The train rolled onward.
Like a colossal beast crawling across the earth.
Through the window, Zhou Zhi saw the plains outside.
Scattered villages dotted the plains, but now they looked like abandoned settlements.
To the people of Changdu, danger and disease seemed like things of legend.
Before the Longevity Path appeared, there had been quite a few villages outside Changdu.
"Those Longevity Path people really have something wrong with their heads."
The middle-aged man seemed particularly talkative, muttering, "They had perfectly good lives, yet they went and joined a cult."
"Longevity, longevity... what's so great about living forever?"
"I really don't get it."
Changdu's recent disasters had almost all originated from that organization, which had long since vanished from public view.
It was said that a century ago, in its birthplace, the Chengyun Dynasty, it had truly brought about a calamity affecting tens of millions.
Changdu had enjoyed peace for a long time. The occasional terrorist attack of this kind left the Plague Exterminators aboard the train feeling uneasy, which Zhou Zhi found entirely understandable.
After a day of travel.
Night gradually fell.
Zhou Zhi watched the distant white light sink beneath the horizon.
A voice came from the front of the group.
"Form up and rest. Distribute the supplies."
"We'll be spending the night here."
"Follow the previously arranged watch schedule. Split into three groups, with four-hour shifts and overlapping intervals."
One of the four Official-level Plague Exterminators was in charge of the overall operation.
The place where Zhou Zhi and the others stopped was an abandoned village on the plains.
It looked as though many people had lived here not long ago. Some of the buildings appeared fairly refined.
Everyone got off the vehicles, lit their hand lamps, and looked out into the dim night.
The lamplight swayed