Chapter 377 - 377 Shaman
377 Shaman
“Is there a big difference?”
Doctor Luo looked at Lin Suisui in confusion. Whether they were slaves or not, weren’t they still human?
“It’s different.” Lin Suisui shook her head. Then, she squatted down and continued to stare at the man. Apart from his slightly heaving chest proving that he was still alive, there were almost no other signs of a living person on his pale face.
“As I just said, making a human skin drum is very cumbersome, and the conditions for success are quite harsh. Therefore, in order to increase the success rate of making it, shamans will specifically raise slaves to be made into Dharma artifacts.
From a young age, these slaves would be fed special herbs. This way, after years of accumulation, the bones in their bodies would become relatively more flexible.
This way, when making leather drums, the bones wouldn’t be too stiff and collapse in the end. Shamans usually chose suitable slaves to be made into Dharma artifacts and definitely wouldn’t randomly capture a few passing merchants to make up the numbers.
These people do look like merchants, so how could they have been planted with such a cruel and terrifying voodoo?”
Lin Suisui stood up and turned to ask Doctor Luo, “Did the constable who sent them here say where their companions are now?”
“Eight of them escaped together. Six of them have similar symptoms, and the remaining two are in our medical center. In order to prevent unnecessary trouble, I arranged for them to stay in the guest room at the side and rest. If you want to see them, I’ll bring you there now.”
Doctor Luo was afraid that they had a contagious illness like the plague, so he made them stay just in case.
Now that he heard Lin Sui’s question, he quickly replied and said that he could lead the way at any time.
After Lin Suisui came out, she took off her bib and mask. After resting for a while, she stood up and instructed Doctor Luo to lead the way. Then, she followed him to the room where the last two merchants were settled.
“Can you tell me what you experienced in the northern barbarian territory?”
Lin Suisui didn’t waste her breath. As soon as she entered, she said, “As you know, among the eight of you who came back together, six of your companions have already started to suffer from the poison.
In this current situation, perhaps you guys are infected as well!
“Therefore, in order for your companions to survive and for you guys to survive, I suggest that you don’t hide anything and tell me everything you know.”
These two people actually were not in a good state now.
The illness their companions had frightened them. Even though they were knowledgeable and worldly, they were still a little frightened when they saw such a strange and terrifying illness.
Of course, they were more afraid that they would become like their companions and develop symptoms as well.
Therefore, they had been quite obedient in the medical center for the past two days. They were very grateful to Doctor Luo and the others, who had treated their companions wholeheartedly.
Therefore, when they heard Lin Sui’s reminder and question, the two of them, who were originally sitting on the bed in a daze, exchanged looks. Then, they scrambled down from the bed desperately and knelt in front of Lin Suisui as they wailed for help.
“Help them up first. It won’t be easy for us to talk like this.” Lin Suisui was shocked by their sudden move and she quickly instructed Su Le, who was about to attack, to stop while instructing him to pull them up first.
Doctor Luo asked the assistant guarding the door to prepare things for them to wash up with. After the two of them washed up, they came to Lin Sui’s side again. The older man with the surname Du told them about their encounter.
“We’re in the satin and cloth business in Jiangnan. Business hasn’t been good in the past two years, so we learned from others and brought our goods. We followed the caravan out of the border and headed west to do business with the Western Region people outside the border.
This isn’t the first time our caravan has traveled that path. We go back and forth at least once every two years. Sometimes, we go twice a year.
This time, we were fine when we went, but when we returned, we encountered two other merchants.
They said that they had encountered a storm along the way and were separated from the original caravan. Seeing that we were also from the empire, they asked if they could accompany us through the grassland. If we agreed, they were willing to pay us a hundred taels of silver each.
At that time, we didn’t think too much about it. After all, this was just a matter of convenience. Why not?
Later on, the journey was peaceful and those two people were quite talkative. In addition, they were very generous, so along the way, we gradually let down our guard against them. Later on, when we entered the grassland and reached the northern barbarians’ territory, we even called them our buddies.”
Perhaps recalling the source of this disaster again, Old Master Du raised his hand to cover his face and couldn’t help but sob. “But who would have thought that these two people would bring such huge trouble?!”
Seeing that Old Master Du had lost control of his emotions and couldn’t continue, the merchant surnamed Zhou, who had been sitting beside him and looking at him, continued to tell Lin Suisui and the others, “Those two people were thieves.
They didn’t attack us in our caravan because they were afraid that we would abandon them after we discovered it. Secondly, there was nothing in our caravan that caught their eye.
Later on, we entered the northern barbarian territory. Because we encountered snow, we went to a small tribe to ask for accommodation.
This is common for caravans. Moreover, those small tribes that nomadize the grassland are very willing to accommodate caravans like us.
They can exchange things they need, such as salt, cloth, tea leaves, and so on from us.
“However, the small tribe we stayed in this time was a little unusual. At first, we actually didn’t know and we only found out after something happened. That tribe was actually a place that provided support to a shaman priest.”