Translator: XephiZ

Editor: Aelryinth

Following Wang Xiaojun's guide, Mo Fan and Lingling quickly made their way to the woods, and caught a poisonous rat beast that Wang Xiaojun had mentioned.

Lingling was rather an expert with demon beasts. She immediately recognized it to be a subspecies of the demon rats living in burrows in the jungle.

These Malicious Epidemic Rats were one of the weakest of all Servant-class demon beasts. Mo Fan did fight some of them along the way, and the demon beast was a lot weaker than the Colossal-eyed Ape Rat Mo Fan had encountered in Bo City.

Lingling quickly dissected one of the Malicious Epidemic Rats on the spot dexterously. Both Mo Fan and Wang Xiaojun wore weird looks on their faces, as they could not believe it was something that a little girl looking barely over ten could do.

"Strange, it's the Mutated Blood. Am I really that lucky?" said Lingling. She glanced at Mo Fan and pointed deeper into the woods, "Go catch some more of these here, and see if they contain any Mutated Blood."

Mo Fan followed her instructions. Killing some of the rats did not require any effort. To Mo Fan's astonishment, each of the Malicious Epidemic Ratshad Mutated Blood in them.

Mutated Blood, only a few drops would appear after killing over a hundred demon beasts. It was an important material that had always been low in supply. Hunters had risked their lives in the wild to hunt the demon beasts, just to obtain some Mutated Blood, Mutated Bones, or Mutated Skin from them. Mutated Bones or Mutated Skin were the main crafting material to forge magical equipment, while Mutated Blood was widely used in other areas. The blood serums for healing purposes were refined from Mutated Blood.

Mutated Blood was incredibly rare, hence it was rather unbelievable that every Malicious Epidemic Rat had Mutated Blood.

Mo Fan reflected the findings to Lingling, who was busy dissecting the demon beast. Lingling seemed to have arrived at a conclusion, whose lips curled slightly upward as she spoke, "We finally have a clear picture of the whole incident."

Mo Fan and Wang Xiaojun sat down beside one another, fully prepared to listen to Lingling's explanation.

"The Malicious Epidemic Rats are very unique. It's a rare type of 'disastrous' species. They are weak, to an extent that they can't even protect themselves, as they are placed at the bottom of the food chains. When I read about them in the recordings about their species, I always wondered why they aren't extinct yet. It turns out that they have a special way to reproduce.

"First, their bodies contain a kind of Diseased Blood, which is very similar to Mutated Blood. It's impossible to tell the difference without a detailed dissection. Therefore, recalling the series of events that have taken place lately..."

Mo Fan had already noticed how the incidents were linked. He took over and continued, "Someone has been using the rats' Diseased Blood to mass produce the blood serums, which resulted in the outbreak of the plague."

Lingling added with a nod, "From the information sister has given me, it turns out that the two rotten corpses in the city bought blood serums from White Town beforehand. The first batch of patients caught the virus from the blood serums made with the Malicious Epidemic Rats blood."

The production line of the blood serums was strictly handled by the Magic Association. It was almost impossible that someone had retrieved the wrong ingredients to produce the blood serums. Therefore, it was most likely that someone had colluded with the Magic Association to mass produce the defective blood serums.

The blood serums would have the same effect as the ordinary blood serums, but they never thought that the Malicious Epidemic Rats' blood would hide in the patient's body before breaking out as a disease. Somehow, the disease had further mutated into an epidemic. As such, it instantly activated the virus in the bodies of those who had consumed the defective blood serums, allowing the plague to spread rapidly, and resulting in the disaster for Hangzhou City.

They had finally discovered the source of the plague!

The whole incident had nothing to do with the Black Totem Snake. The so-called natural disaster was actually man-made!

Their next step was to discover the people responsible for using such an inhumane method to earn a great profit.

Leng Qing and Mo Fan reflected their findings to Leng Qing, who told the two her discoveries, too. It turned out that the person in charge of supervising the first batch of blood serums was Vice Elder Wang Yi's wife.

Furthermore, even Wang Yi would not have the guts to use the Disease Blood as an alternative ingredient to produce the blood serums. As they investigated further, there was only one person likely to be the culprit… Councilman Luo Mian!

If Councilman Luo Mian were guilty, it explained why he had suddenly colluded with Councilman Zhu Meng!

After all, they needed a scapegoat for the plague. The Black Totem Snake happened to be the perfect candidate, thus he could not wait to execute the Black Totem Snake, just so he could blame it all on the already dead Black Totem Snake.

It was an astounding discovery, which involved an absolutely terrifying conspiracy!

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Mo Fan, Lingling, Wang Xiaojun, Leng Qing and Tangyue regrouped at West Lake. When Mo Fan told everyone the truth, Tangyue was flushed with rage, her chest rising heavily. She never thought that Councilman Luo Mian was responsible for the plague, and instead of confessing his wrongdoing took advantage of the people's fear and Councilman Zhu Meng's strategy to frame the Black Totem Snake. How vicious and devoid of conscience was he!?

"Since we've already learned the truth, we should arrest Councilman Luo Mian as soon as possible, " said Wang Xiaojun.

"A Councilman has far greater power than an Elder of the Magic Court. Arresting him won't be easy. We should find a way to let Councilman Zhu Meng spare the Black Totem Snake's life first. The totem beast is already extremely weak. He won't hold much longer if the torture continues," said Mo Fan.

Leng Qing nodded. It would be quite difficult to overthrow a Councilman. Besides, they had no solid evidence to prove that he was the mastermind behind the infectious blood serums. They would have to wait until the Elder Li Tian to acquired some important evidence.

Tangyue clenched her fists. Even though they knew who the culprit was, they still could not bring him to justice!

As they were discussing, Leng Qing received a call. A hint of helplessness surfaced on her face as she said, "Vice Elder of the Magic Court Wang Yi has committed suicide to avoid punishment. The news has spread quickly through West Fortress."

"The blood serums that were transported to West Fortress are defective. The outbreak of the plague is inevitable. If we knew the blood serums were the reason for the plague, we would've stopped the blood serums from reaching West Fortress," said Mo Fan.

"It doesn't make any difference, even though we've learned the truth. Councilman Luo Mian has sacrificed the rook in order to save the queen, blaming it all on Vice Elder Wang Yi. The entire fortress is affected by the plague, thus our defense has tumbled. The army of White Magic Falcons might attack at any time... Hangzhou City is going to have a serious problem," said Leng Qing.

In the midst of her speech, Leng Qing raised her eyes, staring into the west.

A moment later, an ray of light could be seen in the distance. It was absolutely striking as it sprang into the sky.

The sun was setting in the same direction, the sky was dyed crimson. The combination of the two colors served as a reminder of the upcoming terrifying situation...