Yin-Yang (I)

Following the Far Dry Stream eastward.

Beyond the standard official roads lay vast stretches of fertile plains.

This place had once been home to Chengyun residents, but with the resurgence of pestilence, the small villages that once stood here had long since ceased to be safe.

Along the way, Zhou Zhi had already come across quite a few ruined villages, all bearing signs of refugees fleeing.

From the looks of it, even within Chengyun, anywhere outside the major city clusters—places without Plague Exterminator protection—was no longer safe.

"Hey, there's a bag of moldy flatbread here. The villagers probably left it behind when they evacuated."

Zhou Zhi was now on the most orthodox Plague Exterminator path. Though he had not advanced to become a Human Dragon, he had already transcended the level at which ordinary humans needed to eat.

"And... the pestilences outside are getting more and more rampant."

Outside the house.

A humanoid pestilence was crawling along.

It stood around two meters tall, with all of its brain exposed outside its body, every fold of its nerves clearly visible.

"A [Suppurative Meningitis] pestilence... Spring really is the peak season for epidemic meningitis."

Like a personal secretary at his side, Twenty-Three gave the correct assessment.

The instant the meningitis pestilence saw Zhou Zhi, it lunged at him.

The Pathogenization Index rapidly rose.

But...

Against an ordinary Pathogen-level pestilence like this, Zhou Zhi did not even need to use a Plague Extermination Art. A mere spiritual pressure was enough to eradicate it.

Stepping over the chunks of flesh on the ground, Zhou Zhi ground them beneath his hand.

Pestilences were quasi-living beings formed from aggregated Power of Pestilence, and they often represented a particular tendency toward pathogenization.

If these meningitis pestilences were allowed to continue pathogenizing here, a more powerful and deadlier