Qingshi

Zhou Zhi studied the girl in front of him.

She looked about fifteen or sixteen.

Her defining feature was exactly as the mysterious message had described: "exceedingly beautiful." The words were not the least bit exaggerated.

Still, Zhou Zhi felt an inexplicable sense of dissonance.

But it had nothing to do with him.

Zhou Zhi looked away and scanned the floor.

Some medicinal herbs lay scattered across it. It was clear that someone reckless had rummaged through the place, leaving it in this state.

"What a waste."

Zhou Zhi crouched down and gently touched the herbs.

He recognized less than half of them. There were many he had never seen before.

Zhou Zhi was already forming a few ideas.

Behind him.

The girl spoke timidly.

"Sir, h-hello."

"My name is... Xia Yu."

"Zhou Zhi."

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

Countless books lay in disarray, some torn apart and others rifled through.

In short, the place was a complete mess.

Prevention and Care of Infectious Diseases.

Medical Biology.

And many more.

They were all books about medicine.

It was clear that their original owner had cherished them.

Now, they had been left in this state. Zhou Zhi's gaze turned slightly cold.

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

"Big Sister Xia Yu, that man is scary."

Beside Xia Yu stood a little boy, perhaps eleven or twelve years old. He looked frightened and took two steps backward.

Near the boy were almost ten sickly-looking men and women, all of them seemingly well into adulthood. They occasionally coughed and huddled in a corner.

"Shh, Xiao Nan. Don't say things like that."

Xia Yu hurriedly patted the little boy.

The fog outside the clinic was thick, and the Disease Domain was spreading. No one knew how many terrifying aberrant creatures had appeared. They could only survive inside the clinic, barely getting by on the disinfectants and medicinal herbs Doctor Bai Xiu had left behind.

But as time passed, their supplies and medicine gradually ran out.

The remaining people gathered here were slowly succumbing to pathogenization.

Especially after Doctor Bai Xiu died.

People like Lei Heng had begun to emerge.

And the man before them, who had suddenly appeared from the morgue beneath the building, seemed very young, but possessed a ruthlessness beyond his years.

"What's the situation outside now?"

After a pause, Zhou Zhi spoke.

"Outside... it's already turned into a Disease Domain..."

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

Disease Domain.

Another strange name.

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

Zhou Zhi sat down cross-legged.

A strange Disease Domain.

Ever since his revival, everything had been strange.

The bizarre practice of completely removing someone's lungs just because they had the flu.

And the so-called Pathogenization Index.

And the fear of disease shown by people like Lei Heng. Zhou Zhi found it difficult to understand.

Everyone got sick. Could getting sick really make people this afraid?

What exactly did the so-called "Pestilence" represent?

This body of his had three days of life signs left. There was still time.

Zhou Zhi thought for a moment.

"Miss Xia Yu, I'd like to know what happened before all this."

"About the so-called influenza pestilence. Why did it appear here?"

"I was mistaken for a corpse and left in the basement for too long. I can't remember some things very well."

Xia Yu's beautiful face froze. Her dark eyes filled with disbelief. "Wait."

"What did you just say?"

Zhou Zhi paused.

"What... influenza..."

Xia Yu stared at Zhou Zhi, visibly agitated. Even Lei Heng, being bandaged in the distance, had turned rigid and pale.

"Sir, you can identify pestilences?!"

Zhou Zhi turned his head.

"Are you a Plague Exterminator?!"

On the other side, Lei Heng was completely flustered.

"A Plague Exterminator?"

Zhou Zhi shook his head. "I'm not."

"But I'm very interested. Go on."

For some reason, Xia Yu felt that this young man, who might not even be older than her, spoke with an inexplicable authority.

Xia Yu nodded, her beautiful face turned slightly to the side, and began to speak.

And Zhou Zhi began to learn about this world.

In this world, people feared nothing more than...

Getting sick.

If you got sick, you died.

Every illness, without exception, was fatal.

At some point, monsters known as "diseases" appeared across the entire continent. They weren't manifestations of illness, but genuine... monsters.

The "common cold" could kill.

"Tetanus" could kill.

"A stroke" could kill.

Even "ordinary inflammation" could kill.

Those pathogens spread such calamity.

In an instant, more than ninety percent of humanity across the continent perished.

The era of the "Great Calamity."

There was no resisting it, no defending against it. Everyone infected by disease died in the most horrific ways.

Could such a thing really happen?

Zhou Zhi's expression remained calm.

The place where he had "revived" wasn't the world he used to know.

It was... an entirely new world.

"That was a miserable era, when humanity faced the Pestilence."

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

Xia Yu's voice was soft and clear.

As she spoke, all the sick people, Xiao Nan, and even Lei Heng and his group lowered their heads.

"That dark age lasted until the Plague Exterminators lit the Lighthouse."

"By learning specialized Plague Extermination Arts, they gained the ability to heal the sick and save lives, and opened a path for humanity."

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

At that, Lei Heng let out a mocking laugh.

His mouth stretched open, revealing yellow-brown teeth.

"Refuge?"

"Why don't you take a look around and see if we're safe now?"

"Xia Yu, how many survivors do you think are left in all of Qingshi Town?"

Xia Yu's face went pale.

Her slender hand clenched slightly.

Zhou Zhi calmly watched Xia Yu.

From the present situation, he couldn't see any sign of humanity living in peace. To him, this place seemed more like the apocalypse.

Pingchang Circuit, the borderlands, and Blue Stone Town.

It was an utterly ordinary town, named after the special "blue stone" mined in the surrounding mountains.

The town had only tens of thousands of residents, an insignificant number across the entire Pingchang Circuit. It wasn't even large enough to meet the minimum requirements for a city.

For that very reason, all Blue Stone Town had was the low-grade Blue Stone Central Hospital.

"Blue Stone Town is peaceful and safe!"

Xiao Nan cried out. "It... it started that day..."

One week ago.

An ordinary day.

Blue Stone Town.

Pestilence broke out somewhere.

Wherever it passed, everything succumbed to pathogenization.

It wasn't only humans who fell ill. Livestock, objects, everything they could see—all of it could undergo pathogenization!

No one knew where the Pestilence in Blue Stone Town had come from. They only knew that it had erupted in an instant.

And there was no escape from the town.

No one could flee this living hell.

Outside the "Disease Domain," everything was covered in thick fog. Just approaching it caused large numbers of ordinary people to mutate.

"The fog is spreading through the Disease Domain."

Xia Yu said quietly, "It's cut off everything, and more and more people are dying. If it weren't for Doctor Bai Xiu, we'd have been dead long ago."

Zhou Zhi nodded slightly.

This world.

Everything could succumb to pathogenization...

It seemed to suit his expertise perfectly.

In an instant, Zhou Zhi's mind stirred.

Inferior Lung Fusion completed.

[Learned low-grade Plague Extermination Art: Extremely Crude Lung Resection (requires Bai Xiu's Scalpel)]

[Learned low-grade Plague Extermination Art: High-Temperature Boiling.]

[Seventy-two hours until all life signs disappear.]

[Inferior internal organs cannot sustain life for long.]

One day ahead.