Chapter 123: Everything’s in Place
A thumb-sized figure peeked out from behind the blood crystal clutched in Lin Jiayao’s tentacles.
“Mommy?” the tiny white figure whispered, after a moment of hesitation, recognizing the familiar presence.
“Mm,” Lin Jiayao nodded, gently nuzzling Huayibai’s face with a tentacle tip. “Eat this.”
“Really?”
“Yes, there’s more where that came from.”
“Eh?” Little Huayibai blinked, confused.
But it obediently lowered its head, its face pressing against the blood crystal, its form dissolving into tendrils that enveloped the crystal, rapidly absorbing its energy.
It was still confused, not because its head was… gone… but because Mommy had brought it to this strange place.
First, Mommy had taken some of its… reproductive parts… and put them on a blood crystal, and then it had lost contact with that spore.
And then it had been transported somewhere else, and then Mommy had told it to… sprout.
Although confused, after confirming it was indeed its Mommy, it had obeyed.
And then Mommy, using her magic, had produced another blood crystal, and a tiny spore on its surface was sprouting.
Is that… Mommy?
When the tendrils emerged, Huayibai was certain; it was Mommy’s tendrils.
Looking at the small, writhing, red tendrils on the blood crystal, Huayibai felt a warmth spreading through its own tendrils.
Mommy’s tendrils… Mommy’s tendrils…
So… enticing…
Lin Jiayao, oblivious to the effect her fungal form had on Huayibai, was mentally reviewing her plan.
29km to the extraction point, three hours… enough time.
She was currently on top of the ruins of a luxury hotel, a block away from where she’d encountered the Voodoo Cult.
The hotel had collapsed at some point, her zombie army was gone, but Goldie was still here, intact.
The system’s doing, clearly.
She didn’t know how the system had managed it, but it seemed that even when outmatched, her zombies could still extract safely.
Impressive.
Dismissing her curiosity for now, she summoned her insects and started severing Goldie’s tentacles.
“Mommy… mmm?”
Huayibai, just materialized, hadn’t even had time to form clothes before it was filled with blood crystal fluid, its body rapidly expanding, its power surging as it began to spread its fungal carpet.
Lin Jiayao, with the experience from the Training Grounds, worked quickly and efficiently, like a speedrunner.
Leaving one tentacle for her spore clone to form a human body and clothes, she waited for Huayibai to absorb the blood crystal fluid, while also using the remaining blood crystals to create a large number of small, green insects.
About thirty minutes later, Huayibai, engorged with energy, exploded into the familiar blood-red fungal carpet.
But this time, it quickly reformed, materializing beside Lin Jiayao’s spore clone.
“Mommy, what do you need Yibai to do?” It was starting to understand that Mommy had a plan; otherwise, she wouldn’t have spent so many blood crystals to restore it.
No, not restore, but recreate. This new body was far stronger than the one she had been using.
Perhaps even its strongest form; absorbing more blood crystals wouldn’t increase its power much, only its size, and even that had a limit.
Further enhancements would require evolution.
“Just follow my instructions and… charge,” Lin Jiayao said, patting Huayibai’s head with a tentacle.
Then, controlling the swarm of green insects she’d created, she sent them towards the head-Hive zombie’s territory.
The green swarm circled the area, a wide perimeter.
After about five minutes, the ground began to tremble.
Countless zombies roared, and a swarm of insects emerged from the ground, rising into the air, circling briefly, and then attacking the green insect swarm.
It seemed the head-Hive zombie was more concerned with the invading insects than the fungal carpet encroaching on its territory.
It saw the insects as a more immediate threat, a challenge to its dominance.
As the insect swarm flew away, Huayibai, watching the sky, received a mental command from its Mommy to move.
Towards… the insects?
Although slightly apprehensive, Huayibai obeyed; Mommy’s commands were absolute.
The head-Hive’s insects, distracted by the green swarm, hadn’t noticed the encroaching fungal carpet. By the time they realized, the tendrils had already reached the nearest sewer entrance.
A classic diversion tactic. Lin Jiayao had tried it in the Training Grounds, but the insects had returned too quickly, and she hadn’t been able to reach the Hive Zombie before being intercepted by the golden insects.
But this time was different. She had experience and Huayibai’s help. As long as Huayibai could reach those tentacles, it was game over.
This battle… it hadn’t even begun… a true speedrun.
“Shhh—”
Huayibai’s tendrils pierced the retreating tentacles, and fueled by the blood crystal fluid within, rapidly spread throughout the network.
Within seconds, the sewer tunnel beneath Lin Jiayao was covered in the familiar red carpet.
“Is it under control?” Lin Jiayao asked.
“Almost…” Huayibai closed its eyes, then opened them. “It’s done, Mommy.”
“Kill it.” Lin Jiayao had Goldie extend a tentacle, pierce one of the head-Hive’s tentacles that had reached the tunnel, and drain it.
Simultaneously, swarms of Little Green Bees emerged from the hives in Goldie’s eyes, as if blood crystals were infinite.
She had no desire to see that grotesque head again.
Her only task now was to collect blood crystals.
“Mommy, it’s dead,” Huayibai reported, having crushed the head-Hive zombie’s brain with its tendrils.
The moment she spoke, a series of pops and crunches echoed through the sewers as the tentacles burst and the insects fell from the sky, their bodies shattering.
“Collect the blood crystals. You take the ones underground.” Lin Jiayao didn’t waste any time, sending Goldie’s green insects swarming out of the sewer maintenance hole.
And Huayibai, after a moment of hesitation, dissolved into the fungal carpet, its tendrils collecting the blood crystals in the sewer.
The more it collected, the more amazed it became.
So many… blood crystals…
And not just underground, but also from the fallen insects above.
Blood crystals everywhere, surrounding her.
She had never seen so many, not even in Survivor’s Light.
Did Mommy bring me here to help collect blood crystals?
Mommy is so amazing…
Huayibai didn’t even question how she’d been transported here; in her eyes, Mommy was now omnipotent.
Powerful, mysterious, with countless clones scattered across the world.
And this… this was Mommy’s way of giving her combat experience.
After all, Mommy could have just brought her own spores and done this herself.
But she had brought Yibai along, to help her learn. So thoughtful, it made her want to cry.
And the battle itself, under Mommy’s guidance, had been so easy.
She had to study hard, become as smart as Mommy, so she could also use clever tactics to defeat powerful enemies.
This battle had further solidified Mommy’s position in Huayibai’s mind, her adoration almost overflowing.
Collecting the blood crystals took much longer than the battle itself.
Since the green insects couldn’t enter the water, Lin Jiayao had Huayibai collect the ones in the sewer, while she used her swarm to gather the crystals from the fallen insects on the surface.
After about an hour, they had collected all the crystals, a small mountain of them.
Lin Jiayao quickly counted them, her eyes narrowing slightly.
One hundred and fifty-four blood crystal stones…
A true fortune…
But her safehouse was only 3×3, her warehouse 10×10. Even emptying the warehouse, she could only carry 109.
45 left over…
This… presented a problem.
After a moment of thought, she set aside twenty-five for Huayibai. “These are yours.”
And she would use the remaining twenty for Goldie’s repairs and upgrades.
“Yibai doesn’t want them.”
To Lin Jiayao’s surprise, Huayibai, looking at the mountain of blood crystals, shook its head. “Yibai already has a lot.”
By “a lot,” it meant the blood crystal fluid Lin Jiayao had fed it earlier.
It felt it hadn’t contributed much, so it didn’t deserve any reward.
“Uh…” Lin Jiayao patted Huayibai’s head, then said after a moment, “Then Mommy will keep them for you.”
“Okay, thank you, Mommy,” Huayibai nodded happily.
Lin Jiayao, of course, wouldn’t deny Huayibai its share. She couldn’t carry them all, but she could store them in Goldie’s tentacles and then… harvest them later.
After putting nine crystals in the safehouse, she had Goldie consume one hundred of them, one by one.
While Goldie ate, Lin Jiayao turned to Huayibai, patted its head, and then, pointing at the fungal carpet, asked, “Yibai, can Mimic Fruiting Body mimic… non-human forms? Like… that flying insect you can control?”
Time was running out; without another mode of transportation, she had to ask.
If Huayibai could transform into the giant insect, it would significantly reduce their travel time, even allowing her to scavenge for backpacks in this city.
After all, she needed something to pack all these crystals.
Hearing her Mommy’s question, Huayibai nodded, and the fungal carpet beneath them began to rise, lifting them both.
Soon, a massive, twenty-meter-long insect stood, carrying Lin Jiayao and Huayibai.
It resembled the Voodoo Cult’s “ladybug” she’d had Huayibai hijack earlier, its back a rounded carapace.
This type, less drafty and noisy, was better suited for carrying passengers.
An opening appeared on the insect’s back, allowing Lin Jiayao, the blood crystals, and Goldie to enter, then seamlessly closed.
“Buzz—”
The insect spread its wings. Huayibai, having the complete flight memories of two insects, expertly controlled it, flying towards the extraction point as instructed by Lin Jiayao.
And as they flew, Lin Jiayao’s Little Green Bees scouted below, searching for backpacks and other containers.
Before reaching the extraction point, she’d already found more than a dozen, some even damaged.
And during this time, she received a message from Huayibai:
The Huayibai in Guangdong had transported A4 to its extraction point and was ready to fly to Fuzhou City to find Mask.
By the time she reached her extraction point, Huayibai would have reached Mask.
Everything’s falling into place…
This time, the Voodoo Cult would pay dearly…
…
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