Chapter 72: Blood-Colored Moths
“Anything goes! Anything at all, sis!”
The masked man leaned against the car door, his gaze filled with undisguised mockery.
Lin Jiayao initially thought he suspected something, but she quickly calmed down.
Having evolved Bone Spike Lurker, by lightly tapping the car window, she could not only hear the surrounding sounds, but also perceive the terrain and the positions of anyone within a 50-meter radius, like a 3D model in her mind.
She could see that they weren’t carrying any weapons and weren’t making any threatening gestures.
So far, the Voodoo Cult members didn’t seem suspicious.
“Stay away from me. How do I know you’re not infected with the fungus?” Lin Jiayao said with a look of disgust.
She knew the Voodoo Cult was aware of the fungus; she could use it as an excuse. This was the safest approach.
“Tsk…” The masked man’s demeanor changed instantly. He kicked the car door, denting it.
“What bullshit fungal zombie? Have you even seen one? That’s just the Boss’s paranoia acting up, making us all wear these damn masks…”
His voice was filled with resentment. He turned and waved to his men. “Let’s go.”
Before leaving, he added, “My men are going to party tonight. We’ll fix your car tomorrow.”
Then, he and his men disappeared into the rain, ignoring the two “close confidantes of the Boss.”
He respected the Boss, but that didn’t mean he approved of all her actions.
He admired the Voodoo Cult she had created, it gave him a sense of belonging, and he was also impressed by her leadership and charisma.
But he couldn’t stand her paranoia and her occasional dissociative episodes.
Not just him, but even the Boss’s most loyal followers suffered because of it.
The paranoia was manageable. Aside from occasionally imposing “maximum security” measures, the Boss had found a way to cope: surrounding herself with pure young women.
In the Boss’s mind, only the presence of pure young women could suppress her urge to flee or kill.
The most difficult to deal with were her dissociative episodes.
A cowardly personality that constantly hid from the world, a bloodthirsty, violent personality, and the Boss’s true, composed personality.
Every personality shift threw the Voodoo Cult into chaos, and this was also why they hadn’t been able to conquer Survivor’s Light.
But despite the Boss’s erratic behavior, no one dared rebel.
Because the Boss was the symbol of the Voodoo Cult. Without her, the cult would collapse.
So, even if the masked man was annoyed, he only complained verbally.
After the Voodoo Cult members left, Lin Jiayao breathed a sigh of relief.
“Are they… gone?” Lin Xiwan asked, her forehead still resting on the steering wheel, glancing at her sister.
“Yes.” Lin Jiayao nodded and activated Bone Spike Lurker, scanning the warehouse for anything useful.
“I thought I heard a little girl crying earlier…” Lin Xiwan said. “And the fungus… The Voodoo Cult doesn’t know about it? Don’t they listen to Survivor’s Light’s broadcasts?”
From her position, she hadn’t seen what was happening on her sister’s side, only heard snippets of the conversation.
But she knew her sister had handled the situation perfectly, deceiving the Voodoo Cult members.
“They’re Brother Gou’s daughters,” Lin Jiayao said. “But don’t go out yet.”
“Why?” Lin Xiwan, still tense, asked instinctively.
“Brother Gou’s daughters have seen us,” Lin Jiayao said, rolling up the window.
She couldn’t risk the little girls recognizing them and calling out “Sister.” That would be a disaster.
“Then what do we do?” Lin Xiwan asked. “There weren’t any Awakened among the partygoers or the men who came over.”
She hadn’t been idle.
She had been using her blood crystal sensitivity to check for Awakened. There hadn’t been any among the partygoers or those who questioned them.
If there had been, her sister would have been exposed.
“No Awakened…?” Lin Jiayao pursed her lips and looked at her sister.
She saw the same answer in her sister’s eyes.
Fight.
Knowing there were no Awakened among this Voodoo Cult group, Lin Xiwan’s fear subsided.
The dread of the Voodoo Cult, instilled by years of radio broadcasts, began to fade.
They were just a group of mentally unstable, well-equipped ordinary people.
As her fear dissipated, Lin Xiwan began to assess their surroundings.
She looked around the warehouse.
Various modified vehicles, belonging to the Voodoo Cult, were parked neatly inside, seemingly using the warehouse as a garage.
Besides the vehicles, there were no other supplies, likely having been transported elsewhere.
It was highly probable that this Voodoo Cult group was just a small detachment left behind to occupy the factory, the supplies already moved with the main force.
This was good news for the sisters.
It meant they didn’t have to face any Awakened with strange abilities; they only had to worry about gunfire.
The biggest problem now was—they were low on ammunition.
They only had the one Type 95 rifle Lin Jiayao was holding, not even a full magazine, let alone spare ammunition.
Fighting with just that was suicide – even if she could kill one with each shot, there were too many of them.
They needed to find more weapons, and before the Voodoo Cult members realized something was wrong.
Sometimes, no words were needed. A single glance was enough for the sisters to understand each other.
“I’ll keep watch, Sis,” Lin Jiayao said, looking towards the warehouse entrance through the rear window. She was ostensibly using her eyes to watch, but she had activated Bone Spike Lurker.
“Mm.” Lin Xiwan nodded, climbed out of the monster truck through the broken window, and ran towards the back of the warehouse, scanning the roofs of the parked vehicles.
The Voodoo Cult’s monster trucks didn’t have trunks; they stored everything on the roof. Any firearms would be visible.
But then, something unexpected happened.
The two little girls, who had been huddled together, suddenly stood up and ran towards the warehouse exit.
Lin Jiayao noticed immediately. “Don’t run outside! Come back!” she shouted through the open window.
But hearing her voice, the two girls ran faster, as if trying to escape.
Perhaps their father had taught them this survival tactic, but he could never have imagined they would encounter the Voodoo Cult.
Running in Voodoo Cult territory was like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
And their escape would likely attract the Voodoo Cult. If she let them escape, there would be no way to explain it when they were brought back.
How could a Voodoo Cult member let someone escape right in front of them?
It would be a disgrace.
No, I can’t let that happen.
Her sister was too far away to stop them. Lin Jiayao opened the car door and shouted, “Brother Gou’s daughters! Come back!”
Hearing “Brother Gou,” the older girl paused and looked back at Lin Jiayao.
“…Big Sister?” The older girl, with a ponytail, instantly recognized Lin Jiayao and stopped running.
Lin Jiayao and Lin Xiwan’s faces were unforgettable, even with gas masks.
Good thing they hadn’t seen her while the Voodoo Cult members were here…
“Come back quickly, don’t let them see you,” Lin Jiayao beckoned.
The two girls hesitated, then ran towards her.
“Get in.” Lin Jiayao helped them climb into the car. After they were both inside, huddled under the dashboard, she closed the door.
Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.
The loud music and the singer’s raspy voice continued; they hadn’t been alerted.
If those two girls had run outside… It was a good thing they had trusted her.
Just as Lin Jiayao was about to comfort them, she noticed something on the window.
A moth with blood-red wings, its antennae twitching, clinging to the glass.
A… moth?
Even Lv.3 Bone Spike Lurker couldn’t detect something as small as an insect crawling, especially not in the heavy rain.
She hadn’t even noticed it approach.
But then, her heart sank.
One, two, three… more and more moths appeared, crawling onto the car. Lin Jiayao quickly rolled up the window, sealing the car, but the window was soon covered with a swarm of moths.
After a moment, the moths moved, arranging themselves to form three words and a symbol.
“Big Sister?”
The question mark, formed by the moths, rotated, switching between a regular “?” and an upside-down “¿.”
Lin Jiayao’s heart plummeted.
They’ve been discovered… There’s an Awakened among them!
I have to warn Sister!
Ignoring the risk of alerting the Voodoo Cult, she had to get this message to her sister.
“Bang—”
She fired a shot at the driver’s side window, the sound echoing through the warehouse. Then, she leaned out the other window and shouted, “Sister! Watch out for the insects! There’s an Awakened!”
The moths quickly moved to the windshield, forming a new message.
“Worried about her? ^^”
The emoticon, like a mocking grin, seemed to taunt her worry. The moths’ wings fluttered, like a vibrating, sardonic smile.
Then, ignoring Lin Jiayao, the moths flew towards the back of the warehouse, towards Lin Xiwan.
The more you worry, the more I’ll destroy – a very Voodoo Cult sentiment.
Realizing the Awakened’s intention, Lin Jiayao didn’t hesitate. Fungal tendrils spread across her eyes, her vision turning crimson.
Bone spikes erupted from her hand, like Wolverine’s claws, and she punched through the windshield.
Then, facing the swarm of moths that had stopped, seemingly startled, she slowly removed her gas mask.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Jiayao exhaled sharply.
A gust of wind, carrying scarlet spores, erupted from her mouth. The first spore reached a hovering moth.
The tiny spore, upon contact, instantly drained the insect’s life force. Tendrils spread through its body, and a small, blood-red mushroom sprouted from its head.
The mushroom cap burst open, releasing even more spores.
In an instant, the moth withered and fell to the ground, a lifeless husk, leaving only spores floating in the air.
Inside the factory, in the center of the canning area, far from the Voodoo Cult party, a man lay submerged in a fish tank filled with countless white eggs.
Beside him was a well-preserved vintage record player, playing smooth blues music, and a glass of red wine.
If the setting were a luxurious villa, and the egg-filled tank a regular bathtub, it would have been a scene of elegant indulgence.
Suddenly, the man in the tank opened his eyes.
“Cough, cough, cough—”
He coughed violently, two blood-red moths expelled from his mouth.
His eyes were wide with shock and disbelief.
“Fucking… mushrooms… cough… Fuck… the Boss’s fungal paranoia was real… Fuck!!!”
He scrambled out of the tank, shaking off the eggs clinging to his body, ran to a workbench, and quickly put on a full-face gas mask.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, naked, he grabbed two blood crystal stones from a nearby box and hurled them at the fish tank.
The tank shattered. Fueled by the blood crystals, the eggs hatched, the larvae taking a bite of the crystals before pupating.
From pupa to moth in a second. The blood-red moths emerged.
Swarms of them landed on the man, covering him like a crimson cloak. Wearing this cloak, he ran towards the Voodoo Cult members partying in the rain outside.
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