CHAPTER 167: CHAPTER 150: AS EVIL GOD’S FOLLOWERS_3

She promised the people that she would try everything to cure this plague.

But...

She failed again.

There was nothing in the viscous bloodwater, and Mary couldn’t figure out how the plague spread.

She tried isolation and even cruelly performed inhumane experiments on the refugees, isolating them in two rooms and completely cutting off their water and food supplies, yet they still got infected.

"Because you misunderstood the direction from the very beginning."

The sudden voice made Mary’s heart tighten. She looked towards the sound and saw a man in a black cloak. His face was concealed beneath a whirlpool mask, and he was inspecting the dissected corpse with a cold gaze.

"The man whose belly you opened was named Ticky; he was the father of five children. He came here after hearing your message, bringing his children with him. They all came to seek refuge with you, Mary, but you couldn’t save them, only repeating the same wrong experiments."

Mary saw the ominous blood-red magic power, identical to the color of the plague, causing her unprecedented panic. Her voice trembled uncontrollably as she pointed the sharp blade at the unwelcome guest in the room, "Who are you?"

The man did not answer her.

She saw him raise his hand toward her, and the plasma in the refugee’s abdomen began to wriggle and surge. Under the catalysis of that scarlet magic, several nauseating red tapeworms emerged from the flesh and blood. They moved quickly, and by the time Mary regained her senses, they had already slipped into the crevices of the walls, disappearing into the darkness.

Under the scarlet magic’s influence, more and more objects became distorted. Feeling the chair writhing, Mary backed away in panic, the sight before her made her legs tremble uncontrollably—the chair twisted into a mass of flesh, which burst open the moment it hit the floor, splitting into countless writhing red tapeworms that scattered in all directions.

The guard heard the commotion in the room and drew his sword, rushing in immediately.

"No—!"

Mary wanted to stop him, but it was too late. She watched in horror as the red tapeworms pounced on the guard, boring into his body through his ears.

The sword fell to the ground, and the guard clutched his ears in terror, rolling on the floor.

"My patience has been exhausted by you, let this city perish as it is."

The man walked past the guard and vanished into the night.

...

"What kind of teaching is this!"

In the inn, Ave slammed the table after witnessing everything, the dense red tapeworms made her scalp tingle, and coupled with Mary’s appearance, which was over eighty percent similar to hers, she felt an uncanny sense of having been bullied herself, "You’re even more terrifying than Bazatous himself! What happened to changing the fate of this city!"

Poor Chief Priest Mary seemed to have been scared out of her wits by Ethan.

"The most crucial information has already been conveyed, and it was demonstrated twice right in front of her."

Lindong explained the mystery to Ave.

The reason Mary’s research had not progressed was that she spent too much effort on the dead. The red tapeworms would leave the host before its internal organs completely rotted, seeking the next target to parasitize.

Rowena also discovered the tapeworms parasitizing Blanche through divination skill. If Mary were colder and dissected those in the first stage, she would find the tapeworms inside them.

"He demonstrated the source of the red tapeworms to Mary in the manner of the Evil God’s Followers."

Next, all they could do was hope Mary was sharp enough to see the essence through the phenomena.

As long as all the tapeworms were killed, the spread of the plague could be stopped.

Ethan cracked the secret of the scarlet plague in just one night. Not only that, he also reverse-engineered the principle to create the Sacred Beetle, designed specifically against the scarlet plague. It would enter an infected person’s body in the same way, consume the tapeworms, and simultaneously repair the infected person’s soul.

Lindong didn’t hold such high hopes for Mary; she only needed to find a way to eliminate the red tapeworms, and even that would be considered a fulfillment of her mission.

This task, which Lindong deemed not difficult, cost Mary two full days. When she attempted to infuse the infected with the radiance of the Goddess of Life, she finally succeeded in killing the parasitic red tapeworms. However, compared to Ethan’s automated treatment method, this consumed her immense magic power and was extremely unstable.

The damaged soul could not be repaired, and there was even a chance that killing the tapeworms might also kill the host.

Nonetheless, for a city destined to be destroyed by plague, this was already a groundbreaking advancement.

As Mary and the city’s people basked in joy, they were "invited" out of the polluted area by Bazatous. As their vision shifted, they found themselves back in the command hall of Wolf Head Castle with Viola. The brown, egg-shaped head had disappeared, and the arms protruding from the walls were cleaned up.

Clearly, Old Ba was not pleased with this "performance," their ears echoed with irate mutterings that sounded like a scolding.

"You’ve angered Old Ba again."

Lindong also accepted the moniker "Old Ba." She could vividly imagine Bazatous’s furious demeanor deep within the polluted zone, regretfully trapped in that place, fuming with anger.

She felt that one day, Ethan would drive Old Ba to death from rage.

She laughed joyfully, as if she had never been as happy as she was now.

Hmm?

Gradually, Lindong sensed something was wrong.

Why was she suddenly so happy? This inexplicable emotion was the same as the excitement from a few days ago.

As she walked out of the castle, she suddenly sensed something, almost reflexively looking towards the distant street corner.

A figure disappeared nonchalantly around the corner.

The figure had waist-length white hair, just like hers.

Time seemed to jump at that moment.