The Immortal of Plague begins by establishing the root of lung fire.

Song You sat on the wooden bed, adjusted his breathing, and inhaled again. The familiar terror reappeared. He suppressed his instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm, forcing himself to stay awake and face the terror directly.

He had previously noticed that the great terror that accompanied the Qi cultivation was slightly different each time, so this time he decided to take a closer look to see if there was anything unusual.

Spiritual energy should be formless, but in his current perception, the surging air around him was filled with seemingly real yet illusory lumps. These things had no fixed shape, and were densely piled up and compressed together.

Song You focused his mind on perceiving those outlines. The moment he observed the blocky object, a dramatic change occurred inside it. Dense black dots appeared on its surface, and the intensity of the terror increased sharply.

The oppressive feeling transformed directly into a tangible mental piercing, and Song You's vision went black.

Upon opening his eyes, familiar tree bark came into view. He was curled up in a hidden tree hole outside the Barat warehouse. After catching his breath, a wave of nausea surged up. Song You turned his head to the corner of the tree hole and dry heaved, spitting out a few mouthfuls of bitter stomach acid, and greedily swallowed the air.

After a long while, Song You felt his breathing return to normal. The structure he had just seen was so disgusting that it exceeded the limits of human comprehension.

Song You leaned against the tree, pondering what had just happened. He didn't try to sense the spiritual energy; it was just ordinary air. If he did, a great terror would descend. If he observed closely, the terror would be amplified exponentially. This change was beyond reason and unbelievable. He wondered if the elders, such as Jia Chunfang, were aware of it.

With his current early-stage cultivation level, forcibly exploring such an existence beyond his comprehension would be nothing short of suicide.

Song You shook his head. He was not qualified to explore the truth of the world now. He threw the scene he had just witnessed into the depths of his memory and resolved to treat Qi Induction as a switch to trigger the Return to the Light World from now on, and never look at it again.

Exhaling a breath of stale air, Song You emerged from the tree hollow. The humid and sweltering air of India enveloped his entire body. The core objective of this trip was to find high-quality lesions to prepare for the secret technique of lesion drilling.

He went through the events that had happened in his mind. At that time, there were people in the warehouse who were specifically transporting children from all over the world for experiments. Song You also intercepted the mysterious pills that could eliminate pathogens. This showed that Bharat definitely had a biomedical laboratory under his name.

The laboratory is a densely populated area with a security level far exceeding that of the surrounding warehouses. Directly infiltrating the laboratory poses a great potential threat. Although Song You wouldn't mind slaughtering these beasts, the cleanup afterwards would be extremely troublesome.

Song You does not intend to reveal his capabilities before his strength reaches a level that allows him to ignore modern heavy firepower or possess a nuclear deterrent-level equivalent force, as doing so would only invite a joint attack from all sides.

Another option is to go to the nearby city of Khalidwa. Although Song You doesn't know much about it, he roughly knows that it is an important city along the Ganges River. The Ganges water is undoubtedly of high quality, and if he can drink a sip of the pure Ganges water, his Dao root might be greatly improved.

Song You touched the inside pocket of his suit jacket, which contained more than 7,000 rupees that he had exchanged before coming to India. With the basic Hindi he had learned from warehouse workers and security guards in the past few days by improving his listening skills, he could easily survive in the city for a day or two.

Song You walked towards the passage leading to the warehouse, but stopped near the edge of the woods. The sound of rhythmic footsteps echoed through the passage.

Song You lowered his center of gravity and hid behind the bushes. He had walked through the passage many times before and had never encountered such a situation. It seemed that something must have happened inside the Barat Manor.

He abandoned the passageway and moved around the outer perimeter of the high wall to the warehouse's main entrance area. Two SUVs were blocking the entrance, and more than a dozen fully armed security personnel were guarding the door.

Song You's gaze passed over the iron gate; a large-scale search was underway inside the warehouse. The security captain, holding a walkie-talkie, shouted orders in Hindi. Two workers in blue overalls were pinned to the hood of a car, and a security guard pulled out a baton and struck one of the workers on the back of the knee.

Song You was startled. Had he been exposed?

He quickly calmed down. If he had been exposed, the security team would have searched the surrounding woods and roads. The current situation seemed more like an internal purge.

Previously, he had used the satellite phone in Bharat's office to leak the contract trap targeting Ruikang Pharmaceuticals to Meng Meng. Meng Wenyuan must have taken action; Bharat's assassination plot had failed, and with pressure from the American consortium, he would naturally suspect an internal mole.

This massive search was intended to find the leaker, but due to the increased internal management level, access is temporarily restricted.

Just as Song You was preparing to leave, three heavy trucks drove out from deep within the warehouse.

The engine roared dully, and Song You could tell that the truck had a huge load capacity. The cargo box was a fully enclosed silver-gray metal structure, with no logistics company logos painted on the surface. A radiator fan for a special refrigeration device was hanging at the rear of the truck.

This type of refrigerated truck, modified for cold chain transport, most likely belongs to that hidden medical laboratory and is used to transport experimental materials or transfer certain illicit items.

The iron gate opened, and three trucks drove onto the main road, heading straight for the city of Khalidwa.

Having made his decision, Song You went directly to the city to investigate. He walked along the shady side of the road in the woods.

Half an hour later, the scene in front of the highway gradually became clear: rows of tin shacks and shantytowns made of plastic sheeting stretched out in an endless stream, children were rummaging through garbage heaps for food, and stray dogs and sacred cows roamed freely on the road.

The air was extremely humid and filled with a pungent sulfur smell. Song You maintained a steady breathing rate, his lung fire circulating within his lungs, filtering the polluted air he inhaled. Surprisingly, his lung fire activity increased even in this environment filled with putrid odors.

After avoiding the crowds, Song You walked for more than an hour. A large cluster of low-rise buildings appeared ahead, which was neater than before. The city of Khalidwa was now in sight.

Finally able to catch his breath, Song You saw a fork in the road in front of the main road in the city, leading to a densely packed factory area. He didn't go in directly; instead, he noted the location of the fork and turned to walk towards the bustling street.

Originally, Song You thought he would stand out as a foreigner here, but when he looked around, he found the streets crowded with tourists from all over the world, and his presence was immediately diminished.

"Has something happened?" Song You wondered to himself. Then he thought it might be a good thing, as it would give him more freedom to do things. But before that, it would be best to find out what had happened during this time.

Song You looked around, preparing to find a mobile phone store to ask if they had any cheap phones for sale.

Just then, a three-wheeled tuk-tuk painted in yellow and green brakes braked suddenly and stopped beside Song You. A thin, dark-skinned old man leaned out of the driver's seat.

"Sir, need a ride?" the old man greeted ingratiatingly in heavily accented English. "To the Ganges bathing beach or the temple? My car is the fastest and the most reasonably priced."