Chapter 1 "Spiritual Qi Plague?"

The moment the official high-risk warning was issued, Su Zhou, who was still patrolling the city, was taken aback. He hadn't paid much attention to it at first. "'Spiritual Qi Plague' that's basically meaningless to ordinary people, hasn't caused any deaths so far, but kills all mutants?"

"So that's it!"

In an instant, Su Zhou understood the Hand of the Descending Spirit's methods.

Based on the information known so far, the Hand of the Descending Spirit's goal should be to spread the carrier of the Demonic Qi Factor in a specific area through some means.

Then, using this as an incentive, when spiritual energy erupts, they lure the power of great beings in the void to attract more Demonic Qi Factors to this world.

But if that was all there was to it, it would just be creating chaos. A large number of inferior Abberations do have many Demonic Qi Factors on them, but they cannot be utilized. No organization would do something that only harms others and does not benefit themselves, unless they were crazy.

So, the most important final step is to kill these Abberations with some specific 'Spiritual Qi Plague' and recover the Demonic Qi Factors on them.

"It's like planting crops and harvesting them."

"But the soil for cultivating them is the lives of ordinary people."

At this moment, Su Zhou was located about three hundred meters in the air. The gale formed by the Gale Shield drove the Wind-Assisted Power, allowing him to fly in the air. The profound spiritual energy reserves brought by the several spiritual energy organs of the Transcendent Middle Stage, coupled with the Harmony of Man and Nature, allowed him to maintain flight almost all the time. In other areas of the city, several armed helicopters were patrolling at low altitude, deterring all lawbreakers who attempted to take advantage of the chaos.

Looking down on the entire city, Su Zhou, with his spiritual sight fully activated, could indeed see that the dark gray light spots representing the Abberations in the major streets had been completely eliminated—but at the same time, the spiritual power of most normal people was in chaos, and this chaos spread very quickly.

If it were an ordinary person, they definitely wouldn't be able to detect it, but for Su Zhou, the plague was clearly visible: the cyan spiritual energy filling the atmosphere was being infected by a black spiritual energy silk, like ink. From a distance, it looked like a black spider web spreading throughout the city.

And the source of these wisps was the corpses of the hundred or so mutant Hungry Ghosts.

—Create chaos through the Demonic Qi Factor to create Abberations, induce the local troops to suppress them, and then harvest the Abberations with a plague, thereby affecting the local troops suppressing the Abberations, preventing them from pursuing them.

A very detailed plan, especially since the Hand of the Descending Spirit's goal is extremely small. It's likely that from beginning to end, only the initial stage of spreading the Demonic Qi Factor requires manpower. From then on, they only need to wait for the spiritual energy to erupt and judge the timing of spreading the plague.

"Insane, this is not something humans can do!"

But the more he understood, the more angry Su Zhou became. He was too lazy to make an angry expression. His whole body began to twist with materialized electric arcs, releasing a dangerous aura: "What's the difference between these people and the man-eating monsters in the Divine Wood World? They're even worse!"

[Professor Su, thank you for your hard work. The city has basically stabilized, and you have made a great contribution. But because the plague has not yet been effectively controlled, it's best to go to a corresponding safe area to avoid it.]

The middle-aged male voice came from the headset again. He thanked Su Zhou on behalf of the Zheng Nation official, but also revealed that the current situation was still very serious: [Although the plague has not caused any deaths so far, it's best not to get infected.]

"What exactly is this virus?" Su Zhou asked in a deep voice, "Why is there such accurate bias?"

[It's not a virus, nor is it bacteria. This plague is called 'Inner Demon'. It was a large-scale 'Spiritual Qi Disease' that spread throughout the world in ancient times before spiritual energy was cut off. It was also called one of the disasters by the ancients.]

The male voice briefly introduced the prototype of this mysterious plague: [Its essence is a special, self-replicating spiritual energy information structure. It can be regarded as a spiritual energy version of a virus. It is transmitted through spiritual energy interaction and feeds on the infected person's uncontrollable overflowing spiritual energy. If the infected person's mood fluctuates or they become possessed, it will take the opportunity to invade their soul, evoke various illusions, and even distort their spiritual consciousness and corrode their spiritual power. In extreme cases, it can even lead to the exhaustion of the soul and death. Abberations cannot control themselves, their minds are manic, and their own spiritual energy is simply freely open to the Inner Demon Disease, so they are much more sensitive and fragile than ordinary people.]

[Resisting the invasion of Inner Demons is a common method of cultivating the mind in ancient times, so all major forces have preserved different original Inner Demon strains for cultivation purposes. Naturally, the official has relevant methods of expulsion, but it's unexpected that the Hand of the Descending Spirit also controls it.]

[To avoid accidents, Professor Su, it's best not to be exposed to external spiritual energy.]

"Understood, don't worry about me."

Su Zhou understood the official's concerns very well. For major events involving the safety of nearly ten million people in many coastal cities, stability is the most important thing, especially when facing the Inner Demon Disease, which spreads indiscriminately and can be considered a spiritual biochemical weapon. Before it is determined that it has been completely eliminated, it's best not to act rashly.

At this time, it could be seen that, as if sensing Su Zhou's huge spiritual power reaction, the black wisps of spiritual energy formed by the Inner Demon Disease began to approach him naturally—as the individual with the most powerful spiritual power reaction in the entire coastal area, Su Zhou was naturally the highest priority in the Inner Demon Disease's natural infection mechanism.

Crack!

Su Zhou raised his hand and waved it, as if impatiently swatting a fly. This simple action brought with it a violent electric current that could shock an elephant into unconsciousness. The cyan-blue lightning gathered into a streak, like a whip, directly striking the black spiritual energy wisps with a high-temperature whizz.

But unlike what Su Zhou originally thought of as 'expulsion,' the violently agitated electric current completely shattered a large area of Inner Demon spiritual energy with just one strike, turning it into ordinary cyan spiritual energy.

"It can be like this, the effect is so good? No, it's not strange. Even if it's a spiritual energy structure, it's still a structure. It will be destroyed if it's broken up. It's difficult for ordinary people to prevent it, mainly because their spiritual vision level is not high and they can't see it."

"No wonder they say 'Thunder magic can exorcise evil and eliminate disasters.' So it is!"

Seeing this scene, Su Zhou first blinked, and then a bold idea suddenly came to his mind: "Wait, in that case, since I can see the Inner Demon spiritual energy and I'm not afraid of being infected silently, plus the special effects of thunder magic..."

Thinking of it, he did it—Su Zhou directly shouted in a low voice and began to mobilize spiritual power in mid-air, using the Divine Thunder True Method.

Vast and pure spiritual energy was extracted from every meridian cell and spiritual energy organ in his body. This spiritual power, which was a hundred times greater than Zhou Buyi's in the past, began to overflow outward from Su Zhou's pores, evolving into thunder light!

If the spiritual power index of an ordinary Awakened is about five thousand, then the Awakened Middle Stage is ten thousand, which is the spiritual power index of Zhou Buyi in the past.

The standard for the Awakened Peak Grandmaster realm is more than 30,000, which is also the upper limit standard for the spiritual test during the Holy Ascension Selection.

But when they reach the Transcendent stage, after completing the essential improvement and making themselves return from acquired to innate, the weakest Transcendent stage has at least 100,000 points of spiritual power just in their own reserves! When they advance to the Transcendent Middle Stage and condense spiritual power organs, the spiritual power of the Transcendent stage will rapidly increase, and they can use their own spiritual power to connect with the spiritual energy in the surrounding natural environment, exerting several times the effect.

And now, the spiritual power that Su Zhou burst out at this time has reached a hundred times that of Zhou Buyi, and he still has spare power!

In the past, before achieving Transcendence, Su Zhou's spiritual power had about 150,000 points, even more profound than some weaker Transcendent stages. When he also advanced to Transcendence and condensed Transcendent organs, his spiritual energy was truly comparable to, and even surpassed, True Dragons of the same stage!

Boom! Centered on Su Zhou, cyan-blue light began to gather around his body—it could be seen that obvious electric arcs were jumping in the air, and the visible current was spreading outward from his body like ripples.

In just a few seconds, Su Zhou was completely wrapped in thunder and gale.

Turning into a huge cyan-blue electric ball, Su Zhou unhesitatingly drove the Gale Shield, increasing his speed to eighty meters per second—then, he charged rapidly towards the sources of the Inner Demon Disease one by one!