Chapter Forty-Five: Rescuing Liana

“Damn it… Has the master messed up this time?”
Ye Hai’s death caught Qiao completely off guard.
Liana, too, was deeply affected.
Without Ye Hai directly intercepting the Bee Queen, Liana was left exposed to the stinger’s deadly point.
Though she had just triumphed in a fierce struggle for control over the mutants, this victory belonged to the instincts of the Veronica Virus, and had little to do with Liana herself.
Now Ye Hai could no longer shield her from the Bee Queen’s attacks.
Staring straight into the unblinking gaze of the monstrous queen, Liana was paralyzed with terror.
The Veronica Virus that had invaded her brain instantly spread below her eyes… the giant mandibles of the Ant Queen had already formed!
Just a little more, and Liana would be lost forever.
Seeing this, Qiao grabbed Zella and leapt onto the Ant Queen’s body, shouting:
“I’ll hold it off for a while…
You must find some way to help Liana finish her evolution. Only if she fully masters the virus do we have even the slimmest chance!
Otherwise, once she’s completely devoured by the Veronica Virus and the master’s restraint is gone… the Ant Queen will infect us as well!”
Zella was nearly hopeless. Anyone could see that Ye Hai’s death had struck a devastating blow to Liana.
She might collapse at any moment.
And if that happened, perched atop the Ant Queen—the very source of the plague—Zella would certainly be the first to fall.
But Qiao had no time to worry about Zella.
With Ye Hai dead, protecting Liana might be their only hope, though that hope was vanishingly small.
Drawing his dagger, Qiao flashed forward, appearing before the Bee Queen in an instant.
The memory of Ye Hai’s death was vivid in his mind, but Qiao had no concept of “psionics”—he simply believed Ye Hai was killed because his speed was too slow.
Yet, just as his dagger was about to strike, Qiao, too, was frozen in midair.
He was shocked: “What power is this? Damn it, has a stage-nine mutant evolved abilities that defy the laws of physics?”
The next moment, the queen’s stinger lashed out.
It was exactly like when Ye Hai was slain!
Just as Qiao watched the deadly stinger close in, five scarlet tongues whipped out, coiling around his ankles and yanking him downwards.
Qiao’s body dropped suddenly, narrowly dodging the fatal strike.
It was a desperate, split-second command to the Lickers below that saved him.
But the Bee Queen was relentless.
As Qiao fell, the stinger snapped back into the abdomen, the tail arched, aiming directly at him.
The next instant, a torrent of venom shot out, hurtling toward Qiao’s head.
The poison reeked, hissing and spitting, clearly imbued with terrifying corrosive power.
Qiao knew that if even a drop touched him, he’d melt away, needing no burial—he’d seep into the earth himself.
With all his strength, he seized one Licker’s tongue, swung himself aside in midair, and barely evaded the venomous stream.
He landed, but the Bee Queen dove after him.
Her wings vibrated at a frequency so high it was terrifying.
The resonance shattered Qiao’s eardrums—the blood gushed freely.
Thankfully, after injecting the T-Virus, Qiao’s main gift was speed.
He managed to escape the resonance radius before it peaked.
No sooner had he moved than a massive crater yawned behind him, the earth and stone within turned to powder by the deadly vibrations, billowing up a choking cloud.
Qiao used the cover of dust to put distance between himself and the Bee Queen, cold sweat soaking his back…

With the Bee Queen drawn away, Zella turned his attention to what was left of Liana’s head.
Looking utterly miserable, he wracked his brain for a way to help her evolve.
He circled her half-head again and again, nearly spinning her into dizziness.
This was the first time Zella truly understood what it meant to be a desperate ant on a hot pan.
Finally, he plopped down before her, supporting his forehead with one hand, and pleaded:
“Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you!
As long as you succeed in evolving, anything’s possible…”
Hearing this feeble promise, Liana rolled her eyes so hard Zella nearly died of fright on the spot.
“Let’s talk this out—please! Let’s not do anything rash!”
He waved his hands frantically before her, a mask of panic on his face.
Suddenly, inspiration struck—Liana cared most about her “family,” didn’t she? That was his angle.
“The three hundred people from your camp are now locked in our Black Hand Syndicate’s headquarters at the Plati Black Market…
If you die, I die too…
If I die, when the Shadow Tide comes for the next shipment, they’ll all be sent to Chaos Star!
By then, they’ll be doomed!”
At these words, he thought he saw—perhaps it was a trick of the eye—Liana’s head actually regrow by a centimeter.
Rubbing his eyes furiously, he continued:
“Chaos Star is a world of endless war, needing a constant stream of people for the military.
Over two hundred men from your camp—once sent there, they’ll be thrown onto the battlefield as cannon fodder…
And those who die quickly are the lucky ones…
The women left behind will be sent to the flesh markets, abused to death, then tossed in some filthy ditch. It’s a fate worse than yours—at least you’d die quickly and not know a thing.”
At these words, a surge of strength returned to Liana.
Her mouth, transformed into monstrous mandibles, began to revert.
Within seconds, her lips and teeth reformed, and she roared at Zella:
“No, they shouldn’t have to suffer that pain…”
Seeing this, Zella was overjoyed, silently thanking every god and spirit in the universe. Was this the power of a saint? He might just survive!

Zella pressed on, encouraging her:
“Yes, that’s right—hold onto that feeling, keep going…
If you can return to human form…
I’ll give you ten shops in the Plati Black Market!
Even if you never do business, just collecting rent will support your family!”
Suddenly, Zella felt the Ant Queen’s body sink—she’d grown shorter!
Liana’s neck had returned!
He finally breathed a long sigh of relief.
A gust of wind swept by, tossing Liana’s hair aside.
A delicate tattoo was revealed below her forehead—faint, but Zella could make out the tiny letters: “Triss.”
He frowned, pondering a moment before speaking:
“Suddenly, I remembered something.
The slavers of the Southern Hemisphere all tell a story.
A couple, said to be great figures from the Four Stars, has spent the last twenty years searching for their lost daughter.
Their daughter’s name was Liana.
She was taken on a family trip by her grandparents when the zombie virus broke out.
Everyone told the parents to give up—what hope was there for a one-year-old in a zombie outbreak?
The slavers of Zombie Star all take it as a joke, for no one knows better than we do how hellish that world is.
A one-year-old, surviving the virus, the interstellar wars—how could she live?
All the couple had were baby photos, which mean nothing now.
But I heard… the child wore two gold anklets, each inscribed: ‘Triss’ and ‘Liana’.”
Liana froze.
She seemed to lose her grip on the virus entirely.
In an instant, the little she’d regained was swept away, and her body mutated fully into a monster before Zella’s helpless eyes.
He had never imagined his words could have such a ruinous effect.
Zella’s face went ashen with despair.
“It’s over!
Completely over…”
He watched as the Veronica Composite fully took shape.
He collapsed atop the Ant Queen, trembling.
Just then…
Steam began to pour from the Ant Queen’s body, scalding Zella so fiercely he howled in pain, his despair forgotten.
He tumbled and rolled to the ground.
The sudden steam shrouded the area in dense fog, obscuring everything.
The change drew every eye—even the Bee Queen, who’d been chasing Qiao, paused in surprise.
As the mist slowly thinned, a graceful silhouette appeared, faint and ethereal amid the swirling vapors…