Secret Buyer-Chapter 40: God of Plague

The long line of caution tape was drawn up.

This time it was truly long, isolating the entire area, with all residents and shops evacuated, and temporary housing arranged by the city government.

"Snap!"

Liu Zhengbang lit two cigarettes. This rugged man felt that one was not enough to satisfy him, and often smoked two at once,

His boss said that when he grew old and his energy and vitality were exhausted, he was bound to get lung cancer.

"Boss," a team member said, "the number one target is still under surveillance, and everything is normal so far."

"Hmm, it doesn’t matter anymore."

Liu Zhengbang exhaled thick, choking smoke, squatted down, grabbed a handful of half-melted snow, his expression deep:

"Is the report out yet?"

"It’s out. The accounts of 174 people from the hotel are all the same. They suddenly felt like they had fallen into a hallucination, with the entire hotel appearing in the midst of dozens of snow-capped mountains, under a scorching sun."

As he spoke, the team member looked up at the roof of the hotel.

Charred black, as if scorched by flames.

"But the duration was very short. To everyone, it seemed to last no more than a single breath, and then everything returned to normal."

"A single breath?"

Liu Zhengbang took another deep drag on his cigarette:

"A Grandmaster... How could a place as run-down as Jiangzhou attract a Grandmaster to come in person?"

He involuntarily shivered with the hand holding the cigarette, causing ash to fall onto the half-melted snowflakes.

As the Vanguard Team of the Investigation Bureau, they naturally could not act rashly. This time, with the help of the Governor of Jiangzhou City, they disguised themselves as a special task force of the Public Security Bureau,

allowing them to openly dispatch the Public Security Bureau to seal off the area.

"Could it be Taoism?" the team member asked.

"No, cultists aren’t so bold. This seems more like a... proclamation."

Liu Zhengbang squatted down again, extinguishing the cigarette butt in the snow:

"A Grandmaster has arrived, announcing to all the specters of Jiangzhou that he is here, with the intent unknown and allegiance unclear..."

As he spoke, another team member hurried over, looking solemn:

"It’s been confirmed, one hotel guest is missing."

"Who is missing?"

"Don’t know, he didn’t register his identity and paid the front desk ten thousand yuan to hide his booking information."

"What about surveillance?"

"...In a little third-rate motel in the Lower Three Districts, where would you find surveillance?" The team member said helplessly, "As for the street surveillance, they’re either just for show and have been broken for a long time, or the ones that were working have long been smashed."

He paused, shrugged, and said:

"That’s an old custom of the Lower Three Districts."

Liu Zhengbang’s face twitched:

"This needs to be rectified... Forget it, send the information back to headquarters and see what they say. A Grandmaster appearing is beyond what we can handle."

"Yes, boss..."

Before he could finish speaking, a team member staggered out of the hotel, gasping:

"Captain, inside the hotel, you, you should come and see..."

Before finishing his sentence, he suddenly collapsed to the ground, fainting.

Liu Zhengbang’s expression darkened:

"Have medical experts come immediately, I’ll go see what’s going on."

He quickly entered the hotel, came to the problematic room, and as soon as he stepped inside, his eyes were drawn to a line of words on the wall.

Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!!!

’Boom!!’

Liu Zhengbang’s mind exploded, and he staggered back several steps, hitting the wall, causing it to crack and shatter.

He seemed to see a maniac, fallen into a demon for a century, gritting his teeth, shouting kill, kill, kill!

"Not good!"

Liu Zhengbang was startled, but being well-trained, he immediately turned around, smashing through wall after wall, rushing out of the hotel.

"Restraint, he—hold him down!"

The previously unconscious team member had inexplicably sat up from the stretcher, eyes bloodshot, roaring as he lunged towards the nearest doctor, a fierce wind rising.

In a life or death moment, Liu Zhengbang acted with incredible speed, delivering a powerful blow that knocked the team member out cold.

"Restraint, he... with special alloy shackles, me!"

He panted heavily, the word ’kill’ echoing in his mind, as he collapsed to the ground:

"Demonization... a Grandmaster who has fallen into a demon!"

"Immediately seal off the hotel, prohibit anyone from entering, report this at once!"

With that, he finally couldn’t hold on, his eyes rolled back as he too fainted.

The word ’kill’ still reverberated in his ears.

......

Hongji Martial Arts Dojo.

Quiet.

The students and workers were all ordered by ’Senior Brother Zhang’ to stay in their rooms, and all surveillance had been turned off.

Huang Qiuxian yawned, that troublesome kid, why hadn’t he come back yet?

He felt like he had been tricked.

He stroked his chin, pondering who was bold enough to usurp the name of the Eastern Sect?

"Retired and waiting for death, but can’t find peace."

Huang Qiuxian muttered, patting his chest, letting out a soft sigh.

He suddenly sat up straight, his gaze fixed on an elderly man who suddenly appeared at the door—in his perception, there was no one there.

"Another New Death Appearance of White Bone Observation."

Huang Qiuxian spoke lightly:

"Oh, are you Elder Hong’s senior or junior? Coming from Chongyang City to finish the job?"

He remained composed:

"Martial Arts Master? Or Grandmaster?"

"Huang Qiuxian."

The elder, leaning on a cheap wooden staff, spoke calmly:

"A young friend recommended you to me."

"Oh?" Only then did Huang Qiuxian understand, the person before him was not from Elder Hong’s sect, but the ’expert’ the troublesome kid mentioned.

He didn’t seem very high-level.....

The thought barely formed.

The training room suddenly turned into a vast land.

Huang Qiuxian abruptly stood up:

"Grandmaster?"

He could clearly sense that this was not the illusory divine realm formed by the ’Minor Perfection Contemplation Technique’. It was a truly manifestable [True Divine Realm]!

Though it was crude, not polished in the least, and seemingly still unformed...

Yet.

Huang Qiuxian bent down, grabbed a handful of soil, kneading it in his hand.

He sensed the aura of time.

This divine realm had existed for over two hundred years.

This was an over two hundred-year-old monster.

Martial Artist’s Twelve Refinements, not only does not extend life, but rather shortens it; someone who could live to one hundred might only reach eighty when trained in skin, flesh, and sinew,

And Martial Arts Master, even the top Martial Arts Master, only extends life by ninety years.

To live over two hundred years, at the very least, one must be a Grandmaster, with perfect contemplation, forming a True Divine Realm, that is a Grandmaster.

But...

An over two hundred-year-old Grandmaster should be nearing the end of their life.

This unknown Great Sect before him, though seemingly frail, gave Huang Qiuxian the sense that he was in his prime!

Was it above the Great Sect, or did he consume an extremely rare life-extending medicine?

He didn’t know.

He just silently extended his own True Divine Realm, the barren land being pushed aside, replaced by a sky above the clouds.

The rolling clouds and the barren land matched, but the former’s scale was clearly half the size of the latter.

This was the difference in spiritual accumulation, one of nearly one hundred and fifty years, the other over three hundred.

"Zhang Fusheng said you could remove the grave ailment from this sect?"

Huang Qiuxian asked deeply:

"This is the Flesh Plague from the Western Sect, from the God of Plague of the Thirty-Six Layer of Heaven Dimension, though an Outer Path Pseudo-God, it nonetheless can be termed a ’deity’."

Zhang Fusheng remained unchanged, listening quietly.

This old guy, what’s he babbling about?

However, Thirty-Six Layer of Heaven Dimension, God of Plague?

Plague...

Linking to that Martial Artist’s Twelve Refinements cultist’s chant of ’Heavenly Communication’, Zhang Fusheng thought of the story of [Divine Enthronement] in his previous life, under the discipleship of Celestial Gate, the Immortal sealed as the Plague Emperor.

After a moment of reflection, he remembered this minor ’side character’s’ name.

He sighed softly, tentatively muttering to himself:

"Lv Yue..."

Huang Qiuxian had no visible reaction.

No, there was.

He suddenly hunched over, large beads of sweat erupting on his forehead, beneath the wrinkled skin, lumps of flesh swelled and surged!

It was as if that unremarkable name ’activated’ them, or as if...

They were responding to that revered name, in jubilation, shouting ’my lord’, eagerly wanting to burst out from within Huang Qiuxian!