Prince Xu's condition was actually not that serious. He had just passed the incubation stage and was discovered the moment his symptoms erupted.
The Petunia Kingdom had dealt with many similar situations over the years. Plus, they had been trained by people from the Sacred Beast Kingdom's Temple. So when Prince Xu suddenly showed signs of the infection, everyone was heartbroken, but they still immediately took the correct action. They locked him in a small room to isolate him.
To avoid infection, Izekiel, Arieck and Prince Zhongli all stood outside the door waiting. Elara went in alone.
Inside the locked room, Prince Xu was chained up, his face slightly lowered. Shadows from his messy hair covered a face that looked about eighty percent like Izekiel's.
Perhaps due to years of battle, his body was more muscular than Izekiel's. He looked bigger and taller, but not in an excessive way. His muscles were shaped with strength and agility, like a fierce predator that had long roamed the wild plains.
He still had some awareness. When he heard the door open, he lifted his heavily breathing face and looked toward Elara with slightly bluish eyes. His voice was filled with repressed anger and control.
"Who?! Don't you know you could get infected in here? Get out..."
But before he could finish the word "out," his voice turned into a low groan that was part pain, part something else.
Elara saw his condition and didn't waste time talking. She moved right away.
For the next ten-plus minutes, Izekiel, Arieck and Prince Zhongli stood outside listening to the sounds coming from within. The noises made by Prince Xu grew heavier and deeper.
But the more they listened, the less normal it sounded. It didn't sound like someone on the edge of mutation. It sounded more like... something you'd hear in the private quarters of a high-class brothel.
More specifically, it was the kind of muffled, breathy, hard-to-describe sound a husband might make in the matriarch's chamber in a matriarchal household when she had particular preferences. All the sounds came from Prince Xu alone. His voice went from growling to moaning to panting, all in one long stretch.
Outside the room, the three men's expressions grew stranger and stranger. Even Izekiel, who had been serious the whole time, looked toward the Plumera Kingdom attendants beside the door. His expression turned weird too.
Then suddenly, another loud cry came from inside. Prince Xu's roar sounded like he had reached some extreme limit and could no longer endure it.
Izekiel, Arieck, Prince Zhongli: .....
Arieck, Prince Zhongli: .....!
Arieck cleared his throat. His gaze on the tightly closed door had become curious and teasing. "Seems like... Miss Bai's special treatment doesn't hurt at all. Haven't heard Xu make such... relaxed noises in a while. Ahem, Izekiel, no need to worry. Miss Bai's skills are without doubt. She'll definitely cure him."
Next to him, Prince Zhongli tapped his folding fan that had appeared in his hand at some point. His tone was full of implication. "...Hmm... Miss Bai's treatment seems very... unique."
Izekiel said nothing, but his brows tightened as he continued staring at the door.
According to the reports from the southwest, Elara had indeed saved infected soldiers. But this treatment process... was really beyond expectations.
A few minutes later, there came a suspicious sound from inside. It sounded like liquid hitting the ground. Only then did the tightly closed door finally open.
Elara walked out calmly, her expression unreadable. Behind her, Prince Xu was still bound at the wrists and ankles. His face had returned to normal, though his chest rose and fell quickly. Veins bulged on his neck and he was panting hard, clearly exhausted.
At his feet was a puddle of burning "suspicious liquid." On closer look, the liquid was filled with countless small things struggling and twisting fiercely.
"It's done. The things inside him have been completely removed. Now just treat his wounds. As long as he rests, he'll recover normally."
Elara said this to Izekiel, Arieck and Prince Zhongli, who were all staring inside with complicated expressions.
Looking at Prince Xu's restored face and body, which no longer showed signs of infection, Izekiel finally relaxed a little. For the first time since the Puppet Soldiers outbreak began in the Petunia Kingdom, he felt a sense of relief and gratitude.
He turned and signaled the court doctors waiting outside to come in and examine Prince Xu. Then he looked back at Elara. On his usually cold face, there appeared a trace of sincere gratitude and relief. He stood tall and once again bowed deeply to Elara. His voice was serious and respectful.
"Miss Bai, Izekiel thanks you for saving my younger brother's life. Thank you for pulling him back from the brink."
If even Elara hadn't been able to save Prince Xu, then no matter how painful it would have been, Izekiel would have had to give the order today to kill his infected younger brother and burn his body.
This was the only known method that could slightly hinder the strange infection. For the sake of more people in the Petunia Kingdom, he had to do it.
But fortunately, he and his younger brother were lucky. Before he was forced to make that cruel and hopeless decision, Elara really saved Prince Xu. This spared him from the pain of making such a decision and from the despair of having to order the death of a family member by his own hand.
Elara nodded at him. "I'll go wash my hands. You take a look at him first. We will discuss it later."
Elara finished speaking and left the cell first.
Inside the prison, after Elara left, Izekiel, Arieck and Prince Zhongli entered the cell and walked over to the still-panting Prince Xu, waiting for the royal physician to examine him.
The chains on Prince Xu's body had been unlocked, but his body still seemed to be in a certain state. He was trembling slightly all over and could not stop.
When he saw Izekiel and the other two walk in, Prince Xu clenched his slightly trembling jaw, raised his hand and grabbed his older brother's sleeve. He spoke one word at a time. "Brother... just now, just now that... huff... that woman... huff... who was she!..."
The expression on Prince Xu's face was extremely complicated. Along with the intense blush that had not yet faded from his face, he showed a mix of anger, shame and a heavy gloom.
He, Prince Xu, had fought on battlefields since childhood, swearing to die standing rather than live kneeling. But just now... thinking of that unfamiliar, unbearable and almost overwhelming intense feeling, a huge wave of anger, shame and suffocation surged in his heart.
He had never lost face like this in front of anyone since childhood. Especially since the other party was a woman. It was simply... simply too humiliating to speak of.
Before Izekiel could answer his brother's question, Arieck, who loved watching drama, could not hold back his curiosity. He leaned over in front of Prince Xu, observing him as if he were some rare creature and asked with uncontrollable excitement,
"Xu brother, tell me quick! How did Miss Bai treat you? Was it really that good? We heard your screams outside just now, and they were so... thrilling~ calling it soul-stirring isn't an exaggeration~"
Izekiel and Prince Zhongli: .....
Already burning with shame and anger, Prince Xu turned sharply to glare at him.
The next second, the prison echoed with clanging sounds of struggling and kicking, along with the voices of everyone trying to hold them back and calm them down.
The royal physician listening quietly nearby was full of anxious excitement. "Your Highness! Your Highness! You just recovered! Don't get angry! Don't get angry! And definitely don't get physical!!"
Prince Zhongli closed his fan and stepped aside, skillfully using his excellent self-control to keep a straight face. Standing far away, he persuaded, "Xu brother, calm down. Actually, we didn't hear much just now. What matters now is that Miss Bai saved your body. That means others will be saved too. Don't get upset. Lie down and let the physicians examine you."
In the middle of the prison, Izekiel looked emotionless as he watched Arieck being chased around like a rat, and did not lift a hand to stop it. His eyes clearly expressed: you deserved it.
Arieck raised his hand to cover his face, dodging left and right. "Hey! Xu brother! When will you learn from your older brother and calm your temper?! Don't hit the face! This handsome face of mine, if you ruin it, think how many girls will grieve! Don't hit the face!! Did you hear me!! Stop hitting my face!!!"
...
After Elara washed her hands, she went back to sit and drank tea for over an hour. Only then did Izekiel, Arieck and Prince Zhongli return.
Prince Xu had already gone back to his residence to rest after being examined.
Elara glanced at the three of them. Except for Arieck's face looking a little worse, the other two seemed a bit more relaxed than before. A long-unsolvable problem that had weighed on them for years finally had a solution. And they had witnessed it themselves. As crown princes of two nations, they naturally felt relieved.
After they sat down, Elara began asking the questions she hadn't had a chance to ask earlier.
"When you invited people from the Divine Attendants' Palace back then, didn't they teach you how to identify infected individuals?"
Izekiel straightened his back and sat beside Elara again. "The Lord of the Azure Spirit Hall did teach us some identification methods. But those methods couldn't identify everyone already infected. The cause of the Puppet Soldiers' infection was too hard to guard against. Currently, almost no one besides the Divine Attendants' Palace can investigate the root of these strange phenomena. So incidents like Xu's sudden infection have happened many times in the Petunia Kingdom in the past, leading to many tragic and wrongful deaths."
"I have a few questions," Elara thought for a few seconds while listening to his words. Her eyes scanned the three of them. "First, since the matter of the Puppet Soldiers has been breaking out in both your countries for years, have either of you found a pattern? Before each outbreak, were there any strange signs in those places?"
This was something Elara had not discovered in her investigation in the south, and it was vital to understanding the cause of the Puppet Soldiers' appearances.
The three of them looked at each other as they listened. Even Arieck, whose face was still tense, frowned and started to think.
"Yes. If we talk about common anomalies in places where Puppet Soldiers have broken out in the Petunia Kingdom and in Prince Zhongli's Celosia State over the years, then before each outbreak, people from the Yellow Spring Hall and the Dark Sky Hall usually appeared."
"But they always disappeared shortly after showing up."
Yellow Spring Hall and Dark Sky Hall... Elara stared at Arieck and asked further, "So every place where Puppet Soldiers appeared had sightings of people from the Yellow Spring Hall and Dark Sky Hall?"
"Not all," Izekiel answered from the side. "According to past records, in the locations within the Petunia Kingdom where Puppet Soldiers broke out, about two-thirds had sightings of those two groups."
Prince Zhongli thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "It's about the same in Celosia State. More than half of the places had sightings of people from Yellow Spring Hall and Dark Sky Hall. But their appearances were always brief. If they stayed too long, we wouldn't even have to act. The Divine Attendants' Palace would show up and drive them away."
Elara frowned even more when she heard this. "The people from the Divine Attendants' Palace also went to those places? Yet the Puppet Soldiers still appeared?"
Prince Zhongli shook his head. "Not exactly. If the people from Yellow Spring Hall and Dark Sky Hall disappeared quickly, then the Divine Attendants naturally wouldn't go after them. But if they stayed longer, then the Divine Attendants would go to those places and conduct a full sweep. That usually lowered the chance of a Puppet Soldier outbreak in those areas."