Chapter 321: It feels less effective than kowtowing to Isha

The plague first appeared on the front line of the War of the Liberation of Ultramar, which happened to be on the seventh day of the seventh month after the start of this war.

Then, overnight, the plague spread throughout Ultramar, raging on every planet.

This disease was named "Tear Plague" by mortal medics and Astartes apothecaries; its clinical symptoms were the uncontrollable outflow of sticky, foul-smelling tears full of mites; these tears would paste the eyelids within seven hours, causing malignant redness and swelling, accompanied by severe pain, and the patient would almost lose their vision.

This was just the initial symptom; the patient's condition would continue to worsen, and tears would continue to gush out; in the end, only dark green pus would flow out, and the eyeballs would also rot, causing permanent blindness.

Zhou Yun and Sanguinius had warned Guilliman early on that the Plague God had set his sights on Ultramar and that he would sooner or later cast the plague he was best at toward the home of the Ultramarines.

Guilliman had made full preparations for this; he organized a large number of mortal medics and chapter apothecaries, reserved a huge amount of medicine, and made plans to deal with various types of plagues.

In the first hour of the plague outbreak, medics and apothecaries discovered the medium through which this virus spread.

Mites—pathogenic bacteria were carried on a very common type of space mite.

Medics and apothecaries quickly began actions, trying to blockade the infected area, but their way of relying entirely on humans and the power of the material universe ultimately failed to defeat the Tear Plague.

The mites carrying the Tear Plague bacteria seemed to have some kind of Warp nature, seemingly able to drill out from any place that human sight didn't touch.

Medics and apothecaries tried every means, but only barely suppressed the speed of the plague's spread.

After all, the plague of the Father was by no means something that mortal medical means could deal with.

Or rather, the fact that they could suppress the plague of the Father even a little bit by relying only on mortal medical means was itself not a very scientific thing.

The only good news was that this plague was currently only spreading among mortals; Astartes didn't seem to be infected.

Guilliman thought this was entirely due to the effect brought by the Astartes' modified bodies.

But soon he was slapped in the face, because Belisarius Cawl's Skitarii were also not infected with this plague, and there were only a few cases among the Sisters of Battle who came to support, and the mortals led by Sanguinius were also not disturbed by the plague.

And the believers of the Saint Doraemon sect were the same as the Skitarii, not infected or only had short-term mild symptoms after infection.

Xiang Xiang Leina was an example.

She was a relatively early infected person, but she only had tears, no pus, and recovered quickly.

Many people in the Saint Doraemon sect therefore believed that this was Doraemon's protection.

Some people also began to believe that devout faith could resist the invasion of the plague.

And Zhou Yun felt that this was some kind of Warp phenomenon; a group of people felt that as long as they devoutly believed in the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang or himself, they would get protection and wouldn't get sick; this idea produced an effect in the Warp, triggering the power of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang or himself, really making them less likely to be infected by the plague.

The buzzing of the Thunderhawk resounded through the sky, and the storm rolled up on the sea made this troop carrier sway.

Zhou Yun, sitting beside Guilliman and Ultramarines Second Captain Sicarius, rubbed his eyebrows and looked at the scene outside the window.

The boundless sea extended to the edge of the horizon; the sea was black and green, covered by layers of dark clouds, and tornadoes connected the sky and the earth from time to time.

The ocean world of Thalassa, now the front line of the entire battlefield, was also one of the areas where the Tear Plague was most severely spreading.

Roboute Guilliman worried about his people; this Primarch had extreme humanity under the teachings of his foster parents.

And as a politician, Roboute Guilliman also knew how much morale he could boost by being able to walk among the sick.

Disease was one of the things that most devastated the morale of warriors; Roboute Guilliman wanted to appear as invincible as possible.

This was why they chose the Thunderhawk gunship instead of the Any-Door to land on Thalassa.

The Any-Door was too small, only reaching Guilliman's abdomen; every time he squeezed out of the Any-Door, Zhou Yun couldn't help but laugh.

Sanguinius didn't have this trouble; he could use psychic power to adjust his body size skillfully, and every time he appeared in a perfect way.

Second Captain Sicarius of the Ultramarines, sitting beside Zhou Yun, looked at the broken rocky islands on the sea outside the window without saying a word.

Thalassa was Sicarius's hometown; Sicarius still retained the honorary title of Duke of Thalassa. In a sense, Thalassa was equivalent to his noble fief.

Sicarius had feelings for this land. 【321

But once this place was overrun by Chaos, it became a tough nut to crack, and with the spread of the plague, the battle reached a stalemate.

Macragge also poured more forces into this planet, and the Cadian 184th Regiment, the only mortal unit equipped with Zhou Yun's artifacts, joined the fray, instantly escalating the brutality of this war by a notch.

This was not the fault of Zhou Yun's artifacts; it was mainly the fault of...

Suddenly, a roar like a landslide and a tsunami came from outside the window, and Zhou Yun and Sicarius both saw an island being ripped from the sea, manipulated by psychic power to skip across the water like a stone toward another island.

The islands collided, the seabed groaned, and the Black Legion on both islands was destroyed in this cataclysmic scene.

"My island..." Sicarius's murmur sounded beside Zhou Yun.

After the 184th Regiment entered the battle, the situation on Thalassa did indeed improve.

For instance, there had been a small Hive World on Thalassa that had been impossible to conquer, and Xiang Xiang Leina and her 184th Regiment were dispatched there because of this.

Facing this fortress modified by the Iron Warriors, Xiang Xiang Leina grabbed an island and smashed the entire thing directly into the Hive World.

Later, Xiang Xiang Leina learned that the Hive World was Sicarius's childhood home, the site of his family's residence during his mortal years.

After the Thunderhawk tore through the storm layer, it landed shakily in the Graldo Valley on Thalassa.

Guilliman and Zhou Yun stepped out from the Thunderhawk gunship under the protection of Sicarius.

An Imperial encampment had been set up in this valley, with emergency isolation sheds standing in the rain of Thalassa.

Mortal medics and Astartes apothecaries were moving in and out of the sheds, and occasionally, traces of Aeldari could be seen.

Some Aeldari in the Ynnari possessed medical knowledge, and they had been assigned to various places to help the Imperium of Man cure the Tears Plague.

But even the Aeldari could not cure the brand-new plague cultivated by Nurgle so quickly.

Most of these Aeldari no longer participated in frontline medical work; they claimed they were going to find a way to cure the Tears Plague in a more efficient manner.

Guilliman's face was bathed in the cold rain as he watched, twitching, as the Aeldari piled up a female statue in the corner of the camp, respectfully praying to the Aeldari Goddess of Life, Isha.

Although he didn't know what Guilliman was thinking, Zhou Yun felt this was quite reliable.

Isha was a merciful deity; she was often the first to be infected by Nurgle's new plagues. She would drink the thick soup Nurgle had freshly brewed, use her own body to find a way to cure the new disease, and quietly tell the mortals of the material universe. The mortals here were not limited to the Aeldari, but included all races in the galaxy. Many cures for plagues actually came from Isha's whispers.

At least for the moment, it was more reliable than most methods used by apothecaries and mortal medics. Even bowing respectfully to Isha might be the most reliable way in the galaxy to cure a new type of plague. Of course, excluding bacterial types; the most effective method for curing bacterial plagues was in Zhou Yun's...

The camp commander hurried forward, attempting to hold an umbrella for the Primarch and Zhou Yun, but Guilliman stopped his action.

The mortal commander was too short; even holding the umbrella high, he could only reach Guilliman's shoulder.

Guilliman took the black umbrella and held it up for himself and Zhou Yun.

"I want to see the patients," the Primarch said to the commander.

They walked together outside the shed.

Inside the shed, sobbing, wailing, and cries of grief continued to emerge, the sounds weaving into a low and oppressive background music that clung to this rain-drenched world.

This was only the second day of the plague's appearance; Zhou Yun and Guilliman had arrived here rapidly using the Anywhere Door.

Yet the Tears Plague seemed to ignore the distance constraints of the material universe, spreading directly to all parts of Ultramar.

"Is this plague as intense as you expected?" Guilliman asked Zhou Yun beside him in a deep voice.

Zhou Yun had previously warned Guilliman that Nurgle might create a virus to erode Macragge.

"It's hard to say," Zhou Yun said, shaking his head.

His knowledge of this Tears Plague came entirely from the book "Wind and Clouds: The Rise of the Primarch" from his past life.

But that was a campaign book, written very briefly, with much content omitted, and it had no Chinese translation.

And as it happened, Zhou Yun's English level was as high as Xiang Xiang Leina's math level, and that campaign book was full of Nottingham dialect in its phrasing, as hard to read as High Gothic.

So Zhou Yun could not determine whether the Tears Plague before him was inherently this fierce, or if it was due to the butterfly effect caused by his arrival.

"The Plague God is a master of bacterial cultivation; he may have noticed my existence and subsequently increased the intensity of the plague."

Zhou Yun said, weighing his tone.

"Disease is the Plague God's creation, plague is God's punishment—only the most ignorant would believe such things."

Guilliman said with a frown:

"But you have made me have to believe that this plague is supernatural, God-made, profane, and unclean—it might even be demonic."

Although he said this, Guilliman had to believe Zhou Yun's words.

Because this Tears Plague came so fiercely and the onset was so rapid, yet to this day, not a single patient had died directly from the Tears Plague.

It was as if an invisible pair of hands was skillfully manipulating the life of every patient, keeping them at the boundary between being sick and not dying.

Guilliman listened to the weeping inside the armored door and bit his lip slightly.

He pushed the door open and entered, yet the moment he stepped inside, the sound of crying suddenly vanished.

The patients touched their eyelids in confusion and joy, discovering that the edema had suddenly disappeared, tears no longer flowed, and their blind eyes could see again.

It was as if the arrival of Guilliman and Zhou Yun had dispelled all disease and pain.

(End of chapter)