Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!
Chapter 562 - 561: About Anan’s Past and Present Life (Part 2)

Chapter 562: Chapter 561: About Anan’s Past and Present Life (Part 2)

Every time Fang Zheng played a horror game, watched a horror movie, or read a horror novel, he found something particularly strange. In fact, the kind of experiences Anan went through were not uncommon in various games, movies, and novels—the plot was typically about a group of people uncovering technology and beings that surpassed their modern civilization while digging through ruins, and then attempting to analyze these technologies.

During this process, they uncovered the secret to the downfall of that civilization, which involved research into reaching a higher plane of existence or obtaining more powerful forces. Then, the experiment went out of control, and BOOM, everyone was gone except for the ruins.

Up to here it all seemed normal, but what puzzled Fang Zheng was... in those works, the researchers who got their hands on these records were usually overjoyed and began trying to continue the research on the basis of their predecessors.

That made no sense to Fang Zheng.

If you’re talking about a higher civilization analyzing and studying a lower one, that’s understandable, but if you’ve already discovered the technology and civilization level of the others were beyond yours, and they failed to master and control the technology, where did you get the wild confidence to think you could do it?

Even modern nuclear reactors require the most professional technicians, let alone letting a bunch of engineers from the steam engine era have a go at it—boom, and it’s all going to blow up, right!

While learning spells, Fang Zheng understood a principle: If you want to study the devil, it’s best to start with summoning little demon creatures, rather than confidently going to have tea with a Deep Hell Demon Refinery. It’s like playing an online game, no fool controls a level one character to farm mounts... because you can’t even drag your corpse into the instance, let alone kill anything, and even if you do, you can’t loot it, and if you looted it, you couldn’t use it.

The result of these under-level-ten players crazily popping pills was going berserk, as the long-term injection of the Blood of the Ancient God finally led to the first case of a berserk-suicide apprentice. Upon dissecting the apprentice, the headmaster William was shocked to discover that the apprentice’s body had already started to transform into a monster from the inside out, and he also found out that there was a limit to the Power of the Ancient God that humans could withstand. Once that limit was crossed, humans would go berserk, then transform into indescribable creatures.

After discovering this, William and his student Lawrence developed divergent views on the experiments... um, Dr. Yushefka said a lot about this part, and Fang Zheng summed it up roughly as follows.

Lawrence: Only the noblest bloodlines are the assurance to the throne! Only by infusing the Blood of the Ancient God can we ensure the advancement of humanity to a higher level, becoming superior beings! Without Divine Blood, humans will never reach that realm!

William: Bullshit, Guu Yue! Princes and generals, do they have some kind of birthright? We humans don’t need to rely on Divine Blood at all, as long as we work hard, one day we can also ascend to godhood!

Lawrence: By the time that day comes, teacher, your bones will be cold!

William: That’s still better than willingly being the lapdog of those in power, waiting for a promotion. My fate is in my hands, not determined by heaven! Keep going like this and sooner or later there will be trouble, I’m telling you!

Lawrence: It’s a stalemate, let’s call it quits!

William: Let’s then, I’m not afraid of you! I’m telling you, not heeding the words of the elders, you will suffer right before your eyes!

Lawrence: Hmph!

Then Lawrence, who had fallen out with William, took a bunch of his followers and left Byronvis Academy, and went to the nearby Anan to set up the Medical Church.

As for why Lawrence established the Medical Church, Yushefka couldn’t explain clearly, but as a leader, Fang Zheng could guess a bit. In theory, if Divine Blood could truly transform humans into superior beings, Lawrence would be hiding it instead of sharing it as if he couldn’t wait. The most plausible explanation was that Lawrence’s research on Divine Blood continued, but research had always been expensive. Haven’t you seen that even Taoists seeking the Emperor’s aid to refine Longevity Pills? Lawrence wasn’t a money printer himself, and besides, research needed territory and manpower, and everyone needed to eat—you can’t just give up your life for the sake of researching Divine Blood.

Fortunately, Divine Blood had the effect of curing diseases, so Lawrence figured it out: he could use it to make money, commercialize the research, and use the profits to support scientific work, while conning a bunch of volunteers who didn’t require payment... um, a scientific method indeed, nothing wrong with that.

But expecting to spread scientific knowledge among the ignorant masses of the Middle Ages was too troublesome, so Lawrence thought, forget it, just use religion as a cover. After all, blood transfusions as a cure-all sounded unscientific, but calling it a religious miracle might make it more acceptable to people!

And it could be sold at an even higher price, after all, the product had added value.

As the saying goes, good wine needs no bush. At the beginning, the Medical Church indeed cured numerous complicated diseases with Divine Blood, thereby amassing incalculable wealth and reputation. However, there were still issues. Many who came here seeking Blood Healing were cured but developed a dependency on Divine Blood and refused to leave. They craved the blood, longing to feel the joy it brought them once again.

In this regard, Fang Zheng thought that Divine Blood bore a striking resemblance to morphine, which began as a medical application but later was abused. Similarly, in the relentless pursuit of people, Blood Healing spread widely in Anan and ultimately led to major problems.

This was quite normal; even the misuse of antibiotics could lead to problems, let alone this Divine Blood unearthed from ancient tombs, the origin of which nobody knew. Soon enough, those who were over-transfused with Divine Blood began to grow berserk, turning into what seemed like ferocious and horrifying beasts, and what’s more, some of them actually transformed into beasts, rampaging everywhere.

Now the Medical Church panicked. One has to state the percentage of possible side effects for a drug, yet when they administered Divine Blood, they mentioned nothing. What if people came to them demanding accountability?

There was no choice but to clean up their own mess.

So the Church hurriedly assembled a troop of Hunters, composed of locals from Anan and strong individuals who came from afar seeking Blood Healing. Their mission was to eradicate these beasts and ensure that Anan didn’t descend into chaos as much as possible.

At the beginning, the appearance of Hunters did indeed suppress the Transformation to a great extent. And the Church gradually began to curtail the use of Divine Blood and tried to regulate Blood Healing, no longer abusing it as before.

But when it rains, it pours. While the Church was trying to control Blood Healing, at that time, Anan was struck by an epidemic known as septicemia. The Healing Church tried other methods to cure this disease but to no avail, as it was another incurable affliction. Therefore, out of necessity, the Church had to resort to Blood Healing once again...

And then, something happened that changed everything.

Dr. Yushefka was unaware of the true circumstances, as she was just a doctor at the Healing Church, primarily responsible for treating and caring for patients. She’d only learned from snippets of conversations from others in the Church that they sent Hunters on a covert operation; the content and reasons were unknown. But it was certain that it was after that operation that Anan was cursed. Nightmares began to invade the town, and nobody was spared. They trembled, hidden between nightmares and reality, to this very day...

"So," said Fang Zheng, "to end the Night of the Hunt, I need to seek some clear answers from the Healing Church, right?"

Having listened to Dr. Yushefka’s account, Fang Zheng finally had a better understanding of the situation in Anan.

"Can you point me in a direction? Or perhaps, do you know someone who could help me?"

"Well..."

Faced with Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Dr. Yushefka pondered for a moment.

"If I remember correctly, Archbishop Amelia of the Healing Church should be in the cathedral... you could go find her... but I am not sure of her current state, as we haven’t seen each other for a long time in this nightmare. Just leave here and follow the slope on the right; it will take you to the cathedral..."

"Alright."

Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng once again hoisted the greatsword in his hands.

"Then, I shall have a thorough talk with Archbishop Amelia."

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l

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