Chapter Thirty-Seven: Peril for All

Ye Hai quietly closed his notebook and leaned back in his seat, trying to calm his restless heart.

Suddenly, a series of sharp, crackling crashes echoed from the elevator shaft.

Ye Hai immediately tensed, hurriedly crouching down beside the door to conceal himself.

As the cacophony drew nearer, his body instinctively sensed the approach—it was his zombie crows flying in.

Yet, these zombie crows now radiated an intense panic, sending Ye Hai’s heart racing all over again.

Even so, he did not summon the flock to his side. He simply let them careen about the vast ART-3 laboratory like headless flies, crashing into walls and shrieking for a long while.

Once he was certain there was no threat underground, he guided a single crow to his side.

“A large number of high-grade mutants?”
“Flying over the military camp?”
“Heading toward the Sea of Flowers?”

Hearing the crow’s report, Ye Hai’s heart sank. Things were taking a dire turn.

Though he had already stationed a crow along Qiao’s route after leaving the Sea of Flowers to warn them to detour, if these were flying high-grade mutants, they could easily spot Qiao’s group from above.

At that thought, Ye Hai hesitated no longer. He stuffed his notebook into the crow’s beak—nearly choking it—then instantly transformed into a Licker.

With astonishing speed, he darted to Dr. Avil Schmidt’s office door and, without a second thought, kicked it open.

He seized the zombie crow perched on his shoulder and hurled it into the office, then slammed the door shut behind him.

After a bout of thuds and crashes, Ye Hai confirmed the room was safe, reopened the door, switched on his faint flashlight, and began searching for Dr. Avil Schmidt’s ID card.

He quickly found his target in a locked drawer on the right side of the desk.

Overjoyed, Ye Hai pocketed the card and left, gathering the crows still blundering in the dark behind him as he departed swiftly.

But when he climbed out of the elevator shaft, the sight before him made him recoil in shock, retreating immediately back into the shaft.

Two colossal mutants soared across the sky overhead.

Peering closer, Ye Hai realized these massive forms were not flying on their own.

Once the mutants had flown a bit farther, Ye Hai darted out of the building.

A chill ran through his body.

He had clearly seen that each of the giant mutants was being carried through the sky by a group of worker bees.

These worker bees, aside from their sheer size—over ten meters long—displayed no fanciful mutations; they remained entirely true to their insect forms.

Ye Hai could not even guess what stage of mutation these worker bees had reached. Aside from their bloated size, they showed no other signs.

But given that bees had swelled from their original size to over ten meters, their bodies had at least reached the eighth stage of mutation.

Ye Hai spoke with difficulty, “Erita… she truly isn’t dead!”

Assuming the form of a Tyrant, Ye Hai hastened after the worker bees in the sky.

He was desperate to know what these bees intended. Had they truly, as described in Tang Jie’s diary, developed advanced intelligence?

While tailing them, Ye Hai noticed something amiss.

The two eighth-stage mutants being carried in the sky were unscathed, allowing the much smaller bees to manipulate them without resistance.

This was unprecedented in Ye Hai’s encounters with mutants—especially eighth-stage, high-grade ones.

According to the zombie crow’s report, a group of mutants had already flown toward the Sea of Flowers.

Now, a second group was heading the same way.

This batch included two eighth-stage mutants, eight bees whose mutation stage was uncertain but likely also eighth-stage.

Combined with the first batch, there were fully twenty high-grade mutants… If they collided head-on with Qiao’s group, chaos would ensue.

At this moment, Ye Hai could only hope that Qiao and the others would sleep a bit longer, or take a wider route around the Sea of Flowers.

If not… they would be doomed!

…

Meanwhile, Qiao was cheerfully playing with the crow on his shoulder, striding lightly in a wide circle toward his destination.

To shake off their pursuers, Zera had deliberately woken Qiao early.

After conveying the Abyssal Surge Organization’s wish to strengthen their cooperation with the Corpse Catchers, Qiao was practically floating.

His invention had won the aliens’ approval.

The “Blood-bound” virus, scorned by every Corpse Catcher, had left the Abyssal Surge Organization astonished.

In this, Qiao felt he had outstripped his competitors in scientific achievement.

And, most importantly of all, he had singlehandedly slain a seventh-stage mutant—one that was, moreover, a plant mutant never before seen on the Zombie Star.

Even Zero, that madwoman, had never accomplished such a feat.

Qiao could already imagine the next time he saw Zero—how he would flaunt his achievement, and how she would be infuriated beyond words.

Even if Zero one day managed to slay a seventh-stage mutant herself, Qiao would always have done it first. That was a mark she could never surpass.

Just then, Qiao’s eyes narrowed.

In a flash, he accelerated to his utmost, and in the blink of an eye, before Zera, Liana, and the others could react, he had dragged them beneath a nearby weathered stone pillar.

As Zera, bewildered, prepared to ask what was happening, Qiao snatched up a stone and jammed it into Zera’s mouth, nearly dislocating Zera’s jaw.

But the next moment, Zera was too stunned even to remove the stone.

Above them, two behemoths—over fifty meters long—were being carried through the sky by eight bees, heading straight for their position.

This mighty swarm of eighth-stage mutants rendered everyone speechless with terror.

None dared make a sound, fearful that the slightest noise would invite their annihilation.

Having witnessed the horror of a seventh-stage mutant the previous night, Zera no longer believed that orbital fire support could offer any real protection.

And now, there were ten eighth-stage monsters.

According to Qiao, Corpse Catchers could only confirm that mutants underwent a qualitative leap from seventh to eighth stage—how profound a leap, no one knew. It was quite possible that even space-based strikes might not kill them outright.

As the group watched the terrifying forms recede into the sky, the worker bees suddenly wheeled about, carrying the two mutants in a sharp turn toward a spot just behind Qiao.

Before landing, they airdropped the two eighth-stage mutants from above.

Instantly, a barrage of fire erupted behind them.

It turned out that Javier had been closely tracking Qiao’s movements all along, shadowing them since their departure.

As for why Zera had received no word—well, the Starship Borogen and the Helmsman had already arrived.

In space, the Abyssal Surge Organization was now completely suppressed.

But because of the sudden appearance of the eighth-stage mutants, and Javier’s group lacking Qiao’s speed, they had failed to remain hidden in time and were spotted by the worker bees above.

At that moment, Javier’s Second Legion was forced to call for orbital fire support in a desperate attempt to escape the two attacking eighth-stage mutants, leading his soldiers in a frantic breakout.

But Qiao cursed furiously—for Javier and his men were charging straight toward them.

And just as Qiao was preparing to lead Zera and the others away before Javier arrived, the second group of worker bees, with two more eighth-stage mutants, had already arrived…