Chapter 117 – Research on Plague

With the cognitive abilities of a Formal-Level powerhouse, Punk quickly scanned through all the memories of the townsfolk before him.

“So a major plague has suddenly broken out?”

Punk casually threw the bleeding and dying Mad to the ground, then cast several Divination Spells to verify the information obtained from Mad’s memories.

After Punk’s analysis, Tisha Xia’er’s actions had become relatively clear.

She had obtained a piece of Legendary Equipment capable of absorbing faith power. Then, for some inexplicable reason, she decided to strengthen herself through faith. Ultimately, Tisha Xia’er established the Tisha Xia’er Church, with fanatical belief as its core and drug-induced brainwashing as its propagation method.

At that time, Tisha Xia’er likely still possessed rationality and considerable wisdom. The church she established remained hidden in the shadows, gradually infiltrating Doleiz City. She even managed to secure the loyalty of a High Priest through her considerable personal charm.

However, Punk found it difficult to comprehend why Tisha Xia’er would suddenly abandon her concealment, expose herself before her power was fully developed, and madly spread plague to forcibly brainwash the populace.

“Without a doubt, Tisha Xia’er is the mastermind behind the rampant plague. Her religious propagation has become increasingly insane and bizarre. According to this Mad’s memories, Tisha Xia’er’s brainwashing ‘Holy Water’ appears to have curative effects against this disease. Many townsfolk have voluntarily joined the Tisha Xia’er Church seeking treatment…”

Puck gently tapped his hat brim, revealing a contemplative expression.

So the question arose: Why would Tisha Xia’er willingly expose her trump card—the plague—reveal her vulnerable church, and undermine her own foundation? What was her objective?

From a benefits perspective, she gained nothing beyond a few followers with abnormal faith. The cost far outweighed the returns, like someone spending their entire fortune just to buy a bottle of water—completely irrational.

“Then… under what circumstances would someone spend their entire fortune to buy a bottle of water?

The answer is… when they’re dying of thirst.”

Now, all the clues connected in Punk’s mind, and Tisha Xia’er’s purpose became glaringly obvious.

For some unknown reason, this “Goddess” desperately needed faith. She had to collect it through the “temptation” of plague-curing medicine combined with the “coercion” of follower brainwashing.

This method of faith collection was clearly unsustainable. Once the good-aligned powerhouses realized what was happening, Tisha Xia’er would face devastating retaliation.

However, this approach could yield considerable results in the short term—indeed the most efficient means to rapidly acquire a sufficient number of sufficiently devout followers.

At this point, Punk suddenly recalled the madness and foolishness Tisha Xia’er had displayed when they met.

“Could it be that this method of collecting and brainwashing followers significantly increases contaminants in the faith power? After absorbing too much of this polluted faith, Tisha Xia’er became what she is now?”

He shook his head calmly. Punk currently had limited understanding of faith power, with only fragmentary information available, making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions.

“At least I’ve roughly understood Tisha Xia’er’s objectives. This provides theoretical foundation for making preparations against such goals.”With a plan vaguely forming in his mind, Punk surveyed the filthy alley, where several diseased refugees lay motionless, their eyes wide with shock at the bizarre scene they had just witnessed.

“My plan shall begin with studying this strange plague. Conveniently, there are plenty of ignored ‘experimental materials’ everywhere here!”

Thinking this without a hint of guilt, Punk summoned a pale purple energy cage. The violet energy glow illuminated his Mage Robe, casting an eerie aura around him.

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“What happened here?”

Punk entered the White Tower with five or six floating cages, each filled with townspeople under the effects of a Sleep Spell. Intending to start his experiments promptly, he found his Laboratory in complete disarray: bottles and jars on the Experiment Table had toppled over, the defensive magic array’s energy was depleted, and even the residual Abyss aura had significantly faded.

Frowning slightly at the sight, he muttered, “That fool Bilan, why does she keep bringing all sorts of strange characters in here?”

Using a few Divination Spells, Punk quickly uncovered what had transpired in his White Tower. He kicked aside the child’s corpse wrapped in clothing on the floor and irritably tossed all the fallen alchemical equipment into a corner.

“Not only did she save a useless commoner, but she also brought some little lover into the White Tower, and ended up infected with the plague. Is that girl’s head filled with nothing but air?”

Punk was highly dissatisfied with this cheap Apprentice of his, but she was far away in Konola City, and he had no time to deal with an insignificant Apprentice. Dismissing the trivial matter, he quickly regained his composure. The loss in the Laboratory was no major trouble—creating a few temporary Experiment Tables with some spells was easy enough.

The urgent task was to proceed with the experiments. Tisha Xia’er, as a Formal-Level mage of the fourteenth rank, was far too dangerous for Punk to take lightly!

Opening the first cage packed with patients, he selected over a dozen weak, dying refugees and tossed them to Golem One. As a true Formal-Level creation, Golem One had the ability to restore itself by consuming fresh flesh and blood and was completely immune to this Apprentice-Level magical disease.

Leaving Golem One to noisily devour its “food” in the middle of the hall, Punk retrieved a girl from the second cage and placed her on the Experiment Table. The freckle-faced girl had a well-proportioned figure, wheat-colored skin, and smooth hair. Unaware of her impending fate, she lay deeply asleep under the spell’s influence.

Punk had no sadistic interest in tormenting his subjects, so he used a bit of psychic energy to destroy the girl’s brainstem, causing her to die instantly in her slumber.

“Now for the dissection.”Having dissected many humans recently, Punk was thoroughly familiar with the human body’s structure. After using a minor trick to strip all the skin from the experimental subject, a blade imbued with sharp magic effortlessly sliced through every muscle of the girl along their grain. Next came the organs and lymph, followed by blood vessels and nerves. With Punk’s speed reduced to mere blurs, in less than five minutes, only a clean skeleton remained on the Experiment Table.

Arranging the muscle tissues, organs, and other bodily structures on an empty table, Punk discovered that while organs like the lymph showed no abnormalities, the girl’s muscle tissues were riddled with writhing gray filaments. These filaments connected to tendons and bones, spreading throughout every inch of her musculature.

As for the remaining bones… the signs of infection were even more pronounced.

With a grave expression, he stared at the intact skeleton, noting dense gray patterns covering every inch of the girl’s bones—as if each one had been wrapped in a gray mesh. The connections between bone cells were extensively disrupted by these patterns.

According to the System’s analysis, as the patterns spread and intensified, the infected creature’s bones would grow increasingly brittle, eventually reaching a point where even breathing could cause them to shatter.

Through this dissection, Punk gained a vivid understanding of the plague’s symptoms.

As a rapidly spreading epidemic, it likely transmitted through contact. Being a magical disease, it even possessed the ability to infect Apprentice-Level beings.

The infected would develop those gray “filaments” within their bodies, and their bones would quickly weaken. Within just one week, victims would completely lose mobility, frequently suffering fractures during this period. Thus, the progression toward death was both agonizing and eerie—an unbearable state of living death for helpless ordinary people!

(End of Chapter)