Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 506 - 457 The Black Death

The deceased was a grown man, of moderate build, with normal nutritional status.

His skin exhibited widespread hemorrhaging, bruising, cyanosis, and necrosis, giving the corpse a purplish-black appearance.

Li Ang then took down another stretcher from the rack. The second victim’s groin lymph nodes, armpits, neck, and other areas showed flea bite marks. The lymph nodes were swollen, and the surrounding tissue was edematous and congested. There was also lymph node suppuration and rupture.

The third victim had pustules and black scabs on the body surface, surrounded by dark red infiltration, its base a firm ulcer, closely resembling cutaneous anthrax.

The fourth victim...

The fifth victim...

Li Ang released Telekinesis to examine and dissect corpse after corpse.

Galuo and Ouyang Shi, standing beside him, had increasingly grave expressions on their faces.

Even Yan Yundang and the Yan Mansion guards, who had little understanding of medicine, could see that something was terribly wrong.

The manner of death was truly horrendous.

Many corpses had swellings the size of apples or eggs on the inner thighs and armpits.

Their arms and legs were covered in dense black spots.

Patches of their skin were ulcerated, appearing to collapse and cave inward.

No wonder the cold storage’s air conditioning was set so intensely. If the temperature weren’t low enough, the ground would likely be covered in a layer of pus seeping from the bodies.

"It doesn’t seem like they were put in cold storage immediately after death. Rather, they appear to have been left for several days in the deepest piles of corpses on a battlefield," a Yan Mansion guard remarked in a low voice, unable to contain himself.

Li Ang glanced at him but said nothing. Instead, he had Ouyang Shi take a microscope from the medicine box. He and Qiu Feng, using Telekinesis, collected samples of the victims’ blood, feces, pus from swollen areas, sputum, and cerebrospinal fluid to prepare smears and perform Gram Staining.

Gram Staining is a method for identifying bacteria.

Unstained bacteria are difficult to observe under a microscope because their refractive index is very similar to that of their surroundings. However, once stained, the bacteria’s morphology, arrangement, and structural characteristics become clearly visible, allowing for their classification and differentiation.

The steps for staining are as follows: first, the smear is fixed; then it’s stained with crystal violet for one minute (Ammonium oxalate is obtained from the reaction of ammonia water with oxalic acid. A small amount of ammonia gas is first prepared by reacting an ammonium salt with a strong base, then passed into water to obtain ammonia water. Oxalic acid is produced by purifying carbon monoxide and reacting it under pressure with sodium hydroxide to form sodium formate, which is then dehydrogenated at high temperature to generate sodium oxalate. Oxalic acid is finally obtained through steps such as lead treatment, acidification, crystallization, and dehydration.); rinsed with distilled water; covered with iodine solution for one minute; washed with water; blotted with absorbent paper; decolorized with alcohol; and then counterstained with safranin (a natural dye extracted from saffron flower stigmas).

After Gram Staining, Gram-negative bacteria turn red, while Gram-positive bacteria turn purple-blue.

This is mainly due to the different thicknesses of their cell walls.

Most pyogenic cocci are Gram-positive bacteria, capable of producing exotoxins harmful to the human body. In contrast, Escherichia coli, Shigella species, Salmonella Typhi, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bordetella pertussis, and others are Gram-negative bacteria.

The Penicillin Li Ang previously produced is particularly effective against Gram-positive bacteria but less so against Gram-negative bacteria.

"Do you see it?" Qiu Feng, gazing at Li Ang, who was hunched over the microscope, couldn’t help but whisper.

She had never seen Li Ang so tense, almost to the point of panic.

Even when faced with the Suzhou Water Poison or cancer, Li Ang had never been this unsettled. He even demanded that everyone stand at the entrance of the cold room and not approach, leaving him alone to observe the smear under the microscope.

"...I see it."

Li Ang’s voice was barely perceptible.

Beneath the microscope, countless pink, capsule-shaped rods were densely packed, a horrifying sight.

The worst result.

Plague Bacteria.

Li Ang clenched his fists and silently switched the slides, continuing to observe samples obtained from pus, sputum, spinal cord, and cerebrospinal fluid.

The result was the same: Plague Bacteria.

The plague, or the Black Death, was one of the most terrifying contagious diseases in human history.

In the era known as the Middle Ages, it claimed nearly fifty million lives in Europe and caused approximately two hundred million deaths worldwide.

Keep in mind that leprosy, a disease everyone dreads, is only classified as a Class C infectious disease. Schistosomiasis, gonorrhea, pertussis, scarlet fever, epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, and even malaria, tuberculosis, and anthrax are classified only as Class B infectious diseases.

At the pinnacle, classified as Class A infectious diseases, there are only two:

Cholera and plague.

If malaria is a demon that has coexisted with humanity for countless years, a parasite on the human species, then the plague is the incarnation of natural disaster itself—Death’s highly efficient scythe reaping lives in the Human World.

In the Otherworld from which Li Ang’s memories originated, the plague known as the Black Death killed tens of millions. It did not cease out of mercy but because there was no one left to kill, no one left to slaughter. Furthermore, the Asian brown house rat had taken over the ecological niche of the black rat, the primary host for the Black Death’s spread.

(The horned leaf fleas on brown rats showed little interest in humans, and with the disappearance of the black rat, the plague temporarily receded.)

"East plague rats, west plague rats, seeing a dead rat like seeing a tiger; not many days after rats die, humans die like removing a stopper. People die during the day, don’t ask the number, the light of day wanes with sorrowful clouds overhead. Three people walk not ten steps more, suddenly two are dead, blocking the road. People die at night, cannot cry, Plague Demon exhales, the lamp flickers green..."

In a daze, Li Ang thought he heard harrowing cries echoing from afar.

He slowly exhaled a turbid breath, took a Fire Talisman from his talisman plate, and incinerated all the glass slides, reducing them to ash.

He turned to face Qiu Feng and the others, who looked bewildered, and said slowly, "The History of the Later Han Dynasty Emperor Xian records: a great plague in March of the fourth year of Jianning, a great plague in the spring of the Second year of Xiping, a great plague in the spring of the Second Year of Guanghe, a great plague in the spring of the Fifth Year of Guanghe, a great plague in the spring of the second year of Zhongping."

Color drained from everyone’s faces.

Li Ang was referring to the great plagues of the late Eastern Han Dynasty. During Emperor Ling of Han’s 21-year reign, five major plagues erupted. These directly overwhelmed the Han Dynasty’s capacity to endure, leading to frequent peasant uprisings and ultimately adding the final straw that led to its collapse.

According to rough estimates, if the pestilences that continued into the Cao Wei period were included, these successive plagues (most likely influenza) killed more than half the population, with deaths numbering in the tens of millions.

The mere mention of it now sent an icy chill deep into the bones of Yan Yundang, Qiu Feng, and the others.

"Is it really that bad?!" Yan Yundang asked solemnly. As an old soldier who had lived from the time of the Holy Empress to the present, he had witnessed many plagues across various regions. He found it hard to imagine anything more desperate than a situation where seven out of ten households were empty.

"Multiply the most horrifying plague you’ve ever witnessed by ten, even a hundred times, and that would be roughly equivalent to the epidemic at hand."

Li Ang ascended the frost-covered steps of the cold room, his voice heavy as he said, "Brace yourselves. The plague is here."