"There's no way to recover naturally, and it doesn't kill people directly either…"
Inside the isolation ward for patients on the Adus border, Sister Vanya, dressed in the Church's specialized protective clothing, looked at the patient lying on the bed, constantly struggling in pain, and murmured with a frown. Then she began to examine the patient's condition more closely herself and asked her attendant beside her.
"Have all the treatment methods been used?"
"They've all been used, but at most they can alleviate the symptoms. They can't improve the overall situation, Sister Vanya. This disease is very special; ordinary methods don't work."
The attendant Sister beside Vanya said so. Since Vanya's delegation came to North Wu for relief in the first place, they carried a large amount of precious medicine of various kinds in a remote place like North Wu, and there were also many accompanying medical personnel. Even without considering Extraordinary means, the medical conditions on the conventional level were much stronger than Shadi's Revolutionary Army soldier team. However, this still couldn't completely remove the pain for these patients.
'If this level of plague were to occur in the major countries of the Main Continent, it would also cause very serious harm. Ordinary medical methods simply can't cope... However, if this plague appeared directly on the Main Continent, it would also receive the attention of Holy Mountain immediately.'
"So… have Extraordinary healings been attempted?" Vanya continued to ask the Sister beside her, and the Sister then replied.
"I and some other Sisters have already made preliminary attempts. Although it has an effect, it cannot directly remove the pain in a short time…"
"Short-term Extraordinary treatment doesn't work either?"
Touching her chin, Vanya murmured softly in her heart like this, and then she stretched out her hand towards the patient on the bed in front of her, gently placing it on the patient's body. Then Vanya began to activate her own Spirituality, using the Extraordinary power of the Holy Mother's Path to try to heal the patient in front of her.
As Vanya's Spirituality was mobilized within her body, a soft glow slowly emanated from her hand, enveloping the patient. Under this soft glow, the patient still kept turning and moaning, and the pain on his body didn't seem to be relieved much.
Seeing this scene, Vanya's eyebrows furrowed even more severely for a moment. Then Vanya began to increase the output of her Extraordinary ability, investing more Spirituality to heal the disease of the person in front of her. As the brightness of the soft glow emanating from Vanya's hand gradually increased, the reaction of the patient she was treating began to intensify.
During Vanya's further treatment, the patient's struggle became more intense, seemingly more painful, but this painful symptom only lasted for a few minutes. The patient's struggle level significantly decreased, his breathing slowly stabilized, and he gradually became calm. He slowly fell asleep from a state of constantly moaning in a daze, and his overall state seemed to have significantly improved.
"It's done… is it done? As expected of Sister Vanya!" Seeing the state of the patient on the camp bed at this time, the attendant Sister beside her couldn't help but exclaim with some excitement. Some other accompanying people from Vanya's delegation and the Revolutionary Army beside her also made sounds of admiration at this time, especially the Revolutionary Army caregivers in the isolation ward. It was the first time they had seen this disease being directly cured.
"Pay attention to his rest and nutritional supplements afterwards…" Looking at the patient whose symptoms were tending to subside, Vanya said after letting out a long sigh of relief and wiping the fine sweat beads from her forehead. It could be seen that the healing just now was not easy for her.
After giving a few simple instructions to her attendants, Vanya left the isolation ward tent and returned to her delegation's camp, back to her own tent.
Here, Vanya found a pre-laid cushion and sat down cross-legged, and then began to assume a praying posture. During this prayer process, Vanya communicated with Dorothy, who was not far from her at this time, through the information channel.
"From your look… treating that disease seems to take a lot of effort?" Through the information channel, Dorothy said in Vanya's heart, and Vanya also immediately responded.
"Yes, Miss Dorothea, this plague is very unusual. The pathogen is entrenched within the human body and is extremely tenacious. Not to mention conventional mundane treatment methods, even using the Extraordinary ability of the Holy Mother's Path to heal is very time-consuming. The pathogen of this plague can actually resist the human body's defense force enhanced by the power of the Holy Mother's Path to a certain extent, which is something that pathogens in the natural world cannot do at all…"
Vanya said this to Dorothy in her heart. Listening to her words, Dorothy, who was sitting in her tent far away, couldn't help but frown slightly, and then began to recall the principle of healing diseases of the Holy Mother's Path that Vanya had once explained to her.
The basis of the Holy Mother's Path's ability is physical regeneration and physical strengthening. The Holy Mother's Path can rapidly regenerate its own or others' bodies by consuming Spirituality, and physical strengthening can enhance the various functions of biological tissues, thereby allowing them to exert extraordinary power.
There are many ways for the Holy Mother's Path to remove diseases. According to Vanya, when dealing with diseases caused by external pathogens, the Holy Mother's Path's healing method is to use its ability to strengthen the human body's own resistance, allowing the human body's own resistance to eliminate external pathogens.
Of course, this is the saying in this world. From Dorothy's point of view, the so-called external pathogens are microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses that invade the human body, and the so-called human body's resistance is immunity.
The ability of the Holy Mother's Path can enhance the overall quality of the body, and it can strengthen the whole body or specifically strengthen a single organ tissue or system. For example, strengthening muscles can give immense strength, strengthening the heart and spleen can accelerate the efficiency of blood circulation, and strengthening the liver and kidneys can accelerate the efficiency of metabolizing various harmful substances. Strengthening the immune system can enhance the human body's ability to kill bacteria and viruses itself.
Immune enhancement is the main means of the Holy Mother's Path in dealing with epidemics and infections. Extraordinary of the Holy Mother's Path can use Spirituality to specifically stimulate and strengthen the immune system within the human body, doubling its activity and work efficiency, and efficiently clearing various bacteria and viruses in the human body. During this process, Extraordinary of the Holy Mother's Path can also avoid the overly active and strengthened immune system from mistakenly attacking normal human cells and tissues through guidance, only killing the invading bacteria and viruses.
Under the treatment of high-level Extraordinary of the Holy Mother's Path, the enhancement and guidance of the immune system by Extraordinary ability can almost reach a very fine degree, killing bacteria with minimal accidental damage to normal human tissues. Even in the face of severe bacterial invasion, Extraordinary of the Holy Mother's Path can enable patients to recover quickly with almost no inflammatory response. Various epidemics prevalent in the natural world are completely no match for Extraordinary of the Holy Mother's Path and should be cured very quickly.
"With your ability, it took so much effort to eliminate all the pathogens… These pathogens are very unusual…" Dorothy said to Vanya in her heart with a thoughtful expression, and Vanya, after listening to Dorothy's words, also thought for a while before speaking.
"This plague is indeed not simple, Miss Dorothea. Those pathogens are very tenacious and have extremely strong defense against the body's own resistance… or what Aka calls the immune system's encirclement. These viruses are extremely difficult for the immune system to detect. They seem to suppress the attacked normal tissues from sending alarms to the body. The immune system of a normal human body simply cannot detect the existence of these bacteria. I need to activate and guide the patient's immune system to allow the immune system to find and eliminate the viruses.
"And this elimination process is not easy either. These viruses have very strong self-defense capabilities. Even the immune cells that have been activated and strengthened by me cannot completely eliminate them in one go when facing these viruses. They can only be slowly overcome with effort.
"These viruses… seem to have a strong targeted resistance to immune cells strengthened by healing ability. It took me a lot of effort to get the immune cells to break through their defenses. This virus is simply too powerful. This is not something that can naturally evolve in the natural world!"
With a serious expression, Vanya said this to Dorothy. After listening, Dorothy paused slightly, and then also said in her heart thoughtfully.
"It's definitely not something that can evolve in the natural world? It seems… our previous guess is probably correct. This virus is an Extraordinary creation, a product of one of the Taiyi Three Teachings, the Order of Rot… or rather, the Order of Rot…" Dorothy said this. Buserite is located in the mid-southern part of North Wu, and geographically speaking, it is relatively close to South Wu compared to Adus and Kankdar. If the Order of Rot were to infiltrate northward, it could indeed quickly affect Buserite.
"It's from the Tayi Sect again… What is the meaning of them spreading such a plague in Buserite this time?" Vanya said with a frown. Listening to Vanya's words, Dorothy also responded in a deep voice.
"We don't know that yet. In a place like Buserite, which is remote, chaotic, and sparsely populated, is it necessary to spread such a powerful plague here? If they want to cause a large-scale epidemic, they should directly poison the densely populated areas of the Main Continent. Now, suddenly attacking here… it's really hard to understand…" Dorothy tried to analyze the Order of Rot's intentions, but after failing to decipher anything, she shook her head and gave up, and then continued to ask Vanya,
"Now, with your ability, to what extent do you need to exert yourself to completely cure a patient with this disease?"
"With my ability… the Spirituality consumed to cure one such patient is not too much, but it is definitely not negligible. Let me think… For an ordinary Black Earth Stage Healing Priest, if they consume all their Spirituality and energy… in one go, they can probably cure five or six people at most. I can do more, probably around twenty-something. Even with accumulated experience, I can improve efficiency, but at most it's only thirty-something…"
Vanya thought while responding to Dorothy in her heart. Listening to Vanya's words, Dorothy also thought and replied in a deep voice.
"I see… If I remember correctly, the Church has only twelve Black Earth Healing Priests assigned to assist. If you combine the healing power of your entire delegation, you can cure at most a hundred people in one go, and you still can't solve the problem of all the patients in this entire isolation ward…
"So instead of wasting Spirituality here, let's continue our journey and head to Buserite." Dorothy said this to Vanya. Listening to Dorothy's words, Vanya couldn't help but be slightly taken aback, and then said with some reluctance.
"This… does this mean I have to abandon these patients? They are suffering from the torment of illness and are very pitiful. This plague currently has almost no way to be cured except for healing ability. Leaving them here… is it really okay?"
Vanya said emotionally like this. Listening to her words, Dorothy understood that she was overflowing with sympathy and couldn't bear the suffering happening at the moment, so she spoke directly to advise her.
"You staying here and curing them one by one is completely useless. How many people has this plague affected? How many people can your healing ability cure? This isolation ward alone has nearly three hundred patients, and there are at least twenty or thirty such isolation wards on the Adus border. The total number of patients combined is about ten thousand… This is just those who can escape to Adus. We don't know how many people in the entire Buserite are affected by this plague yet… Hundreds of thousands? Or millions?
"Vanya, if you cure them one by one like this, when will you finish? Even if you treat them until you are exhausted, you won't be able to finish. It's better to go to Buserite now, find the culprit, defeat him, and then find a way to find a solution. Perhaps this can directly eradicate the plague and save everyone."
"Defeat the culprit and save everyone?" Listening to Dorothy's words, Vanya's expression couldn't help but be slightly taken aback, and a glimmer of light flickered in her eyes, and Dorothy also added at this time.
"Of course, so, for us, time is the most precious thing now. Only by finding out the source of this Extraordinary plague one day earlier can we find a way to solve the entire plague in one go one day earlier. You can't just look at the present, Vanya. The Holy Mother's love is not just the small love concerning a few people in front of you, but the great love concerning all living beings…"
Listening to Dorothy's words, Vanya couldn't help but freeze in place. After a few seconds of silence, her originally moved expression began to become firm again. Vanya finally let out a long sigh of relief and spoke in her heart again.
"Phew… I understand. I will arrange for the delegation to set off immediately. Thank you, Miss Dorothea. I am truly ashamed that I needed you to teach me such a simple truth… I was a bit emotional and affected the overall situation. This is the result of my insufficient understanding of the Lord's will…
"The so-called great love should be more decisive and rational, rather than temporary impulsiveness. I was too selfish just now, only thinking about trying my best to save the people in front of me, ignoring the majority who are suffering outside my sight. In that case, I don't have to bear the psychological burden of the death of the majority. This kind of selfish love is a big taboo… it is undesirable! Thank you for your teaching…"
"It's good that you understand… It's good that you understand…" Vanya said gratefully to Dorothy, and Dorothy also responded to Vanya with a little speechlessness. To be honest, she didn't expect that Vanya could comprehend such and such principles from her casual words, thinking that Vanya at least had a high talent for reading comprehension.
…
Under Dorothy's persuasion, Vanya gave up the idea of staying in the Adus border and opening a hospital on the spot to treat the sick, but instead had the entire delegation set off and continue to head towards Buserite.
After a period of travel, Vanya's delegation finally entered the territory of Buserite. After a period of trekking, they successively encountered two or three villages, almost all of which were affected by the plague, to the extent that people here were either sick or fled.
As they went deeper into Buserite, Dorothy and Vanya and others began to come into more contact with this plague and also understood the name Buserite people gave to this plague. Because the most important symptom of this plague was a feeling of weakness and lack of strength, it was called "Wasting Decay".