Jiang Fu calculated the timing and didn’t drive into Hongri Base until the afternoon, just in time to run into a crowd anxiously waiting to enter.
Almost all of them looked wretched. They were likely people who had been caught outside during the torrential rain. Now they were either covered in wounds, dressed in torn and filthy clothes, or wearing faces lined with exhaustion. Pale, weary, and drained, they looked like refugees from somewhere unknown.
All they wanted now was to get inside the base and take shelter.
“Let us in! These wounds were scraped accidentally, not from zombie bites!”
“You’re charging that many crystal cores just to enter the base? Why don’t you just rob us outright?”
“What’s the holdup up front? It’ll be dark soon!”
The area was loud and chaotic. Jiang Fu drove her car to the back of a convoy and queued up obediently.
She turned off the engine and looked at Wen Heyu. “How are you holding up?”
Ever since he’d seen the crowd, he had grown restless.
“I…” Wen Heyu tried to restrain himself, but as he stared at the people outside, he began trembling uncontrollably. His pupils contracted. His fingernails lengthened slightly. He even began grinding his teeth.
Jiang Fu frowned. Did the sight of living humans trigger his zombie’s instincts?
But he hadn’t reacted at all to bloody animal carcasses before.
She gently patted his shoulder, strands of resentful energy slipping into his body with the motion. “Calm down. Take deep breaths. Relax…”
Sure enough, Wen Heyu gradually regained clarity. His nails retracted. His pupils returned to normal, though faint red veins still lingered in the whites of his eyes.
Embarrassed, he said, “Sister, I’ve caused you trouble.”
Jiang Fu shook her head and replied objectively, “No. My curse wasn’t thorough enough. Your body still has some hidden risks.”
She glanced at the black cat perched on the back of the seat. “Can I cast it again?”
The black cat flicked its tail, studying Wen Heyu. “To recast it, you’d have to remove the original curse first. At the moment it’s lifted, no one knows what he’ll turn into. And for the same target, a second curse is definitely weaker than the first—there’s even a high chance it’ll fail.”
After hearing that, Jiang Fu refrained from acting rashly. “Then we’ll observe a bit longer.”
She looked at Wen Heyu, beginning to consider whether she should send him back to his sister.
Wen Heyu grabbed her sleeve carefully. “Sister, I’ll try hard to get used to it.”
He sounded afraid she would abandon him.
Jiang Fu thought about how Wen Zangyu would be coming to the base in a few days anyway. Could she really leave this guy alone outside then?
She sighed. “Fine. Stay in the car. Don’t get out.”
With a wave of her hand, resentful energy spread throughout the vehicle, cutting off the scent of living humans outside. Wen Heyu immediately relaxed.
Seeing him look at her with those damp, pleading eyes, Jiang Fu almost reached out to ruffle his hair. Instead, she smiled. “We’re just here to have some fun. Nothing serious. You play in the car; I’ll play outside. Same thing.”
She checked herself in the mirror to make sure her disguise was intact, then stepped out and shut the door.
The moment it closed, Wen Heyu’s shoulders slumped. He poked at the silkworm baby crawling around. “I’m so useless.”
If he couldn’t help, at least he shouldn’t cause trouble. If this kept up, he’d end up being disliked.
…
The car had been making strange noises from underneath. After getting out, Jiang Fu bent down and pretended to inspect it properly. Then she dragged out what looked like a tangled clump of dried grass and wire from beneath the chassis.
The stuff had scraped up the entire undercarriage and tires. Combined with the scratches and mud splattered all over from the journey, the car was completely unrecognizable. Even Wen Zicheng standing here wouldn’t recognize it as theirs.
The moment the dried grass clump was pulled out, it began struggling. Its twig-like strands lashed wildly. One struck Jiang Fu’s arm, leaving a bloody welt. Around the wound, small red bumps rapidly sprouted, accompanied by an intense, piercing itch.
Jiang Fu let out a cry and slashed the grass clump apart with a blade.
Someone nearby approached and said, “Miss, that grass is highly toxic. If it touches you, the itching is unbearable. No medicine works—you need ice treatment. I’m an ice-type—”
Before he could finish, a thread of black light slipped from Jiang Fu’s hand and covered the wound. In just a short moment, the skin turned faintly gray. The red bumps faded, and the bleeding stopped rapidly.
The ice-type ability user fell silent.
Seeing this, someone else stepped forward. “Miss, is that a healing ability?”
“Could you treat me too? I’ll pay with crystal cores.”
More people gathered around. Jiang Fu said cautiously, “My ability is a bit different. It has side effects. You’d better find a proper healing ability user or a doctor.”
If she had eagerly offered to treat people, they would have been suspicious. But because she refused, their trust in her actually increased.
“Where are we supposed to find healers or doctors?”
“I heard the base is already full of injured people. There’s no way the base’s healers have time for outsiders.”
“This kind of rash doesn’t respond to normal healing abilities anyway.”
“What kind of side effects are you talking about?”
A crowd surrounded Jiang Fu, chattering all at once.
Jiang Fu could only say helplessly, “My ability doesn’t promote wound healing. It can only stop bleeding and prevent swelling or inflammation from worsening. Also, any patch of skin that comes into contact with my ability will temporarily lose sensation—anywhere from a few minutes to several days. There aren’t any side effects, but losing sensation itself can be dangerous.”
When everyone heard this, they found the ability a bit strange.
But someone whose entire body was covered in the same red rash hurried over excitedly. “What’s wrong with losing sensation? That’s perfect! I’m itching like crazy all over. Sister, help me out!”
Jiang Fu looked at him. The rash was so dense it covered him head to toe, and he’d scratched himself into streaks of blood. It was a horrifying sight.
“Can’t you use ice to numb it?”
“Tried it. It just itches worse after icing. Please, just help me out.”
Jiang Fu nodded. “Alright.”
She disguised her resentment energy to resemble the appearance and energy frequency of a normal ability, then spread it over his body. A cool chill washed over him, sensation quickly faded from his skin, the rash dimmed, and the maddening itch that clawed at his insides subsided.
This was something she had recently developed. Her resentment energy could corrode living tissue—it was extremely dangerous—but if she controlled the dosage and intensity precisely, it could produce unexpected effects.
The man was overjoyed. “It’s not itchy anymore! Really not itchy!”
“The effect should last about ten hours,” Jiang Fu said.
“Haha, that’s enough. It should be better by then.”
He happily handed over a third-tier crystal core as payment. Jiang Fu accepted without refusing.
Soon, several more people covered in rashes stepped forward, and she treated them all.
Seeing that none of them had any problems, someone whose body was covered in swollen bite marks came over. “Miss, this hurts like hell. Can you help with the pain?”
Jiang Fu sent a strand of resentment energy into him. Moments later, the man relaxed all over. “It doesn’t hurt anymore! Haha, seriously, this works better than any anesthetic!”
Another person approached. “I don’t know what I ate, but from my esophagus down to my stomach it’s itchy and irritating. Can you treat that?”
“You’re probably poisoned,” Jiang Fu said. “Detoxifying should be the priority.”
“I don’t even know how to detox. It’s fine—I’m an ability user, I can handle it. It’s just too uncomfortable.”
“I’ll give it a try.”
Five minutes later, that man’s expression eased. “Hey! It doesn’t feel bad anymore! This is amazing!”
After that, people kept coming—pain here, itching there, burning sensations that other treatments hadn’t helped at all.
Before long, Jiang Fu’s little stall was fully established, and a long line stretched out in front of her.
…
In the afternoon, Ying Changtian was on duty at the base gate. Back in Hongri Base, he was one of the top-ranking figures. Now his brows were tightly furrowed.
In the past, he would’ve been happy to see so many people coming to seek refuge at the base. But now the base itself was in complete chaos.
The most troubling issue was that so-called “noodle” disease.
How did people get it? How did it develop? How was it transmitted? No one knew.
Yes, it was contagious. At first, only people from Zhou Liangji’s team fell ill. Later, others began showing symptoms as well. Not even mentioning how unbearable it felt—just imagining clumps of noodles growing inside your stomach, wriggling around in there—was it disgusting? Wasn’t it terrifying?
Panic spread instantly.
“Zhou Liangji…” he muttered. The first cases had appeared among Zhou Liangji’s people, and those “noodles” looked uncannily similar to Zhou Liangji’s ability. Could it really be connected to him? What was that kid trying to do?
Suddenly, he noticed a lively commotion in the distance and called someone over. “What’s going on over there?”
“There’s a healing-type ability user…” the subordinate replied excitedly, going on at length. “She’s incredible! If you want your skin to lose sensation, it loses sensation. If you want your bones to lose sensation, it’s done. If you want your stomach and intestines to stop feeling discomfort, she can manage that in minutes.”
Ying Changtian snorted. “What’s so special about that?”
Abilities that temporarily removed sensation were common—petrification, freezing. It wasn’t anything rare.
Probably just trying to attract the base’s attention and build a reputation.
“Ugh—!”
His stomach suddenly churned violently. He rushed aside and vomited.
When he saw the “noodles” spilling out, his face turned deathly pale.
It’s over. He’s been infected too.
As the thought crossed his mind, his stomach roiled again. He felt something long wriggling inside, followed by sharp, needle-like pain—like those things were burrowing into his stomach.
He stared at his abdomen in horror.
They were coming out—swimming through his abdominal cavity, then burrowing into his limbs, his bones, his blood vessels.
Itch!
An overwhelming, all-encompassing itch!
Pain!
Relentless, unending pain.
And worst of all, the sickening sensation of slick, wriggling worms crawling through his body.
In an instant, Ying Changtian felt himself on the verge of madness.
He immediately petrified his entire body, but the sensation deep in his bones could not be stopped!
His subordinates panicked and held him up. “Chief Ying! Chief Ying, what’s wrong?”
With trembling hands, he grabbed one of them tightly. “Back to the base. Hurry! Get me to a doctor!”
As he spoke, his nose began itching—as if something was crawling out. He hastily touched it, but felt nothing.
Then his eye sockets started itching too. He rubbed his eyes frantically.
“Are there worms in my eyes?”
“N-no!”
He clawed and scratched at himself, feeling as though those noodle-like worms were crawling all over him, inside and out. It was unbearable. “B-back… go back!”
Then something occurred to him. He suddenly looked toward the base entrance. “That person—the one who can make people lose sensation—bring her here! No, invite her. Invite her immediately!”
Whatever the situation, he couldn’t endure this any longer. Whoever could free him from this horrific sensation—he would worship them if he had to!
…
So less than an hour after Jiang Fu set up her stall, people from Hongri Base arrived, politely yet urgently inviting her inside the base.
A subtle smile curved at the corner of Jiang Fu’s lips, but when she looked up, she wore a surprised expression. “Me?”
“Yes. Chief Ying heard that your ability is exceptionally refined and would like to invite you into the base. You don’t need to queue—you can enter right away!”
“But cutting the line isn’t appropriate. And there are so many people waiting for treatment.”
The man looked as though he was about to cry. “Our base values special talents highly. You can use a special channel. Chief Ying is waiting for you. As for these people, don’t worry—someone will handle it.”
Jiang Fu: …Looks like that strange disease is really serious.
With a hesitant expression, and after repeated earnest requests from the visitors, she finally agreed to enter the base.