Plague Doctor

Translator: Lonelytree  Editor: Lonelytree

Obscure, ancient, and mysterious. Among the howling winds, it also sounded quite creepy and strange. This was the language that Xue Ba, Luo Xiaoning, and the rest heard coming out from Gu Jun's mouth. He stood in the black wind, repeating the same mantra again and again. But they did not realize that in that one hour of being tormented by the whipping wind, Gu Jun had spent most of it submerged in the pain of the flashing illusion.

He had slowly overcome the pain and peeled away the mist the clouded his view. He saw the flickering signs slowly turning brighter and come alive. He finally understood it. Throughout the universe, everything had its own rules. There was power that was innate to the human civilization, and there was power that was innate to that foreign civilization. Although, for now, he had not truly gotten a handle over the kind of power the foreign civilization had yet.

"Stop!" Gu Jun said in that foreign language. He did not raise his voice, but there was determination in his tone.

"Stop!" he repeated. It did not matter whether the underground tunnel was just a stack of stone or a beast; Gu Jun's goal was to communicate with it. There was no fear or surprise in Gu Jun. This was merely a simple communication between one life form and another. In fact, the interaction between two distinctively different life forms could be seen as a joyous event. Gu Jun was telling it that he did not appreciate this and that it should stop.

"Stop!" Gu Jun repeated. "Stop."

Xue Ba and the rest saw in awe that the black wind appeared to be able to understand Gu Jun's order-like words. The wind gradually slowed down… until it stopped completely.

The underground stone tunnel had returned to silence. Only their breathing and the sound of objects tumbling to the ground remained. The stone walls around them were still as even and clean as ever. The black wind did not leave behind any trace. It was as if the whole incident had never happened. But the group knew that they did not imagine it. They turned to look at Gu Jun's steady body, which was half-hidden in the darkness. They were at a loss…

Who was this young man? Was that magic? Was that the power of the Spirit Child from Lai Sheng Company?

With a smooth roll, Lou Xiaoning picked up the ninety-five auto from the ground and aimed it at Gu Jun. Her right index finger was poised at the trigger.

"Kid, don't move." Her tone was very serious. "Explain. And not one more word of that strange language, not even a silent mumbling."

"Sigh…" Uncle Dan yelped from worry. He waved his hands and said, "What are you doing, Miss Lou? Don't you see, it was Ah Jun who stopped that strange wind! Why is he the enemy?"

"Uncle Dan, I know what I am doing." Lou Xiaoning stared closely at Gu Jun and purposely made her tone harsh and accusatory. "Think about it. It was him who caused the stone to collapse to reveal the underground path, and it was him who made the wind stop, so how can we know for sure that it was not him who summoned the wind? What is his goal? If he knows dark magic, we will all be under his mercy if we are not armed."

To be fair, Lou Xiaoning was just being cautious. Before Gu Jun could calm down from what he was doing and turn his attention toward him, she had already taken this opportunity to gain some leverage over him. At the end of the day, when dealing with a possible enemy, someone had to do this kind of dirty work.

Gu Jun was treated like a criminal after he had just saved a person's life. Feelings of anger, helplessness, annoyance would be expected. However, if Gu Jun's first reaction was calm, showing no trace of being offended… naturally, it did not mean that there was something wrong with him, but it did mean that they needed to tread around him more carefully. Under those circumstances, no matter how Gu Jun reacted, they needed to reassess this young man. After all, the deaths of 444 members from the Action Department were due to the 'misinformation' of a Spirit Child, and Gu Jun was also a Spirit Child. If Gu Jun was a bad apple, Lou Xiaoning did not think his goal was as simple as killing them, or else he could have kept the strange gale blowing. But not knowing the goal of the enemy was truly the scariest.

"Everyone, please calm down," Lin Mo said in a hurry from the stretcher. "I am sure we can talk this out. Ah Jun just saved my life."

"Calm down!" Xue Ba also shouted. He raised his hands to stop Yang Henan and Zhou Yi from meddling. As her old partner, Xue Ba naturally understood Lou Xiaoning's concern, but as the team captain, he had to keep the emotions all his team members, including Gu Jun, in check. "Xiaoning, your nerves are getting to you! But, Ah Jun, you also need to explain what that was."

With a sigh, Xue Ba continued. "Ah Jun, Xiaoning is just reacting to what happened. If it was me who stopped the wind with my orders, she would point the gun at me too. So please try to explain. We are the Demon Hunters. Even if you claim you are a ghost, that honestly will not be the strangest thing we've ever heard."

"Everyone…" Gu Jun was not surprised by their reaction. Lou Xiaoning looked like a tomboy, and Xue Ba had the appearance of a gym rat, but they were all clever people who thought many steps ahead of others. But he was only human susceptible to human emotions. His brows creased slightly. After all, they were close allies seconds ago, but now they were literally threatening him with his life. "The wind earlier triggered some of my implicit memory. I acquired a deeper understanding of this foreign language."

He was telling the truth, so Gu Jun's expression and tone were open as he extrapolated.

"This kind of language can combine with other energy of life to form a new source of energy. I have no idea whether it can work in our world or not, but it definitely works in this abnormal space."

Confusion and contemplation colored the people's faces. Xue Ba said with a frown, "In other words, the foreign language can be used as some kind of spell?"

"I suppose that is one way to see it." Gu Jun was still processing this new information himself. "The foreign language is very different from ours. It is alive; it can manifest the energy in other life forms. That's what happened with the stone wall. It was not just a line of normal characters on the wall. It was a spell that carried the life of the giant stone. That was why it could not be captured on photographs or painting. A lifeless copy of it will only decay and rot. It will not last in your memory either because if you do not comprehend that power fully, you will not be able to memorize it completely."

The group chewed over this. If this was a kind of spell… then it would be much easier to understand. After all, human history had records of magical spells before.

"You mean to say, that piece of rock and this whole tunnel is alive?" Xue Ba asked again.

"In a way, yes." Gu Jun nodded. "But there is no need to anthropomorphize them. It is just that there is the power of life in everything."

"Kid, so it was you who used the spell to make the wind stop?" Lou Xiaoning still had not put her guard down.

"I did not. That was not a spell. I merely said the command 'stop'," Gu Jun answered honestly. "I think I still triggered some kind of spell-activated mechanism. The conditions for that to happen appear to be: one has to comprehend the power of the language, perceive the life form that has been combined with the power of the spell, and then vocalize the spell. Normally, it works with just a silent recitation. It probably reacts to brain waves as well."

Most of the Demon Hunters were confused. It appeared like only Xue Ba got him. "You mean there are three conditions overall. One, the person must be able to communicate in the foreign language; two, they have to be able to communicate with the object that contains the power of the spell; three, they have to recite the spell. Then it will successfully form a kind of spiritual connection and that will trigger the spell-based mechanism that is already placed there in the first place."

"Yes!" Gu Jun's eyes glowed. Xue Ba was truly a scholar. He summarized the confusing thoughts in Gu Jun mind succinctly. This also helped Gu Jun arrange his thoughts more clearly. The unique advantage of the foreign language was that it could utilize the energy of life in others to form spell and curses. This was definitely not a feature of human language. This was perhaps how the foreign civilization could manage to develop its super advanced medical knowledge even though their scientific technology was so backward.

"Everyone, I also don't understand what theory behind it is. Brain waves? Sound waves?" Gu Jun shook his head. "I merely triggered the mechanism. Anyone who understands the foreign language and has high spirituality would be able to do the same. As for how to manipulate the language into creating or using spell, I am completely clueless."

Uncle Dan, Lin Mo, and the rest listened to Gu Jun's explanation. Even though they had encountered many abnormal energy activities and were leaning toward trusting Gu Jun, they still found this hard to believe. But the truth was, they had seen Gu Jun's explanation in action twice already.

Lou Xiaoning still aimed the barrel at Gu Jun while Xue Ba was in thinking mode…