Despite the writ from the City Lord, there was a lot of reluctance from the mayor at first, he didn't quite understand why Shu He wanted all of the stuff listed, plus a large amount of beer, he thought it was a joke when he heard it so he rushed over to ask.
And so Shu He had to explain, he could have strong armed the mayor but that would just sour things around here.
"They've been infected with parasites".
"P-parasites?! They aren't contagious are they?!" The mayor panicked.
"Not usually, what have you been doing with the waste from the patients?".
"Uh…" The mayor looked over to a nurse that was standing to the side, who answered in his stead.
"We've been dumping it in a deep hole we dug, why?"
'A cess pit… might be a bit dangerous' Shu He tapped his forehead.
"I suggest burning the waste from now on, from what I've seen this parasite is a string worm, it can live in warm environment and thrive, a pit like that is idea for them; Burning it will kill them off for sure".
"We didn't want to burn it in case whatever they had spread through the air…".
"That shouldn't be a problem, they have no air born disease; Make sure you keep your hands and clothes well washed especially before eating as well, otherwise the eggs might make their way inside of you as well".
"Okay, we've been doing that already" The nurse nodded before walking off to inform the others.
'It's nice to see competent people in the positions they deserve' He nodded to himself; they had handled it well so far themselves.
"S-so, w-why did you need all that stuff?" The mayor asked again.
"Oh, right, the different herbs and powders are to make some pills to help cleanse their bowels, begin killing the parasites and ease the pain".
"Then what is the alcohol for?" The mayor gave him a strange look.
"You don't think I asked for it for myself do you?" Shu He gave him a strange look.
"Of course not! An emissary of the City Lord wouldn't do such a thing!".
"Wouldn't they?" Shu He asked, curious as to how other cultivators act with the writ.
"I… don't think so?"
'So you don't know' Shu He shrugged.
"The beer is to help kill the parasites".
"What!? Beer does that?!" The pudgy man said with a face filled with shock.
"More specifically the alcohol in the beer, I would have asked for wine but that's probably a bit too expensive even for you".
"My coffers thank you…"
Shu He pointed towards the large skeleton in the back of the warehouse "The parasites came from that sea creature, the first person to eat its meat and the one who ate the most was the captain, he has the most severe symptoms, then it was the crew members who are all fairly similar, and then the last was the lookout who had the least and has the weakest symptoms".
"… But didn't they start getting sick after they hit the land?"
"Right, so there must have been something stopping the parasites from hatching and breeding until then, and the answer to that is what they were doing until they landed – They were drinking beer – or grog the watered-down version of it".
"I'm sure they've been told to not drink while sailing before…" The mayor murmured.
"Ah, well it saved their lives this time so cut them some slack; The string worms eggs are covered in a protective film so they can pass through the stomach without being damaged and they then hatch in the intestine, afterwards they begin feeding on the lining of the bowels and sucking the blood to reproduce causing all of the affects you have seen".
"The alcohol in the beer entered their bloodstreams and poisoned the parasites, killing them or at the very least weakening them so they couldn't act, unfortunately when they landed there were still unhatched eggs and living parasites which became active when the drinking ended."
Shu He glanced over to the giant sea creature "It was likely that the monster over there was suffering badly, starving since it couldn't keep its food down and it was being eaten alive from the inside, so it drove it mad; It then attacked the ship which is unusual for such creatures before its flesh was eaten, transferring the worms to other hosts".
The mayor was pale by the time Shu He had finished explaining.
"Sorry, was that too much?" He realised he shouldn't have needed to say it all to someone who didn't need to know.
"N-no… it's truly horrible, no need to say more; I'll have everything delivered as soon as possible".
"Great, I'll get to work as soon as I can then" Shu He smiled in return.
The mayor couldn't help but feel a hint of fear for the young boy that smiled in the face of this horrible event as he totted along with worry in his step.
…
It had been two days since Shu He first arrived, he had made the first dosage of medication under the watch of the nurses who then followed along, soon they were capable of making it themselves, very quickly they had begun to administer it along with getting them to drink beer regularly, at first they couldn't keep it down but as the medication began to work they started happily drinking.
The conditions of the sailors had begun to improve, at the rate that it was happening Shu He estimated a couple of weeks before the parasites were all discharged, as long as the medication was given regularly.
The look out was in the best condition of course, he seemed like he would make a full recovery in less than a week now! He had began helping the nurses take care of his crew mates, despite being told to lay down and rest.
Yes, it was all looking positive… except for one person.
Shu He placed his hand on the burly man's lower stomach, his ginger hair was a mess and the braided beard in disarray.
'There's a lot of movement…' He was doing a preliminary inspection, the man hadn't improved much at all, he couldn't even get up nor talk much and continued to vomit blood.
He activated his 'Senses' and took a look, what he saw made him grimace.
Like before, it was like a hive, his body was completely infested, there were too many parasites in this man's body, the medication couldn't even take an effect because of how fast they reproduced, and he couldn't even keep beer down long enough for the alcohol to absorb into his blood.
'They don't have any pure alcohol here… I don't have the instruments and resources to make it, otherwise I could inject him directly and see if that took effect…' Shu He cradled his hands as he thought.
"He needs surgery" Shu He said, the nurses gathered around him gasped.
"Is it that bad?" One asked.
"He has too many inside of him, throughout his upper and lower intestine and other organs… even with surgery it will be tough, the surgery itself will be incredibly difficult…"
The nurses looked at each-other, lost.
Their eyes told it all, none of them were good enough to do something like that, they only knew the basics.
"There's no one in the town that can do it?"
They shook their heads.
"The town doctor can do simple surgeries but nothing like this…" Another said.
Shu He stood up, he looked down at the Captain, pale as a sheet, and sighed.
'I've not done any surgery either… The only thing I've done is treated superficial wounds'.
It was something he wanted to consult Jing Yaling about a way to practice, she might have a special way to train without getting his hands dirty, he knew a lot of theoretical things but has never put it in to practice.
She hadn't even given him the Medical Division's techniques either if there even are any.
'So is the only answer… to watch this man die?'
'Because I'm useless?'.
He gripped his fist hand, he was frustrated.
It had been going well, but he had hit a wall because of his inadequacy.
"It's okay, you've done enough for them" One of the nurses patted his shoulder, since he was still only 13 and not fully grown, these ladies were taller than him and working together with him the past couple days had seen who he was.
"Sorry… I…"
"It's fine"
He went silent and looked down that the man, even though they say it's fine, it wasn't to him.
Wasn't this something he wanted to prevent? Such suffering? Yet he was staring it in the eye and letting it happen?
No.
He didn't want that at all.
But what could he do?
He couldn't jump in to such a complex surgery, no matter how steady his hands were or how swift, agile he was as a cultivator, surgery wasn't a simple matter, he had to know what he was doing completely before he began.
'Then, what options do I have that don't involve surgery?'.
'No matter the technique, I would need to penetrate his body from the outside, it would cause huge amounts of a damage that would just kill him'.
'<
He stared intently at the writhing worms in his vision like they were his hated enemy, then suddenly he paused as his golden eyes shone brightly.
Right, his eyes.
Or rather, his 'sense'.
It was something he had questioned for a very long time, at first he thought it was an ocular ability, but then it evolved and included other senses and didn't even need his eyes to function, his question was-
Just what WAS this ability?
He held up his hand in a trance and focused his senses, he could feel every inch of his hand like he was watching from every feasible angle, but even then he felt something deeper that was still restrained.
It was similar to when he would try to force his 'sense' through a solid wall, a strong resistance, but it wasn't impossible to breach if he tried hard enough.
In the next moment, a small flame lit on his palm startling the nurses around him as they watched curiously.
'No, not right' The flame extinguished.
Again, he felt for that feeling of resistance and pushed before lighting the flame.
'No!'
It was still wrong.
He closed his eyes, using only his 'sense', except this time his visualisation didn't include only his eyes, he wanted to move everything.
It has tough, like dragging along tones of concrete on each limb…. But then he moved his arm.
His physical arm didn't move, but he moved his 'Arm'!
He then opened his eyes, and there… was a little flame.
Floating about half a meter above his palm.
He couldn't help but grin.
'That's it!'
"Lord emissary, what is this?!" The mayor had walked in, stunned at the flame floating in the air.
Shu He closed his eyes as the flame went out, turning to him.
"I need a quiet room to perform surgery on this man… that is, if you want me to" Shu He turned to the captain that was laying still, yet his eyes were opened slightly.
"Do it" His raspy voice spoke.
"Then, get me a room".