385 The Aler (1/2)

Translator: XephiZ

Editor: Aelryinth

Following Wang Xiaojun's guide, Mo Fan and Lingling quickly made their way to the woods, and caught a poisonous rat beast that Wang Xiaojun had mentioned.

Lingling was rather an expert with demon beasts. She immediately recognized it to be a subspecies of the demon rats living in burrows in the jungle.

These Malicious Epidemic Rats were one of the weakest of all Servant-class demon beasts. Mo Fan did fight some of them along the way, and the demon beast was a lot weaker than the Colossal-eyed Ape Rat Mo Fan had encountered in Bo City.

Lingling quickly dissected one of the Malicious Epidemic Rats on the spot dexterously. Both Mo Fan and Wang Xiaojun wore weird looks on their faces, as they could not believe it was something that a little girl looking barely over ten could do.

”Strange, it's the Mutated Blood. Am I really that lucky?” said Lingling. She glanced at Mo Fan and pointed deeper into the woods, ”Go catch some more of these here, and see if they contain any Mutated Blood.”

Mo Fan followed her instructions. Killing some of the rats did not require any effort. To Mo Fan's astonishment, each of the Malicious Epidemic Ratshad Mutated Blood in them.

Mutated Blood, only a few drops would appear after killing over a hundred demon beasts. It was an important material that had always been low in supply. Hunters had risked their lives in the wild to hunt the demon beasts, just to obtain some Mutated Blood, Mutated Bones, or Mutated Skin from them. Mutated Bones or Mutated Skin were the main crafting material to forge magical equipment, while Mutated Blood was widely used in other areas. The blood serums for healing purposes were refined from Mutated Blood.

Mutated Blood was incredibly rare, hence it was rather unbelievable that every Malicious Epidemic Rat had Mutated Blood.

Mo Fan reflected the findings to Lingling, who was busy dissecting the demon beast. Lingling seemed to have arrived at a conclusion, whose lips curled slightly upward as she spoke, ”We finally have a clear picture of the whole incident.”

Mo Fan and Wang Xiaojun sat down beside one another, fully prepared to listen to Lingling's explanation.

”The Malicious Epidemic Rats are very unique. It's a rare type of 'disastrous' species. They are weak, to an extent that they can't even protect themselves, as they are placed at the bottom of the food chains. When I read about them in the recordings about their species, I always wondered why they aren't extinct yet. It turns out that they have a special way to reproduce.

”First, their bodies contain a kind of Diseased Blood, which is very similar to Mutated Blood. It's impossible to tell the difference without a detailed dissection. Therefore, recalling the series of events that have taken place lately...”

Mo Fan had already noticed how the incidents were linked. He took over and continued, ”Someone has been using the rats' Diseased Blood to mass produce the blood serums, which resulted in the outbreak of the plague.”

Lingling added with a nod, ”From the information sister has given me, it turns out that the two rotten corpses in the city bought blood serums from White Town beforehand. The first batch of patients caught the virus from the blood serums made with the Malicious Epidemic Rats blood.”

The production line of the blood serums was strictly handled by the Magic Association. It was almost impossible that someone had retrieved the wrong ingredients to produce the blood serums. Therefore, it was most likely that someone had colluded with the Magic Association to mass produce the defective blood serums.

The blood serums would have the same effect as the ordinary blood serums, but they never thought that the Malicious Epidemic Rats' blood would hide in the patient's body before breaking out as a disease. Somehow, the disease had further mutated into an epidemic. As such, it instantly activated the virus in the bodies of those who had consumed the defective blood serums, allowing the plague to spread rapidly, and resulting in the disaster for Hangzhou City.

They had finally discovered the source of the plague!