Chapter 489 - 485: Getting to the Root of the Matter
Chapter 489: Chapter 485: Getting to the Root of the Matter
Although the strong winds and thick sand made the journey difficult, everyone arrived safely without any major incidents. They rode their small electric scooters at a steady pace, following Xie Ning until they were near the farm.
The group dismounted from their electric scooters and immediately began their collection work.
Yu Tianfeng grabbed a few people to help him dig for soil samples near the greenhouses, checking for any surviving fruits and vegetables.
With a wave of her hand, Xie Ning stored all the electric scooters in her Space.
To avoid having the sand and dust on the vehicles contaminate her underground garage, Xie Ning stuffed the electric scooters—along with the small electric tricycle she drove—directly into an unused shipping container within her personal Space.
She had previously used this container to store her RV.
Now that she had moved the RV to the villa’s underground garage, a shipping container was left empty, which was perfect for storing these filthy little electric scooters.
After putting everything into the shipping container, Xie Ning scanned it several times with her Space Ability just to be safe.
She didn’t find any special mutated insects or anything of the sort from the sandstorm clinging to them.
Besides, her personal Space couldn’t store living things to begin with, so any living mutated insects probably couldn’t have been brought inside anyway.
Xie Ning relaxed at the thought.
She brought out the metal slab again and continued forward, dragging the two women on it.
Everyone had already divided the labor and gone off to do their own tasks, which made Captain Xie look a little idle.
She scanned the area briefly and then jerked her chin. "Go check over there."
Several members of Team A ran toward the spot Captain Xie had indicated. Ahead of them was a broken bamboo fence.
A few animal skeletons lay inside. Any mutated animals that might have been there had long ago been devoured by the sand worms.
"Don’t mix up the environmental samples. Keep them in order," Yu Tianfeng reminded Song Shijun, who was following behind him. "Give me the ones you just collected."
Xie Ning strolled over, dragging the metal slab. "You said before that a handler from this farm was the first to be attacked by the sand worms?"
"That’s right. Early that day, the handler’s whole body inexplicably started glowing green."
"At first, he just complained of headaches, foot pain—pain all over. Three days later, his body had been devoured by the sand worms, leaving nothing but a skeleton."
Liang Zhongping sighed. "That’s why we felt like there was no hope left. Rather than let these sand worms slowly eat us away from the inside out, we figured it was better to die and get it over with."
"Right, right! Thank goodness you came to save us! Young lady, I can tell you’re all very capable. You’ll definitely be able to cure us." Huang Genmei’s madness seemed to have subsided, and she was being particularly sweet with her words.
Xie Ning glanced at her, both amused and exasperated.
She had never seen Superpower Users end up in such a pathetic state.
Gu Chen walked to her side. "Ningning, do you suspect that some kind of mutated plant or animal on the farm is the problem?"
Xie Ning nodded. "This type of mutated creature is interested in the energy sources and Energy Crystals inside Superpower Users."
Regardless, they had to find the root cause first.
They needed to collect samples of the surrounding soil, as well as the rotten and dead plants and animals, and take them back for careful study.
"Where did those researchers end up going?" Xie Ning suddenly recalled, turning to ask Gu Chen.
Gu Chen had taken advantage of his position to assign himself to the Starfire Team first, so the researchers were naturally with the other half of Team A.
"Don’t worry. They have a dedicated escort. Nothing will happen to them."
"Captain Gu." Just then, a burly young man walked quickly toward them.
Gu Chen nodded slightly and introduced him to Xie Ning, "This is Xia Yuanyi, a squad leader from Feng Lijian’s contingent. He’s a Fourth Rank Thunder Ability User."
"Hello, Captain Xie."
Xie Ning nodded in acknowledgment, her gaze drifting over him fleetingly.
When the teams were formed, Gu Chen had intentionally placed the three Alien Species in their column so he could keep an eye on them.
However, after spending some time together, the three Alien Species had behaved quite normally in front of them.
The man before them, Xia Yuanyi, was one of these Alien Species.
But at this moment, his behavior was no different from that of a normal person.
If Little Spider hadn’t been frantically sending warnings inside her head, Xie Ning really would have believed that Xia Yuanyi was just a very formidable Thunder Ability User.
Fortunately, the parasitic sources inside Xia Yuanyi and the other two Alien Species weren’t as powerful as Ma Yu’s.
Xie Ning used her spiritual power to communicate secretly with Little Spider. ’Can you block the neural devices on them?’
’I can,’ came Little Spider’s anxious, electronic voice. ’Host Ningning, you have to be careful. The parasitic source inside the Alien Species is trouble. If it breaks out and isn’t controlled immediately, it will likely burrow into someone else’s body.’
’I know.’ Xie Ning’s expression remained calm as she continued her communication with Little Spider. ’I’ll trap it within a spatial barrier the moment it appears.’
’Okay, okay! When the time comes, have Song Kexin use those blue flames to incinerate the parasitic source. You have to burn it completely. This thing is extremely dangerous; if even a single speck of ash remains, it can probably regenerate.’
Xie Ning silently committed Little Spider’s warning to memory, her brows knitting involuntarily.
’What does the parasitic source look like?’
’It has tentacles. It’s disgusting. Host Ningning, you should steel yourself.’
Xie Ning felt slightly more prepared.
’If Little Spider were physically beside her, she would have definitely reached out to give its head a good pat and praised, ’You’re such a great little helper.’’
She withdrew her spiritual power and heard Xia Yuanyi speaking to Gu Chen. "Captain Gu, Captain Feng told us to keep an eye out for medical supplies along the way. Since we’re already near a medical clinic, I was thinking, could I take a few squad members inside to search?"
Gu Chen nodded, his expression unreadable. "Alright. Take some of your men and go check it out."
A smile appeared on Xia Yuanyi’s face. "Alright, Captain Gu. We’ll head over now."
The men Xia Yuanyi took to the medical clinic were undoubtedly his own trusted subordinates.
In other words, the people from Superpower Team One.
Lu Wei watched Xia Yuanyi and his men leave, looking thoughtful for a moment before walking to Gu Chen’s side and whispering, "You’re just going to let them go like that?"
"It’s fine. We’ll follow them in a little while and see what they’re up to," Gu Chen replied with utter composure.
He didn’t know what tricks Xia Yuanyi was trying to pull, but in any case, he was definitely not up to any good.
Xie Ning walked over to Yu Tianfeng and glanced at the soil in their hands. "Dig up anything useful?"
"Well, the most useful find has been some environmental samples."
"Also, I found that many of the mutated animals in the farm suffered a similar fate to the Superpower Users they described. Their internal energy sources were drained, and they were left with no flesh, just skeletons."
"Oh." Xie Ning nodded. "It seems these sand worms are quite formidable, eating both people and animals."
"Ningning, the world is a terrifying place. You have to protect me," Yu Tianfeng said, putting on a pitiful expression and winking at her.
Gu Chen immediately squeezed between the two of them and said expressionlessly, "I’ll do it."