TRCP 218 PART 2

CHAPTER 218 PART 2

“Three months. Before I left, four, all wrapped in soft metal. These four weren’t far apart, all within a three-kilometer radius.”

“Did you detect any others at the time?”

“Yes, but they seemed to be deeper. The rock here is very hard, making drilling very difficult. Before I left, the scientific expedition team was discussing whether to give up and take these samples back to Beijing.”

Zhuang Yao shook his head. “Maybe if you had dug down another 800 meters, you would have dug out a cave.”

“That would have taken at least a year or two. It’s a pity the earthquake happened just a few days after I left.”

Mr. Sun mused, “They dug out four without an earthquake. What did they do later to trigger it? Or was it just a coincidence that the earthquake happened then?”

This question also had no answer.

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Fweeldzu, Usdt Dky qlzv y pvasdt ldlatu qzwnvwyvksd qasx okvbkd vbl nyhl. Tl ycawrvzu zssjle kdpkel. Mbl zktbv nswze sdzu kzzwxkdyvl ycswv qswa sa qkhl bwdeale xlvlap kdvs vbl nyhl; clusde vbyv, kv oyp rkvnb czynj. Tl nswzed’v pll yduvbkdt ulv, cwv bl nswze pldpl kv.

Ubldt Mkydck oyp vbl qkapv vs dsvknl bkp wdwpwyz clbyhksa. “Usdt Dky, obyv’p oasdt?”

“Mblal’p psxlvbkdt kd vbl nyhl, yrrasynbkdt wp.”

Ohlausdl clnyxl yzlav. Mblka pldplp olald’v yp pbyar yp Usdt Dky’p, ps vblu nswze sdzu oyvnb vbl nyhl ldvaydnl oyakzu. Fssd, y pxyzz pbyeso lxlatle qasx vbl eyajdlpp. Rv oyp y dyjle zkvvzl tkaz, ycswv plhld sa lktbv ulyap sze, okvb vbl nbyaynvlakpvkn bktb-yzvkvwel qzwpb sd bla nblljp, zkjlzu y zsnyz. Tla qynl, obknb pbswze byhl clld kddsnldv, oyp lmralppksdzlpp, pvyakdt pvayktbv yblye yp kq pswzzlpp. Tla zkxcp eked’v xshl, ulv pbl xshle yv kdnalekczl prlle, qzsyvkdt vbaswtb vbl eyajdlpp zkjl y tbspv. Tla pweeld yrrlyaydnl blktbvldle vbl llakl yvxsprblal.

Mbl tkaz pvsrrle yv vbl nyhl ldvaydnl, sdzu ycswv y bwdeale xlvlap yoyu. Ohlausdl nswze dso pll nzlyazu vbyv pbl bye y ryka sq vaydpryaldv okdtp sd bla cynj, alplxczkdt ldzyatle xspiwkvs okdtp, qzyrrkdt ayrkezu.

Ubldt Mkydck pyke nszezu, “Ebs yal usw?”

Mbl zkvvzl tkaz vwadle bla dlnj, bla tygl qyzzkdt vs vbl zlqv. Fbl aykple bla yax, lmvldekdt y ekavu zkvvzl qkdtla yde rskdvkdt yv Yyjpkx, obs oyp kd bkp rszya clya qsax. Fbl prsjl, bla hsknl bsyapl yde wdrzlypydv, yzxspv kdbwxyd. “R oydv vs lyv vbyv. R byhld’v lyvld vbyv clqsal.”

Yyjpkx’p Ubkdlpl oypd’v hlau tsse, cwv bl wdelapvsse pwnb pkxrzl pldvldnlp. Tl zlv swv y oyadkdt tasoz, bkp bkde zltp pbkqvkdt cynj, alyeu vs yvvynj.

Jacqueline’s face changed drastically, and she secretly gathered wood energy. The vegetation beneath her feet grew visibly, swaying in the wind as if ready to pounce and bite.

The little girl walked towards Maksim step by step. “I want to eat. Let me eat.”

Zhuang Yao said gravely, “Don’t let her get close. Kill her.”

The words “kill her” seemed to enrage her. The little girl abruptly turned her head and opened her mouth at Zhuang Yao. Her originally childish head suddenly transformed into the head of an insect. The insect’s form was so distorted that no one could immediately tell what it was. The large head opened its mouth, revealing sharp mandibles, and roared fiercely at Zhuang Yao.

Everyone recoiled in shock.

What was this thing?

After the roar, the head transformed back into a human face. She flew into the air, her long hair floating up. The dry, dirty hair transformed into countless centipedes before their eyes, shooting like arrows in two directions. One group went straight for Maksim, the other for Zhuang Yao. Even more bizarrely, after shooting the centipedes, the little girl’s body expanded in the air, becoming a giant ant with transparent wings, its shiny black carapace looking incredibly hard.

Human? Mosquito? Centipede? Ant? Everyone was too stunned to react initially. One group protected Zhuang Yao, another protected Jacqueline and Maksim, and the rest charged towards the little girl’s main body.

As the dozens of centipedes landed, their bodies grew a hundred times larger, each the size of a car, their dark red bodies clearly venomous, their sharp, massive mandibles biting anyone they could reach.

After the initial shock, everyone quickly regained their composure. If they viewed these creatures as a group attack by evolved animals, they weren’t that terrifying. The most terrifying aspect was that all of this was done by a single “person.”

They cut and burned the giant ant and the centipedes on the ground, black blood staining the earth and river below. The centipedes were relatively easy to deal with, but the giant ant’s power surprised them.

Firstly, the ant was incredibly fast. Except for the nature ability users and speed ability users, ordinary people couldn’t keep up with its speed. Secondly, its carapace was extremely hard. An arrow shot by Tang Yanqiu into its shoulder only penetrated a small distance before being pulled out by a strange human hand that emerged from the ant’s back. Tang Yanqiu’s arrows could pierce steel. The exceptional defensive ability even hindered Rong Lan’s laser attacks. The laser that could usually split a creature in half only managed to crack the giant ant’s carapace.

They had never encountered such a powerful creature, its tenacity surpassing any they had ever seen.

Jacqueline summoned plants from the ground beneath the giant ant’s feet. The green plants entangled the ant like ropes, effectively hindering its movement. Rong Lan fired a sharp laser beam, finally cutting off its head along a weaker joint in its carapace.

The moment the giant ant’s head landed, its body began to split frantically into dozens of smaller ants. These smaller ants were significantly weaker. Some crawled out through the gaps in the plants, while others were trapped.

Chu Xingzhou used his “Mount Tai Crushing Top” ability, descending like a giant hammer from the sky, crushing most of the small ants.

Meanwhile, the centipedes also suffered heavy casualties. The centipedes and ants began to retreat into the cave, converging and flying rapidly into its depths.

Several nature ability users naturally wouldn’t let it escape so easily and quickly pursued.

No matter how fast it was, it couldn’t outrun Rong Lan and Cheng Tianbi. Its body was torn into several pieces again. Upon landing, it repeated its previous action, splitting into countless centipedes, ants, and mosquitoes. This time, however, these creatures were much smaller, but their smaller size made them harder to deal with because they were smaller and more dispersed targets.

Everyone was determined to subdue it. Shen Changze flew into the cave and created a wall of fire more than sixty meters long, blocking its escape route. Yao Qianjiang sucked the water from the East Taijinar River onto the bank, drowning a group of insects. Wu You cooperated by freezing them into ice blocks. Li Dao’ai created a raised earthen ring around them, slowly shrinking the encirclement, finally trapping all the insects within a meter-high earthen ring. Chu Xingzhou increased the gravity on top, preventing the insects from climbing out.

The insects moved frantically within the earthen ring, their movements becoming increasingly sluggish. The sudden increase in density seemed to be a great burden on them.

Everyone gathered, looking at the trapped insects in the earthen ring, still shaken.

Their fear wasn’t due to the creature’s power – while powerful, it wasn’t invincible. Their fear stemmed from the fact that the creature’s mutation direction, abilities, and fighting style completely overturned their understanding. They had never seen a single creature combine the characteristics of so many animals, capable of both combining and splitting. It was similar to the insects they encountered in the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, but the biggest difference was that it wasn’t just two creatures combined.

Mr. Sun whispered, “Multiple mutations…”

Tang Tingzhi gasped, a look of gravity appearing on his jade-like face. “Multiple mutations… it’s really happening.”

Cong Xia said tremblingly, “Multiple mutations? Is it the product of crossbreeding between multiple species?”

Zhuang Yao nodded. “When the insects in the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda appeared, we first encountered the concept of secondary mutation. The speed ability users in Jiujiang Jun were crossbred with the pagoda insects, possessing the characteristics of both speed ability users and insects. Although secondary mutated creatures are extremely rare, so rare that we’ve barely seen any, they do exist. For example, we know Feng Lan has a mutated tiger crossbred with an eagle. We used to think secondary mutation was the limit, but we didn’t expect to see multiple mutations in the restricted zone creatures, fusing the abilities of several species into a complete monster, its self-awareness becoming uncontrollable due to the chaotic fusion of multiple species. The creature we encountered last night was the same, perhaps a multiple mutation of human, rat, bat, and some kind of coelenterate. “

Cheng Tianbi said gravely, “Although their self-awareness is chaotic, they seem to have a common goal: to devour more new species and seek more ways to mutate.”

“Yes, the rat last night was biting people and animals indiscriminately in the team. Today this creature set its sights on a polar bear, something almost impossible to find in Qinghai. They follow their biological instincts, constantly searching for stronger and newer creatures to crossbreed with. If this is their purpose for survival, then we’re in big trouble.”

Everyone looked at their team. They had quite a few creatures here not native to Qinghai, all fresh meat to those creatures.

Cheng Tianbi’s voice grew colder. “No wonder there are so few animals here. Are they also like the plants on the snowy mountains, devouring other species to gain nutrients and become stronger? That’s why we don’t see any group creatures here, only abnormally powerful individuals.”

Deng Xiao murmured, “The Mastiff Pen.”

The Mastiff Pen… Locking the Tibetan Mastiff puppies inside, letting them fight to the death, the last survivor becoming the king. Plants devouring plants, mutated creatures devouring mutated creatures, to obtain a stronger and more robust life. The strong survive, the weak become part of the strong. Isn’t the entire restricted zone a giant Mastiff Pen?

Author’s Note: My brain cells have really died a lot these past few days.