Chaotic and panicked sounds came from the other side. After General Qi suddenly collapsed, no one noticed the earring on his earlobe faintly flickering.
Elara held the earring and no longer spoke to the other side.
After a silent pause, Elara looked up at Oswyn. Her voice was calm. "Has the antidote for this kind of thing been developed yet?"
Oswyn quickly said, "Still researching. This thing has never appeared in the Gu poison or medical world before. Its properties are very unique. For now, I only understand its general method of transmission. As for the antidote... you'll have to give me more time."
Elara nodded. "What about the elite unit that was first sent to the southern border, the one badly injured by the Puppet Soldiers, with only half of them returning?"
"Since we didn't know their condition or the state of the Puppet Soldiers, I isolated them in a separate courtyard for treatment from the start. The medical officers used cloth soaked in medicinal liquid each time they entered, and there was no infection, so don't worry. However..."
Oswyn paused before continuing, "Later, because some of them began to show signs of mutation, we treated while studying them. That's how we figured out the way these things live in humans, which we can now report to you."
From the earring, the loud, urgent cries of soldiers calling for medical officers still echoed.
Elara was silent for a few seconds, then walked over to Oswyn. "Take me to see the soldiers who are mutating."
In the isolated courtyard of the medical division, elite soldiers with lifeless eyes and abnormal blue-purple skin were chained tightly to the wall.
Elara had not been to the southern border and had never seen the Puppet Soldiers with her own eyes, but this transforming soldier already looked very similar to the descriptions that had been sent back.
He clearly still had some sense left. He made broken gasping noises, and the way he looked at Elara and Oswyn was filled with pain and pleading.
"Hu... please... please... kill me... hu..."
They were the first group chosen by General Qi to go south, the most elite force in the entire military.
The medical officers who had followed Elara in showed expressions of pity.
Elara stared at the soldier for a while, then suddenly reached into her sleeve and discreetly took out a pair of transparent glasses from her storage ring.
The "Eye of All Things" — this was one of the seven divine artifacts she had obtained from the "Divine Ruins." It had the divine skill "All-Thing Analysis," which could analyze the structure and components of anything, along with the traits, advantages, and weaknesses of every substance.
Elara put on the Eye of All Things and looked again at the mutated soldier. Her pupils narrowed slightly.
Through the lens of the Eye of All Things, the entire structure of the soldier's body unfolded clearly layer by layer before her eyes: skin, organs, muscles, tissues, cells, proteins, amino acids, molecules, atoms...
Aside from those, dominating most of her view were countless tiny, worm-like things invisible to the naked eye, spread all throughout the soldier's internal organs and tissues.
These things were packed tightly together, filling up more than half of his body and slowly moving toward his head.
Once his head was completely filled with these worm-like bacteria, he would probably fully turn into one of the Puppet Soldiers.
Elara filtered out the useless information in her vision, leaving only the worm-like creatures, and activated All-Thing Analysis.
In an instant, detailed data about the worm-like creatures appeared neatly in front of her.
[Name: Worm Pupa]
[Traits: Once contaminated or parasitized by any substance containing worm eggs or worms, large numbers of eggs will quickly reproduce inside the living host. The eggs will then hatch into the youngest worms. These worms will first fill the host's divine body and drain its nutrients. Once the nutrients are fully depleted, the worms will fight and devour each other. The final surviving worm will dominate the host's body and tear it open to enter the larva stage.]
[Advantages: In both the egg and worm stages, they have extremely strong infection and reproduction abilities. Before suppression: their bodies are incredibly tough. Regular physical attacks cannot kill them, and they are not afraid of strong acid, strong alkali, or corrosion.
After suppression: they revert to a semi-ordinary worm-like state. Their resistance to physical attacks and corrosive substances is greatly weakened. After parasitizing a host, they can alter the host to gain similar traits.]
[Current State: Suppressed]
[Weaknesses: Before suppression: only vulnerable to powerful mental forces or S-grade weapons.
After suppression: can be killed by any level of mental force, strong acids, strong alkalis, or fire.]
After reading all the information, Elara frowned. Her first reaction was: how could a world this ancient have something that nearly breaks the balance of all living things?
Especially in the pre-scientific age, without even basic systems of physics or chemistry, how could a creature exist that doesn't fear fire or water, acid or alkali, and spreads with such high infection? If this had existed before, the world would've long become a paradise for them. Humans wouldn't have survived until now.
And what exactly does "suppressed state" mean? What suppressed these things?
Suddenly, an image from a mural projection she saw back in the "Divine Ruins" flashed in Elara's mind.
Those bamboo slips she brought back from the ruins, which recorded many divine scripts, were still in her storage.
She had been busy with all sorts of things ever since returning from the Hundred Nations Banquet, and she had almost forgotten that those "Divine Language" bamboo slips were still inside her spatial ring.
Could that mural have recorded a once incredibly powerful civilization in this world that eventually got destroyed?
Only a civilization that strong could have suppressed these things.
Could those that destroyed the civilization be the very same entities that existed before being suppressed?
She didn't know if those bamboo slips held any answers to this, but for now, she had no time to study them.
Elara pulled her thoughts back and focused on the weaknesses listed in the [Analysis of All Things].
She could produce strong acid, strong alkali, and fire, but using them would kill the infected soldiers too.
Elara's eyes fell on the line about "various levels of spiritual power."
She took off the [Mirror of All Things] and stepped forward. "Open the door."
The medical officers behind her realized what she was trying to do and immediately tried to stop her:
"Your Majesty, you mustn't."
"Your Majesty, those things are far too contagious. You must not get close. Your sacred body is our priority."
Elara raised her hand to stop them. "I have my own way." She looked at Oswyn. "Open the door."
Oswyn met her serious gaze, pressed his lips together, and also stepped forward, taking out the key. "Then I'll go in with you."
Inside the room.
Elara stopped about ten steps away from the soldier and didn't get any closer.
Oswyn stood in front of her, slightly blocking her figure, his eyes scanning the surroundings, ready for anything.
Elara reached out and wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him back to her side so he wouldn't block her line of sight again.
Before Oswyn could ask in surprise, Elara raised her other hand. A silent and invisible tendril of spiritual energy slowly extended toward the chained, suffering soldier.
The moment her spiritual tendril touched the soldier, he screamed like he'd been scalded, his whole body thrashing violently, but the chains held him down tight.
Oswyn, who was still held by Elara, was stunned again, but with her arm around his waist holding him firmly in place, he couldn't move and had to stay by her side.
Elara's vision changed at that moment. As soon as the spiritual tendril made contact, even without wearing the [Mirror of All Things], she could clearly see the dense mass of worms inside the soldier's body.
The worms were clearly terrified of the spiritual power. As soon as it touched the soldier's body, they scattered like ants doused in boiling water.
The soldier screamed and struggled even harder. Elara controlled her spiritual energy and let more tendrils climb over his body, slowly entering him to hunt down every single worm inside.
Perhaps because they had once been suppressed, the worms had no power to resist Elara's spiritual energy. Soon, the worms that had covered most of the soldier's body were forced to gather in his left arm.
His left arm swelled visibly, like hundreds of bugs were writhing under his skin.
Elara increased her spiritual pressure. After a final blood-curdling scream, all the worms burst out of the wound on his left arm.
"Squish squish splat splat" Sticky, disgusting worm slime mixed with black blood gushed continuously from the wound on the soldier's arm and fell to the floor.
After about thirty seconds, the soldier finally stopped screaming. The purplish-blue color of his skin faded and slowly returned to a more normal flesh tone.
Elara used her spiritual power to scan every part of his body again.
His body trembled gently, sometimes even shuddering like a mild electric shock, occasionally letting out soft groans, as if he couldn't bear it.
Once she confirmed there were no parasites left, Elara withdrew the spiritual tendrils. The soldier finally stopped groaning, his head and limbs drooping weakly, gasping for air.
Elara raised her hand and pulled a fire striker from her sleeve. She lit it and tossed it into the pile of worms. In an instant, the wet, supposedly nonflammable pile of black blood erupted in flames, quickly burning the writhing mass to ash.