Loss of Control

The raven is dead?

Ning Xiuyuan's eyes snapped open, disbelief filling his dark pupils!

The raven's first sensation was like it had crashed into something?

But through his spirituality-enhanced Sparrow's Eye, he clearly saw the raven explode into a mist of blood when it was one meter away from the villa, apparently hit by a mysterious attack.

A firearm?

Yet he hadn't heard any gunshot.

Even a silenced pistol made a sound, especially at such close range. The birds he controlled couldn't possibly not hear it.

Or perhaps, this place involved mystical powers?

A thought flickered through Ning Xiuyuan's mind, and he dispatched another sparrow.

"Bang!"

Another mist of blood burst open, one meter from the window.

Ning Xiuyuan's expression turned grim.

A group suspected of being a cult gathering;

A villa protected by mystical powers.

The critical point was, they had also sent people to watch him?

What to do?

Leave?

No!

They had been watching him for a day without making a move, which meant they were still hesitant about something. If he really left the inn, he would be putting himself in danger.

Most importantly, his plague had already spread in the small town. If he left now, what if it got out of control?

"If only I could control people, especially those cultists, and sneak in to take a look!"

"How does the bird-beaked怪人 control corpses?"

Ning Xiuyuan fell into deep thought. As his thoughts flowed, a sudden inspiration struck him.

"Wait, Plague Disciples can't control corpses, so why can't Heart of the Beast control people?"

"Humans are animals too, aren't they?"

"If not, then what's the difference between humans and beasts?"

"Intelligence?"

"If I erase a person's intelligence, can I turn them into a beast and, using Heart of the Beast, control them indirectly?"

At this thought, Ning Xiuyuan's eyes lit up.

The Plague Disciple seemed to sense its master's cruel idea, becoming more active and even starting to integrate into Ning Xiuyuan's body.

"So, who should I choose?"

A bat hanging upside down on a streetlight let out a squeak. The old car under the streetlight was outlined in the bat's world of thought.

"No, the Prefect's mental imprint limits my ability to spread actively. To spread the plague, I must indirectly use animals! Therefore, infecting the watchers downstairs might not be easy and would be more likely to alert them."

Ning Xiuyuan shook his head, dismissing the idea of infecting the watchers downstairs.

"I've got it!"

Thinking of the watchers, Ning Xiuyuan's gaze suddenly sharpened. He had found his target.

As the night deepened, the lamplight flickered.

The middle-aged man inside the old car still stared intently at the inn's entrance.

He had great patience, or rather, most elderly people had great patience. Being physically inconvenienced forced them to be patient.

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

A burst of fierce dog barking suddenly came from a distance, growing closer.

The middle-aged man initially paid no mind. Then, the rear car door was suddenly slammed. He instinctively looked back but saw nothing.

However, he heard the increasingly fierce sounds of two wild dogs fighting echoing by the rear of his car.

"Fuck!"

The middle-aged man cursed under his breath and turned back to continue monitoring the inn's entrance.

He didn't know that in the moment he turned his head, his surveillance target had already vanished.

"Buzzzzzz—"

Just then, his phone suddenly vibrated.

"Hello?"

"Stop staring at that yellow-skinned demon. God has already descended with divine punishment to punish the people of this blasphemous town. Hurry to the hospital, we have plenty of sacrifices now."

"Really?" The middle-aged man's eyes suddenly blazed with fervent light.

"God says to be sincere with brothers and sisters."

"Alright, alright, I'm coming right now!"

The middle-aged man's aged heart immediately began to pound. He excitedly twisted the car key, starting the engine.

Like his heart, the old turbine, aged and worn, let out a groan of being overburdened. It carried its heavy shell and sped towards the hospital.

"Dada-da!"

Dressed in a black hoodie, carrying a backpack, wearing goggles and a mask, Ning Xiuyuan moved with extreme speed, sticking to the shadows of the moon as he traversed the darkness.

As the plague spread through the town via the tap water, the Plague Disciple gradually melted into his body like old rock candy, emitting a captivating sweetness.

Powers like Heart of the Beast, Disease Deceiver, Plague Control... and others were all strengthening along with it.

This feeling was intoxicating, and it invigorated him even more!

Moving at breakneck speed, Ning Xiuyuan arrived at the edge of town and gently pushed open the door of a residential house.

The house was pitch black inside, with only two or three night-lights emitting a faint glow, illuminating countless pairs of bright little eyes in the corners of the house.

Ning Xiuyuan stepped onto the creaking wooden stairs and went up to the second floor.

Pushing open the bedroom door, he was hit by a nauseatingly strong "old person smell"—decaying, foul, and unclean.

Ning Xiuyuan, still wearing his mask, walked in expressionlessly.

In the messy room, an old man lay on a couch, convulsing and twitching all over, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

This was none other than the elder who had replaced Old Man Pika and had been monitoring Ning Xiuyuan all afternoon.

At this moment, he had contracted a fierce illness and was on his last breath.

The source of the disease was a rat that had crawled onto his face and urinated on him while he slept.

Ning Xiuyuan watched silently, his eyes flickering with hesitation. After a while, he extended a finger and gently touched the old man.

In an instant, the old man, like a fish out of water, suddenly opened his mouth and took a deep breath. His heavy eyelids piled up, revealing cloudy eyes.

Ning Xiuyuan saw himself!

Through the old man's eyes.

Success!

Ning Xiuyuan's scalp suddenly tingled.

Was this the Heart of the Beast, or the Heart of the Brute?

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

In a decaying bedroom, two dirty hearts beat in unison, playing a beastly hymn!

"I'm sorry, but you brought this upon yourself."

Ning Xiuyuan paused for a moment before speaking, his voice strange yet practiced. It wasn't his native tongue, nor was it the Divine Word, but the local language, Romanese.

—The Heart of the Beast inherently possesses the ability to communicate with beasts!

The old man on the couch remained silent.

—Ning Xiuyuan wasn't so perverted as to talk to himself to alleviate a shred of guilt.

'Disease Deception...'

Ning Xiuyuan exhaled and reached out, touching the... puppet again.

Unexpectedly, the old man's hair suddenly turned black; his wrinkled, old face also became taut; his dry, withered skin was filled with blood and regained its elasticity.

The old man had transformed into a robust man in his forties in the blink of an eye!

Ning Xiuyuan's eyes widened in shock.

He had only intended to restore the puppet's physical condition to its peak for easier control.

But he hadn't expected the result to be so outstanding!

Had his Disease Deceiver power grown stronger?

No!

It was the Plague Disciple fusing with him again, reaching a fusion level of one-fifth.

It was this degree of fusion that was positively stimulating his Disease Deceiver power, allowing it to now deceive—aging!

The question was, how did the Plague Disciple suddenly fuse to one-fifth?

Ning Xiuyuan realized something, and the color drained from his face.

Within him, the Plague Disciple was cheering wildly, because people in this town were constantly dying from the plague.

It was out of control.

The plague was out of control.