"Before we talk about this creature, I want to talk about the malformed bodies you previously dissected."
Professor Qin's old face was very calm, but the words he said made everyone more and more shocked.
"Those people were infected with the 'Banyan Malformation Disease' — this is our tentative name because the pathogen is likely to be related to the banyan tree, as Gu Hai thought. There may be three stages to the onset of the Banyan Malformation Disease. The first stage is the incubation period. The human body has no symptoms, and the incubation period is very short, probably no more than fifteen days.
"The second stage is the limb lesion stage. Mutated cells appear in the limbs, proliferating rapidly and destroying normal cell tissue. This is very similar to cancer cells. However, these abnormal cells will lead to limb structural abnormalities very quickly. In just a few days, they can become like the bodies you dissected. At this stage, if the lesion can be completely removed through amputation, the patient can be saved. "
At the same time, a staff operated the large screen on the north wall of the venue to play the relevant video.
Hundreds of people in the audience looked at the screen seriously, as if they were in a classroom.
Gu Jun was also watching. The first image was the amputation process taken from the top of the operating table. The doctors from the special department removed the malformed limbs of the patients with the Banyan Malformation Disease. Because he had dissected this kind of malformed limbs, he knew how difficult it was even without watching it.
If there were a lot of patients, it was no wonder the special department was in urgent need of anatomical talents. There were many similarities between anatomy and surgery.
After a while, the surgery video made everyone break out in a cold sweat. Many people were stunned, and even the surgical expert, Professor Yu, was amazed.
The doctors performing the surgery in the video were too skilled.
"Ah …" Xu Hai, Zhang Haoran, and the others could not help but murmur. This was an eye-opener.
Gu Jun was also very surprised. Even with the blessing of Hands of Dexterity, he could barely stand next to the doctors and serve tea.
The surgery video only skipped for ten minutes. In the next video, the patients' malformed limbs had been removed, either upper or lower limbs. They looked like ordinary amputees, using newly installed prosthetics for rehabilitation training.
However, since Gu Jun was here, these patients would definitely be isolated and monitored for a long time.
"There is still no relevant data on whether the patient will relapse after the surgery and the survival period. Further clinical observation is needed."
Professor Qin then said, "The malformed bodies you dissected were all in the second stage, but they... did not receive proper treatment."
Obviously, he was hiding some inside information. Professor Qin's voice became heavy. "When the patient reaches the third stage of bereavement, the mutated cells will quickly spread to the whole body. Other than the head, other parts of the body will have structural distortion, and the skin will ulcerate. The patient will experience continuous severe pain, confusion, delirium, and mania. As the condition worsens, the patient's muscles will spasm all over the body, and some will even develop opisthotonus. "
Opisthotonus is caused by a high degree of rigidity in the back of the neck, causing the body to bend like a bow.
Everyone watched as another video was played on the big screen, and an extremely painful wail resounded throughout the stadium.
The video was a surveillance video of a small white room that looked like a prison cell. The room was less than five square meters, and there were no decorations. There was only a patient lying naked on the ground in a state of opisthotonus. The patient's head was severely bent backward and stuck to his back, but his torso was protruding forward. It was already distorted beyond recognition.
Everyone's senses were once again heavily oppressed by this indescribable strangeness. Some people silently took the vomit bag.
Professor Qin said, "Patients in the bereavement stage have already lost their sense of self. If there are other patients in the bereavement stage of the Malformed Banyan Disease around them, the two will crazily entangle together. The ulcerated skin will stick together and cannot be separated. Then, the adhesion will form skin proliferation. After the wound heals, the two will be like Siamese. With so many people glued together, the final shape of the deformed body will be like a banyan tree. It is the thing you see in the cage. "
The audience was silent. The teachers and students were already surrounded by a deep chill. Unlike the direct shock just now, this chill was very real.
Earlier, they could have attributed the strange phenomenon in front of them to the fear of seeing ghosts and evil spirits, but now that they had seen the video and the Malformed Banyan, they had completely shattered this idea. This was not a ghost, this was a disease, and they were doctors.
It felt like there was a dark cloud pressing down on the sky, and a storm was about to fall at any time.
But whether it would still be ordinary rain, they did not know.
"Once a patient with the Malformed Banyan Disease fuses together." Professor Qin's old face was drawn, and he said very seriously, "We think that they are no longer human, but a new kind of creature that can't be cured. We have found that this creature has at least two states, living and dead. The living Malformed Banyan can continue to grow, and its black fluid becomes infectious. Once other creatures come into contact with the active black fluid, they will be infected and quickly develop into the bereavement stage. Student Gu's guess was not wrong. The Malformed Banyan can fuse with creatures other than humans. As for the rejection reaction that Student Sun mentioned, it is indeed gone. "
Another video was played on the big screen in the stadium. This time, everyone was dumbfounded because they were confused by the scene before them.
It was still a surveillance video. It was a very large white room with a huge white lacquer cage in the middle. There was a Malformed Banyan in the cage.
It was not the one in the stadium. The Malformed Banyan in the video was even larger, and there might be more than thirty bodies. It moved slowly inside the cage. When two people in full protective gear approached the cage, its dozens of heads suddenly let out a horrible and strange cry, which was even more ear-piercing than before …
"The biologists in the department believe that it relies on this sound to hunt." Professor Qin explained, "If you are unfortunate enough to face the Malformed Banyan one day, you must not be frightened by it and immediately stay away from its contact range. Otherwise, you will become part of the tree. "
At this time, the two people in protective suits threw a few Kunming mice that everyone was familiar with into the cage.
"Squeak!" The mice screamed in horror. They fell into the cage and curled up into a ball, unable to move at all. Several hands of the Malformed Banyan caught them. At this time, the playback speed of the video was accelerated. The skin of those hands oozed black liquid and soaked the mice.
After ten minutes, their limbs began to distort. Another ten minutes later, opisthotonus appeared. In less than half an hour, they had developed into the bereavement stage!
Then, for the first time, hundreds of teachers and students saw how the Malformed Banyan was fused. The time bar of the surveillance video showed that it had been more than two hours. Those Kunming mice seemed to be a natural part of this Malformed Banyan.
There was a low buzz in the stadium. The medical students grabbed their hair, covered their faces, and sighed deeply.
"Uh …" Cai Zixuan opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but he forgot what he wanted to say.
Wang Ruoxiang was also silent. He Yuhan hugged her tightly in fear and murmured, "It's too tragic, too tragic …"
Yes, it was too tragic. Gu Jun's eyes were calm as he looked directly at the devil's creation on the screen. But why did he see a kind of grandeur in this creation?
It was as if an even more bizarre and beautiful Heaven Reaching Tower had been rebuilt on top of the ruins that had destroyed everything.
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