Chapter 588: No One Knows Where They're Going

Chapter 588: No One Knows Where They Are Going

Inside the hastily pitched tent.

Chen Yutong drew blood from Little Lamb using the equipment in the medical kit, then pressed a cotton swab to the wound and applied medical tape.

Watching Little Lamb, who remained silent, Chen Yutong stroked her hair and praised her softly.

"You're very brave. When I was your age, I'd feel dizzy just seeing blood, let alone getting a shot."

The praised Little Lamb smiled shyly and said timidly.

"Actually... I'm still a little scared, but after seeing so much, it doesn't seem as frightening."

The entire villa seemed soaked in a vat of blood.

Not just blood, but corpses too—no matter how much they cleaned, there were always remnants.

When she first came up from the basement, she nearly fainted from fright, and even now that she was used to it, she still couldn't bear the suffocating atmosphere.

Watching Chen Yutong place the test tube containing her blood into a small silver box, Little Lamb asked in a low voice.

"...Can my blood cure those people?"

Studying the various detection parameters flickering on the display, Chen Yutong stroked her chin, pondered for a long time, and muttered to herself.

"...Not sure yet, but your body does contain some kind of antibody that inhibits the secretion of active enzymes by Nago mycelium. This will help us develop a vaccine or antidote against this special fungus."

Not all organisms are affected by Nago; a very small number of people show no reaction after consuming Nago, relying on some antibody in their bodies to suppress the infection of Nago mycelium and completely digest it through the digestive system—this probability is roughly one or two in ten thousand.

Little Lamb was not the only antibody carrier in this settlement, but most of the other carriers, along with those not brainwashed by Band 03, had been devoured in the previous turmoil.

Therefore, this little girl, who carried the antibody and survived by luck, became especially important.

The Mental Interference Device can brainwash Nago addicts who enter a "trance" state, and the combination of the two was the culprit behind the Pinecone Manor massacre.

If a vaccine or antidote that inhibits the growth of Nago mycelium could be developed, it would naturally lift the Torch Church's brainwashing over the settlements in its diocese.

Of course, technology at the material level can only solve material problems; spiritual brainwashing still requires a long time to repair.

The Torch Church's dominance over the region was not entirely achieved through Nago; they amassed a huge number of followers by exploiting the ignorance of serfs under the plantation economy.

Rather than saying their rule was realized through Nago and the Mental Interference Device, it would be more accurate to say that only after achieving complete domination did they have the conditions to go all out in doing this.

Tragedies similar to the Pinecone Manor massacre had likely occurred more than once.

Watching the older sister who was deep in thought with a grave expression, Little Lamb asked curiously in a low voice.

"Sister, are you a doctor?"

"Hmm... not really," Chen Yutong thought for a moment, a smile spreading across her brow. "What I'm good at isn't healing people; it's more like research."

"Research?" Little Lamb tilted her head.

"Mm," Chen Yutong nodded lightly. "Using existing knowledge to explore unknown mysteries—you can think of it that way."

Little Lamb nodded as if she understood.

It felt...

So impressive.

Although she still didn't quite understand what the so-called unknown mysteries were.

Seeing the envy on that childish face, Chen Yutong guessed what she was thinking and smiled, reaching out to stroke her hair.

"Want to learn?"

"Mm!"

Little Lamb's eyes lit up, and she nodded excitedly.

But perhaps thinking that her abrupt request might cause trouble for others, those bright big eyes suddenly dimmed.

Little Lamb said timidly in a low voice.

"Um... I don't know anything. Would teaching me be a lot of trouble... If it would bother your work, then forget it."

"How could it be trouble? On the contrary, it's great to have an assistant."

Once she started talking, she couldn't stop. Chen Yutong continued with a smile.

"Here, although we don't have as many rules as an academy, the common types are those who think with their muscles... Not that those people are bad—some fools are quite adorable—but there aren't enough people to discuss problems with. Such a big project was handed to a newcomer like me."

Stroking the fluffy hair, she looked into those anxious big eyes and said softly.

"And besides... I'll eventually become a grandmother one day. When that time comes, the work I haven't finished will have to be handed over to you all."

That childish face was rekindled with joyful radiance, and behind those jubilant pupils, a glimmer of unprecedented hope emerged.

In her past memories, no one had ever said such things to her.

Or to be precise, no one had ever considered her an important person—even she herself thought so.

What she thought or did didn't matter; she just had to play the role of an obedient daughter, a docile hostage, and a playmate for the young lady... like a vase placed on the windowsill.

But at this moment, she suddenly felt that her life had regained meaning, no longer needing to wait for a predetermined fate.

Her cheeks flushed, Little Lamb nodded firmly and said with determination.

"Mm! When that time comes... leave it to Little Lamb!"

Although she knew that childhood dreams were always fickle, Chen Yutong didn't pour cold water on her; she just smiled and stroked her head.

"Mm, keep it up!"

...

At the entrance of the tent.

Chen Yutong led Little Lamb, whose face was still flushed, out through the curtain and gently patted her shoulder.

"Can you go back on your own?"

"Mm!" Little Lamb nodded seriously. "I remember the way."

Chen Yutong smiled and nodded, then continued.

"When you get back, make sure to talk it out properly with your good friend Yin Yin. I think... those words might not have been her true intention; maybe she's even regretting them now."

Hearing Yin Yin's name, Little Lamb drooped her head dejectedly, and after a moment said softly.

"Yin Yin... does she really not think that way?"

Looking at Little Lamb, who was earnestly seeking advice, Chen Yutong thought for a moment and said.

"People are very complex creatures. Many thoughts arise in a day—some negative, some positive... Words spoken in the heat of the moment aren't necessarily what's most on one's mind; they might just be the thought that happened to pop up. That's why adults learn to control their emotions. You're still children; it's normal to lose control."

At this point, she broke into a smile.

"It's been a while now; Yin Yin should have calmed down. As long as you communicate patiently, you'll definitely clear up the misunderstanding."

Little Lamb nodded as if she understood, and lowered her head gratefully.

"Thank you... I understand."

"Mm, go on."

Watching the girl walk away, Chen Yutong's face wore a doting smile as she gently waved her hand.

What a well-behaved child.

Suddenly, I kind of want to raise one...

Just as she withdrew her gaze from the lamb's receding figure, a soft cough came from beside her, accompanied by a teasing jab.

"How did I become a fool who only thinks with his muscles?"

Hearing that familiar voice, Chen Yutong's face flushed, and she turned to look at Laobai, who was leaning against a pillar not far away.

"When did you get here... Wait, did you hear that?"

Laobai cleared his throat and said.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. I just came over to ask how things were going, and I happened to catch it as I reached the door."

Besides, the tent was set up right in the central courtyard of the annex.

Even if he wanted to avoid it, there was nowhere to go.

"I should apologize..." Chen Yutong said with an embarrassed expression, "But I meant no harm—it was just a joke..."

"Haha, it's fine, it's fine. I'm not that petty," Laobai grinned, then continued, "How's that antibody? Can it be used?"

Chen Yutong nodded, but then gently shook her head.

"Well, clinically, we've observed suppression of the Nago mycelium, but fully resolving the Nago's effects will probably take a bit more time."

Laobai nodded and went on.

"And now? Are you planning to return to base or?"

"Of course, I'm staying here," Chen Yutong said without hesitation. "Surprising as it is, this place has the best experimental equipment, and so many 'patients.' If we want to develop an effective vaccine quickly, this is the ideal testing ground."

Laobai teased.

"Looks like we'll be staying here for a while."

Chen Yutong said a little sheepishly.

"I'm sorry for the trouble."

"It's nothing. This is all we can do."

Grinning, Laobai paused, his playful expression gradually fading as he continued in a serious tone.

"But... I have to make this clear to you—the danger here hasn't passed. We repelled the combined assault of the Torch and the mutants, but largely they suffered from a lack of large-scale combat experience. It's hard to say what will happen next."

Chen Yutong nodded earnestly.

"Yeah... I understand. If things go wrong, I'll follow orders and evacuate from here."

"Then I'm relieved."

Laobai smiled and was about to say something more when the signal light inside his helmet flickered, and a teammate's voice came through the comm channel.

"Boss, about five hundred meters from the north gate, two motorcycles are heading this way!"

Hearing the report, Laobai's expression immediately turned serious. He tapped his helmet with his index finger and asked.

"What color?"

"Can't make out the color... but they're clearly people. Judging by their gear, they look like local wastelanders, but it's strange for them to come here at this hour."

Pinecone Farm wasn't an open settlement; even familiar traders rarely approached it.

Many of the slaver gangs active in this area were controlled by the farm's owners.

"I'll be right there."

Ending the call, Laobai looked at Chen Yutong.

"We've got work. I need to head to the settlement gate immediately."

She nodded gently and smiled.

"Okay, go ahead. Don't worry about me. I'll let you know as soon as there's progress."

"Contact me or my teammates if anything comes up."

With that, Laobai didn't linger and headed out of the estate.

At that moment, at the north gate of Pinecone Farm, two motorcycles pulled over to the roadside, and two travel-worn men dismounted.

Rifles slung across their backs, ammo pouches hanging from the bikes—such an outfit visiting at night would draw scrutiny at any settlement.

Yet now, as they arrived, no one came to question them. Everyone at the gate wore expressions of heaviness or numbness.

They were digging pits by the farmland, using wheelbarrows to haul corpses to the entrance, then dumping them into the holes and covering them with earth.

At first, Li Jinrong didn't see the bodies until the thick smell of blood hit him, and he noticed the remains piled beside a haystack.

Most of the corpses were mangled, many gnawed beyond recognition, as if snatched from the jaws of beasts.

His Adam's apple bobbed, but no words came out.

Beside him, Xiao Yue was the same, his face even paler. His lips twitched for a long while before he forced out a sentence from his throat.

"Damn it..."

"What the hell happened here?!"

It was like...

hell.

Just then, a suit of power armor walked through the open gate and stopped before him.

The helmet's visor lifted, and Li Jinrong saw that familiar face again.

"Laobai."

Laobai nodded.

"We meet again."

Li Jinrong glanced around and took a deep breath.

"What exactly... is going on here?"

"An experiment by the Torch Church. Unfortunately, we got caught up in it," Laobai said, a shadow crossing his face as he looked at the pile of corpses nearby. "If we'd just gotten control of the farm's owner, we could have dismantled the bombs buried here piece by piece, but they were a step ahead."

Xiao Yue stared at him blankly.

"Experiment?!"

Laobai: "An experiment involving mind-interference devices and Nago... You came from the south, so you must have heard something about what they're doing."

A flicker of shock crossed Li Jinrong's face. He stood frozen for a long moment before finally speaking with difficulty.

"I've heard of it, but not the specifics. The settlements in Haiya Province are even harder to get close to than this one... Damn it, what are they trying to do? What kind of experiment is this?"

He had indeed heard rumors of the Torch Church's experiments—after all, those people operated with almost no concealment.

But seeing the thousands, even tens of thousands of corpses, he still couldn't imagine what kind of experiment this was.

Yet the evidence lay before him.

Not far from that pile of bodies, there was a hulking giant, mountainous and obese, lying like a heap of rotting flesh, exuding a stench of decay.

If his memory served him right, those were bio-soldiers modified by the Torch Church using mutants, a model called Goliath, it seemed.

A few men who looked like peasants were silently swinging pickaxes, digging into the earth, planning to carve a pit large enough to bury it.

Luckily, it was winter now.

Otherwise, the stench here would be far more overwhelming than it already was.

Old White fell silent for a moment, then sighed and spoke.

“My confusion is no less than yours. I’m afraid no one but those madmen themselves knows what kind of heaven they’re truly heading to.”

And even fewer know how much more must be paid to reach that place.

After interrogating that executioner named Li Jie, he had fully understood…

Those people were simply impossible to reason with.

Li Jinrong forced a sentence out from his throat.

“…We must stop them.”

Old White nodded.

“We think the same. If we let them keep rotting, sooner or later they’ll drag everyone down with them… Today it’s Jinchuan Province, tomorrow the River Valley, and after that, who knows how far the trouble will spread.”

“We have our own troubles to deal with—the tide that hasn’t stopped for a century and a half will soon come again, but our leaders believe we must do something.”

“Let’s talk, about cooperation.”

With that, he turned and walked toward the door.

Xiao Yue glanced at Li Jinrong standing beside him and asked in a low voice.

“What does he mean?”

Li Jinrong replied in an uncertain tone.

“This is probably a signal for cooperation.”

He truly wanted to latch onto the Alliance’s great tree; if they could gain the Alliance’s help, they’d at least secure a stable rear.

But he hadn’t expected the Alliance to bring it up first.

Xiao Yue looked at him and said hesitantly.

“Wouldn’t it be better to report to the organization?”

He knew the boss suspected there might be moles from the Torch Church inside the Iron Tower, just as they sent spies to the Church, the other side would think of the same trick.

And with its vast manpower and technical reserves, the Torch Church could do it more covertly, more insidiously.

Yet even so, the two of them alone couldn’t represent the entire Iron Tower organization.

Besides, at least some people were still trustworthy.

Li Jinrong thought for a moment, then shook his head.

“Let’s hear what they have to say first.”

With that, he locked his motorcycle, handed his weapons to the soldier on guard at the entrance, and followed Old White into the settlement…

…

The long night finally passed.

When the dawn sun rose, the Steel Heart arrived above the outskirts of Jinhe City, overlooking the ground like a towering fortress.

The birds and beasts hidden in the forest, startled by its overbearing might, fled in the opposite direction.

Not only the timid aberrations were disturbed, but also the mutants lurking within the city.

Yet, knowing no fear, they wouldn’t tuck their tails and run.

Foreheads hidden among the ruins gleamed with a greasy green sheen, their snarling faces bearing only bloodlust and ferocity.

On those faces, fear was the one expression absent.

They brandished their weapons, even firing rifles at the airship over a dozen kilometers away, shouting in coarse voices.

“Come on if you’ve got the guts, you two-legged cowards!”

“Let your mutant granddaddy see how many heads you’ve got to chop!”

“%￥#@!”

“Oooh-ah-ah!”

Seeing no reaction from the airship, they turned back, grabbed a dozen scrawny, ugly wretches from the cages holding prisoners, and shoved them up to the rooftop of one of the buildings in the “Champion” Biopharmaceutical Research Institute.

It was one of the tallest surviving structures in all of Jinhe City.

Ignoring the pleas of those men and women, they chopped off their heads with a single stroke, then tied ropes around their ankles, hurled them off the building, letting their blood flow down the outer wall.

Like a scarlet waterfall.

The reveling mutants howled in excitement—those spilling blood, those splattered by it, and those just watching on the sidelines.

To them, blood-sacrificing a few two-legged livestock was both entertainment.

And a ritual to pray for a “bountiful harvest.”

The prisoners, caged like cattle, shivered, their faces uniformly etched with terror; some had gone numb, sitting blankly with vacant eyes…

The airship merely gazed at them from afar, then dropped its anchor chain.

Though the rank-and-file paid little heed to a single airship, Gahn, the tribal leader, still showed a flicker of surprise at the sight, his caterpillar-like brow furrowing into a grim crease.

He finally understood what had happened last night.

But he couldn’t grasp why the Alliance would go to such lengths at this time.

The Torch Church’s apostle had told him personally that once winter passed, an unprecedented tide would erupt in Clearspring City.

The Alliance should be preparing for battle right now.

Logically, they had no hands to spare to thwart their plans.

Standing behind him, the stooped Gomo spoke softly.

“Our allies hope we can deal with Pinecone Farm… The Alliance’s forces have taken it over. The bishop suspects they’re up to no good, which might threaten their ongoing plans.”

Hearing Gomo’s voice, Gahn’s lips twisted into a cruel grin.

“And they still have the nerve to make demands of us? Aren’t they going to explain last night’s incident?”

Gomo sighed lightly.

“He apologizes for the accident last night. No one expected the Alliance to react so quickly—usually, those people plan before acting, but now they’ve clearly sent men ahead… Also, the Church will compensate us double for the cybernetics and weapons lost in the fight.”

At these words, Gahn’s brow finally relaxed a little.

In the Qi tribe, strength equaled status; whoever had the bigger fists was the chief.

Thus, the gear that made one stronger was far more valuable to them than those green-skinned consumables.

What the Qi tribe lacked least was warriors.

They fought from the womb, learned to hunt before they learned to speak, and learned to eat people before they learned to walk.

Each of them is a soldier.

But—

“Tell him, I’ll take the job, but leaving the city now is not a good idea—at least until it rains or fogs,” Garen said, staring at the airship with a grave expression. “Those gun barrels are like a hedgehog’s; I’m afraid we’ll get pummeled the moment we leave here.”

There are shelters in the city; without ground troops to guide them, the damage from shelling is quite limited.

But on the plains, it’s different.

From Jinhe City to the Pinecone Farm in the eastern suburbs, although there are vast forests, one must still pass through one or two stretches of open clearings.

A dozen or twenty people might be fine, but a large march of hundreds or thousands will surely be seen, and then last night’s failure might repeat itself.

Seeing Garen’s concern, Gomo smiled lightly and continued.

“Don’t worry about that.”

“That bishop has a way to get us in.”