Su Muqing suppressed the strange feeling in her heart, then scanned her surroundings through the goggles, but soon she regretted it.
While scanning, she had activated the micro-vision function of the space scanner. Upon seeing the results, her hair stood on end.
The entire quarantine zone, both on the ground and on the surrounding buildings, was covered in tiny red egg clusters! Dense and clustered together, they made Su Muqing's skin crawl, goosebumps dancing beneath her protective suit. The scene was utterly disgusting.
How could this be? In this era, in this place, how could there be so many bacteria and viruses? This shouldn't be happening! Could these bacteria and viruses have also traveled through time?
Watching the occasional clusters of egg clusters drift by, Su Muqing no longer bothered to ponder why bacteria and viruses that should have existed in modern times had suddenly appeared in ancient times.
This was because, at that moment, she felt something sour in her throat, surging up from her stomach, and she could barely control it.
She was wearing a mask, goggles, and a thick protective suit. Su Muqing quickly raised her hand and tightly covered her mouth, trying to swallow down the nausea.
She was afraid that if she couldn't hold it in and threw up into her mask, she would be the one to suffer.
"What's wrong? Your expression is so strange?" Huo Qiyuan saw Su Muqing's gaze shift from fear and disgust to confusion, and then to suppressed endurance. He became very curious about what she had just seen.
Su Muqing did not answer Huo Qiyuan's question immediately. After she had completely swallowed the nauseous feeling in her throat, she immediately circled Huo Qiyuan and the others a few times, scrutinizing them from head to toe.
After reconfirming that there were no traces of red egg clusters, bacteria, or viruses on any of them, Su Muqing finally breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed that Huo Qiyuan and the others had drunk the spiritual spring water, which had given them immunity to these bacteria and viruses, thus preventing them from being infected. This meant that the spiritual spring water not only treated the virus but also served as a preventative measure.
After examining them, Su Muqing frowned and continued to walk forward. The areas she passed were all surrounded by those blood-red egg clusters; the entire western district had been overrun by them.
"The situation here is too dire. Everywhere I look, it's all viruses. We need to disinfect immediately. Otherwise, it's only a matter of time before everyone in Si'an Prefecture gets infected with this strange illness," Su Muqing said sternly to Huo Qiyuan after another circuit.
Huo Qiyuan had not heard Su Muqing speak so seriously in a long time. After all, she possessed the superb medical skills to restore sight to those who had lost their eyeballs.
In Huo Qiyuan's mind, there was no illness that Su Muqing could not cure. Now that the situation in Si'an Prefecture had made her so serious and concerned, it was clear that this epidemic was not to be taken lightly.
"Then what kind of poison is it, and how can it be detoxified? Have you figured it out?"
Su Muqing organized her thoughts before speaking. "This is a bacterial virus. Its structure and mechanism are difficult for me to explain to you clearly at the moment. In short, you can consider it very powerful because it is basically everywhere. It doesn't need to hide or disguise itself; it just floats around, permeating every aspect of our lives. Just like when we breathe, with every inhale and exhale, these bacteria and viruses pass through our noses many times. At this point, anyone with a weaker constitution, especially the elderly and children, is at risk of infection at any moment."
Leng Feng raised his head vigilantly, scanning his surroundings with wide eyes. However, his eyes began to ache, and he saw nothing strange. He couldn't help but ask Su Muqing, "Your Majesty, you're saying that this place where we're standing is filled with this so-called bacterial poison you mentioned?"
Su Muqing nodded seriously and then made a large circle with her hand. "Yes! It's all around us. Let's call it a blood-sucking bacterial virus because once it infects the body, its egg clusters quickly devour human cells, blood, and internal organs. They then use this flesh and blood as nourishment to continuously sustain themselves, eventually transforming into what you saw a few days ago."
"After being fed by human flesh and blood, those invisible egg clusters all transform into long, blood-red worms. They not only damage the internal organs but also alter and mask the body's pulse, making infected individuals appear as if they have a common cold. This is why those patients, after taking so much cold medicine, not only failed to recover but also accelerated their deaths."
"When the infected person dies and begins to decompose, these blood-sucking worms will crawl out of the body, either seeping into the ground or laying eggs to find new hosts. In any case, they will eventually spread everywhere, infecting more people and animals. Therefore, individuals infected with such bacterial viruses must have their bodies cremated. Otherwise, in a short period, this place will completely turn into a dead city, a poisoned city! It will likely never regain its vitality."
Upon hearing Su Muqing's description, Leng Feng, Leng Kui, and the others' hearts trembled violently. After recovering from their shock, they quickly formed a circle.
They also enclosed Huo Qiyuan and Su Muqing in the center of the circle, with everyone staring warily at the surrounding air, trying to spot the blood-sucking bacterial viruses Su Muqing had described.
Seeing their somewhat comical actions, Su Muqing found it quite amusing. She coughed lightly and then slowly said, under Leng Ren's vigilant gaze, "Except for Leng Qi, who had undergone the eye replacement surgery, none of you can see them. It's a pity he's still in Yaoxing City. Stop straining your eyes like this; if your eyeballs fall out, what will you do!"
As Su Muqing finished speaking, the few of them dispersed somewhat sheepishly. They then began to blink rapidly to relieve the soreness around their eyes. It seemed their intense staring had been a bit too much, and they were now truly experiencing the discomfort.
Leng Feng still couldn't understand how something that was everywhere yet invisible could exist in the world. "Your Majesty, since you say those blood-sucking viruses are omnipresent, why can't our eyes see them?"
"Because this bacterial virus is invisible, or to put it another way, its volume is so small, many times smaller than a speck of dust in the air. Such minute things are invisible to the naked eye. Therefore, before it infects the human body, people cannot sense its presence. This is also why, after such a long time, you have been unable to find the true source of the virus."
This was the extent of Su Muqing's explanation, even with her best efforts. Not only did she not have much knowledge about bacteria and viruses, but even what she was saying now was entirely based on the analysis from the space scanner.
However, even if she understood this knowledge and broke it down to lecture these ancient people, she doubted Huo Qiyuan and the others would be able to understand or imagine what bacteria and viruses in the air looked like. So, she decided not to dwell on it.
"Then what should we do to detoxify?" Huo Qiyuan trusted Su Muqing unconditionally. She was capable of many things they couldn't do, and naturally, she could see things they couldn't, so there was nothing strange about it.
At present, the most pressing concern for Huo Qiyuan was whether this so-called blood-sucking bacterial virus could be cured and how.
Su Muqing nodded under Huo Qiyuan's expectant gaze. "Of course, it can be cured. In fact, detoxification is not difficult. My space mall should have medicine we can try. Besides detoxifying them, another important matter is cleaning up the environment here. Otherwise, even if this batch of patients is cured, if new people come later and get infected, there's still a possibility of widespread transmission."
"Alright, then we'll split into two groups. Some will be responsible for detoxification, and others for the disinfection you mentioned. With a two-pronged approach, the efficiency should be higher."
"Good, I'll go prepare some things first. Find an empty room. I'll buy some items from the mall and mix some disinfectant. As for the medicine to treat this virus, I think we'll continue to use the spiritual spring water!" Firstly, the situation in the western district was urgent. Since the spiritual spring water had already been tested and proven to help patients expel the worms from their bodies, there was no need to waste time trying other medicines.
Initially, for a brief moment, Su Muqing had strongly considered using Western medicine for treatment. Compared to each other, the spiritual spring water was undoubtedly more precious, as it was a life-saving substance in critical moments, much more effective than the formulated medicines sold in the space.
However, Su Muqing reconsidered. This was, after all, ancient times, not the technologically advanced modern era of her past life. Both the air and the environment were different from modern times. No one could guarantee whether the components of modern Western medicines would be suitable for the physiological functions of these ancient people.
What if, due to the vastly different living environment, these ancient people couldn't adapt to Western medicines developed thousands of years later? It was possible that instead of dying from the bacterial poison, they would die from the Western medicine, which would be a loss.
Su Muqing entered the space and went straight to the mall interface, browsing and matching the names of disinfectant components generated by the scanner.
After preparing the disinfectant, Su Muqing bought a few more backpack-style disinfectant sprayers.
For large-scale disinfection, Su Muqing planned to use specialized water trucks for disinfection and sterilization. As for places the trucks couldn't reach, such as inside houses and narrow alleys, manual disinfection would be necessary.
Due to the different passage of time, less than half an hour had passed outside when Su Muqing emerged. She handed a five-ton water tank, which she had traded from Ding Mo, to Leng Ren and Leng Feng.
After taking out a large water truck, Su Muqing also gave them a bundle of rubber pipes and a showerhead-like nozzle, briefly teaching them how to attach it to the water truck for use. The rest would be up to them to figure out.
After all, after three years of practice, everyone in the Leng team had a far greater understanding of the different performance and structures of various vehicles than Su Muqing knew. Therefore, she didn't need to teach them anything further.
With the water truck handed over to Leng Ren and the others, Su Muqing began to assign the next tasks. "First, we need to give every soldier who hasn't been infected a bowl of diluted spiritual spring water, as a preventative vaccine against infection."
"Secondly, find a few people who have used the spiritual spring water and are in good physical condition to carry out the disinfection work. For large areas, Leng Ren and Leng Feng will be responsible for driving the water trucks for disinfection. As for other nooks and crannies, and places unreachable by vehicles, manual spraying will be required."
"Finally, we need to treat those who are already infected. Make sure to wear protective gear and pay attention to their vomit. The worms have grown, and they lay eggs very quickly, so be careful not to get any on yourselves."
After she finished her arrangements, Huo Qiyuan asked, "You mean all the soldiers should drink the spiritual spring water? Even those stationed outside the city? Our army has hundreds of thousands of men, plus the captured soldiers of the Great Yu Dynasty, if everyone has a sip, it will cost a lot of spiritual spring water!"
"If we want to prevent the virus from spreading, it's best for everyone to develop immunity. This way, among the soldiers, or when they move to another place, human-to-human transmission can be avoided. If some people are infected and we fail to discover it in time, it will cause trouble again. So, it's best for everyone to drink some as a precaution!"
Su Muqing knew that Huo Qiyuan was concerned about the large amount of spiritual spring water. To be honest, she was also pained by it. After all, in the beginning, the spiritual spring water could only condense one drop a day. It was only after she had spent a lot of effort upgrading her space that the spiritual spring water condensation function gradually became more powerful.
This time, there were over 200,000 soldiers marching from Huaxia alone, plus tens of thousands of former captive soldiers in Si'an Prefecture, and tens of thousands of civilians left in the city. In total, it added up to hundreds of thousands of people.
Even if one drop of spiritual spring water was diluted and distributed to fifty people, the amount required for four to five hundred thousand people would definitely not be small.