A stronger wave of trembling suddenly struck. Francis's voice was hoarse and nearly broken.
Elara ignored his reaction. She forcefully restrained him, not allowing him to struggle or move around.
Only after a long while, when she had finally forced out the last insect egg from his body, did she slowly release him.
"All done."
Looking at the man on the bed who was usually firm and upright, now weakened and almost limp, Elara stayed silent for a moment. She walked forward slowly, picked up the shawl by the bed, and draped it over him herself.
Her mental tendrils, no longer tightly binding him, gently touched his back and gave a few comforting pats.
"It's resolved. You rest now. The chief doctor will come in later to examine you and prescribe medicine."
Francis was still overwhelmed by intense sensations, his breathing unsteady, and his body still lacking strength.
After hearing Elara speak, he instinctively tried to sit up, but was pressed down by the tendril still on him.
"Just rest properly. I'll handle the matters with the other soldiers in the army."
With that, Elara turned and walked out. The spiritual energy on Francis also slowly withdrew, following her as she left.
After resolving the parasitic worm issue in Francis's body, Elara went to check on Senior General Duanmu and General He.
Fortunately, not long after they headed south, they encountered Puppet Soldiers in battle, but thanks to the experience gained by the earlier troops, they were more cautious and did not get infected by the worms.
After checking both of them, they joined the military doctors in organizing a full inspection of the 400,000-strong army.
Elara then continued inspecting the team of military doctors who had initially gone south with Francis. She picked out those who showed signs of mutation or had hidden worms inside them and thoroughly eliminated the worms using her spiritual power. Only after that did she allow the remaining able doctors to continue the inspections.
Once the key military doctors were fully checked, Elara went to the stationed area of the massive army.
Countless thin, invisible spiritual threads burst from her back like a waterfall. Each thread could precisely touch a soldier, inspect their body in less than a second, and, once confirmed to be worm-free, move on to the next soldier.
If any worm was found, the thread would instantly wrap around the infected soldier, lift them out of the formation, and place them in a temporary isolation zone set up by the military doctors outside the army.
This was Elara's first time using this vast amount of spiritual power in such a large-scale operation. Over a thousand spiritual threads emerged from her back, allowing her to inspect people in groups of a thousand. Her speed and accuracy far surpassed that of the doctors.
The worms feared spiritual power and could not hide from its search.
Elara's spiritual power was also extremely strong. Even when split into a thousand threads at once, she felt no exhaustion or discomfort.
But 400,000 soldiers was an enormous number. After staying up the entire night, she had only managed to check tens of thousands.
She placed the infected soldiers into the isolation area, then spent the entire next morning driving the worms out of each infected body. Only after that, and feeling slightly overdrawn, did she take out two of Oswyn's "Complete Tonic Pills," swallow them, return to the camp, sleep for four hours, and then resume the inspections.
For over a month after that, Elara stayed within the army, working from early morning until late night. She slept less than four hours each day.
Fortunately, with Oswyn's powerful medicine and her own strong inner strength, she finally completed the inspection of the entire 400,000 troops in just over a month.
All infected soldiers were cleansed with spiritual power, and the worm infestation crisis in the southern region was finally under control.
During that month, Oswyn also sent word from Marigold City. With the help of the "Eye of All Things," his research progressed rapidly. Although he had not yet found a way to suppress the worms inside living bodies, he discovered that those who had been infected and then healed developed a resistance, preventing reinfection for a time.
This was undoubtedly great news for the army, especially for those who had just recovered. They no longer had to worry about immediate reinfection.
Oswyn wrote that he was studying the resistance in recovered soldiers and would try to identify the cause as soon as possible, hoping to help uninfected soldiers gain resistance in advance.
In a way, the idea of an ancient vaccine was already being developed by Oswyn. Elara wrote to encourage and affirm his work, telling him to contact the Jiu Department anytime if he needed help and to write to her with any questions.
After finishing the inspection of the army, Elara rested for two days, then personally led a team of immune soldiers to search the entire Gujin Sea region again.
Unfortunately, they still couldn't find the source of the worm outbreak.
They burned every place that had once shown signs of worms or Puppet Soldiers. After confirming that everything was thoroughly cleared, Elara had Francis leave behind a garrison of about 100,000 soldiers to guard the area. The remaining 300,000 troops returned to the capital.
After the army left, Elara didn't leave. She visited every coastal city and county around the Gujin Sea, and finally chose the one with the best terrain to settle in for the time being.
After settling, she wrote several letters to the Ministry of Works in Plumera City, requesting they send officials and craftsmen with shipbuilding experience down south.
In the past, Plumera Kingdom had no coastal cities, so even though she possessed knowledge on shipbuilding, she couldn't use it.
Now that there were many coastal cities, her books on "Basic Dock and Small Sailboat Construction" and "Introductory Maritime Construction and Warship Techniques" could finally be put to use.
She planned to wait until the Ministry's people arrived, then select the best locations for going to sea, build docks, and create ships.
The era of maritime exploration and trade was about to begin.