Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

Chapter 819: Chapter 358: Open the Door, Freedom of Faith!

The three of Wu Chang were dressed ordinarily, but the fit and the fine fabric of their clothes made them stand out in stark contrast to the slums.

Especially Erin, just by looking at her appearance, one could tell she must be someone of great importance.

Her expression was so saint-like and compassionate, as if she had stepped right out of a mural in Saint George’s Cathedral. Even Queen Olivia would be eclipsed in her presence.

It was an unusual event for someone of importance to come to the slums, and even more unusual for that person to voluntarily offer to treat Thomas’s sister.

And so, Wu Chang and his companions followed the young boy named Thomas, with a crowd from the slums trailing behind them, heading towards the Thomas family home in a mighty procession.

Thomas’s home was located in a simple row of red-brick houses, with the entire place measuring just over ten square meters. Inside, only a small window on the side let in light, making the space gloomy and the air hard to circulate.

As soon as one stepped inside, the unpleasant mix of damp mold, rotting food, and waste odors was detectable.

The smell was far from pleasant, causing Wu Chang and Raventon to wrinkle their noses and breathe more shallowly.

But Erin’s expression didn’t change. The moment she entered the room, her gaze landed on the girl lying on the bed.

”Thomas, I feel better now, you don’t need to look for a doctor anymore.” A faint voice came from the bed.

With slow movements, a skeletal figure, so thin and dehydrated that her cheeks were sunken, sat up from the bed.

Thomas was right; his sister was indeed gravely ill.

Not only did she suffer high fever and diarrhea from malaria, but her jaw had also retracted backwards, showing an underbite, with her cheeks swollen, making her appearance seem very peculiar.

The disfigurement of her face rendered Thomas’s sister nearly unrecognizable and made speaking extremely difficult for her.

More astonishingly, as she tried to smile to reassure her brother upon thinking Thomas had returned, her exposed teeth glowed with a greenish-white light in the dim room.

Wu Chang stared at the scene, almost pulling out the Soul Cleansing Banner from his portable space.

”Possessed by an evil spirit?” he muttered softly.

Only a vengeful ghost could torment someone to this extent. Luckily, he and Erin were professionals; encountering them was a blessing for any malevolent spirit.

Yet the haunted spirits in the Dungeon Plane were rather elusive; he couldn’t discern their essence at a glance and needed to look more closely ahead.

Before Wu Chang could make further moves, Raventon spoke from the side:

”This is not an evil spirit possession, this is an occupational disease.”

Wu Chang slowly asked with confusion, looking at Raventon with a puzzled gaze. What profession could have such an intense occupational disease?

Necromancer?

Raventon whispered, ”Phosphorous necrosis of the jaw, his sister is likely a match factory worker.”

”In match factories, during match production, wooden sticks are dipped into phosphorus paste containing white phosphorus, which releases toxic vapors at room temperature.”

”White phosphorus has an affinity for bone. When its fumes mix with saliva, they erode teeth, then spread to corrode the jawbone.”

”At the same time, the mandible is rich in blood vessels, and the white phosphorus that enters the body easily deposits here as it circulates through the blood. Inside and out, it’s easy for a match worker’s jawbone to rot away.”

In the Plane where Wu Chang resides, matches are rarely seen, and it was his first time hearing how dangerous their production is.

He quietly asked, ”If the jawbone is already corroded, how should it be treated?”

Raventon shook his head slightly, ”There’s no cure. For mild cases, removing the jaw and changing jobs might allow survival. For severe cases, toxicity has spread to the brain, making survival difficult.”

After hearing this, Wu Chang fell silent. No wonder earlier, among the crowds that followed, he saw a few people without chins, which puzzled him, wondering why they’d have such symptoms when there’s no betel nut in Stilan.

Thinking back, those people must have been match workers.

He quietly said to Raventon, ”I didn’t expect you to know medicine.”

Erin’s role as a doctor was just a pretense, but it turned out Raventon was for real.

Raventon responded quietly, ”The truth hides in the details. I never studied medicine, just pay attention to details more often.”

While the two whispered, Erin had already followed Thomas to the window.

Thomas first introduced the girl lying on the bed to the three as Gray, his sister.

Then he told Gray that Erin was a doctor, come to treat her illness.

Gray, having just been woken up, hadn’t opened her eyes and hadn’t seen the people following Thomas.

At this moment, upon seeing Erin, her hazy mind cleared a bit, and she shook her head, saying:

”Thomas, I’m already much better, I don’t need a doctor, especially not such a high-class lady doctor.”

The lady doctor before her looked more like nobility than the gentry. Just having her treat me, how much would that cost?

Even if they were to sell both siblings, they couldn’t pay such high medical fees. How could Thomas afford to invite someone like her?

She remembered a terrifying rumor. It was said that in the slums, many strangers claiming to be doctors would perform drug trials under the guise of treatment.

Not a single person who those doctors had approached had ever returned.

Thinking of this, Erin suddenly seemed like a demon in her eyes. She knew she was done for, and she couldn’t let her brother fall into these clutches.

She pushed Thomas’s shoulder in desperation, saying urgently:

”Get her out, I don’t need treatment.”

Erin didn’t have the Mind Reading Technique, but she could see the tension and panic in Gray’s eyes. She gently grasped Gray’s hand and said softly: