Plague Doctor
chapter-200

Translator: Lonelytree

鈥淒eath of Viper, Advent of Scripture. Transference of Hope, Preservation of Kindle.鈥?

鈥淭his legend is about the Phecda Hero, Gu Jun. It happened during the last century on Earth, at the time, the world had changed, many horrible plagues ravaged our ancestral world. To search for the medicine that could cure all the diseases, the Phecda Hero entered Dreamlands with the Goddess of Hope. They arrived at the Island of Giant Manor and defeated a viper that was as tall as a giant. The Phecda Hero used the scalpel to cut open the stomach of the viper to find both the medicine and the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan inside its stomach! Turns out the monster had predicted their arrival so it swallowed the items beforehand.鈥?

Peacock tried to keep her tone level but Malachite was getting excited from the retelling of the story. The epic fight between the Phecda Hero and the Goddess of Hope with the giant viper! This was a story that they could listen to forever. But on the other hand, Gu Jun鈥檚 brows slightly frowned鈥?

鈥淏ut the cunning viper was not fully dead, when the Phecda Hero was checking the medicine, it took a sneaky bite at him.鈥?Peacock sighed. 鈥淭he venom was inserted into the hero鈥檚 body, he could have used the medicine to save himself but that meant the ancestral world would not be saved. The Phecda Hero did not use the medicine but gathered the last vestige of his power to open a dimensional wormhole. He had the Goddess of Life return with the medicine and the spell book while he remained forever in Dreamlands鈥?buried on the island of the giant manor.鈥?

Peacock was painting a beautiful picture with her words. Her tone took on a deeper cadence as she recited the famous last words the Phecda Hero had for the Goddess of Hope, 鈥淭here鈥檚 hope with the scripture, and with hope comes the kindle and those kindles will one day light up the world. That has always been the teaching and inspiration for our people.鈥?Gu Jun listened quietly but the problem was鈥︹€橧 definitely have not said anything remotely like that鈥?

鈥淭he Phecda Hero has many kernels of wisdom that he has left in his legacy.鈥?Peacock continued, 鈥淭hey are the power source that keeps our people going.鈥?

鈥淎 real warrior is brave to face any fear in its face.鈥?Malachite said solemnly with fire in his eyes.

Gu Jun felt his stomach turning. He gave a long sigh and felt the breath catch in his throat. 鈥淎re you sure these are all true?鈥?

鈥淭hese are all legends that are common knowledge to our people.鈥?Peacock answered. 鈥淭hat is what we were told.鈥?As legends were, she did not dare to say that what they heard was the extent of the whole truth.

鈥淭hey have to be.鈥?Malachite though had a deeper faith than his partner. 鈥淥f course they are.鈥?

However even for the young man, when questioned, he had to admit there was no way for him to confirm that the tales from 300 years ago were true.

Furthermore, Gu Jun acknowledged that verbal legacy would add further embellishment in the process of retelling. There would be exaggeration and personal touch until the story became a fixture in the group鈥檚 collective consciousness. This story of the Phecda Hero going to the Dreamlands to find some kind of miracle cure was not so different from the story of Gilgamesh going to the underworld to find the drug of immortality鈥?

If Peacock was telling the truth, then this Phecda Hero would take the status of someone like Yu the Great, or Gilgamesh in their culture. Even if the legend might not be 100 percent true, it would reflect part of the truth: Gu Jun and Wu Siyu did indeed arrive at the Dreamlands, defeat their enemy and in the end, Gu Jun did stay and Wu Siyu did return with the items.

鈥淎nd then?鈥?He asked, 鈥淲hat happened next?鈥?

鈥淭he Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan kicked off the last golden era of the ancestral world.鈥?Peacock continued, 鈥渋t was time of peace and development. The global supernatural alliance was formed and it collected the elites from all the countries. They revealed themselves to the public, which according to legend amounted to several trillion people.鈥?

鈥業 wouldn鈥檛 say several trillion but there was at least several billion鈥? Gu Jun thought. 鈥楪lobal Supernatural Alliance?鈥?He did hear Elder Tong mention that Phecda would push towards international cooperation to form a global organization but would the countries come together so easily? Especially during a time of peace? Gu Jun had his doubts, this was probably another exaggeration or a confusion in the timeline.

鈥淚t was an era of heroes and heroines! The elites from all over the world inherited the spirit of the Phecda Hero, they obtained power from Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan and led the people to defeat the supernatural evil and take down all the villains.鈥?Peacock said proudly but as this was a tragedy, as she reached the denouement, her face crumbled, 鈥淎fter the golden era ended, came the era of collapse鈥? First it was the epidemic of Bloody Lungs Disease. According to legend, the disease was airborne and once infected, the victim would perish within days.鈥?

Gu Jun鈥檚 heart squeezed immediately. Airborne disease, fast spreading of the epidemic鈥?he knew very well what that meant鈥?

鈥淏loody Lungs Disease? Why is it called that?鈥?he asked as a flash of shadow crossed his mind, the haemoptysis that destroyed the foreign civilization.

鈥淎ccording to legend, the disease would affect the patient鈥檚 lungs first before it spread to the rest of the body.鈥?Peacock could not give more details about the symptoms because she did not know either. 鈥淚n the end, the patients would die from bloody coughs.鈥?

鈥楤loody coughs鈥︹€?Gu Jun leaned against the chair and closed his eyes tiredly. 鈥楤ut haemoptysis is not supposed to be airborne鈥?Has it mutated when it arrived on earth or this is another embellishment in the legend?鈥?In any case, Gu Jun believed this Bloody Lungs Disease was definitely haemoptysis. 鈥楽o in Peacock鈥檚 story, haemoptysis will still ravage earth in the future, or at least the future of my timeline? Will it be the doing of the Afterlife Cult?鈥?

鈥淭here were two other epidemics during the era of collapse.鈥?Peacock鈥檚 voice dimmed. 鈥淭he first was the Petrification Disease that would turn people into stone and the other is the Mutated Scale Disease that will turn the victim鈥檚 skin into fish scale before they crack.鈥?

Gu Jun鈥檚 heart sank even further. 鈥楳ultiple epidemics at the same time? Fish scale? If this was just a description of one鈥檚 appearance, then there was a skin disease currently in existence called ichthyosis vulgaris. A mutation of this disease can be responsible for the Mutated Scale Disease鈥?But how would one turn into stone? Is that an effect of a spell? Because petrification is biologically impossible. Or 鈥榯urned into stone鈥?is yet another figurative speech? Could it mean immobilization鈥?like Locked-in Syndrome?鈥?

鈥淲hat do you mean by turning into stone?鈥?He asked, 鈥淲hat kind of stone are you talking about?鈥?

鈥淓rm鈥︹€?Both Peacock and Malachite were confused. Malachite responded with irritation, 鈥淪tone is stone, the material used to make statues.鈥?

鈥淎 mortal鈥檚 power,鈥?Atal sighed, 鈥渋s still too insignificant.鈥?

鈥淔rom their discovery to their spread all over the world, the time taken was very short.鈥?Seeing that the nightmare man had gone silent, Peacock took the cue to continue on her own. 鈥淚n less than a year, all the cities had collapsed, the whole world crumbled into death and chaos. The heroes of the alliance brought all the survivors to set up the last bulwark at the south pole called 鈥楾he City of Kindles鈥? but the arctic wind was no refuge against the disease, in the end鈥?the ten thousand kindles migrated into the Plateau of Leng.鈥?

Malachite鈥檚 jaw was clenched, he did not sigh or voice anything, he was paying respect to the loss of humanity鈥檚 golden era.

鈥淥kay.鈥?Gu Jun鈥檚 mind was fuzzy. He stared at the two and closely observed them, the more he did, the more unfamiliar he felt鈥?

No, these two were not Asian. The details that he did not notice for the past few days now surfaced. They had mixed-race features with majority Asian genetic influence. Global migration would ensure that鈥?Gu Jun could see that they were not lying but it did not help clear up his mind. Peacock was about to continue her story of what happened to the ten thousand kindles after they arrived at Dreamlands but Gu Jun stopped her. He asked with a frown. 鈥淭he Goddess of Life that you mentioned, what happened to her then?鈥