Failure and a new plan
However, the effect they expected did not occur. The drop of liquid landed on the Heretic and quickly disappeared without a trace, without any reaction, and was simply absorbed into his body.
Lu Yuan was taken aback at first, and Oden was also taken aback.
"Increase the dosage," Oden said immediately, snapping out of his daze.
This time, Lu Yuan didn't bring it drop by drop, but poured almost half a bottle over. The medicine flowed down the Heretic's chest, but it still had no effect.
The Heretic, however, seemed to regain his senses after being doused with water. He raised his head, his cloudy eyes looking at Lu Yuan.
"Hey kid, what are you doing? What are you bunch of bastards who don't believe in the Holy Sovereign doing?"
Lu Yuan completely ignored him, flicked his wrist, and poured the rest of the medicine on him.
Frey watched closely from the side, but the Heretic still showed no reaction whatsoever.
Lu Yuan was somewhat surprised by this, but not disappointed. After all, it was a method that was conceived on the spot. Although it made sense in theory, it had significant problems in the Real World.
Oden stared at the Heretic for a long time, then pondered for a moment.
"It seems I underestimated this plague. The Contamination it caused is more serious than I imagined, and it's also much more deeply hidden. The plan definitely needs to be adjusted."
Lu Yuan mentally agreed, indicating that there was no problem. After all, he had already gained the experience points, and he hadn't bought the medicinal herbs himself. Even if he failed, he wouldn't lose anything, and he could gain even more experience points with another attempt, right?
The guards didn't seem to mind. However, as they led the two out of the detention hall, Frey noticed that Lu Yuan hadn't said much and assumed he was discouraged. She went over to comfort him, saying, "It's okay, don't worry about it. Failure is normal; we've failed many times already."
Lu Yuan was actually talking to Oden in his mind, but when she said that, he was stunned for a moment before coming back to his senses. He nodded to Frey and said, "I'm fine."
He verbally agreed with Frey, but in his mind he was discussing something with Oden as they walked.
"This method won't work; the plague is too well hidden," Oden continued. "Unless you operate directly and remove the bone marrow, you'll definitely find something, but surgery is a bit too much. The person might die instantly, or even if they don't, they might be left with some kind of chronic illness."
"However, my exploration, which was mainly focused on the Gray Gangrene Vine, seems to have failed."
Lu Yuan thought for a moment. The Gray Gangrene Vine itself was taken from the spinal cord of a dying person. To find it, one could not bypass the bone marrow. It was normal that this path was blocked.
Are there any other methods? For example, using Rotspot Grass as the main ingredient.
The thought had barely crossed his mind when Lu Yuan immediately dismissed it. The Rotspot Grass was easily found in decaying places with many dead bodies, leading to far too many misdiagnoses. What if the Heretic noticed it and deliberately spread the Rotspot Grass far and wide, leaving everyone with its scent? Would they then stop testing altogether?
"Yes, indeed," Oden sighed.
Oden pondered for a moment longer before speaking, "Then let's use the Plague-Wailing Mushroom as the core and come up with a new plan. You have a type of Ore here that we can use perfectly: the Deceased's Wailing Crystal."
Hearing such a long name, Lu Yuan couldn't help but ask, "Is this thing very rare?"
"Not rare," Oden said. "This stuff is essentially a Crystal that grows from the mouths of the dead. Your Knight Academy certainly has it. This kind of crystal isn't rare, it's definitely not that hard to find. Plus, there are a lot of dead people here, so collecting this material shouldn't be too difficult."
"As for the Plague-Wailing Mushroom, it inherently carries a certain degree of sanity-impairing effect; those who come into contact with it will experience some degree of sanity-impairing issues."
"This kind of mental shock definitely can't be detected by external testing methods. We have to collect blood and drip it onto the Deceased's Wailing Crystal. If there's a huge fluctuation in the mental state within the blood, a large patch of pinhole-like things will appear on the crystal. Combined with the presence of the Rotspot Grass for auxiliary detection, if we can detect both the mental shock and the presence of the Rotspot Grass, then we can make a comprehensive judgment on whether the person has been Contamination."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yuan suddenly felt that it might actually be feasible.
However, Lu Yuan had another question. If this so-called Wailing Crystal could detect it, why didn't others use it directly? Right? It doesn't seem that difficult; all you need is a crystal and some blood.
Oden patiently explained to Lu Yuan that the impurities and resentment contained in this crystal were too deep and needed to be processed. He had the skills to do so and had processed similar crystals before, so it was no problem for him.
Lu Yuan then understood, and immediately turned to look at Frey beside him.
"Frey, do we have any Deceased's Wailing Crystal here?"
"Yes," Frey nodded on the spot.
Frey knew very well that this material wasn't rare to begin with, and there were indeed too many dead people at the moment, making it relatively easy to collect, since there were quite a lot of these kinds of things around now.
"Then I'll take another set of the previous materials, and another set of the Deceased's Wailing Crystal. That's all I need," Lu Yuan paused, then added, "And one more ingredient: Holy Light Vine."
Lu Yuan had seen the Holy Light Vine before, among the many purchase orders in the Bounty District. Oden had specifically told him about them. They could remove Contamination related to filth and were extremely rare. However, the quantity Lu Yuan needed this time was small, so the Knight Academy should be able to provide them.
"Okay, this is easier to prepare. We should be able to get it first thing tomorrow morning," Frey replied, then tilted her head to look at Lu Yuan. "You have a new idea?"
"Yes, I have. I've thought of a new method," Lu Yuan nodded.
As for how this new method came about, Lu Yuan couldn't say. He couldn't very well tell Frey that he knew about the presence of Plague-Wailing Mushroom in the Plague Potion.
The reason he was able to deduce the truth was entirely because he could see the names of the medicinal herbs, which others couldn't. To put it bluntly, Lu Yuan was essentially cheating, except for Xiao Kai, who doesn't count.
Although Frey couldn't understand why Lu Yuan had come up with a new solution so quickly, she still said it was no problem. Seeing Lu Yuan's energetic appearance, she felt a little gratified.