As soon as Zhen Xing returned to the cargo hold, accompanied by his uncles, he saw that his father was on the floor, convulsing.
Zhen Xing was about to rush over to his father’s side in his hour of need, when two different set of hands firmly grasped him to stop him in his tracks.
Zhen Xing was about to tell off whomever stopped him, only to promptly shut up when he saw the look of genuine concern on their faces.
"Zhen Hai? Zhen Yue? When did you guys get here? Why are you-"
"Xiao Xing, calm down for a second and look," Zhen Yue instructed her cousin as she kept a firm hand on his shoulder.
Following Zhen Yue’s instruction, Zhen Xing stopped and realized that something weird was going on with his father as he convulsed on the floor.
At various points on his body, strange looking bumps began to form, creating pustules that seemed to be ready to burst at a moment’s notice or the slightest provocation.
While there weren’t many of the odious bumps appearing on Zhen Jin’s body, there were enough to cause him, Zhen Xing and Zhen Hai to hesitate.
"See what I mean? Getting close to him now is just asking to get infected with whatever is causing that to happen."
"Damn, and here I thought the Fungal Plague was nasty."
Being descendants of the Zhen Clan, the three of them had been thoroughly educated about the finer points of aether beast handling and butchering. As such, they were well aware that rat type beasts tended to carry some form of infection in their teeth or claws.
It was actually fairly common accident among new hires of the clan to accidentally cut themselves on a giant rat beast’s teeth and come down with all sorts of illnesses that tended to be rather contagious and had to be quarantined as a result.
Unless they were completely covered from head to toe, none of the Zhen Clan scions dared to approach in fear of infection.
"Kids, stay back. We got this."
Luckily, for them, they were accompanied by three Aether Grand Masters.
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[Dammit, I was hoping to get Zhen Hai in here before the others did anything...no, wait... this could work. Just need to find the right moment....]
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One by one, their First, Third and Seventh Uncles all donned their aether armors then proceeded to go and tend to their ailing brother.
It may seem to odd to use what’s predominantly considered a combat enhancer for something like medical care, but this was the best course of action given the circumstances.
[Aether armor] enables the user to coat themselves in a protective layer of aether in order to prevent things such as hazardous environmental conditions from affecting them. Granted, some aether armors are better at resisting certain natural phenomena more than others, but for something like prevent contagion spread, any armor will do.
The three elders moved quickly to ensure their brother’s well-being.
While they weren’t sure what Zhen Jin was ailing from, they at least knew that the quicker they figured out the symptoms, the sooner they could get him the proper treatment.
"Zhen Lao, check the pustules and his pulse, make sure the former is not infectious when the latter is still stable. Zhen Yan, hold Zhen Jin down so he doesn’t hurt himself. I’ll check the corpse. Maybe I can figure out what we’re dealing with if I know what this beast actually is."
"Of course, brother."
As Zhen Yan and Zhen Lao moved to make sure their brother could be safely moved to another area for proper medical treatment, Zhen Long proceeded to examine his brother’s handiwork/victim/cause of disease.
’Damn. Never thought he’d actually pull this off...but what the fuck is this thing?,’ Zhen Long thought to himself as he examined the patch of green, luscious plants growing from a very fresh and bloody giant rat corpse.
The plants growing out of the corpse looked familiar, composed of a variety of attack plants that Zhen Jin normally keeps on his person in the form of seeds, namely, Entangler Ivy, Shield Shrubs and Piercer Bamboo. The corpse they were growing out of however was decidedly not familiar.
"Postules appear to be harmless. Looks like we can pop them whenever," Zhen Long heard Zhen Lao announce in the background.
"Checking his pulse..."
The corpse in question looked like it belong to a standard Float Rat, a type of tier one Aquarri aether beast that was essentially just a normal rat that could swim better and breathe underwater. However, a lot of the finer details of it felt...wrong.
’Why is this rat so strangely metallic?,’ Zhen Long thought to himself as he examined the rat’s strange wire-like whiskers, it’s decidedly metallic claws and the strange patches of metal skin that he had initially believed to be attached like the scales of an Iron Pangolin or maybe a Steel-Backed Wolf. It was only when he touched them that he realized the patches of metal were actually fully and seamlessly a part of the skin, fur and flesh.
Zhen Long had processed beasts with metallic body parts before, sure, but the parts that were metallic were usually the bones, the teeth, horns, and maybe the occasional plate that grew from their skin in a solid patch.
He had never seen metal that was seamlessly merged with the flesh before.
’What kind of rat beast can take a form like...huh? What’s this liquid?’
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[Okay, I think the elders have looked over their darling brother long enough, causing unnecessary drama...now!]
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As Zhen Long looked over the beast again in a more general overview, he noticed a strange pool of black liquid forming beneath the corpse. He was just about to touch the liquid in order to determine what the hell it was exactly, but the sound of his brother’s yell caused him to pause.
"Pulse is, wait...his pulse stopped. Zhen Long! Zhen Jin’s heart has stopped!"
As soon as Zhen Lao made the announcement, Zhen Long immediately stopped what he was doing and went over to confirm his third brother’s claim.
Once he felt it for himself, he began to pale...until, he remembered something important.
"Wait...Xiao Hai! Get over here! We need you to do that heart shocking thing," Zhen Long called out to his son. (Un)surprisingly, Zhen Hai was rather confused at this statement.
"Huh? What? Heart shocking thing?"
"Remember what you did when Telana Corrada’s heart suddenly stopped?," Zhen Yue reminded her cousin.
"Huh? Oh! The defibrillation thing! Right!"
Once it was made clear of what was to be expected of him, Zhen Hai rushed over as quick as he could to his uncles and father’s side. As he did, he began to condense his aether around his hands, creating salt water cushions and charging up electric aether in them.
"Apologies uncles, but I need you to hold Fifth Uncle down as I do this. I need him still for this."
It was a rather surreal sight to see three older Grandmasters follow the orders of a much younger Master, but when push comes to shove, knowledge and experience in a specific situation matters more than general seniority.
Once everyone was in palace, Zhen Hai with his hands on Zhen Jin’s chest, Zhen Lao and Zhen Yan holding the latter down by the arms Zhen Long standing back to give his son room, Zhen Hai went to work.
Arc of electricity began to jump around Zhen Hai’s hands as he began to circulate his aether more vigorously.
And just like that, in the blink of an eye, Zhen Hai successfully shocked Fifth Elder Zhen Jin back into the land of the living, all while popping all of the postules that were covering the latter’s body.
Evidently, everyone was so relieved that Zhen Jin was okay now, that they didn’t notice that the pus released by the pustules had suddenly disappeared into shimmering particles.
"What...what just happened?," Zhen Jin asked, "and why does my everything hurt more than before?"
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Meanwhile, behind a locked door near the cargo hold...
’I can’t believe that worked,’ Zhen Liu stated with a shocked tone.
Zhen Liu might have been living in a world where cultivation was king and miracle cures were real, but he still had some knowledge of medicine form his first life, so what unfolded in the cargo hold next to him was... absolutely fucking batshit absurd, by his standards at least.
[What can I say? I’m good at my job.]
’Humble bragging should be beneath you.’
’Well, I’m gonna go play dumb...and probably steal that rat’s corpse. Do you want to stick around?’
[Love to, but I do believe my break is coming to an end. I must get back to teaching the children how to properly break out of handcuffs.]
’Fair enou-wait, what?’