Plague God in the World

Xinyi Continent

Outside Pingchang City, Sword Forging Manor.

Within an old courtyard below the manor, the crowing of roosters could be heard early in the morning.

"Brother, it's time to get up and eat. We have to go up the mountain to forge swords, or we'll be punished again."

The young girl, about seventeen or eighteen years old, named Ning Jiaojiao, had skin as fair as jade and a sweet face. A hint of dazed cuteness showed on her round face. She yawned and pushed open the door.

The man inside was sitting on a chair, maintaining a long sword made from melted copper coins.

She was a little surprised and said with a giggle, "Brother, you're polishing your sword again?"

"The road to Sword Forging Manor isn't safe."

Ning Zheng put the sword away as he spoke, then patted Ning Jiaojiao's head and took out a small bamboo dragonfly. "This is a toy for you. When we go out today, give me a blessing to gather some good luck?"

"Okay!"

Ning Jiaojiao knew her older brother was a little strange, always asking for a blessing every day.

Even though she didn't know what it meant, as long as she nodded, she would get delicious food and fun toys.

[Transaction complete, deducting target's daily luck value.]

[Luck +100]

Ning Zheng felt the points credited to his account and nodded with satisfaction.

He had been in this world for over ten years. From the moment he was born, he discovered he had a special ability:

He could see others' luck.

And he could be a luck merchant, buying and selling luck with people.

A normal person's luck was 10 points. Ning Jiaojiao's luck was clearly more than ten times that of an ordinary person.

As for the purchase price?

The rules were set by both parties, and it was voluntary. Trading a bamboo dragonfly for a hundred luck points was also reasonable, wasn't it?

And what was the use of the luck he obtained?

As long as a person was lucky enough, they could do almost anything.

It was like making a wish in Dragon Ball.

Whatever you wished for would come true. As long as your luck was good enough, you could find rare treasures and cultivation techniques.

Even if a peerless expert descended to kill him, he could spend his accumulated luck value, and coincidentally, a super meteorite would fall from the sky and smash the opponent to death.

"Brother, play games with me in the courtyard today."

Ning Jiaojiao trotted to the middle of the courtyard, looking very happy. Suddenly, she turned her head, her expression turning sinister, and a strange girlish giggle came from her mouth.

"Be serious, hehe. If Brother isn't serious, Brother's taste should be pretty good too."

Ning Jiaojiao said as she spun and jumped lively. Suddenly, with a plop, she fell flat on her face. Her head suddenly exploded, and blood flowed all over the courtyard. Some white… excrement flowed out of her head.

Yikes! Yikes!~

Then, a black crow flew across the sky. A dropping of diarrhea just happened to land in her mushy head.

Adding insult to injury.

Ning Jiaojiao, today was as unlucky as ever.

Ning Zheng was used to it. He frowned and scolded, "Jiaojiao, you unlucky child, I told you not to turn your head and talk while walking, and you fell again."

"Wuwu~ Brother, don't look. I look so ugly right now." Ning Jiaojiao covered her face shyly. Her exploding head rapidly regenerated, returning to its original state.

She didn't seem to notice. She got up, patted the dirt off herself, and said with an indescribable strangeness, "Brother, help me see what crawled in. My head hurts so much, it feels itchy inside."

Ning Zheng knew exactly what it was.

It was bird droppings.

If he didn't put bird droppings in her head every day, she wouldn't have become so naive and foolish, so muddled, so easy to control and bully.

Under normal circumstances, she was a fierce creature who would constantly seek out her brother to "play" with.

Therefore, he had to ensure her luck was extremely poor every day, causing her to fall while walking, have bird droppings fall on her head, and be muddled and unlucky in everything, so she wouldn't harm him.

[Name: Ning Jiaojiao]

[Race: Merfolk hybrid]

[Status: Vengeful Ghost (Deceased for 107 years)]

[Today's Luck: 5/105 (Possessed by the God of Misfortune)]

"Pick it up."

"Okay."

"Pick it up."

"Hehehe~"

"So well-behaved."

After indulging his unlucky, cheap little sister for a bit, Ning Zheng walked out of the house.

Outside was a bluestone alley, covered in green moss, with a hint of dampness in the air. Most people were already up and working in the fields, where stiff, dazed farmers were planting rice.

A crow stood on the eaves, confronting a stray cat beneath.

Even after more than a hundred years, the villagers here hadn't realized they were dead, repeating their lives day after day.

Thirteen years ago, a young Ning Zheng was kidnapped and taken to the distant Sword Forging Manor, where he lived like a slave, working the forge.

A little over a year later, he couldn't stand it anymore and escaped down the mountain, hiding in this spirit village.

The Sword Forging Manor on the mountain was established by a group of powerful, heretical cultivators.

They had used their wicked formations to refine the lives of people from the villages below into vengeful spirit villages, with tens of thousands of vengeful souls forming a unique, natural protective array for the mountain.

It was only because Ning Zheng's "luck" was good enough. If other slaves had run down the mountain, this spirit village, spread everywhere, would have meant certain death.

After escaping down the mountain and searching the spirit village, he found that this little ghost girl lived alone and had the highest luck value of 105. He immediately decided to become Ning Jiaojiao's brother and hid in her home to live.

Here, only the lingering resentment of past lives remained in the world; there was no self, only basic logic.

According to Ning Zheng's investigation, these beings were all formless vengeful spirits, but they seemed capable of taking on physical form by consuming flesh and blood, like a void bubble doll being filled with a paste of flesh and blood.

It was truly bizarre.

Then, he figured out the logic behind their killings.

She was just a lonely ghost who wanted a brother to play with. Before her episodes, she was a cute, lively, and well-behaved little sister. He also discovered that she had a childhood trauma involving bird droppings – contact with bird feces would significantly weaken her strength, giving him a way to counter her.

These kinds of evil remnants were heavily influenced by their psychological traumas; if you found something they feared in life, their strength would plummet.

He had even come to treat her like a pet he kept at home.

Not for any other reason.

The main thing was that she was obedient and easy to train. As long as she didn't have an episode, she listened to her brother very well.

He just needed to control her ferocity daily, making it extremely safe.

Others feared me; I was greedy.

Day after day like this, Ning Zheng absorbed the luck from his sister and the surrounding neighbors, becoming a major bully in the village.

Now, villagers often tripped, fell into holes, broke their legs, or even burst their heads when walking on the street.

Thanks to the selfless contributions of the elders and fellow villagers, Ning Zheng had accumulated a considerable fortune, enough to start trying to establish himself in this world.

"Good morning, Uncle Chen. Taking Aunt Li to plant rice again so early today."

At this moment, he carried his copper sword and greeted the stiff, puppet-like villagers as he walked towards the Sword Forging Manor.

Along the way, he picked some wild fruit, wiped it with his sleeve, and ate it for breakfast.

Although he was ostensibly going to work at the sword forge, In reality, he hid in a corner below the mountain, cursing the demons at the Sword Forging Manor.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

Just yesterday, the demons at the Sword Forging Manor had also been "unlucky" and died in infighting.

A total of thirty-two people.

Ning Zheng had been secretly cursing them to fight amongst themselves daily. Due to various coincidental misunderstandings and mutual suspicion, they had finally erupted into conflict after five years of escalating internal strife, and with their "luck," they had all perished together.

The accumulated cost over five years was over 30,000 luck points.

This also made Ning Zheng realize how terrifying his ability was.

He, a mere insignificant blacksmith, could truly ignore realms and cultivation levels and curse powerful cultivators from afar!

"Using the luck collected from the villagers to attack the demons on the mountain is also a way to avenge my fellow villagers and my cheap little sister."

His thoughts returned to the present.

The sun was shining brightly.

Walking up the mountain path for over an hour, bathed in the morning mist, Ning Zheng finally saw the Sword Forging Manor.

He stood at a distance, observing the energy flow, and saw no powerful auras within the manor. It should be safe.

Ning Zheng carried his sword and pushed open the dilapidated main hall, walking around and silently counting the bodies on the ground.

"The Manor Lord is dead."

"The Vice Manor Lord is gone too."

"Yesterday must have been a brutal fight."

This was his first time "killing," and not only did he feel no discomfort, but he also felt a sense of exhilaration, his breathing quickening slightly.

"Finally... all dead!"

"Serves them right, good riddance, good riddance."

Looking at the bloody scene everywhere, Ning Zheng's blood surged, a mix of nervousness and excitement, but not a trace of fear or dread.

Blood stained the ground everywhere, on the eaves, in the dirt. Cultivator corpses twitched like tentacles, buzzing with black flies.

Even though he'd seen it many times, Ning Zheng couldn't help but let out a sigh, "The cultivators in this world are truly tenacious."

Their consciousness was dead, but their physical bodies remained.

It was outrageous.

For the rest of the afternoon, Ning Zheng cleaned up all the twitching corpses, one by one, and put them into a large vat.

[Name: Ning Zheng]
[Race: New Human]
[Spiritual Root: Shadow]
[Realm: Five Bodies Realm, First Stage]
[Luck Status: 15 (All well and safe), Base value is 0, currently adjusted to a daily consumption of 15.]
[Reserve Luck Value: 200983]

Unlike ordinary people.

His daily base luck was 0, his fate was uncertain and full of variables.

So he consumed 15 points every day to ensure he had a certain amount of daily luck, guaranteeing his safety.

Hoo!

He exhaled deeply, gathering all the corpses into the large vat, and struggled to close the stone lid, as if trying to expel all the depression he felt.

"Hoo! Old grudges settled, it's time to use my accumulated luck to seek a heaven-shattering opportunity! Help me set sail, and start everything anew."

His eyes opened again, and Ning Zheng found himself at a gambling table shrouded in thick fog. Bubbles surrounded him, as if containing individual lives.

This was the mysterious luck table where he traded luck with others.

[Luck Value -200000]

He pushed forward fiercely, the vast majority of his round luck chips cascading forward like a mountain.

Going all in is a form of wisdom.

He spoke to the empty seat across the table:

"I need an opportunity, a way to harvest others' luck long-term, stably, and safely."

As the thought settled, the scene across the gambling table slowly blurred.

It seemed to have triggered a chain reaction in a certain aspect of fate, and three great opportunities capable of changing destiny appeared before him, each shining with blinding light.

[1. The prototype of a heavenly disaster technique that transforms one into a Plague God, devouring the luck of all living beings. Traveling through cities, it brings disaster; traveling through water, it causes drought; traveling through forests, it causes them to wither and die.]
[2. A strangely dressed mortal carrying a mysterious Immortal Dao Fruit descends by tearing through the void. This person's daily luck value is a constant 5000, and their luck can be enslaved and consumed.]
[3. An unknown auxiliary server for forging swords, capable of providing diligent and luck-harvesting unlucky little blacksmiths from another world.]