The origins of Corpse Horse Plague had long been lost to time. No one knew how this plague poison had come into being, much less when, or in what act of cannibalism among its own kind, it had spread.
The Qiang Di of the northern lands were nomads who followed the water and grass. Their culture was incomplete, and they had no detailed historical records, let alone records of a plague that almost never infected humans and was practically harmless.
After all...
The reason mad cow disease had been able to spread on such a massive scale on Earth was because Earth had fully entered the age of industrial production. Added feed such as meat-and-bone slurry and bone meal was all produced in a unified manner. One cow that died of disease could contaminate a vast quantity of feed, leading in turn to large-scale infection.
But in the northern lands of Shenzhou, the Qiang Di only added meat-and-bone slurry to fodder out of a desire not to waste anything—either they were herders with some family wealth who disdained to eat livestock that had died of illness or old age, or large numbers of warhorses had died during war.
What could be certain was that this plague had accompanied the Qiang Di people for over ten thousand years.
Even if it truly could kill people, as Song Shufu had said, such cases would only be isolated occurrences—perhaps one every few years.
Under such circumstances, there might truly have been no need to study this seemingly unremarkable plague.
Plague God Forest had many other research subjects as well.
"Based on the... observational experience I gained before beginning my research, after Corpse Horse Plague infects a human, its greatest characteristic is that it is relatively resistant to life-sustaining spells." Song Shufu spoke with