Qingshi

Zhou Zhi observed the young girl before him.

She appeared to be around fifteen or sixteen years old.

Her features were exactly as the mysterious message had described: "excessively beautiful." That term was not the slightest bit biased.

However, Zhou Zhi felt an inexplicable sense of dissonance.

But it had nothing to do with him.

Zhou Zhi shifted his gaze away and scanned the floor.

Some medicinal herbs were scattered across the ground; it was evident that someone reckless had ransacked the place, leading to this state.

"A waste of precious things."

Zhou Zhi crouched halfway down and gently touched the herbs.

He only recognized less than half of them, and there were many items he had never seen before at all.

Ideas were already forming in Zhou Zhi's mind.

Behind him.

The girl spoke up, somewhat timidly.

"Sir, h-hello."

"My name is... Xia Yu."

"Zhou Zhi."

Zhou Zhi nodded slightly and shifted his gaze to the tabletop.

Countless disorganized books had been torn or flipped through by someone.

In short, it was a complete mess.

Prevention and Healthcare for Infectious Diseases.

Medical Biology.

And many more.

They were all books about medicine.

It was clear that the original owner of these books had cherished them.

Seeing them in this state now, Zhou Zhi's gaze turned slightly cold.

He looked toward Lei Heng, who was in a sorry state on the other side.

"Sister Xia Yu, this person is scary."

Beside Xia Yu, a young boy of about eleven or twelve looked frightened and took two steps back.

Next to the young boy were nearly ten sickly-looking men and women. They did not look young, and they occasionally let out coughs as they huddled in the corner.

"Hush, Xiao Nan, don't speak nonsense."

Xia Yu hurriedly patted the young boy.

With the thick fog outside the clinic and the Disease Domain spreading, no one knew how many terrifying variants had been born. They could only barely survive inside the clinic using the disinfectant supplies and medicinal herbs left behind by Doctor Bai Xiu.

But as time passed, resources and medicine were gradually running out.

The remaining people gathered here were gradually undergoing pathogenization.

Especially after Doctor Bai Xiu died.

People like Lei Heng had emerged.

And this man, who had suddenly popped out from the underground morgue, looked extremely young, yet possessed a ruthlessness that did not belong to his age.

"What is the situation outside now?"

After a pause, Zhou Zhi spoke.

"Outside... outside has already become a Disease Domain..."

Xiao Nan craned his neck. "There are monsters everywhere."

Disease Domain.

Yet another strange name.

"What is a Disease Domain... never mind."

Zhou Zhi sat cross-legged.

A strange Disease Domain.

Since his resurrection, everything was strange.

The bizarre behavior of wanting to completely excise a lung just because of a cold.

And the so-called Pathogenization Index.

Furthermore, the level of fear that people like Lei Heng had toward diseases was something Zhou Zhi found somewhat incomprehensible.

As long as one is human, one will fall ill. But is illness truly something that should inspire such terror?

What exactly is the imagery behind these so-called "epidemics"?

His current body had three days of vital signs remaining; there was still plenty of time.

Zhou Zhi pondered for a moment.

"Miss Xia Yu, I wish to know about information from further back."

"Regarding why the so-called influenza epidemic appeared here."

"I was kept in the basement as a corpse for too long, so I don't remember some things very clearly."

Xia Yu's lovely face froze, and her pitch-black pupils revealed an expression of disbelief. "Wait."

"What did you just... say?"

Zhou Zhi was taken aback.

"What... influenza..."

Xia Yu looked at Zhou Zhi with some agitation, and even Lei Heng, who was bandaging his wounds in the distance, had his expression change, his face turning stiff.

"Sir, you can identify epidemics?!"

Zhou Zhi tilted his head.

"Are you a Plague Exterminator!!?"

On the other side, Lei Heng was completely panicked.

"A Plague Exterminator?"

Zhou Zhi shook his head. "I am not."

"However, I am very interested. You may continue."

For some reason, Xia Yu felt that this youth, who was likely no older than herself, spoke with an inexplicable authority.

Xia Yu nodded, her beautiful face tilted slightly, and she began to speak.

And Zhou Zhi began to understand this world.

In this world, what people feared most was not beasts, not storms, not earthquakes, but...

Falling ill.

If you caught a disease, you would die.

Every single illness, without exception, led to death.

No one knew when it began, but monsters known as "diseases" appeared across the entire continent. These were not mere conceptualizations of illness, but actual... monsters.

A "cold" meant death.

"Tetanus" meant death.

"A stroke" meant death.

"Common inflammation" also meant death.

Those pathogens spread such calamities.

In an instant, over ninety percent of the human population across the continent perished.

The era of the Great Calamity.

There was no resistance, no defense; everyone infected with a disease would die in the most miserable fashion imaginable.

To think such a thing existed.

Zhou Zhi's expression remained calm.

The place where he had "resurrected" was not his former world.

It was... an entirely new world.

"That was a tragic era for humanity in the face of epidemics."

"Even now, no one can calculate how many people had their lives stolen by disease during the era of the Great Calamity."

Xia Yu's voice was haunting, her articulation clear and pleasant.

When she reached this point in her story, whether it was the sick, Xiao Nan, or Lei Heng's group, all lowered their heads.

"Those dark years lasted until the light of the Lighthouse was ignited by the 'Plague Exterminators'."

"By learning specialized Plague Extermination Arts and mastering the ability to cure the sick and save lives, they paved a path for humanity."

"From then on, humanity had a place of stability."

Hearing this, Lei Heng revealed a mocking smile.

He bared his mouth, revealing yellow-brown teeth.

"Stability?"

"Do you want to take a look and tell me if things are stable right now?"

"Xia Yu, how many living people do you think are left in the entire Blue Stone Town at this moment?"

Xia Yu's face turned pale.

Her slender hands clenched slightly.

Zhou Zhi watched Xia Yu calmly.

As for human stability, looking at the current situation, he couldn't see it at all; to Zhou Zhi, it felt more like the end of the world.

Pingchang Circuit, border region, [Blue Stone Town].

A town so ordinary it couldn't be more so, named after the special [Blue Stone] produced by the surrounding mines.

The entire town had only a few tens of thousands of people, a number insignificant within the entire Pingchang Circuit, failing to even meet the minimum specifications for a city.

Precisely because of this, Blue Stone Town only had a third-rate town hospital, [Bluestone Central Hospital].

"Blue Stone Town is stable and peaceful!"

Xiao Nan shouted loudly, "It... it started on that day..."

One week ago.

An ordinary day.

Blue Stone Town.

The plague broke out from somewhere.

Wherever the plague passed, all things became diseased.

It wasn't just humans who fell ill; livestock, objects, everything that could be seen would undergo pathological transformation!

No one knew where the plague in Blue Stone Town came from; they only knew that it erupted in an instant.

And the outside of Blue Stone Town was impossible to escape.

No one could flee this living hell.

Outside the [Disease Domain], the area was covered in thick fog; merely approaching it caused a large number of ordinary people to mutate.

"The fog is spreading within the Disease Domain."

Xia Yu whispered, "It cuts off everything, and more and more people are dying. If it weren't for Doctor Bai Xiu, we would have been dead long ago."

Zhou Zhi nodded slightly.

This world.

Everything becomes diseased...

It seemed that this was right up his alley.

In an instant, Zhou Zhi's mind stirred.

Inferior Lung Fusion complete.

[Mastered Third-Rate Plague Extermination Art: Extremely Crude Lung Resection (requires Bai Xiu's Scalpel)]

[Mastered Third-Rate Plague Extermination Art: High-Temperature Boiling.]

[Seventy-two hours remaining until vital signs disappear completely.]

[Inferior internal organs cannot sustain life for long.]

One day early