Mu Lin never expected that the origin of prions could actually be traced back to human activity 5,000 years ago. At that time, prions were generally only understood by academics involved in research; ordinary people had no idea what they were. However, if one mentioned the disease’s other name—mad cow disease, which later caused widespread fear in Europe and America—people would immediately understand. Even today, people still haven’t figured out the true origin of prions. There have been many theories throughout history. One suggests that prions originated from cannibals in Australia, the Americas, and Africa. Another theory claims that the virus came from comet debris after extraterrestrial comets or other celestial bodies collided with Earth.
Yet no one ever suggested that prions were originally from Earth itself, having existed for over 5,000 years. Previously, the mummies carrying these viruses, along with their internal organs, had been sealed tightly inside pyramids, so the virus had never escaped to plague humanity. However, over 300 years ago, when people began excavating pyramids, the virus was gradually released.
Previously, it had remained inactive. Additionally, without the unintentional actions of Mu Lin later on, and the Western practice of randomly using animal organs, it hadn’t caused any widespread outbreaks. Now that Mu Lin had learned it was a virus, he was reluctant to discard the substance he had already placed inside his ring—it might prove useful for his future research or poison-making.
As for the organs left on the ground, Mu Lin had completely lost interest in studying them. Initially, he had hoped that something preserved for 5,000 years must contain something useful for him, especially since it required activation by his spiritual consciousness—surely it must be something valuable. But who would have guessed that it turned out to be a virus that attacked him? Now he had completely lost interest.
He packed away his biological analyzer. As for the troublesome remains on the ground, he would leave them for the Y country’s government and police. This could be considered a small interest payment they owed him; otherwise, it would be a waste of his painstakingly cultivated spiritual energy. He signaled to Xiao Laipi waiting outside, and the two crushed their “earth遁符” (earth talismans used in Taoist practices for teleportation or invisibility) and quickly vanished from the farm.
Mu Lin left. The virus he left behind in the petri dish rapidly grew. The piece of organ gradually regained its original shape—an intact human lung, as if freshly removed from a body. Soon, the culture medium spread throughout the entire room, and the leftover fragments of organs, as if filled with foaming agent, quickly grew into complete organs.
If Mu Lin had stayed a little longer, he would have witnessed this miracle. It turned out that the virus attached itself to the organs to rapidly repair damaged internal organs. The conditions required were first activation by a cultivator’s spiritual consciousness, followed by sufficient nutrient solution.
Had Mu Lin discovered this breakthrough, he would have revolutionized the history of human organ cultivation and transplantation. Unfortunately, such an important discovery for all of humanity vanished in the blink of an eye. Humanity had long pursued the ability to cultivate artificial organs to replace damaged ones, a dream that still hadn’t been fully realized even today.
The next day, a farm servant followed his usual routine and began cleaning the room. Inside, he discovered several organs. Since nothing in the room appeared to have been disturbed, the servant—who was accustomed to seeing animal organs from the farm’s slaughtered cattle—thought someone was simply playing a prank on him. Without giving it a second thought, he casually picked them up and threw them into the pile of organs destined to be ground up for cattle feed, without reporting the incident to the owner or the police.
Westerners generally do not consume animal organs. Typically, these organs are baked, ground into powder, and then mixed into animal feed as nutritional supplements.
This farm itself had a small cattle breeding facility, constantly raising 1,300 beef cattle. Every year, a large amount of animal organs were crushed and used as feed additives. These organs met the same fate as other animal organs: first baked to remove moisture, then ground into powder, and finally mixed into feed.
One month later, this feed was given to the cattle. After consuming it, the cattle soon began displaying symptoms such as unsteady gait, loss of balance, itching, and restlessness, eventually dying within 14 to 90 days. Gradually, large numbers of cattle across the entire farm began dying.
To minimize his losses, the farm owner directly slaughtered some of the cattle that had not yet died and sold the meat on the market. The organs from these cattle were collected by other farms, processed into feed additives, and soon mad cow disease began spreading across the island nation.
By the time the Y country government discovered that the virus in the infected beef could harm humans, mad cow disease had already spread across the entire European continent, becoming a term that evoked widespread fear.
This was essentially a biological chain reaction. Originally, this was a legacy left behind by an ancient civilization for future generations. However, due to the local science and technology lagging far behind the Western world, these treasures of ancient civilizations were looted by Westerners.
Yet, due to the short historical development of their own civilizations, Western societies adopted a policy of plundering other civilizations, using their so-called modern civilization developed over a short period to invade and destroy other ancient civilizations with long histories. However, due to modern people’s short-sightedness and their singular focus on pursuing material civilization, they quickly forgot their own long and rich cultural heritage.
This has left behind an increasing number of ancient civilization mysteries. Although modern people possess advanced science and technology, they still cannot solve these historical enigmas. The mad cow disease incident was merely triggered by Mu Lin. Even without Mu Lin, it could have been triggered by someone else—Li Lin, Smith, or others.
At this moment, Mu Lin had no idea that he had unintentionally opened Pandora’s box, unleashing the prion virus—the devil—onto the Western world. At the time, he had only wanted the Y country government and police to pay him a small interest fee, never imagining that this small interest payment would far exceed anything he had ever demanded from the Y government, causing immeasurable economic losses to Western countries. If the leaders of Y country and other European and American nations discovered that this was merely an unintentional mistake by Mu Lin, and that they had become innocent victims caught in the crossfire, would they be so furious they spat blood?
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