Enforcer Manual
Chapter 273: Lunar Eclipse_1

Chapter 273: Chapter 273: Lunar Eclipse_1

The High Priest was deeply comatose, and although the Wild Devourer was slowly healing the wounds on his face, it seemed that the old man would not wake up anytime soon.

After leaving that last sentence, the other layer of will that was attached to him also disappeared.

Song Lan supported the man onto the bed so that he could rest better.

"It seems that the people in town turning into zombies wasn’t the doing of this wild Devourer, but rather a product of the moon’s influence,"

he pondered.

"The question is, who dropped the Devourer here?"

Lu Xiang said, although Song Lan always referred to the Devourer as wild, all Devourers were not a product of natural birth; they were born from the research accident at Cloud Biological Pharmaceutical, a man-made creation, "Maybe there used to be a lab here as well."

It seemed that even the town’s residents didn’t know such a vast space was hidden beneath their feet.

To find out the truth of the matter, one would only need to follow the path of the holy land downward, reaching the place where the Devourer resided.

The two didn’t stay for long, and after the High Priest fell into a coma, they followed the path of the holy land onward, crossing the incubation pool, and with the guidance of orange candlelight, they crossed a bridge. On both sides of the bridge were bottomless abysses from which murmurs-like echoes occasionally emanated; no one knew where these abysses led or what lay hidden beneath.

At the end of the bridge, a building with a decor style completely different from the believers’ cabins appeared before them.

At first glance, it looked like a damaged research facility, beneath the layer of flesh, there was a crescent-shaped emblem.

"Is this... the Lunar Eclipse?"

Upon seeing the emblem, Lu Xiang halted in shock.

"Lunar Eclipse?"

"I’ve seen this emblem before; they are the largest sect in the third country."

After the third war, the people of the third country suffered greatly, the worst being the various diseases brought on by radiation. The Lunar Eclipse Sect emerged in this environment.

"During a mission once, we had dealings with the followers of the Lunar Eclipse Sect."

The deity they worshiped was not any god, but the moon itself, "Their doctrine mentioned that on a certain night of an eclipse, faith would rinse away all of their suffering, so they would no longer have to endure the torment of reality."

"When was the last eclipse?"

Song Lan suddenly thought of something and asked.

After some contemplation, Lu Xiang arrived at the answer, "A month ago."

"Which coincides with the time the virus spread."

The Lunar Eclipse Sect did indeed fulfill their doctrine and "cleansed" their followers of suffering—by turning them all into zombies. Without brains, there was no more pain, and they could even bathe in the Radiant Sea without worrying about the problem of radiation.

"You mean to say, the virus was actually brought by the moon?" Lu Xiang fell into contemplation, "The frequency of a lunar eclipse appears 1-3 times a year, which coincides with the frequency of outbreak of infections in the third country."

It’s no wonder Doctor Oleg and his team traveled almost the entire Third Country over the years without finding the source of the infection. Who could have thought that a lunar eclipse event would be the cause of the infection?

"The moon brought the virus, I think even if you said that, they might not accept it."

"Maybe it’s not a virus, do you remember Andrew?"

Although the Infected appeared to have been infected by some kind of contagious virus, Andrew’s case made Song Lan think otherwise, "Doctor Oleg said that before Andrew escaped from the gymnasium, they had conducted six physical exams on him, all of which showed he hadn’t been infected by the virus. After his escape, Andrew immediately left the town and fled toward the location from which the distress signal was emitted, which by all accounts should have taken him farther and farther from the source of infection."

What virus is there that even the most professional doctors can’t detect but can turn a person into a zombie alive?

"The biggest difference after Andrew entered the pit was that he saw the mural and learned about the existence of the ’Queen’s Nest.’ Such a story depicted in the mural held a strong religious nature that he at least believed part of it, and after that, the biggest difference between him and Doctor Oleg was his unwavering belief that he was already infected with the virus."

This belief was clearly reflected in the memos stored in his exoskeleton armor.

Even though six physical exams had resulted in negative outcomes, Andrew still believed that the virus in his body simply had not been discovered by the medical team yet, but it would eventually break out.

"The question is, why did he develop this belief?"

As a doctor, objective diagnostic methods should have aided him in making an accurate judgment, especially since there were probably no doctors more knowledgeable about the infection than Oleg within the United Government.

However, Andrew developed some sort of baseless blind faith.

"Are you saying that this is actually some kind of mental virus?"

"Or maybe, an ability."

Those influenced by the ability who developed blind faith were affected by the "virus," whether it be the believers washed with bright hopes or like Andrew, who fell into self-doubt due to stress and panic, the same things eventually happened to them.

And the one spreading that ability might just be the huge eye that had replaced the moon in the night sky.

"The issue now is, why was it only this time that eye was witnessed by Oleg and his team?"

Clearly, this wasn’t the first time Oleg had dealt with an infection, nor their first time venturing deep into an infected town, but it was certainly their first encounter with that eerie moon.

The events that occurred with the High Priest seemed to have provided them an answer.

"This Wild Devourer seems to want help from me to fight against the moon, while another will from the moon wants us to get lost. To fight the moon, the Devourer is even willing to slow down its own metamorphosis."

Everything they had learned indicated that the moon was waiting for the moment when the Devourer’s metamorphosis was complete.

"Maybe it, just like us, was also drawn to this Devourer."

Song Lan looked up at the crescent emblem on the destroyed experimental facility, and after connecting all the dots, all the mysteries fell into place, "I was wrong before, this is not a Wild Devourer; it’s a creation by the Lunar Eclipse Sect."

Cultivate the Devourer in a certain place in the Third Country, and when they metamorphose, bring them back.

In order to cover up all these secrets, all the residents of the town had become zombies without independent thought under the influence of the lunar eclipse.

"Their retrieval encountered a problem this time, the ’Queen’s Nest’ bred a will that rebelled against them, so much so that it missed the time for ’harvest,’ which is why it was caught red-handed by Doctor Oleg’s team."