"..."
The room fell into a deathly silence.
A chill shot up from the soles of Will's feet straight to the top of his skull.
The sister standing before him was clearly still his sister, yet the sense of alienness radiating from her very bones made him instinctively want to step back.
Gulp.
Perched on Will's shoulder, Zhou Yuan swallowed reflexively, despite not actually needing to.
Good grief. There was no need for further testing. She was definitely corrupted, and by the most unmistakable one of the lot.
That "garden" had to be Nurgle's Garden. And who else could that loving figure be except Grandfather Nurgle himself? As for all that talk about accepting disease and embracing pain—it was practically an initiation manual for joining Nurgle's camp.
"B-Brother Yuan..." Will's voice trembled with panic. Instinct was telling him that something was terribly wrong with his sister. "My sister... what's happening to her? Did the fever fry her brain?"
"Not exactly fried. You could even say... she's frighteningly gifted."
Zhou Yuan sighed and hopped down from Will's shoulder.
"It's nothing too serious. She's just been noticed by this world's god of eternity and life, that's all."
"The god of eternity and life? What kind of god is that?" Will asked.
"Don't ask. The answer is 'something beyond description.' Knowing more won't do you any favors. You might even end up with mushrooms growing out of your ears."
Just then, Claire, who had been basking in her own emotional revelation, finally noticed the movement on the floor.
"Huh?"
The moment she saw that pristine, translucent blue slime, a flicker of instinctive disgust crossed her previously fervent gaze—the natural revulsion of corruption toward purity.
"Brother, what is that thing? It looks... strange. Uncomfortably bright."
Claire frowned and instinctively shrank farther under the blanket.
"Claire, don't be scared!"
Will quickly stepped in front of Zhou Yuan, terrified that his sister's words might offend this mysterious powerhouse.
"This is Brother Yuan! He saved my life from those mutants today! He's here to help us!"
"He saved you?"
At those words, the disgust in Claire's eyes faded somewhat, replaced by a complicated sort of gratitude.
"Thank you... Brother Yuan. Thank you for saving my brother."
"Don't mention it. Taking payment and solving problems for the little brothers I recruit—that's just professional ethics."
Zhou Yuan waved a tendril casually, sounding relaxed, but his mind was already racing.
The current situation was tricky.
Claire's body had already become a vessel for Nurgle's power. Though it had not fully awakened yet, the seed had already been planted.
If he tried to heal her by conventional means—curing the disease outright—that would be the equivalent of snatching prey straight out of Nurgle's hands.
Grandfather Nurgle usually looked all smiles and goodwill, but he was notoriously protective of anyone he had his eye on.
If Zhou Yuan directly dispersed the plague, there was a good chance he would draw attention to himself. And if Nurgle decided to send a high-ranking daemon over ahead of schedule, the current Zhou Yuan would not be able to handle it.
But first he had to determine exactly when Claire had begun dreaming of that garden. The answer to that question would decide whether he should save her at all.
"Let's put everything else aside for now and talk about your condition."
"Mine?" Claire tilted her head in confusion.
"Yes, Claire! Brother Yuan is really amazing! He even saved me—your illness definitely won't be a problem for him!"
"But, Brother..." Claire stroked her darkening arm, her eyes distant and dreamy. "I really do feel much better. That pain... it's turning into warmth. I don't think I need treatment."
Hearing that, Will could only turn to Zhou Yuan helplessly.
Zhou Yuan did not waste time. He bounced straight onto the bedside table.
"First, tell me this: when did you start dreaming about that garden?"
"Hmm... about two days ago, I think? Why?"
"Two days ago..."
Zhou Yuan calculated quickly.
Good. The corruption was still in its early stages. There might still be a chance.
"Lucky for you. There's still hope. Meeting me really is your ancestral graves smoking with good fortune."
"Really?" Will cried out in delight.
"Yes. But no skipping procedure—we start with a checkup."
Zhou Yuan wriggled slightly, like an athlete warming up before a match.
At the words checkup, Will's expression instantly turned strange.
He unconsciously touched his throat. The sensation of that cool, slippery mass sliding down his esophagus was still vivid in his memory.
"Um... Brother Yuan," Will asked hesitantly, "this checkup... does it also have to... go in through the mouth?"
Maybe he could endure that sort of procedure himself, but Claire was already so weak. If she had to go through the same thing...
"What else?"
If Zhou Yuan had eyes, he would have been rolling them into the heavens.
"Or were you expecting me to go in through the back door? Please. You might not mind the filth, but I do. If I'd already unlocked biological scanning as a skill, do you think I'd want to crawl into some little girl's stomach? I'm not a facehugger."
"Ah... sorry, sorry. I shouldn't have asked."
"Enough nonsense. Stand there and make sure she doesn't thrash around."
Then Zhou Yuan turned to the thoroughly bewildered Claire, his tone suddenly becoming rather meaningful.
"Little sister, my main body is on the large side. You might feel a bit stretched in a moment, so just bear with it."
"Huh?"
Claire's pale little face filled with question marks.
"Brother, Brother Yuan, what are you ta—glrk?!"
Before she could finish, an ice-blue tendril shot out like lightning and slipped straight into her mouth.
"Mmph! Mmmph!"
Claire's eyes flew wide open.
The suffocating sensation of something invading her body made her instinctively try to struggle, but her frail body lacked the strength, leaving her only able to whimper helplessly.
"Claire! Don't be scared! Just bear with it! It'll be over soon!" Will tried to comfort her from the side, flustered and helpless. "It hurts a bit at first, but it gets better really quickly!"
Hearing those disastrously suggestive lines, Zhou Yuan nearly lost composure on the spot and had to force himself not to comment.
As the last trace of blue gelatinous matter slid into Claire's mouth, Zhou Yuan, who had been perched by the bed, disappeared completely.
Claire's flat stomach bulged ever so slightly, as though she had just eaten a full meal.
This time, Zhou Yuan had not used a split body.
He had sent in his true body.
The reason was simple: against a high-risk contaminant like Chaos, a mere offshoot would not be enough. Only by personally taking charge could he ensure nothing went wrong.
Absolutely not for any other strange reason.
[Linking to host vision... scan initiated...]
The instant Zhou Yuan entered Claire's body, his perspective shifted to a microscopic scale.
Organs that should have been healthy pink now had an alarming ashen-gray color.
Her heart valves were badly calcified. Her lungs were full of fluid. Her liver looked like a piece of rotten wood.
In an ordinary person, a body in this condition would have been sent to the morgue long ago.
And yet, strangely enough, countless thin green threads of energy linked these near-failing organs together.
Those threads were what kept them functioning.
More than that, they were slowly... modifying them.
Following those threads all the way inward, Zhou Yuan finally found, near the heart, a clump of green light that looked like a festering abscess.
A nauseatingly sweet stench radiated from it. Even as a slime, he felt an instinctive wave of physical disgust.
[Warning: Trace Warp-Chaos energy detected. Affiliation: Nurgle.]
-------
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