Chapter 182

"You're always like this, walking ahead on your own, shouldering all the burdens, thinking that as long as you're determined enough, you can pave the way for everyone. But have you ever thought that we, the stubborn old man, and everyone who trusts you, need time to catch up with you? We need you to turn around and see if we're still alright?"

Her voice trembled slightly.

"Did you see? How much pain and confusion we felt as you were swallowed by darkness, as you drifted further and further away from us? We didn't leave because of defeat, Talulah, we left because we could no longer find you!"

"The you who crashed into the Lungmen wasn't the real you, Talulah."

These words struck like a heavy hammer against the walls of one's heart.

The body bound by chains jolted violently.

The Black Snake silently watched the white rabbit before it, subtly sensing Talulah's emotions.

"Those fallen comrades," FrostNova raised her voice, tears welling in her eyes, finally breaking free of her long-held icy facade as she spoke to Talulah.

After being saved by Xiao Huasheng, she became an ordinary girl, finally finding warmth and the courage to breathe again.

"Was their blood shed in vain? Did they sacrifice their lives to see a leader who would go completely mad and head towards destruction, or to see a hope that could lead us to a true way out?!"

"Live on, Talulah! Live on with their hopes! Atonement is not about dying, but about using the rest of your life to make amends, to correct mistakes, and to find the true path we once pursued together."

"Wake up! For those who didn't give up on you, and to live up to those companions who can no longer speak, do as I did, do all of this!"

FrostNova practically shouted the last sentence.

"Live on... Hahahaha... What cruel words those are!"

A weak yet incredibly clear voice struggled to escape Talulah's own throat.

Hot tears streamed down her face and fell to the ground.

The Quack Doctor then probed into Talulah's head and, as if by magic, easily grabbed something.

Realizing he had been caught by the Quack Doctor, Black Snake finally uttered a harsh threat.

"You should know, Talulah... I am everywhere on this land. Be glad you met her."

The Quack Doctor acted without the slightest hesitation.

His arm suddenly pulled backward.

The next moment, something unexpected happened.

"Aaaaaaah!!!"

This scream was more piercing and more painful than any before!

That was the excruciating pain that came from having one's soul brutally torn apart!

Talulah's body arched violently as if she had been electrocuted, and her eyes rolled back.

To everyone's horror, the Quack Doctor's hand, radiating white light, forcefully ripped a thick mass of black energy, which was violently struggling and Distortion, from Talulah's chest!

At the core of this black mist, the essence of a serpentine soul, writhing wildly, can be vaguely seen.

Countless black threads, resembling blood vessels and nerves, connect it to Talulah's body.

These threads, deeply rooted in Talulah's soul, are now being torn apart and stripped away one by one by the Quack Doctor with brute force!

With each thread snapped, Talulah's screams grew louder, and her body convulsed violently.

She is currently undergoing excruciating torture, akin to being cut into a thousand pieces.

The Black Snake's soul was also roaring silently, desperately resisting this complete separation.

The Quack Doctor ignored this and, with steady and resolute movements, forcibly tore out the lesion that was deeply entangled with the host's soul, bit by bit, inch by inch!

After it was finally completely pulled apart, and the Quack Doctor shattered it.

Talulah trembled violently on the chains, some kind of liquid seeping slightly from her white pantyhose before trickling down her thighs and onto the floor.

A slightly yellow liquid appeared on the floor.

Talulah slightly open, her pupils dilated, and her eyes rolled back; this resolute girl was instantly turned into a joke.

FrostNova was stunned when she saw this, and looked at the Quack Doctor.

The Quack Doctor stared at her.

"Did you... use anesthesia?" FrostNova asked, pointing at Talulah.

"I forgot," the Quack Doctor said.

Angela and Xiao Huasheng were still eating popcorn when Angela complained.

"That's hardly respectable."

Chen looked at the Quack Doctor, her eyes twitching. She remembered that she had been in pain for a while.

The doctor told her that there was a cavity inside her body, where the Originium used to be.

Could it be that this doctor cured his Originium Disease without anesthesia?

At this moment, the Quack Doctor clapped his hands and said...

"Alright, there's still one infectious disease to treat; we can't delay any longer." Originium Disease also needs treatment.

"Wait!" FrostNova cried out urgently, "Anesthetic!!"

But the Quack Doctor's hand landed on Talulah again, and the next moment Talulah convulsed as if she had been electrocuted.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Plop Plop [1st Update]

The moment the Quack Doctor pressed down again, Talulah's body tensed up and then went limp.

A dull thud, like the sound of ripe fruit falling to the ground, followed.

Plop

The people's expressions were not good.

The body, which had been bound by chains, suddenly lost some kind of internal support and became unusually loose.

The dark liquid quickly spread beneath her, mixing with the previous wet patch to create an even more complex color.

Some unidentifiable lumps slipped from between her Distortion limbs, lying limply on the carpet, emitting a strong smell of rust.

The only sounds in the space were the slight rattling of chains and the sticky dripping of some kind of liquid.

Wei Yenwu could barely hold his pipe; his eyes twitched wildly as he stared at what appeared to be a part from Talulah's body at his feet.

"Although I know that curing Originium Disease isn't that simple, this is the first time I've seen a scene like this. This isn't an execution, is it?"

The Rat King silently covered his daughter's eyes, but it clearly had no effect.

Miss Lin and Chen couldn't hold it in and vomited.

Even if the two of them had seen dead people, they had never seen such an abstract scene.

Even FrostNova, upon witnessing this scene, recalled her own experience just half an hour earlier.

"Hahaha..." The white rabbit's cold expression was clearly not working.

Angela, observing this scene, offered a calm explanation.

"The more severe the infection, the more intense the removal of Originium will be. This applies to everyone. You can think of it as a process of directly removing Originium from a person's body and then restoring them."

"That really is a completely different person."

In fact, many the Infected had already witnessed the Quack Doctor's methods back in the slums.

However, most of their symptoms are not as severe as Talulah's. Generally, if an extra hole appears, it will be healed quickly.

And at that time, they all drank the medicine first, and then received treatment.

As the infection is eliminated, the body tissues also catch up very quickly; at most, there will be an intense itching sensation before the body is fully healed.

However, FrostNova and Talulah were different; both of them were deeply infected.

If you take the medicine first, the Quack Doctor cannot guarantee an instant recovery. Even if the body recovers afterward, the huge empty cavity will cause organ deformities.

That doesn't mean the cure was successful.

As for anesthetics... the Quack Doctor didn't bring any, nor did he bother using them.

As a medieval doctor, in an era when anesthetics had just been invented, his knowledge of them was simply inadequate.

A true doctor should finish surgery quickly.

Indeed, this is true; as an excellent quack doctor, the Quack Doctor is always very fast.

Just as everyone was stunned by the horrific scene before them and their stomachs were churning.

The Quack Doctor calmly took a small glass bottle from his pocket.

A blue potion emitting a soft, faint glow swirled inside the bottle.

He shoved his hand directly into the hole in Talulah's neck and slowly poured the medicine down her esophagus.

The next moment, a miracle happened.

Talulah's body, which had been hollowed out, was now being filled up like a balloon being rapidly inflated.

The dark grime was quickly covered and replaced by newly formed, healthy, pinkish skin tissue.

Those Distortion and sunken parts were smoothed out by an invisible force, and the misaligned bones automatically returned to their original positions.

In just a few breaths, a complete, healthy Talulah, who had never been harmed, reappeared bound by chains.

Her chest began to rise and fall rhythmically, and her skin regained its color.

This was a miracle of bringing the dead back to life and restoring flesh to bones, leaving all who witnessed it for the first time in a state of utter shock and disbelief.

Their mouths were open, but no sound came out; only the unbelievable scene of rebirth kept replaying in their minds.

How did you do that?

When FrostNova saw this scene again, she could only smile helplessly. Only those who have experienced it know the price that was paid to achieve such a scene.

The Quack Doctor calmly put away the empty bottle, turned the bird-beak mask towards Xiao Huasheng, and made a dull sound:

"Hmm, there are no more patients here, that's good."

Xiao Huasheng then grasped his hand and directly absorbed all the excess energy from the Quack Doctor's body, leaving a considerable amount remaining.

The energy that was used to beat up Talulah was instantly restored to full.

"You did a great job."

At this moment, the Quack Doctor waved to the crowd and joked, "I hope you eat more apples, so you won't run into me."

Clearly, he heard this proverb from someone else.

After wishing everyone present happiness and health, the Quack Doctor was taken back to Lobotomy Corporation by Xiao Huasheng.

There are plenty of people in this world who want to take advantage of Quack Doctor, so we must be wary of that.

Xiao Huasheng also removed Talulah from the chains.

Like FrostNova, having lost her Originium, she is now just an ordinary girl.

She collapsed to the ground, sitting amidst the mess.

She slowly raised her head, her unfocused gaze struggling to focus, finally landing on Xiao Huasheng.

Those golden eyes, once burning with ideals and fanaticism, are now filled only with endless weariness and a deep-seated fear.

In an extremely weak, tearful voice, she murmured the question.

"Why, why won't you let me die...?"

Seeing her miserable and desperate appearance, Xiao Huasheng assumed that she was still clinging to her past sins and the Black Snake's bewitchment, and was trying to commit suicide.

She knelt down and tried to persuade her gently, "Don't say things like that anymore, Talulah. Only by living can you have a future, a chance to make amends and start over. Death solves nothing..."

"No... you... you don't understand..."

Talulah shook her head violently, tears mingling with the blood on her face as they streamed down.

Her body trembled violently from the memory, and she clutched her arms tightly, her nails digging almost into her flesh.

"It hurts... it hurts so much..." Her voice was broken and filled with an unprecedented sense of collapse, "It's like... my body being torn apart... ripped to shreds... my soul being ripped out..."

She looked up at Xiao Huasheng with teary eyes. (These are all statements; the Quack Doctor did indeed do that.)

"The pain was so intense... I even considered giving up on life..."

"I would rather... I would rather have died right then and there..."