Chapter 68 part 1
When Luo Shizhen returned, he was clearly out of it. When Lu Qiujin spoke to him, he had to react for a moment before snapping back to answer.
To turn into this after seeing a female classmate…
This was clearly falling in love.
Lu Qiujin said nothing on the surface, but his heart grew heavier and heavier.
Chu Xiao’s logic told him that with Luo Shizhen’s personality, it was impossible for him to fall for someone after just one meal, but his hand hanging at his side still tightened slightly.
Xiao Shan had also become more silent than usual. It wasn’t that he wanted to stop his little brother from dating, but they were still in school, and because Luo Shizhen’s ability had mutated, he urgently needed to increase his strength.
This was the time to focus on his career. Dating? Not a good idea, right?
Cheng Yunshao was also distracted. He had a faint sense of repulsion, but thinking carefully, it was probably because he saw all his teammates were lost in thought and was worried about whether their next mission would be affected.
The only ones on the scene unaffected were probably Rong Nian and Wen Hu, the two Atavism-types.
The rich people who used to keep Rong Nian often dated. Sometimes they even dated two or three people at once.
Rong Nian would often see his former owner bring one or two or three girlfriends to see him, showing off that he kept a merman.
But those girlfriends would come once or twice at most. The person who came next time would be a new girlfriend.
Girlfriends were constantly swapped out, but the pet never changed.
Therefore, although Rong Nian was a little unhappy, he quickly adjusted.
After all, his position for himself was a pet.
If Luo Shizhen wanted to date, let him. It wasn’t like he was getting married. As long as he could keep smelling Shizhen’s scent, he could turn into a merman and help Luo Shizhen win over Zhang Cai.
Every time that “former owner” brought a girlfriend to see him, it would cause a stir of gasps. The way the girlfriends looked at the “former owner” would instantly become full of wonder and admiration.
At that time, Rong Nian, in his fish tank, thought they were beyond stupid.
Now… Rong Nian was making his own little calculations. As long as Luo Shizhen agreed to let him overlay his mark again, it wasn’t impossible for him to show off his beautiful fishtail.
Anyway, Zhang Cai wasn’t an Awakener, so she wouldn’t fight him for territory. He could even perform a “fish jumping out of water” for her.
Wen Hu completely failed to notice anything was wrong. He even took advantage of the fact that the other teammates were out of it to stroll over to Luo Shizhen’s side:
“Shizhen, what are you thinking about? I feel like you have something on your mind.”
As soon as these words came out, everyone except the Atavism-types felt a jolt in their minds.
Everyone looked unperturbed on the surface, but their gazes were all more or less fixed on Luo Shizhen.
“Zhang Cai told me…”
It really was Zhang Cai—
The atmosphere seemed to freeze instantly.
Luo Shizhen, however, frowned slightly and continued:
“The number of anomalies is increasing. Many people might be contaminated just by accidentally getting close to a place where an anomaly has been.”
The atmosphere instantly dropped back to a normal level—
Luo Shizhen noticed that everyone, who had looked so serious just a second ago, seemed to instantly let out a faint smile.
He was a bit confused but was quickly distracted by what Chu Xiao said.
Chu Xiao: “It’s like this. Ordinary people, unlike Awakeners, don’t have the ability to resist contamination. It was fine before because the number of anomalies wasn’t that large, and the Guardians could control the situation.”
“But the reason the government went public with the existence of anomalies is because the numbers are increasing and they are gradually appearing in the normal lives of humans. People could be contaminated at any time.”
As Chu Xiao spoke, he gestured for Luo Shizhen to look at a trash can by the street.
“Look there with your Qi essence. There should be a trace of contamination.”
Luo Shizhen still couldn’t fully control his Qi body, but releasing his Qi essence was no problem.
He released his Qi. A wisp of white mist slowly drifted forward. Unlike the Qi of other young Awakeners, which would subconsciously try to occupy any territory in sight upon release, it was unhurried and moved toward the trash can without any rush.
Once it reached the spot, he saw a faint wisp of contamination hovering over the trash can.
Luo Shizhen was amazed. “There can be contamination on a trash can too?”
He lowered his head and took out his tablet to look up data. “Let me see, anomalies that stay near trash cans…”
“Scuttling Ghost. Appears only at night. Very skilled at fast walking, moves horizontally along walls. Likes to eat filth. No intelligence. Born from filthy places.”
Luo Shizhen looked at the anomaly in the photo, which had a bird’s beak and ram’s horns, and leaned in closer to the trash can. Sure enough, the trash inside was spotlessly clean:
“Is it here to eat trash?”
Cheng Yunshao also slowly paced over. “Yes. Scuttling Ghosts generally have no combat ability. They feed on trash and occasionally scare humans on purpose to feed on their fear. Because they don’t directly eat people, if one is destroyed, another will appear. That’s why they rank very low among anomaly contaminants and aren’t within the clearing range.”
Luo Shizhen knew that some anomalies were not within the clearing range.
Because there were too many anomalies and the Guardians were understaffed, they could only prioritize clearing anomalies that might cause major harm.
Between an anomaly that might devour dozens of humans every day and a small anomaly that doesn’t kill but at most scares people, it was clear which one should be dealt with first when manpower was short.
Cheng Yunshao: “The probability of a Scuttling Ghost leaving contamination is 1%, but as long as a single wisp is left behind, it could lead to a passing human being contaminated and dying.”
“Staff members patrol two to three times a day. When they find a contaminated area, they cordon it off with caution tape until it naturally dissipates or a Guardian deals with it. But anomalies don’t listen to people. There will always be some anomalies that find a gap to leave contamination. This Scuttling Ghost must be one of them.”
Luo Shizhen stared at that tiny bit of black mist.
To him, this wisp of black mist wasn’t even enough to fill the gap between his teeth. To Chu Xiao and the others, even if they were stained with this contamination, it wouldn’t have any impact on their sanity.
But to an ordinary person, once this wisp of black mist touched them, it was enough to make them quickly become contaminated and die.
Luo Shizhen’s Qi body soared into the air.
Even though this little bit was indeed not enough to fill a tooth gap, the white mist wasn’t picky. It ate whatever was available, transforming into a white python and unceremoniously swallowing the tiny wisp of contamination into its belly.
Just as the contamination was eaten, an old woman carrying a bag appeared and walked past the trash can. She even poked her head in to look inside. Seeing no bottles or cardboard, she slowly walked away.
Before leaving, she took a few looks at these young men.
Good-looking young people—even the elderly liked looking at them.
Luo Shizhen watched her back:
“My grandmother often went to trash cans like this. There are bottles and cardboard boxes inside. She would pick them up and sell them for money.”
If Grandma were still around, maybe one day while she was picking up bottles, she would have been contaminated.
Grandma would have been in a lot of pain, wouldn’t she?
Luo Shizhen still remembered his “fake medicine seller” persona:
“Purification… can’t it be put into medicine like selling drugs?”
“Just like selling cold medicine. When someone has a cold, they take cold medicine and get better. If someone is contaminated and they take medicine with Purification in it, they could be purified.”
Cheng Yunshao shook his head. “It should be very difficult.”
“Purification relies on the Purifier’s Qi essence. Qi is equivalent to a person’s half-body. How could it be separated? And even if it were separated, how could one manipulate a Qi body that has already been detached?”
Luo Shizhen didn’t understand why it wasn’t possible. He felt that separating his Qi didn’t seem that difficult.
He felt like he had done something like this before.
But when had he done it?
Luo Shizhen thought long and hard, but he really couldn’t remember.
Because he was so troubled, his Qi body, in the form of a white python, also circled in place with distress.
Then, it soared up and vigorously twisted its python body, flying onto the nearby roof and intimately coiling itself around someone without any sense of boundaries.
Luo Shizhen: “Eh?”
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