Work Prophet
Chapter 134 - 50: The Most Malicious Curse

Chapter 134: Chapter 50: The Most Malicious Curse

According to the description provided by the farmer’s wife, what the young boy suffered from was less a sickness and more a curse.

He appeared healthy most of the time and seemed no different from other children his age.

But once the curse took hold, he would become extremely uncomfortable, coughing, with a tight chest, difficulty breathing, gasping for air, sometimes even experiencing headaches and stomach aches.

The farmer’s wife had sought help from the Lord, but the herbalist in the lordship could not diagnose the boy’s condition. Instead, an old woman from the village who had once swept floors in the Temple claimed that the child might have been entangled by some impurity.

The more the farmer’s wife thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense, but appealing to the Silver Moon Church to expel the impurity would require a large sum of money, which she could not afford.

Just then, she heard that Li Yu was going to compete with Adelle in a trial of medical skills. So, she took her child and traveled three days and nights to Green Field to try her luck.

After hearing her story, Li Yu pondered for a moment and then flipped through the General Practitioner’s Handbook at his side, nodded to the farmer’s wife, and said, "Alright, your child can be counted as one."

A flicker of joy appeared on the farmer’s wife’s face. At that moment, she didn’t care whether Li Yu was a heathen or not, she kept thanking him while holding her son.

Seeing that a spot was quickly taken, the crowd could not help but become agitated, growing more eager. Without waiting for Li Yu to ask, many had already started shouting out their ailments.

Li Yu then approached the loudest man in the crowd, and asked, "What did you just say was hurting you?"

The man, overjoyed, immediately took off his boots and showed Li Yu his feet, which were red and swollen, especially his left foot, where there was a bulge that looked quite grotesque.

The man lamented, "I contracted this strange illness about a year ago, starting with my left foot. It began just with redness and swelling, but gradually it became excruciatingly painful. Whenever it flared up, I could hardly walk and needed to be supported by family members, but usually, it would last no longer than half a month before slowly improving.

The swelling in the affected area would also subside, but recently the illness has been flaring up more frequently, and now my right foot has started to hurt as well, and even my fingers swell."

Li Yu put on rubber gloves and gently touched the man’s foot, causing him to instantly scream in agony.

Li Yu then stood up and asked, "What is your occupation?"

"I’m a butcher from Black Stone City," the man replied, enduring the pain.

"Then you must eat meat frequently."

"Yes, I eat meat at every meal. I can’t live without it. Generally, when people hire me to slaughter pigs, they leave me some meat as payment, especially the nobles in the city who don’t eat the organs of pigs and sheep, leaving them to me to make sausages."

"No wonder."

The butcher did not understand why Li Yu asked what his profession was and as for eating meat, as long as one could afford it, wasn’t everyone eating it? The butcher did not think it related to his strange illness.

He just looked at Li Yu with hopeful eyes, repeatedly saying, "How about it, can you choose me?"

"I can, I happen to be able to treat your disease," Li Yu said.

The butcher, upon hearing this, bellowed with excitement three times, didn’t even put his boots back on, and supported by his family members, walked over to the mother and son.

Then, Li Yu continued to inquire and picked an old man and a woman.

As the patients began guessing who he would choose last, Li Yu casually pointed and said, "How about you!"

The crowd immediately quieted down, everyone’s mouth agape in disbelief.

The chosen individual also wore a confused look, glancing around before looking behind himself and then turning back somewhat uncertainly and saying, "Are you pointing at me?"

"Yes, it’s you," Li Yu said.

"But I’m not sick!" The man, a mercenary, had heard there was excitement in Green Field and had come specifically with his companion to watch, but he never expected to end up being the spectacle himself.

He paused, then added, "It’s not quite right to say that. My feet are particularly smelly. I wonder if that counts as a sickness?"

His words provoked a burst of hearty laughter.

Li Yu did not laugh but continued to ask, "What is your name?"

"Tom, they all call me ’Comical Tom,’" the mercenary shrugged.

"..."

"Comical Tom. Is that nickname because you are good at cracking witty remarks, or because you’re so young yet your hair is almost gone, revealing your shiny bald head?"

The mercenary named Tom fell silent upon hearing this.

Looks are always the best starter in love, no matter the era.

Especially for someone ordinary like Tom, but this hairstyle of his had already made him miss true love several times.

Once, he specifically arranged a winter date with the woman he loved, wearing a hood the entire time. The two flirted with each other, and just as their feelings heated up and could no longer contain themselves, they rushed into an inn; the minute he took off his cloak, the woman fell silent again.

At that moment, Tom felt like dying.

Despite his usual humorous and witty persona, with one joke after another, how many people truly understood the inner torment he suffered?

Tom asked in a trembling voice, "Can my hair be treated too?"

"Yes," Li Yu said, "but there might be some side effects."

"What are the side effects?"

"It might bring some other kinds of curses," Li Yu tried to explain in a way the mercenary could understand. "You might want to think about it."

However, Tom cut in definitively, "No need to think further. What curse could be more malicious than being bald? If you can really make my hair grow back, then I’m willing to join your religion and worship your god on the spot!"

Saying this, he took great strides and stood next to the butcher and farmer’s wife.

By this point, Li Yu had finished selecting his people.

It was precisely at this time that an uproar erupted from the other side.

Li Yu looked in the direction of Adelle and saw that the young girl had also chosen someone, who was actually blind!

When the blind man realized he had been chosen and had a chance to see again, he couldn’t help but shed tears of excitement.

Voices praising Pisya began to spread through the crowd.

Adelle’s expression was one of deep devotion as she walked toward another person amidst the worship of the believers. This time, the crowd’s exclamations were even louder, because the person the Female Priest had selected next was even more shocking than the blind man—he simply lacked a leg.

Li Yu couldn’t help but squint his eyes.

The Silver Moon Church had evidently not intended to have a fair medical competition from the start but had escalated the contest to the realm of "magic."

They even managed to stage acts like restoring sight to the blind and regenerating amputated limbs.

One would think the Steel Alchemist had released a sequel.

But since the Silver Moon Church chose not to follow the right path and wanted to play with magic, Li Yu did not mind showing them what real magic was.