Out of Control

A raven... was dead?

Ning Xiuyuan abruptly opened his eyes, disbelief filling his dark pupils!

The raven's first sensation seemed to be that it had crashed into something?

But through the spiritually enhanced Sparrow's Eye, he had clearly seen the raven explode into a cloud of blood mist when it flew within a meter of the villa, apparently struck by a mysterious attack.

A firearm?

Yet he had not heard any gunshot at all.

Even a silenced pistol made a sound, especially at such close range. There was no way the bird he controlled could have failed to hear it.

Or was this place connected to some mysterious power?

Ning Xiuyuan's heart stirred, and he sent another sparrow flying over.

Bang!

Another cloud of blood mist exploded a meter from the window.

Ning Xiuyuan's expression suddenly darkened.

A group that appeared to be holding a cult gathering;

A villa protected by mysterious power.

Most importantly, they had sent someone to keep an eye on him?

What should he do?

Leave?

No!

They had watched him for an entire day without making a move, which meant they were still wary of something. If he truly left the inn, he might instead place himself in danger.

Most importantly, his plague had already begun spreading through the town. What if he left now and it got out of control?

"If only I could control people—especially those cultists—and send someone inside to take a look!"

"How exactly does the Bird-beaked Monster control corpses?"

Ning Xiuyuan sank into thought. As his thoughts turned, inspiration suddenly struck him.

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

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

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

"Intelligence?"

"If I erased someone's intelligence, could I turn them into a beast, then use the Heart of the Beast to control them indirectly?"

At that thought, Ning Xiuyuan's eyes suddenly lit up.

The Plague Disciple seemed to sense its master's cruel idea and grew even more active, even beginning to merge into Ning Xiuyuan's body of its own accord.

"Then who should I choose?"

A bat hanging upside down from a streetlamp let out a squeak. Beneath the streetlamp, the vintage car took shape in the bat's world of thought.

"No. The imprint of God said has restricted my ability to spread it actively. To spread the plague, I have to do it indirectly through animals! So infecting him with an animal probably won't be easy, and might alert them instead."

Ning Xiuyuan shook his head, rejecting the idea of infecting the watcher downstairs.

"I've got it!"

At the thought of the watcher, Ning Xiuyuan's gaze suddenly sharpened. He had found his target.

The night deepened, and the lamplight blurred.

Inside the vintage car, the middle-aged man continued staring intently at the inn entrance.

He had excellent patience—or rather, most elderly people had excellent patience. With their hands and feet no longer nimble, they were forced to be patient.

"Woof! Woof! Woof!"

A fierce chorus of dogs snarling and biting suddenly approached from afar.

The middle-aged man paid it no attention. But then the rear car door was suddenly struck with a clang. He instinctively turned around, only to see nothing.

Yet the increasingly ferocious sounds of two stray dogs fighting echoed beside the rear of the car.

"Fuck!"

The middle-aged man cursed under his breath and turned back to continue watching the inn.

He did not know that in the instant he turned his head, his target had already disappeared.

"Bzzzz—"

Just then, his phone suddenly began to vibrate.

"Hello?"

"Stop watching that yellow-skinned demon. God has already brought down divine punishment, punishing the people of this godless town. Come to the hospital quickly. We already have enough sacrifices."

"Really?" A feverish light suddenly blazed in the middle-aged man's eyes.

"God said that brothers and sisters must treat each other sincerely."

"Good, good, good. I'm coming right now!"

The middle-aged man's aged heart began pounding. Excited, he twisted the key and started the car.

The old turbine, as aged as his heart, let out an overburdened roar. Carrying its heavy frame, it sped toward the hospital.

Tap, tap, tap!

Wearing a tight black hoodie, carrying a backpack, sporting goggles, and covering his face with a mask, Ning Xiuyuan moved swiftly through the darkness, hugging the shadows cast by the moon.

As the plague spread through the town via the tap water, the Plague Disciple seemed like a piece of aged rock candy gradually melting and merging into his body, releasing an intoxicating sweetness.

The Heart of the Beast, Disease Deceiver, Plague Control, and a series of other powers all grew stronger with it.

The sensation was intoxicating—and it filled him with even greater strength!

Moving at top speed, Ning Xiuyuan arrived at the edge of town and gently pushed open the door of a residence.

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

Ning Xiuyuan climbed the creaking wooden stairs to the second floor.

When he pushed open the bedroom door, a nauseatingly strong "old person smell" washed over him—decay, stench, and filth.

Wearing his mask, Ning Xiuyuan entered without expression.

In the disordered room, an old man lay on a soft couch, his whole body convulsing as fine beads of cold sweat covered his forehead.

He was none other than the old man who had taken over for the elderly man with the Peacemaker and watched Ning Xiuyuan all afternoon.

By then, he had already been stricken with a virulent illness and had little time left to live.

The Source of Disease was a rat that had climbed onto his face and urinated on him while he slept.

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

In an instant, the old man opened his mouth like a fish thrown onto land and sucked in a deep breath. His heavy eye bags bunched up, revealing murky eyes.

Ning Xiuyuan saw himself!

Through human eyes.

It had worked!

Yet Ning Xiuyuan's scalp suddenly prickled.

Was this the Heart of the Beast—or the Heart of the Beastly?

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

In the decaying bedroom, two filthy hearts beat in perfect rhythm, playing a hymn to the beasts!

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

After a brief silence, Ning Xiuyuan apologized. His voice was strange yet practiced. It was neither his mother tongue nor God said—it was unmistakably the local language, Romanese.

—The Heart of the Beast was born with the ability to communicate with beasts!

The old man on the couch remained silent.

—Ning Xiuyuan was not yet twisted enough to ask and answer his own questions just to soothe the slightest trace of guilt.

Disease Deceiver...

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

Unexpectedly, the old man's hair suddenly turned black. His orange-peel-like old face abruptly tightened, while his dry, shriveled skin filled with vitality, regaining its elasticity.

In the blink of an eye, the old man had transformed into a robust forty-year-old man!

Ning Xiuyuan stared wide-eyed in shock.

He had only wanted to restore the puppet's physical condition as close to its peak as possible, making it easier to control.

He had not expected the result to be so astonishing!

Had the power of his Disease Deceiver grown stronger?

No!

The Plague Disciple had merged with him again, and the degree of fusion had astonishingly reached one-fifth.

This degree of fusion had stimulated and strengthened his Disease Deceiver power, allowing it to deceive—even aging!

But why had the Plague Disciple suddenly fused to one-fifth?

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

Inside his body, 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.