Plague Doctor

For Phecda’s Gobi Desert Division, that morning was a buzz of activity. It was not difficult to retrieve a Special Mobile Force of only 30 plus people from the desert, but the difficulty was there were also 300 plus citizens of different nationality, 2 dead bodies and some vehicles. In any case, they were all brought back to base for quarantine. This incident dubbed ‘Yellow Sign’ had a Grade C confidentiality, and it would be directed straight from the headquarters. Therefore, other than the few division leaders, most of the members had no idea what they were doing, they were merely following the orders. The members of the Action Department sent for the rescue members did not even realize the masked man that they were escorting back to the base was… the departed hero whom Phecda had been using as its face for the past half a year, the recipient of the Phecda medal, the legend at Eastern State.

Many people took private jets from headquarters to the Gobi Desert Division. Some were there to support the division; others were to investigate the desert to search for clues; some were members of the Spell Department. Prof Shen was coming over while Elder Tong had to stay back at the headquarters to hold the fort.

When he saw the nightmare man, Prof Shen was both anxious and excited, worried that it was yet another false hope. The news that Gu Jun was still alive had been covered up, no one knew about it, not even his former colleagues at Eastern State because ‘Gu Jun’ was no longer a nobody, the name had an image to uphold. If the nightmare man was not him, then Phecda would have to deal with the pretender; but even if it was him, they would have to keep the news under tab for further observation.

Everyone who was quarantined at the Gobi Desert Division had to go through a series of inspections, both physical and psychological. The priority was naturally given to the team from Spell Department, Gu Jun and the land’s travellers. Zheng Jialiang’s body and Mr. Wang Erde’s body as well as the yellow robe that the latter wore were requested by Elder Tong to be sent back to the Spell Department for experiment and autopsy. Was Mr. Wang Erde even a human being? Or was he a mutated creature like the zombies?

The X-ray imaging showed that he was a human but whether he had any mutation would only be found out after the autopsy.

The next day, the important DNA report was out. Elder Tong and Prof Shen were overjoyed, the result matched! The nightmare man was indeed Gu Jun. More in depth physical checks were arranged for him. The wounds on his legs had mostly recovered and X-ray imaging did not catch any mutated growth; his skin showed pigmentation degeneration and suffered from severe scarring but they did not seem to affect his health. However, there was a surprising discovery that brought them even more joy.

“Ha ha ha! The kid is blessed, I tell you. His time is not up yet!” Elder Tong laughed and laughed.

“Good, good, good.” Yao Sinian who heard this news shared in the joy. They were glad that Ah Jun had returned alive but they had not forgotten about the ticking time bomb in his brain stem, he would still perish in another few years but the X-ray showed that the tumor had shrunken so much that it had almost disappeared!

This was a good sign, the kid would live to see his grandchildren even. The incurable brain stem tumor had recovered on its own? It might be a miracle if it happened to others but there had to be a reason for it to happen to Gu Jun.

After being informed of the good news, Gu Jun was pleasantly surprised as well. There should still be some ‘brain tumor targeting pills’ among his ‘remains’, he planned to find a suitable time to give them to the Medical Department for research. If it could help advance the cancer treatment development, it would be wonderful.

But for now, he explained to Phecda that the recovery probably had to do with the medicine provided to him by the Zoogs—he was not lying per se, the Zoogs did help him in some ways, maybe just not precisely with his brain tumour. Gu Jun gave a truthful partial report of his journey after his battle with the nightmare house until his return to Earth. Some parts were omitted or edited… most of them being the part about the people from the future and the city of Kindle.

The reason? Gu Jun was cautious about the information chain going through Phecda, certain information he felt it was better to hold close to his chest. Before the rescue team arrived, he had come up with a front story with the land’s travellers. Kathlyn, Tom and their friends suffered from multiple-personality disorder and were suddenly pulled into the Dreamlands. It was the Great Atal from Ulthar who summoned them, he took them in as his disciple and taught them the Seven Cryptical Book of Hsan. They were then given a mission to rescue him at Dylath-Leen and bring him back to Ulthar to meet Atal. Atal gave him 3 treasures and taught him the Ancient Seal technique. The 3 treasures were very important.

The words on the beast hide was Atal’s prophecy. The fish scale was an unknown warning, while the stone with the ancient seal was an aid. Due to the prophecy, Gu Jun did not announce his return but chose to silently contact Wu Siyu first. Therefore, it was not Gu Jun who was the hero but it was Atal who had prophesied everything. With regards to why Atal wanted to do all that, he had no idea.

Kathlyn and her friends were already clueless to begin with so they did not need to lie. For the land’s travellers, after they found out about Gu Jun’s real identity, they swore their allegiance to him. They were cautioned by Gu Jun to be careful of hypnosis and if asked, just reply with, ‘I don’t know anything, let me see the nightmare man.’ Gu Jun believed no harm should come to them even if they were reluctant to provide assistance. Phecda would not treat them so heartlessly, would they?

“Even if I am tortured,” Peacock claimed seriously, “I will not say a single word.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think I can make that promise…” Kathlyn sighed but what she did not realize was that she was already herself a barrier, because without her translation, the people from Phecda wouldn’t be able to understand the land’s travellers. In any case, as Gu Jun expected, the members from the Review Department accepted their version of the truth and did not cross any line. Well, to be fair, without any hint, no one would have even thought about time travelling so the version that he came up with was easily acceptable. After all, there was no way for the Review Department to go to Atal to ask him for confirmation.

On the other hand, Gu Jun did not hide information about Dreamlands in his report. He described its geography and different culture because he knew that the research into Dreamlands would not cease. He’d rather provide them with information to prevent them from possible danger like transporting into the Plateau of Leng. Whether Phecda could find an actual channel, Gu Jun was not worried. Gu Jun himself could not find one without the help of the Zoogs much less these researchers who were unfamiliar with Dreamlands.

After the reports were collected, the biggest trouble for Phecda was the members of the Spell Department, especially those who had shown signs of mental corruption and traitorous intent. It was clear that Phecda’s current S value assessment system had become obsolete. Zheng Jialiang’s death was a deep regret. If they could have discerned the sign of madness in him early on, the whole tragedy could have been avoided. At the very least, he would be kicked out and that would prevent him from pulling others into the abyss with him.

Gu Jun learned from this that evil and good in humanity was not a thing of permanence, therefore a new system of S value evaluation and recalibration was that much more important. It was not something that could be resolved by shouting out slogans or having meetings. There had to be a solution and the Ancient Seal was clearly one of them.

With his natural caution, Gu Jun did not hand over the entirety of the Pnakotic Manuscripts, he wanted to study them on his own further. However, the nature of the Ancient Seal, its utilization and how to materialize it with one’s mental power, he explained all that to Elder Tong. “The Ancient Seal is not a spell but more like a tool, it will not corrupt the user’s mind but it can cause those creatures of darkness and maddened individuals to reel in disgust while applying mental damage. It can also help balance out the power source that would corrupt the disciples of the Seven Cryptical Book of Hsan. I believe it is some kind of ward, probably having similar usage as garlic to vampire.”

Elder Tong accepted Gu Jun’s suggestion and ordered every member who had trained with the tome to accept the stone’s cleansing.

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