The Doctor's complexion didn't look too good.
Xia Yu, on the other hand, was happily holding Amiya and feeding her.
"Her Highness welcomes any person of high ideals to join Babel." Just then, Ascalon looked at Xia Yu. "If I heard correctly, did you just cure this Cautus's Oripathy?"
"Cure? No, no, no," hearing this, Xia Yu looked at The Doctor meaningfully. "Oripathy cannot be cured, I only temporarily alleviated it."
"After all, the cause of the disease has never been in the patients themselves. Such a disease... heh, to 'cure' it is not within my capabilities."
"Even so, it is extremely astonishing." Hearing this, Ascalon's attitude instantly improved by more than just a little.
Only then did she turn around to size up the surrounding Sarkaz Mercenaries.
Every single one of them was brimming with energy, not looking at all like they were suffering from Oripathy.
She had been wondering why she always felt these mercenaries were rather strange, but couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong... so the root of it was here.
Such a talent must be recruited into Babel!
Her Highness will be very happy!
"Alright, stop crowding around," Xia Yu looked at the surrounding mercenaries. "Go do what you need to do. You've been hungry all day, go make some food."
The mercenaries obediently turned and left.
"To be honest, I'm quite interested in Theresa," she looked at Ascalon. "Tsk, these ill-fated siblings—"
"As expected, it's a completely incomprehensible technological route," just as Ascalon was about to say something, The Doctor spoke up.
The former could only temporarily swallow her thoughts.
"The universe is just like this, no one knows what kind of surprises they will encounter in the next moment," The Doctor looked up at Xia Yu. "Such medical skills... I am very interested."
"Stop mocking me," Xia Yu frowned unhappily at this. "Medical skills? Please, although I have a wealth of medical skills, curing her had absolutely nothing to do with them."
She put on a depressed expression. "Tsk, honestly, it's not like I don't have the technology to cure an Oripathy patient, but even if I cure one person, what then..."
Xia Yu looked up at The Doctor with a burning gaze. "With thousands upon thousands of the Infected, how many surgeries can I possibly perform? What happened just now was Sister Tarnished's 'Shadow', her Incantations possess miraculous properties, so they can save people far more efficiently than my medical skills."
"But even so, the people I can save are only a minority. Every moment in this world, new Infected are born. Whoever tied the bell on the tiger must untie it," she said meaningfully. "Without finding The Root of everything and resolving it, Oripathy will never disappear."
Hearing this, The Doctor fell silent.
He could certainly understand Xia Yu's implied meaning.
In fact, The Doctor himself was also quite bewildered.
When he had just been awakened, he thought the time had come, but it turned out to be Kal'tsit saying she couldn't handle the current situation and coming to ask for help.
That was fine too; The Doctor still cared a lot about Kal'tsit, so he also wanted to ask what the situation was.
Then the moment Oripathy appeared, it completely bewildered The Doctor.
Simply put, the Originium Project was meant to use Originium to completely erode this planet, recording all information into the Internalized Universe inside the Originium, thereby evading the Observer's gaze.
Sounds wonderful, doesn't it?
But once a civilization is recorded into it, it means it has lost all possibilities. The Internalized Universe is not some peaceful and beautiful haven; on the contrary, its existence couldn't be crueler.
It is a tombstone.
A tombstone used to bury Prehistory.
A civilization that enters the Internalized Universe will never be able to continue developing... that is the grave of the defeated.
Very cruel, right?
But that was a measure of last resort. Just as Priestess said, they had to leave something behind for this universe, to prove that humans had once been here.
From the bottom of his heart, The Doctor strongly disagreed with this approach. In his view, this was truly too passive.
But what did it matter if he disagreed? The fact was, under the cruelty of rational thought, even he couldn't deny that Priestess's idea was correct.
Wanting to defeat the Observer... was simply too much of a fantasy.
So in the end, the Originium Project was pushed forward anyway.
The Doctor originally thought that when he opened his eyes again, he would see a barren planet, its surface completely covered by Originium. At that time, he, the administrator, would have to manually write in all the collected data to completely finish the construction of this tombstone.
But instead, he saw a woman with horns on his head.
Then he found out that the barren planet, which had originally been judged to have no civilization, had miraculously birthed a civilization after his group fell silent, and had continued to develop to this day.
This made things awkward.
Originally, the reason The Doctor could agree to proceed with the Originium Project was because Terra at that time was still a barren, dead star. Although some primitive life existed, there was no civilization at all.
So he could naturally carry out the plan with a clear conscience.
But now, heaven knows how this civilization appeared and actually developed... if he continued to push forward the Originium Project, it would undoubtedly kill these billions of people...
The Doctor couldn't bring himself to do it.
That was why he used the excuse of coming out to look around to leave Kazdel.
For no other reason, it was all pure avoidance.
But now, everything Bailu had done in front of him forced him back to square one.
To directly face the problem he had always been running away from.
The Doctor knew very well that the reason Oripathy appeared was entirely because of the order to collect information that he and Priestess had given to the Originium back then.
So once Originium pierced your skin and collected the first batch of information, your whole person would be registered with the Originium. A continuous stream of Originium particles would enter your body to carry out the 'collection' operation.
This was the origin of Oripathy.
It was also the reason why the little doctor in front of him said she couldn't cure Oripathy.
The root cause of this disease wasn't in the human body at all, so what could she do?
Moreover, there was an even more important question.
She could cause eroded flesh to turn back into a body of flesh and blood... The Doctor didn't dare to imagine how she did it.
If it really was what he thought... the biggest obstacle to the Originium Project had already appeared.
Watching The Doctor's silent demeanor, Xia Yu's eyes darted around.
She naturally knew why The Doctor was conflicted. It could be said that this was exactly what Theresa died from back then.
But she didn't try to explain.
"Tell me about Babel," Xia Yu looked at Ascalon. "What is the current Babel... like?"
"Babel carries Her Highness's ideals," Ascalon's eyes were full of longing when she spoke of Theresa. "Catastrophes, man-made disasters, diseases..."
"These sufferings ravage the people of the world. All living beings suffer and cannot find deliverance. Under Her Highness's leadership, we established Babel."
"There, people from different countries and different races strive for the same ideal. The Elafia doctors from Leithanien will treat illnesses for the Sarkaz, and the wandering Tianshi from Yan will teach us how to plant crops..."
"You didn't think of these words yourself, did you?" Hearing this, Xia Yu looked at Ascalon.
"I didn't," Ascalon nodded somewhat embarrassedly. She had heard all of this from others, and she hadn't even repeated it completely.
"Then, to you, what kind of place is Babel?" Xia Yu gently handed Amiya in her arms back to Charlotte.
"Home," Ascalon replied with a single word.
"Home, huh. That is a very high appraisal," Xia Yu nodded upon hearing this.
After Charlotte took Amiya, she also held her in her arms.
She didn't quite understand the conversation between these people, but she still knew some basic common sense.
Like... what the Demon King was.
And what concept it was to be the personal disciple of the Demon King.
She stole a glance at Ascalon, who was sitting upright at the side.
So weird, let's take another look!
Still so weird. This is the Demon King's disciple? Shouldn't someone like this be thirty feet tall with an eight-foot waist, have a blue face and fangs, look ferocious, and be capable of all kinds of evil?
Other than looking a bit cold, the Sarkaz woman in front of her seemed okay in all other aspects...
There was also The Doctor. She looked worriedly at the silent Doctor next to her.
The perceptive Charlotte sensed his terrible mood, but it didn't seem like everyone had said anything major just now... how did his mood suddenly turn so bad?
Charlotte had met The Doctor halfway through her journey. At that time, he was in a sorry state carrying Amiya, clumsily trying to take care of the child.
'If he were to raise a child, this pitiful little girl probably wouldn't live long.' Holding such thoughts, Charlotte began to travel with The Doctor and Amiya.
Along the way, she had long been won over by The Doctor's profound knowledge and peculiar ideas. Hmm, although he was very knowledgeable, this person was unaware of a lot of common sense...
This strange sense of contrast made Charlotte very curious, but she was a good girl with a strong sense of boundaries, and had never opened her mouth to ask.
Previously, she and The Doctor had heard that there was a Divine Doctor in Lungmen who could cure Oripathy, so they planned to take Amiya there to seek medical treatment. As a result, halfway there, a letter forced The Doctor to abandon this idea and return to Kazdel.
Charlotte didn't understand it at all, but she still stayed by The Doctor's side, mainly because she was afraid that without her, this defenseless guy would silently die in some corner of the Wasteland.
Not to mention he was going to Kazdel.
But it wasn't until today that she truly realized The Doctor was actually a big shot.
So big that... even the Demon King's disciple stayed by his side as a bodyguard.
Thinking of this, Charlotte's shoulders trembled involuntarily.
Sigh, if you are such a big shot... then I...
All of a sudden, both of their moods were rather poor.
Being held in her arms, Amiya astutely perceived their terrible moods.
"Doctor," she extended her small hand, timidly pulling on The Doctor's sleeve, and then looked pitifully at Charlotte. "Big Sister Charlotte..."
Amiya didn't know what she should do, but she was clumsily trying to comfort them in her own way.
"What, are you unhappy?" Seeing this, Xia Yu smiled, then leaned close to The Doctor.
"Asking when you already know the answer," The Doctor looked up and glanced at her, then sighed and held Amiya's small hand.
"Don't worry, Amiya, I'm fine."
"I can say the exact same words to you," Xia Yu patted his shoulder. "Don't worry, Doctor, your plan will definitely have issues!"
"...You," The Doctor didn't even know what to say anymore.
"Heh, you just don't understand our workflow," Xia Yu sneered. "At the end of the day, we still operate under the title of a relief and reconstruction team. Higher-ups have been dissatisfied with us for a long time."
"Mainly because we carry this title but do no actual work. The boss's boss has complained many times, telling us to get at least some things done so that he doesn't have to bring a completely blank report when he gets evaluated."
"So we are under a lot of pressure too, Doctor," Xia Yu said with a beaming smile. "But you know, under that thing's gaze, how can there be so many survivors for us to rescue? Even if there were, it's been tens of thousands of years... they might have already developed on their own."
"So, having finally encountered a suitable target, everyone is gearing up to go all out. The supplies in my hands have been gathering dust in the vault for who knows how many years, and they can finally be given out. Do you know how happy we are?"
Xia Yu said meaningfully, "Terra appeared right on time. So, friend, you know what I want to say, right?"
"You guys won't let this planet turn into a bare ball of rock," The Doctor lowered his head and said.
"Yes, we won't," Xia Yu smiled and said. "Do you still remember that unparalleled powerhouse I told you about?"
"...Don't tell me, He really exists?!" Hearing this, The Doctor whipped his head up.
"Otherwise, why do you think after all these years of our team submitting blank reports year after year, the team still manages to exist?"
"Excavating ruins, analyzing technology, exploring secrets, and dealing with those disgusting things," Xia Yu said meaningfully. "Which of these doesn't require financial backing?"
"We submit blank reports year after year, yet massive amounts of funds are still approved every year. Do you think the Alliance just has too much money with nowhere to spend it?"
"So your reliance is Him?" The Doctor raised his head, thinking rapidly. "But such a powerhouse would be more than capable of protecting himself, while the civilization behind him would..."
"That's why we have to come out and collect all the information left behind after the destruction," Xia Yu said with a matter-of-fact look.
"Including those computers?" The Doctor narrowed his eyes.
"Yes, including those computers," Xia Yu nodded. "To be honest, Sister Acheron is keeping an eye on this project."
"And here on Terra, although she isn't here personally, having Sister Firefly keep an eye on things is pretty much the same."
"Then, may I ask, how strong is this Firefly?" The Doctor asked.
"Let's gauge it by how strong you previously said the strongest of this type of civilization is," Xia Yu replied with a smile.
"...Alright, I understand," The Doctor lowered his head with a headache.
If it were during the peak of Human Civilization, he could naturally brush off a powerhouse capable of shattering planets. To the hegemonic humanity, that was truly nothing; it was something even a randomly pulled out mining ship could do.
But who asked them to be so down and out right now.
Sigh.