A mage's journey begins with a battle mage.

Chapter 289 The Infection Begins

Red grass beach, deep seabed.

Red seaweed covers the vast seabed, and hardworking fish-farmers are busy tending to their seaweed fields.

"York, have you made some money? How come you can afford to eat red meat on the ground now?"

A farmer looked at York with immense envy.

"It's nothing, we grew them ourselves."

York was very proud.

"You grew it yourself? Haha, don't be ridiculous. Did you raise fish and then trade them for red meat?"

"That's too extravagant. Those fish can still reproduce, how can you slaughter them?"

"Stop talking, they don't care about such a small thing."

York smiled indifferently at his fellow humans, then turned and walked away.

It all started a week ago.

On this day, York was working hard in his family's seaweed field.

"Soon, just keep saving up. Once this batch of seaweed is harvested and sold, I'll be able to pay off my loan."

York muttered to himself that the house and the land were bought by his father through loans and other means. Through the efforts of his family for over a hundred years, York's generation had finally paid off the debt.

"York!"

Suddenly, York heard someone calling him from outside.

"They're here."

York responded and quickly ran out of the field.

When will you pay off your loan?

"It was said by a fierce-looking, extremely strong merman."

"Sir, just a few days, just a few days."

York's attitude was very humble.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter whether I pay it back or not, but..."

The burly man chuckled, his laughter chilling.

"I'm not here to urge you to repay your loan; I have other business to discuss."

"What is it, sir? Please tell me, and I will certainly..."

York was all smiles and trying to ingratiate himself, but before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by the big man.

"You've farmed here for so many years, I ask you, have you ever paid your dues?"

"Offering? What's that?"

"Heh heh, you really are a bumpkin. Offering tribute is your devotion to the Storm God. You lowly commoner, if you don't pay your tribute, I think you want to die!"

"But, but, before..."

"The past is the past, but now..."

"I won't worry about what your family owed before, but you should pay up for the last hundred years first."

"One, a hundred years?"

York asked incredulously.

"Even if you don't pay within a hundred years, I'll take your life!"

"Then, how much do you want?"

Hoping for a stroke of luck, York asked cautiously.

"Not much. With your harvest, you should get about twenty gold coins a year, right? According to the regulations, you only need to hand over one-tenth, which is two gold coins."

"One hundred years is two hundred gold coins. Including the punishment for not paying before, it's one thousand gold coins."

Upon hearing this, York's eyes went black, and he nearly floated up belly up.

"Sir, I earn twenty gold coins a year, that's before taxes, and that covers our living expenses..."

He was about to say something when the big man gave him a cold glance.

"This is what the higher-ups say: behave yourself, either hand it in, or else..."

The big man stared coldly at York, scrutinizing him closely.

"I remember you have family and children, right?"

"But I can't afford it..."

"It's okay if you can't afford it. You can pay the blood tax. You and your son can join the army, then sell the land and the house, and that should be enough. As for your wife..."

The big man thought for a moment. The wife of this lowly commoner was not beautiful. She was drab and had no colorful markings on her body. She was an ugly woman.

"Someone will take care of us, or we can go together to the great church army and dedicate our lives to the great storm god."

"But……"

bump.

The big man knocked York down with a single punch.

"I'm doing you a favor by coming here to talk to you, you lowly commoner, why do you talk so much?"

"This is a notification, not a discussion!"

After saying that, the big man left.

He wasn't afraid York would run away, or rather, he didn't care if York did.

After all, a large, well-cultivated seaweed field is a decent source of extra income.

Once the person ran away, the land naturally belonged to him.

Of course, even if he doesn't run away, he has plenty of ways to deal with it.

"Why, why, why!"

York yelled three times, then his vision went black. Overwhelmed by anger, he flipped over and floated to the surface of the sea.

The weather on the sea suddenly changed, with strong winds and heavy rain.

The rain poured down, and large raindrops pelted York.

"What is this thing?"

Jiang Shuzhou was currently searching for a suitable location to deploy the Crimson Infection. He originally planned to just find a random spot, drop it there, and then wait for the infection to break out and automatically refresh the army.

Who knew that as it was spinning, this thing floated up from below.

"Fine, since we're destined to meet, I'll let you use this good thing."

Jiang Shuzhou looked at York, nodded, and then injected the scarlet infection into his body.

At the same time, he also noticed York's identity.

As a farmer, Jiang Shuzhou, after all, possessed spiritual power. He scanned the farmland on the seabed, and York was even holding a pitchfork used for shoveling seaweed.

"Hey farmers, here's some, go plant it."

Jiang Shuzhou was very generous and gave York a ball of flesh the size of a basketball. This ball of flesh was the Nest Builder, or rather, his initial form.

The fleshy ball opened and closed, filtering nutrients from the seawater, and its body grew at an extremely slow pace.

The abundant biomass in the ocean will be the foundation for his growth.

After handing the Nest Builder over to York, Jiang Shuzhou turned and left. In any case, the Scarlet Infection had already begun to spread.

York may die, but it doesn't matter, because even if he dies, his body will be eaten by fish and shrimp and decomposed by microorganisms.

These fish, shrimp, and microorganisms will be consumed by other fish-people. As time goes on, the amount of scarlet virus in the fish-people's bodies will increase until one day, it will exceed the critical value.

At that time, a terrible plague will sweep across every part of the sea.

Perhaps superhumans can be partially immune, or perhaps purification techniques can cure the disease, but what good would that do?

What can those pastors do when faced with billions of infected and potential infected individuals?

It can only protect those who are "valuable".

But to Jiang Shuzhou, these people were of no value whatsoever.

Sow scarlet infection in spring, reap billions of troops in autumn.

This is the purpose of Jiang Shuzhou's invention of scarlet infection.

Of course, at present, Scarlet Infection still has many shortcomings, such as it can only infect ordinary people and some first-level superhumans with weak immunity, low utilization of flesh and blood, and infected people need a lot of energy to maintain themselves, etc.

However, this is the first version, so it's most important to get it done first. The rest can be modified later.