Chapter 174 - 176: Coming to the Fore

Chapter 174: Chapter 176: Coming to the Fore

Many people began to believe Su Luoluo because of what she said.

Because Su Luoluo’s description perfectly matched how Ah Dong and Ah Xi looked before they died.

"I believe Luoluo, too. Leader, let’s just do what she says!"

"Yeah, it sounds terrifying. Leader, let’s go with her plan."

The tide of opinion shifted in an instant. Only Ah Dong’s and Ah Xi’s mothers and fathers still refused, clinging tightly to their children’s bodies.

"No! Don’t you touch them!"

"If you don’t want us in the tribe, we’ll just leave on our own."

With that, the four parents lifted their children’s bodies and started to leave.

Su Yang naturally couldn’t let them leave just like that. They were members of the tribe; as the leader, how could he so easily drive his people away?

He stopped the four and turned to Su Luoluo. "We’ve never heard of this plague. How do you know about it?"

Su Luoluo’s heart skipped a beat. She had been so focused on explaining the situation that she’d forgotten to come up with a believable story for how she knew.

’This plague is one of the most basic forms of viral transmission among zombies. I got infected with it back when I first started doing missions, so I couldn’t be more familiar with this kind of virus.’

’Back then, to pass the clearance tests, I crammed a ton of knowledge about plagues, from ancient to modern times, covering all types and symptoms. You had to pass that kind of exam if you wanted to be assigned missions again.’

It wasn’t just Su Yang who found her knowledge strange; the other Beastmen in the tribe, including Su Luoluo’s own Beastman husbands, shared the same doubt.

’If Xi Yi hadn’t come,’ Su Luoluo thought, ’this would be so much easier to solve. I could just blame it all on my adoptive Black Bear mother, claiming their tribe had experienced this plague before. That would have been a plausible excuse.’

But with Xi Yi here, she couldn’t use that story.

After a moment’s thought, she said, "I saw it somewhere else."

"Somewhere else? Where? Why on earth would you go to a place like that?" Su Yang asked, confused.

"I don’t know where it was."

"Back when my Beastman husbands were ignoring me, I went out to clear my head. I saw it then."

The original owner of this body used to run away from home whenever she had a falling out with her Beastman husbands. Everyone in the tribe knew about it. But since she always came back on her own after a short while, no one ever took it seriously.

Su Yang remembered that Su Luoluo liked to run away. He hadn’t bothered with her back then either, especially since she would sometimes run off twice in three days, and always came back before long.

Still, he hadn’t gone looking for her, which meant he hadn’t fulfilled his duties as a father.

He cleared his throat in embarrassment before turning to Ah Dong’s and Ah Xi’s parents.

"I’m not trying to be cruel. You heard her—if Ah Dong and Ah Xi aren’t cremated, the entire tribe will be infected. Everyone will die."

"After the cremation, I will have Ah Dong and Ah Xi enshrined before the Holy Fire. How about that? The Heavenly God will be able to watch over them day and night."

Not everyone was qualified to be enshrined before the Holy Fire. Su Yang’s offer was a huge concession. The four parents calmed down upon hearing this and were nodding, about to agree.

Suddenly, their bodies began to twitch unnaturally. Full-body convulsions followed, and then they each sprayed a mouthful of blood and collapsed to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the four people who had been alive just a moment ago were dead on the ground.

The onlooking Beastmen were instantly terrified out of their wits. They scrambled backward, their faces masks of horror.

Su Yang was standing close, but Su Luoluo grabbed him and pulled him back.

Now, no one in the tribe had any objections to what Su Luoluo had said. They believed her completely.

Someone asked Su Luoluo with a trembling voice, "Will we be okay if we just burn them?"

After all, they had been standing so close. They might have already been infected.

"As long as you didn’t have any overly intimate physical contact with them, you’ll be fine. I’ll prepare some preventative medicine for everyone later," Su Luoluo replied calmly.

Her words put everyone much more at ease.

Two bodies had suddenly become six. Panic filled the tribe, and no one dared to step forward to help.

Su Yang could only glance at Su Luoluo’s Beastman husbands. With their Fifth Rank Beastification, their defenses were much better than those of ordinary Beastmen. It would be relatively safer to have them do it.

Luan Ting, Xiao Ye, Mo Xuan, and Nantu did not refuse, stepping forward to lend a hand.

Fu Feng, who was a bit of a germaphobe, found it hard to accept. But seeing Su Luoluo nearby, he gritted his teeth and went anyway.

Xi Yi also followed and began to help.

The cremation site was set up according to Su Luoluo’s instructions: a good distance from the tribe’s living area, not near any water sources, and in a place where no other animals passed by.

After Su Yang lit the pyre with a torch, everyone in the tribe watched with solemn expressions, bidding a final farewell to the six.

When it was over, Su Yang wanted to collect the ashes, but Su Luoluo stopped him. "Father, we need to wait. If there are no issues after a few days, we can collect them. Otherwise, you could easily get infected, too."

Hearing this, Su Yang gave up on the idea and ordered someone to cover the ashes with a beast skin.

When he was done, Xiao Ye looked at Su Luoluo and said, "Are you okay? Do you want to rest for a bit? I can go find a Witch Doctor to check on you."

It had been so dangerous just now, yet she had followed them over. And with a cub in her belly, no less. Xiao Ye’s heart had been pounding in his chest just watching her.

Su Luoluo shook her head. "I’m fine. Don’t forget, I have my Wood Element Ability. This little bit of plague can’t hurt me."

Seeing that Su Luoluo looked fine, Xiao Ye didn’t press the matter.

However, he still watched her secretly for a long time afterward. Only when he was certain she was truly alright did he finally relax.

Although Ah Dong’s and Ah Xi’s bodies had been cremated, that didn’t mean the tribe was safe.

Su Luoluo found some mugwort in the wild and showed it to the tribe members, telling them to find more of the same plant. They were to burn it in their homes to fumigate and disinfect them.

Although the tribespeople had never seen this done before, they did as Su Luoluo said, trusting her completely.

Even though Fu Feng and the other Beastman husbands were high-ranked and had a certain degree of self-healing, they also gathered some mugwort to burn, thinking of the cub in Su Luoluo’s belly.

A pregnant female was weaker than an ordinary one; they couldn’t be careless about this.

Besides the preventative measure of burning mugwort, Su Luoluo’s biggest worry was that the plague had already spread among the population.

So, she told everyone in the tribe to stay home as much as possible for a few days until they could be sure there were no more problems.

When Lan Ya heard that Su Luoluo was telling her not to go out, she was instantly displeased.

’Why should a Mother like me have to listen to my own daughter’s orders?’

After Su Nuannuan left the tribe, she had been listless for a while, feeling like she had misjudged people.