Chapter 541 - 538: The Healer Who Cures Everything

Chapter 541: Chapter 538: The Healer Who Cures Everything

"Isn’t this... ridiculous?"

At Xi’s question, Li Luo was too stunned to speak. She stared wide-eyed at the piece of gold in her hand—the one that had just been a stalactite.

"We’ve been deliberately hiding this. The outside world thinks we’re just ’Healers,’ that we simply have the ability to cure anything. They don’t know that we’re the ones who get to define what a ’disease’ is."

"Back when I modified the parasitic plants to create the Red Spirit Flower, I started to wonder: has there always been a problem with how we Healers define disease?"

"To a patient, a parasitic plant is a fate worse than death, a demon that devours their body. But to the parasitic plant itself, it’s just instinctively trying to reproduce."

"For a virus, its life is about finding a cell, getting inside, replicating, and then leaving to find more cells. Its entire world is just a collection of ’transparent spheres,’ and those spheres are where it reproduces."

"When we destroy a virus to cure a disease, from the virus’s perspective, it’s an apocalyptic disaster that wipes out all its kin. We save the patient, but we destroy an entire population."

"I’ve asked the Elders about this before, but they told me that we are just Healers, not gods. Our duty is to cure diseases, not to contemplate the equality of all living things. They told me not to think so much about it."

"But I feel like we have to get to the bottom of this..."

At this, Xi trailed off. His gaze fixed on the path ahead, and he fell silent.

Li Luo, still holding the piece of gold, said nothing. She didn’t have the answers to his questions, but she knew the source of the Healers’ dilemma.

’Perspective.’

A human doctor would never have such doubts. They operate from the perspective of healing humans. They don’t give a second thought to the well-being of viruses, bacteria, or parasites. As long as they can ensure humanity’s safety and cure its diseases, their duty is fulfilled.

But the Healer race is different. They operate from the perspective of "all life."

To treat diseases caused by pathogens, one must kill other living things. It’s an unavoidable consequence.

Life and death go hand in hand; pursuing a perfect balance is impossible.

If the pathogen lives, the patient dies. If the patient lives, the pathogen dies. As Healers, they must have a concrete definition of disease before they can decide who lives and who dies. That is why they agonize so much over the question, "What is a disease?"

The abilities of the Healers are innate, but their views on disease can be shaped. Their power allows them to perform all sorts of outrageous "cures," and if their thinking were to go astray, the consequences would be horrifying.

There are no easy answers to these questions about disease. Different perspectives lead to different conclusions. That was why the Elders told Xi not to think so much.

Li Luo sighed, swallowing the words she wanted to say.

This was something Xi had to figure out for himself. Saying too much would only cloud his judgment.

And so, the two of them fell silent, walking farther and farther along the dry riverbed.

As they walked, Xi picked up another stalactite fragment, holding it in his hand, lost in thought.

...

Mo Ling, controlling his Block, trailed behind Li Luo and Xi.

His attention was fixed on the ball of light around Xi’s head.

Even now, he felt as if that light was staring at him, making his skin crawl. No matter which corner of the Block he hid in, no matter which direction he turned his gaze, that ball of light was always watching him.

Even when Mo Ling looked at nothing at all, squeezing his eyes shut, he felt a prickling on his back, as if he were being watched.

’What in the world *is* a Healer?’

With no other choice, Mo Ling slipped back into Xi’s Healing Space. Only in there could he escape that unnerving gaze.

This time, there were no vibrant flowerbeds, nor were there oppressive dark clouds in the sky. The scene had changed completely.

It was a cave now. The cave walls looked like blurry, low-resolution textures, and a fake stream flowed along the bottom. Everything looked incredibly shoddy.

The familiar, withered figure was squatting by the stream, holding a piece of stalactite in its hand.

By now, Mo Ling basically understood. This withered humanoid figure was Xi himself. It seemed Healers could exist in both reality and their Healing Space at the same time. This was the Xi of the Healing Space.

Mo Ling silently walked up behind Xi. Xi seemed extremely troubled, staring blankly at the stalactite fragment in his hand, completely oblivious to Mo Ling behind him.

"Disease... what is it, really?"

Xi muttered, staring at the stalactite fragment.

"You’re sick," he said to the stalactite. With a wave of his hand, the fragment transformed into a piece of gold.

"And now... is the sickness cured?" Xi stared blankly at the gold, seemingly dissatisfied.

Just then, Mo Ling spoke up from behind him.

"Can you make diamonds?"

Startled by the sudden voice, Xi jumped and shot to his feet.

He spun around, only to find Mo Ling standing behind him.

"Senior?"

’Why is Senior visiting my space again? Can he travel freely into other Healers’ spaces?’

At this thought, realization dawned on Xi.

’No wonder! I didn’t see Senior after I woke up in the flowerbed. He must be able to teleport over long distances and visit the spaces of other Healers!’

"Senior, how did you get here?" Xi asked curiously.

"I just came right in," Mo Ling answered truthfully.

Hearing the "Senior’s" reply, Xi became even more convinced of his theory.

"Senior, what did you mean just now about making diamonds? Is there some special meaning to it?" Xi asked, not quite understanding.

"I meant exactly what I said. You can make gold, so can you make diamonds?"

"Of course."

He didn’t quite understand, but he figured there must be a reason for the Senior’s request.

Xi waved his hand over the gold, and a huge diamond appeared in his palm.

Mo Ling immediately leaned in, his massive Block head almost pressing against the diamond.

"You really can do it! Amazing!"

"You flatter me. Most Healers can probably do this," Xi said, a bit embarrassed.

"Can you give me the diamond? You can just make them whenever you want, anyway."

"Uh, Senior, of course you can, but it’s fake. It’s automatically generated by the Healing Space..."

"Doesn’t matter." Before Xi could finish speaking, the Senior took the diamond from his hand, and it promptly vanished.

Before Xi could even figure out how the Senior had done that, he was already asking excitedly, "What else can you make?"

"Probably anything..."

As he spoke, another stalactite fragment appeared in Xi’s hand.

It was a construct generated by the Healing Space. As Xi’s "patient," it was in endless supply; as long as Xi didn’t cure it, the stalactite fragment would just keep reappearing.

"Can you make Turquoise?"

"Of course I can."

The stalactite fragment in Xi’s hand became a piece of Turquoise.

"Can I have this one?"

"Sure."

And again, the Senior took the Turquoise from his hand...

"Can you make a TV?"

"What’s a TV?" Xi asked, confused.

"Oh, right, that’s probably too much to ask. Never mind. What about a sofa?"

"And what is a sofa?" Xi grew even more confused.

"You don’t know what a sofa is either? A chair, then? You must know what a chair is, right? You know what, hold on. I’ll go get something. You stay right here, don’t move..."

A moment later, the Senior returned, having procured a human’s electronic screen from somewhere, and began to show Xi all sorts of strange things.

"This is a sofa, this is a gaming chair... And this one, this is a TV, but I don’t have any electricity, so never mind, we’ll skip that one..."

Xi clutched the stalactite fragment, listening to the Senior relentlessly cram all sorts of knowledge into his head, his thoughts a jumbled mess.

He had no idea what the Senior was trying to accomplish, and he couldn’t understand any of the strange terms being thrown at him.

’If only I could get my hands on a diesel generator, but that might be a little noisy...’