"Is this the patient?"

Fang Zheng carefully observed the villagers lying on the sickbeds and groaning non-stop, and couldn't help but ask. Hearing Fang Zheng's question, the nurse next to him nodded.

"Yes, brave sir, recently, many people here have been sick. At first, they had headaches and fevers. We thought it was a cold and gave them potions to treat it. But these potions are not very effective, and with each passing day, the villagers' illnesses will get worse..."

Having said this, the nurse paused for a moment, then looked at the top of Fang Zheng's head in confusion.

"My lord, what is that?"

Hearing the nurse's question, Fang Zheng's face suddenly turned dark, while Raphtalia and Lifana behind him burst into laughter, and even Homura Akemi stood by and smiled without saying a word.

"Never mind, just continue."

Fang Zheng certainly knew what the other party was talking about. In fact, along the way, almost everyone who greeted him would say the same thing.

And the culprit is the fat bird lying on his head!

In fact, Fang Zheng didn't really care about it at the beginning. After all, when it was hatched, the Filo bird looked like just a fat chick, so he didn't care.

But what Fang Zheng didn't expect was that this little guy could eat, sleep and grow. It took them only two days from the royal city to the commissioned location, and this fat bird had grown to half the size of his head. Now it was on his head, giving people the feeling of a tall hat worn by Siberians.

Not to mention that this fat bird's feathers are pink...

Fang Zheng tried several times to chase it away, but the fat bird was determined to get on its head and refused to run away. So Fang Zheng had no choice but to let it stay for a few more days.

Anyway, at its current growth rate, it will not be able to hold on for another two days.

"Ah... OK."

The nurse quickly retracted her gaze and continued her report.

"Not only that, after that, even the livestock in the village fell ill and died one by one, and they mutated into monsters. It was only at this time that we realized that there was something wrong with this plague..."

"So you know the source of the problem."

Fang Zheng saw the nurse's hesitation and knew there must be something fishy going on. At this moment, the village chief stood up and said to Fang Zheng helplessly.

"It is like this... My dear hero..."

According to the village chief, there was a giant dragon lurking in the mountains near their village. Not long ago, the Sword Hero and his companions suddenly appeared and defeated the dragon. Then the Sword Hero and his companions patted their butts and left, leaving the dragon's body here.

As a result, the dragon's corpse rotted and formed miasma. Now the forest where the dragon was located was about to become a death zone.

so……

"You haven't dealt with it yourself?"

Hearing Fang Zheng's question, the nurse quickly answered.

"Because after that, many adventurers came, so we..."

“Ahem.”

However, before the nurse could finish her words, she was interrupted by the village chief's cough. Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng also laughed.

"You think there's money to be made, so you want to stay a few more days, right?"

"...Master, what do you mean?"

Hearing this, Raphtalia couldn't help but ask curiously, while Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders.

"It's not that simple. The Sword Hero killed the dragon and left it alone, but that's normal. He's not a local. But how could these villagers not think of it? At the very least, they can just go up and burn the body, right? But you also heard them say that after that, many adventurers came here to collect materials from the dragon's body, right? After all, dragon blood, dragon skin, and dragon bones are all good things. Even if they don't use them themselves, they can still sell them for money."

"But what does this have to do with the villagers here?"

Hearing this, Lifana also raised her own doubts. Even if the adventurers came here to collect materials from the dragon's corpse, it had nothing to do with the villagers here.

"Hehe, look around. There is only one village here. Those adventurers come and go. Don't they live here, eat here, or buy things here?"

Fang Zheng smiled and pointed out the window, but at this time the village chief's expression had become even uglier.

"So, they intend to use the dragon's corpse as a cash cow, but... hehe."

Having said this, Fang Zheng chuckled again and stopped talking. The village chief even lowered his head, not knowing what to say.

After hearing this, Raphtalia and Lifana looked at each other. They initially thought that the people here were quite pitiful, but after hearing what Fang Zheng said, why did they feel that the villagers here were getting what they wanted?

"I-we didn't know this was going to happen!"

Hearing this, the nurse in charge of taking care of the patient became unwilling and quickly opened her mouth to refute.

"Who knew those adventurers were so stupid that they couldn't even handle the dragon's corpse properly, and ended up getting us into trouble! It's not our fault!"

"I'm not interested in whose fault it is, I'm just saying it casually."

Fang Zheng was really not interested in this, but he just pointed it out for Raphtalia and Lifana to see. Homura Akemi had rich life experience, but Raphtalia and Lifana were still children in mind. If they were not pointed out clearly, they would be easily deceived.

This is also the wisdom of the ordinary people. In things like this, they will only push the responsibility onto others and act like "I am an innocent commoner" to gain sympathy from others.

But whether he is really innocent or not is hard to say.

After that, Fang Zheng did not say anything, but cast holy light to cure all those infected with the plague. However, this was only a temporary solution, and if the dragon's body could not be dealt with, the plague would break out again sooner or later.

Fang Zheng certainly would not walk away. No matter how much they mocked him, they were indeed blinded by greed, but they were not guilty of capital punishment. After all, they just wanted to take advantage of the dragon. If they had deliberately asked the heroes to come here to destroy the dragon because they were eyeing the dragon's property, then Fang Zheng would have said that they deserved it. However, since they were just making a small profit from the dragon's corpse, there was no need to be so harsh.

But this is not the case for Raphtalia and Lifana.

"I never thought that these people would actually lie to us..."

Until she entered the forest, Raphtalia had a conflicted expression. She had a strong sense of justice, and because she had been a slave before, she was more inclined to the lower class. She had heard that there was a disaster here, and she felt quite sympathetic towards them. But she didn't expect this group of people to turn around and lie to her, and acted as if "they had done nothing wrong", which made Raphtalia feel a little bit of betrayal and anger.

"This is normal, so next time you hear someone say something, you should use your brain more and don't let them sell you out."

Fang Zheng walked in front, looking at the forest covered by poisonous fog, and answered casually. At this moment, the forest was filled with poisonous fog, and corpses could be seen everywhere, most of which were animals, and some were adventurers who did not have time to escape. Even the trees here were completely dry.

However, Fang Zheng and the others naturally did not have to worry. Before entering the forest, Fang Zheng had already made everyone immune to the poison. Therefore, no matter how strong the poisonous fog here was, it would not have any effect on the four of them.

"When everyone speaks, they will unconsciously say things that are beneficial to them and hide things that are not beneficial to them. So you should not only listen to others, but also learn to think and judge for yourself. Otherwise, it is easy to be led astray by others."

"I only trust the Master. As long as the Master asks me to do something, I will never doubt it!"

As soon as Fang Zheng finished speaking, Lifana jumped out hurriedly to show her loyalty, and Fang Zheng reached out and patted her little head.

"Maybe I'll lie to you, too."

"It doesn't matter, because I have already decided!"

What has been decided?

Fang Zheng was stunned for a moment after hearing Lifana's incoherent answer. However, before he could ask more questions, everyone had already arrived in front of the giant dragon's corpse halfway up the mountain.

"This is so tragic..."

Looking at the corpse in front of him, Fang Zheng couldn't help but sigh. The corpse of the dragon in front of him looked a bit like a whale stranded on the beach and eaten by wild beasts. Most of the flesh and blood had been hollowed out, and piles of bones could be seen everywhere. One could imagine how the adventurers treated this dragon after its death.

"What should we do now?"

"Burn it."

Facing Raphtalia's question, Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders, then reached out and picked up the shield axe.

However, just as Fang Zheng was about to take action, perhaps he sensed the threat. Suddenly, everyone saw the dragon's body tremble violently, and then with a roar, the dragon actually stood up!

"What happened? Did it come back to life?"

Seeing this, Raphtalia was shocked, and Homura Akemi immediately bent her bow and drew her arrow, ready for battle. Although she could also use TNT to blow this thing up directly, just like Fang Zheng would not get any experience if he didn't use the shield axe, if Homura Akemi didn't use the holy bow, she would also not get any experience.

"No, I guess he turned into an undead creature..."

Fang Zheng raised his shield axe and looked at the undead zombie dragon in front of him, and couldn't help but sigh.

"It's not that I can't understand it. After all, if I was inexplicably beaten to death by a group of people, and then skinned alive by another group of strangers, I would die with regrets..."

"But Master, you are not a dragon..."

"Haha, how do you know I'm not? Besides, aren't you the same?"

After being retorted by Fang Zheng, Raphtalia and Lifana were speechless. Their experiences were actually similar to that of the dragon. They had been living happily in the village. But the wave came and destroyed their village. After they finally tried to rebuild the village, human soldiers appeared again, plundered the wealth of the village, and kidnapped them and sold them to slave traders...

From this perspective, their experience with the dragon can really be considered as "mutual sympathy".

"So, Master, should we let it go?"

While drawing her bow and drawing an arrow, Homura Akemi blinked her eyes, causing Fang Zheng to shrug his shoulders and raise the shield axe in his hand.

"How is that possible? Burn it."