Chapter 697: The Plague of Exhaustion
“Unable to recover naturally and unwilling to directly k*ll people…”
In the isolation ward at the border of Adus, Vanessa, dressed in the Church’s professional protective clothing, watched the patients on the beds writhing in pain and sighed. She then began to examine the patients more carefully and asked her attendants beside her.
“Have all the treatments been tried?”
“They have been tried, but they can only alleviate symptoms temporarily and cannot improve the overall condition, Sister Vanessa. This disease is very special; general methods are ineffective.”
The attendant nuns replied. Despite carrying a large amount of precious medicines for the remote Northern Ufeiga and having many medical personnel, even without extraordinary abilities, the medical conditions were far better than those of Shadi’s revolutionary army soldiers. However, this was still insufficient to completely relieve the suffering of these patients.
‘If such an epidemic occurred on the Main Continent, it would cause serious harm. Secular medical means would be utterly helpless… However, if this epidemic appeared directly on the Main Continent, the Sacred Summit would pay immediate attention.’
“So… Have you tried extraordinary healing?” Vanessa continued to ask the nun beside her, who then responded.
“I and some other nuns have already attempted preliminary trials. Although there was some effect, it couldn’t immediately remove the pain…”
“Short-term extraordinary treatment also didn’t work?”
Vanessa murmured softly to herself as she stroked her chin. Then, she stretched out her hand toward the patient on the bed, hovering it above the patient’s body. Vanessa began to invoke her spirituality and use the extraordinary power of the “Path of the Holy Mother” to attempt to heal the patient.
As Vanessa’s spirituality stirred, a gentle light gradually enveloped the patient, but despite this, the patient continued to m*an in pain, seemingly receiving little relief.
Seeing this, Vanessa’s frown deepened even further. She increased the output of her extraordinary ability, investing more spirituality to heal the person in front of her. As the gentle light emitted by Vanessa’s hand became brighter, the patient’s reaction intensified.
During Vanessa’s further treatment, the patient’s struggle became even more intense, seeming even more painful. However, this pain only lasted for a few minutes before the patient’s struggle noticeably subsided. His breathing stabilized, and he gradually calmed down, transitioning from a state of constant moaning to a peaceful sleep. It seemed that his condition had improved significantly.
“It’s done… Is it really done? Sister Vanessa never fails!” Seeing the patient’s current state on the bed, the attendant nuns could not help but exclaim excitedly. Other members of her mission and revolutionaries also expressed their admiration, especially the workers in the shelter who were seeing such a disease being cured for the first time.
“Afterward, make sure he gets proper rest and nutrition…” Looking at the patient whose symptoms were easing, Vanessa wiped the sweat off her forehead after a long sigh and said. It was clear that the previous cure was not easy for her.
After giving a few simple instructions to her attendants, Vanessa left the shelter tent and returned to her mission camp. She entered her own tent.
Here, Vanessa found a pre-laid cushion and sat down cross-legged, then began to assume a posture of prayer. During this prayer process, Vanessa communicated with Dorothy through the information channel, who was not too far away.
“Judging from your appearance… treating such a disease must have taken a lot of effort?” Through the information channel, Dorothy said to Vanessa, who immediately responded.
“Yes, Miss Dorothy, this plague is quite unusual. The pathogen resides within the human body, extremely tenacious. Not only conventional secular treatment methods, even using the extraordinary ability of the ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ requires a lot of effort. This plague’s pathogen can resist the enhanced human defense system provided by the ‘Path of the Holy Mother.’ Such resistance is beyond what ordinary pathogens in nature can achieve…”
Vanessa explained to Dorothy, who frowned slightly as she listened, recalling what Vanessa had once explained about the principle behind the ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ curing diseases.
The foundation of the ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ lies in physical regeneration and physical strengthening. The ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ can regenerate one’s or another’s flesh rapidly by consuming spirituality, and physical strengthening enhances various functions of biological tissues, enabling them to perform superhuman feats.
There are many ways for the ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ to remove diseases. According to Vanessa, when dealing with diseases caused by external pathogens, the ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ cures by enhancing the body’s natural resistance, allowing the body’s own defenses to eliminate the external pathogens.
Of course, this is the explanation in this world. From Dorothy’s perspective, external pathogens refer to bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms invading the human body, while the body’s resistance is immunity.
The ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ can enhance the entire body’s quality, either strengthening the whole body or specifically reinforcing a single organ or system. For example, strengthening muscles can provide immense strength, heart and spleen strengthening can accelerate bl**d circulation efficiency, liver and kidney strengthening can speed up metabolism of harmful substances. Immune system strengthening can boost the body’s ability to k*ll bacteria and viruses.
Immune system strengthening is the main method used by the ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ to handle epidemics and infections. Extraordinary beings of the ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ can use spirituality to stimulate and enhance the internal immune system, doubling its activity and efficiency to efficiently clear various pathogens from the body. During this process, the extraordinary beings of the ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ can guide the immune system to avoid excessive activation and accidental damage to normal cells, focusing solely on killing the invading bacteria and viruses.
Under high-level extraordinary beings of the ‘Path of the Holy Mother,’ the enhancement and guidance of the immune system can be done with great precision, achieving minimal damage to normal body tissues while killing pathogens. Even in the face of severe bacterial invasions, extraordinary beings of the ‘Path of the Holy Mother’ can enable patients to quickly recover almost without any inflammatory response. Common epidemics in nature would be no match for them and should be cured very quickly.
“With your abilities, it took so much effort to eliminate all the pathogens… These pathogens are truly unusual…” Dorothy pondered and said to Vanessa, who then thought for a moment and responded.
“This plague is indeed not simple, Miss Dorothy. Those pathogens are extremely resilient, with formidable defenses against the body’s natural resistance… or what Akka calls immune system encirclement. These viruses are extremely difficult to detect by the immune system; they seem to suppress the normal tissue under attack from sending alerts to the body. Normal immune systems cannot discover these pathogens, requiring me to activate and guide the patient’s immune system to find and eliminate them.
“The process of elimination is not easy either. These viruses have very strong self-defense capabilities. Even the activated and strengthened immune cells I have cannot completely eliminate them in one go, but rather need to slowly overcome them over time.
“These viruses… seem to have strong resistance to immune cells strengthened by the healing ability. It took me a lot of effort to break through their defenses. These viruses are simply too powerful; they are not something that could evolve naturally!”
With a serious expression, Vanessa told Dorothy, who paused slightly after hearing this and then pondered internally.
“Could it be that they are not something that could evolve naturally? It seems… our previous guess might be correct. These viruses are extraordinary creations, one of the three Amniotic Sac sects, the Rotten Sect… or perhaps the Eternal Life Cult…”
Dorothy said, Buseirite located in the southern part of Northern Ufeiga, compared to Adus and Kankdar, it is relatively close to Southern Ufeiga. If the Eternal Life Cult were to infiltrate northward, it would indeed quickly affect Buseirite.
“Another Amniotic Sac sect… What is the significance of spreading such a plague here in Buseirite?” Vanessa frowned and said. Listening to Vanessa, Dorothy replied solemnly.
“We don’t know yet. Buseirite is remote, chaotic, and sparsely populated. Is it necessary to spread such a powerful plague here? If they want to cause a major epidemic, they should directly poison the densely populated areas on the Main Continent. Suddenly attacking here… it doesn’t make sense…”
Dorothy attempted to analyze the intentions of the Eternal Life Cult but shook her head after failing to interpret anything meaningful. She then asked Vanessa,
“Now, how much effort will it take for you to fully cure a patient with this disease?”
“With my abilities… although the consumption of spirituality isn’t too much, it is absolutely not negligible. Let me think… For a general Black Earth Tier healing priest, exhausting all their spirituality and energy… they might be able to cure five or six people at most in one go. I could probably do more, maybe twenty or so, even with accumulated experience, the maximum would be around thirty…
Vanessa replied while pondering, listening to her words, Dorothy pondered and responded solemnly.
“In that case… if I remember correctly, the Church only has twelve Black Earth Tier healing priests to assist. Combined, your entire mission team could cure at most a hundred people at once, which is still insufficient to solve all the patients in this shelter…
“Therefore, instead of wasting spirituality here, we should continue our journey and proceed to Buseirite.”
Vanessa replied, listening to Dorothy, she couldn’t help but pause slightly, then reluctantly said,
“This… Does this mean abandoning these patients? They are suffering greatly and are very pitiful. Besides healing abilities, there is almost no way to cure this plague here. Abandoning them here… is it really okay?
Vanessa said emotionally, listening to her words, Dorothy understood that she was being overly emotional and could not bear the current suffering. She straightforwardly advised,
“You staying here to cure one patient after another is futile. How many people has this plague affected? How many people can your healing abilities save? There are nearly three hundred patients in this shelter alone, and there are at least twenty or thirty more shelters in the Adus border region, adding up to nearly ten thousand patients… And this is just those who managed to escape to Adus. We don’t know how many people in Buseirite are affected… hundreds of thousands or even millions?
“If you treat each patient one by one, it would take forever, even if you exhausted yourself, you wouldn’t be able to cure everyone. It would be better to go to Buseirite now, find the culprit, defeat him, and then figure out a solution. Perhaps this could directly eradicate the plague and save everyone.”
“Defeating the culprit and saving everyone?” Hearing Dorothy’s words, Vanessa’s expression faltered slightly, and a glimmer appeared in her eyes. At this moment, Dorothy added,
“Of course, so for us, the most valuable thing now is time. Only by discovering the source of this extraordinary plague early can we find a solution to the entire epidemic as soon as possible. You can’t just focus on the present, Vanessa. The Holy Mother’s love is not just about the small love for a few people in front of you, but the great love for all beings…”
Listening to Dorothy’s words, Vanessa stood there stunned. After a few seconds of silence, her originally emotional expression gradually turned resolute. Finally, she sighed deeply and said in her heart,
“Sigh… I understand. I will arrange for the mission to depart immediately. Thank you, Miss Dorothy. I am ashamed that such a simple truth needs to be taught by you… I let emotions cloud my judgment, affecting the bigger picture. This is the result of my insufficient understanding of the Will of the Master…
“Great love should be more decisive and rational, rather than impulsive actions driven by emotion. Just now, I was too selfish, thinking only of saving the people in front of me, ignoring the suffering of the majority outside my sight. By doing this, I wouldn’t have to bear the psychological burden of the deaths of the majority. This kind of selfish love is a taboo… it is unacceptable! Thank you for your teaching…”
“Good to understand… good to understand…” Vanessa thanked Dorothy, and Dorothy responded somewhat speechless. To be honest, she did not expect that Vanessa would draw such profound conclusions from her casual words. She thought that at least Vanessa had a high talent for reading comprehension.
…
Under Dorothy’s persuasion, Vanessa gave up on the idea of setting up a makeshift hospital at the Adus border and decided to lead her entire mission to continue their journey towards Buseirite.
After a period of travel, Vanessa’s mission finally entered the territory of Buseirite. After a period of trekking, they encountered two or three villages, all of which were affected by the plague, leading to people falling ill and others fleeing.
During the process of delving deeper into Buseirite, Dorothy and Vanessa and others began to encounter this plague more frequently and understood the local term for it. Since the most prominent symptom of this plague was weakness and loss of strength, it was called the “Plague of Exhaustion.”
