A Hospital in Another World? Chapter 574: Purifying the Valley, The Green Storm!

The extraction of cadmium was successful, although it may contain some impurities, it greatly aided the detoxification process.

Seraina received the cadmium powder and, with a simple probe of her psychic power, locked onto its—according to the lady—spiritual fluctuations. Then, she began a series of targeted detoxification spells:

Cast one, check the blood; cast another, check again. After three or five attempts, her eyes lit up:

"I've got it! Yes, that's it!"

Elder Elwin was not as expressive, yet he mastered the spells faster. After practicing a few times, he could detoxify without relying on the cadmium powder.

With their addition, the progress of detoxifying the villagers skyrocketed. In just an afternoon, a night, and half of the next day, the detoxification was declared complete.

All the miners, workshop workers, and villagers were treated—

If Garrett were merely working for pay, by now, he could declare the medical work successfully completed and return to his employer for his fees.

Miners, workshop workers, villagers, young and old, lined up to send them off. Perhaps the farewell was organized by the village management, but the gratitude on their faces was unmistakably genuine—

"Thank you, Priest sir."

"Thank you, Mage sir."

"Thank you, beautiful miss... thank you so much..."

"Esteemed Divine Beast, please accept our gratitude..."

"Little Tom! What are you dazing for! Bow to the Mage sir! Bow!"

Garrett saw Mrs. Annie, whom he had treated upon his arrival in the village yesterday. Trembling, she opened her handkerchief and presented a colorful scarf she had cherished for decades.

Beside Elder Elwin, a middle-aged housewife offered a bowl of cold water. Though the bowl was only made of wood, it had been scrubbed clean overnight, revealing its fine grain.

By Seraina, a three- or four-year-old girl ran up, stuffed a bunch of wildflowers into her hands, then shyly turned and ran away;

Even before Apa, someone carefully offered green grass...

This scene resembled when they had finished providing medical aid in the countryside, surrounded by villagers seeing them off.

Garrett's steps slowed with each move.

He knew why the villagers acted this way. For them, or for any people living in remote rural areas, medical resources were prohibitively expensive—

A simple herbal medicine could deplete a family's savings; the cost of a divine spell was something they dared not even think about.

Those living in cities might regularly attend temple services, cleaning and praying in exchange for affordable treatments, but for them...

Even if it meant carrying a sick family member hundreds of miles to a temple, the time lost and the wages foregone could drain several months of savings from a family.

Just like in modern times. Urban workers, with higher incomes, enjoy higher medical insurance reimbursements; the poorer rural workers and villagers have lower reimbursements, if any...

Riding on Apa, Garrett was earnestly escorted out of the village by the management. He took a few steps, turned back, took a few more steps, turned back again:

Relying on the highly spiritual Silver Moon Deer, which wouldn’t let him fall off, and whose back was wide and comfortable, almost allowed Garrett to ride the deer backwards...

"What are you looking at?"

Elder Elwin suddenly asked. Garrett sighed softly:

"Teacher, I'm wondering how many years it will be before they get this strange disease again..."

Elder Elwin sighed quietly.

The water was dirty, the soil was dirty, nature itself was problematic, and the people living in it would inevitably have problems.

Humans and nature were originally one...

"How many years do you think?"

"It’s hard to say..."

Garrett shook his head gently.

Lead poisoning accumulates quickly, shows symptoms quickly, and is relatively easy to treat—a competent priest can perform a detoxification spell; chronic cadmium poisoning, on the other hand, might have a latency period of 10 to 15 years, with bone pain as a late-stage symptom.

But cadmium poisoning is not so easily cured—once it accumulates in the kidneys, it’s difficult to expel...

"Teacher, I want to purify nature here, do you have a way?"

Garrett suddenly patted Apa, asking it to stop. He dismounted from the deer and looked earnestly at the elder:

His strength was in healing, communicating with nature, feeling affinity with nature, but he was terribly lacking in these areas. His healing spells were up to the standards of a Level 6 mage, but his natural spells, if reaching Level 1, were barely enough to make him chuckle...

But seeing the state of the water and soil, seeing the villagers sending them off, Garrett really couldn’t just walk away pretending he had seen nothing.

Elder Elwin stopped, his face serious. Purifying nature, healing

 nature's wounds, was something every priest of the nature gods tried to do—

Apprentice priests might plant a tree or a clump of grass, return a fallen bird to its nest;

Low- and mid-level priests listened to the voices of nature, caring for plants and animals;

And high-level priests might even call upon wind, rain, lightning, and thunder, commanding the land and hills to restore vitality to injured nature...

But human power sometimes had limits. To evolve such a large valley, Elder Elwin himself was not capable, let alone Garrett, a Level 6 priest.

"What... do you have in mind for purification?" he sorted his thoughts and slowly replied:

"Level 10 and above, there are relevant divine spell arrays, but you probably can’t activate them. Purifying bit by bit, even I can only purify half a mountain in a day. For you, it might take a month here, and you probably still wouldn’t finish."

As for asking Seraina for help?

Elder Elwin guessed the young lady might volunteer to help, but Garrett likely wouldn’t plan to include her. No reason, just pride...

"Ah, it doesn’t need to be so troublesome!" Garrett looked up and laughed:

"Just find several species of plants that accumulate the most lead and cadmium—the best would be among the herbs, especially annuals that grow fast. Then negotiate with them, ask them to absorb more pollution..."

This idea had also occurred to Elder Elwin. But there were too many types of plants in the valley; a broad stimulation was too inefficient, focusing on specific species and betting on the wrong types was even less efficient. So...

"First, how will you find these plants? Second, what’s the difficulty in negotiating with them?"

Hmm? There’s a chance!

The teacher didn’t outright deny it, which meant there was hope he’d lend a hand. Garrett chuckled:

"The first problem is simple. Apa!"

Apa pawed at the ground in response. Garrett turned and patted the Silver Moon Deer’s left flank:

"Apa, please taste the grass in the valley. Then tell me, the taste of cadmium—the strange flavor driven out by your detoxification spell, which grass has it strongest? Can you find me five types?"

Apa snorted loudly, spraying Garrett’s face with snot. Then, with light steps, it moved aside, took a bite, chewed, spat it out, and tried another grass...

Garrett turned to Elder Elwin, spreading his hands:

"See, it’s settled. Chemical sampling analysis could also work, but it’s cumbersome, and since Apa is here, let Apa help..."

Elder Elwin held back from knocking on his head. As a priest of the God of Nature, one should communicate with plants and gather information from them directly. Pushing the task onto a magical beast, and being proud of it?

Forget it, he wasn’t taught properly at the beginning, it’s too late to beat him now...

It wasn’t long before Apa came back, its head lowered, shaking off five clumps of long grass with dirt from its antlers. Elder Elwin casually dug a few holes and planted these wild grasses, continuing to ask Garrett:

"And the second difficulty?"

"The second difficulty is, I can’t negotiate with those plants..."

Elder Elwin inhaled, exhaled, inhaled, exhaled again. The problem of poor affinity with nature had been there before Garrett headed north, and he still hadn’t improved...

"Try it, show me!"

Garrett silently closed his eyes. His psychic power reached out, locking onto the freshly planted grass. Communicating, communicating...

Even with the memories of advancing to Level 5 with the Oak Staff, communicating with plants was still vague. It wasn’t just like a veil in between, it was more like a layer of rubber.

Elder Elwin also extended his psychic power, observing Garrett’s communication, both amused and frustrated. He shook his head, stepped forward, and placed his hand on Garrett’s forehead, shouting:

"Focus!"

The psychic power unfolded, enveloping Garrett’s, reaching out to the surroundings. Carefully sensing, the elder’s white brows soon furrowed:

"Your mindset is wrong. That’s nature, you are a part of nature—you, animals, plants, the earth, air, soil, are all parts of nature, you are all equals. You’re high above, who would communicate with you?"

"Uh..."

Garrett couldn’t agree with this perspective. Humans, animals, plants, theoretically equal, but in reality—not at all. A human life was inherently more valuable than an animal’s:

How many dogs had died in his hands during experiments on patent ductus arteriosus?

But arguing with the teacher now was obviously not wise. Garrett focused his mind, feeling the teacher’s psychic fluctuations, trying to imitate them:

Quiet, quiet...

Flatten the scattered thoughts, simplify...

Lower the frequency of his brainwaves

, closer to the state of animals, even closer to that of plants... Feel the sunlight, the moisture of the water, the breeze of the mountain wind...

Garrett forcefully gave himself mental suggestions. From the reeds by the creek, to the aquatic plants in the creek... Mud on the green riverweed, slickly showing off in the water;

I am a seaweed, seaweed~~~ swaying with the wind~~~ seaweed, seaweed, seaweed, seaweed~~~ dancing in the waves~~~

Uh... After simplifying and spreading his thoughts, it seemed he really connected with the clump of grass. Garrett, eyes closed, negotiated earnestly:

Would you like to grow a bit longer?

Those strange things in the soil, that... that taste, try hard to absorb them, pull them into your bodies?

No strength? No worries, I’ll provide for you!

Would you like to grow with your companions? That is... the same kind, the same species, all similar...

Ssssss, the grass in the valley swayed, moving on its own. Starting with the clump of grass in front, then, centering on these five long grasses, a large area of wild grass shot up.

One meter, two meters, five meters, ten meters...

The green circle kept spreading. Soon, Garrett’s face turned pale, his body began to sway. Seraina's eyes moved, her hand pressing on his shoulder.

The next moment, the green storm surged!