87: Chapter 87 The Disaster in Guanhai County

Guanhai County City, in the afternoon.

There were not many people on the street; the sun was too fierce, baking the flagstone road until it turned pale.

A few children squatted at the alley entrance playing with pebbles, an old woman sat on the threshold selling vegetables, and two peddlers carrying shoulder poles were hawking their wares under the tree shade.

Everything was normal, until a figure walked out from the depths of the alley.

It was a middle-aged man wearing shabby coarse cloth clothes, with unkempt hair and ash on his face.

His eyes were white, resembling two lumps of solidified lard.

There was a wound on his neck that had already ulcerated, and something was writhing inside the wound.

Dense rootlets were wriggling, with black flowers blooming at their tips, emitting black qi.

A peddler saw him first, and the teacup in his hand dropped to the ground with a "smack", shattering.

Those children were still squatting at the alley entrance playing with pebbles and didn't see it.

The peddler let out a shout, his voice sharp.

"Run!"

The children raised their heads and saw that eerie person.

The children who reacted directly started running, and a few even lost their shoes as they fled.

The middle-aged man parasitized by the evil entity chased toward the children.

Seeing this scene, the peddler, who had originally been terrified, gritted his teeth, picked up the stool beside his feet, and smashed it directly over.

The eerie middle-aged man hit by the stool turned his head, changed direction, and rushed toward the peddler.

The pursued peddler was frightened into turning around and fleeing, darting around disorderly on the street.

The chaotic news spread very quickly.

Guanhai County City was the place with the most martial artists in Guanhai County, and a martial arts hall could be found almost every few streets.

Soon, a few martial arts hall apprentices arrived.

After seeing this middle-aged man parasitized by the evil entity, they discovered that this person was a First-Turn Late-Stage Martial Artist.

The three martial arts hall apprentices were all Second-turn Martial Artists, and the three of them quickly entangled with this eerie middle-aged man in close combat.

However, a Second-turn Martial Artist martial arts hall master soon arrived.

Seeing this eerie middle-aged man, this Second-turn Martial Artist didn't say a word and directly drew his saber and rose up.

With a single slash of his saber on that person's neck, the blade light flashed, and the head flew out, landing on the ground and rolling several times.

The body swayed, fell down, and stopped moving.

The onlookers breathed a sigh of relief; some applauded, and some cheered.

This martial arts hall master smoothly and confidently sheathed his saber, turning around to leave.

Right at this moment, a bystander suddenly shouted.

"Ah! Be careful!"

The fallen middle-aged man stood up. Without a head, rootlets drilled out from the broken stump on his neck, writhing frantically.

Those rootlets entwined and wriggled together, replacing the chopped-off head.

At the top of the head, a black flower emitting black qi bloomed.

The eerie middle-aged man lunged directly toward the person closest to him.

That young First-turn Martial Artist was still standing beside the corpse, his saber not yet sheathed, completely lacking any awareness of defense.

"Crack."

The middle-aged man's fist slammed onto the young martial artist's head, smashing the young martial artist's head to pieces like smashing a watermelon.

Red and white splattered all over the ground; the young martial artist's body swayed, fell down, and stopped moving.

The eerie middle-aged man just stood beside that corpse, his head composed of plant rootlets wriggling, that black flower gently swaying in the wind.

This abrupt and ghastly scene directly turned the faces of the martial artists watching from the side pale.

Someone took a step back, someone's hand holding the saber was shaking, and someone incredulously rubbed his own eyes.

The martial arts hall master who had just smoothly sheathed his saber stood at the very front, his saber still clutched in his hand.

Even with his strength as a Second-turn Martial Artist, the saber in his hand was trembling slightly.

He dared not imagine, if the middle-aged man who had fallen earlier had suddenly attacked him, even if he didn't die, he would likely be heavily injured.

The martial arts hall master's face was filled with terror.

He could also be considered someone who had killed monsters for half his life.

First-turn ones, Second-turn ones, he had killed them all.

But he had never seen this kind of thing—moving without a head, still killing people, and even blooming flowers.

Similar situations kept happening in various places across the county city.

At the entrance of the martial arts hall on East Street, a martial artist parasitized by the evil entity was covered in rootlets and black flowers, frantically attacking passing commoners.

His belly was slashed open with a long gash, intestines dragging on the ground, but he didn't fall; rootlets drilled out from the wound.

His hands had already torn two people to pieces: an old man selling pancakes and a woman holding a child.

The child was still crying, thrown into a pool of blood, and no one dared to rescue them.

In front of the blacksmith shop on West Street, a martial artist wearing a constable's official uniform was covered in rootlets and black flowers, rushing into a blacksmith shop to tear at the blacksmith's throat.

The blacksmith's wife hid behind the door, covering her mouth, not daring to make a sound.

At the entrance of the teahouse on South Street, a young martial artist lay on the ground with a wound on his neck.

Rootlets were writhing inside the wound, and a black flower blossomed beside his neck.

Someone walked over wanting to support him, but he raised his head, his eyes white and his mouth wide open.

Before that person even had time to shout, he was pounced on and knocked to the ground.

Martial artists in the county city swarmed out from various martial arts halls and houses.

First-turn and Second-turn Martial Artists began to fight to the death with these martial artists parasitized by the evil entities.

At first, the martial artists parasitized by the evil entities were killed one after another.

But soon, they discovered that for every one they killed, one stood up;

for every two they killed, a pair stood up.

The chopped-off heads would grow new rootlets, and the chopped-off bodies would bloom black flowers from the severed stumps.

A Second-turn Martial Artist used his qi and blood to shatter the internal organs of a parasitized martial artist, and that person fell down and stopped moving.

The Second-turn Martial Artist breathed a sigh of relief, turning around to leave.

Yet that person's body bounced up from the ground.

His body was already rotten, and his internal organs were all shattered.

However, rootlets drilled out from the shattered belly, entangling the Second-turn Martial Artist's legs, wrapping around his waist, and binding his neck.

The Second-turn Martial Artist struggled desperately, his qi and blood circulating frantically within his body.

But those rootlets were like iron hoops, wrapping tighter and deeper, piercing into his flesh and blood, piercing into his blood vessels.

The Second-turn Martial Artist's eyes began to turn white, the wounds on his body began to ulcerate, and rootlets drilled out from the ulcerated wounds.

A black flower blossomed beside his wound.

Seeing that a Second-turn Martial Artist had actually died just like that, the commoners of Guanhai County became utterly terrified.

"A Second-turn Martial Artist died at the hands of that plant!"

"Run quickly! Don't go near him!"

"Help! Save me!"

Shouts and screams spread from East Street to West Street, from West Street to South Street, and from South Street to North Street, echoing across the sky above the county city.

Some frightened commoners ran into alleys and fled out of the city gates.

They didn't know where was safe, nor did they know if those eerie martial artists would chase after them.

They just ran, running for their lives.

The masters of those martial arts halls in the county city gathered together at the entrance of the county government office, their faces ashen.

They had fought for half a day, killing more than a dozen, but those parasitized people not only didn't decrease, instead becoming more and more numerous.

When they killed these parasitized martial artists, these martial artists would stand back up.

And whenever a single martial artist among them died, a new enemy would appear.

"What on earth is this thing?"

A martial arts hall master asked with a pale face.

No one answered.

No one knew what this truly was.

They only knew that this thing could not be killed, and that this thing was contagious.

They only knew that this thing was turning them into monsters one by one!