Chapter 579 - 576: Emotional Plague

Chapter 579: Chapter 576: Emotional Plague

To Ling Xi’s surprise, the mere mention of what happened on Hundred Flowers Island instantly resonated with the healers present.

"Strange things happened on my island, too! It seems it was also caused by a colleague who let their personal emotions interfere with their healing..."

"That colleague caused a patient’s death due to a medical accident. He was consumed by regret, and the incident was like a thorn buried deep in his heart."

"But just before we came to the Central Islands, he created a method to resurrect a patient who was completely dead!"

At this, the other healers all cried out that it was impossible.

"You can revive a dead body, but you can’t bring back a scattered consciousness."

"Even if you did, it would just be a walking corpse."

"And even if a new consciousness formed, it wouldn’t be the same person."

"Unless you used the Source Healing Method. But the energy required to bring back the dead would be immeasurable. Even the powerful Elders can’t do that."

The healers all started talking at once. As healers, they had all researched how to resurrect the dead, but they had all reached the same conclusion: it was impossible. Once a consciousness dissipated, there was no way to bring it back.

No matter how damaged the physical body, a powerful healer could restore it. But consciousness was different. They couldn’t cure something when they didn’t even know the "cause of the illness."

The healers couldn’t comprehend the true nature of consciousness and death, so they couldn’t define it as a disease to be cured.

While they could indirectly create a new consciousness using the body, it would have no connection to the one that came before.

Moreover, they also had to consider the energy cost. A healing that was too complex, even if theoretically possible, could not be practically achieved.

Seeing the other healers doubting him, the one telling the story grew anxious.

"Let me finish!"

"Of course you can’t heal a consciousness, but what if that consciousness never dissipated in the first place?"

That colleague had been researching resurrection for a long time. He had wanted to use the Source Healing Method, but his own power was limited, making it impossible for him.

He had also asked the powerful Elders. The Elders told him that the patient had been dead for too long, and the energy required would be astronomical. Even if all the healers worked together, they couldn’t change this established fact.

The more time passed, the more of the past you would have to change, and the more energy it would require. The flap of a butterfly’s wings had already become a hurricane, and stopping a hurricane isn’t as simple as catching a butterfly...

The colleague’s desire to use the Source Healing Method was nothing but wishful thinking, and he knew it.

However, the Elders’ words also gave him a hint.

"The smaller the impact, the less energy is needed."

So how could he minimize the impact?

The answer was to not cause a butterfly effect—to not try to change the past at all.

"That colleague was truly a genius. He came up with a solution..."

He resurrected the patient’s body, then figured out a way to make the patient "travel through time."

"Travel through time?"

"Yes, travel through time. He made the patient’s past consciousness travel into the present-day body..."

"Since he couldn’t use the Source Healing Method to affect the past, he simply didn’t. He ’stole’ the patient’s consciousness from just before their death and brought it into the future, placing it inside the new body. This way, the original consciousness was preserved, and the patient lived."

"But... how did he do that?"

"It’s not clear. Perhaps in his obsessed state, he truly came to understand the Source Healing Method. During that time, he traveled back and forth to the Central Island, constantly asking the Elders for knowledge about it. The Elders, hoping he would give up, told him everything in great detail. But they never expected he would choose to use it in such a way."

"However, after saving this patient, my colleague went mad."

"Mad? Why?"

"Because he discovered the truth..." the healer explained.

That medical accident wouldn’t have actually killed the patient. The real cause of death was—his consciousness had been stolen.

His past self had discovered the patient was without consciousness, which is why he thought the patient had died and fell into despair.

And he himself had caused it all. He had used the Source Healing Method to go back in time and steal the patient’s consciousness.

So, when he realized this truth, he went mad.

His present self had given his past self a lifetime of unforgettable regret, and that regret had created his present self. It was all a predetermined loop.

The patient was fated to die and fated to reawaken shortly after. The true culprit behind it all was none other than himself.

The other colleagues on the island noticed immediately that he was letting his personal emotions into his healing, but it was no use. The moment the Source Healing Method was activated, his fate was sealed. No one could save him.

After finishing the healer’s story, the storyteller said with some regret, "He was originally the most promising healer on our island, but after this incident, he went completely insane."

"He keeps saying that time is a sham, that the Source Healing Method is the bait that lured him into the trap. He says none of it has any meaning, and that the world will end in one final act of Source Healing."

"We’ve tried to talk to him many times, but to no avail. Now he just wanders the island..."

As he said this, the healer glanced at the black mud on the ground.

"It seems his descent into madness was very likely caused by this black mud. This stuff can amplify the regret in his heart."

The tragedy was irreversible. After hearing about the colleague’s experience, all the healers fell silent.

After a while, the other healers began to speak about what had happened on their own islands.

They were all disasters caused by letting personal emotions interfere with healing. These disasters varied in scale; some, like on Hundred Flowers Island, affected an entire island, while others only affected a single healer.

The healers began to smell a conspiracy in all this.

By now, they knew this was definitely an emotional plague targeted at healers.

And the black mud that created this emotional plague, along with the Black Wall Maze that trapped them, were both made of some black sphere polymer. The mastermind behind it all had to be the voice that kept asking them questions.

"What does it want? Does it want to destroy the entire healer race?"

"Did we offend someone?"

"We’re always healing people, how could we have offended anyone? It must be trying to steal our powers!"

The healers once again burst into a flurry of arguments...

Seeing the situation, Ling Xi had no choice but to try and calm them down.

"Arguing like this won’t get us anywhere. The only way to find more clues is to go deeper into the maze."

"Right, we have to find the Elders. The Elders must know what’s going on," Poke chimed in.

Hearing this, the healers gradually calmed down.

"Ling Xi, we’ll follow you. We’ll listen to your commands."

"That’s right. My power is almost fully restored. I’d like to see just who is trying to harm us."

The healers all gathered by Ling Xi’s side. Big Eye took the opportunity to rub against Ling Xi’s leg.

Li Luo had been standing to the side all along, the rabbit at the other end of the rope still frantically dashing about.

Ling Xi glanced at the rabbit and said to Li Luo, "Let’s go."

With the support of his companions, his tone was now more resolute than ever.