86: Chapter 86: Practice Hygiene, Be Polite, and Eliminate "Patient Zero"
The back mountain of the Heavenly River Sword Sect, at the edge of the Forbidden Ground.
Compared to the bustling "Administrative Hall" on the front mountain, it was eerily quiet here. Chilly winds gusted, and withered leaves swirled.
"Jie jie jie..." A grating, eerie laugh echoed from the shadows. Wan Guku, the Ghost King of the Nether Sect, clad in a black robe stitched from countless human skins and treading on green flames, hovered in mid-air. Behind him, ten Ghost Generals—three zhang tall with green faces and protruding fangs—were greedily sniffing the lingering scent of living beings in the air.
"That brute Butcher Xiao only knows how to charge head-on." Wan Guku watched the Black-Armored Army in the distance still filling out forms, his eyes full of mockery. "True hunters always take the back path."
His gaze fell upon the seemingly ordinary vegetable garden. "Intelligence says the Scripture Pavilion is right behind this. As long as we cross this vegetable patch, kill that so-called 'Saint,' and seize his Luck, my Nether Sect will be able to rule the Southern Wilderness!"
"Minions, move out!" Wan Guku waved his hand. "Remember, capture that Administrator alive. I want to refine him into the strongest Corpse Puppet!"
"Roar—!!" The ten Ghost Generals let out earth-shaking roars, engulfed in overwhelming Corpse Qi. Like ten heavy tanks, they ferociously crushed toward the... vegetable patch planted with bok choy and radishes.
However, at the very moment a Ghost General's foot was about to crush the first bok choy...
Pshhh—
A soft sound, like a spray can being pressed.
A strong, pungent, yet reassuring chemical scent suddenly filled the air. It was—the smell of 84 Disinfectant.
[Warning! High-risk biochemical pollution source detected.] [Initiating Level 1 Epidemic Prevention Protocol.] [Epidemic Prevention Rule #1: Please disinfect upon entry.]
That cold mechanical voice sounded again, but this time it carried the gravitas of someone wearing a white lab coat.
In the next instant, countless streams of white mist suddenly sprayed from the fence posts around the vegetable garden. This mist was neither Spiritual Qi nor poisonous gas, but something Li Mo had manifested through rules—[Conceptual Grade Potent Sterilizing Spray].
"What is this?!" One Ghost General took the brunt of it, sprayed directly by the white mist. Ordinarily, Ghost Generals possessed indestructible bodies that ordinary Flying Swords couldn't even scratch. But the moment it touched this white mist, its proud "Corpse Malevolent Qi" actually began to sizzle and pop like snow meeting boiling oil.
"Aaaagh! It's so hot! So clean! I can't take it anymore!" The Ghost General screamed. Its originally black, greasy body, entwined with countless vengeful souls, began to "purify" rapidly. The black gas dissipated, the rotting flesh peeled away, and finally, it was forcibly decomposed into the purest... organic fertilizer, sprinkled over the roots of the bok choy.
"Old Third!" Wan Guku turned pale with fright. "This white mist can dissolve Corpse Qi?! Quick! Hold your breath! This is a high-level purification Spell of the Righteous Path!"
However, Li Mo sat in the Scripture Pavilion, watching this scene and shaking his head helplessly. "Purification Spell? You're overthinking it. This is called common hygiene." He flipped open the "Foundations of Virology" in his hand and pointed to a line: "Premise: The essence of zombies, corpses, and ghosts is a combination of dead cells and an unknown virus (Corpse Qi)." "Conclusion: Once the virus is killed, the host naturally disintegrates."
Thus, he picked up his pen and added a line to the page: [Epidemic Prevention Rule #2: Say no to bushmeat; everyone is responsible.]
Buzz— The gravity field on the back mountain suddenly changed. An invisible "Quarantine Rule" descended.
The remaining nine Ghost Generals discovered to their horror that they couldn't move. Sets of white, tightly sealed... fully enclosed biochemical hazmat suits appeared out of thin air on their bodies. The zippers zipped up automatically, sealing their world-shaking Corpse Qi tightly inside.
"Mmph! Mmph-mmph!" The Ghost Generals struggled desperately, but before the rules, they were like sardines packed into a tin. Immediately after, a "High-Temperature Sterilization" program was initiated inside the hazmat suits. Following a series of muffled "thudding" sounds, the nine suits deflated, leaving behind only a pile of harmless ash on the ground.
In the blink of an eye, all ten Ghost Generals were annihilated. Only the lone commander, Ghost King Wan Guku, remained floating in mid-air, still clutching his human-skin Magic Treasure, utterly broken.
"What... what kind of sorcery is this?!" Wan Guku's voice trembled. He had lived for three hundred years and refined countless corpses, but he had never seen such a way to die—being "washed" to death!
"You must be 'Patient Zero,' right?" A lazy voice drifted out from the window of the Scripture Pavilion.
Wan Guku looked up sharply and saw a young man sitting by the second-floor window. The man wore gold-rimmed glasses and a blue medical mask, holding a pointer and gesturing at him across the void.
"The viral load looks quite high." Li Mo pushed up his glasses, his gaze like someone looking at a paramecium under a microscope. "To prevent cross-infection, I'll have to quarantine you."
"Quarantine? Arrogant brat!" Wan Guku laughed out of pure rage, a fierce light shining in his eyes. "This King possesses an immortal body! Since you won't come out, I'll turn this Scripture Pavilion into a ghost realm!"
He suddenly bit his tongue and spat out a mouthful of essence blood. "Ten Thousand Ghosts Heart-Devouring Array! Rise!" With his roar, the ground shook, and countless skeletal arms erupted from the earth, attempting to drag the Scripture Pavilion underground.
Li Mo sighed. "It's one thing to be unhygienic, but littering (skeletons) is another matter."
He closed the book and calmly uttered four words: "Home Quarantine."
Boom! A massive, transparent cubic barrier instantly enveloped Wan Guku. This barrier wasn't for defense, but for "containment." Inside the barrier, space was instantly vacuumed. There was no air, no Spiritual Qi, and even sound could not travel.
Wan Guku's Spell sputtered out instantly. He pounded on the transparent walls in terror, like a fly trapped in a glass bottle. No matter how he roared or exploded with Corpse Qi, all his power was tightly restricted within this three-meter-square cube, unable to leak out in the slightest.
Li Mo lightly hooked his finger. The massive transparent cube slowly shrank, eventually becoming a palm-sized... glass specimen bottle. Inside the bottle, a miniature Wan Guku was still desperately pounding on the walls, but to the outside world, he looked like a temperamental action figure.
"Squeak." The Treasure-Seeking Rat hopped onto the windowsill and poked the bottle curiously.
"Don't touch that; it's a highly pathogenic sample." Li Mo picked up a label, wrote a few words on it, and stuck it on the bottle: [Name: Wild Ghost King (Non-inactivated)] [Disposal Suggestion: Soak in formalin or bury deep.] [Remarks: Has ornamental value; do not consume.]
Having finished this, Li Mo casually placed the bottle in the "Miscellaneous" section of the bookshelf. Meanwhile, the noise on the front mountain continued. The Black-Armored Army of the Great Zhou Dynasty was still miserably filling out the "Temporary Entry Registration Form," while the Nether Sect's sneak-attack force had already been disposed of as "medical waste."
Li Mo took off his mask and stretched. "Alright, both the front and back doors are quiet now. Finally, I can read in peace for a while."
However, just as he was about to lie back in his rocking chair, the System panel suddenly popped up with a line of bold, blood-red warnings:
[Warning! Warning!] [Detection: The will of the "Heavenly Dao" is awakening.] [Reason: You have used "Physics Rules," "Administrative Rules," and "Biological Rules" consecutively in a short period, severely disrupting the artistic style of this world and causing the Heavenly Dao System's logic to collapse.] [The Heavenly Dao is organizing a "Patch" (Heavenly Tribulation) and is preparing to format you.]
Li Mo's movements paused as he looked out the window. The once clear sky had somehow turned into a bizarre pixel-art style. The clouds were no longer flowing but were composed of square blocks of mosaic.
"Oh, did I fry the graphics card?" The corners of Li Mo's mouth curled up slightly, a glint of excitement flashing in his eyes. "Since the soft approach didn't work, are you going for the hard way now?"
He turned and walked toward the deepest part of the Scripture Pavilion. There lay an all-black forbidden book he had never opened. The title consisted of only two words: "Programming."
"The Heavenly Dao wants to fix a bug?" Li Mo's fingers gently stroked the cold spine of the book. "Then it'll have to ask me, the programmer, if I agree."