The Witch Doctors

In a small town over a hundred miles from the Sacred Mountain, a strange illness broke out.

Nearly half the town's population was struck by sudden, unbearable abdominal pain. Within days, the afflicted were coughing up blood, their lives slipping away like sand through an hourglass.

The local lord sent people to seal the town gates and summoned doctors to enter and treat the sick.

However, none of the doctors who went in came back out.

Soon, even the local doctors turned pale at the mention of the town. Upon hearing the lord's summons, they abandoned their practices and fled.

Although the power of rituals had brought many advancements to this era, the Trilobite Men's exploration of life and medicine remained in a barren state. Without systematic research or medical texts, most doctors in Yinsai were more like charlatans and tricksters than true healers.

Even when the occasional person truly dedicated to studying medicine appeared, they couldn't change the overall situation.

Now, the town had become a living hell, littered with corpses.

The guards outside the high walls stood vigil, their spines chilled by the haunting sounds that echoed from within. Each day, the wails and moans grew more desperate, more chilling.

But no one dared to open the gates or enter.

"Someone... save us." From inside the walls, someone wailed.

"Open the door!" From the narrow gate blocked by stones came the constant sound of pounding.

"Open the door!"

One clear morning, a dense fog suddenly enveloped the town.

As the mist slowly dissipated, a collective gasp rose from the townspeople. There, on what had been an empty lot, stood a three-story house, as if conjured from the very air itself.

A sign hung on the door of the house, reading "House of the Witch Doctors."

Six individuals emerged from the House of the Witch Doctors. They looked similar to Trilobite Men but wore bone masks on their faces, boots on their feet, and gloves on their hands.

They wore specially made robes with a circular pattern featuring a human-like figure imprinted on them.

The figure had its arms outstretched, resembling a cross, surrounded by many complex symbols.

At this time, no one knew the meaning of this pattern.

But in the future, everyone would view this symbol as the ultimate mystery of life.

The people in the town saw these strange individuals: "Who are you? Did you come from outside?"

They replied: "We are witch doctors."

Amidst the clanging sounds, a rescue operation immediately unfolded in the town.

The six witch doctors gathered the patients from the town. The severe cases were carried into the first floor of the small house.

Those less serious were placed on the streets and open spaces outside the house.

Everyone in the town rushed to this place. The once deathly quiet town finally showed a glimmer of hope.

"What's going on? Where did this house come from?" The townspeople who ran over, enduring their abdominal pain, were completely baffled upon arrival.

"This should have been an empty lot!" The town was small enough that everyone knew the area.

"These doctors say they came from outside?" An elderly mortal of some status inquired of others.

"Not doctors, they call themselves witch doctors," quickly replied the mortal who first encountered them.

On the first floor of the small house, these witch doctors began treating the first patient.

"There's an unknown creature in its intestines, about fifteen centimeters long," said the left hand with the glove as it passed over the patient's body, detecting the anomaly.

"Where did this worm come from?" One witch doctor questioned.

"Someone might have drunk water or eaten food from the Sacred Lake. There are quite a few mutated creatures left in the Sacred Lake," another witch doctor answered.

"Collect it and name it the intestinal worm. Record it in the head," another witch doctor immediately named the worm.

"Alright, the life source has been collected," the witch doctor possessing the God-Created Man (Head) life tool immediately said.

These witch doctors understood the structure of Trilobite Men's bodies very well. They used knives to easily open the patient's body along the seams of the bone armor, then healed them.

A hand gently swept over, and the wound instantly healed, even repairing the shattered bone armor.

Seeing a patient who had been on the brink of death from abdominal pain walk out completely healed, the townspeople immediately erupted in cheers.

This was the first patient to be cured in such a long time.

"Save me!"

"Help me, please."

The townspeople came forward one by one, and the witch doctors arranged them in queues, gradually entering the small house.

Once they discovered the cause of the illness, the rest became much easier.

After a few attempts, the witch doctors created a bone powder for the patients to drink, which killed the worms in their bodies.

The townspeople viewed this as a miracle, carefully saving the remaining bone powder, thinking to use it the next time they fell ill or were in pain.

They regarded it as a panacea for all ailments.

In this small town, the witch doctors not only helped the sick patients but also familiarized themselves with their own abilities, testing the limits of their powers.

As most patients gradually recovered, they began to seek out other types of patients.

They even set their sights on the disabled in the town.

For a Trilobite Man in the village with only one leg, the witch doctor possessing the God-Created Man (Torso) actually made him a new leg and attached it.

Such power left the townspeople utterly astounded.

"It grew back..." The townspeople's hands trembled.

"The leg grew back!" Children shouted.

"It's incredible." As they watched these witch doctors, they finally understood that witch doctors and regular doctors were two entirely different beings.

"Is this what witch doctors are? Witch doctors with powers like those priests." Amidst such shock and awe, the name "witch doctor" became deeply etched in their minds.

On the upper floor of the small house, Yin Shen also witnessed this scene.

"The bone demons' abilities are quite good. Their innate talents are related to life, able to heal bone injuries while also affecting other aspects."

"Even without the power of the life tool, they could still become excellent doctors."

The spirit, seeing so many people freed from suffering, was also delighted by this scene.

"God," the spirit said softly, her eyes shining with wonder, "is this the good side You spoke of, hidden within everything?"

The spirit looked at the witch doctors surrounded by crowds, as if seeing their future.

"While collecting all life sources, they're also healing lives."

"Such a path... it's truly wonderful." —

When everything was over, and all the patients in the town had been cured.

In another fog, the House of the Witch Doctors disappeared from the town.

Hearing no more screams and wails from the town, but instead laughter and joy, the guards outside immediately reported this news to the local lord.

The lord brought people to open the blocked gates and saw that everyone in the town had recovered.

"What?"

"A group of witch doctors with miraculous powers cured you all?"

The lord and the guards looked at each other in disbelief. If not for everything before them proving the townspeople's words true, they would have thought these townspeople had gone mad from their suffering.

The legend of the witch doctors began to spread.

No one knew where they came from or when they would leave.

They only knew that sometimes they would suddenly appear in a small town or village, sometimes in misty wilderness or at the foot of mountains.

As long as you could find them, any illness or even the most severe injury could be healed.

Some said they were a group of mortals who had obtained the mystery of life.

Others said they had used a secret technique to imprison death itself, so no one would ever die in their hands.