Chapter 827: Without a Clue

With pollution clearance complete, Saul began the next step.

“The biggest problem with sick mermaids is that they can’t survive in black tide seawater like other mermaids. Such mermaids have no utility value for the Tribunal,” Alfonso said, pointing at Coral. “If mermaids can’t efficiently absorb pollution from Red Sea Trees with low consumption, the Tribunal will switch to more extreme methods to handle pollution.”

After a pause, Alfonso added, “Red Sea Trees protect Nephret Continent, not the residents on it.”

Saul understood. If the entire continent was destroyed by the Abyssal Eye, even if most wizards could flee to other continents, it would mean at least one-third of the wizard world’s resources would disappear.

And if the remaining continents had no effective resistance methods, they could only wait to die bit by bit.

Fourth-rank wizards would become the final survivors of this world, perishing together with what remained of it.

In a sealed wizard world, there was nowhere to escape even if they wanted to.

Therefore, if the modified mermaids couldn’t serve as trash cans for Red Sea Trees, the Tribunal would have to find another trash can.

No matter what they switched to, it would bring catastrophe to the entire Nephret Continent.

Saul removed the rotting flesh from Coral’s tail and temporarily sealed the wounds with potions.

Then he drew seawater mixed with black tide pollution to fill the glass tank that had previously contained Kate.

Mermaid Kate stood on the beach, seeing the tank and very much wanting to dive in. Unfortunately, to eliminate other interfering factors, he temporarily couldn’t be allowed to soak in water.

While Saul was filling the tank, Alfonso went to unbuckle the straps on Coral’s body, then used levitation magic to lift Coral.

Throughout the process, he never touched Coral directly.

When Coral floated in the air, she was somewhat panicked.

Leaving the water had already meant leaving the place that made her feel most secure. It was just her momentary curiosity about Saul and the instruments that made her temporarily forget her wariness.

Now suddenly flying up, her body suspended without feeling any support, her tail swaying but with no familiar resistance.

“Ya ya… ya ya…” Coral suddenly opened her mouth and cried out, looking very frightened.

Alfonso, expressionless, quickly threw Coral into the tank.

Water splashed everywhere, but Coral quieted down again.

Seeing the seawater around her, she happily spun in a circle, then crashed head-first into the tank wall.

“Mermaids do seem to have quite low intelligence,” Saul stood beside the tank, silently observing. “But Coral’s soul body looks… somewhat different.”

Alfonso also stood nearby.

Although Saul had just simply absorbed the pollution from Coral’s body, his method was completely different from what Alfonso used.

He wasn’t sure if this method could prevent subsequent pollution.

If it could… that would be too incredible.

Alfonso quickly glanced at Saul, then refocused his gaze on Coral.

A few minutes later.

“The pollution in Coral’s body has reached the warning line for ordinary people,” Alfonso continued recording.

Then they saw that Coral’s tail, which had just been treated, began showing new rotting wounds again.

“No good.” Alfonso’s expression darkened, though he felt this was as expected.

If patients treated by Saul never relapsed, his personal value in this world possibly facing destruction by black tide pollution would be too terrifying.

Saul also saw the wounds on Coral’s body.

The beautiful mermaid with red hair seemed unable to feel the wounds on her tail, or perhaps was already accustomed to them. She just glanced at the new wounds that appeared on her tail, then continued carefully moving around in the water, avoiding another collision.

Saul bent down, once again manifesting tentacles to cover Coral’s new wounds.

Coral, remembering her previous experience, wanted to retreat, but the tank was too small for her to escape.

This time Saul didn’t clear the pollution from her body, just examined for a while before withdrawing his tentacles.

“Her body has undergone some kind of mutation. Her skin ulcerates when pollution exceeds safe levels. But no signs of contagion were found. Why would this disease, similar to genetic mutation, be contagious?”

Saul had previously extracted rotting flesh from Coral for cultivation experiments, but found no signs of contagion.

“Could the transmission route not be through contact?”

Saul stood up and lifted Coral out of the seawater.

“One more time!”

Alfonso: “Hm?”

Coral: “Ya ya!”

After clearing the pollution from Coral’s body again, Saul had another sealed bottle containing black tide pollution in his hands.

Once clearance was complete, Saul again carried Coral toward the tank.

However, this time, before throwing Coral in, Saul suddenly struck. A black blade flashed, directly cutting Coral from collarbone to lower abdomen with a huge wound.

The black blade didn’t deliberately avoid vital areas. All skin, muscle, organs, and bones along its path were cut with clean incisions.

Blood immediately gushed out.

But before the blood could splash on him, Saul threw her into the tank.

The tank, which hadn’t been particularly clear to begin with, was immediately muddied by fresh blood.

“Ya ya ya ya ya ya…” Coral seemed to finally understand the threat of death, struggling in the tank as more blood flowed faster from her wounds.

But such murky water conditions couldn’t obstruct Saul and Alfonso’s vision. The two stood beside the tank, seriously watching the changes in Coral’s wounds.

Time passed bit by bit, and Coral’s tail once again showed rotting wounds.

Saul glanced at the wounds on her tail, then continued focusing his attention on the huge wound across Coral’s chest and abdomen.

After a few more minutes, Coral’s struggles gradually weakened.

Alfonso, who had been silent, spoke up.

“If you don’t want to kill her right now, you can stop, right?”

If they waited any longer, even with a mermaid’s robust constitution, she would die.

Saul nodded and bent down to lift Coral from the bloody water.

This time his movements were gentler. He carried Coral back to the experimental table and immediately began cleaning the wounds and using healing magic to close the knife cuts.

Although she received treatment, due to the oversized wounds, excessive blood loss, and soaking in seawater for several minutes, Coral’s eyes rolled back and she fainted.

Saul turned back to take the data Alfonso had recorded. “Coral’s physical data doesn’t differ much from other mermaids. Her susceptibility to pollution is mainly due to active changes in her soul body.”

Coral’s tail gave a “plop” as it swished, looking like she was about to wake up.

“But soul body pollution still can’t explain why the rot disease is contagious.”

Saul frowned. It had been a long time since he’d encountered a situation where he had absolutely no clues.

Alfonso walked to Saul’s side, noticing his troubled expression, and spoke up, “You don’t need to be too anxious. We still have time. Even if there’s really no solution in the end, we can follow Royer’s idea and compensate for losses through quantity.”

“No matter how large the quantity, if the number of pathogens reaches a certain level, the disease will spread uncontrollably. Then no number of mermaids will be enough to die.”

Saul turned around, looking toward the ocean. The nearby sea here was a brilliant red.

As if it had been dyed with blood.

“Alfonso.”

“What?”

“Are there still atavistic mermaids in the ocean?”

“Although most atavistic mermaids have already been collected by me, this sea area is so vast that there are definitely some still remaining outside.”

“I’m going to look in the sea,” Saul said, picking up mermaid Kate from the ground. “Let’s go together.”

(End of Chapter)

If you find any errors ( Ads popup, ads redirect, broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.