Plague Doctor

The moving car tumbled but Gu Jun's hands were firm as he picked up the 5 cm times 5 cm black bone flap. His mind was in an unusual state, it was a state he had not encountered before. He could feel the Carlot instruments coming alive. Perhaps no one on Earth was more familiar with these instruments than he was. They were magical instruments, he already knew about that; but he did not know how to utilize them. If the knowledge of utilizing these tools was a room, Gu Jun had been locked from entry. 

But then his investigative ability, autopsy science increased to level 2. That brought with it many changes. Gu Jun could feel the change to his mental state. When he faced autopsied samples, he felt different. He finally gained entry to arrive at an indescribable state. When he held the scalpel again, for a lack of better term, he could find the on and off switch on it. He could use it to better dissect abnormal creatures. Even if the creature was shielded by unknown material or abnormal energy, Carlot scalpel could slice through them. 

When the blade pierced into the hoof, his mind was exploding. Other than the mental exhaustion, he did not feel any corruption. This was a different kind of technique, the Carlot Technique. Gu Jun was reminded of the reward he got from the autopsy mission, one of them was 1 Medical Technique. He wondered if this was it. He also wondered if there were foreign people among the members of the Rudolph Carter Foundation… 

After the doors opened, Gu Jun's understanding of scalpel and the tweezers blew wide open. Gu Jun used the small tweezers and it felt like he was holding a ball of darkness. The small piece of square bone flap was incredibly heavy and tough. Even though it had been sheared away, it was still attached to the hoof via unknown soft tissue, a normal tweezer would not be able to pull it out. This was the source of Wang Ruoxiang and the other's confusion. Was it hollow under the hoof? Like one's skull?

If it was an entire solid bone, then cutting the surface would not have formed a bone flap. The tweezers picked up the bone flap and slowly eased it out. It was pulled off with a layer of black membrane. This caught everyone's attention. The bone was hollow and there was soft tissue underneath the bone. This was indeed a new understanding of the foot structure.

"Wow, now that's smelly…" Lucky immediately closed his claws over his nose. The other Zoogs did not look so well either. After the bone flap was taken off, the smell was even worse than before. Compared to now, the smell earlier could be considered fragrant. Synaesthesia made Wu Siyu extremely sensitive to senses. At that moment, she wanted to grow more hands to cover her nose. 

"Foot cavity." Gu Jun announced softly, giving the sample their names. "Foot dura." This was clearly modelled after cerebral cavity and cerebral dura. The experts had no opinion but it felt so weird to have Gu Jun come up with such professional names… 

What the others did not know was the visions that suddenly poured into Gu Jun's mind. He saw the brain cavity. Could the Black Billy Goat's brain be inside the hoof but not a part of the meat ball? He used the scalpel to cut off the connection between the bone flap and the foot dura. He studied the bone flap on his tweezers. The underside was sticky with black liquid and nothing jumped out at him. So Gu Jun put it aside to focus on the hoof. The visions became more numerous. He also noticed the changes in his mind. The autopsy completion rate had jumped from 0.51 percent to 1.51 percent, and his autopsy experience had grown by 500. The hoof was definitely an important body part for the Black Billy Goat. Once the foot dura was spliced open, Wang Ruoxiang, Uncle Dan and the rest noticed the strangeness within it as well.

Strings of unknown substance were hidden under the membrane. They looked like tentacles or eels. They swam about and radiated a strange light. Since the opening created by the bone flap was not big, they could not have a full view of the object. They had no idea what those tubes were, were their blood capillaries, nerves or intestines? Were they unique to the hooves or connected to the other organs like the calf, knee or thigh?

"Give me the dissecting scissors stat!" Gu Jun said. Perhaps these were the regenerative organ inside the bone. Snipping them off might stop the leg's liquefaction. Uncle Dan took up the post of assistant. He handed Gu Jun the Carlot scissors. Uncle Dan did not feel anything special about them. It was a different story for Gu Jun though. After he held them tight, he snipped through the tubes inside the foot cavity. The tubes were soft and not particularly sturdy. They were cut through easily and once they were cut, the two ends shrivelled. 

Gu Jun felt like he was cutting through a child's umbilical cords, he could even hear babies crying. Deng Ximei attested that the Black Billy Goat would only appear when there was worshipping activity for Shub-Niggurath. The appearance of this Black Billy Goat most likely matched the birth of the first abnormal baby on Earth. 

Gu Jun cut through another tube when the visions surged at him and an unexpected scene appeared. In some unknown time and space, tubes like tentacles or umbilical cords joined the giant meatball and many babies togethers. The dark green liquid flowed through the tubes into the babies' bodies, circulating in their hearts… This was not the umbilical cord between the babies and their biological mothers but their other mother, the Black Goat of the Woods!

They were nourished, corrupted and mutated. 

"The Black Billy Goat and the abnormal babies…" Gu Jun croaked, "The more abnormal babies there are, the more powerful the Black Billy Goat will become… The more powerful Black Billy Goat becomes, the more abnormal babies there will be… The mother of thousands young…" 

The experts like Xiao Huiwen gasped and Wang Ruoxiang narrowed her eyes. 

Dark green liquid oozed out from the feet cavity to soak through the snipped and un-snipped tubes. It also covered the damaged foot dura and bone opening. Threads like veins rapidly regrow over these damaged areas to heal them. Gu Jun was covered in cold sweat as a supposition entered his mind.

If these regenerative organs were not fully destroyed within a certain time limit, they would continuously regenerate and repair themselves!