Plague Exterminator

One week earlier.

Blue Stone Town was peaceful, just as usual.

No one knew that, in just a few minutes, an unprecedented and terrifying pestilence would descend upon Blue Stone Town.

The residents first felt pain and swelling in their throats. In an extremely short time, strange fluids [snot] seeped from all over their skin.

These were the patients with only superficial symptoms.

The residents deeply ravaged by the disease suffered splitting headaches, then their skulls really did burst open, and foul-smelling insects crawled out.

The horrifying sight chilled everyone who remembered it.

In a short time, the people of Blue Stone Town died in droves.

There was no escape. The streets were full of [Pestilence] transformed from the dead.

By all rights, Xia Yu, Xiao Nan, and Lei Heng, a back-alley thug, should not have survived.

But they were lucky. At the edge of Blue Stone Town, they encountered Bai Xiu.

Most people in the area knew him well.

A down-and-out man who called himself a doctor, but had not the slightest skill.

His family had once been wealthy, but had fallen into decline. He was over forty and still unmarried, his parents already dead. He stayed in his so-called [Clinic], tinkering with strange things all day.

The residents around him thought he was an oddball.

To the children, he was the kind-hearted gentleman they liked to tease.

When the pestilence descended like a natural disaster,

"He took us in and used these [medicines] to suppress the transformation."

"He also used some medicinal ingredients to keep the pestilence away."

Xia Yu spoke softly.

"He collected the corpses and removed their lungs to stop them from transforming."

Xia Yu remembered Bai Xiu's hands trembling as he removed the lungs.

"Mr. Bai Xiu wanted all of us to survive."

"But he got infected with the [disease]."

Hearing this, Zhou Zhi had a rough idea of what came next.

He gently raised the scalpel in his hand.

"Then, to keep himself from transforming, he locked himself in with the corpses and performed the removal operation on himself."

Zhou Zhi spoke calmly.

No wonder the door had been locked from the inside, and a dim yellow light still shone in the morgue.

"A man with no talent."

Zhou Zhi had examined the marks left by the removals.

Though they were on corpses, the marks were still very clear.

There was no technique to speak of. Bai Xiu had never performed surgery before.

And his first operation on a person had been the removal surgery he performed on himself.

"At first, I thought he had some real ability."

Lei Heng's face twisted with disdain. "He was just a fraud."

"We've been running around after that good-for-nothing for so long, thinking he was a Plague Exterminator."

Xia Yu's beautiful eyes turned to Lei Heng, incredulous. "But Mr. Bai Xiu saved you!"

"And he was a Plague Exterminator. He knew the Plague Extermination Art!"

Lei Heng and the others laughed. The sinister-looking man leaned toward Xia Yu, but the moment he saw Zhou Zhi's calm gaze, he immediately shrank his neck back. Still, he kept running his mouth, licking his lips. "The Plague Extermination Art?"

"You mean making water warm?"

"That ridiculous thing that makes people laugh their heads off..."

Zhou Zhi's expression did not change, and Lei Heng immediately shut his mouth.

After hearing the story, Zhou Zhi felt a stir in his heart.

So there had been a story like this in that basement.

Zhou Zhi remembered that the mysterious information had assessed Bai Xiu's corpse in the basement as having mastered the low-grade Plague Extermination Art.

Were these the two techniques?

Had he gained the other man's so-called Plague Extermination Art along with his lungs?

Zhou Zhi pondered.

His body showed no adverse reaction. If anything, he felt a strength he could not describe.

[Lung Resection] [High-Temperature Boiling]...

Zhou Zhi lowered his gaze and gently touched the [Worn Scalpel] with his right hand.

Mysterious information surged forth.

The first two sentences were the same.

But the rest had changed slightly.

[Worn Scalpel].

[By ordinary standards, it could hardly be called a scalpel, yet its owner treasured it like a priceless possession].

[It seemed to conceal a power yet unknown].

[Even so, it was still trash].

Zhou Zhi's eyes flickered.

The information that appeared in his mind could change, even when the item was the same.

What principle was it based on?

After thinking for a moment, Zhou Zhi felt a faint fondness for Bai Xiu, whom he had never spoken to.

Back to the present.

Zhou Zhi now understood the situation.

After Bai Xiu's death, the people in the Clinic had split into two groups.

Lei Heng and the others had mostly been local thugs in Blue Stone Town. Seeing Bai Xiu dead, they wanted to divide up the things here and find somewhere else to go.

But that came with a condition.

They had to abandon the sick patients for good.

Lei Heng now saw these elderly, weak, and sick people as dead weight.

That was the main reason for the argument between the two earlier.

This made things quite interesting for Zhou Zhi.

Though the two sides were about equal in number, Lei Heng's group consisted of healthy, able-bodied men.

Xia Yu's group, including Xiao Nan, was made up almost entirely of the elderly, weak, and sick.

"With someone as beautiful as [Xia Yu] in the mix... Lei Heng hasn't tried anything, even in this situation."

"They seem to be wary of something."

"Something about Xia Yu."

Zhou Zhi had already noticed.

Ever since he appeared, Xia Yu's left hand had not once come out of her pocket.

The girl was very nervous, her delicate brows twitching.

Lei Heng clutched the bandage on his hand, just as tense as he watched what lay ahead.

"Boss."

Beside him, the shifty-eyed man supporting Lei Heng lowered his head and whispered, "What do we do now?"

Night was almost falling. They still had a chance if they left during the day, but leaving at night... meant certain death.

That was without even mentioning that he still had designs on Xia Yu.

And there was also this man who had appeared out of nowhere.

Lei Heng clearly remembered that he had helped collect the corpses. At the end, there had been no living person in the morgue besides Bai Xiu.

This guy...

A trace of imperceptible malice flashed through Lei Heng's eyes.

"I think I understand."

Zhou Zhi spoke calmly.

If things really were as Xia Yu had described, then staying here would indeed lead to a dead end.

But Xia Yu was a bleeding heart. If she wanted to leave, she would have to take everyone with her.

Zhou Zhi did not dislike bleeding hearts.

But as a doctor in his past life, he had grown accustomed to life and death.

In their current situation, staying here meant waiting to die.

But Lei Heng...

Zhou Zhi gently twirled the scalpel in his hand.

Lei Heng was no threat at all.

Thugs of this caliber would not even have been qualified to meet Zhou Zhi in his past life.

Now, Zhou Zhi wanted to know...

What exactly was the so-called pestilence?

Xia Yu and Lei Heng knew little about the world outside. All they ever said was "monsters" and "pestilence."

To fully understand a disease, nothing beat observing it firsthand in the field.

"A world... full of disease."

"How interesting."

Zhou Zhi looked at the two of them.

"I heard the argument between you two just now."

"I understand your disagreement."

Zhou Zhi's gaze shifted.

"I have a way to resolve it."

Before Xia Yu could speak, Lei Heng blurted out, "How could that be possible!"

Zhou Zhi shook his head. "It's simple."

"You want to leave here."

"She doesn't want to abandon anyone, so all we have to do is leave together."

At those words, Lei Heng looked as if a lump of phlegm had been shoved down his throat.

Xia Yu wanted to say something.

What a joke.

Either of their plans could let them survive.

But taking the elderly, weak, and sick with them as they left the Clinic would be the surest way to get themselves killed.

If Zhou Zhi's earlier show of force had not still been fresh in his mind, Lei Heng would have cursed him to his face.

"Xiao Yu, don't worry about us..."

The old man behind them stooped over and coughed twice.

"Uncle Liang!"

"No, we can't."

Xia Yu hurriedly helped the old man up with Xiao Nan.

Zhou Zhi remained calm.

He spoke slowly.

"It can be done."

"Because I am... a Plague Exterminator."