Chapter 1 The Mist

On the streets of the West District, a heavy fog shrouded everything, making all the buildings appear hazy and dreamlike, like a fairyland.

But the pervasive smell of blood in the air, along with the cries and explosions coming from all around, unequivocally indicated that this was a living hell.

Zhang Ji walked through the streets.

In an alley, a group of thugs were whistling and beating a middle-aged man; at the street corner, a group of young girls surrounded a boy, pinching his cheeks and touching his hands; and an old man carried an old woman into a room...

Chaos reigned, with no one to manage it. Zhang Ji walked through the streets, watching with a cold eye.

Yesterday, he might have been in the mood to play the hero, but today he didn't have the heart for it. Everyone was struggling to survive; no one had it easy.

"Oh, Little Zhang is back!" On the road, Old Lady Li, who was picking up meat scraps with a grocery basket, greeted him, lifting her leg and leaping over the two-meter-high garden fence.

She was as swift as an old rabbit.

"Hello, Grandma Li," Zhang Ji said politely with a smile, sizing up this bloodthirsty Lion Rabbit, Old Lady Li.

Black hair was growing on her head, and her back, which had been stooped from years of scavenging, was no longer hunched. Although there were still wrinkles on her face, her skin was radiant, as if she had used Estée Lauder.

She was accompanied by several other elderly people, all of whom were also vigorous and full of energy, with powerful, bright eyes. They were picking up meat scraps from the street, their faces full of contentment.

Their vitality was strong, clearly indicating that after undergoing three rounds of elimination, the beastly essence had nourished their human bodies, greatly improving their physical fitness.

The strange fog was terrifying, but for some elderly people on the verge of death, it was undoubtedly a great joy.

"Here's an ox penis. Take it home and soak it in liquor," Old Lady Li said with a kind smile, handing Zhang Ji an ox penis, grotesque, thick, with visible blood vessels, more than half a meter long, quite astonishing.

She had picked it up from the street.

"Men who eat ox penis are tigers in bed!" Old Lady Li winked at Zhang Ji, then walked away with her group of sisters.

Zhang Ji smiled. He was already more of a tiger than a tiger at night.

He hurried home with the ox penis.

Sunshine Estate, Zhang Ji's home.

The estate was littered with garbage; no one cleaned it up. The management office, which was usually so eager to collect management fees, was nowhere to be seen. The front of the management hall was covered in blood.

The wind blew scraps of paper and plastic bags around the estate. Stray dogs and cats licked the blood and flesh on the ground; they were noticeably fatter and larger than before.

When they looked up at Zhang Ji, their mouths were full of blood, and their eyes were eerily frightening.

"Zhang Ji!"

Zhang Zhishan saw Zhang Ji and shouted excitedly, quickly walking over.

"Dad, I'm back."

Zhang Ji walked over with a smile, relieved. His father's condition was clearly better than yesterday, indicating that his black tiger had evolved further last night.

Zhang Zhishan looked at Zhang Ji, his face full of worry, and said, "You didn't come back yesterday, and I couldn't find out about the others. Luckily, you're back. Did something happen?"

"No, I just got lost. It took me a long time to get out of the forest," Zhang Ji said, not wanting to worry his father.

Zhang Zhishan nodded and sighed. "It seems we really can't get out. Xichuan Town has become an isolated town. What are we going to do?"

His face was full of worry.

Zhang Ji put his arm around his father's shoulders and comforted him, "With me here, we'll work together to eat meat and evolve. We'll definitely be able to get out of Xichuan Town alive!"

"Even if we can't get out, we'll live well."

"No one is going to eat us father and son!"

His tone was forceful and confident, his eyes shining.

Zhang Zhishan was encouraged and his confidence increased. "Son, I believe in you!"

"Oh, right, I've already buried your grandfather. He's buried in the cemetery outside Xihong Road. After we eat, I'll take you to burn some paper money for him."

The two men spoke as they entered the house.

Instead of soaking the ox penis in liquor, Zhang Zhishan stir-fried two large bowls of it with chili peppers and garlic, and he and Zhang Ji each ate a bowl, their heads steaming with heat.

Zhang Zhishan, who had promised to burn paper money for his father, was called away by Fangfang from the neighboring estate, who said that the faucet in her bathroom was broken and asked Zhang Zhishan to help her fix it.

Zhang Zhishan went excitedly.

Zhang Ji went alone to burn paper money for his grandfather. The Xihong Road cemetery had many new graves, and many people were wearing mourning clothes and wailing, their sorrowful voices echoing in the fog.

Zhang Ji had heard it so much that he was already numb.

He walked through the fog and came to a weedy field in the suburbs.

The grass was damp, and there was a huge, twenty-meter-long snakeskin, looming in the fog. Black residue remained on the snakeskin, giving off a foul odor.

This was the snakeskin that Zhang Ji had shed last night.

He squatted down and scraped off a bit of the black residue from the snakeskin. He mixed it with Zhu Tiandao's potion, and in an instant, the black residue came to life, turning into tiny, black, insect-like monsters, densely packed, baring their fangs and claws, which was very unsettling.

Zhang Ji's eyes narrowed.

"As expected, it's identical to the obsidian substance extracted by Zhu Tiandao."

His expression was uncertain. How could this stuff be in the strange fog?

He stretched out his arm, and wisps of fog from the void fell silently, merging into his flesh. He could only feel a chilling cold, making his skin and bones shiver, but he didn't know that another strange creature was burrowing into his body.

"Every time I evolve and shed my skin, I expel these things from my body, but my father's and other people's evolution absorbs these things into their bodies, accumulating in their flesh..."

"What will happen if this continues?"

Zhang Ji frowned, unsure of what the future held. His evolutionary path was different from everyone else's.

Taking out a bottle, Zhang Ji scraped all of the obsidian substance from the snakeskin and carried the bottle to the Niu Niu Le Farm.

It was very quiet here. The ground was stained with blood, and the sounds of cattle and sheep could be faintly heard in the distance.

Zhang Ji walked into the yak breeding base and saw feed in the troughs, guessing that Zhang Zhishan had added it.

Some calves had just been born and were nursing. Zhang Ji grabbed them, a total of ten calves, and tied them to the ground with iron chains.

"Moo, moo, moo."

They cried out in fear, kicking helplessly, their bovine eyes wide, staring curiously at Zhang Ji.

"Good calves, I'm giving you something good to eat."

Zhang Ji took a small spoonful of the obsidian substance from the bottle, divided it into ten portions, and fed each of the ten calves.

"Obsidian substance can instantly turn people into beasts and promote evolution. What about animals?" Zhang Ji was very curious, staring at the reactions of the ten calves.

The plants and animals of Xichuan Town had not yet mutated, and still looked the same as usual.

But after Zhang Ji fed the calves the obsidian substance, their fur grew wildly, and their bodies increased in size at a rate visible to the naked eye. The void fog surged in and entered their bodies.

"Moo-roar~"

The ten calves let out beast-like roars, low and suppressed, and the aura on their bodies became fierce. Their eyes were filled with violence and red light.

They were struggling to break free of the iron chains, making loud noises, and their strength had increased many times over.

Zhang Ji's heart skipped a beat. He took another spoonful of obsidian substance, divided it into ten portions, and continued to feed them.

"I want to see what you'll evolve into."

Zhang Ji's eyes flashed with light.

The bodies of the ten calves grew again, becoming the same size as adult cattle, but their fur was longer, their auras were fiercer, their eyes were filled with a beastly violence and bloodlust, and serrated fangs grew in their mouths.

Such yaks were no longer ordinary livestock, but more like ferocious monsters.

"Keep going, eat a few more spoonfuls!"

Zhang Ji fed them, using up the entire bottle of obsidian substance.

If Zhu Tiandao were to see this, he would definitely exclaim that he was a spendthrift, using it indiscriminately.

"Bang~"

One of the cows suddenly exploded, its flesh flying everywhere, its intestines and organs scattered on the ground.

Then, the other cows exploded, turning into fragments of flesh, as if their physical bodies could not withstand so much energy.

Ten cows exploded and died in succession, and the void seemed to be raining blood and flesh.

In the blink of an eye, only three cows were still alive.

The stench of blood permeated the air. Zhang Ji stepped on the minced meat and looked at the three living cows.

They were all five meters tall, like three behemoths, with fur as thick as silk, scarlet and cruel eyes, curved horns like iron hooks flashing with metallic luster, and terrifying white serrated fangs in their mouths.

Their auras were fierce and terrifying, almost as strong as the Tibetan mastiff that Lü Wencai had become last night.

Zhang Ji's eyes lit up, and he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, quietly hiding in the shadows.

"Roar~"

The three cows roared, their voices like muffled thunder, low and majestic. They suddenly jumped up, and the iron chains that bound them snapped with a "pop" sound, then charged towards the nearby herd of cattle.

In an instant, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and the herd was thrown into chaos.

There were painful screams, the crunching sounds of flesh being chewed, and roars like those of wild beasts.

Zhang Ji remained silent, taking a deep breath of the bloody air, waiting quietly, not leaving.

He glanced at his watch. It was almost four o'clock.

There was no more time to capture Wu Zhan and the other experimental subjects for Zhu Tiandao.

Yesterday, the beastly mutation had occurred at five o'clock in the afternoon. According to his deduction, it was happening an hour earlier each day, so today it should be at four o'clock.

Outside.

He could hear his father's footsteps. He was listening to Zhang Ji and had entered the neighboring sheepfold on time, ready to eat sheep.

A smile appeared on Zhang Ji's face. It was indeed good to have such a carefree and self-aware father, taking him along to farm monsters and evolve.

"Rustle~"

Just as it turned four o'clock, Zhang Ji felt a burst of numbness all over his body.

In the shadows, Zhang Ji disappeared, replaced by a titanic python king cobra, its massive body slithering, the scales scraping against the ground tiles, making an ear-piercing sound.

With shimmering, cold scales, raising its oval-shaped head, Zhang Ji flicked its scarlet tongue, creating a gust of wind, and charged into the cattle pen.

Its target was none other than the three giant cow monsters that were preying on the other yaks.