Goddess Kaleidoscope

A glimmer of hope emerged from the darkness, and the Viscount was overjoyed, eager to rush to the quarantine zone and ask Ludwig to heal his people. However, just in case, the Viscount needed to send someone to verify the authenticity of the news. He had seen too many religious charlatans who spouted lies, and he was afraid of being disappointed.

So the loyal old steward once again volunteered to go to the quarantine zone in place of the lord and see for himself whether the healing results of the Medicine God Cult were real or not. But no sooner had the steward left than a servant from the lord's manor hurriedly slipped out the back door and ran to the temple of the Four Seasons Goddess Cult to report the news.

"You mean, the Medicine God Cult has found a cure for the plague?"

"That seems to be the case, but the lord isn't sure, so he specifically sent his steward to East Street to check on the situation."

When did this happen?

"Just now, as soon as I overheard the news, I immediately came to report to Your Excellency the Bishop."

"Yes! You did very well, my child."

Inside the temple's secret chamber, Bishop Evanrus patted the informant on the shoulder with satisfaction, then winked at his disciple Iria, who immediately pulled a small pouch from her bosom and handed it to him.

The informant's eyes lit up when he saw the bag the nun produced. He eagerly took it and squeezed it a couple of times. Besides several hard, round metal pieces, there was also a small cylindrical bottle. The informant knew exactly what was inside, and his eyes revealed a strong desire.

"Thank you, Your Excellency!"

"Go ahead and enjoy yourself, but don't let anyone find out."

After dismissing the informant, Evanrus stroked his layered chin and fell into deep thought. He had thought the Medicine God Cult was just a bunch of ridiculous hypocrites, but he never expected that they actually had a way to control the epidemic, especially in the most severely affected quarantine zone.

Evanlus's first thought was how to steal the results.

If it's a potion, then steal the potion's formula; if it's divine magic, then find a way to imitate it.

While divine arts may vary in strength depending on the deity worshipped by different sects, they are essentially of the same origin. The Four Seasons Goddess is the deity with the most divine positions. Before the emergence of the Medicine God Cult, they were the sect most skilled in healing divine arts in the world. This is because the Four Seasons Goddess defeated the twin goddesses "Nature" and "Life" that the Elven race once worshipped in the divine war, and therefore these two divine positions now belong to the Four Seasons Goddess.

Evanlus believed that as long as Ludwig "demonstrated" the effect, he was absolutely confident he could replicate a similar divine spell. With the formidable power of their Four Seasons Goddess Cult and a significant effort in propaganda, he would undoubtedly be the savior of Oyster Harbor!

So, under Evanrus's orders, the Cult of the Four Seasons secretly began to make trouble. Meanwhile, in the quarantine zone, the old steward, with the help of dwarf volunteers outside the walls, put on a full set of protective clothing that was said to effectively reduce the risk of infection, and then declined the accompaniment of others, entering the "dangerous" quarantine zone alone.

Just a week ago, this place was a desolate wasteland that the city's residents feared, with all sorts of strange rumors circulating, depicting it as "the lord's slaughterhouse" and "a hell of corpses and rotting flesh." The old steward knew that the actual situation wasn't as exaggerated as the rumors made it out to be, but it wasn't much better.

However, just one week later, the place had undergone tremendous changes, even more so than the old housekeeper remembered East Street before the outbreak of the epidemic. It was so clean and tidy that it hardly looked like a slum.

As soon as he entered the gate of the quarantine area, the old housekeeper was taken aback by the main road in front of him. The originally bumpy and muddy road had been smoothed out and covered with a layer of gray-black coal ash.

The old housekeeper looked around and saw no conspicuous excrement, no pungent smell of urine, and not even a speck of garbage on the road. This level of cleanliness was uncommon even in wealthy areas, let alone in a slum where demons and monsters roamed.

The shocked old steward couldn't understand how all this had happened. In his shock, he accidentally dropped a coarse handkerchief on the ground. Immediately, he saw a strong man in an orange vest and red armband rush out from under the thatched shed in front of him and pounce on him at the speed of a hundred-meter sprint.

Seeing that the newcomer's gait was brisk and unlike that of a sickly infected person, the old butler subconsciously thought he had encountered an assassin, and his muscles immediately tensed up, instantly assuming a defensive stance.

But the other party rushed over aggressively without pulling out a weapon. Instead, he wielded a large broom and, with lightning speed, swept the old butler's handkerchief, which had fallen to the ground, into a wicker basket in his other hand. The whole action was as clean and efficient as flowing water.

"You, you..."

"Hey buddy, don't mess with me! I just got my model worker award yesterday, and the trash can is right next to you. Couldn't you have taken a few more steps?"

"Huh? This?"

Following the direction the man in the vest pointed, the old butler noticed an open wooden box less than three meters away by the roadside, with the words "Trash Can" written in charcoal on it. The man in the red vest then emptied the coarse cloth handkerchief he had just swept into the wicker basket into the box, then "warned" the old butler a few words before turning around and squatting back down under the shack.

The old steward, who stood there dumbfounded, was filled with mixed feelings. As the lord's chief servant, and a renowned martial arts master in his youth, he was a figure of importance in Oyster Harbor. Wealthy merchants and knights treated him with utmost respect, and even the most notorious city thugs had to bow down and call him "Grandpa." Yet, he was being scolded by a street sweeper in the quarantine zone.

The old butler then realized that it was probably because he was wearing a mask and hadn't revealed his true face. He wasn't the kind of person to hold grudges, but being scolded for no reason still made him angrier and angrier!

Taking a deep breath, the old steward silently told himself that business was more important, and quickly walked into the quarantine zone. The further he went, the more shocked he became. The changes that the Medicine God Cult had made to this place were far more than just building roads.

In addition to road repairs, a large portion of the previously chaotic shantytown on East Street has been demolished. The wooden and thatched houses that resembled pigsties and dog kennels are all gone. Some of the dismantled building materials are still piled up in their original locations, while others are being processed, seemingly in preparation for recycling and reuse.

But what surprised the old steward the most was that the workers who were working were not the so-called dwarf volunteers brought in from the north by the Medicine God Cult, but rather the infected people who were originally sick and waiting to die.

The old steward remembered that he had come to the quarantine area a week ago and looked into the wall from the watchtower. Most of the infected people who were sent in were weak and wandering like zombies. Some wandered aimlessly in the streets, while others simply collapsed in the corners, slowly rotting like piles of garbage.

But just a week later, these sickly people got back to their feet. Although they were still very thin, and even though they wore masks to cover the lower half of their faces, you could still see from other places that the traces of the disease on them had not been completely eliminated, but their complexion had improved significantly and they were able to work like normal people.

To confirm the situation, the old butler took the initiative to go up to them.

Because of previous precedents, the old butler introduced himself first this time.

Upon hearing that the other party was the lord's steward, the people who were working bowed respectfully to him, even though their gazes towards him were rather complicated. Clearly, the ruler's accumulated authority was still intact.

"Young men, are you all infected?"

"...Yes, sir, we were all infected before."

"So, are you cured now?"

"Uh... I guess so?"

Upon hearing the old housekeeper's question, the young man scratched his head and pointed to a yellow cloth strip on his chest, telling the old housekeeper that he and the other workers present were still in the "observation period" and had not yet fully recovered.

The priestess who treated him said that although the basic symptoms of these people had disappeared, there was still a possibility of relapse. Therefore, they had to be observed for another week before they could be transferred to the "green zone" for recovered patients.

Although the old butler didn't fully understand, he grasped the general meaning and quickly asked how it was cured. The young man hesitated for a moment and said that he didn't understand how it was cured either.

The young man told the old housekeeper that he and his fellow workers hadn't been in the quarantine area for very long, only a day earlier than Master Lu De of the Medicine God Cult. The next day at noon, the place was completely taken over by the Medicine God Cult.

The young man is only in his early twenties and used to work as a dockworker; he is quite robust. According to the standards set by the Medicine God Cult, he is considered a mild case.

In his memory, the priests of the Medicine God Cult never used any magic on them, who were patients with mild symptoms. They did have a lot of medicine, but what impressed him most was the medical staff's almost brainwashing "drink more hot water"!

Since the arrival of the Medicine God Cult in the isolation ward, while bringing hope to the patients, they have also established many strange "rules," the most strictly enforced of which is the prohibition of drinking unboiled water. There are designated drinking stations within the isolation ward providing boiled hot water; drinking unboiled water will result in punishment.

Many patients couldn't understand at first. They understood not being allowed to drink dirty water, but why couldn't they drink well water that looked clean?

The Medicine God Cult explains that a tiny evil spirit called "germ" exists in raw water. Ordinary people cannot see it with the naked eye or taste it, but once it enters the body, it can make healthy people sick. This evil spirit is the culprit behind plagues. Only by boiling the water with a blazing fire can these terrible evil spirits be effectively purified.

This set of mystical explanations successfully frightened all the infected people in the quarantine area. Some even had terrible nightmares because of it, dreaming that a terrifying demon burst out of their stomachs and howled with its mouth open and eyes closed in the middle of the night, scaring all the other patients in the room from sleeping well.

Since then, everyone has started to drink more hot water, which has now become a unique greeting in the quarantine area!

End of this chapter

After listening to the young man's story, the old butler still had many doubts. He thought he should meet Master Lu De, who seemed very special, and ask him the questions in person.

So he asked about Lud's location, and the young man told him to keep walking along the main road with signs, and ahead there was a checkpoint guarded by dwarves. Further ahead was the "red zone" where critically ill patients were located, and Master Lud usually treated those with more serious conditions there.

And so, the old butler bid farewell to the young man and the others, and continued deeper into the quarantine zone. Indeed, he saw many slogans and pictures on the walls of the buildings on both sides of the main road.

The old housekeeper was literate, so as he walked around, he noticed that most of the slogans were simple short phrases, such as "Practice hygiene and wash your hands frequently" and "Drink more hot water to avoid getting sick." The sentences were short and accompanied by pictures, so even if someone couldn't read, they could easily remember them if someone read them to them.

As the old steward walked, he soon saw the checkpoint that the young man had mentioned, where dwarven guards stood watch. A row of white tents blocked the street, leaving only a small doorway through which one could pass.

However, just as the old butler was about to step forward and introduce himself, a shout from the side caught his attention.

The old housekeeper who had been to East Street before remembered that there used to be a very dense shantytown in this area. On a piece of open land that was no more than 50 meters wide, hundreds of shacks were illegally built and piled up, some five or six stories high, with the top at least ten meters off the ground. Locals jokingly called it the "Tower of Babel" and some called it the "Crow's Nest". It was a landmark building of East Street.

However, the garbage-dump-like buildings of my memory are gone, replaced by a newly built playground where hundreds of mild patients wearing orange barcodes are lining up and “dancing” with a few people in protective suits.

The old butler paused and observed for a moment, realizing that he had only been there for less than twenty minutes and was already somewhat unfazed by the sights.

Holding the token given to him by the lord, the old steward approached the dwarven guards and requested an audience with Lud, the priest of the Cult of Medicine God.

The dwarves politely verified his identity and then told him that the red zone where the serious illness was located required disinfection before entering or leaving. Once inside the tent, he was to stand in the designated spot as instructed by the staff, and they would spray him with disinfectant.

Perhaps fearing that the old steward wouldn't understand, the guard patiently emphasized to him again and again that the disinfection was for his own good, to prevent him from contracting the plague.

So the old steward followed the passage into the tent and came to a completely enclosed room, where four fully armed dwarves and one human stood. The old steward recognized their equipment as dwarven "mining suits," a type of equipment specifically designed for digging deep mines, characterized by full-coverage, sealed helmets, like having a chamber pot on your head.

This device comes with a matching filter and air tank. When dwarf miners encounter toxic gases or feel suffocated underground, the filter and air tank can ensure their safety.

However, the equipment worn by these dwarves was clearly more advanced than ordinary mine clothing. Not only did they have chamber pots on their heads, but their entire bodies were also completely covered up.

At this moment, the human stepped forward. Surprisingly, it was a girl who spoke. She sounded to be only about ten years old. She told the old butler to stand up straight and not move, and that she would clean his face first before she could disinfect his whole body.

The young girl tiptoed and first removed the old butler's mask, then wiped his face with a soft cloth sprayed with blue liquid. After wiping for a few moments, the old butler concluded that this was a novice who had never learned to serve people; her technique was far inferior to that of the maids in the lord's mansion, and she almost poked her finger into his nostril several times.

However, the young girl was clearly not wiping his face to serve him, because while she was wiping, she was explaining the precautions for the "red zone" to the old butler, especially emphasizing that he should not touch things randomly, and even more so, he should not rub his eyes or mouth with his hands after touching them, because it would be easy to get infected with the plague, and some people in the red zone had already been infected.

After wiping him, the girl put a new mask on the old butler and used large tongs to fish out a pair of dwarf goggles from a large pot that was constantly boiling. She let them cool slightly before putting them on his face.

Then two dwarves carrying spray cans stepped forward and sprayed the old butler with blue spray all over his body.

Only then did the old steward realize what "disinfection" meant; he had never experienced such treatment in his life. This reminded him of the holy water exorcism commonly seen in religions, where holy water is sprinkled on people, but usually it's done by hand or by flicking it with freshly picked branches. But here at the Medicine God Cult, they were using a hand-cranked sprayer, emphasizing its powerful spray!

The two dwarfs sprayed for a full half minute, not even sparing the old butler's shoes, armpits, and crotch area, before they could be considered completely disinfected.

The old steward, who was in charge of the whole process, secretly rejoiced that he was the one who came to inspect in place of the lord. If it had been one of those bad-tempered knights, they might have fought with him because they felt humiliated.

"May I see Master Luther now?"

"Of course, I'll show you the way!"

Led by the girl, the old housekeeper finally entered the "red zone" where critically ill patients were treated. As soon as he arrived, he felt that the atmosphere here was completely different from the outside. Between the rows of tents, staff members in protective suits were going in and out everywhere. Everyone looked very busy, and the atmosphere was very solemn.

The girl noticed that it was the old butler's first time coming in, so she explained the situation in the red zone to him as they walked, as well as some precautions that needed to be taken seriously.

The old steward learned from the other party that the treatment methods here still mainly rely on conventional means, while powerful divine magic is used as a last resort and is only used when a critically ill patient's life is in danger.

The old steward was somewhat surprised upon hearing this, because before coming, he, like the viscount, thought that the magic of the Medicine God Sect must be powerful, possessing unique divine enhancements in healing, which was why they were able to save so many people. However, he did not expect that the other party was mainly using conventional methods.

Thinking of this, the old butler became even more excited.

It's important to understand that conventional methods are widely available, unlike divine arts. While these methods are indeed effective, they are only mastered by a very small number of priests, and their use is strictly limited in number. As a result, the priests could arbitrarily raise prices, tripling the cost of treatment, and there was nothing you could do about it.

"Have you...have you found a cure?"

"Um... there's no specific cure yet, but we've identified several medications that can suppress the symptoms. The main thing is nursing care. I'm a nursing student, so you should ask Professor Lu De for advice later!"

Seeing the little girl scratch her head somewhat awkwardly, the old butler thought to himself that he really couldn't expect to get anything out of such a young child, so he stopped asking and followed her to the Mud Tavern on East Street. This place was originally the main entertainment venue on East Street, and the surrounding buildings were either "raw meat shops" run by low-class prostitutes or illegal gambling dens controlled by the underworld.

Customers who frequent such dilapidated places are naturally not high-class individuals.

But now the place has changed, because Lud has set up his "command center" in the tavern, and the instructions issued from here manage the entire quarantine zone.

The old butler finally met Ludger himself on the second floor of the tavern.

Eager to know how to cure the plague, the old steward skipped the formalities and got straight to the point, stating that the Viscount would certainly provide the Church of the Medicine God and Rudd himself with a satisfactory gift.

Seeing the steward so agitated, seemingly ready to kneel and beg for mercy, Lude quickly told him to calm down. He had traveled a great distance to Oyster Harbor to stop the plague, not for money. If he wanted to make money, he could have stayed in Pine Town and focused on making medicine. Therefore, he was willing to share his methods for treating the plague with any compassionate person who wanted to relieve suffering, but he asked the steward to let him finish.

“Butler, I have been in your land for eight days now. To be honest, I was quite disappointed at first. The largest and most prosperous port city in the northern part of the kingdom has such a backward level of public health. The residents, from nobles to commoners, have not a single concept of epidemic prevention. All of this could have been avoided, and even if it had happened, it would not have been so tragic.”

As Lude spoke, he listed some basic hygiene knowledge that might be considered the most basic by Earthlings, and explained the purpose and significance of doing so. Then he picked up a piece of paper and pointed to several sets of data curves on it.

"These are the data statistics I just compiled. The set on the left was compiled by Dr. Nan Ding and others before I arrived, and the set on the right is the data after I took over the isolation area and implemented complete control here. The red, yellow, and blue curves represent the mortality rate, cure rate, and the rate of mild cases turning into severe cases, respectively. The changes in the data on paper are quite clear at a glance."

The old butler handed the report to the steward, who frowned as he stared at the two completely different sets of curves. According to what Lude had just said, the plague was not actually that strong; it was their city's disease resistance that was too weak, which was why they had been so badly beaten by the plague.

The real culprits who killed many civilians were the "carnivores" who took the wrong measures!