Chapter 359 True World War
The wizarding world escaped the world war and still existed and developed step by step, but the world outside was different. Even though Zhao Mai and Tolkien had only been away for three months, the outside world had changed so much that they felt a little strange.
The disease has enveloped the UK. People wearing masks can be seen everywhere, coughing and sneezing everywhere, there are always long queues at roadside shops and pharmacies selling cough drops, and the entrance of every hospital is full of patients. Everyone was in such a hurry that they even developed a new conditioned reflex: whenever they heard a cough, they would unconsciously move away, just like they started to avoid when they heard an air raid siren.
Europe is infected again, Zhao Mai thought as he looked at the scene outside the car window. Everything in front of him aroused his alertness, and then he asked Duojian to check the information on the auxiliary nervous system, and then he understood what it was. The 1918 Spanish Flu infected more than one billion people out of a global population of 1.7 billion, killing between 20 and 50 million people.
The entire First World War lasted fifty-two months, that is, more than four years. The total death toll among civilians and soldiers was more than 10 million, which was less than one-third of the deaths caused by the influenza that lasted for more than a year.
Humanity's greatest enemy is always disease, and this is especially true in Europe. The Antonine Plague, the Justinian Plague, the Black Death, and this time the Spanish Flu. Time and time again, diseases are killing people and taking away the civilization created by humans. The Antonine plague caused the collapse of the powerful Rome, smallpox strangled the vitality of the North American Indians, the Justinian plague ravaged the Mediterranean and also took away the hope of the final revival of the Byzantine Empire and ancient Egypt, the Black Death exposed the incompetence of the Holy See, and Spain influenza……
There are also demons such as malaria, plague, tuberculosis, etc., which always attack every civilization. The denser the population and the less attention to hygiene, the easier it is to break out. It is very important to have effective prevention and medical treatment. The Chinese nation can continue to rely on its emphasis on education and culture, on hard-working hands, and on traditional Chinese medicine.
Tolkien was silent all the way, obviously frightened by the scene outside. When Zhao Mai stopped the car, he basically rushed in like flying. Zhao Mai followed behind, carrying a large bag of materials for making potions. The small building was filled with the smell of potions and a faint smell of blood.
They found Edith in a second-floor bedroom. The originally happy and healthy hostess was pale, suffering from high fever and repeated vomiting, and her mind was already a little unclear. Tolkien held her hand and called Edith's name, which made her slowly open her eyes.
"You're back." Edith forced a smile: "It's okay, I feel much better already. Yesterday...ahem..." A violent cough interrupted her words.
"Give a little bit and I'll treat her." Zhao Mai was stopped as soon as he entered the room.
"Who are you and why did you come into my house and claim to treat Edith?" It seems that this woman with a frown and a frown is the person who wrote the letter. Her eyes were bloodshot and the dark circles were extremely obvious. It was obvious that she had not had a good rest for a long time. There was also phlegm in her throat, and she was probably infected with the disease. Zhao Mai asked Tolkien and knew that Edith was an orphan like him. Mrs. Lorraine Warren in front of her was Edith's godmother and had taken care of her for a long time. She was almost a mother.
"Believe me, I can get rid of the disease." Zhao Mai reached out and pushed her aside and placed her on the chair at the corner of the bed. "Tolkien, I remember that you put a lot of wine in your storeroom. Go and set up the cauldron and prepare the medicine."
"Can I stay? I want..."
"No problem." Zhao Mai slapped his head, apparently forgetting human nature. "Ado, take the flowers to do this." He then came to the bedside and began to cast the "Disease Dispelling" spell.
The soft green light enveloped Edith's body. It didn't last long, but the effect was very obvious. Edith frowned, looked at herself in surprise, and tried to straighten up: "I feel much better, especially breathing."
"Most of the symptoms have been eliminated, but you are still very weak and need to continue to rest." Zhao Mai said to Edith: "Give me your hand and I will check you again."
Zhao Mai didn't know the technique of taking a pulse, he just took this opportunity to check with the force of nature. When he was getting rid of the disease just now, Zhao Mai felt something was wrong: the disease in Edith's body was quite stubborn in the face of natural force spells, and treating a cold was actually more difficult than treating his father's uremia. This is obviously unreasonable, and Zhao Mai suspects that there are other forces at work. Judging from her resistance to spells, Edith seemed to be under some kind of curse.
Utilizing the affinity of natural force for living organisms, unnatural non-living energy can be easily found. As expected, there is still a curse lingering in Edith's lungs, constantly sucking her life force to speed up the spread and intensity of the disease. After Zhao Mai confirmed this, he spent a lot of time using the curse removal spell to pull out the energy from her body.
A black smoke slowly dissipated in the air, and the energy contained in it was very similar to a wizard's spell. Just one observation was not enough to draw a firm conclusion, so he calmly said to Edith's mother: "Madam, Edith's illness is basically fine, but we must avoid catching another cold. I found that you also Can you let me check some symptoms?"
"Ah, thank you." Seeing that Edith's complexion improved greatly, Mrs. Warren's attitude also improved quickly: "I was really sorry just now, I didn't know you were a doctor... Is the medical skill of the East so magical?"
"This is not a medical skill, it belongs to occult science. Please keep it confidential." Zhao Mai didn't want to explain this issue in detail, so he had to briefly mention it.
This time, he did not drive away the disease as soon as he came up, but used natural force to check it first. The symptoms in Edith's mother were milder, which may be related to her relative strength. There was the same curse in her lungs, which continued to suck out life force, catalyze lesions, and then spread the germs carrying the same curse through the air. The curse itself does not cause disease. Its entire purpose is to replicate itself and accelerate the spread, allowing the germs to spread further and faster, affecting more people.
The germs may be natural, but the curse is certainly man-made. Zhao Mai checked again and again and was basically certain that this curse was a wizard's curse technology. At least its energy fluctuations and spell composition had a similar style. There is such a thing, and if you want to cure a person, you need to expel the disease and remove the curse, and then you need to be carefully isolated to avoid reinfection.
Zhao Mai's spell power is not weak, but he can only treat single-digit patients, so he can only take care of Tolkien's family first. If you want to treat more people, clear out at least one block, and form a buffer zone in a small area, you can only rely on distributing magic potions. Although it is impossible to make a panacea that can eliminate all diseases, it is not difficult to make a Druid potion that only targets a specific disease, not to mention the knowledge of medicine refining from the Westeros bachelors. The wizarding world also has potions that can dispel curses. This is also a formula that students must learn in potions class. The key now is how to combine them. Ado and Duojian cleaned up Edith's living room, placed the materials in categories under Xiaohua's guidance, and waited for Zhao Mai to take action.