Chapter 351: 126. It’s Going to Rain (4k)
“It’s so quiet outside, where did that group from the Turan Family go?”
At this moment, Balzak, clutching his injured arm, leaned against the prison food door, peering outside. Through the small crack in the door, he didn’t see a single person from the Turan Family, only the vast expanse of white snow in the central tribal square. Growing more impatient, he turned back to the room, noticing that Heidi Lin, who had been punched by the Snowflake Knight, was becoming increasingly pale and was showing signs of delirium.
Balzak clenched his teeth and shouted loudly, “Hey, the person your household manager wants is about to give out, come quickly!”
But it was still silent outside, with no response from anyone. Angered, he kicked the prison food door, only to find that his kick had unexpectedly kicked open the wooden door of the Snow Fox Tribe’s house. With no sound outside, Balzak jumped back, fearing that a few members of the Turan Family would rush in to attack him.
“Hoo hoo~”
However, contrary to Balzak’s expectations, the outside remained quiet. Apart from the pained moans coming from the quarantine area, there were no other sounds. He quickly realized something was amiss outside and hurriedly ran out, only to find not a single person from the Turan Family.
“Wait, Tribe Leader Dar, it seems those members of the Turan Family are gone. Should we sneak out to get some healing potions or something? I see Heidi Lin is about to collapse.”
Tribe Leader Dar’s eyes brightened slightly, and he quickly gathered with a group of miniature Snow Fox Tribe members behind Balzak, following him to assess the situation outside. Just as Balzak hesitated, Tribe Leader Dar, listening to the agonizing sounds coming from the distant quarantine area, became increasingly tormented. He gritted his teeth and said to a few elders beside him,
“You all, go sneak and fetch the medicine. If you have the chance, run quickly, take them and Juna with you and wait outside for me.”
“Father!”
A few elders held back Juna, who wanted to say something, only to look at Dar and ask, “Tribe Leader, what about you?”
“We cannot leave our tribesmen who are still suffering from the disease. We must go back to Miya to fetch medicine.”
“Tribe Leader, but our carriage has been destroyed by the Turan Family. Are you planning to go to the quarantine area to get a spare carriage?”
Tribe Leader Dar nodded, sighed, and said, “The infectious nature of this disease is so strong. After I bring the carriage out, you will drive it out of the tribe. I worry about bringing the disease to other places. You must return with the medicine and then leave the tribe safely. If the Turan Family comes back, you should leave the tribe and keep the flame alive, telling other subhuman races about the Turan Family’s actions to prevent them from repeating the same mistake.”
The few Snow Fox Tribe members sighed but showed little hesitation. They took one last look at Dar and quickly darted off with Balzak to fetch the medicine for Heidi Lin.
Dar also stealthily departed from the storehouse, running toward the quarantine area at the back of the tribe.
At first, Dar was cautious, fearing that the members of the Turan Family might discover him. However, the deeper he went, the stranger it felt; even though he had reached the depths of the tribe, he had not seen a single person from the Turan Family, as though they had all vanished into thin air. Confused and anxious, he arrived at the door of the quarantine area surrounded by wooden walls.
Logically, there should be heavy guards from the Turan Family here, yet the entrance was deserted, and the wooden door of the quarantine area was ajar.
Could it be that the tribesmen burst out of the quarantine area and drove the Turan Family away?
But why was there not a single sound just moments ago, not even the noise of gunshots or shouting?
This bizarre situation made Tribe Leader Dar swallow nervously, but he stepped through the wooden door into the quarantine area, where he saw that the originally empty area had been filled with tents, each housing weak Snow Fox Tribe members. Even the weakest of the Snow Fox Tribe revealed mild symptoms of the disease.
“Cough cough! Cough! Ugh!”
Tribe Leader Dar looked towards the front of the quarantine area, where there were many tribesmen covered in huge pus-filled blisters, tormented to the point of no longer resembling foxes. The area was filled with weak coughs and a strong stench of rot. Large amounts of black pus and blood flowed from infected individuals in the tents, with no one to clean it, flowing out like a small stream. Bodies lay intertwined with still-ailing tribesmen, blurring the lines between grave and hospital, like the increasingly indistinct boundary between hell and the living world.
Dar’s eyes turned red as he looked at the tragic scene before him, feeling as if he had lost all strength to move forward. He forced his aching feet to shuffle forward slowly, but suddenly heard a weak call from beside him.
“Tribe Leader… cough cough!”
Dar quickly turned to look and saw many guards still holding weapons, as well as tribal members who hadn’t yet been infected lying weakly on the ground. They looked at Tribe Leader Dar with worry, trying to urge him to leave quickly, but all their attempts to speak turned into bloodied coughs.
They had only been imprisoned last night, and within just a few hours, they began experiencing severe fevers and coughing symptoms. Seven or eight hours later, they would experience intense pain and completely lose all ability to move. If left untreated, they would grow “dead rot blisters” within one to two days, and then die in intense agony.
Tribe Leader Dar had just wanted to go over and talk to them, but noticed those few Snow Fox Tribe members who were still somewhat conscious repeatedly shaking their heads, then gestured toward another direction in the quarantine area with their heads. Dar paused slightly, then followed their gaze to see a thin black shadow standing in the center of the quarantine area.
He stood quietly in the center of the quarantine area, looking at the Snow Fox Tribe members lying in tents, but crucially, Tribe Leader Dar found that he couldn’t detect a trace of the person’s aura amidst this overwhelming, despairing dark atmosphere, as if that person had no emotions or thoughts at that moment.
However, Tribe Leader Dar recognized him by his height; he seemed to be a human, but not a member of the Turan Family. He instinctively called out to the figure, “Hey, quickly leave this place! There’s a disease here!”
The figure’s shoulder trembled slightly, and only then did he turn his head. The beak-like mask embedded in his face startled Tribe Leader Dar, who paused for a second. Yet when he saw the spare carriage behind that shadow, he gathered his courage and stepped toward the figure slowly.
“Quickly leave! That shabby mask on your face can’t protect you from the disease. You’ll get infected too, you—”
The person wearing the beak mask, Erwind, was taken aback for a moment by his words, as if awoken by Tribe Leader Dar’s remarks. His statue-like body finally spoke, but his voice sounded strange, unlike that of a normal human.
“An interesting sample. The original dead rot bacteria would not infect you because the immune capabilities of most subhuman races, including the Snow Fox Tribe, are significantly stronger than that of humans. But now your entire tribe is infected; you must have come into contact with a person from the Western Continent.”
Trib Leader Dar’s movements faltered slightly as he looked incredulously at the person in front of him, mumbling in confusion, “What… what bacteria? What’s immunity… are you a doctor?”
The beak mask of Erwind did not reveal any specific expression, and Dar could not decipher a hint of any scent from him, his voice still calm.
“I once was, but that was a long time ago.”
“You’re wrong. You know a lot about this disease. How much longer can my tribespeople hold on? I’ll send someone to find this… decay antidote. I’ll go now—”
But Erwind shook his head after hearing his words, saying with some amusement, “Human ignorance always leads to irreversible consequences. The antidote you desperately seek is actually what has brought your tribe to such a poisonous state. Torga’s decay antidote is a secondary secretion of a plant that can suppress the dead rot pathogen, effective against many diseases caused by microbes, and has been widely used for centuries to greatly extend human life, hence being hailed as a ‘panacea.'”
“They just managed to understand the principles of this medicine and thought they had grasped the secrets of life, recklessly proclaiming that humans have conquered the once-pandemic dead rot disease. Yet they are unaware that the demon birthed by the panacea has already set its sights on them. The excessive misuse of the decay antidote catalyzed the mutation of the bacteria; even though Torga had repeatedly warned them when delivering the antidote, they still didn’t learn their lesson. The suffering your tribe is experiencing today is the consequence of ignorance.”
“Besides, even if you had brought the decay antidote before, it could only treat individuals that hadn’t yet developed blisters. You’ve delayed for too long; most patients have already entered the onset phase. Your immune systems have been invaded by mutated toxic bacteria three times, causing organs to bleed continuously. Most dead rot patients will ultimately die of organ failure. Those who were sent yesterday can still be treated with the decay antidote, but can you retrieve more antidote today?”
Dar looked up at the sky in a daze, noticing that the dark clouds above were thickening, as if hinting at some ominous weather. He suddenly felt weak and sat down on the blood-soaked ground, painfully covering his fluffy head. After weeping for a while, he finally lifted his head to look at Erwind and said,
“Doctor, I understand. In that case, you should leave quickly while you haven’t been infected; perhaps you can still reach the city to find the antidote. As for my tribespeople, they have fought hard against the disease. Even if they ultimately fail, they are my closest loved ones. I want to stay here and walk the last path with our family. By the way, when you go out, please inform the other Snow Fox Tribe members to leave and not return to the tribe.”
Tribe Leader Dar stood up and unsteadily walked toward a small tent in the quarantine area, where four or five Snow Fox Tribe members of varying ages lay down. The oldest was around Dar’s age, while the other four ranged from youth to child.
They were Dar’s ill wife and four children; at that moment, Dar’s wife and two older sons had already passed away, leaving only a pus-filled elder sister Juna and a younger sister Juna, who was continuously coughing up blood.
Sister Juna and her younger sister were not far apart in age, appearing merely as a small fox, whose pain caused her to constantly cough blood, calling for her loved ones.
“Sister… it hurts.”
“….”
The elder sister Juna, covered in dead rot blisters, was evidently on the brink of death, only breathing weakly, unable to utter a single word in response. Dar quietly leaned against the side of the tent, as if wanting to merge with this hellscape.
Meanwhile, Erwind, standing in the center of the tribe, only observed the sisters lying together in the tent. His body, covered entirely with clothing and the mask, briefly felt the warm breeze of Shivali’s fields, the fragrance of golden wheat fields.
“Sister, cough cough… father, it hurts.”
“Xina.”
“Boom boom!”
The sky over the Northern Region rumbled as thick dark clouds collided and rubbed against one another; despite the cold weather, it gradually brewed the might of thunder, with distant rumblings prompting Erwind to take out a traditional Shivali gentleman’s hat from his pocket. He no longer looked at the few Snow Fox Tribe members leaning against the tent, suddenly saying,
“It’s going to rain.”
Dar, who had closed his eyes in tears, immediately opened them upon hearing his voice. When he opened his eyes again, that originally thin black shadow had vanished without a trace, only the cold raindrops from the sky began to fall slowly. The rain rapidly intensified, soon turning into a downpour covering the quarantine area surrounded by disease.
The cold downpour soaked through the flimsy tents, directly drenching many patients inside. As the water gathered, it continuously washed away the pus and blood. In despair, Dar tried to shield his soon-to-be-dying daughters from the last bit of wind and rain, helplessly shouting at the sky,
“Moon Princess, if our ancestors have truly committed such grave sins, then take our lives away!”
But the sky only resonated with the sound of thunder, with no other responses to him. Exhausted, he could no longer support himself and collapsed onto his children, waiting for the arrival of death. However, unexpectedly, when he brushed against the body of sister Juna, he felt nothing of the protruding, deformed dead rot blisters, only soft, wet fur.
Dar quickly opened his eyes and stood up, only to find that at some point, his two daughters’ breaths had calmed down gradually. The dead rot blisters had instantly disappeared, leaving only slight red swelling, as though all the disease had just been an illusion, fading away in the pouring rain.
Surprised and overjoyed, he dashed out of the tent, checking on other tribespeople, happily discovering that their symptoms too, like his daughters who were still alive, were gradually subsiding.
Could it be that the Frost Phoenix blessed us? Could it be that the Moon Princess has forgiven the mistakes of our ancestors?
Dar stood astonished in the center of the quarantine area, watching the streams of rainwater gather on the ground and flow away. Soon he noticed that a large area of blood and pus had been flowing away as if it had a form, like the visible plague releasing its grip from the necks of the Snow Fox Tribe.
He seemed to understand something and watched the torrential rain with mixed feelings.
“Boom boom!”
“Doctor… sir?”
