Chapter 1 The Fourth Day

The eerie fog disaster, the fourth day Xi Chuan Town had been isolated from the world.

The West District office building of Xi Chuan Town was shrouded in thick fog. In the inner courtyard of the back room, two figures sat facing each other, drinking tea, the fragrance lingering in the air.

"I didn't expect Snake Master to be you, Zhang Ji. Lu Wencai died at your hands, not unjustly," Zhu Tiandao sighed, taking out a cigarette and handing it to Zhang Ji.

He seemed calm, but his hand trembled as he offered the cigarette, and he had to try several times before he could light it for Zhang Ji.

Zhang Ji took a puff of the cigarette, closed his eyes slightly. The taste of Black Lanzhou was indeed much better than his usual China cigarettes. He exhaled a smoke ring and said, "Don't try to be familiar with me. Where's Lu Wencai?"

"You ate him. That Tibetan mastiff last night, that was him!"

Zhang Ji: "..."

"That was an accident."

Although he was sitting, his figure was as tall as an iron tower, his aura strong, and his eyes sharp, causing Zhu Tiandao to shrink back slightly.

"Yes, Lu Wencai died unjustly. He was also for the people of Xi Chuan Town. He..."

"Shut up! His actions don't represent the people of Xi Chuan Town. His brutal methods make me suspect his sinister motives had other purposes!"

"To tell you the truth, I devoured him on purpose. The taste of his flesh and blood was delicious!"

Zhang Ji's eyes turned fierce, and he licked his lips, his white teeth gleaming as he said, "If you dare to play dumb in front of me again, I'll devour you too!"

Zhu Tiandao shuddered, squeezed out a smile, and said frankly, "Snake Master, don't be angry. Lu Wencai actually admired you very much and planned to give you an important position."

"Then why arrest me?"

"For live experiments! I'm studying the eerie fog and lack live specimens. Your physique and qi and blood are strong, so I took a fancy to you."

Seeing suspicion in Zhang Ji's eyes, he quickly got up and led Zhang Ji to an office building in the backyard.

Following the underground steps, they entered a spacious basement.

It had been converted into an underground laboratory.

As soon as he entered, Zhang Ji smelled a strong bloody odor.

Before him were densely packed glass boxes and iron cages. The glass boxes contained various colored experimental liquids, and many people lay inside with their eyes closed, immersed in the liquids, whether dead or alive.

In the iron cages, many people were also bound by iron chains, with various instrument tubes inserted into their bodies.

They were stripped naked, with numbers hanging outside, 005, 006, 007...

On an experimental table inside was a dissection table. A corpse had been dissected, like a fat pig, dripping with blood, its internal organs and bones clearly visible.

Such a laboratory was as terrifying and appalling as hell.

Zhu Tiandao checked the experimental data and said, "Lu Wencai claimed to the outside world that he hadn't discovered the cause of the Xi Chuan Town disaster, but in fact, he already knew the truth about people turning into beasts at night and took the initiative to ask me to help with the research."

Zhang Ji was surprised but not surprised. This was the official foundation.

But looking at the bloody experimental scene before him, Zhang Ji was still deeply moved.

Especially Zhu Tiandao, who was already old and gray-haired, looking like a kind old man, but unexpectedly had such a cruel side.

He was simply a devil.

If this were before the disaster, he would never have been tolerated and would have been shot eighteen times.

But now, Zhang Ji needed him.

"Some people work tirelessly at night to dispel the darkness for the masses, bright and great, but behind them there must be shadows, evil and terrifying," Zhu Tiandao said seriously. "I am that shadow."

He glanced at Zhang Ji and said, "Before, Lu Wencai was the one holding the lamp in the night, but now that he's dead, you are!"

Zhang Ji picked up an eyeball from the dissection table and crushed it with a pop, saying, "I'm not a lamp holder. I'm just a king cobra who swallows anyone I don't like!"

"If you can't prove your worth to me, you'll be the one lying on the experimental table next time!"

Zhu Tiandao choked.

He muttered in a low voice, "I will prove myself," and then pointed to the laboratory, his eyes flashing with excitement as he introduced, "This is the live experiment. These people are all my specimens. Lu Wencai helped me capture them."

"In the future, you will help me capture people."

He quickly walked to a cabinet in the corner.

He carefully took out a glass bottle and held it in both hands, offering it to Zhang Ji.

"Look, this is what I've researched."

In the bottle, there was a hair-like black thing that looked very familiar to Zhang Ji.

It seemed to be the thing he expelled from his body when he shed his snakeskin.

Zhu Tiandao said proudly and excitedly, "This thing is what I extracted from these experimental specimens. I named it Obsidian Matter."

"Obsidian Matter?!"

"Yes, this substance comes from the eerie fog, but it's invisible and intangible. It only reacts and manifests after entering human flesh and blood. It's the root cause of promoting human mutation and beast transformation, and it's also the trigger for this eerie fog disaster."

Zhu Tiandao's expression was serious.

When talking about professional knowledge, his whole person seemed to be glowing, his whole temperament greatly enhanced, and his eyes were bright.

Zhang Ji nodded slightly. This person was indeed different from those sanctimonious experts.

He seemed to have some real skills.

"Continue," Zhang Ji gestured, reaching for a cigarette, but Zhu Tiandao snatched it away and extinguished it, shouting that smoking was not allowed in the laboratory, but suddenly remembered that this person was not Lu Wencai, but that king cobra Zhang Ji, and he couldn't help but turn pale with fright.

Zhang Ji grinned and took the cigarette back, saying, "This is your territory, you have the final say. Okay, continue!"

Zhu Tiandao didn't expect Zhang Ji to be so gentle and was somewhat flattered and encouraged.

"To prove what I said, I'll give you a demonstration on the spot," Zhu Tiandao said seriously, merging the hair-like black thing in the bottle, that is, the Obsidian Matter, with a green liquid.

In an instant, a strange scene occurred.

The Obsidian Matter, which looked like an inanimate object, instantly came to life, swimming in the green liquid, baring its fangs and claws, turning into countless insects with black fangs.

They were dense and made one's scalp tingle.

They looked like snakes and insects, and also like some other kind of living being.

Zhang Ji felt waves of evil and eerie aura that made his hair stand on end.

"This thing isn't inanimate. It's actually alive?!"

"That's right, it's alive and has strong activity. Human mutation and beast transformation are caused by it."

As Zhu Tiandao spoke, he picked up the bottle of liquid and splashed it on a man in an iron cage.

"Swish~"

The liquid landed on his body, and the black insects instantly burrowed into his flesh and pores.

The next moment, the man who had been drooping his head in the iron cage suddenly twisted all over, his skin grew black hair, his head turned into a rat's head, and a tail appeared behind him.

In the blink of an eye, he had turned from a human into a rat.

His eyes suddenly opened, scarlet and tyrannical.

His fur was black and thick, and his figure was close to two meters tall. He struggled with the iron chains, roaring and pouncing in the iron cage, but he couldn't break free. His teeth bit on the iron chains, rubbing out sparks and making a teeth-grinding sound.

Zhang Ji roared in front of the cage, and the rat in the cage instantly quieted down, shivering, with excrement coming out of its rear.

Zhu Tiandao looked at Zhang Ji in fear. This guy had definitely evolved to an extremely high level. His human body had the majesty of a king cobra. Look at how scared this rat was.

He pointed to the rat in the cage and said, "This guy is a rat. After the Obsidian Matter invades his flesh and blood, he will mutate and transform into a rat."

Zhang Ji frowned and said, "But according to my observation, humans only mutate and transform at night."

Zhu Tiandao smiled and said, "That's because every night, when the fog tide comes, the Obsidian Matter in the fog becomes richer, and the coefficient increases, so people mutate."

"I'm now artificially increasing the coefficient ratio of the Obsidian Matter, so naturally, I can make him instantly beastify and mutate."

Zhang Ji nodded.

He then asked, "Then why do those who are rats turn into rats, and those who are snakes turn into snakes? Can people only turn into their respective zodiac signs?"

He paused, grinned, and said, "To be honest, Professor Zhu, if you can turn me into a dragon, not a Flood Dragon, but a real dragon, preferably a nine-clawed golden dragon, I would be grateful to you."

Zhu Tiandao was stunned.

He really wanted to say that one's greed is as great as a snake's that tries to swallow an elephant, and you're thinking too much!

But the words came to his mouth and became: "Snake Master has ambition. Don't worry, I will try my best to help you achieve this grand goal!"

Then he said, "As for why humans turn into monsters of their respective zodiac signs, according to my analysis, it is very likely that each of us has the bloodline imprint of the twelve zodiac signs in our bodies."

"In simple terms, it's genes, recessive genes."

"Obsidian Matter promotes the recessive gene to become a dominant gene, causing humans to mutate and show signs of returning to their ancestors. Our ancestors were the twelve zodiac signs."

Zhang Ji laughed when he heard this and said, "Are you telling me a joke? I'm a snake, so does that mean my ancestor, the Zhang family, was a snake?!"

Zhang Ji didn't believe it.

Zhu Tiandao asked rhetorically:

"Why can't your ancestor be a snake? Nvwa, who created humans, was also a snake!"

"'Rulinguang Hall Fu' records 'Fuxi with a scaly body, Nvwa with a snake body'. In the early Eastern Han Dynasty tomb stone carvings in Henan, Fuxi holds a square, and Nvwa holds a compass, with their upper bodies clothed and their lower bodies revealing snake tails, standing opposite each other.

The Fuxi and Nvwa mating images in the Tang Dynasty tombs in Xinjiang show their bodies below the waist are intertwined snake bodies..."

Zhu Tiandao cited many examples to support his views.

Zhang Ji frowned and said, "What you said makes sense, but there is no real evidence!"

Zhu Tiandao sighed and said with a burning gaze, "Yes, there is no evidence. It's all my speculation, but it's not necessarily all false or compiled by the ancients."

"In the bloodline imprints of us humans, there are hidden genes of the twelve zodiac signs, each different. Once activated and awakened, we can return to our ancestral bloodline."

"Those who are snakes return to the snake, those who are tigers return to the tiger, and those who are chickens return to the chicken... These snakes, tigers, and chickens are not ordinary livestock or animals, but divine birds and ancient beasts that can move mountains and fill seas!"

"It's just that endless years have passed, and their bloodline abilities have long degenerated, so they need to evolve slowly, step by step, and explore the supernatural powers lurking in the bloodline imprints of their ancestors."

Speaking of this, he smiled and said, "We often say that we are descendants of the dragon. Perhaps our ancestors were dragons... of course, I mean those who are dragons."

Zhu Tiandao spoke broadly, mostly his guesses, but it gave Zhang Ji great inspiration.