Plague Doctor

Chapter 64: Medium

When Gu Jun finished reading the three entries, the sky was already dark. The illusion of the church that came to him the day he obtained the diary floated before his eyes.

Those people, those headless bodies, the skeletons, all deeply kneeling toward the sky above the church. Did Raybundy reunite with his family, lover, and friends inside that church? But there was no doubt that... it was definitely not the ‘Goddess of Life’ that presided over that church.

“May you rest in peace,” Gu Jun said lightly. While he empathized with the writer of the diary, he also obtained some new information. “This is definitely another civilization, perhaps an ancient civilization on earth or from another planet or dimension.”

Before, Gu Jun was more leaning toward the later, but now he saw the possibility of it being the former as well. Because this civilization also had twelve months in a year and thirty plus days in a month. This was a necessity determined by the change in weather, which was a sign of similarity in the planets. Furthermore, the human structure and function of these people should be higher or perhaps similar to homo sapiens, or else their medication would not have worked on him. Not only him, it worked on other tumors as well; this was proven via his experiment on the rats.

The system reward noted them as ‘human brainstem tumor-targeting drugs’, and the host information categorized his race as ‘human—homo sapien.’ Combining these two thoughts, Gu Jun now had a new supposition.

“This medicine is effective on all ‘human’ creature. Be it homo sapiens or the humans in the diary, they are both human beings. And right... this Carlot Academy...”

According to the diary, Carlot Academy was the most prestigious medical academy in that kingdom. The rewards of the difficult missions would occasionally mention medical devices like Carlot Scalpel or Carlot Dissecting Scissors. Those ‘Carlot’s should mean the same thing, and the scalpel and scissors were products of that civilization. But that was one situation that befuddled Gu Jun. First, from the method of communication between Raybundy and Linda, which was ‘letter-writing’, one could hypothesize that this civilization did not have things such as phones and internet; they had not become an IT civilization. Otherwise, with the closeness of their relationship, they would have been on the phone every day or at least sent messages constantly, unless on the slim chance that ‘letter’ was the name of some social media app. This meant that this civilization had not reached the electrical era, but there was mention of cold machine.

Furthermore, this civilization was supposed to be a kingdom, and Raybundy also mentioned that Linda came from a common background, the daughter of a blacksmith, so the idea of castes was very much still in place. From the constant mention of the Goddess of Life in Raybundy’s diary, that should be main divinity that this kingdom believed in. Other than that, the mention of things like ‘the goddess’ emissaries’ and ‘the truth of life’ led him to deduce that religion had an important place in this civilization. That was what confused Gu Jun the most. Taking the normal advancement of a human civilization into consideration, the civilization of this race would not have achieved great medical skill, yet...

They had somehow manufactured human brainstem tumor-targeting drugs, something homo sapiens were still unable to cure.

“This civilization is behind us in other places... but in certain places, like medicine, they are far more advanced than we are.” As Gu Jun flipped over the three entries, he contemplated. Could it be their faith in religion that allowed them to branch out into a completely different scientific tree?

What they held the most precious was medical science; they kept on studying medicine and focused on advancing this skill. From the autopsy blueprint, the mention of viruses and parasites in the diary, they had already mastered the modern medicine of homo sapiens, and cancer was not even an issue for them anymore.

“I wonder how far the medical science of these people have come and how they managed to advance it so far.”

As a medical student, Gu Jun knew that the advancement of medical science could not be isolated from the need of high precision devices. Without a microscope, how could one study bacteria? And the creation of these devices could not be isolated from the mastery of science, so what was the ‘science’ of this foreign civilization?

“Wait a minute... comparison goes both ways.” Earlier, he was only focusing on what the foreign civilization lacked in comparison to homo sapiens. How come it never cross his mind to examine what the homo sapiens lacked compared to the foreign civilization?

The reason homo sapiens had such advanced technology was due to the importance that human beings set on the mastery of science; it was because of this that homo sapiens had access to technology like steam, electricity, computers, and so on. How come these pivotal discoveries did not occur in the path of the foreign civilization? What kind of discoveries did they have in science’s place then? Could it be magic?

Magic? Gu Jun’s heart shuddered, and he then felt the cells in his body come to life...

After witnessing the power of something like the system, he stopped questioning the presence of another form of energy in this world. There was truth behind every anomaly, but human beings had not even gotten their heads around the double-slit experiment, much less the essence of the universe itself.

“Could this be what the Afterlife Cult is searching for?” Gu Jun paced back and forth on the balcony. He sensed some unnamable presence in the dark night, things that had been there since the creation of time.

Perhaps the Afterlife Cult was searching for ways to obtain the knowledge and techniques of this foreign civilization that were unknown to the homo sapiens?

The medicine to treat cancer, methods to seek longevity, weren’t those things that everyone would go crazy for?

“Could the medical techniques of these people be what mom was passionate about?” Gu Jun mumbled. The fiery gaze with which his mother had looked at the foreign language still pinched at his heart... But now that he thought about it, he felt much better. If it was related to discovering this super advanced technology, he would be as crazed as his mother was.

“Perhaps the Afterlife Cult has interacted or perhaps even gained possession of some literature of this foreign civilization, but they do not know how to read them or decipher them. So... the Afterlife Cult came up with the research team that my parents were a part of, and that was how I got to learn this foreign language. I was the cipher that they used to unlock the foreign language...” Gu Jun arranged and pored over these clues. “I appear to be some kind of medium between these two civilizations, responsible for taking the things over from the foreign civilization to this world...”

Medium? A tool for storing and transporting information.

“A medium, is it?” Gu Jun gave a long sigh. After he made his connection, his heart felt lighter. When he was young, it was the foreign language, and now it was this system. Wasn’t the system a kind of medium that possessed an even surprising power?

The blueprint and diary were all information, but medicine and tools were real objects.

“Hands of dexterity...” Gu Jun’s heart quivered with the realization. Could these ‘powers’ be a kind of ‘magic’ for the foreign civilization? Or was this the ‘medical technique’ studied by the students of Carlot?

Because they had this magical technique, it made up for their lack in technology. These techniques and powers might be even more useable in the pursuit of medical science compared to human science...

“So, I am some kind of medium or a reincarnation of a member of this foreign civilization?” Gu Jun shook his head self-deprecatingly. “Compared to Landon, I am probably more like Raybundy, minus the loyalty of course.”

He did not dwell too long on this notion because even if it was true, he could not do anything about it. This study of the mystery had already gone beyond his realm of understanding.

So back to the medium he went. What was the Afterlife Cult doing that it turned him into this medium? And had the Afterlife Cult succeeded? Why did they give him so many years of freedom as well as 5,000,000 RMB to spend and not trap him inside some dark room to study? How did the Afterlife Cult come into contact with the foreign civilization, and what was in their possession? How much did Pheda know about all this?

And what was the origin of... those monsters? What kind of force placed them on Earth? What was their connection to this hemoptysis? Would hemoptysis... one day infect and ravage the human civilization as well?

Compared to that, the Banyan Malformation Disease that could be cured by timely amputation felt more like a kid’s fever now. Even such a medically-advanced civilization was taken down by hemoptysis. If the disease arrived in this world, wouldn’t that signify the end of human world as he knew it?

Night breeze caressed his face, and Gu Jun’s heart shivered from cold. Too many questions were left answered.

“I need to find a way to trigger the illusion from that black and white picture soon. I need more information to clear up these puzzles.”