Mu Ci could no longer sit still. He hurriedly emerged from nearby with his attendants and shouted, "Wait!"
The sudden appearance of Mu Ci and his group drew the attention of both sides.
"Halt! Who are you?" The captain hurriedly ordered the approaching people to stop.
Half the archers beside him also turned their bows in this direction, their expressions wary.
"Mu Ci of the Everlasting Tree Mu Clan!"
Mu Ci led two attendants to within twenty paces of the captain, took out the Mu Clan's token from his Soul Tool, and loudly announced his identity.
When the cavalry captain heard the Mu Clan's name, his expression changed drastically. He hurriedly dismounted and came before Mu Ci, bowing and scraping with a fawning smile.
In Godwood City, one might not know the city lord or the other Spirit Master clans.
But one could not fail to know the Mu Clan. The Mu Clan had two Spirit Douluo powerhouses: one was the dean of the Advanced Plant Academy, while the other was the bishop of Godwood City's Spirit Hall Main Hall.
In a place like Godwood City, the Mu Clan was the uncrowned king. Though it held no noble title, even the city lord had to give them a wide berth.
"This lowly one is Reed, captain of the hundred-man unit. You must be the young master, sir. This lowly one deserves death for failing to recognize you and nearly frightening you!"
Reed bent at the waist before Mu Ci with a flattering grin, while his hands at his sides gestured to the archers behind him, telling them to lower their weapons at once.
Looking at the white-haired boy of eight or nine before him, Reed's eyes were filled with unease. He had never imagined he would encounter someone like this here.
Mu Ci looked at the captain with a stern expression. "What is going on here? What were you about to do?"
"Young master, according to reports from the patrol soldiers, the villagers here have contracted an acute epidemic. We were sent to deal with it," Reed replied tremblingly, bending even lower.
Though such matters were not unusual among nobles, it still did not look good when spoken aloud.
Given the size of Godwood City, finding a few healing-type support Spirit Masters would not have been difficult. The nobles above simply could not be bothered.
Mu Ci now understood the whole situation, and his expression darkened with anger. He made no judgment on Reed's behavior, but what Reed had intended to do had crossed his bottom line.
He knew that Douluo Continent was like an ancient era, where commoners had virtually no rights and few people cared even if they died.
When an acute epidemic broke out, it was standard practice for the local city lord to seal off the village to prevent the disease from spreading.
After all, hiring Spirit Masters for treatment was such a hassle. Those nobles would never do such a thing.
Moreover, the existence of healing-type Martial Souls on Douluo Continent had caused medical development to remain extremely slow.
At most, folk remedies for colds and fevers circulated among the common people. They lacked any coherent system and could not guarantee results.
By comparison, medicinal and poison systems aimed at Spirit Masters had developed quite well.
Apart from the Soul-Breaking Yang Clan, every major sect and clan had its own medicinal bath formulas.
Mu Ci was furious as he looked at Reed.
Plague Village
Though such things often happened in the ancient times described in the history books of his previous life, it was hardly surprising.
But understanding was one thing. As someone from an age of order, Mu Ci still found it difficult to accept all this.
"Young master, this was not my intention. I was only following orders. It has nothing to do with me!"
Captain Reed wore a bitter expression. He understood the boy's reaction very well; he too had once gone through a period of wanting justice whenever he saw wrongdoing.
But he had long since seen reality for what it was. Whatever his superiors told him to do, he did.
If it had been anyone else before him, they would have already been driven away.
But caught between Mu Ci and the orders from above, Reed had no idea what to do.
"Enough. You will maintain order. I'll take a look at their epidemic."
Mu Ci spoke directly to Captain Reed.
Reed was terrified by those words and hurriedly tried to stop him. "No, young master! Their condition worsens incredibly fast. According to the guards, they became critically ill in only two days."
"If something happens to you after going inside, ten heads wouldn't be enough for me to pay for it!"
Reed desperately tried to stop Mu Ci. If something happened to the Mu Clan's young master, every one of the hundred people in his unit would be finished.
"Enough. I know what I'm doing. Go notify my family and explain the situation here."
"And I'm a Spirit Master with healing soul skills. I can take a look at them. Every second you delay, they're in greater danger."
Mu Ci pushed Captain Reed aside and walked straight in, casually ordering one attendant to return to the Mu Clan and explain the situation.
Reed stood outside, watching Mu Ci enter with a dejected expression. He was just an ordinary man. After struggling for half his life, he had finally become captain of a hundred-man unit, only to run into something like this.
The Mu Clan, his superiors, and the epidemic—none of them were problems that an ordinary person without Soul Power could easily solve.
Mu Ci, who walked ahead, did not have so many concerns. With Abundance Power protecting him, there were very few viruses in this world that could make him sick. Once his Path Power reached the intermediate level, even Poison Douluo would pose little threat to him.
Poison Douluo relied too heavily on poison. For a Pathstrider of Abundance, poison was far less reliable than dealing direct damage. The health lost from status effects was not even as much as what he could recover.
The main reason he had sent an attendant to notify his family was to have a safeguard in place. He wanted Lin Ya to inform the Spirit Hall Main Hall and have them send some support Spirit Masters to help. Judging from the situation, Mu Ci alone would probably have trouble handling it.
He quickly passed through the many soldiers and arrived before the burly villagers kneeling on the ground.
The kneeling man heard footsteps and lifted his slightly purple face. When he saw the boy approaching quickly, he seemed to have grasped a lifeline.
His lips trembled as he rasped to Mu Ci, "Save... save my child."
Hearing the plea, Mu Ci hurried forward and helped him up.
At the same time, blue-gold soul light surged around him like waves as he activated Martial Soul Possession.
The Abundant World Tree rose from the ground behind him, and a deep-yellow Soul Ring appeared beneath his feet, beginning to flash.
"First Soul Skill, Healing Aura."
A five-meter-radius green domain spread out, enveloping more than a dozen men before him whose symptoms were less severe.
Within the aura's domain, green motes of light began appearing from thin air around every patient, gradually merging into their bodies.
As Mu Ci maintained his soul skill, his expression turned somewhat ugly through the senses granted by Abundance Power. When Soul Power healed their bodies, the disease proved extraordinarily stubborn.
He immediately increased his Soul Power output. The branches of the Abundant World Tree behind him swayed, and green motes rained down.
Before long, the bluish-purple color of their skin began to fade, their breathing became steadier, and their coughing gradually softened.
The middle-aged man at the front regained much of his clarity and some strength. Looking at Mu Ci using his soul skill, he hurriedly kowtowed.
"Thank you, Lord Soul Master. Please, Lord Soul Master, save the children as well."
Mu Ci did not answer immediately. His face was slightly pale now. Healing only these dozen or so patients with milder symptoms had consumed over sixty percent of his Soul Power.
The effect of his soul skill when enhanced by Abundance Power could rival that of a Soul Elder-level Nine-Heart Begonia Spirit Master. Even so, treating these people was still extremely taxing.
The main issue was how delicate the process was. He had to penetrate deep into their bodies and remove the source of the illness. Flesh wounds would actually have been easier to treat.
When Mu Ci looked again at the hundred and twenty or thirty people in the distance, his expression grew even darker. Even if there were ten of him, he could not treat them all in such a short time.
Even with support from Spirit Hall, they could at most keep these people's conditions from worsening. To make them recover quickly, they would need a support Spirit Master at the level of Spirit Emperor or above.
However, neither Godwood City nor the several nearby cities had support Spirit Masters of that level. The closest was the Ye Family in Heaven Dou City.
Given the Ye Family's character, they certainly would not refuse such a request. But the two places were separated by more than a thousand kilometers. Even at a Spirit Master's speed, it would take several days to arrive, and these villagers might not even survive two days.
Relying solely on Soul Power for treatment was far too inefficient. Recovering Soul Power alone took a long time, and there was simply no time to save everyone.
Mu Ci considered the matter. He had to think of another way, but first he needed to determine the source of the disease. Otherwise, even if they were cured, it might recur in the future.
Mu Ci sensed the dozen people before him and found that they were almost fully recovered. He quickly stopped the soul skill. In that brief moment, another ten percent of his Soul Power had been consumed.
Mu Ci led everyone to an empty, secluded corner.
He fixed his eyes tightly on them and said sternly:
"I will treat you, but before that, I have some questions about the disease. I hope you won't hide anything. Think more about your families."
The villagers looked at one another, unsure how to answer.
When Mu Ci saw that no one spoke, he thought they were hesitant because of his age and continued:
"If you don't trust me, you can wait for the Spirit Hall deacons. You can speak after they arrive."
At last, a man in his thirties stepped forward with a troubled expression. "I'll speak. I'm the village chief, Du Lan."
"We weren't silent because we don't trust you, benefactor. It's mainly because we don't know how we got sick. We were perfectly fine yesterday, but today we're like this."
Mu Ci nodded at Du Lan, unsurprised. "Then tell me roughly what happened over the past two days."
Hearing this, Du Lan nodded and thought for a moment.
"The village has been the same as usual these past few days. Nothing major happened. The biggest thing was that, two days ago, the village hunters caught a severely wounded Hundred-Year Soul Beast and shared some of its meat with everyone."
Mu Ci frowned when he heard that and immediately interrupted. "Describe the Soul Beast's appearance. Or do you still have its corpse? Bring it out for me to see."
"Oh, yes, yes. We still have its intact head. I'll have someone bring it." Du Lan hurriedly nodded and called for someone to retrieve it.
After waiting a while, a villager came running over, panting as he carried a Soul Beast's head the size of a wild boar's. He placed it on the ground.
His face was a little pale, and he looked weak as he said to Mu Ci, "Benefactor, this is it. Please take a look."
Looking at the ugly Soul Beast head on the ground, Mu Ci already had a rough idea of the source of this acute epidemic.
A Black-Spotted Rat—a low-level Soul Beast covered in gray fur with irregular black spots. It preferred dark, damp places and loved eating carrion.
A ten-year Black-Spotted Rat was about the size of an ordinary house cat, and it would continuously grow larger as it aged.
Combined with the villagers' symptoms, both the source and the disease had become clear.
Plague
Plague.
Mu Ci thought of the virulent infectious disease that had been classified as Category A in his previous life.
He carefully observed the moderate and severe patients in the distance. Their faces were bluish-purple and beginning to turn black. They coughed while clutching their chests, and there was blood in their sputum.
The more Mu Ci looked, the graver his expression became. This was no ordinary plague, but the even more dangerous pneumonic plague.
He had read educational explanations and knew how terrifying pneumonic plague was. Historical records from his previous life even stated: "In the final years of a dynasty, a great epidemic struck the capital. Ten thousand died each day, and entire families perished."
At that thought, Mu Ci knew he could not wait any longer. Pneumonic plague developed far too quickly. If he delayed further, fewer than thirty percent of this village would be saved. His strength alone was simply too limited.
Moreover, they had to use medicine as support. It did not need to cure the disease, but it had to buy as much time as possible.
Before you continue