Outer city area.
The carriage stopped in front of a hospital called "Frankenstar".
Chen Lun got off the car.
It was getting late at this time, approaching dusk.
After entering the main building of the hospital, he presented his identification in the lobby and underwent some necessary inspections.
Whether it was because of his high charm or just his appearance, Chen Lun won the favor of the young female nurse, which allowed him to easily get the bed number information he wanted to know.
He gently took off his hat and bowed to show his gratitude, which charmed the young nurse. Then he turned around and went straight upstairs.
"Ward 404..."
Chen Lun walked in the empty and silent corridor.
"This number is a bit unlucky..."
He complained secretly.
The silver cane struck the ground rhythmically, making a dull thumping sound.
When he passed the third floor, he suddenly heard a strange whisper. The sound came from the independent balcony on the side of the third floor, which was usually used to dry sheets and clothes.
Chen Lun stopped and listened carefully.
A breeze blew by, and even with his powerful hearing, he could only catch a few muffled and vague words from a man in the wind:
"...Lord, please...save...you, you are...invisible...all plagues...plagues!"
Chen Lun frowned.
This sounds like a prayer to a certain god, but some of the words do not conform to certain orthodox gods.
The word "plague" in particular attracted Chen Lun's attention.
"Who is this person, and to whom is he praying...?"
He thought about it and decided to find out.
I pushed open the door to the third floor and walked quickly to the balcony, only to find that there was no one there. There were only a few rows of bed sheets fluttering in the wind.
It was as if the whisper I just heard was just an illusion.
Chen Lun stuck his cane on the ground and did some simple divination to find out where the person who had just prayed quietly was. However, the crank part was spinning in place, without a clear direction, which only indicated that the other party was in this hospital and had not left.
"The clues are not clear, so the target is vague, so the divination result is inaccurate...?"
Chen Lun thought for a moment and decided to visit Mrs. Caroline first. He would investigate the matter of the praying man in detail later.
Leaving the independent balcony, he noticed that there were many patients on the third floor, and the corridors were filled with busy doctors and nurses, as well as crying patients.
"More and more people are infected with the disease..."
Chen Lun saw some patients who were coughing and limp sitting on the benches in the corridor, and faint wailing sounds could be heard from each ward.
He shook his head and returned to the corridor.
I immediately went up to the fourth floor and found Ward 404.
After knocking politely on the door, he turned the handle, pushed it open and walked in.
The ward was not big, with only two beds. One was temporarily vacant, and on the other bed was a thin old man lying on his side, with an old woman sitting next to him and a dog squatting at his feet.
"Oh, little Jack!"
Mrs. Caroline turned around with a surprised look. Babu also looked at Chen Lun and wagged his tail at him.
The old woman quickly stood up and came forward.
"Why are you here?"
"I heard that there was an accident at 7 Denton Street, so I came to see...Mrs. Caroline, are you okay?"
Chen Lun took off his hat and hugged his former landlady.
"Thank you for your concern, little Jack. I'm fine...but Mr. Tote, the doctor said he may never wake up."
Mrs. Caroline forced a smile.
"But this is a blessing in disguise... At that time, I thought he was killed by those thugs, but in fact he just lost blood and fainted... Poor old guy, in order to save me, he became like this."
She shook her head.
Chen Lun gave Mrs. Caroline a reassuring smile and then walked straight to the bedside.
A pale, thin old man was lying on his side on the bed, breathing weakly. His head, chest and abdomen were wrapped in gauze, and he looked seriously injured.
Chen Lun stretched out his hand and gently placed it on Mr. Taote's arm to cover the faint green light in his palm.
After a few seconds, he withdrew his hand.
'Strange... I have healed all the injuries on his body, but there is still no sign of him waking up.'
A swirling mist flashed quietly in Chen Lun's eyes.
Suddenly his eyes narrowed.
"This is... 'Deep Coma', plus 'Plague Latent', two negative states..."
"Deep coma" is understandable, perhaps because Mr. Tote was already old and seriously injured.
But the "plague lurks"...
Chen Lun turned his head inconspicuously and checked the information of Mrs. Caroline and Border Collie Bob.
He discovered that Mrs. Caroline also had the "plague lurking in her body," but Bab did not.
'It seems that it has taken a mysterious substance and its physical fitness has been strengthened, so it has not been infected with the plague.
So who did this? Or was it the patients in this hospital who started to spread the plague and infected other people...? '
Chen Lun guessed secretly.
"Mrs. Caroline, why don't you move to the inner city? The outer city is not peaceful right now."
He turned and smiled.
Mrs. Caroline shook her head.
"I have been accustomed to living at 7 Denton Street for so many years, and now Mr. Tote is in a coma. I can't just leave him alone."
"The plague is spreading, which is also worth noting... In addition, the environment and medical facilities in the inner city are better than here."
Chen Lun persuaded.
"Even for Mr. Tote's health, wouldn't it be better if you moved to the inner city to take care of him?"
He had another reason that he hadn't told me.
That is the tomb of Mrs. Caroline's husband and children, located at the former site of Pompeii Manor in the inner city. Moving to the inner city also makes it convenient for her to visit on weekdays.
Mrs. Caroline hesitated when she heard this.
She was silent for a while, and finally smiled.
"You're right, little Jack, even for Mr. Tote's health, I should move there..."
"If you haven't decided where to live yet, there are some vacant rooms in my manor..."
Chen Lun said.
"Oh, thank you for your kindness, little Jack... Actually, I also have a property in the inner city, but I didn't want to move there because of some things in the early years."
Mrs. Caroline seemed to have figured something out and smiled more often.
Chen Lun nodded.
He was not surprised that Mrs. Caroline also had a house in the inner city.
He asked about Mrs. Caroline's address in the inner city and was a little surprised when he got the answer, because it was not far from his Jack Manor, it could even be said to be very close, probably less than ten minutes away.
"That's fine, it'll be easier for me to look after you..."
He thought to himself.
Chen Lun left his contact information with a pen and paper on the table beside the bed, and then pretended to take something out of his arms. In fact, he used the Blood Poetry Ring to take out two packets of anti-epidemic candies.
He handed the wrapped piece of candy to Mrs. Caroline.
"This is anti-epidemic medicine, Mrs. Caroline. You and Mr. Tote must take it in time to avoid infection."
The efficacy of the anti-epidemic candy is not strong, but it is effective.
Chen Lun only hoped that it could stabilize the plague lurking in the bodies of the two old men, so that they could wait for Maggie's return.
Only professionals can cure their symptoms.
"Oh, thank you so much, little Jack..."
Mrs. Caroline seemed very touched. After taking the medicine package, she hugged Chen Lun again.
Although Chen Lun cured Mr. Tote's external injuries, it was not easy to explain, so he simply comforted Mrs. Caroline.
He then said goodbye and left.
…
…
…
After leaving the ward.
Passing the third floor again, Chen Lun heard a shrill cry.
He thought about it, pushed open the door, and came to the corridor on the third floor.
The corridor was crowded with people. A shabby , unkempt man knelt on the ground, begging a crow doctor.
"Doctor! Please save Elsa!! She's only seven years old...!"
"Sir, your daughter has passed away. We have tried our best and we are very sorry for this..."
A buzzing sound came from the crow mask.
"Please face the reality that we cannot save a dying person."
"But! You said it! There is unclean blood flowing in Erza's body. We just need to cut open the blood vessels and release the filthy blood, and she will recover...!"
The man was crying, his eyes bloodshot.
"So...you're cheating?! Cheating a poor girl and her unfortunate father!"
The man seemed unable to accept that his daughter died of the plague. He rushed forward hysterically and pulled at Doctor Crow's mask.
"I will also let you experience the pain of the plague firsthand! Let you taste the taste of despair!"
"Damn lunatic!"
Doctor Crow pushed the man away, raised the ebony cane in his hand, and hit the man's forehead hard, causing him to bleed.
The man screamed and fell to the ground.
The other doctors and nurses who were watching exclaimed in shock, while the other patients watched the scene numbly.
"The Lord of Plague... The Lord of Plague will come to the world and punish you liars...!"
The man lay on the ground, speaking in a daze.
Chen Lun frowned and looked at the man on the ground.
'The Lord of Plague?'
He was the only one present who heard the man's whisper.
'I've never heard of this god... Is he a fiction? Or does this little-known evil god really exist?'
Wait until the chaos subsides and the crowd disperses.
The man staggered to his feet, completely ignoring the wound on his forehead, left the third floor with blood all over his face, and walked straight to the hospital rooftop.
"Poor Elsa! My Elsa!"
He knelt down beside the rooftop railing and burst into tears.
"I should have believed in the 'Great Lord of Plague' earlier, listened to His gospel, and prayed for you... Then you would not have left me!"
The man stood up, climbed over the guardrail, and looked down at the people walking below.
"Lord of the Plague, Lord of the Plague!
Hidden disaster and invisible chaos!
The collection of all disasters and diseases, the source of all suffering!
Your humble believer prays to you with his life, please punish us with divine punishment and kill all the liars here!"
He shouted madly and was about to jump down to complete the self-sacrifice ritual.
At this time.
A figure suddenly rushed past from behind, grabbed him by the back of the collar and dragged him back.
With a bang, the man fell backwards to the ground.
He was seeing stars and felt dizzy. Before he could see who was coming, he felt a faint light flash in his sight.
"Where did you learn the name of the Lord of Plague? And who is spreading his faith...?"
A deep voice came.
The man didn't want to answer, but he couldn't help but say:
"A month ago, a guy selling insurance came to my house and told me quietly..."
He was hypnotized, in a trance, repeating the past.
"I didn't believe it at first, but when Elsa got the plague, I panicked and started praying to Him..."
The man gave some more details, but little useful information.
He didn't even know the insurance salesman's name.
Chen Lun frowned.
Just now, he heard the man praying and reciting the complete name, which triggered the prompt.
[You know the honorific name of "Lord of Plague", gain 5000 experience points! Insight attribute +1! ]
This means that the "Lord of Plague" does exist!
And His status is definitely not low!
"This is a very complicated matter..."
Based on the man's clues, Chen Lun secretly used his walking stick to do divination, hoping to get the whereabouts of the "insurance salesman"... But the result was quite strange, and there was no such person.
This person was either dead, or there was a higher power interfering. But with Chen Lun's current divination power, the only one who could obscure the result was a power of a higher sequence.
The recent outbreak and spread of the plague, as well as the "Lord of the Plague" that has been learned about recently, make it difficult for Chen Lun not to connect the two together.
It seems that there is a deeper secret behind this incident.
Just now on the third floor, he used the [Life-Seeing Eye] to take a look around and discovered a shocking fact - everyone, including the man in front of him, had the negative status of "latent plague".
It’s just that the man in front of me is a little different.
His status is "latent source of plague", and it seems that the abnormalities of other people are all caused by him.
This situation made Chen Lun have a guess:
'Perhaps the recent outbreak of plague is related to that person's belief... As long as someone believes in him and fulfills certain conditions or rituals, they will unknowingly become a source of plague...
When the time is right, those who are infected by the plague will explode and die in a very short time...! '
He thought about it and felt a little chilly.
Not only in the mind , but also in the body.
At the same time, Chen Lun suddenly felt that his throat was a little itchy.
[Spiritual Intuition] lights up the sign, and Chen Lun immediately understands in his mind that this is the man on the ground, who is emitting an invisible plague infection to him.
However, my poison resistance was too high and I was not hit.
The man suddenly knelt on the ground and began to retch.
Black spots slowly began to appear on his body surface. Soon, within a few breaths, the black spots spread all over his body. He fell to the ground, struggled and twitched a few times, and then there was no sound.
"Dead..."
Chen Lun looked at him silently.
'Whether he jumps or not, the outcome is already determined.'
At this moment, the sky has completely darkened and night has fallen.
He ignored the corpse on the ground and turned away.
"I just interrupted his sacrifice, so that the symptoms of other plague lurkers in this hospital did not detonate, leaving some time... But the mess here will be left to the shelter to deal with."
After Chen Lun made up his mind to leave, he wrote a letter to Mengna.
Tell me in detail what happened here, and even reveal a little about the existence of the "Lord of Plague".
"We also have to consider the Moon Church. After all, it is the only supernatural organization in Amber City... Let them have a headache."
…
…
…
Mrs. Caroline moved to the inner city.
She placed Mr. Tote in her own home for easy care, but the old man seemed to be still in a coma and showed no signs of waking up.
That day, Chen Lun took a carriage and went to visit Maggie, who had just returned to the manor. He planned to let her get close to this latent plague and cure the illness of the two elderly people.
"Captain, I discovered that the nature of this plague is very special!"
In the carriage, Maggie excitedly talked about her new discoveries during her travels.
She was holding bottles and jars in her hands, and she wanted to open them all and put Chen Lun's head in them one by one to take a good look.
But she didn't dare.
He could only show Chen Lun the various strange things inside like a child. There were jelly-like gels, things that looked like rotten meat, and various sticky liquids. In short, they were all very disgusting.
"They are actually a very common tiny creature. Well, do you understand what I mean? They are very small, but invisible to the naked eye..."
Maggie explained thoughtfully.
Chen Lun nodded and rolled his eyes secretly.
"Microbes and tiny harmful germs, of course."
"Yes! That's the name! I didn't expect that you, Captain, would pay attention to the latest scientific research reports. The professor at the Trisur Royal Academy is named like that!"
Maggie looked surprised.
She continued:
“Recent outbreaks of plague, the Black Death, yellow fever and red dancing, all have their roots in a variety of common bacteria and viruses.
Originally, these pathogenic factors could only cause mild flu or simple fever, but they have formed an incredible combination and transformed in some strange way, gaining unprecedented strength...!"
Maggie vowed:
"This is definitely not a natural phenomenon. I am sure that there is an invisible hand behind the plague, driving the birth of these diseases... They cannot appear out of thin air!"
Chen Lun was somewhat touched after hearing her words.
Combined with his own speculation about the "Lord of Plague", he felt that he was getting closer and closer to the truth.