CHAPTER 331: CHAPTER 327

Perfikot was brimming with anger, ready to unleash it and find someone to assert her dominance, but to her regret, there wasn’t any conspiracy this time.

After the Shaman dispersed the curse with a ritual she didn’t quite understand, the residents of the settlement visibly improved, no longer seeing hallucinations or feeling pain in their limbs.

Of course, the gangrene caused by necrosis wasn’t something that could heal.

But those were within Perfikot’s purview. She personally took charge of the residents with limb damage and successfully restored their limbs through alchemy.

As for those with less severe gangrene, only fingers and toes darkened, they weren’t fortunate enough to have the Lord personally treat them. They were attended to by the medical personnel Perfikot brought, while the more severe cases were transferred to the capital Chernobyl for treatment.

As the capital of the Northern Territory, Chernobyl had a large hospital built to Perfikot’s standards. Although the medical skills of its personnel might not surpass other places, in terms of hygiene, epidemic prevention, and bacteria, this hospital was arguably the best of its time.

Naturally, the death rate of patients in this hospital was also extremely low during this era, and even surgical operations were more advanced than elsewhere.

The main reason for this was a piece of trivia: with Perfikot publicly introducing Imaginary Alchemy, a wave of research into Imaginary Alchemy surged across the Empire.

Among these were Alchemists interested in medicine, hoping to advance the current medical standards.

Especially the articles Perfikot previously published about bacterial infections, which led to reforms in the medical industry, almost earning her an award from the medical society at the time.

This gave the Alchemists a great inspiration; they explored and tackled Langton’s current medical standards based on this.

Ultimately, they indeed made some achievements, for example, a special alchemy tablet for sterilizing and disinfecting, which when thrown into water, promptly generates steam that has a strong disinfecting effect, effectively sterilizing a room or other facilities.

Besides this, they dealt with the issue of surgeries in this era, which lacked anesthesia, and produced usable anesthetics.

Perfikot didn’t know what formula they used, but this thing indeed made people utterly lose consciousness upon inhalation, feeling nothing even if dissected.

Thus, with both anesthesia and disinfection available, the success rate and efficiency of medical surgeries naturally improved, since doctors didn’t have to race to see who could dismember limbs the quickest.

Aware of this, Perfikot naturally applied these latest achievements to the Northern Territory’s medical system, which established Chernobyl as the site of the best hospital in the Northern Territory.

If alchemy for the human body were not a taboo, Perfikot had even considered training a batch of Alchemists familiar with it to serve as doctors, which would surely surpass any medical technology in healing and saving lives.

However, considering the Empire’s current social opinion environment, even if Perfikot can largely disregard many rules, she’s still hesitant to do so.

After all, what she needs now is a stable social environment, not one fraught with conflicts and upheavals.

To seek stability, she’s even willing to compromise or give up some things and ideas.

The premise is that she finds it worthwhile; if not, Perfikot wouldn’t mind using the most violent means to solve a problem.

Just like now, upon discovering that the source of the curse was merely an Ancestral Spirit already abandoned by the tribe that worshiped it, she immediately dispatched Steam Knights, vowing to dig it up, whip its remains, and toss them into a cesspool for a hundred years!

The Steam Knights dutifully carried out her orders, soon digging up the Ancestral Spirit of the destroyed tribe under the guidance of the Shaman.

The so-called Ancestral Spirit is somewhat different from the Ancestral Spirits worshiped by various indigenous tribes. An Ancestral Spirit can be seen as an Ancestral Soul sustained by faith, while an Ancestral Soul is one devoid of nourishment.

The difference between the two is like the house god that feeds on incense versus the wandering ghost without offerings; fundamentally, they are the same animal spirits.

However, this Ancestral Spirit from the extinct tribe was a powerful soul capable of using Soul Fire to burn human and animal souls and cast curses, with some accumulation and essence due to past worship.

The residents of the settlement were cursed by the Ancestral Soul precisely due to this.

Their development and construction disturbed what should have been a silent and perhaps vanished Ancestral Soul, thus falling under its curse.

Regarding the curse, it must be admitted that Perfikot’s initial suspicion was correct; its symptoms were akin to ergot poisoning.

The reasons largely stem from the tribe’s fondness for using ergot as offerings and sometimes considering it a poison, even deliberately growing ergot-infected wheat or consuming small amounts to experience its hallucinogenic toxin capabilities.

Yet, this substance requires extremely careful dosage control; overconsumption leads to limb pain, hallucinations, and ultimately necrosis, resulting in gangrene.

Consequently, the Ancestral Soul was influenced, creating a curse with effects similar to ergot poisoning, even with similar manifestations.

Perfikot showed immense anger about this; she had the Totem Pole housing the Ancestral Soul excavated and severely interrogated, trying to force the Ancestral Soul out.

Eventually, Perfikot compelled a snake spirit out and captured it for sealing.

As for the Totem Pole, after being dismantled, it ended up as firewood or garbage.

Without the Ancestral Soul, the so-called Totem Pole was merely a well-carved wooden stick with no actual utility.

Perfikot planned to study the sealed Ancestral Soul thoroughly before deciding its fate.

During previous wars with the Northern Territory’s indigenous tribes, Perfikot acquired several Totem Poles, but those Ancestral Spirits still had worship before the tribes were wiped out, which differed to some extent from Ancestral Souls.

This precisely tickled Perfikot’s curiosity.