Volume 2 Chapter 25: Interference

After Bla left, Qin Lun and the others started packing their tents and continued on their journey.

Throughout the entire second day, the magical creatures created by the Witch continued to harass the Demon Hunters. At night, the attacks reached their peak. Demon Hunter teams from three different directions sent up yellow smoke signals, requesting support.

The experienced Odo and Bonnie discussed the situation and decided to send the Demon Hunter team at the very rear to provide backup. They also began to tighten their formation, reducing the one-kilometer distance between each small team by half to facilitate mutual support.

By dawn on the third day, the Evil Creatures finally retreated, forcing all Demon Hunters to regroup toward the rear. When they returned to the central camp, Qin Lun found his work had become much heavier.

The Demon Hunter team had suffered casualties. Two comrades had died, and five others were seriously injured. Both of the fallen Demon Hunters belonged to the team originally assigned to cover the rear. This team had been the weakest to begin with. The previous night, while on their way to provide support, they were ambushed by some Evil Creatures and suffered heavy losses.

The two bodies were in a horrific state. One had been cut in half at the waist. His companions only brought back the upper half; the lower half was probably already inside the belly of some Evil Creature.

Qin Lun noticed that the wound at the waist of this corpse was jagged, with muscles and internal organs looking as if they had been torn apart by brute force. It was hard to imagine how much pain this unfortunate soul had endured at the moment of death.

According to his companions, they were suddenly ambushed in the darkness by a creature called a Scorpion-Man. This unfortunate man was caught off guard, grabbed by the Scorpion-Man’s large pincers, and cut in half.

The Scorpion-Man was one of the Evil Creatures created by the Witch. Unlike Gargoyles, which were purely Magical Creatures, and unlike Trolls, which were native Evil Creatures, the Scorpion-Man was a synthetic life form possessing a fragmented Soul.

Magical Creatures like Gargoyles, which used a Magic Core as a power source, could not follow complex commands. Moreover, due to limited resources, the Witches could not produce many of them. Complete life forms like Trolls were too rare and had low reproduction rates, so they could not serve as the main combat force.

After the Millennium Pact, the Witches began researching the combination of biological Souls with magical constructs to create hybrid life forms possessing broken Souls.

These life forms were called Half-Beings, or sometimes Orcs. They had animal bodies and incomplete human Souls, enabling them to accept some complex commands and perform various tasks assigned by the Witches.

There were many types of Half-Beings. Some had the lower body of a deer or horse and the upper body of a human, known as Centaur Archers. Others had the lower body of a tiger or leopard with a human head, known as Beast-shaped Predators. There were also those combined with birds of prey, called Harpies, and others with mixed genes of large spiders or scorpions, known as Face-Spiders and Scorpion-Men.

Because these Half-Beings possessed fragmented human Souls, they were more cunning than pure Magical Creatures like Gargoyles. However, their incomplete Souls often caused them to fall into painful states of frenzy, making them more cruel and fierce in battle. After killing their enemies, they often tore the corpses to pieces, leaving a bloody mess.

The appearance of the Scorpion-Man proved that the Witch Maiar had indeed noticed the presence of this Demon Hunter team; it wasn’t merely a chance encounter with Evil Creatures in the forest.

Qin Lun shook the syringe in his hand and injected a dose of medicine into Nova’s shoulder. This King’s Flower, an exceptionally skilled member of the team, had also been injured the previous night. A Leopard-Man had bitten her on the shoulder. If not for her extraordinary natural talent and bones as hard as steel, an ordinary person would have undoubtedly suffered a shattered fracture.

“Thank you, Doctor Stan!” Nova looked at her shoulder, which was bandaged clumsily like a wrapped zongzi, with a strange expression.

Qin Lun’s surgery to remove the rotten flesh and realign the bones had been very professional, performed with skilled and steady hands. However, his bandaging technique was very rough, even worse in some aspects than what the Demon Hunters themselves could do.

“You’re welcome, Lady Nova!” Looking at his “masterpiece” of a wrapped shoulder, Qin Lun shrugged self-mockingly.

He couldn’t very well tell Nova that he simply didn’t know how to bandage wounds properly. As for his skilled surgical movements, they were just a result of too much “dissection practice” in the past; he had learned it on his own.

“Lady Nova, should we prepare to withdraw from the Maiar Forest?” Qin Lun’s eyes shifted as he asked with concern.

“No decision has been made yet. After everyone catches their breath, we need to discuss it!” The flesh on Nova’s face twitched, and she frowned deeply.

Unlike the leisure of the previous two days, the morning of the third day saw Qin Lun as the busiest person in the entire camp. Excluding the two who had sacrificed and the five severely injured, the Demon Hunter team now had fewer than twenty members, and most of them had sustained minor injuries of one kind or another.

“Doctor Stan, have something to drink first! It’s really great to have you with the team. Otherwise, some of the five seriously injured companions might have already sacrificed!” Odo handed Qin Lun a cup of hot cocoa and said with a grave expression, “The leaders of the squads need to have a discussion. You should come too. There are some aspects where we would like to hear your opinion!”

Qin Lun’s mouth twitched slightly. Of course, he knew what Odo and the others wanted to ask—it was about the condition of the severely injured members, to see if they could hold on. This related to whether the team needed to send people to escort the injured and whether the rest could continue forward.

Otherwise, in front of these experienced Demon Hunters, he wouldn’t even have the qualification to sit in on the meeting.

“I believe we should withdraw from the Maiar Forest. Gargoyles, Trolls, and Half-Beings—this already constitutes a complete system of Evil Creatures. Their appearance together in the forest’s outer areas is enough to prove that the Witch Maiar is watching the human settlements outside the forest. The time for their formal attack is not far away!”

When Qin Lun entered the tent, the leaders of the Demon Hunter squads were engaged in a heated debate. The suggestion to return came from a middle-aged Demon Hunter with a full beard.

“No, we haven’t confirmed whether the Epidemic Disease is the work of the Witches. If we withdraw from the forest now, our mission this time will be a failure. It won’t help solve the current difficulties in the Aodia Region at all!” Bonnie raised his eyebrows and immediately voiced his opposition.

“But if we all perish here, the Demon Hunter strength in the Aodia Region will be crippled, unable to stop the Witches from invading Aodia. The best choice now is to return immediately to Albert Castle and report the situation here to headquarters,” the bearded man argued loudly.

Hearing his analysis, the Demon Hunters in the tent fell silent. They did not lack the courage to sacrifice, but they did not want to sacrifice in vain. The current situation was indeed as the bearded Demon Hunter had said: this was the first time they had encountered so many Evil Creatures in the forest’s outskirts. No one would believe that the Witches weren’t behind this.

The key issue now was whether they should abandon this reconnaissance mission and temporarily give up tracking the source of the Epidemic Disease. If they withdrew from the forest, even if the Witches launched a large-scale attack, they could still rely on the terrain advantages of Albert Castle to hold out for some time. However, abandoning the search for the source of the disease would certainly allow the outbreaks in several towns to worsen.

“Doctor Stan, how much longer can the five severely injured Demon Hunters hold on?” Seeing Qin Lun enter the tent, Odo broke the silence.

“I have treated their external injuries, but we lack suitable medicines here. Their conditions also don’t allow them to participate in long journeys. I think it’s best to send them back to the castle for recovery. Otherwise, I cannot guarantee their safety,” Qin Lun said calmly.

Although Qin Lun hoped these Demon Hunters would continue deeper into the forest, he did not intentionally hide the true state of the injured. These Demon Hunters were experienced; even if he didn’t say anything, many of them already had a good idea.

At his words, Bonnie slumped down, leaning back in his chair in frustration. This was the final straw. If the five other injured couldn’t continue, and they needed people to escort them, the remaining strength would be insufficient to venture deeper into the forest. It would be meaningless to throw their lives away.

“If that’s the case…” Odo’s face showed a trace of struggle.

“Please wait a moment, Lord Odo, esteemed senior Demon Hunters. Could you listen to my opinion?” Qin Lun’s eyes gleamed as he interrupted Odo.

“Doctor Stan, please speak! Although you are a novice Demon Hunter, as the team doctor, your opinion is very important to us,” Nova said solemnly.

“Thank you, Lady Nova!” Qin Lun smiled and nodded at the King’s Flower. “Regarding the judgment of the current situation, I don’t have the rich experience that all of you possess. What I want to talk about concerns the Epidemic Disease in the Aodia Region.”

As soon as Qin Lun spoke, he immediately captured everyone’s attention. If the doctor had rashly shared his views on this operation, the other Demon Hunters would have scoffed. However, when it came to the development of the Epidemic Disease, he was the undeniable authority; no Demon Hunter dared ignore his opinion.

Seriously speaking, the ultimate purpose of the Demon Hunters’ missions was to protect the ordinary humans in the Aodia Region. Failing a mission wasn’t a big deal—at most, they would lose some mission points from the Demon Hunter headquarters. But if the Epidemic Disease threatened the entire region’s safety, they would truly be failing their duty as Demon Hunters.

“Based on the information everyone has brought me so far, I infer that within two weeks, a major outbreak of the Epidemic Disease will occur across the entire Aodia Region. The accumulation of early-stage patients has reached a critical point. Once it spreads further, the outbreak will become unstoppable,” Qin Lun said expressionlessly.

“Doctor Stan, are you saying we must find the ultimate solution to the Epidemic Disease within two weeks?” A sharp light flashed in Odo’s eyes. This middle-aged man, who had always seemed like a nice guy, now radiated an intimidating aura.

“Doctor Stan, can’t you control the further spread of the Epidemic Disease? What about your medicine…” Bonnie’s face changed, and he hurriedly asked.

“The preparation of that medicine is extremely complex, and no one else can assist. I am only one person. Even if I worked 24 hours a day preparing the medicine, I could only save a few people,” Qin Lun said lightly. “We must find the true antidote formula for the Epidemic Disease virus. Otherwise, why do you think a doctor like me would insist on joining your combat missions?”

“Doctor Stan, you should have told us this earlier!” Odo’s face turned ashen as he spoke gravely.

“It’s not too late now, is it?” Qin Lun narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze flickering. “Actually, regarding the difficulties we are currently facing, I have a few thoughts. Seniors, you might consider them…”