CHAPTER 303: CHAPTER 134: PARASITE (PART 2)

But Shen Yue wouldn’t give it a chance.

Just after the first shell was fired, he swiftly recalibrated the parameters and completed the second strike in less than five seconds.

This shell, with its ultra-high accuracy and foresight, landed directly next to the monster.

Less than a meter away.

"Boom!"

A massive explosion erupted right under the monster, and the overpressure from the blast blew away its loose scales.

Like being skinned, the monster’s body instantly turned bloody red.

Without the protection of the keratin layer, its side abdomen was shredded by countless shrapnel, blasting open a gaping bloody wound.

Dark blue entrails spilled out in an instant, and the monster crawled forward a few steps in convulsions before collapsing with a thud.

Its head remained held high, even attempting to use its curved tusks to support its body to stand once more.

But its life was quickly slipping away, and the last bit of strength had been carried away by the rushing blood, seeping into the filthy soil.

The wailing echoed through the woods, and goosebumps rose on Shen Yue’s body involuntarily.

He vaguely sensed that this monster was different from the others he had killed before.

It seemed to truly have some kind of goal.

It seemed... it wasn’t wailing because of its own death!

This intuition made Shen Yue feel as if he had fallen into a bizarre and terrifying valley; he took several deep breaths to calm down.

Then, gritting his teeth, he ordered:

"Everyone, leave the artillery and move forward lightly and quickly."

"These two monsters have problems and must be dissected to check!"

....

On the other side, near Cangzhou City.

Chen Jian’s team had just arrived at this not-so-large small city, just finished liaising with the Mechanical God Sect’s Guardian Army stationed here, and also received a new batch of supplies from them.

Chen Jian ordered the convoy to take a short rest outside the city, while he held a PDA, eating dry food and examining the map of forces just organized by Fu Xi.

"... Continuing north from Cangzhou City is basically the territory of the Holy Blood Temple."

"Although the Mechanical God Sect still has some power, it has almost lost its voice, and its strength has weakened considerably."

"Next, we can no longer rely on the Mechanical God Sect for supplies, but should turn to the Holy Blood Temple for cooperation."

"The good news is that we actually have a pretty good relationship with them, and cooperation has been relatively smooth."

"But the bad news is... the organizational capacity of the Holy Blood Temple is obviously inferior to that of the Mechanical God Sect, and the help they can provide is limited."

"However, we’re almost at the Imperial City anyway."

"The next stop, we’ll settle directly in Jinmen."

"This will be the first coastal city we’ve reached in such a long time; maybe there will be some new clues and discoveries."

Hearing his words, Lei Jie nodded slightly and then said thoughtfully:

"I wonder if we might see an aircraft carrier—technically speaking, Jinmen is only three hundred kilometers from Sanshan. If an aircraft carrier happened to be active nearby when the cataclysm occurred, it might have docked at Jinmen port, right?"

"Not necessarily."

Chen Jian shook his head and said:

"According to standard emergency procedures, returning to the home port is the standard operation."

"But who knows? This kind of thing is unpredictable."

"However, based on the information we collected earlier, there haven’t been any legends of ’big ships’ or giant ships appearing in Jinmen, so it’s very likely that people here have never seen an aircraft carrier from the beginning."

"Warships are possible, though."

"But after more than three hundred years, any ship would have sunk, right?"

"Yeah..."

Lei Jie sighed and said:

"In this post-apocalyptic world, the most powerful forces we might find are just those giant ships."

"But unfortunately, they can’t be used..."

"There are many unusable things; I’d like to use the big black fish too."

Chen Jian replied casually, swallowing the last bite of dry food in his hand.

After taking a sip of water to soothe his throat, he switched the display on the PDA and continued speaking to Lei Jie:

"There has been progress with Shen Yue’s situation."

"They’ve already caught up with those two monsters and used the Attack-17 along with the 152 howitzer to take them down."

"According to him, those two monsters only reached the level four standard, and one of them looks a bit stronger, but it still falls short of the level three monsters we’ve encountered."

"However, that’s not the key issue."

"The crucial point is that, from start to finish, those two monsters didn’t make any significant counterattacks."

"They just kept running and dodging."

"It’s like they knew Shen Yue was chasing them."

"This characteristic is very... very strange."

"Think carefully, aren’t the two monsters we couldn’t find the same way?"

"Indeed."

Lei Jie frowned deeply, thought for a moment, and said:

"We can now basically confirm that these two pairs of monsters are related to the Beast Tide."

"If finding paired monsters continuously was a coincidence, but their identical behavior logic means it’s not a coincidence."

"There’s definitely a common reason behind this abnormal behavior logic."

"But what that reason is...."

With this, Lei Jie paused.

After a long silence, he finally shook his head and said:

"I can’t think of it."

"I can’t think of it either; I just have a gut feeling that this thing could be related to the so-called gene progenitor."

"What relationship could there be?"

Lei Jie asked, puzzled.

"Mind control."

Chen Jian put away the PDA and stood up, answering:

"Controlling the minds of humans and controlling the minds of monsters are not fundamentally different; who knows if these monsters have been brainwashed."

"That’s too exaggerated... with so many monsters in the world, has someone installed a brain machine in each of them?"

"Who knows?"

Chen Jian replied casually, then waved to Xie Liu, who was organizing equipment in the distance.

The latter immediately stood up and ran over, and Chen Jian asked:

"How’s your communication with the Holy Blood Temple? Did they agree to let us into the Imperial City?"

"Um..."

Xie Liu scratched his head instinctively and answered:

"It seems difficult for them to disagree..."

"The time has been set; I told them we will arrive in Jinmen this evening."

"The environment in the Imperial City is relatively complicated, with frequent monster activity nearby."

"At that time, the Holy Blood Temple will send people to liaise with us."

"They will lead us through the trade route from Jinmen to the Imperial City, known as the ’Liang Bridge.’"

"That’s the only relatively safe trade route."

"However, I think we need not worry too much. After all, those active around Imperial City are mainly small monsters below level four and quite a number of Blood Skulls." "

"Even without relying on them, we have the capability to pass through smoothly."

"Understood, then there’s no problem."

Chen Jian nodded with satisfaction, and Xie Liu turned and left.

In fact, he didn’t really have much regard for the Holy Blood Temple. The so-called "securing their consent" was merely a formality.

It’s simple logic: if they don’t let us go, does it mean we won’t go?

Telling them is just to inform, not to consult.

But from a practical standpoint, having such a procedure can save one’s team from a lot of unnecessary troubles, so why resist it?

Chen Jian gently rubbed his slightly sore eyes, ready to return to the Mengshi vehicle for a brief rest.

But at that moment, his headset suddenly came to life with Shen Yue’s call.

"Captain! There’s trouble!"

Chen Jian froze in place; he sat up straight and immediately asked:

"What trouble?"

"We just arrived at the site of those two monsters’ bodies and finished the dissection."

"I blew the thing open all over and barely found its brain tissue."

"I understand why their behavior was so strange."

"It’s parasites! They were all controlled by parasites!"

"Captain, do you know about dicrocoelium? It’s similar to those things!"

"I do know."

Chen Jian replied.

So, the Beast Tide is related to parasites?

Indeed, only this answer can reasonably explain those monsters’ ’joint actions.’

But what trouble does this pose?

Chen Jian was about to continue questioning when Shen Yue’s voice came through again.

"No, Captain, you don’t understand!"

"I haven’t finished!"

"This thing is driven by parasites! They’re all controlled by parasites!"

"Captain, do you know about brain flukes? It’s similar to those things!"

Does this mean the monsters are controlled by parasites?

Indeed, only this explanation can make sense of those creatures’ "collective actions."

But what kind of trouble?

"Captain, there’s more you need to know!"

"I’m not done yet!"

"These things are very dangerous!"

"Apparently, some of them evolved to become mechanical parasites."

Shen Yue’s voice came through the headset again.