Chapter 4: Five Plagues Ghost
Their distance was very close. Old Man Zhao pounced over and had already reached Li Ye.
Benefiting from long-term training method practice, Li Ye tensed his legs and sprang backward, bouncing away in an instant and dodging Old Man Zhao’s pounce. The latter even fell to the ground.
But just as he fell, his body twisted strangely. Clearly lying prone, his upper body suddenly rose ninety degrees, and his knees frantically surged on the ground like swimming snakes, approaching Li Ye. Then he pounced upward, his mouth gaping wide open, biting toward Li Ye.
Li Ye could now clearly see the wriggling things in his mouth.
They were black lines wandering in the rotten food in his mouth, moving back and forth like insects.
His oral cavity was even rotted into meat paste, connecting those black thread worms, but his tongue was very fresh red. And as it got closer, besides the rotten smell, Li Ye even smelled a strange sour taste, but the sour taste was mixed with the rotten sweet stench.
“Fuck!”
In the flash of lightning, Li Ye saw he couldn’t dodge in time. His legs exerted force, and a fierce kicking leg stabbed straight into Old Man Zhao’s chest.
Springing Leg · Door Nail Kick!
Bang!
With a muffled sound, Old Man Zhao’s chest clearly caved in, but Li Ye’s expression also changed.
The sensation from his legs felt like a sticky thing constantly grinding away his strength, like mire trapping his foot inside.
This caused Li Ye a moment’s hesitation. At this time, Old Man Zhao had already brought his head close, preparing to bite his face.
Li Ye’s eyes flashed with ferocity. His other foot suddenly sprang up, following Old Man Zhao’s approaching head with an inverted golden hook kick to his lower jaw, kicking him to tilt backward.
Borrowing the force, Li Ye twisted and shook the foot trapped in Old Man Zhao’s chest, bouncing off Old Man Zhao’s body. He himself spun once in the air and landed on the ground.
Just as he touched the ground, Li Ye quickly supported with both hands, his legs also coming together at this moment, charging straight into Old Man Zhao’s chest.
Springing Leg · Hammer Rush Ladder Break!
Bang!
Like a great hammer smashing a wall, this kick produced an even duller sound. When Li Ye hit, his legs also rotated and vibrated, shaking off the unique muddy sensation from his foot, actually kicking Old Man Zhao two meters away.
“Ah!”
Old Man Zhao had just crawled on the ground when his knees rubbed on the ground without any delay, stubbornly ‘swimming’ toward Li Ye again.
But at this time, Li Ye had already adjusted his posture, unzipped the backpack on his back, held the salt bullet gun in his left hand, and gripped the molotov cocktail steadily in his right, first pulling the trigger to fire the salt water bullet.
Pa!
The high-concentration salt water bullet exploded on Old Man Zhao’s forehead, also slowing down Old Man Zhao’s movements.
Li Ye narrowed his eyes. “Filth Worm.”
The earliest verifiable ancient text is the Sui Dynasty’s “On Origins and Symptoms of All Diseases,” whose ‘filth qi turns to wriggling’ theory states: Its qi is like oil mist, smelling sweet and greasy. Upon infection, skin heats, intestines rumble, craving rotten food, with thread-like things wriggling in the abdomen—this is filth qi congealing into wriggling.
Simply put, it’s a parasite.
It is born in filthy, chaotic, and poor environments, parasitizing the host, causing fever and diarrhea.
Actually, at this stage it’s not a big deal, but if left untreated, the polluted person will gradually crave eating spoiled, deteriorated, extremely filthy food.
If dragged further, the polluted person’s body surface will show moldiness, greasiness, dirt that is hard to clean, and will emit a strange rotten sweet stench.
At this stage, large numbers of black thread worms will appear in the host’s body, filling it like meridians, and they will also become sources of pollution.
At this point, the demonic creature fully becomes the host itself.
The exhaled breath, emitted smell, and contacted objects will all produce new parasites.
But that’s as far as it goes.
It only pollutes everything it can pollute. After polluting, it goes about its business without any murderous traits.
Even if Li Ye was polluted, it would be early stage, solvable by going to a hospital for deworming pills.
A very typical lesser demon.
And high-concentration salt water has an inhibitory effect on filth worm. After one shot made Old Man Zhao stop, Li Ye was even more certain.
He picked up the mobile phone that had fallen on the ground earlier and dialed the emergency number.
Of course call the police!
Was he supposed to solo it?
Salt water only inhibits filth worm, not kills it. After all, it’s a demonic creature; even a newborn demonic creature is a demonic creature.
His several attacks would have killed an untrained person alive, but hitting this thing did nothing.
For ordinary people, the best way to deal with demonic creatures is to find the countermeasure, with the premise of not being polluted.
The way to deal with filth worm is large amounts of highly effective strong insecticides.
Li Ye couldn’t buy this stuff and hadn’t thought to prepare for this kind of demonic creature.
Why go to so much trouble for something the police can handle.
“Don’t move!!”
But just as his thumb touched the screen, a loud shout came from the distance.
Bang!
An inexplicable firecracker-like loud bang. Li Ye only glimpsed a flash of fire before seeing a hole pierced through Old Man Zhao’s forehead.
Whoosh, a figure swiftly darted over, bringing bursts of bright light like a net, slamming into the filth worm, instantly tearing dense cuts across its body, sending the entire body flying backward.
A person in uniform appeared beside Li Ye, left hand with gun, right hand with sword. He didn’t let Li Ye see his face clearly, leaving only one sentence before rushing into the stairwell.
“That’s a filth worm, anyway it’s a demonic creature. Wait for others to come check you, be careful of pollution!”
The person arrived pretty fast.
Li Ye was stunned, then smiled.
So Shenzhou is safe.
But it’s a bit strange—will a filth worm run away when injured?
Just as Li Ye had this thought, his head inexplicably felt dizzy.
Dizzy and swollen, throat itchy, wanting to cough.
A cold?
The instant this idea arose, his stomach rumbled with hunger pangs suddenly emerging.
Hunger?
Pollution appeared?
No!
Filth worm doesn’t cause colds!
Li Ye’s eyes widened. In an instant, Old Man Zhao’s details echoed in his mind.
“The green shell-like substance on the body surface is mold, but besides filth worm parasitism, there’s another thing that causes mold.”
“There’s a sweet greasy breath, but it seems to have a sour fragrance too, and it can make me feel hungry.”
“The oral cavity rotted into meat paste, like scalded, but the tongue is fresh red.”
“And black thread worms, black thread worms only in the mouth.”
“The sensation I touched wasn’t filth, it was syrup, so there was the muddy sinking feeling.”
“High-concentration salt water not only inhibits parasites but also pathogens!”
Li Ye remembered something. He took out a flashlight from his backpack and shone it at the fourth floor, seeing large patches of mold there by the window!
Ancient nursery rhyme: Little ghost climbs the beam, moldy rain hits the window!
Not filth worm!
Filthy, chaotic, poor environments breed many kinds of demonic creatures, each with distinct traits that can be easily distinguished, but some demonic creatures can cause confusion.
He recalled a case taught together with filth worm.
“It’s Five Plagues Ghost!”
Li Ye’s hair stood on end. He gritted his teeth and roared lowly, charging madly into the stairwell.
But during the rush, his symptoms also worsened: fever, headache, cough, hunger, craving to madly eat greasy and sweet things.
Five Plagues Ghost, the only demonic creature that can be confused with filth worm, because their manifestations can’t be detected without careful analysis.
Also a phased demonic creature, Five Plagues Ghost’s initial signs are Li Ye’s current symptoms: fever, headache, hunger.
In the next phase, the host’s perception of food mutates, becoming addicted to sugar and oil. That sour fragrance like vinegar enhances appetite, making one only know to eat voraciously, then stop caring about food quality.
Then fully mutate into something that only knows hunger and keeps eating, devouring food from garbage heaps without hesitation.
In appearance very similar to filth worm. If the former is parasites, the latter is pathogens!
The only way to distinguish is by its body features: syrupy stickiness and filth are different, plus the sour fragrance, especially the fresh red tongue.
Like filth worm, it’s a lesser demon, but it’s very special!
It’s very rare, extremely uncommon in modern times, only appearing a few times in that ghost place Bharata.
Itself a food-born demonic creature, also appearing in filthy, chaotic, poor environments, generally related to food.
But it’s the only demonic creature that cannot be killed with the wrong method!
If not killing Five Plagues Ghost, it at most drains people’s essence and causes pollution, making people sick.
But if killed the wrong way, Five Plagues Ghost will diffuse into the air, enveloping an area!
Then the surrounding area will become a land of rotting food, famine, and great plague!
This is a lesser demon with disaster manifestation power!
That person just said filth worm too—intelligence error!
With the methods he showed, killing the demonic creature wouldn’t be too hard.
But definitely not the correct method!
Once dead, lightly it means everyone seriously ill, severely ICU.
Worse case, this residential community will turn into a land of great plague and famine, all polluted people becoming pitiful ghosts dead from disease and starvation!
His parents live in the next building!
“You fucking Old Man Zhao! Picking trash and garbage is one thing, but how did you think to eat unclean stuff!”
Li Ye’s eyes turned red. He leaped up with one foot, just reaching the fourth floor.
He didn’t even dare take the elevator!
