Meat Toxin

Inside the entire courtyard.

A rotten stench spread through the air.

Completely different from the mucus from before.

"What's going on... What happened now?"

Xiao Nan's body trembled.

They had just survived the threat of the Mucus Men and finally found food and shelter.

What had happened now?

Lei Heng looked utterly panicked. "There's a monster!!"

"A monster!"

"It's meat!!!"

"Meat that eats people!"

Xia Yu and the others immediately all looked toward Zhou Zhi.

They had rested for a while, and the sun was about to set. If they fled now, it would be difficult to find another safe place in a short time.

After all, Mucus Men were everywhere outside. Once night fell, even more terrifying Disease Seeds would appear.

"Calm down. What happened?"

Following the direction, Zhou Zhi already had a rough idea of what was going on.

It was the direction from which the smell of rotten flesh had come earlier.

So there really was something wrong.

At that moment, the corner of Zhou Zhi's eye settled on Uncle Liang behind him.

When Lei Heng had said "meat" just now, the old man had moved, and an odd change had come over his expression.

"In... in that room over there."

"There's a piece of meat that eats people!"

"A-Gou is being eaten by that meat!"

Lei Heng gasped for breath.

Not far away.

A shrill scream tore through the sky.

A heavy rotten stench swirled through the air.

"It's A-Gou's voice!"

The girl looked anxiously at Zhou Zhi.

Though A-Gou was Lei Heng's lackey, they had spent so many days together. She still hoped they could save whoever they could.

"Meat!"

"It really is my meat!"

At that moment, Uncle Liang, whom Zhou Zhi had been watching all along, finally mutated.

In his pupils, the whites of his eyes were gradually stained by twisted tentacles.

"Get away!"

"My meat!"

The old man, who had looked sickly before, was now remarkably agile, as though his previous Pestilence had vanished completely.

"Uncle Liang!"

Xia Yu called out.

But Uncle Liang ignored her.

He sprinted wildly toward the source of the rotten stench.

"What... what is going on?!"

Xiao Nan was completely dumbfounded.

"What exactly is this Uncle Liang?"

Zhou Zhi stood to one side and did not head toward the source of the stench.

He knew to seek fortune and avoid disaster. Zhou Zhi did not think that mastering one or two so-called Plague Extermination Arts in this world meant he could rest easy.

"Tell me."

The man's voice sounded beside Xiao Nan's ear.

Xiao Nan was nearly frightened to tears. "I... I... let me think..."

"Uncle Liang's family ran a shop, but only he showed himself often."

"Uncle Liang had a child late in life."

"We did talk about the fact that he had a child at sixty."

"His wife basically never appeared, and there was also Brother Jie..."

"Right... Brother Jie was very quiet. He was strong, but he rarely spoke."

Xiao Nan recalled those memories that had once seemed unimportant.

Countless details he had never noticed before surged into his mind.

"Brother Jie always had a lot of wounds on his body."

Zhou Zhi's steady gaze remained fixed on Xiao Nan, forcing him to remember.

What kind of person had Uncle Liang truly been in Blue Stone Town?

In the distance.

The rotten stench grew stronger and stronger.

"Lei Heng."

There was little emotion in Zhou Zhi's voice as he asked, "What did you find?"

Lei Heng's expression stiffened.

He hesitated for a second.

Then he gave in.

Lei Heng took a yellowed sheet of letter paper from his pocket.

Zhou Zhi accepted it and looked it over.

"[Where flesh and blood herald life, there is Taisui.]"

"[Take wood from the Five Elements, and one may prolong one's years.]"

The strange handwriting was crooked and uneven.

Hm?

Zhou Zhi's expression shifted slightly.

Zhou Zhi had some recollection of something like Taisui.

Meat ling resembled flesh.

It clung to large stones, with a head and tail, and was a living thing. The red kind resembled coral, while the white kind resembled Fat...

He had learned about it while researching projects at the Medical Academy.

This world of disease had such a thing too?

And also...

The Five Elements?

"The Five Elements, Taisui... I think I've heard of those names."

Seeing Zhou Zhi's confusion, Xia Yu suddenly spoke.

Zhou Zhi looked at Xia Yu.

The rotten stench in the distance was growing ever thicker, and time was tight, so Xia Yu kept it brief.

"I heard a teacher mention them at school."

"Across the entire continent, including Xuanyuan, there are six countries in total."

"At the easternmost edge of the continent is a dynasty called Chengyun. Names like Taisui and the Five Elements do fit the traditions there."

Zhou Zhi's mental database updated.

At that moment.

Information flowed.

[The Flesh-Planting Ritual.]

[Wood-attribute ritual.]

[A fragment of some useless ritual from the Chengyun Dynasty.]

[The flesh of years may be nourished with the blood of relatives.]

[Consume it, and one may attain Longevity.]

[...]

Uncle Liang.

His wife and son.

Returning to the shop.

Zhou Zhi's face turned cold.

Such a crude ritual.

Would anyone truly carry it out?

The answer was—

Yes.

A howling sound came from within.

Chaotic footsteps.

Accompanied by a pair of scarlet eyes.

The old man slowly emerged.

On his back, the young A-Gou wore a face of terror, long since devoid of life.

His shoulder and the old man's withered hand were fused together by a mass of rotten flesh.

More precisely, they were stuck together by nerves extending from within the rotten flesh.

The old man's patient gown had fallen away, exposing his emaciated body before everyone.

"Uncle... Uncle Liang..."

Xia Yu spoke softly.

"Idiot!"

"Can't you see?"

"He's already pathogenized!"

Lei Heng shouted sharply.

"I had... forgotten..."

Uncle Liang seemed completely unconcerned by the nerves emerging one after another from the flesh of his own body. He merely convulsed, then walked forward. "My Taisui... my Taisui is there..."

"If I eat it, I can prolong my life... and be free of Pestilence..."

As he spoke.

The old man lifted the rotten, stinking mass above his head.

His yellow teeth showed.

His entire face had become utterly diseased.

"[Taisui]!!!"

Before everyone's eyes, Uncle Liang opened his mouth.

More precisely, he used his left hand to tear his mouth open far beyond the limits of what was normal.

He swallowed it!!

Flesh fused together!

Along with A-Gou's corpse, it was wrapped in nerves.

It formed a body two or three times larger than that of an ordinary person.

Roar!!

Uncle Liang's head thrust forward.

The aura of rotten flesh he emitted finally reached its peak.

"Uncle Liang... Un... cle Liang..."

Xiao Nan staggered to the ground, then hurriedly scrambled back up.

Information flowed.

[Specialized Disease Seed: Liang Xiao [Botulism].]

[Pathogenization Index: 87.9%.]

[Source of pathogenization: Rotten Flesh Botulism.]

[Pathogenization Rank: Primary Pathogen.]

[A twisted patriarch, an absolute authority.]

[An abuser who craved Longevity, a sanctimonious practitioner of rituals.]

[Fear of Pestilence had made him embrace Pestilence.]

["This is Taisui! This is Taisui!" it said.]

"Whether Taisui is actually useful is hard to say."

Zhou Zhi gripped his scalpel in his right hand.

"But that thing definitely isn't [Taisui]."

"It's just a lump of rotten flesh."