Five Plagues Ghost

They were very close. The moment Old Man Zhao pounced, he had already reached Li Ye.

Thanks to his long-term training, Li Ye tensed both legs and sprang backward, instantly leaping away and evading Old Man Zhao's lunge. The latter crashed to the ground instead.

Yet the instant he hit the floor, his body twisted grotesquely. He was clearly lying face-down, but his upper body suddenly rose straight up at a ninety-degree angle. His knees surged madly across the floor, slithering toward Li Ye like swimming snakes. Then he sprang upward, his mouth stretched wide as he bit toward Li Ye.

Li Ye could now clearly see the things wriggling inside his mouth.

They were black lines drifting through the rotten food in his mouth, squirming back and forth like worms.

His entire oral cavity had rotted into minced flesh, threaded through with those black worms. Yet his tongue was vividly red. As he drew closer, aside from the stench of decay, Li Ye even caught a strange sour smell, mixed with the sweetly fishy reek of rot.

"Fuck!"

In that flash of lightning and spark, seeing that he could not dodge in time, Li Ye exerted force through his legs and drove a fierce straight kick into Old Man Zhao's chest.

Spring Leg: Kick the Door Nail!

Bang!

With a muffled thud, Old Man Zhao's chest visibly caved inward. But Li Ye's expression changed as well.

The sensation traveling up his leg was like striking something sticky and greasy. It constantly wore away at his force, like mud trying to swallow his foot into it.

Li Ye hesitated for a moment. By then, Old Man Zhao had already thrust his head close, ready to bite into his face.

A ruthless glint flashed in Li Ye's eyes. His other foot sprang up sharply, and following Old Man Zhao's approaching head, he delivered a bicycle kick to his jaw, kicking him backward with his head thrown back.

Borrowing that force, Li Ye twisted and shook the foot trapped in Old Man Zhao's chest, springing free of his body. He himself spun once in midair before landing on the ground.

The instant he touched down, Li Ye swiftly planted both hands on the ground. At the same time, his legs came together and shot straight into Old Man Zhao's chest.

Spring Leg: Hammer Charge Break Ladder!

Bang!

Like a sledgehammer smashing into a wall, this kick produced an even heavier thud. As Li Ye struck, his legs spun and trembled, shaking away that peculiar muddy sensation creeping up from his feet, and forcibly kicked Old Man Zhao two meters away.

"Ah!"

The instant Old Man Zhao sprawled on the ground, his knees scraped across the floor. Without the slightest delay, he forcibly "swam" toward Li Ye again.

But by then, Li Ye had already adjusted his stance. He opened the backpack on his back, gripped the Salt Bullet Gun in his left hand, steadied a Molotov Cocktail in his right, and pulled the trigger first, firing a saltwater round.

Pop!

The high-concentration saltwater round burst across Old Man Zhao's forehead, slowing his movements.

Li Ye narrowed his eyes. "Filth Worm."

The earliest ancient record that could be traced was the Sui Dynasty's Treatise on the Origins and Symptoms of Diseases. Its theory of "Filth Qi Transforms into Worms" stated: Its qi is like oily mist, sweet and cloying to the nose. Those struck by it develop burning skin, rumbling intestines, and a craving for rotten food. Their bellies feel as though threads are winding and writhing within. This is filth qi congealing into worms.

Put simply, it was a parasite.

It was born in filthy, chaotic environments, parasitized hosts, and caused fever and diarrhea.

At this stage, it was not much of a problem. But if left untreated, the contaminated would gradually begin craving rotten, spoiled, extremely filthy food.

If it continued to worsen, the contaminated person's skin would become moldy and greasy, their grime impossible to wash away, while they gave off a strange, sweetly fishy scent of decay.

At that stage, huge numbers of black threadworms would appear inside the host, filling the body like meridians and becoming a source of contamination themselves.

At that point, the demon would have completely become the host itself.

Its exhaled breath, emitted odors, and everything it touched would produce new parasites.

But that was as far as it went.

It would only contaminate everything it could contaminate. Once it was done contaminating, it would simply carry on as usual; it had no trait of killing people.

Even if Li Ye had been contaminated, it would only be in the early stages. A trip to the hospital and a deworming pill would settle it.

A very typical minor demon.

And high-concentration saltwater had an inhibiting effect on Filth Worms. After firing that shot and seeing Old Man Zhao stop moving, Li Ye became even more certain.

He picked up the phone that had fallen to the ground earlier and dialed the police.

Of course he was calling the police!

What, was he supposed to solo it?

Saltwater only suppressed Filth Worms; it did not kill them. It was still a demon, and even a newborn demon was a demon.

Those few attacks of his would have kicked an untrained person to death long ago. Yet when they landed on this thing, it did fuck-all.

For ordinary people, the best way to deal with demons was to find a method that countered them, with the prerequisite being that they had not been contaminated.

The method for dealing with Filth Worms was a large quantity of potent, highly effective insecticide.

Li Ye could not buy that stuff, nor had he ever thought to prepare for this kind of demon.

Why go through all that trouble when calling the police could solve it?

"Don't move!!"

But just as his thumb touched the screen, a loud shout rang out from the distance.

Bang!

An inexplicable explosive crack, like a firecracker going off, rang through the air. Li Ye caught only a glimpse of firelight before a hole burst through Old Man Zhao's forehead.

With a whoosh, a figure swept over at incredible speed, trailing streak after streak of light like a net. It struck the Filth Worm, instantly ripping countless dense wounds across its body and sending the entire thing flying backward.

A uniformed person appeared beside Li Ye, gun in the left hand and sword in the right. Li Ye did not even get a clear look at the person's face before they left behind one sentence and charged into the stairwell.

"That's a Filth Worm—anyway, it's a demon. Wait for the others to come check you. Watch out for contamination!"

They had come pretty quickly.

Li Ye froze, then smiled.

That was why Divine Land was safe.

Still, something was strange. Would a Filth Worm run after being injured?

The instant that thought arose, his head suddenly became heavy and muddled.

He felt dizzy and swollen-headed, his throat itchy, and the urge to cough rising within him.

A cold?

The moment that thought surfaced, his stomach growled, and hunger welled up from nowhere.

Hunger?

Had contamination set in?

No!

Filth Worms did not give people colds!

Li Ye's eyes widened. In an instant, every detail of Old Man Zhao echoed through his mind.

"The green armor-like substance on his skin was mold, but besides Filth Worm parasitism, there's another thing that causes mold."

"The sweet, cloying smell was there, but there also seemed to be a sour fragrance. And it could make me feel hungry."

"His mouth had rotted into minced flesh, like it had been scalded, yet his tongue was still bright red."

"And those black threadworms—black threadworms that only appeared in the mouth."

"The thing I touched wasn't grime. It was sugar syrup. That was why it had that sinking sensation like mud."

"High-concentration saltwater can suppress not only parasites, but bacteria too!"

Li Ye remembered something. He pulled a flashlight from his backpack and shone it toward the fourth floor, where he spotted a great number of mold patches around the windows!

An old nursery rhyme: Little ghosts crawl the beams, mold rain strikes the windows!

Not a Filth Worm!

There were many kinds of demons bred in filthy, chaotic environments. Each had its own differences and could be easily distinguished, but some demons could create confusion.

He recalled a case that had been discussed together with Filth Worms.

"It's the Five Plagues Ghost!"

Li Ye's hair stood on end. Gritting his teeth, he let out a muffled roar and sprinted straight into the stairwell.

But as he ran, his symptoms began worsening: fever, headache, coughing, hunger, and a frantic urge to eat greasy and sweet things.

The Five Plagues Ghost was the only demon that could be confused with a Filth Worm, because unless one analyzed their symptoms carefully, the two were impossible to tell apart.

It was likewise a demon born in stages. The Five Plagues Ghost's initial signs were exactly Li Ye's current symptoms: fever, headache, and hunger.

After another stage, the host's perception of food would mutate. They would become addicted to sugar and oil. That sour, fragrant vinegar smell stimulated the appetite, making people know only how to gorge themselves, after which they would cease to care about the quality of their food.

Then they would mutate completely, becoming something that knew only hunger and constant eating, swallowing even food from garbage heaps without hesitation.

Its outward symptoms were very similar to a Filth Worm's. If the former was a parasite, then the latter was bacteria!

The only way to distinguish them was by looking at the traits on their bodies. Sugary grease and grime were different, as was that sour fragrance—especially the vividly red tongue.

Like Filth Worms, it was a minor demon, but it was very special!

It was extremely rare. In modern times, it had only appeared a few times in that godforsaken place, Bharata.

It was essentially a demon born from food and likewise appeared in filthy, chaotic environments, usually connected to food.

But it was the only demon that could not be killed with the wrong method!

If the Five Plagues Ghost was not killed, at most it would drain people's Essence Qi, contaminate them, and make them sick.

But if the Five Plagues Ghost was killed by the wrong method, it would spread into the air and shroud an entire area!

When that happened, the surrounding district would become a land of great pestilence, where food rotted and famine and disease arose!

This was a minor demon with the power of Disaster Transformation!

That person had called it a Filth Worm too. The intelligence was wrong!

With the methods that person had displayed, killing the demon would not be difficult.

But that was absolutely not the right method!

Once it died, in the lighter scenario, everyone would fall gravely ill and need the ICU.

In the worse scenario, this residential complex would turn into a land of plague and famine, and everyone contaminated would become pitiful ghosts who died of sickness and starvation!

His parents lived in the neighboring building!

"You motherfucking Old Man Zhao! Fine, you collected scrap and piled up garbage—but what the hell were you thinking, eating unclean food?!"

Li Ye's eyes were bloodshot. He kicked off the ground and leaped up, arriving on the fourth floor just in time.

He did not even dare take the elevator!