Night fell, and Xing Chen took out the miner's lamp he had borrowed from Charlotte. He planned to organize the external situation of Kazdel that night.
Footsteps came from outside the house, and Theresa, looking exhausted, slowly moved her body to Xing Chen's side.
"How is the internal situation of Kazdel?" Xing Chen put down his pen and helped Theresa sit next to him.
"Better than I expected," Theresa said slowly after taking a large gulp of water. "Most of the attackers this time came from the marginal areas of Kazdel, where the supply of materials is indeed not optimistic. With the departure of the Scarred Market, residents of these marginal areas lost their income from trading with mercenaries, which further exacerbated the already tight supply."
"However, the productivity of the agricultural areas has not significantly decreased. Residents of the central areas can generally maintain a normal life through allocated food, materials earned from work, and trade with caravans. As for those royal court close to the core area... they have their own Lord of the Royal Court, so their problems should not be significant."
"Is that so?" Seeing Theresa's bitter smile, Xing Chen couldn't help but pour cold water on her. "This is what I've compiled: the changes in caravans passing through here. Take a look first."
Theresa took the paper from Xing Chen's hand. The line graph on it, representing the current material transport into the city by caravans, plunged sharply downwards with almost no upward movement, indicating a very bleak outlook.
During the civil war, both sides intercepted each other's caravans. Although it was forbidden in principle to harm these unrelated personnel, the actual losses were not small. Not to mention the loss of goods and the bankruptcies caused by continuous losses, which made many caravans unable to continue after the war ended.
"Also this," Xing Chen pointed to a few lines on the table. "Camel, and experienced caravan guards. These are important means of production, and most of them have been conscripted by the Military Commission. Unless Theresis can transport materials from Londinium back to Kazdel via the Life Spine, in a while, Kazdel will surely experience a large-scale famine."
"What is the Life Spine... Wait a moment, did you hear something?"
Apart from his resurrection ability, Xing Chen's other attributes were at the level of the most ordinary human, and in some aspects, he might even fall short.
The two walked out of the tin house, and the weak Blood Fiend just happened to come looking for them. "Your Highness, someone in the town has had an acute onset of Oripathy. Please go and see them quickly."
"Acute Oripathy, is there any medicine?" Theresa and the Blood Fiend ran ahead. On the way, she asked the Blood Fiend, "When was the injury sustained? What caused it?"
"There's only emergency activator for Leimbieta miners. Using that stuff is worse than not using it," the Blood Fiend reported to Theresa. "I heard that Cattus named Charlotte say it might have been caused by being cut by an Originium dagger during the chaos."
"Damn it!"
When the two arrived at the patient's house, the area had already been cordoned off by the security team.
The Cattus girl's parents cried outside the cordon, but for the health and safety of the uninfected, the security team refused to let them in.
Theresa approached one of the team members and told her that she had medical experience. The other person handed Theresa and the Blood Fiend a mask each. "Be careful."
Theresa was stunned for a moment, then said, "Oh, okay." This was her first time seeing another race show concern for a Sarkaz outside of Babel.
Inside the house, a Cattus infected person and two Sarkaz shamans were caring for the Cattus girl suffering from Oripathy. At this point, large patches of Originium crystals had spread from the wound to her entire upper body.
Such a severe infection, even Babel would be powerless.
Theresa gently stroked the girl's forehead, using an Originium Arts that manipulated emotions to temporarily draw out her pain. The girl quieted down, but her life was increasingly close to collapse.
Suddenly, the sound of an argument came from outside the door.
"Hoo... Theresa, how is the situation?"
"It's very bad," Theresa took her hand away, allowing Xing Chen to have a direct perception, and the Cattus's expression immediately became painful. "Her physique is not good, and Oripathy is spreading very quickly, even if he personally..."
Xing Chen's mind raced. The game mentioned many different Oripathy inhibitors, but never the specific manufacturing methods. Many of these medicines would not appear until the Doctor was unfrozen. And the truly effective antidote to the threat of Oripathy would even have to wait until Endfield.
Wait a minute, how did the Doctor treat Amiya back then? It seemed to be with... blood?
"Theresa, I have an idea," Xing Chen rolled up his sleeve, exposing his upper arm as if for a blood donation. "My blood... perhaps it has the same effect as the Doctor's blood."
"But if I remember correctly, the Doctor didn't directly transfuse blood to Amiya..."
"Do we have any other options right now?!"
Yes, there was: to ignore the Cattus's fate. Xing Chen had to kill thousands of people from Terra every week, so he wasn't that concerned about one unfamiliar Cattus.
Well, he was slightly concerned, after all, this counted as a plot point.
"I've already talked to her parents. Either we bet my blood can cure her, or we bet she can pull through on her own."
Seeing Xing Chen's resolute attitude, Theresa couldn't refuse any longer. "Alright then, let me help you."
"Wait, shouldn't the Blood Fiend be in charge of the blood exchange?"
"Not all Blood Fiends are skilled in their own clan's witchcraft," Theresa glanced at the rookie, sighing, "Otherwise, I wouldn't have picked her up when I saw she was almost starving to death, looking so pitiful."
The rookie Blood Fiend was a bit embarrassed but couldn't refute Theresa.
"However, she has great talent in other areas. It can only be said that her specialty is different from other Blood Fiends." Saying that, she pulled Xing Chen's hand. As the Originium Arts was activated, his skin split open like cloth cut by scissors, and threads of blood, guided by Theresa, injected into the Cattus girl's body.
"Xing Chen, are you feeling alright?" Xing Chen was just an ordinary human, and his tolerable threshold for blood loss was far less than that of people from Terra. Theresa saw his face start to turn pale and couldn't help but ask.
However, for some reason, Xing Chen's perception of negative physical feedback had always remained at an abnormally low level. But due to his ability to resurrect infinitely, he didn't pay much attention to it.
"Miss Theresa, her fever has gone down." A Sarkaz shaman said to Theresa in disbelief. Seeing that Xing Chen's suggestion worked, she immediately sped up.
"Mom, Dad..." The Cattus girl slowly opened her eyes, and the Originium crystals on her body also began to recede.
Just as everyone was about to celebrate, Xing Chen suddenly felt his vision go black and then collapsed.
