Xyrin Empire

Chapter 190: Chapter 190: Tirisfal Forest

The sky was covered with gloom, murky clouds heavy with pollution, thick like indelible ink rudely splattered above our heads. The pale sun, too weak to penetrate these impossibly thick clouds, could only leave a blurry white halo as proof of its existence in the sky. The surrounding trees all exhibited a sickly demeanor; the power of the plague had seeped into their branches and trunks, infecting their bodies through every gap in the roots and leaves. The vast patches of grey-green rot on the gray-brown trunks were shocking to behold. Despite this, these plants, barely clinging to life, continued to draw the last bit of sustenance from the plague-ridden earth and air. The withered, deformed branches reached earnestly toward the sky, as if desperately grasping at the last vestige of sunlight.

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Underneath these trees, which it was hard to say were either living or had become “undead,” lay the rotting, corrupted land. Here, the dark soil is not a sign of fertility but an indication of decay. The ground that once teemed with life was now a breeding ground for the plague. The soil fused and solidified into clumps of black particles, constantly emitting a faintly fishy stench that could make one nauseous.

This was Tirisfal Forest, now a wasteland of ruins overrun by the Dead Souls, a place forgotten by the living.

A landscape of wounds.

Walking into Tirisfal in the game and actually standing on this rotten and silent land are entirely different experiences. Right now, my mood was oppressively heavy.

“Sigh—” I let out a breath, expelling the depression from my heart, then immediately furrowed my brows.

“Cough cough… The air pollution here is so severe…”

“But Master, I don’t feel it…”

Anwina, who was following beside me, also took a deep breath and asked with confusion.

Nonsense, you’re already a Dead Soul, let alone you don’t breathe at all, even if you did, would you actually despise this odor of death?

As Jaina had previously told me, this thoroughly corrupted place was filled with the energy of the plague everywhere, in the air, water, and soil, teeming with the virus of the Catastrophe. Without a doubt, these elements infused with curse energy were harmful to any living being. Although the power of the Witch Demon King had suddenly weakened, rendering these plague energies unable to turn people into slaves of the Catastrophe Army, they still had the ability to cause diseases. A robust ordinary person who entered the Plague Zone unprepared would be tormented by sickness to the brink of death within a month. The physically superior Mages and warriors might withstand these weakened viruses, but it would certainly not be an easy ordeal.

As for me, thanks to the powerful Spirit Barrier and my near-invincible body modified to resist poisons, I could naturally ignore these plague energies. However, the stench of corruption filling the air was not something that strength alone could tolerate. To be precise, because my sense of smell was more sensitive than that of the average person… cough cough, you understand, I need not explain…

This situation was somewhat beyond my expectations. Based on my impression from the game, it seemed that not even East Plague Land would cause level-one characters to automatically lose health from a debuff upon entering… Uh, okay, I admit it, I seem to have naively confused the game with reality this time…

Actually, when I think about it, it makes sense. After all, it’s a place that has been ravaged by plague viruses for several years, and the viruses have not been completely purified. It certainly couldn’t be like in the game, where even level-one characters could traverse the Plague Zone without engaging in combat, as long as they didn’t attract monsters. A similar example would be considering the likelihood of an ordinary person living in a nuclear explosion area…

Alas, it’s no wonder the Forgotten find it difficult to seek allies. Given the severity of the air pollution, one would need great determination to establish relations with them!

While enduring the smell in the air, I complained, “Sigh, if I had known the Plague Zone was like this, I wouldn’t have impulsively decided to do this damned ‘Tirisfal Experience Tour.’ It’s so much more comfortable staying on the transport ship… It’s all because I listened to that wretched girl Lin Xue’s seduction—Damn it! She’s a Prophet; she must have known about the situation here early on. I’ve been played by her again!”

Anwina cast a sympathetic glance at her master beside her and sighed inwardly: Alas, why does the master always encounter such problems?

“Ugh—I can’t take it anymore!” I exclaimed loudly, then plopped down and began to rummage through my belongings, “Where’s the communicator? The troop carrier hasn’t left yet, right… What’s this? A plush bear, candy cake, comic books, tangram puzzles, a rocking horse, dolls… Dizzy, why is my space filled with all these things…”

The life of a professional dad…

Anwina stood by with a bewildered expression, mentally criticizing in this way.

“Never mind, we’re almost there anyway, I won’t bother the soldiers,” I said to myself as I pulled out a gas mask, “I’ll just make do with this for now—if I get the chance, I must find a way to purify the plague energy near Tirisfal, the Forgotten Ones are bothered by this stuff as well, so consider it a small favor to Sylvanas.”

I think I must look hilarious with the gas mask on because even Anwina, usually the most obedient little maid, now had a face twisted in an effort to hold back laughter.

If only a Spirit Barrier could block out smells, it’s a pity that at my current skill level I cannot achieve such precise control. Well, looks aren’t everything—I’m afraid I’d really end up vomiting all the way to Dark City if I kept smelling this…

“Master, can this plague really be purified?” Anwina suddenly asked, surveying the corrupt and dead landscape around us.

After all, this was also her homeland.

“Although it’s a bit troublesome, it’s not hard to fix.”

That’s what I said, but actually doing it would be much more complicated than I’ve made it sound…

Several days ago, we had analyzed the undead plague of this world and had made significant progress: we successfully isolated the source of infection from the remains of undead creatures, a contaminant similar to a virus but devoid of life.

This was a strange assertion because, although viruses are simple life forms, they are still considered life, a “basic biological knowledge” Dingdang insisted on, yet the source of the plague we isolated from the undead creatures was very peculiar. They exhibited all the characteristics of viruses, were capable of splitting, growing, and evolving like normal life forms, but they had no Life Force. With Dingdang, an expert in biology, we did not doubt this point, which posed a major obstacle to our original plan of cultivating an antibody against the undead plague—these viruses were already “dead,” so how could they be killed?

Of course, there were more complex methods, such as using chemical reagents to directly destroy the molecular structure of the plague virus. This method was technically more difficult, but for Xyrin Scientists who had reached the Level of precise control over quarks, it wasn’t a problem. However, there was another issue—the undead virus of Azeroth world wasn’t simply transforming living beings into undead through its biochemical characteristics; astonishingly, it also contained Magic Power…

This was very bizarre, a bunch of simple viruses actually contained Magic Power, a phenomenon that could only happen in a world like Azeroth, filled with Magic Power. This fact came as a shock to me, who had assumed the undead plague was similar to the T-virus from Resident Evil, and it also frustrated Bubbles and a group of researchers, who had been confidently studying virus samples: if it contained Magic Power, even if the plague virus’s physical form could be destroyed by technological means, the energy carried within these viruses that could transform living beings into undead might not be eradicated. Therefore, it was simply impossible to eliminate the plague with technology alone!

Sigh, the Undead Catastrophe was not like the Resident Evil crisis, a reality we could accept…

Because the plague virus carried the power of Undead Magic, our attempts to purify the plague with technology were unlikely to succeed. What remained to be seen was what method Alaya had up his sleeve—this was a truly disheartening situation. Although a significant portion of the Xyrin Apostles possessed mastery over mystical and unknown powers, due to the uneven distribution of the population, Apostles proficient in Technology Power and those in Mysterious Power tended to gather separately, resulting in only Alaya among my awakened Apostles possessing Magic Power. Now faced with an undead plague that could not be resolved through technological means, it was a real headache…

However, where there’s a will, there’s a way. No matter how troublesome the plague virus might be, it shouldn’t completely stymie the Xyrin Apostles, who possessed the ultimate civilization. After all, Azeroth was Anwina’s homeland, and I was more than willing to help if possible.