Ominous Thing

The battered pickup truck sped along, stopping in front of an old wooden house.

This must be the old man's residence.

After getting out of the car, he skillfully took out his key, opened the door, and went inside. In the kitchen by the window, he began preparing lunch, appearing just like an ordinary, solitary old man.

Behind the old house, a white-barked beech tree stood verdant and lush, its leaves rustling in the breeze.

The white dove, which had been monitoring the old man, landed on it. Unexpectedly, several crows emerged from the green leaves and let out coarse, hoarse caws at the dove.

One crow, more ferocious than the rest, directly swooped down, intending to peck at the white dove.

Startled, the white dove flapped its wings and flew away.

"Crows?"

This seemingly minor detail made Ning Xiuyuan's eyes narrow. He recalled a legend from his hometown.

With a thought, he unleashed the Heart of the Beast.

After waiting for about ten minutes, he detected a raven nearby. Its feathers were as black as ink, with a blue sheen. (A bird of the Corvidae family, similar to a crow.)

The raven flapped its wings, darted into Ning Xiuyuan's guest room, and then zipped out again in the blink of an eye. Its wingspan, far exceeding that of the white dove, carried it towards the old man's residence.

Before it even got close, Ning Xiuyuan, who was sharing the raven's senses, felt his expression change slightly.

— A faint, yet discernible, stench assaulted the raven's nostrils, stinging its olfactory nerves.

The raven became visibly excited. Without Ning Xiuyuan even needing to control it, it actively rushed towards the old man's house.

While the stench was foul to Ning Xiuyuan, it was like the fragrant aroma of delicious food to the raven.

"Caw—caw—caw—"

The raven's arrival agitated the crows on the beech tree branches, causing them to caw incessantly.

However, faced with a creature larger than them, one that dared to fight eagles, their ferocity towards the white dove vanished.

The raven ignored its squawking, close relatives on the branches. With remarkable boldness, it landed on the ground, cocking its head as it surveyed the wooden outbuilding attached to the house.

— That faint, yet persistent, foul odor, as if from centuries of decay, was emanating from the outbuilding.

It was enough to make one nauseous and send a chill down one's soul!

"Ominous thing, bird of ill omen?"

Muttering the crows' nicknames, Ning Xiuyuan's expression grew increasingly uncertain.

He subconsciously glanced at the backpack placed by the bedside. Its thick polyester fabric concealed the light of the lantern.

When he had returned that morning, he had checked the lamp oil; it should last for about another day.

He still had two bottles of lamp oil with him.

One bottle could last a day and a half, and two bottles theoretically meant three days.

But he had to save half a bottle to guide him out of the darkness known as "the Gate."

Thus, at best, he had three days left.

Of course, all of this was predicated on the assumption that his crossing between worlds was indeed influenced by the lantern.

Three days?

Ning Xiuyuan took a deep breath and began pacing back and forth in the guest room.

His original plan was to use these three days to first identify suitable plagues, then conduct experiments on some of the samples, minimizing their destructive power as much as possible. Finally, just before his departure, he would carry out a large-scale infection.

At that point, he couldn't guarantee how widespread the transmission would be, but infecting this small town should be feasible.

Given the population density here, it would be enough for him to merge with some Plague Disciples, thereby minimizing the risk of loss of control.

However, the sudden appearance of a mysterious observer had instilled a deep sense of urgency in him.

He needed power now!

Unfortunately, the damned mental imprint from the Prefect restricted him from directly unleashing his plague abilities. This was equivalent to sealing his active offensive skills, leaving him in a highly passive state!

"I must accelerate the fusion process!"

With his thoughts settled, several rats scurried out from a corner, gathering around Ning Xiuyuan. After a few seconds, they departed one by one.

— Ning Xiuyuan had enhanced the plague's activity and concentration within these rats.

This gave them extremely strong infectivity for a short period.

Under Ning Xiuyuan's control, these rats made their way towards the main water pipe he had previously scouted.

They encountered no danger along the way. The group of rats reached the pipe and began gnawing at it in relays.

Perhaps due to insufficient tax revenue in the countryside, or because the water pipes had not yet been upgraded, the main water pipes here were primarily made of iron and were heavily corroded. With a few rats working together, they easily gnawed a hole, and then began urinating in relays.

The plague, enhanced by Ning Xiuyuan in their urine, would flow through the extensive water pipe network to every household in the town.

It might even spread to more towns through the water grid.

To be honest, this method of attack would have been completely ineffective in Ning Xiuyuan's hometown.

It could only be effective in this foreign land.

The reason was simple: the people in Ning Xiuyuan's hometown were way too fond of drinking hot water!

This wasn't the first time something like this had happened. Water filters were ineffective, cryptosporidium was rampant, and when the entire city was infected, only the Tang people survived. The reason? They drank boiled water.

Having completed his dissemination task, Ning Xiuyuan quietly waited for the plague to spread while keeping an eye on the old man monitoring him.

At 4 PM, the Plague Disciples began to stir, and the air seemed to carry a strange, sweet scent that was captivating.

At 6 PM, the old man who had been guarding the inn all afternoon drove away.

As expected, another old car appeared not far away. This time, the person inside was much younger, probably in their forties or fifties.

At 7 PM, under the dim twilight, a raven stood on a branch, elegantly preening its feathers.

At its feet, the old man from the pickup truck, who hadn't left his house all afternoon, opened the storage compartment and pushed out a long, soft object wrapped in layers of black garbage bags with a wheelbarrow.

The old man had very little stamina. It took him a long time, and he was panting heavily by the time he managed to load the object into the pickup truck and drive away.

As the car's taillights faded on the winding country farm road, the raven let out two loud caws and took flight, chasing after it.

All that remained at the scene were the buzzing, trembling branches;

and a flock of crows, greedy for the last sweet scent of food, perched on the branches in vain.

The pickup truck drove further and further away.

Ning Xiuyuan's expression grew increasingly grim.

Because in another kilometer, the pickup truck would be beyond the control range of his Heart of the Beast.

Just as he decided to use the birds to disrupt the watcher's line of sight and charge out of the inn to shorten the distance, the pickup truck stopped.

It was a villa built in an open field.

The villa was large, surrounded by beech and plane trees.

When the pickup truck arrived, Ning Xiuyuan was surprised to find a large crowd already gathered outside the villa.

Most of them were over fifty years old, with only a few younger adults.

As the pickup truck arrived, these younger adults eagerly rushed forward and carried the long object wrapped in black garbage bags.

In fact, there wasn't just one long object from the old man's pickup truck at the scene.

Counting carefully, there were four in total.

They were carried above the heads of the crowd, looking like maggots carried by an ant colony.

This group waited outside the villa for about ten minutes. After the last three or five people arrived, a young man stepped forward.

He walked to the front of the crowd and spoke passionately about something.

Midway, he called the old man from the pickup truck and a few others to the front of the crowd to receive applause and cheers.

After the applause, the group collectively recited a hymn.

Yes, it was definitely a hymn.

Ning Xiuyuan, who had become half a charlatan in the Church of Dawn, could tell it was a hymn from the rhythmic intonation, even though he couldn't understand their language.

After the recitation, the group, led by the young man at the front, entered the villa in a long procession.

Ning Xiuyuan's heart stirred, and the raven flapped its wings, flying towards a second-floor window of the villa.

"Bang!"

A startling sound!

The raven crashed headfirst into something.

Glass?

No!

The raven was still a meter away from the window, and besides, this window was open. Where did the glass come from?

As Ning Xiuyuan stared in bewilderment, the raven's shared vision abruptly cut off.

It was dead.