Chapter 253: Return to the Plague Zone

Mou Laoyao seemed to have forgotten Zhou You, enthusiastically inviting him to drink wedding wine.

He was at times dazed, at times manic, and soon abandoned Zhou You and the others, disappearing into the end of the street while laughing and crying in a fit of madness.

Zhou You watched his retreating back, pondering a sentence Mou Laoyao had mentioned inadvertently just now.

"The bride's relatives have come too, let's all join in the fun!"

The woman transformed by the charm creature had fabricated a background of having lost both parents and being all alone; how could she have any relatives? A madman would not lie; since he said so, he must have seen something related to the charm creature that made him mistake it for "relatives."

Thinking of this, Zhou You narrowed his eyes; he had a lead.

Could it be that Mou Laoyao had seen the charm creature near the plague zone?

To have seen a charm creature and still be alive—this old man's life is truly tough.

"Young Mistress, I will see you all out first!"

Zhou You took Du Hua, You Xing, and Du He back the way they came, and within less than three hours, they had reached the checkpoint.

The Apprentices of the Panshi Martial Arts Hall were still guarding the pass; it was not yet time for the shift change.

"Doctor Hua, you're out?"

The Qi and Blood Disciple of the Panshi Martial Arts Hall greeted Hua Youxing enthusiastically; learning boxing inevitably led to bumps and bruises, so both sides were quite familiar.

Hua Youxing responded with a smile, "I will remember this favor today."

The other party was guarding this checkpoint under military orders, and letting people through secretly carried a certain amount of risk.

The Qi and Blood Disciple watched their group leave and suddenly frowned; it seemed the relationship between Zhou You and Doctor Hua was not ordinary!

Impressive, even the proud and aloof Doctor Hua has fallen for him!

"Master Zhou, after today, Du He and I will be moving to Fucheng."

After walking a distance where the surroundings were quiet and deserted, Hua Youxing spoke to Zhou You.

"Gongliang City is afraid it will follow in the footsteps of Su Cheng; we cannot stay here any longer, you should find a way to move away!"

"Just now in the plague zone, I collected high concentrations of pathogenic Qi; the plague can no longer be extinguished on its own."

"Once the plague breaks out, even martial artists will find it hard to be spared; it is extremely dangerous!"

"Every plague is inevitably followed by famine, and what follows famine is war and military disaster."

"Gongliang City is finished."

These top-secret details coming from Hua Youxing's mouth carried high credibility.

The Medicine King Sect she belonged to was proficient in plague prevention and control, and even the entire Xingren Tang had moved away; it was clear that the ship of Gongliang City was about to sink.

Zhou You recalled the rumors he had heard recently.

Although the Inner City was safe and sound, many families had been moving away one after another, and a large number of houses had been left vacant.

These families, who were either rich or noble, must have received the news in advance and started jumping ship to save themselves.

Wang Jianxiong had taken precautions several years ago, sending Lu Zhigang to Fucheng to purchase property and prepare an escape route in advance.

"Zhou You, why don't you come with me!"

Before parting, Hua Youxing truly could not bear to let go and boldly issued an invitation.

Du He stood to the side with her mouth wide open; Young Mistress, this is too blatant, a woman should be reserved! "Many thanks, Young Mistress."

Zhou You smiled gently, "When I have time in the future, I will definitely go to Fucheng to find you."

Even after parting for most of the day, Hua Youxing still felt her face burning; noticing Du He's strange gaze, she couldn't help but ask, "Did I look very disheveled just now?"

"Not at all, Young Mistress, I didn't see anything."

Du He puffed out her chest, her expression as serious as a soldier accepting a general's inspection.

It was the same checkpoint, and it was already time for the shift change.

"It's you?"

The group of students from the Panshi Martial Arts Hall saw that the martial artists changing shifts were wearing the training uniforms of the Tiefeng Martial Arts Hall.

If it were any other martial arts hall, it would be fine, but they hadn't expected it to be the Tiefeng Martial Arts Hall; strictly speaking, they could not be considered "one of our own."

The leading Qi and Blood Disciple of the Tiefeng Martial Arts Hall was also surnamed Bao, and he retorted unpleasantly, "Why can't it be us?"

Seeing that a conflict was about to break out...

Whoosh! A faint sound of breaking air rang out, and a black shadow swept over everyone's heads, looking like a large bird, or perhaps a bat emerging at night; it was so light and thin that one look made one feel as if they were about to float away. A sharp-eyed Mastiff boxing Apprentice exclaimed, "Is that a person?"

Mastiff boxing had the Clear Eye Technique, which was very dependent on talent; among a thousand people, there might not be one who could master it, yet this Apprentice was a lucky one who had actually stumbled into mastering it.

He could thread a needle with a hair-thin thread in the pitch-black night without missing a fraction.

Others only saw a black shadow, but he clearly captured that it was a person with extremely high Lightness Skill flying past at high speed.

That speed?

The Mastiff boxing Apprentice whispered to the disciple surnamed Bao, "About the same as the Hall Master?"

The Hall Master was Bao Tiefeng, a martial master of true gold and silver.

Although the voice was low, the scene was quiet, and everyone heard it clearly.

What, the person who just broke in was a martial master?

The disciple surnamed Bao glared at him, "Quiet, don't speak nonsense, what did you see?"

"It was clearly..."

The Mastiff boxing Apprentice still wanted to argue, but noticing the gloating eyes of the Panshi Martial Arts Hall group, he suddenly realized that the shift had changed.

Now that the Tiefeng Martial Arts Hall was guarding the checkpoint, if a mysterious martial master broke into the plague zone, the responsibility would fall on them.

Even the Hall Master could not cover for this matter.

"... It was my eyes playing tricks on me, it was just an ordinary bird."

The black shadow was naturally not a bird, but Zhou You, who had snuck into the plague zone.

After sending off Hua Youxing and Du He, he turned around, wiped his face to become Lu Zhigang, and used his Lightness Skill to cross the checkpoint.

The defensive line around the Plague zone was a wall of bronze and iron to ordinary people, but before him, it was merely a fence made of paper.

He leaped over it, leaving the infighting of the two martial arts halls behind him, as the interface prompts echoed in his ears.

"Trial Project (Three-Star Level): Rescue people and leave the Plague zone completed, Experience Points +1500."

"Trial Project (Four-Star Level): Slay the Plague Ghost, in progress."

"Trial Project (Three-Star Level): Slay 10 Transformation Ghouls, progress 9/10."

Excellent; entering the Plague zone a second time was not to save people, but to slay Plague Ghosts and ghouls.

Ghouls are different from the living; the large-scale spread of the Plague and the extinction of humanity are actually good things for ghouls.

The Plague zone had become a paradise for ghouls to run rampant, appearing openly to eat people at will.

Perhaps influenced by their usual habits, these ghouls avoided gathered crowds and specifically targeted lone individuals.

Just now, Zhou You had met up with Hua Youxing and had no chance to run into any ghouls.

Now that he had entered the Plague zone alone, the situation was completely different.

……

"Brother, come over here."

A person in the corner of the wall beckoned to Zhou You, "I have life-saving medicine here, as well as rice, vegetables, and meat."

Food to satisfy hunger and medicine to treat illness—in a Plague zone where supplies were scarce, these were good things that even real gold and silver could not buy.

He beckoned with a sincere expression, his upper body leaning out of the doorway, while everything below his waist remained hidden in the darkness behind the door.

"A mere Void Ghoul."

Zhou You flicked his sleeve, a white shadow flashed, and in a single back-and-forth motion, he smashed this person's skull to pieces.

The true form of the white shadow was, shockingly, a flying hammer made from a Martial Master Skull, with a chain woven from hair and tendons, allowing it to be retracted and deployed at will.

Having advanced to the late stage of Blood Qi, Zhou You faced no obstacles in practicing weapons; he had both the hardware and the software.

This method of wielding the Tiger Head Hammer was not top-tier in the hands of Wang Jianxiong, but for Zhou You, it was incredibly compatible.

With a casual move, he instantly killed the Void Ghoul that was disguising itself to lure passersby.

A gust of wind blew open the ajar door, revealing a pile of white bones in the shadows, stacked high and messy like a pile of firewood.

The lower half of the dead Void Ghoul's human skin had long since burst open; it was because it had eaten too much human flesh, causing its stomach to tear through the disguise of the human skin, so it simply appeared with only its upper body to deceive people.

(End of chapter)