Chapter 39: Bacterial Strains

"What’s wrong with you?"

Seeing the sudden change in Su Heng’s expression, Su Li looked at him with a surprised look.

"I..." Su Heng frowned deeply and told Su Li about what had happened earlier in Heikui Mountain.

After listening,

Su Li’s expression gradually became serious.

"You mean that this fog is very likely not naturally formed, but wrought by a demon."

"Fog spirits are troublesome," Su Heng nodded gravely, adding seriously.

Su Li took out the demon-seeking compass from her bosom and injected her strength into it. As expected, the compass, which had shown no reaction before, was now emitting a faint light. Moreover, as time passed, the light on the compass was becoming increasingly crimson.

"Do you know the origin of the fog spirit?" asked Su Heng, wondering if there might be records in the Demon Suppression Bureau.

"There are too many demons in this world. Sometimes their talents seem very similar, but the actual effects are entirely different," Su Li shook her head.

Merely based on the clues provided by Su Heng, she could not make an accurate judgment.

"I’m going to have a look."

The fog spirit had high intelligence and had been staying deep within Heikui Mountain before.

But now it had actively invaded the city, indicating that it had undergone some kind of transformation.

This change was definitely negative for Changqing County, and Su Heng could not just sit and wait; he had to go and see for himself and gather intelligence.

As for the danger, Su Heng was not worried.

The strength of demons was in their eeriness, a straightforward confrontation he did not fear.

"Shall I come with you?" Su Li suggested.

"No," Su Heng shook his head, "You all need to stay back to avoid any accidents at home."

"Alright..." Su Li looked somewhat helpless.

She had thought that she was returning home in glory, ready to show her strength. But Su Heng had firmly taught her a lesson with his unreasonable power, which was truly despairing.

"Be careful," Su Li said. S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvelƒire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Mm."

Su Heng nodded, pushed open the door,

And his tall, sturdy figure quickly disappeared into the increasingly dense fog.

...

The streets were empty, with not a single person in sight.

The shops on both sides had their doors and windows tightly closed, and around the corner in the distance was a five-story tavern named "Heaven on Earth."

"Hee hee hee..."

A strange laughter came through, as if there were children playing in the fog.

Su Heng stopped, looking towards the direction of the sound with a thoughtful look on his face.

He walked through the fog.

On the street, he saw four or five children playing "hopscotch."

These children were eight or nine years old, dressed simply, and appeared to come from ordinary families.

"Why are only you here playing? Where are the other pedestrians on the street?" Su Heng smiled, approached the children, crouched down, and asked softly.

One of the girls, wearing a red cotton jacket and two braids resembling goat horns, looked up.

Su Heng’s pupils contracted slightly.

The girl’s face was painted with a white, ash-like powder, her complexion pallid, her lips bright red, her eyes pitch black—she looked like a doll from a horror film.

Although she was smiling, it inadvertently gave off a chilling feel.

"Hee hee hee..."

The girl with braids laughed and said, "Xiaoya doesn’t know, but Xiaoya can take brother to look, is that okay?"

"Okay," Su Heng’s smile remained unchanged. He took a few copper coins from his bosom and stuffed them in the girl’s jacket pocket, "Keep this money to buy candied haws."

"Thank you, brother," the girl beamed.

She turned around and walked into the fog, turned a corner, and entered an alley.

Su Heng followed closely behind but suddenly stopped upon entering the alley.



The alley in front of him was a dead end.

At the end of the alley should have been a tavern with a sign that hung "Conquering the World". Su Heng had often come to drink and eat meat in this tavern before and had some recollection of it.

One of its doors faced the bustling Guozi Street, opening to welcome guests.

While another door was right in front of Su Heng, which was normally a service entrance for staff.

But for some unknown reason.

The door was sealed, a white seal, with scarlet lettering.

It looked somewhat creepy in the dim and silent surroundings, and the few children also mysteriously disappeared.

"An illusion? It doesn’t seem quite that simple though," Su Heng pinched the corner of his eye, but the scene before him remained unchanged.

The fog grew thicker.

Unseeable, and unheard.

The city he had lived in for over a decade suddenly became unfamiliar.

Su Heng stepped back from the alley, returning to the street he had just left, continued forward, and then halted again.

The stores and houses on either side of the street that had been tightly locked.

For some reason, they were all open now, and figures stood erect in the dark doorways of these houses.

They were all pale, their faces frozen with eerie smiles, looking slightly blurred in the mist.

"Hiss…"

Su Heng instantly thought of Li Si he had seen earlier.

"I do want to see exactly what you all are." The more they played tricks, the more it indicated that the demon couldn’t directly threaten him.

This bizarre spectacle did not evoke much fear in Su Heng.

Instead, he strode forward and reached out to pinch the face of one of the figures.

As expected—

Puff!

Su Heng’s hand passed right through the head of the figure.

And the figure, just like the earlier Li Si, dissolved into a mist and dispersed.

Then the second, the third, the fourth… until the fifth one, Su Heng finally felt something substantial.

Bang!

This was an old coffin shop owner.

With an ancient face and cloudy eyes, dressed in a pale shroud.

He was smacked down to the ground by Su Heng with a slap, making a muffled bang.

The external force seemed to disrupt some balance within the old man’s body, and strands of greyish-white fog emitted, soon merging with the thick fog around them.

There seemed to be no difference.

But Su Heng felt a slight itch on the back of his hand.

He looked down and discovered, unaware of when it happened, that red blotches like goosebumps had appeared on the skin of his hand.

Slightly swollen and somewhat itchy.

"This…"

Su Heng closed his eyes and felt carefully, his face gradually showing a look of surprise.

"This fog doesn’t seem to be real mist… but, rather, countless extremely tiny spores. It’s just because their numbers are so massive that they give the impression of dense fog."

"These spores can root in a person’s body, absorbing nutrients.

Only my physique is far superior to ordinary people, my resistance strong, thus these spores can only stay on the surface of the skin, unable to affect deeper layers.

However…



Even so, these spores are frightfully potent."

Boom!

Su Heng’s arms shook.

Powerful and scorching Yang Pole True Strength circulated within his body, his skin turned red, sweat evaporated, transforming into dense vapor, like flames leaping in the void. Not just the spores clinging to him were completely evaporated and destroyed, but even the surrounding air was wholly cleared.