Emperor Alfred squatted beside the two fallen soldiers, stretched out his hand to look at their chins. He instinctively did not use his fingers to touch the two men. His blood gave him an intuition that the black spots on the men's bodies were very dangerous. If he touched them forcefully, it would probably cause harm to the emperor himself. So his nails slowly grew longer and turned into a protruding claw tip. He used his nails to repeatedly fiddle with the heads of the two soldiers and saw the black spots clearly.
The soldiers around knelt on the ground, and even many officers and stewards who were not originally in this position came over. They were also very curious about why His Majesty the Emperor suddenly appeared here and observed two ordinary soldiers lying on the ground.
The subsequent guards and ministers finally arrived one by one. The guards quickly formed a circle and drove out the soldiers who were originally kneeling around them.
"Your Majesty, let us check it out. I'm afraid that you will cause others to speculate." Master Gandas said.
Alfred said, "What's the big deal? It's normal for me to care about my soldiers. In fact, the current problem may be more serious than we think. I can almost confirm that this black spot is a very serious disease, and Mollett and the two soldiers have been infected with it.
This disease can make my Saint-level bloodline feel an instinctive sense of danger, which means that if we are not careful enough, it can cause us huge losses."
"Your Majesty! Is it so serious?" Several ministers asked in unison. They all knew that the Emerald Dragon bloodline was a very sensitive bloodline. If the Emperor had such a premonition, it was very likely that it was the case!"
Master Gandas carefully observed and compared the black spots on the soldiers' faces. These black spots were already the size of coins and were slowly connecting into one. He asked, "Could it be that Mollett is still in the early stages of the disease, while the conditions of these two soldiers are more serious?"
"It is very likely so." Alfred said, "Now place these two soldiers in two separate rooms and send a healing magician to check them. The others go and notify all the troops in Blackwood Pass to see if anyone else has the same black spot symptoms. Anyone with such symptoms should be sent together and gathered together."
"Your Majesty, what about me?" Mollett pointed at himself.
"You can pick a big house and turn it into a place to accommodate the patients. You will be responsible for the order in the room. Master Edel will be in charge of things outside." Alfred ordered.
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The search arranged by the emperor soon produced results, and to their surprise, more than fifty people with black spots on their bodies had been found in the entire Heimu Pass.
But what happened next soon shocked them even more. They found two people with black spots all over their bodies in a black guard barracks.
They were Erestor and Figueras, who had just been defeated the day before and escaped back to Heimu Pass.
The two people have been lying in bed and unable to get up. They said that they felt something was wrong with their physical condition after they came back yesterday. Today, their bodies suddenly turned black and weak, and they were no longer able to support any actions.
If the searchers hadn't been unable to open the door and hadn't smelled a strange odor coming from inside, they might have died in their beds without knowing it.
Seeing the condition of these two people, Alfred knew that the power of this disease was even stronger than he had imagined. In just over two days, it could make a mid-level wizard and a low-level warrior completely lose their ability to move and turn into two pools of mud. This was simply unheard of.
"Your Majesty, this is probably a disease that can be transmitted from one person to another. If these two people contracted the disease when they met the Chinese, then today is only the third day they have been ill. Now that so many people have begun to fall ill, the situation tomorrow and the day after tomorrow... is really unpredictable!" said Gandas.
"The Chinese... Do you think it's possible that the Chinese deliberately let them get this disease?" Alfred asked.
Gandas nodded slowly and said, "It is very likely. If my army is much smaller in number than the enemy, I will definitely try every possible way to reduce the number of the enemy. Plague is undoubtedly a simple and effective method."
"These people are so ruthless that they can be our biggest enemies. I even admire the person who came up with this idea."
"Your Majesty's broad mind is truly admirable."
Emperor Alfred waved his hand and ordered, "Let everyone return to their barracks. My personal guards are now supervising the blockade. Anyone who comes out without reason will be killed without mercy."
He suddenly thought of something and grabbed the Minister of Finance, Duke Hannix, and asked, "How many of those teams transporting supplies left here yesterday and today?"
Hannix was stunned, and said nervously: "There are probably three to four caravans every day, but the exact number needs my deputy to check the records."
"Investigate immediately. After the investigation is completed, inform the Black Guards and have them send people to chase them. All teams must return to Blackwood Pass and accept our investigation. If they pass through any villages or towns... have all the people in the villages and towns come to Blackwood Pass."
Duke Hannix nodded solemnly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand. I will bring everyone here without leaving a single one behind, and kill anyone who refuses to come. I will have our people burn all the bodies, and will never let this plague spread to the empire."
"Very good. I believe you can do it. As long as it is discovered early and treated well, I don't believe that a single disease can cause us much loss."
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However, the news that came the next day surprised Alfred.
"You two are saying that healing mages can't cure this disease?"
"Yes." Gandas and Edel nodded at the same time. Beside them was a middle-aged man, Rodman, the high-level wizard with the highest level of treatment in Heimuguan. "We tried many methods, including healing magic, alchemical potions, and even the doctor's herbs. Except for magic that could slightly delay the progression of the disease, his methods had no effect at all. But even with magic treatment, the patient's condition did not improve. If the patient is a magician or a warrior, he can hold on longer. But it is difficult for ordinary people to endure. The few people who fell ill yesterday were more ill than Erestor and Figuras. Two of them are unlikely to survive tonight."
"How many sick patients are there now?" asked the emperor.
Gandas and Edel looked at each other and uttered a number: "460 people!" (To be continued)