Su Muqing silently calculated how much spiritual spring water would be needed if everyone drank it. However, she soon shook the data from her mind, and at the same time, her chest began to ache faintly.
Just thinking about the spiritual spring water she had saved made Su Muqing feel a pang of heartache! It was genuine heartache. No! She couldn't think about it anymore, or she worried she might suffer a myocardial infarction from the sheer heartache.
But what could she do about the heartache? This kind of potential viral infection that needed prevention was a matter of probability. Until the illness actually manifested, no one could be sure if those around them had been targeted by the virus.
Although Su Muqing had a space scanner that could clearly detect whether the common people's bodies were infected with the virus, there were so many people in the entire Sian Prefecture. She couldn't possibly examine each one individually. Regardless of how she looked at it, drinking diluted spiritual spring water was the fastest way to prevent it.
No sooner said than done; the more she thought, the more confused her mind would become. The city-wide disinfection had already been handed over to Leng Ren and his team. What needed to be done next was to arrange treatment potions for the thousands of patients in the western district.
Su Muqing had people dig a large pit in the most desolate and barren area next to the isolation zone. She had initially wanted to pave it with cement, but considering the time crunch, the cement wouldn't have time to dry.
So, she had people sprinkle a thick layer of slaked lime on the bottom and all around the sides of the pit, ensuring that every corner and every crevice was covered.
After finishing these tasks, Su Muqing had people bring some water to prepare the medicine for the patients. She had already used the water containers to prepare the disinfectant, so now she had to rely on soldiers to carry water with buckets.
In fact, the so-called medicine was just a bowl of diluted spiritual spring water. Considering that these patients had their blood and flesh gnawed away by blood-sucking worms for a long time, their bodies were severely depleted. Therefore, she also took out two bottles of qi and blood-tonifying pills.
After the patients vomited out the poisonous worms by taking the spiritual spring water to detoxify, they would be given a bowl of qi and blood-tonifying medicine each. This way, their bodies wouldn't be so weak.
After waiting for about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the soldiers who had been sent to fetch water began to return one after another, carrying well water. As Huo Qiyuan raised his hand to drip some spiritual spring water into the water bucket, Su Muqing grabbed his wrist.
"Drip!" The sound of a drop of water falling into the bucket. It turned out that Huo Qiyuan's hand had trembled, and a drop of spiritual spring water had fallen into the well water.
Suddenly being stopped, Huo Qiyuan quickly turned his head to look at the person holding his wrist and asked with a look of confusion, "Muqing, what's wrong?"
"Wait, this water seems to have a problem!" As Su Muqing spoke, she pulled him closer, activated the space scanner, and stared intently at the water bucket into which a drop of spiritual spring water had fallen.
When the others heard her say this, they also became curious about what was strange about the water in the bucket, so they all stretched their necks and gathered around, wanting to find out.
Just then! The previously calm water surface suddenly began to bubble up from the bottom. Moreover, the bubbles started as large as a copper coin and then became smaller and smaller, but the number of bubbles emerging increased.
In an instant, that old water bucket seemed like an iron pot heated by charcoal, with the water inside boiling and bubbling.
As everyone was pointing and whispering at this strange sight, Su Muqing, who had seen the water bucket full of insect eggs with the scanner, immediately shouted.
"Everyone retreat! Don't get too close to these water buckets!" As Su Muqing spoke, she pushed Huo Qiyuan behind her and then turned to run elsewhere.
Hearing Su Muqing's shout, the others thought some monster had crawled out of the water buckets and retreated in fear, quickly moving far away.
When Su Muqing returned, everyone saw that she was holding something in each hand. The white powdery substance in her right hand was familiar to them – it was lime powder.
And the thing she held in her left hand looked quite strange. It was square and of a milky white color, resembling jade at first glance. Through the outer color, they could see colored liquid inside.
Su Muqing ignored the murmurs of the others, handed the plastic bucket containing the lime powder to Huo Qiyuan, who had come forward to help, and had him meticulously sprinkle the lime powder around the edges of these water buckets.
As Huo Qiyuan began to sprinkle the lime powder, Su Muqing opened the gasoline can and circled the edges of the lime powder from different directions. After the lime powder was sprinkled around all the wooden buckets, and after pouring several circles of gasoline, the two then retreated to watch the buckets.
Slowly, as the water in the buckets continued to churn, the clear well water that had been crystal clear began to change color, gradually turning a rolling blood red.
"Look quickly, what is that? Why is there so much red bloody water in the bucket?"
"Heavens! Could there be a ghost here..."
"It must be. This is water drawn from a well. Someone must have committed suicide in the well and become a ghost!"
The onlookers, who had initially wanted to watch the spectacle, were startled by the sudden change and retreated far away again, trying to stay as far as possible from the strange water buckets to avoid being splashed by those strange things!
How could clear water suddenly turn into bloody water? The people around didn't know, but Huo Qiyuan knew a little. He turned to ask Su Muqing, who had a serious expression on her face, "Are these what you called bacteria and viruses?"
Su Muqing nodded, her expression not very good. "Yes, you must be mistaking them for liquid now, but in reality, they are all formed by the accumulation of tiny insect eggs, creating a false visual effect. It seems the root cause of this virus lies in these water sources!"
"You mean they aren't water? But they are formed by insects? Yet, earlier, what they drew from the well was clearly clear water!" Huo Qiyuan was a bit confused after he finished speaking. Why was it water at first, and then it wasn't water after a drop of liquid was added?
Su Muqing was taken aback by Huo Qiyuan's question. To be honest, this question involved advanced modern knowledge of biology, chemistry, and molecules.
She, a modern person who had received nine years of compulsory education, attended three years of high school and two years of university before transmigrating, hadn't fully grasped this issue herself.
Now, asking her to teach someone from thousands of years ago who had never come into contact with such things made the overall difficulty extremely high!
Su Muqing racked her brain to organize her thoughts, and then slowly said with Huo Qiyuan's eager expression for knowledge, "This issue is very complex, and the specific situation cannot be explained clearly in a few words for now? In short, the water in this bucket is infected with bacteria and viruses. Initially, it was indeed in the form of clear water, but you accidentally dripped spiritual spring water into it. After the spiritual spring water collided with the bacteria and viruses, some changes occurred between them that we cannot see with the naked eye. Then, the original clear water underwent a qualitative change and became the insect eggs of bacteria and viruses that I mentioned earlier!"
Huo Qiyuan had a look of understanding mixed with confusion on his face, furrowing his brow. He would nod and then shake his head. Su Muqing didn't know if he had understood.
"To put it more simply, the spiritual spring water awakened the bacteria and viruses in the well water, making them transform from intangible to tangible, and then killed them. The reason for pouring gasoline around the water buckets was the fear that if those insect eggs were not completely killed, they might burrow into the ground after churning out of the buckets, so setting a fire was a precaution."
After hearing Su Muqing's explanation, Huo Qiyuan finally nodded gently. At this time, the water buckets that had been churning incessantly gradually returned to a calm state.
The original clear water in the buckets had disappeared without a trace, leaving behind some blood-red, fine sand-like particles in the buckets, which were about one-third less than when they were full of water.
As the commotion gradually subsided, Su Muqing slowly moved a little closer. The blood-red particles in the water bucket still showed slight movement, but it was evident that they were running out of strength. On the lime powder by the edge of the bucket, a small amount of red substance that had splashed out could also be clearly seen.
Now Huo Qiyuan also saw it. He quickly picked up the lime bucket, took some lime, and covered those red substances again before staring at the dense insect eggs in the bucket.
Su Muqing, standing by the side, had a pensive expression on her face. Suddenly, her expression changed drastically, and she reached out towards Huo Qiyuan beside her! "Oh no! This water is problematic... Where is the water container I gave you? Hurry and show it to me!"
Seeing the fair, tender little hand reaching out, Huo Qiyuan subconsciously reached out and took it. "Water container? The water container is still in the military camp outside the city, kept by Leng Shi. What problem could there be?"
"What? The water container is still in the military camp? Didn't you say Sian Prefecture was facing a severe water shortage? Then where is the water supply here coming from? Is it the water from the water container?" Su Muqing's questions were urgent, and her expression was very serious and anxious.
No! Even traveling by horseback from the city to the military encampment would take at least half an hour.
And the few soldiers who had gone out to carry water earlier only took about fifteen minutes to return on foot. This meant that this water definitely wasn't taken from the military's water container.
"Originally, Sian Prefecture was indeed drying up. A few days before we entered the city, the captured soldiers accidentally found a water source not far in front of the western district. After we took over, the city suddenly experienced a rampant strange illness shortly after. So, I had this area cordoned off, which conveniently provided water for those patients. As for the water I and Leng Ren drank, it was the water you gave us, and the soldiers drank water from the water containers. Only the people in the western district..." Huo Qiyuan stopped speaking abruptly at this point.
No wonder! No wonder the strange illness began to break out and worsen day by day after the western district was used to resettle refugees and captured soldiers. It seemed that it was precisely because they drank this problematic well water that they had become like this.
"Well water? Don't we have clear water containers? Could it be that you have been using this well water all along?" Hearing Huo Qiyuan say that they were not using water from the water containers, Su Muqing felt a great sense of relief.
God knows how panicked she was when she thought that the water source in her space had a problem. Ever since Huaxia City was officially established, Su Muqing's space water source had rarely been used in her small world.
Including the prefectural cities that were later taken over, new water sources were gradually introduced. Therefore, besides being regularly traded to the future apocalypse where Ding Mo was located, the water in the space was only used in the current Sian Prefecture.
If the water source in her space had a problem, it would mean that everyone in Ding Mo's world would be affected. If that were the case, it would be disastrous!
One must know that it wasn't just the people in one city who were using it, but all the survivors of the apocalypse relied on Ding Mo for water, and Ding Mo's water came from Su Muqing.
Close! Just by a hair's breadth, Su Muqing almost wiped out the people of a world by herself!
"Thinking back now, those who were infected seem to have come into contact with the water from that well..." Huo Qiyuan didn't know why Su Muqing's expression suddenly became relaxed. He figured she must have thought of a solution.
"Hurry and take me to that water source!"
The soldier received the order and led the two towards the well. After about ten minutes, they arrived at the well. Su Muqing asked the others to wait behind, then she and Huo Qiyuan went to check the situation.
After all, both of them had consumed a lot of spiritual spring water, and their physiques had long been purified. Let alone these small bacteria and viruses, Su Muqing and Huo Qiyuan's bodies could basically achieve invincibility against all poisons.
However, these soldiers were different. They had only consumed a small amount, and it was also heavily diluted spiritual spring water. The effect was naturally incomparable to Huo Qiyuan and the others.
Su Muqing stood by the well, closed her eyes forcefully, took a deep breath, and then activated the scanner in her space, staring intently down into the well.
"Hiss~"
"Ugh~"
"Yuck~"
Su Muqing stared for a long time. First, she gasped in shock, then she couldn't stop feeling nauseous and gagging, and finally, she simply ran to the side and vomited.
Fortunately, Su Muqing had already removed her protective gear after confirming that she would not be infected, otherwise, this sudden bout of vomiting would have ended up all over herself.
Huo Qiyuan also looked down into the well for a long time. However, unfortunately, although his eyesight had improved significantly, he still couldn't see anything different in the well.
Seeing that Su Muqing was nauseated and vomiting, Huo Qiyuan ignored what extraordinary things she might have seen. He quickly stood behind her and gently patted her back to make her feel more comfortable as she vomited.