Chapter 1323

"Who is it?"

The attendants and maids subconsciously protected Margaret, and Xia De also blocked in front of Margaret. But seeing that the old man had truly fallen, he squatted down, wanting to help him up. The old man was not unconscious and was struggling to stand up himself, but even after holding onto Xia De's hand, he was still unable to get up:

"Oh, young man, I don't seem to be able to feel my right leg."

He said while groaning.

"Your right leg is still there; is it numb? I'll tap it; do you have any feeling?"

Xia De then used his hand to pat the old man's right knee position, and just as the old man expressed again that there was no feeling, "She" gave the answer.

【Signs of petrification have appeared on the right leg.】

"What?"

He was shocked in his heart, but there were clearly no signs of the Mad Earth around the Stonemason Society. So, after obtaining the old man's consent, Xia De rolled up his trouser leg; his right leg had not petrified and was still flesh, but the color was very different from the color of his hands and face.

【High probability of being the influence of the Mad Earth, but the symptoms are very mild.】

This was a serious matter, and the Society's staff also arrived soon after hearing the news and sent the old gentleman to the hospital.

Xia De originally thought the old man had come into contact with that black mud somewhere, and he only needed to investigate the corresponding location and then perform purification; this could even allow him to obtain another Holy Grail. But the result was worse than he thought; on the way Margaret said goodbye to him and he went to the Wang Erde Opera House alone by carriage, while chatting with the coachman, the coachman also told Xia De similar things:

"At two o'clock this afternoon, when I was waiting for a guest at the entrance of the Prophet Society in the city center, I saw people using a stretcher to carry out a young man wearing the Society's uniform whose appearance could not be seen clearly. I heard that he suddenly became paralyzed, and his entire lower body had no feeling."

This gave Xia De a very bad premonition.

After rushing to the Wang Erde Opera House, Xia De soon found Miss Bernice in the troupe leader's office on the third floor. Seeing Xia De arrive, Miss Bernice opened her mouth and confirmed Xia De's conjecture:

"Xia De, bad news. Starting from noon today, ordinary people with signs of limb petrification have appeared one after another within the city area. It is not complete petrification, like some kind of physical disease, but the Church has already determined that this is related to the distortion and madness of the earth."

Her expression was very serious:

"This is another situation that we do not understand; the current number of cases has exceeded two hundred. These people live in various locations in the Randall Valley and have no commonality at all."

"Is the water source polluted again? Or has the earth completely lost control?"

Xia De asked in shock.

"The situation is not yet clear."

Miss Lassus, who walked in from the door, said; she had just returned from outside:

"The information peddler in the black market has news that the patients whose limbs show signs of petrification have already been completely taken over by the Church. They are not directly completely petrified, but rather muscles or bones have shown abnormal hardening symptoms. The Church has released word to the outside, calling this disease 'Petrification Plague' and explaining it as a bone disease; it will likely be in the newspapers tomorrow."

"Plague? Is it contagious?"

"It shouldn't be."

"Will the symptoms continue to worsen?"

"Yes."

Miss Lassus said, turning to close the door:

"The first case appeared at 12:35 PM, and then similar cases appeared in various areas of the city. Because of the appearance of a large number of similar cases in a short period of time, it attracted the attention of the Five Gods Church in this diocese, which is how it was investigated to be related to the earth."

The young girl had a worried expression on her face:

"I am very worried that this is a precursor to the earth falling into complete madness."

The witch frowned slightly:

"I will go to the Council first to report the situation to the Speaker. Since a hundred cases can appear today, there might be more tomorrow; we cannot assume the Church has a way to control the situation in a short time. Really, although I thought such a serious problem would appear sooner or later, I didn't expect it to be so fast."

Saying this, she stood up and walked toward the corridor outside, while Miss Lassus asked Xia De:

"Can you contact the Guardians as soon as possible? At least we need to know what the current situation is."

Xia De shook his head slightly:

"I can't contact them; they are not willing to show themselves easily now. Moreover, I suspect that even if it were them, I'm afraid they wouldn't be able to solve this matter."

Originally, Xia De and Luweiya had agreed to go outside the city tonight to see the elf girl and retrieve the "Elf's Purified Water" that Xia De wanted. But Luweiya arrived at the Opera House twenty minutes later than the scheduled time, and she also started by talking about the large number of abnormal cases in the city:

"The Society is going to organize a large-scale divination ritual tonight to locate the possible position of the Mad Earth. Xia De, I can't go outside the city with you tonight."

The purple-eyed girl apologized, and Xia De shook his head:

"It doesn't matter, I'll go by myself. But what exactly is the situation? Has the Mad Earth appeared in the water source again?"

"I wish that were the case."

Luweiya and Miss Lassus's worries were surprisingly consistent:

"The Society has communicated with the local Church; this is not that a certain source has been polluted, but rather more like... a plague."

She said this term with great difficulty:

"The earth is sick; the essence of the Mad Earth is a local phenomenon produced by the earth's madness. And now, this phenomenon has become increasingly intense, to the extent that it has produced additional influences even in areas where strong symptoms have not appeared."

Xia De and Miss Lassus looked at each other:

"No way to treat it?"

"Hold the Chosen One ritual."

Luweiya looked at Xia De:

"Judging from the current situation, it can only be suppressed, not reversed. According to news from the Society's headquarters, the date for the first Randall Flower to bloom normally this year should be in two weeks, the first half of March. And before that, no one knows what will happen."

"The witches should be arriving in this city soon, right?"

Miss Lassus asked suddenly, and Xia De nodded, and Yin Luna, presumably, would also arrive soon.

Until Xia De rode a horse to the outside of the city, Miss Bernice had not returned from the Council. Therefore, only Miss Lassus remained at the Opera House waiting for news, and Xia De went to see the elf girl Emilia alone.

This time, there were no accidents; Xia De lit a bonfire in the snowy forest and waited for less than twenty minutes before hearing a "Neigh~" sound.

He stood up immediately and, sure enough, saw the pure white little beast emitting a soft light, carrying the elf girl who was sitting sideways as it jumped out of the forest. The young unicorn was quite excited to see Xia De, but before running over, it carefully observed his surroundings, not knowing what it was looking at.

"You're here again?"

Xia De smiled and stroked the top of the little beast's head; the latter's blue eyes were filled with excitement, and it lay down docilely beside Xia De. The elf girl also greeted Xia De and gave the bag she was holding to Xia De:

"The materials you wanted; these should be enough."

Inside were small glass bottles, and in the bottles was "Elf's Purified Water."

"These are already enough, even a bit too much."

Xia De expressed immediately, and the elf girl waved her hand to indicate it didn't matter. However, she did not get up and leave immediately, but instead looked around vigilantly:

"Did something happen in the last two days? Why does it feel like this place is a bit different from when I came on Monday? It's hard to say what the feeling is, but in short, something is not right."

"Neigh!"

The little beast also called out to show agreement.

"Your intuition is quite sharp; the earth's curse is spreading."

Xia De briefly recounted what happened in the city today, and the elf girl was greatly surprised:

"I didn't expect that what was in the prophecy would actually happen."

"Prophecy?"

Xia De was stunned, thinking the other party also knew about the Whisper Chapter.

"The elf race's prophecy; it is rumored that after the World Tree disappeared, the power used to stabilize the earth's foundation also disappeared. Therefore, the earth of the material world under our feet is moving step by step toward instability during the era's changes, until complete madness. And the people living on the land will also gradually merge with the earth in this process; the initial manifestation is the plague that is nearly petrification."

In order to describe it more accurately, she used modern Elvish to tell these things:

"You and that lady should not stay in the Randall Valley either. Leave here quickly; even if a Ring Mage's resistance is far higher than an ordinary person's, staying on this land for a long time will sooner or later lead to problems."

"The Randall Valley is considered in mysticism to be the center of the material world's earth; this disaster will sooner or later spread to other places."

Xia De's hand gently stroked the hair on the unicorn's back, and the elf looked at Xia De's profile in the firelight, feeling that at this moment, Xia De's eyes seemed to be glowing:

"Are you going to..."

"Look here to see what method the Church will use to solve this matter. If I can do something, I will also extend a helping hand. This is a major event that might not be encountered even once in an era; even if I take these risks, staying is worth it... however, I cannot let Miss Danister see me; after all, I currently belong to having left the station without reporting."

"Is the life of a correspondence student always like this?"

The elf girl thought hesitantly, her eyes looking at the bonfire lit in front of her, and she stretched out her hands to perceive the heat:

"Speaking of which, I was admitted by Miss Danister to be a temporary library assistant."

She said suddenly, and then thanked him softly in the crackling sound of the bonfire:

"Miss Danister said it was her student's suggestion. It was you, right?"

"Just a small matter; Miss Danister happened to ask me, and I happened to see your application."

Xia De said indifferently, and the elf girl thanked him again with a slightly red face in the light of the bonfire:

"Since we met, it has always been you helping me; I am really a bit embarrassed."

"Aren't you helping me with these?"

Xia De pointed to the small bottles beside him:

"Also, it is best if you don't appear in the Randall Valley often recently; before spring arrives, many terrible things will happen here. I hope this time is our last meeting before spring."