The Divine And Demonic Doctor [EN]: Chapter 371

Three days later.

Dahn Ahk-seon and the Shinma Three Venerables journeyed to a small village nestled on the border between Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.

Following the information provided by Seol Nan-yeong, they had pinpointed the most probable hideout of the Black Shadow Unit.

The village, sustained by fishing and farming, lay along a tributary of the Fen River, cradled between the Taihang and Lüliang Mountain Ranges.

“It’s unusually quiet, wouldn’t you say?” Dahn Ahk-seon remarked, his expression puzzled as he surveyed the distant village.

It was the height of the farming season, a time when the village should have been bustling with activity.

Unlike the regions south of the Yangtze River, where rice cultivation was prevalent, the Hebei region traditionally focused on wheat farming.

Specifically, this area cultivated winter wheat, sown in late autumn and harvested in late spring or early summer, rather than spring wheat, which followed a spring sowing and autumn harvest cycle.

Yet, the wheat fields before them showed no signs of life.

A strange silence hung in the air.

The reason for this soon became apparent.

The fields were parched, having missed their timely watering.

The crops were withered and yellowed, unable to ripen properly.

Dahn Ahk-seon frowned.

As they approached the wheat fields, a foul stench permeated the air.

“The stench of corpses,” Cho Ahk-ryang stated, waving his sleeve towards the field.

The dry wheat stalks parted like waves under the force of his energy, revealing a carelessly abandoned, rotting corpse.

—Grrr.

A pack of wild dogs surrounded the body, tearing at the flesh.

One dog, presumably the leader, bared its bloodied teeth at the group, growling.

Thwack.

In an instant, the dog’s head exploded.

“Where do these mutts think they can bare their teeth?” Bum Gye-wi exclaimed, having unleashed a sudden fist of wind to eliminate the leader, and began to dispatch the rest of the pack without hesitation.

Once beasts tasted human flesh, they would undoubtedly continue to target people.

Whimper!

A few lucky survivors scattered in terror, seeking refuge among the wheat fields.

However, the group couldn’t bring themselves to chase after them.

They simply looked around with complex and troubled expressions.

The corpse wasn’t alone.

Concealed by the wheat fields, dozens of rotting corpses lay scattered about.

But even this paled in comparison to the horrific sight that greeted them upon entering the village.

People lay listlessly under the scorching sun, devoid of shade.

Each of them merely panted with faint breaths, their eyes vacant, lacking any semblance of vitality.

Just then.

Splash.

A figure throwing themselves into the river next to the village caught Dahn Ahk-seon’s attention.

“……!”

Dahn Ahk-seon’s eyes widened.

Even though someone had jumped into the river, no one tried to stop them or shout.

They simply lay there, listless, staring blankly at the scene.

Dahn Ahk-seon swiftly darted forward, leaping into the river.

A moment later, Dahn Ahk-seon dragged a middle-aged man, who had fainted after swallowing a mouthful of water, to the riverbank.

Dahn Ahk-seon straightened the man’s upper body and infused his palm with true energy, patting his back several times.

“Cough!”

The middle-aged man coughed, spitting out river water, and struggled to open his eyes.

However, his unfocused, hazy gaze only flickered with a strange madness, devoid of reason.

Moreover, his body was burning hot.

His arms and legs were as dry as dead trees, and his eyes were filled with a bright yellow jaundice.

Dahn Ahk-seon, having checked the man’s condition through his pulse, sighed deeply.

His organs, including his liver, were completely ruined, beyond any hope of recovery.

It was a miracle that he was still breathing.

“I… am the Dragon King… I must return to the Dragon Palace…”

Muttering those words, the middle-aged man shook off Dahn Ahk-seon and began to crawl towards the river again.

Dahn Ahk-seon touched the pressure point near the back of the middle-aged man’s neck, the Honhyeol [a vital point believed to control consciousness].

He looked down at the man, who had lost consciousness and slumped down, for a moment.

Dahn Ahk-seon turned to Cho Ahk-ryang, who had approached him, and said, “The balance of his body is completely broken. This is why he is experiencing severe thirst accompanied by hallucinations.”

“Is there a way to treat him?”

Dahn Ahk-seon pondered for a moment before biting his lip.

“……I don’t know.”

Cho Ahk-ryang frowned at Dahn Ahk-seon’s helpless answer.

It was the first time he had seen the great Dahn Ahk-seon looking so uncertain.

At that moment, the group’s attention was drawn to a particular spot.

Clatter.

Two men in black uniforms opened the door of a thatched house not far away and stepped out, chuckling.

“Hehe. See, what did I tell you? No matter how proud and aloof a woman is, once they taste this, they become a slut?” The man with the rat mustache said, fastening his waistband.

The man following behind him also smirked.

“Hehe. With this, we’re no different from the Jade Emperor [a high-ranking deity in Chinese mythology] here.”

“Of course. It’s not called Ecstasy Powder for nothing.”

“I don’t know who named it, but they did a great job. But anyway……”

“……?”

“Is it really that good? To the point where your eyes roll back?”

The rat-mustached man frowned at his companion’s question.

“Enough. Excessive desire brings disaster, and curiosity shortens life. It’s ecstasy when the drug is working, but hell when you wake up. Did you not see what happened to that Mokga bastard who killed himself recently?”

“Ah, that crazy bastard who giggled and convulsed before cutting open his stomach with a knife and pulling out his intestines?”

“Yeah. If you don’t want to end up like that……”

The rat-mustached man couldn’t finish his sentence.

Suddenly, a person ran out of the thatched house and clung to his leg.

She was probably around twenty years old.

Her hair was disheveled, and her clothes were in disarray.

Without even thinking of fixing them, a woman exposing her private parts clung to the rat-mustached man and pleaded, “Please, give me more Ecstasy Powder.”

The rat-mustached man smirked.

Then, he took out a small wooden box from his pocket and shook it in front of the woman’s eyes.

“Depends on how you behave.”

A strange heat flickered in the woman’s hazy eyes.

“I’ll do anything you tell me to, please……”

“Hehe. Anything?”

The man, who was chuckling with a triumphant look, flinched and froze.

Sensing something strange, he turned around and saw someone standing there.

The man, belatedly discovering Dahn Ahk-seon and the Shinma Three Venerables silently glaring at them, shouted sternly, “Who……!”

In that instant, Dahn Ahk-seon was already in front of the man.

“Did you say Ecstasy Powder?”

The rat-mustached man was startled by Dahn Ahk-seon’s question.

“How did you……!”

It was a ghostly feat.

The wooden box he was holding had somehow passed into the hands of the boy before him.

He was astonished by the unbelievable pickpocketing skills, but then.

“Ecstasy Powder!”

With a sharp cry, the woman lunged at Dahn Ahk-seon.

But she soon lost consciousness and collapsed powerlessly.

Cho Ahk-ryang, who had appeared behind her, had touched her pressure point.

Cho Ahk-ryang, supporting the falling woman, straightened her disheveled clothes and took her inside the thatched house to lay her down.

And Cho Ahk-ryang, who was about to step outside again, was startled.

“No! Doctor Dahn!”

“Why is Doctor Dahn eating that?”

It was because of Han Seol-hwa and Bum Gye-wi’s screams, which were close to shrieks.

Dahn Ahk-seon, who was opening the wooden box to check the contents, was not only smelling it but also picking up some of it with his finger and bringing it to his mouth.

Despite the surrounding protests, Dahn Ahk-seon stubbornly put the Ecstasy Powder on his tongue.

It was right after that that Dahn Ahk-seon, who had been closing his eyes tightly, frowned.

Dahn Ahk-seon spat out the Ecstasy Powder along with his saliva.

Soon, he took something out of his pocket and put it in his mouth.

It was the Poison Aversion Pearl he had obtained by winning the bet with Dang Ryung, the former Lord of the Dang Family.

A moment later, Dahn Ahk-seon spat out the Poison Aversion Pearl and let out a soft groan.

The Poison Aversion Pearl, which was originally pure white jade, was stained black.

“Doctor Dahn, are you okay?”

Dahn Ahk-seon nodded with a grave expression at Bum Gye-wi’s worried question.

“I’m fine. The problem is this Ecstasy Powder.”

Dahn Ahk-seon opened the wooden box and showed the white powder inside.

“Originally, opium poppy powder is a dark brownish-black, but this is as white as salt. It’s clear that it has undergone some refining process to maximize the euphoric effect.”

Its power was so great that even Dahn Ahk-seon was surprised.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t have caused such severe dependence symptoms with just one dose, like the woman just now.

The opium poppy powder, which had passed through someone’s hands, had become a much more vicious demon than it originally was.

Dahn Ahk-seon stared at the Ecstasy Powder in the wooden box with a horrified expression.

“I had no choice but to check the potency.”

It was then that Han Seol-hwa, who had been standing silently, suddenly spoke.

“There’s another way to check it.”

Han Seol-hwa raised her hand and grabbed the air.

The black-clad men, who had been turning blue with the eerie aura surrounding them, suddenly found themselves drawn towards Han Seol-hwa.

“Ugh!”

“Agh!”

They were momentarily horrified by the terrifying power of Telekinetic Capture.

The color drained from the faces of the two men when they discovered the wooden box that had somehow passed into Han Seol-hwa’s hands.

Han Seol-hwa grabbed the men’s chins, forcibly opened their mouths, and poured all the remaining Ecstasy Powder into their mouths without hesitation.

“N, no! Cough!”

“Kehek! S, save me……!”

The men, who were screaming and resisting violently, suddenly slumped down.

At the same time, their pupils seemed to dilate greatly.

“Kehehe.”

“Hehe.”

They began to writhe, letting out bizarre laughter.

Dahn Ahk-seon groaned at the sight of them collapsing on the floor and wriggling like worms.

He was horrified by the power of the drug, which was far more potent than the previous opium poppy powder.

Soon, Dahn Ahk-seon turned away from them.

As he walked deeper into the village, piles of garbage and waste, swarming with stench and insects, came into view.

Most of all…….

A hellish landscape that he couldn’t bear to look at was unfolding everywhere.

People were lying on the streets, dazed with drugs.

And some houses were filled with a hazy smoke.

The people who inhaled the smoke coming from the incense burners were sprawled out, their eyes languid, regardless of the location.

Among them, some were grinning with their faces buried in the vomit they had spewed from their mouths.

Dahn Ahk-seon was chilled by the sight.

“Drugs shouldn’t be used like this.”

It was an unfamiliar and terrible sight for Dahn Ahk-seon, a doctor.

Dahn Ahk-seon, who was walking around the village, flinched and stopped at the same time.

A woman was lying in the middle of the street.

The disheveled clothes and the bruises left all over her skin clearly showed signs of rape.

But what was even more heartbreaking was something else.

It was because of the swaddling cloth placed next to the body of the woman, who had already stopped breathing.

Dahn Ahk-seon carefully unwrapped the swaddling cloth, wondering if it was possible, and was momentarily stunned.

“Ah!”

A pitiful sigh escaped from Dahn Ahk-seon’s mouth.

An infant, who had already stopped breathing, was lying in the swaddling cloth.

It was a young baby who hadn’t even passed its first birthday.

Cold light poured from Dahn Ahk-seon’s eyes as he faced the corpse of the baby who had starved to death because it couldn’t suckle.

“They’ve created hell on earth.”

Gritting.

He involuntarily gritted his teeth.

There was no way to suppress the terrifying murderous intent that was surging from the depths of his heart.

The Shinma Three Venerables also hardened their expressions at Dahn Ahk-seon’s ferocious gaze, which they were seeing for the first time.

At this time, a loud voice erupted from somewhere.

“Please! Give me more Ecstasy Powder!”

“Get lost! If you need Ecstasy Powder, bring something that can be turned into money!”

Dahn Ahk-seon moved towards the place where the sound came from.

A vacant lot located in the center of the village.

The sight of a one-eyed man in black uniform and a gaunt old man arguing was caught in his eyes.

“Kack! Ptooey!”

The one-eyed man, kicking the old man’s shoulder and knocking him over, spat phlegm at the back of the old man’s head as he lay prostrate and begged.

Then, he busily turned around and shouted at the black-clad men who were running around and throwing corpses into a large cart, “Hey, you bastard! Start by pulling out the ones who fell into the river! I’ve told you so many times, it’ll be a headache later if they float away!”

At the one-eyed man’s command, several of the black-clad men hurriedly ran towards the river.

A terrifying murderous intent exploded from Dahn Ahk-seon’s eyes.

At a glance, it was clear that the one-eyed man in front of him was the leader of the black-clad men.

Cho Ahk-ryang, confirming Dahn Ahk-seon’s appearance, hurriedly opened his mouth.

“We’ll take care of those guys.”

But at that moment, Dahn Ahk-seon was already in front of the one-eyed man.