Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Faint golden electric arcs shot out from Meng Chao’s fingertips.
They twined around a few harvesting blades and danced around the cables, scraping off some samples of the covering.
He put the samples of the covering, the faint green liquid extracted from the deformed monster’s body, and the strange green lichen under the crystal microscope to study.
As expected, he found something that was highly active in animal cells, plant cells, and fungal cells.
Meng Chao asked Long Feijun, as well as the others, to come over and observe.
Then, he began to ponder.
“I have an idea, or rather, a question.”
After everyone saw it, Meng Chao said, “Have you ever thought about how monsters come about? I mean, monsters like the seven-star Wolf Spiders that can combine the characteristics of arthropods and mammals, or monsters like the griffins that can combine liger-type monsters and falcon-type monsters. They certainly didn’t evolve naturally. There must be… a ‘modulator’, right?”
Long Feijun and the other members of the exploration team looked at each other and nodded at the same time. “That’s right.”
“However, the chances of failure are very high for this type of modulation, which combines the most brutal features of all kinds of animals in an attempt to create the most powerful carbon-based biological weapon. That’s because the organs and motor functions of most animals are not compatible at all. The slightest carelessness will result in a situation like this small saber-toothed tiger with two wings on its ribs, where its different organs contradict each other. Forget fighting, even survival will be extremely difficult.”
Meng Chao continued, “Therefore, the modulator must carry out a large number of experiments and fuse the organs of countless monsters… No, it’s not a fusion yet. It should be ‘stitching’ together and screening out the species with stronger combat ability and longer survival time. They should discard the failed products that were pieced together.
“This process is somewhat similar to human genetic farms. The seeds are optimized and screened over generations. Naturally, the crops that we need the most will be obtained.
“The Hidden Mist Domain is the ‘genetic farm’ of the monster civilization. No, to be more precise, it should be the laboratory.
“The mastermind of the monster civilization sewed up a large number of deformed and ugly monsters in the depths of the Hidden Mist Domain. Then, he released them to observe their traits, combat ability, and survival time, as well as analyze the possibility of further modulation.
“If their combat parameters and survival time are relatively excellent, we can further modulate them or replicate them in large quantities and turn them into the beast horde that we see.”
Everyone followed Meng Chao’s train of thought and revealed expressions of sudden enlightenment.
“How do we explain the super-active cells that are hidden in the moss, lichen, and deformed monsters?” Long Feijun asked.
“I think it’s some kind of… ‘biological glue,'” Meng Chao said
Meng Chao also added, “These so-called ‘monsters’ are animals that are different from each other. The organs, characteristics, and traits of animals along with plants are all stitched together. It will inevitably trigger an extremely strong rejection. Two or even three sets of completely different organs cannot coexist. When that happens, they will have to be glued together with the biological glue.
“Originally, a monster whose organs were forcibly pieced together might not live for more than three to five hours.
“After the bonding using the biological glue, it might survive for three to five days or even longer.
“We thought that the monsters were the products of natural evolution and overestimated their survival time. Naturally, three to five days is far from enough.
“However, if some of the monsters were artificially created to attack Dragon City, it would be enough for them to just survive three to five days.”
Long Feijun nodded repeatedly. He thought for a moment and asked, “Then, why was the mysterious biological glue not found in the bodies of the monsters that Dragon City captured in the past?”
“Two possibilities.”
Meng Chao extended two fingers. “It’s either the monsters were all mass-produced models that had been successfully tested, and their organs were perfectly compatible without the need to use the biological glue to glue them together, or…
“These strange cells had already fused into the monsters’ bodies in a more mature and secretive way. Hence, with our current biochemical technology, we still can’t detect them.
“Wait, if that’s the case…”
Meng Chao suddenly stopped talking.
Looking at the lush green lichen in the distance that was so intense that it did not seem real, he started to silently contemplate once again.
Suddenly, he threw the small saber-toothed tiger with wings far away toward the lichen.
The monster’s corpse, which had been cut into pieces and was covered in blood, fell into the green lichen and immediately caused a green tide to surge.
The lichen seemed to have been stimulated. From the depths of the fungus blanket, they extended tiny green threads and wrapped the monster’s corpse tightly.
At first, the monster’s corpse still looked like a small hill that was tall and bulging.
Soon, it became smaller and smaller amidst a series of “chi-chi-chi-chi-chi-chi-chi” sounds.
About a minute later, the lichen returned to its original state as if nothing had happened.
Only the corpse was missing.
Meng Chao signaled Long Feijun to get the exploration team to burn the lichen.
The two exploration team members stepped forward again and raised their flamethrowers.
The lichen turned into ashes, revealing broken bones below.
The saber-toothed tiger with two wings was only the size of a bobcat.
However, with a pair of wide wings, it weighed hundreds of pounds.
Nevertheless, it had been completely devoured by the lichen within a minute.
Even its bones had countless needle-like holes as if they had been soaked in highly corrosive acid for a long time.
It seemed that if they had burned the lichen a little later, there would not even be any bones left of the saber-toothed tiger.
Moreover, not far from the saber-toothed tiger’s corpse, they found traces of more monster corpses.
Since they had been swallowed by the lichen for too long, these monster corpses only had a tiny bit of bone residue left.
Despite that, there were quite a number of them. Based on Meng Chao’s identification, there were at least dozens of different types of monsters with the hardest claws, teeth, and horns.
“This makes sense. Since the Hidden Mist Domain is a natural large-scale laboratory, why don’t we see too many corpses of ‘experimental subjects’ and ‘failed products’ here?”
Meng Chao said, “The weird cells contained in the green lichen are not only the magical biological glue, but the lichen organisms themselves are also natural ‘scavengers’. They can devour the weak and the strong among the experimental subjects and break down the corpses into the most basic raw materials and energy. Perhaps, they can be transported back to the monster civilization’s ultimate lair in an unbelievable way so that the ‘mainframe’ can carry out a new round of modulation.
“Now, there’s only one problem.
“The green lichen must have smelled the fresh blood on the monster’s corpse. That’s why their activity increased so much that they devoured it.
“Will the fresh blood of humans trigger a strong reaction from them?”
As Meng Chao spoke, he spun his saber and cut a small wound on his fingertip. Then he moved to another patch of lichen not far away.
A drop of blood seeped out of the wound, and before it fell, it triggered the response of the lichen under his finger.
A few clusters of lichen hissed and extended their green threads, greedily taking in the blood.
Meng Chao dripped the blood into the lichen.
It was like ice water dripping into a boiling pot of oil. It created ear-piercing squeaking and sizzling sounds.
He squeezed another drop of blood near the edge of the lichen. It was about 20 to 30 centimeters away from the lichen on the scorched ground.
Two clusters of lichen sniffed the scent of fresh blood and squirmed over with all their might.
However, one cluster of lichen, which was relatively far away, only squirmed for five centimeters before it shrank back.
The remaining clusters licked the drop of blood successfully. As strands of dark red spread across the emerald green, it became even more beautiful and intense.
Meng Chao threw another drop of blood a meter away.
This time, none of the lichen clusters moved.
“They can’t sense the flesh a meter away?” Long Feijun asked.
“No, it’s not worth it.”
Meng Chao said, “Activate your super vision, and you’ll find that when I throw the blood a meter away, a few green threads stick out of several lichen clusters and tremble a few times in the blood’s direction.
“They should have sensed it, but the energy they would consume to move the entire settlement would be far more than a drop of blood could make up for. Therefore, they couldn’t be bothered to move.
“If it wasn’t a drop of blood, but a human covered in wounds and bleeding profusely, I believe that they would have moved without any effort.”
That sentence gave everyone goosebumps.
“It seems that the most terrifying creatures in the Hidden Mist Domain are not the monsters, but the weird lichen?” Long Feijun mumbled.
Meng Chao agreed with his judgment.
They temporarily named the dangerous lichen the Green Tide.
After repeated tests, they found that the Green Tide possessed extremely strong mobility and regenerative abilities. It could invade the bodies of animals and plants, devour flesh and blood, seize nutrients, multiply infinitely, and even cover the entire jungle.
The good news was that the spirit energy of superhumans individuals had a strong restraining effect on the Green Tide.
Moreover, they were afraid of fire and could be temporarily eliminated with flame ejectors and incendiary bombs.
If the heavy incendiary bombs were fired from a railway gun and filled with fire-type crystals, they might even be completely eliminated.
Of course, it was best not to stand next to anyone while it was being “completely eliminated.”
Otherwise, it would literally be “mutually assured destruction.”
Apart from that, there was more good news.
The components of the portal had been tested, and the technicians had pieced together all the components needed for a portal.
Next, they only needed to spend time assembling it.
After the spirit energy frenzy caused by the carpet bombing subsided, the communicator also made contact with the other nine exploration teams and the rear, connecting the tactical data chain.
Other than the Kun Peng that had to call for long-range fire support due to the UHV transmission tower attack, the other nine exploration teams had ventured deep into the jungle without any danger.
Before the spirit magnetic interference intensified again, they had successfully shared their positions and the latest topographic map. Their exploration of the Hidden Mist Domain had increased to more than 60%.
“Since everyone is still well-organized, let’s follow the original plan and march toward the sinkhole in ten directions!”
The strange Green Tide had made Long Feijun’s hair stand on end.
In order to avoid more trouble, he made a prompt decision.