Chapter 586: My Choice

“Me?”

The choice Elder Ladi had once faced was even more brutal than the one before Mo Ling.

No matter which option he chose, the consequences would be dire.

They had used the Root-Cause Healing method to return to the past, only to be confronted with such a choice. They thought they could perfectly cure the disease, but instead, they found themselves in an impossible dilemma.

“The Root-Cause Healing method isn’t perfect. As they say, even good medicine has its poisons. Sometimes, a cure in one situation becomes a deadly poison in another.”

“Sometimes I wonder… is changing the past really any better than leaving it be?”

Elder Ladi seemed lost in his memories. He didn’t press Mo Ling for a decision, but stood to the side, muttering softly.

Mo Ling fell silent for a moment, Elder Ladi’s words echoing in his mind.

After a moment of contemplation, he made his choice.

“I will make that scientist forget the method, completely eradicating the source of the thought plague.”

“So that is your choice…” Elder Ladi said calmly, as if he had already guessed what Mo Ling was thinking.

“There’s more!” Mo Ling continued. “I will also heal the collapsing Sky Island!”

“Since I’m the one who will make them forget the way to save their Sky Island, then I must bear the responsibility of saving it myself. Since I have enough power, I’ll see this through to the very end. I will save that crumbling Sky Island!”

A hint of emotion entered Elder Ladi’s voice. “But we are merely healers, not gods. Our duty is to cure diseases…”

“Shouldn’t we define our own duty?” Mo Ling retorted. “Duty shouldn’t be an excuse to tie our own hands. For healers to possess such power should be an honor, not a constraint.”

At Mo Ling’s words, the searing ball of light that was Elder Ladi’s head began to flicker, as if responding to him.

He slowly raised a hand and pointed at the record slate in the mercury, his voice sharp as he asked:

“So you choose to both cure the disease and save the people?”

“Yes,” Mo Ling answered decisively.

“You want everything on the scales?”

“I want it all!”

Elder Ladi watched Mo Ling quietly. The light of his head was like a shining star, countless flares spilling out into the surroundings, illuminating the silver ship. At this moment, it was as if the record slate on the ground was no longer important.

His voice suddenly grew ethereal, seeming to ride the stellar flares and spread outward. The sound waves vibrated around Mo Ling, as if trying to pull him into the star’s very core.

“My choice… was the same as yours.”

An intense light washed over Mo Ling. Within its flickering patterns, he seemed to see Elder Ladi’s past.

…

“We’ll eliminate the source of the plague from his mind…”

“Ladi, this will doom the entire Sky Island. Are we really doing this?”

“Then we’ll go and heal the entire Sky Island and resolve its crisis of collapse. That is how we will answer for our actions,” Ladi said earnestly.

“But that’s not our duty…” his companions hesitated.

“I know. But it is my choice.”

…

The light continued to shift, presenting more memories to Mo Ling.

Because of his powerful healing abilities and outstanding leadership, Ladi was chosen to join the Elder Council, becoming one of its members.

He had always done things his own way, paying no mind to “duty” or the convoluted rules that constrained other healers. He always remained firm in his own choices.

As a member of the Elder Council, he constantly tried to persuade the other Elders not to restrict the healers’ activities or be overprotective of the inexperienced ones. But he was alone, and could not change the Elder Council’s decisions.

Unlike the other Elders, Ladi often traveled to other Sky Islands to treat patients. He never held back his healing power and would sometimes even help patients rebuild their homes.

His aid to these patients went far beyond the scope of “medical treatment.” He would help them transform their living environments, research technology, and resolve the immediate crises they faced:

Famine, drought, floods…

After a species had been ravaged by a plague, with everything in ruins and needing to be rebuilt, Ladi would stay for a time. Only when the species had gradually developed the ability to resist disasters on its own would he quietly depart.

The other Elders worried that his unrestrained use of power would attract prying eyes from the outside world, that powerful races from the abyss might take notice of them. But he remained unconcerned.

Faced with the council’s censure, he was never willing to compromise.

“I am simply helping my patients.”

In Ladi’s eyes, these patients were already suffering enough. Their medical knowledge was lacking, they didn’t have the healers’ great power, and a single plague could often lead to their entire race’s extinction.

Ladi didn’t expect every race to flourish under his aid; he only sought a clear conscience. He couldn’t bear to see suffering befall these races, just as one couldn’t bear to see a scar on smooth skin.

“Curing the disease and saving the people have never been separate things.”

Ladi knew clearly that medical arts alone could not cure the abyss. Some “diseases” were far more terrifying than any plague.

However, perhaps because of Ladi’s actions, prying eyes gradually began to gather on the Hua Sheng Islands. Those pulling the strings from behind the scenes discovered that the healers’ power could be used for more than just healing.

It was, in essence, the power of wish fulfillment; as long as one had enough energy, anything was possible.

And so, certain individuals with ulterior motives surrounded the Hua Sheng Islands with the Black Calamity, using it to create a disease that could affect the healers’ minds and plunging the entire Hua Sheng Islands into turmoil.

Although the Elder Council was aware of the Black Calamity’s invasion, they could not identify the masterminds behind it. They were hidden too deep. Thus, the Elders could only focus on finding a way to deal with the Black Calamity on their islands first.

They gathered their balls of light, condensed their power, and with Ladi’s consciousness as the focal point, they used the Root-Cause Healing method. They quickly found the source of the Black Calamity, the root of the plague ravaging the Hua Sheng Islands.

Ladi knew that destroying this record slate would reset everything. But the Black Calamity’s influence was too immense; the energy required to erase its source was an astronomical figure, more than the combined power of all the Elders.

Moreover, after understanding the Black Calamity’s past, Ladi came to see things differently.

He realized that this strange thing had no concept of “good” or “evil.” It wasn’t even a living being. It could only be described as a “phenomenon.”

When you perceived it as an enemy and felt fear toward it, it would reflect that malice back at you.

The Black Calamity was a mirror, reflecting the sickness of the abyss.

Suspicion and malice festered between the various races. Baseless accusations and ill-intentioned prying fed the Black Calamity’s rampage. This chain of suspicion made the Black Calamity invincible, clearly reflecting all the festering wounds of the abyss.

When those with ulterior motives used the Black Calamity as a weapon, it became their accomplice in invasion. It had no consciousness of its own, yet it had become the source of the turmoil on the Hua Sheng Islands.

A knife can be used to kill, but it can also be used to save.

‘Can the Black Calamity truly be considered a disease? Does it really need to be eliminated at its root?’ Ladi was highly skeptical. He had been constantly searching for a better way to handle it.

A way to both cure the disease and save the people…