Chapter 168. (Patreon)

Zac felt annoyed as he stepped through the door to the back of the clinic. He just wanted to go through the town unannounced and disappear before anyone could remember him. Yet he’d been forced to knock out one of the higher-ups of the town just because of some silly jealousy. Who knew what type of trouble would come knocking if he stayed too long.

With a few quick steps he walked through an unadorned corridor and found himself in an austere clinic looking like some ancient herbalist’s treatment room. 

Various herbs were hanging from the roof, creating a thick scent in the room, and the walls were covered with old drawings that seemed to show the chakras of the body. However, the room was completely empty, with the Purifier nowhere in sight.

Zac frowned and looked around a bit. Suddenly he spotted that something was odd with a large medicine cabinet, and with a simple push moved it to the side. It led him to another room, and Zac could only gape when he entered it.

The interiors looked like the basement of a real anime fanatic, if this particular fanatic was also a corrupt warlord. Stands displaying figurines were placed next to machine guns and actual gold bars. The room was completely cluttered, and in the back a man in his late thirties was lounging in a recliner, watching cartoons on television.

A cough from Zac made the man jump up like his ass was on fire. He quickly swiveled toward the exit, and seemed shocked to see a man decked in furs and a war axe standing in his sanctuary. 

“Who are you? How dare you enter this place?” the man said with a flustered face as he tried to shoo Zac back. “Out, OUT!”

“I didn’t mean to intrude on your… Private area,” Zac said with another cough as he backed out into the clinic. “Your nurse sent me through to get some help in exchange for a donation. After that, I’m leaving this town.”

Finally after having stepped outside and closed the hidden door did the man seem to calm down. 

"Wait here a second," he said as he rushed over to the door and shouted for the nurse, who quickly came running.

The two exchanged a few whispers as the surrepticiously glanced over in Zac's direction, until the nurse left again.

“No way, if I help you then Perseverance will get angry with me. You beat up one of his lieutenants, who know's what he'll do," the Purifier said, looking scared.

“That’s why I would like you to hurry up,” Zac said, simply pouring some crystals on the floor in front of him. “I pay well.”

Greed shone in Mr. Wang’s eyes as he saw the crystals falling like rain from Zac’s bag.

“Fine, tw-.. no, five thousand crystals, and not one less,” the Purifier said, not being able to stop himself from licking his mouth. “And leave right after, I will deny having helped you.”

“Fine, go ahead,” Zac said as he started to undress.

“Don’t you know anything?” the man hurriedly said with a look of disgust. “Who wants to see your naked body? Just point where your miasma wound is.”

Zac stopped, feeling a bit surprised, but pointed toward his side where the festering wound was located.

The Purifier took a step forward and a golden light started to emit from his hands. Zac carefully gazed at the light, and was relieved to see that that the Purifier didn’t seem to play any tricks on him. 

The light felt like concentrated Cosmic Energy, but it was somehow changed to contain far more of the vibrant life that always existed in it. It was like the opposite of miasma in a sense.

The man held his hands close to the wound and closed his eyes in concentration. Zac soon found a warmth reminiscent of what it felt like then eating healing pills around the blackish tendrils spreading from the core of his injury. But as soon as the warmth entered him it disappeared, as the Purifier backed away with wide eyes.

“Just how are you alive? What is this wound? There’s no way I can treat that,” he stammered, looking shocked at what he’d found.

“Never mind how I’m alive. I know it’s a bad wound, but I felt the effect of your skills. Do as much as you can,” Zac said with a sigh. “Besides, healing wound this severe should give a huge boost in experience to your class, right?”

Zac guessed that his class was considered a non-combat class, and that healing people would be considered progressing the class. If it worked the same as with a blacksmith and the like, healing a nasty wound should give a large boost of experience. The man still looked troubled, but the reminder seemed to have reawakened the greed in the man.

The Purifier once again extended his hands, though much more carefully this time, and the golden light emerged. It started on the outer edges of the wound, and Zac was ecstatic to find that the corruption was melting away at a speed that far eclipsed what he was able to do by himself with his Dao of Trees.

However, Zac started to frown as the minutes passed and the purifier was starting to turn pale. A sheen of perspiration was already covering his face, but he still had only managed to work on the outer rim of the wound. The core was still the same, throbbing with miasma and rot.

Suddenly the man opened his eyes wide and fell back, spewing a mouthful of black blood on the ground. Zac was alarmed and made to move toward him, but an intense pain that was as bad as when he got stabbed by the Corpse Lord's weapon exploded in his side. Huge waves of miasma started to spread out of it, trying to completely convert Zac.

He fought back the rampaging wound with everything that he got, putting his Dao of Trees on overdrive. Pale with anger and pain Zac stepped forward and grabbed the shell-shocked Purifier by the throat.

“What the fuck did you do?” Zac growled. “Fix it or I’ll break your neck.”

“I swear it wasn’t me,” the man squealed with pain. “It was your wound. It’s alive.”

“I don’t care, heal it right now,” Zac said.

“Don’t you understand? There’s no way I can heal it. Perhaps not even the strongest purifiers can. And look at me, you’ve poisoned me!” he said with tears in his eyes as he held up his hands.

The hands were greyish, almost looking like the hands of a Zombie. They also gave off the cold aura of death, indicating they were flooded with miasma. The sight quickly stopped Zac in his tracks, and he let go of the man who plopped down on the ground with a groan.

What the man said finally registered in Zac’s mind. The wound truly felt alive, as it time and time again tried to break through the Dao Field Zac had created around the wound. When it didn’t work it tried to break out from another direction, just like a caged animal.

The situation was under control for now, but Zac knew it would be very strenuous to keep his Dao Field going indefinitely.

“What do I do to calm the wound down?” Zac said with a frown, not wanting to just leave it like this.

“I have no idea. I only got this class since my family were exorcists. Or con-men, you know. I helped out until I was old enough to get the hell out from there and get a real job. 

I don’t really know anything about miasma or fighting the undead. I just push the light into the wounds and they heal,” he panted as he covered his zombified hands in the golden light.

“Man it will take weeks to rid my hands of this much miasma. And this is only the backlash. I don’t understand how you’re alive, but you should go and say your final goodbyes,” he said with a bleak expression, though Zac felt he could discern some schadenfreude in the end. “I can’t imagine anyone surviving that thing.”

Zac looked down on the wounded Purifier with a frown, unsure what to do from here on out. He’d thought that visiting a Purifier would either heal him, or not work. The fact that it seemed to have made things worse wasn’t something he expected.

He could keep going along the edge of the incursion, finding other Purifiers to help out as well, but there was no telling how much time he would waste that way. Weeks, perhaps. And there was no guarantee that the other healers had any solutions.

The other option was to just hope for the best and push through the Dead Zone. That meant that he would have to go through areas with dense miasma while his wound was out of control though.

Finally he settled on staying the night in the town. He would wait to see if the restless attacks would subside. If things got worse he might have no choice but to seek out a better Purifier, but if the wound got back to normal again he would push through the Dead Zone.

“Sorry about your hands,” Zac said as he placed an extra 2500 crystals on the ground. 

“This is a small compensation. You should start working in earnest on your class. My wound came from an evolved Zombie, so this kind of injury will become more and more common. If you can’t heal these kinds of wounds, then sooner or later some wounded powerhouse might lash out at you in anger. That little bodyguard downstairs won’t be able to protect you.”

Mr. Wang didn’t answer Zac, but the Purifier's frown deepened as he thoughtfully looked at his hands. With that Zac left the small room and walked through the clinic. Zac didn’t actually know if what he said was the truth, but humanity needed as many competent Purifiers as possible. 

Wang Guo got such a gift thanks to his family’s odd occupation, but if he continued like now that precious gift would get squandered, and it might lead to the death of many warriors who might otherwise have survived.

The two men were still lying unconscious on the ground when Zac returned to the lobby, though they had been repositioned so that their airways were unobstructed. The nurse called Yao Yao looked up when he appeared, but his facial expression must have been quite bad since she flinched away.

“Is there an ambush waiting for me outside?” Zac only asked with a hoarse voice as he gave the girl an even look.

“I don’t know, no one has come in or out since you arrived. Is… Purifier Wang okay?” she answered looking a bit scared.

“He’s fine, but a bit drained. He will likely not be able to work tomorrow,” Zac said with a shrug as he exited clinic.

A quick look around showed nothing out of the usual, except the fact that the whole queue was looking at him with curious or envious eyes. There were no guards lined up, and Zac felt no danger through his sense, so he simply walked away.

A few quick twists and turns later he found himself in a secluded area where he changed his large fur cloak for a more nondescript one. He thought about changing his full face, but he was afraid of doing that at the moment. 

The pain of the transformation might cause him to lose focus, which he couldn’t risk while his wound rampaged around in his gut. He did however remove the bun, causing his long hair to cover his face somewhat.

Next he hurried over to a tavern. He had already seen a few as he walked throug the town earlier, as apparently many Zombie hunters didn’t bother owning property. They left for long stretches of time, and their homes might be ransacked when they returned.

Instead many chose to stay in hotels and taverns while they were in town. Zac chose one that was neither particularly flashy nor run-down, and quickly paid for a room.

He was starting to get a bit dizzy as he was walking up the stairs, as the constant movement had put a strain on him. He opened the door with shaky hands and with a muffled groan he sat down on the floor, finally able to focus on the Dao of Trees. 

Time slowly passed and Zac was extremely relieved to sense that his wound was slowly calming down, allowing him relax somewhat. However, he didn’t dare to relent, so he kept his Dao going, even if it was starting to cause some strain.

However, the night wasn’t fated to be a quiet once, as the subdued sounds of steps stopped right outside his door.