Chapter 412: Chapter 231: The Black Plague

Baptism had arranged a simple itinerary for the group, first sending the Third Prince and Earth Wolf Twelve to the Holy City Cathedral, which is said to be the safest place on the entire planet. Afterward, she invited Duan Mingyuan and Jiuyue to stay temporarily in her large house located on the west side of Cathedral Square.

Every Judge enjoyed the welfare policies provided by the Ashen Church. Baptism was assigned a three-story villa, equipped with maids and a butler to take care of her daily life and clean up during her absences from the Holy City.

On the way back, Baptism mentioned Yelena’s case.

After completing the mental link ritual, Yelena fell into a prolonged coma, her body’s Scorching Sun Energy became extremely disordered, a phenomenon that had never occurred before.

Duan Mingyuan also learned about the fate of Jean Saintfield.

This ambitious man ultimately failed to realize his wishes. After being confirmed dead this afternoon, the Tribunal staff wrapped his charred corpse in cloth and threw it into the cremation furnace.

Out of respect for the Saintfield family and the Shan Clan People, the Ashen Church did not pursue his guilt.

Otherwise, his corpse would have been, like those of real criminals, nailed to a rack for public display, and even in death, his soul would not have found peace.

Duan Mingyuan prepared to diagnose Yelena.

But the scene in front of Baptism’s mansion had alerted them.

The gate had been smashed, and the decorative stone statue at the bottom of the stairs was broken into two pieces, as if it had endured a violent impact.

The interior of the villa was eerily quiet.

The lights were on, so as soon as they entered, they saw a long trail of blood leading towards the storage room in the villa’s basement.

Baptism’s face turned pale as she approached the closed door of the basement and knocked. Immediate panicked screams came from inside.

Once the maids inside knew it was Baptism standing outside, they frantically opened the door, allowing Duan Mingyuan to see the ghastly scene inside.

Compared to Ms. Yelena, Baptism’s butler seemed in greater need of treatment.

The woman, appearing to be in her early forties, lay gasping on a temporary bed laid by the maids, clutching her throat in agony, her face pale, clearly suffering from severe blood loss.

Although the wound had been urgently bandaged, it seemed unable to reduce the butler’s pain.

It was Yelena, the Judge, who had attacked them.

After Baptism left, the butler, carrying a carefully prepared nutritious meal, went to check on Yelena in her bedroom. However, Yelena lying on the bed suddenly erupted, tossing the meal tray aside, toppling the butler to the ground, and viciously biting into the butler’s neck, tearing off a piece of flesh.

This scene terrified the maids; one of them, carrying a lantern, accidentally discovered that Yelena was very afraid of the light. Taking advantage of this, she rescued the butler, and then they all hid in the basement, fearing Yelena might attack them again.

The symptoms sounded exactly like those of Baptism.

Only when Baptism had pounced on him, she hadn’t bitten, Duan Mingyuan surmised this might be because a child’s teeth are not fully formed, being still in the growth phase.

"The Judge Yelena you mentioned, does she usually like to pick up things from the ground and eat them?"

Duan Mingyuan’s question made the maids glance at each other.

Although they didn’t usually live with Yelena, as a Judge, they felt she wouldn’t engage in such image-damaging behaviors.

Just as Duan Mingyuan was preparing to further investigate the cause of the illness, the sudden explosiveness of the butler gave him a new idea.

Before the butler lunged at one of the maids closest to her, Duan Mingyuan quickly blocked between the two, and the butler viciously gnawed at Duan Mingyuan’s shoulder.

The situation was identical to that with Baptism.

After being pushed away, the butler collapsed on the floor, violently retching.

A few black worms were vomited onto the ground, where they struggled briefly before they stopped moving.

"This is a contagious disease."

Duan Mingyuan realized he might have wrongly blamed the Baptism, the little girl might not have been picking up things to eat from the ground; she could have been infected by Yelena without even realizing it.

Watching the bewildered butler, Duan Mingyuan was now sure that this parasite virus was just like the zombie virus in the movies, once bitten by Yelena, the virus would spread to their bodies.

"My God, this is a zombie virus!"

As a fan of zombie-themed stories, Jiuyue caught on quickly, and her heart immediately became tense.

Zombie-themed plots are always closely related to the apocalypse, once the virus appears, the existing system would collapse in a very short period of time...

But then, she suddenly wasn’t nervous anymore.

The main reason the movies made her feel tense was because the people in the zombie virus world were ordinary people who couldn’t fight the zombies head-on, but for those outside the movie world, even if a few waves of zombie hordes appeared outside the house right now, there seemed to be nothing to be nervous about.

Duan Mingyuan quickly treated the butler’s wound and performed a thorough examination on her under the anxious gazes of the maids.

"This should be caused by a parasite, as long as the parasite is expelled from the body, the condition will recover."

He quickly concluded that compared to the incurable zombie virus, this parasitic disease was much easier to handle.

But the real threat lay in Yelena, the "pathogen."

The maids said she had left nearly an hour ago, and God knows how many people she had infected in that time.

The most dangerous aspect of this virus was its trait of spreading exponentially, one hour was already enough to cause a large-scale outbreak of the virus.

Realizing the seriousness of the situation, Baptism immediately reported the news to the church.

This must be a plot by the Dark Night Witch.

For the believers of the Ashen Church, this was destined to be a sleepless night.

The builders of this place apparently hadn’t considered the threat of contagious diseases, the perimeter defenses they had set up couldn’t help them deal with the outbreak of the parasite virus inside the Holy City.

For Jiuyue as well, it was also a difficult night.

"Why isn’t there an air conditioner here?"

She was already overheating to the point of needing to stick out her tongue to cool down—a crisis far more severe than the parasite virus; conservatively estimated, they would stay on this planet for a week, and in an environment of up to fifty degrees, she simply couldn’t sleep.

Duan Mingyuan looked at the pitiable Jiuyue, "A calm mind naturally cools." This proverb was hardly calming for Jiuyue now.

"There’s nowhere on this planet that sells air conditioners!"

Jiuyue brought only sunscreen and a small fan.

But the fan only blew hot air, and couldn’t make her feel any cooler.

Even more despairing was the fact that these people never used electricity; they used the omnipotent Scorching Sun Power in place of all other energy sources, and currently, there were no air conditioners on the market that could be powered by Scorching Sun Power.

"Help me, Mr. Mingyuan!"

Jiuyue could only seek help from the omnipotent Duan Mingyuan.

If this continued, Mr. Mingyuan would end up dealing with a heatstroke-afflicted fox.

"Alright."

That night, Duan Mingyuan had to put other matters aside and urgently contacted Ling Long and all the craftsmen he knew.

Now he, needed a blueprint for an air conditioner.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read