extensive experience in treating the sick, immediately recognized they were grievously ill with the Black Death.
The kindly old woman scooped a spoonful of the green broth from the pot and began to feed each severely ill patient, who held a bowl and had a copper bell tied around their neck.
Jenna saw this from afar and shouted, “Stop!”
The kind old woman paused, looking at Jenna from a hundred meters away, smiling. She waved her hand, and a swarm of flies formed words in the air: “Saintess, we are fated to meet. Why not have a chat? Perhaps we won’t have to meet by sword and knife.”
Jenna hesitated.
The buzzing flies formed new universal characters: “I’ve heard those from the chapel are all honest and kind, perhaps I can teach you how to heal the Black Death.”
To show their sincerity, the rebels lined up neatly and began to step backward.
The local Sigma bishop said, “Saintess, don’t listen to the heretical lies. The Black Death must have been spread by these Naguo believers.”
Jenna replied, “Regardless, I must give it a try. Ji Ma, can you protect me?”
Ji Ma said, “There might be a beheading operation.”
“At least let’s talk first.”
“Alright.”
Seeing that battle was temporarily unnecessary, many imperial soldiers couldn’t help but lower their shields and scratch at their red boils.
Jenna rode her horse, and Ji Ma flapped her wings, approaching the kind old woman together, with Jenna observing her closely. The old woman smiled at her, plump, with wrinkles, but her face was rosy.
The old woman said, “You look just like I did when I was young.”
“Don’t lie,” Ji Ma said. “Given your appearance, you weren’t very beautiful in your youth, and you’re still using Naguo’s divine arts to disguise yourself.”
The old woman glanced at Ji Ma and replied, “A demon, you’re right.”
“Jenna, let’s enter the domain of honesty,” Ji Ma insisted, feeling itchy and wanting to resolve this matter quickly to distance herself from here. “So she won’t lie again.”
Jenna remained silent, but the old woman cheerfully stated, “It’s fine.”
Jenna activated the domain of honesty, a soft blue light enveloped the three of them and the plague victims.
Jenna’s first question was, “Are you the legendary plague doctor?”
“Yes, it’s me,” the plague doctor replied. “Those who returned to the city should have mentioned me. They ought to be dead. The witch hunters would have killed them immediately and burned them. Such a pity, so naive to believe in the false god Sigma.”
“You exploited them.”
“No, I didn’t,” the plague doctor insisted. “I didn’t tell them to go back. I healed them free of charge. They were elated and said they wanted to let more patients see through the lies and escape the plagues. I couldn’t dissuade them, so I gave them some antidotes.”
The domain of honesty did not change color.
Jenna began to doubt if her domain of honesty was fake and pointed out, “They still don’t know that what cured them came from the power of Naguo.”
“Yes, I didn’t reveal my faith,” the plague doctor said, her tone somewhat agitated. “Isn’t it you, so-called benevolent god, who has always slandered the achievements of Naguo? I merely showcased the mercy of Naguo. In the end, they still accepted Naguo’s compassion and wanted to share it with everyone.”
Jenna countered, “You disguised yourself as a healthy person, and disguised them as rosy-cheeked, spreading disease. I seriously wonder if my domain of honesty is malfunctioning.”
The plague doctor stated:
“My appearance is too horrifying for those who misunderstand Naguo. And they plead with me, saying your empire is sealing off the plague areas, killing anyone they see. They want to survive, so I cannot bear it.”
With that, the plague doctor shook her head in pain: “I never expected they would naively think you would reason with them.”
Jenna declared firmly, “You are deceiving them! I believe if the patients saw your true appearance, they would never accept your medicine.”
The last Black Death patient drank the green broth, and the first to do so stood up, joyfully exclaiming, “I can stand up!”
“The greatest misunderstanding of my god,” the plague doctor said. “I have to admit that many only judge by appearances. I can only compromise temporarily and spread my god’s beliefs. Even before I entered the embrace of the compassionate father, I was just as shallow. Why is fair skin and rosy complexion considered beautiful?”
Jenna retorted, “According to researchers, it’s the fear of dying from disease and love for health.”
Ji Ma interjected, “Jenna, make your move. To be honest, heretical cultists have a worldview entirely different from normal people. Even their physiological structures have changed. Debating scripture yields no results.”
The plague doctor ignored Ji Ma’s rudeness and continued: “Exactly, but what if we viewed disease as brothers?”
Saying this, the plague doctor spread her arms, revealing her true appearance. Her exposed flesh was covered with red boils and pustules, and yellowish pus dripped from sores where white maggots occasionally fell out. Her abdomen had a large hole, exposing green intestines inside.
Both women felt a wave of nausea.
“Look at me; by mortal standards, I am already sick beyond recovery, bearing a hundred diseases.” The plague doctor said, “I have embraced a hundred diseases, viewing them as brothers. I nourish them with my flesh and blood, and they repay me. Thus, I am healthier than any person without illness.”
“You mortals lack love, always thinking about how to eradicate viruses, but their lives matter too.”
Suppressing her disgust, Jenna’s oval face tightened as she angrily retorted, “You spread the Black Death, and now you come to promote heretical doctrines!”
“The Black Death is not something I spread,” the plague doctor shook her head. “To my knowledge, this disease is not a gospel spread by us Naguo believers. I merely came to spread the loving kindness of the compassionate father, helping people escape from suffering.”
“And then infect them with a dozen diseases?”
“It’s about introducing a dozen brothers,” the plague doctor corrected, a human-faced fly buzzing from her gaping facial hole. “Returning to the earlier topic on the definition of health. Without mentioning anything else, how many Black Death patients have you cured?”
Jenna fell silent.
“No matter how unsightly they might appear in the eyes of the world, my patients survived without needing to eat. Once they learn to coexist peacefully with viruses, they won’t torment your body, and you’ll feel happiness in return, a gift of love. And how about your patients?”
The plague doctor continued: “All my patients are kind-hearted individuals, wholeheartedly wanting to save their suffering compatriots.”
Looking at the body of the plague doctor, which had nurtured a hundred diseases, Jenna found it hard to agree.
“Is it not so?” the plague doctor countered. “Setting aside your prejudices against my appearance, let’s discuss what defines kindness. I believe you are a kind person, which is why I am willing to converse with you. I ask you, what does the empire do to those afflicted with the Black Death?”
“They tie bells around their necks, drive them away, or secretly kill them, leaving them to die slowly in quarantine, claiming they’re not devout.”
“Am I the one deceiving those patients? No, it’s you. Your god is powerless against disease and doesn’t let us convey the truth, watching those poor souls die slowly under the torment of illness.”
“Only my god loves the world, and we believers are the same, loving each other without persecuting the sick like you do.”
To be honest, there was some truth to what the plague doctor said. At least from Ji Ma’s perspective, the followers of Naguo were relatively friendly to one another compared to other dark deities, like a group of XP-special individuals finding warmth in each other.
Jenna looked at Ji Ma and said, “You’re right; there’s really no need for debate.”
The plague doctor said, “You are wavering, Saintess. We are very similar, both wanting to heal others.”
“Not even a little bit alike.”
The plague doctor raised her plump, decaying hand and pointed at Jenna’s necklace of ultimate goodness around her neck, stating:
“This necklace once hung around my neck. I once wanted to save those patients who had been cast away, left to die in the forest. I couldn’t save a single one. My god pitied me and, through the throat of a deceased patient, asked if I needed the knowledge of all diseases.”
“I agreed, and then I was pursued by those detestable Sigma lackeys.”
“Therefore, I wish to converse with you. I believe we are essentially the same, and you are just still in the dark.”
Jenna paused for a moment, gritting her teeth, and said to the plague doctor, “I now give you two choices: one is to hand over the treatment method for the Black Death and leave here. The other is to be purified by us; we will find a way to extract the treatment method from you.”
The plague doctor shook her head: “Stubborn and unyielding, you overestimate yourself too much. Do you think you can win?”
“Yes.”
Fifteen minutes later.
The rebel army was annihilated.
The plague doctor remained with only half of her body, her “medicine pot” spilled everywhere, while the bald strongman was washing off the filth from his body using a bucket of water.
“What powerful abilities,” the plague doctor said boastfully, tilting her head back toward Jenna and announcing: “Fine, even though you want to kill me, I will still share the treatment method with you. Although this means the world will never know the truth of my god, they can still live on somewhat numbly.”
“On the one hundred thirty-seventh page of my notebook, you will also need to drink a mouthful of the special medicine from my pot, which contains thirty-seven diseases. I believe they will help you understand the truth of my god.”
With that, she died.
Jenna stared at the unchanging domain of honesty, lost in thought.
