pjbooks Chapter 36 Praising the Loving Father
Chapter 36 Praising the Loving Father
When Xu Yuan arrived in Rongcheng, only a little over an hour had passed.
This was even under the premise that he was suppressing his own speed.
With his current speed, if he were to run at full speed, he could surpass the speed he used to chase the killer across the sea last time, but the terrifying wind pressure that would come with it would also level everything in his path.
Looking at the checkpoint ahead, Xu Yuan straightened her clothes and then walked over.
"Temporary traffic control ahead, passage prohibited!"
The soldiers at the checkpoint were fulfilling their duty and stopped Xu Yuan.
The guards here are just ordinary soldiers who have no idea that Xu Yuan exists.
As originally planned, the Dragon Soul team and Xu Yuan were to come together, and the Dragon Soul team would naturally be responsible for these negotiations.
Even now, the existence of wishes, like the apocalypse, remains a closely guarded secret known only to a very few.
but now……
The Dragon Soul team hasn't arrived yet.
Xu Yuan did not make things difficult for this dutiful soldier, but he did not want to wait any longer.
Since this concerns the Four Gods, it's best to resolve it sooner rather than later to avoid causing further trouble.
Xu Yuan turned and left, arriving at a sheer cliff.
Ordinary people simply cannot get up here.
Or rather, normal humans simply cannot go up there.
The cliff's angle exceeds ninety degrees, and its height exceeds fifty meters.
Xu Yuan bent his knees slightly, and the ground beneath his feet trembled slightly.
"Bang!"
The next instant, he shot into the sky as if defying gravity!
The figure sliced through the air, accompanied by a low whistling sound.
Ten meters, twenty meters, thirty meters...
Fifty meters!
Sixty meters!
Seventy meters!
The upward momentum only ended when the jump reached a distance of seventy meters.
It was at this moment that Xu Yuan spotted the target location from afar.
A patch of ghastly green, like a festering sore, clung firmly to the ground.
Underneath the pale green fungal carpet lay various objects, the only thing whose shape could be vaguely discerned was the gate of the junkyard.
A plaque hangs above the gate.
The sign reads: "Old Zhang's Scrap Station".
It wasn't a custom-made, elaborate plaque, but rather handwritten, with crooked and messy characters, resembling a child's scribbles.
After the wish landed on the ground, his expression turned serious.
In addition to the visible fungal carpet, he also sensed a strong aura of the Four Gods, which was pungent and foul-smelling.
Damn it!
Nagoro, one of the four gods in the dream.
Perhaps because of the expansion, the stench of Nurgle is exceptionally strong, far exceeding that of Wang Yuan and Cheng Yong before!
As Xu Yuan strolled towards the recycling station, he silently became more vigilant.
Because the fungal carpet is still expanding and it can cause harm.
Therefore, the military only deployed troops on the periphery.
Xu Yuan quickly reached the edge of the fungal carpet.
He looked down at the ground.
The yellowish-brown soil and the green fungal carpet are clearly distinct.
Xu Yuan enveloped his entire body with his spiritual power and tentatively stepped into the area of the fungal carpet.
really!
As soon as he stepped into the fungal carpet, his mental energy scanned countless tiny particles invisible to the naked eye rushing towards him and swirling around him.
Fortunately, his mental strength was strong enough to completely isolate these ubiquitous tiny particles.
Xu Yuan did not let his guard down and continued toward the scrap metal collection station.
But it wasn't until he reached the gate of the scrap metal recycling station and looked up at the sign that read "Old Zhang's Scrap Metal Recycling Station" that he realized what was happening.
The anticipated attack did not occur.
—Those viruses and bacteria are not really attacks; they are just biological instincts.
What's going on?
Even though Xu Yuan had already cleared out two infected individuals, he had never seen this situation before.
Whether it was Cheng Yong or Wang Yuan, they were determined to fight to the death the moment they met.
Is the tainted infected trying to hold back something big?
Xu Yuan looked into the scrap metal recycling station.
There, an elderly man with a hunched back was sitting at a table in the middle of the scrap metal recycling station with a young man, looking incredibly warm and harmonious.
This is assuming we ignore the thick, almost black, pale green fungal carpet covering the two of them...
The source of the foul smell came from the old man inside—Zhang Quanfu, the owner of this scrap yard.
The young man, however, had a strange aura.
However, because the young man had his back to the door, Xu Yuan could not see the other person's specific situation.
"A guest has arrived? Don't mind the shabby place, come in... sit down, sit down."
When the old man saw Xu Yuan walk in from outside the courtyard, his face was full of warm smiles, but his voice was dry and hoarse, like a broken bellows.
I'm not afraid to make a wish.
As he got closer, he finally saw the young man's face.
Xu Yuan's pupils contracted.
The young man's face was completely covered by a ghastly green fungal carpet, and the skin peeking out from the gaps in the carpet was a pale white.
The young man's chest remained completely still.
This is a dead person.
But it wasn't completely dead; its body could still move under the control of the green fungal carpet.
He kept muttering the same sentence to himself.
"Praise...to the loving father"
"Praise be to our kind father..."
"I..." Xu Yuan was about to speak when Zhang Quanfu interrupted her.
"You're Xiao Jian's friend, right? He told me that his friends might be coming over to visit in the next few days." The old man stood up with a smile. "If you don't mind, please have a simple meal at our place."
Looking into the old man's cloudy eyes, which held a strange obsession, and glancing at the corpse still "praising his loving father," Xu Yuan remained silent for a moment before slowly nodding.
The Dragon Soul team, responsible for cleaning up the area, hasn't arrived yet. Let's see what Zhang Quanfu is up to first.
Zhang Quanfu got up and walked towards the tin shack at the back of the yard, with Xu Yuan following behind him.
Upon entering the tin-roofed house, Xu Yuan saw the walls covered with certificates of merit.
Zhang Jian has won first place in the grade...
Zhang Jian has been awarded the title of "Excellent Student"...
[Zhang Jian has been awarded the title of Outstanding Employee of the Year...]
"See!"
Zhang Quanfu pointed to the few certificates of merit that had not yet been stained in the pale green fungal carpet, his cloudy eyes brimming with pride.
"My son! Zhang Jian! He's been so outstanding since he was little! Every time he brings something home, he posts it here and says, 'Dad, I've made you proud...'"
Xu Yuan remained silent.
The official investigation did not mention Zhang Jian's death or any unusual circumstances.
But he now has a strong premonition.
This outbreak of infection is inextricably linked to Zhang Jian.
Zhang Quanfu didn't mind that Xu Yuan didn't respond, and continued talking to himself while fiddling with the large pot on the stove.
"I'm not very educated as a father, but I have one wish: that my son will be healthy and strong in the future, so I named him Zhang Jian..."
"In the early years, the scrap metal business was tough, and that was all I knew how to do... Xiao Jian has been sensible and ambitious since he was little, and I've never had to worry about him..."
"Later, he got into university, graduated, got a decent job, and earned quite a lot... I figured that seeing him get married and have children would make my life complete..."
"But who knew... this child..."
At this point, Zhang Quanfu paused in his stirring of the large pot, his hunched back trembling slightly.
Xu Yuan glanced down at the green, viscous, unidentified substance in the large pot, but did not interrupt Zhang Quanfu.
After a long while, Zhang Quanfu seemed to have regained his strength.
"Who knew this kid was so filial? He said to me, 'Dad, you've collected junk your whole life, it's time to live in a nice house.' I said I didn't want to go, I was fine here... but he wouldn't listen. He worked his day job and then drove a truck at night... He stayed up all night for several nights in a row..."
"Sigh, as a father, what's with all the hardship and worrying? Isn't this what I should do..."
"Besides, houses in big cities are so expensive. I'm just a scrap collector, how could I possibly enjoy that kind of luxury..."
"But this kid just won't listen. He works so hard every day, and after finishing overtime, he still goes off to do other things. Yes! He's a food delivery driver, and he's even driving for Didi..."
"Look, he just came back a few days ago, all excited... He said he's got enough for the down payment, he'll take me to see the new house after he takes a nap..."
The old man raised his trembling hand and pointed to the body wrapped in a fungal carpet in the yard outside the window.
"Look how soundly he's sleeping..."
"It's good that he's back, it's good that he's back. Let him sleep well. As long as he's still in this courtyard... this home is still home."
"When Xiao Jian wakes up, I don't want this pile of junk anymore." He paused, as if using all his strength, "But we have to keep that sign by the door. That's what he... that's what he wrote, stroke by stroke, when he was six years old, unable to reach it, standing on a stool..."
"Old Zhang's scrap yard... I had to stand on a stool and hold him while I wrote that stroke straight..."
His voice grew softer and softer, eventually merging into the bubbling of the large pot and the endless whispers of the corpse outside the window.
"Praise be to our kind father..."