Jiang Ke’er was unclear about the situation outside.
She had to give her all to researching an antidote to combat the epidemic, leaving her with absolutely no energy to deal with anything else.
“Tell me everything clearly—the symptoms, the progression of the illness, and the methods you’ve already tried.”
“We’ve confirmed that the initial symptoms of the epidemic poison involve coughing. As the illness progresses, depending on the victim’s cultivation base, they suddenly fall into a coma starting on the third day. Simultaneously, the circulatory and central nervous systems begin to collapse entirely. This is followed by massive internal hemorrhaging and rapid skin ulceration,” Yellow Coward reported.
Jiang Ke’er memorized every single word.
“All Dan medicines can only temporarily suppress the symptoms. Afterward, the amount of epidemic poison increases explosively. Traditional dilution therapies cannot be used to cure the patients.”
Jiang Ke’er nodded. This was clearly the work of bacteria or a virus.
“Have you found the pathogen?”
“Huh? What’s—that?” Yellow Coward blanked.
“Never mind.”
Jiang Ke’er fell into deep thought.
Considering that Cultivators at the Seven Luminaries Realm and above possessed Microscopic Vision, they should be able to clearly observe bacteria roughly one micron in size and determine the biological characteristics of such a substance.
However, Shenzhou had not reacted according to any biological characteristics.
They didn’t even seem to know about them, merely believing the poison to be black particles that even Microscopic Vision couldn’t see clearly.
In other words, the true identity of the epidemic poison was most likely a virus.
Viruses were hundreds or even thousands of times smaller than bacteria. Even with Microscopic Vision, one couldn’t see them clearly.
But if it were a virus…
Jiang Ke’er felt like her head was going to explode.
“What’s wrong?” Seeing the look of worry on Jiang Ke’er’s face, Yellow Coward couldn’t help but feel a bit afraid as well.
“A virus isn’t a conventional toxin. You can think of it as a parasite. It lives inside the body’s cells and merges with the human body, yet its structure is simpler than a cell. Therefore, no medicine can directly kill the virus without also killing the cells…” Jiang Ke’er explained.
Though Yellow Coward was lost in the technicalities, he managed to understand the gist of it. He asked in despair, “So this poison can’t be destroyed?”
“It’s not that it’s completely impossible to destroy. In ancient times, there were special cells in the human body, such as lymphocytes, monocyte-macrophages, neutrophils, and so on… They would fight the virus inside your body, acting like soldiers with their own consciousness. They could precisely kill the virus and expel it from the body.”
Jiang Ke’er sighed as she spoke. “However, after tens of thousands of years, the immune systems of Cultivators have been in a state of dormancy for too long and have gradually degenerated. They have been almost entirely replaced by the Spiritual Power Protective Film… That film can protect your body from being invaded by the epidemic poison, but once that protection fails, your body becomes a sheep with no way to fight back. Our bodies have become empty cities without an army, losing the ability to deal with viruses.”
“Then what do we do?” Panic flashed across Yellow Coward’s face.
“Nucleoside analogs can replace normal nucleotides to stop the viral genes from replicating, but they also replace human genes, which results in reproductive toxicity.”
“Interferon can further inhibit the virus’s ability to self-replicate, buying time for the immune system.”
“Cyclosporine can block the signaling pathways the virus uses for self-replication, but it might also affect the immune system.”
“There are also some things that act on the viral structure proteins, which can disarm the virus or prevent it from binding with human cells…”
At this point, Jiang Ke’er scratched her head. “But all of these are merely auxiliary. A virus cannot be killed directly by antibiotics like bacteria can. It is a parasitic substance with an extremely simple structure. In the end, we still need the body’s immune capacity to deal with it… Moreover, Shenzhou has never researched these medicines. We don’t just lack a stockpile; we don’t even have the conditions for production or research. That would take at least ten-plus years!”
‘What the hell! This really is straight-up Hell difficulty?!’
Yellow Coward’s head was spinning from the messy terminology. He felt like an ignorant three-year-old, but he still realized the severity of the problem.
“Is there… no way at all?”
“No!”
Jiang Ke’er shook her head.
The problem she faced was the ultimate medical challenge that thousands of genius scientists on Earth had been unable to solve in their entire lives—how to kill a virus within the body without killing the cells when the immune system was completely paralyzed.
All existing data proved it was impossible.
But this place was different.
This was a world of Cultivators.
She possessed the abilities of a Cultivator that Earth’s scientists couldn’t even imagine.
There were many Celestial Rules that couldn’t be explained by science… These different rules created infinite possibilities!
She understood what it would mean for the entire history of biology if she succeeded.
If it could be done, viruses would never pose a threat again.
Hepatitis B, Ebola, SARS, AIDS, rabies, parvovirus… things that people on Earth were helpless against would be completely wiped from biological history!
If this were Earth, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to award her the Nobel Prize for a hundred years straight!
“Theoretically, it’s not impossible to kill a virus with a targeted approach,” Jiang Ke’er said in a low voice.
“The reason a virus cannot be wiped out in the human body is because its structure is too simple; to kill it, you have to kill the cell… But if it possesses a substance that doesn’t exist in a cell, we could research a targeted antidote to bypass the cell and destroy it.”
“But that is impossible to achieve. Medical Cultivators in ancient times already tried it.” A clear male voice suddenly emerged from the crowd, carrying an undisguised, blunt skepticism. “I suggest focusing the primary research on awakening the immune system and searching for antigens.”
Jiang Ke’er wasn’t angered by the offense.
She knew that anyone who could propose the theory of awakening the immune system and searching for antigens was definitely no amateur!
She looked at the man respectfully. “May I ask who you are, Senior…?”
“Sun Shizhang, a Scattered Cultivator from Jingzhao Huayuan,” the man replied expressionlessly.
“Thank you for coming to help, Senior Sun,” Jiang Ke’er said, cupping her hands.
“You’re Yiqin’s disciple?” Sun Shizhang wasn’t at all polite. “You seem to be indulging in wishful thinking.”
“I know this is as difficult as ascending to the heavens, especially with time being so tight… but awakening the immune system would take even longer,” Jiang Ke’er argued.
“The ancients couldn’t do it in thousands of years, and I’ve researched it for over 100 years and still failed,” Sun Shizhang said, his brow furrowing as he looked at Jiang Ke’er.
“Don’t tell me you’ve already completed most of your research?”
“I have never touched this field before.”
Sun Shizhang was furious. “Then aren’t you just pushing Shenzhou into a pit of fire?”
Jiang Ke’er didn’t refute him.
The expressions of everyone watching Jiang Ke’er suddenly changed.
It seemed… this high-and-mighty Medical Cultivator wasn’t as amazing as she acted?
That’s right, she was so young. How could she possibly be that powerful?
They had almost been fooled by her!