Plague Doctor
Chapter 90: Whose Consciousness

“For these downtrodden parasites, death is a kind of ascendancy because that is the only time they will be given the chance to witness the truth.”

After Gu Jun replied to Uncle Dan, he had stood there unmoved, and the detachment on his face became clearer.

“Ah Jun?” Uncle Dan noticed that something had gone wrong with Gu Jun, and he cursed internally. Gu Jun appeared to have encounter a different kind of abnormal energy. “Are you still conscious? Snap out of it!”

Be it Xue Ba who was standing or Lin Mo who was leaning against the wall, most had noticed the anomaly with Gu Jun. They could see the life slowly drain out of Gu Jun’s eyes.

Gu Jun’s soul was floating along the night breeze, lifting above the corporeal ground. It wandered aimlessly with no destination in mind. His vision swam. Was he still inside the old ruin’s underground tunnel or deep inside the abyss under the sea? His hoarse voice came out as if on its own.

“Uncle Dan, I have not done this kind of operation before. I don’t know...”

“It does not matter; you just follow what I say. It will be no problem because you have studied the structure of the eye before.” Uncle Dan summoned him. “There is no time to disinfect your hands. Just put on the gloves and get working!”

“Uncle Dan...” Gu Jun’s eyes were twitching. Part of his consciousness had frozen while the rest had snapped into place. They were fighting to bring the body under control.

“What are you waiting for?” Uncle Dan demanded harshly. Regardless of whether the kid was a spy or had truly lost his agency due to paranormal energy, they needed his help now. “The most important thing in an emergency operation is time. You should bloody understand that! Gu Jun, snap out of it! There’s a life on the line here. Remember your role as a doctor!”

Xue Ba raised his hand to stop the other team members who wanted to give Gu Jun a piece of their mind. His instincts told Xue Ba that only Uncle Dan would be able to get through to Gu Jun. This was probably because Uncle Dan had shown no ill intent toward Gu Jun before, and the opposite was true as well. During the few days he had spent been the Demon Hunters, Uncle Dan had taken him under his wing. Gu Jun had learned a lot from the experienced medic.

The string of rebukes from Uncle Dan caused Gu Jun’s heart to twitch. It was like a fire had been lit within its icy chamber. The pain that resulted from it also brought him out from the strange daze somewhat.

‘Why... why would I say that ‘I don’t know’ how to do the operation?’ Gu Jun’s head was pulsing. ‘Was it an attempt at revenge on Xiaoning? Would I get any joy from watching her die a painful death and hearing the others begging me for my help? Because they had their reason to suspect me, they deserve to die an awful death?’

The whispering, this stone path... appeared to be eliciting the evil within him, luring him to surrender to the darkness.

“If you’re not going to help, get out of the way!” Uncle Dan knew that there was no time to waste anymore. “Huohuo, the eye speculum!”

The tool was in the first aid kit because eye injuries were a common type of injury for the Demon Hunters. Once Uncle Dan’s grasp closed around the same double-pronged iron hook, he turned to glance at Lou Xiaoning and attempted to insert the tool into her right eye. However, Uncle Dan’s face paled immediately. His hands were shaking so badly that he could barely hold onto the tool. “Ah...”

Uncle Dan’s helplessness bit at the other’s hearts. Xue Ba instantly rushed forward to pull Uncle Dan back. “That’s enough. We can’t lose anymore members to this madness!”

This statement was heavier than the atmosphere around them, but Uncle Dan refused to give in. He was still struggling. “She can still be saved. I only need to remove the eyeball...”

Plucking out the whole eyeball cleanly with a jab into the eye socket would only happen in movies. In reality, the human eyeball was well protected by its appendages, attached to six ocular muscles. If one did not know what one was doing, it would only lead to irreparable damage. For example, the eyeball would be left half dangling out of the socket while still attached to some muscles, or half of it would be dug out but the other half would be been left decaying inside. But now, they had no other option. Xue Ba yanked Uncle Dan away. He growled in anger, “Huohuo, give me the scalpel. I’ll do this myself!”

Seeing the pain on Uncle Dan’s face and the chaos that swept through the team, a ripple seared through the pain in Gu Jun’s mind. His consciousness was awakening...

According to human standards, this was definitely not a consecrated spot. It had a kind of evil energy... creating panic, suspicion, isolation, and fear. It was creating evil. It was a trap.

From the moment the sixteen of them walked into the banyan tree hole, they had fallen into a trap. The giant stone, the subterrain giant worm, the gale wind, the red door... were they all part of a conspiracy? As the Demon Hunters moved down the tunnel, they had been discussing the purpose of the stone tunnel. Gu Jun had chanced upon the explanation now. The purpose was to drag him further into the abyss.

“Mr. Gu, we know you better than you know yourself.” The spell on the stone was black. The pulse of life in the stone path was also black.

His self-consciousness was winking back to life. Suddenly, Gu Jun’s mind cleared. A fire of anger howled through his heart. He greeted his teeth and hissed silently back at the whispers that crawled into his brain. “Shut the f*ck up! I am a doctor. Just watch as I save Lou Xiaoning’s life!”

His anger burnt away the confusion that had rendered him motionless earlier. It suppressed the unknown that burst forth back into the abyss.

This was not Riker, and it was not Landon’s underground lab behind the red door. This was a trap, but so what? Some people or some kind of force wanted to wipe out his soul to summon the Son of Misfortune into the world for the sake of some unknown goal!

“Captain Xue, wait... Let me. Let me do it.” Gu Jun’s voice suddenly rang out. His tone had somewhat returned to normal. There was humanity in it again.

“Hmm?” Xue Ba’s hand that was reaching toward eyeball suddenly stopped. His face was sweaty from the influence from the abnormal energy. Xue Ba was confused, and the group were shocked that Gu Jun appeared to have returned to them.

Uncle Dan cried with joy, “Quick, wash your hands and put the gloves on!”

“Yes.” Gu Jun washed his hands at top speed with the mineral water before putting on the cap, mask, and gloves. He rushed over to grab the eye speculum and installed it over Lou Xiaoning’s right eye that had suddenly bulged out. He looked directly at the eye. The influence was still swaying his mind, but he could resist it better now.

“Here are the forceps and scissors!” Uncle Dan took on the role of the nurse. As he handed the tools over to Gu Jun, he guided him. “Raise the bulbar conjunctiva through the edge of the cornea, then open a small incision. Reach the scissors through the incision to get under the conjunctiva, and then cut out the whole bulbar conjunctiva by circling around the cornea!”

Once Gu Jun put on the gloves and accepted the surgical tools, the sense of familiarity took over him. That gave him instant focus. The whispering faded to give way for Uncle Dan’s instruction. The four teammates mobilized to set up the makeshift surgical light, but none dared look directly at the surgery. The other people could only watch from behind Gu Jun.

All the while, Gu Jun listened to Uncle Dan’s instructions and performed the operation.

First, the incision at the edge of the corner, and then he snipped off the extraocular muscle to isolate the tissue around the conjunctiva...

The tissue had all atrophied. Thankfully, they did not fester like the tissue of the Malformed Banyan Disease’s victims. Lou Xiaoning did not struggle or scream during the operation either; she just kept moaning in that strange language under her breath. Therefore, even though this was Gu Jun’s first ocular enucleation, none of the steps were too difficult. After cutting out the ocular nerves, he used the forceps to remove the bloodshot eyeball filled with fear right out from the socket.

“Ah, is it over?” Uncle Dan asked hurriedly. The rest also could instantly feel that the shadow that had loomed over them had lifted slightly.

“Yes.” Gu Jun immediately dropped the strange eyeball to the ground. He stomped on it and the organ burst with a ghastly squish...

This shocked everyone, but the shadow appeared to have been splattered along with the eyeball. Even their surroundings grew several shades lighter.

‘No matter who or what you are, I am not the same as you. I never was and never will be,’ Gu Jun said in his heart.