Page 87

Chapter 87: 84th Chapter: Insects

"We can’t pursue..." Faced with Shen Er’s probing, Chen Qing shook his head directly.

"Why?" Chen Ying’s face showed urgency when she heard this. She had also realized that if these active corpses were allowed to scatter and spread their poison to the countryside, the consequences would be extremely severe!

"Does the Prefectural Governor require our services?" Shen Er asked with a sly smile.

"We really can’t pursue..." Chen Qing shook his head, "Killing them all will only bring more."

Chen Ying was stunned, not quite understanding, but Shen Er was quick to respond, grasping the meaning immediately, "Do you mean that killing them will only cause more to come?"

Chen Qing looked at the two of them and sighed inwardly.

To be honest, he preferred the likes of Shen Er—astute, profound, resolute, and daring in action, fully capable of handling matters independently, not like Chen Ying, who, with her naive demeanor, hadn’t yet grasped the situation, resembling a child inexperienced in worldly affairs.

But Shen Er was too deeply entangled with the Shen Family, with machinations that were too intricate, leaving almost no room for molding.

Chen Ying, on the other hand, had a clean background; even her backstage supporter, Mu Hongqing, was a lone official.

Frankly speaking, when it came to making a pact with this young girl, Chen Qing had indeed considered the idea of targeting the Academic Commissioner. ..

"Why is that?" Chen Ying was still confused.

Second Elder Shen, however, was already deep in thought, "The array must have released some active corpses due to its limited capacity.

If this array is sophisticated enough to detect the extermination of these corpses, it could determine which area is eliminating the active corpses efficiently enough. .. I see now!"

The more Second Elder Shen thought about it, the clearer it became, "That’s why the array has segregated the seven regions of Jiangnan—to determine which area has stronger resistance, so it can release more active corpses towards the areas with sufficient resistance to alleviate its own pressure. .."

"Second Elder Shen is quick to understand..." Chen Qing said with a smile.

Yet inside, he was secretly alarmed; with only this much information, Second Elder Shen had managed to analyze so much. Indeed, it was remarkable. Not to mention, just this capacity for thought was not something ordinary people from the past could match...

"But if that’s the only trick it has, I’m afraid it won’t be enough to cause a real catastrophe, right?" Shen Yiyun frowned and said.

Chen Qing heard this and slightly curled his lip, "You’ll know soon enough, Mr. Shen Er."

The current intensity is low, simply because... this is the early stage.

As more and more active corpses break free from the control of the mist, an increasingly powerful array of corpse types will evolve, including both commanding and combat types.

Over time, even ordinary walking corpses will become stronger, and if left to develop, active corpses that have evolved over ten times could rival a First Rank bloodline warrior!

And these ten evolutions may sound like a lot, but in reality, the process is quite rapid. The slow ones take a few months; the fast ones... might appear within the very first month!

That is the real trouble with the creature sealed in the mist!

With just a bit of carelessness, the opponent could amass an undead army with an extremely exaggerated strength. This concept is simple, based on the characteristics of the zombie apocalypse scenario.

While the zombie apocalypse is a cliché, it is sufficiently effective.

When this monster arrived in the game, out of fifty-seven servers, only three were barely able to contend, with the players in the remaining areas almost completely wiped out!

"I ask that everyone relocate to the city. I will explain to Mr. Shen Er in a moment."

At these words, Shen Yiyun nodded, and with a light flick of the hand, a black arm seized Ninth Elder Shen, tightly bound, and along with Murong Yunji, leaped onto the city walls.

Chen Qing then turned to Chen Ying beside him and said, "Wife, could you escort your husband for a part of the way?"

Chen Ying was taken aback. This guy was so capable, did he still need her to accompany him?

But she said nothing, as she felt somewhat guilty. She gently supported Chen Qing and, using Wind Walk Sorcery, took him with her flying to the top of the city wall.

----------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, on the first night, active corpses began to emerge onto land in several regions of Jiangnan. Compared to Chen Qing’s smooth handling of the situation, the other areas with heavy forces performed worse than Lyuzhou.

The chaos caused by tens of thousands of undead was far more severe than imagined because not everyone knew the characteristics of these undead as Chen Qing did.

Several soldiers stationed at the docks in Zhou Fu were attacked at night, leading to extreme tumult.

These undead felt no pain, feared not the blade, and would not die unless their heads were completely severed.

For a time, even the elite regular troops were locked in a desperate struggle.

What’s worse, many soldiers who were bitten were taken directly into the city for treatment, ignorant of the fact that they were bringing the seeds of the undead poison into the densely populated areas...

At this time, several members of the Shen Family were gathered in the Liuzhou Government Office, all watching Chen Qing as he described the current situation based on the map of Jiangnan he had drawn.

"Does the Educational Governor mean to say that these undead were deliberately released?" Wei Gongcheng asked in astonishment.

"Hadn’t you said before that the purpose of this white fog formation was to suppress these monsters?"

"They can no longer be suppressed..." Chen Qing said with a wry smile, "Heaven knows which damned person caused a flaw in the sealing, and the monsters inside have certainly escaped for a few days. According to General Weichi, the seventeen nations of the West Sea were annihilated—which means the undead we are now seeing are the millions of citizens from the West Sea’s seventeen nations! "

Millions!!

The people in the government hall were shocked to hear this, but in Shen Yiyun’s eyes, there flickered a mysterious light, as he remembered that the Old Ancestor Shen had apparently gone to the West Sea just a few days before...

"Why didn’t Weichi Feihong come out with them?" Murong Yunji asked curiously.

Chen Qing explained, "Weichi Feihong has evolved a black fog on his body, which allows him to walk freely during daylight. The black fog he carries can also bring other undead out with him. The white fog contains innumerable mysteries, and the entire formation is divided into nine inner and outer layers. The outer layer holds the lowest level of undead. Weichi Feihong is an anomaly, having exceeded what the formation calculations can contain, allowing him to freely enter and exit the white fog’s outer layer.

Once he’s inside, he can’t come out easily, otherwise, with the scale of his black fog, millions of undead would follow him out! "

"I see..." Murong Yunji nodded, no wonder there were so many undead under the ship, following along—it turned out Weichi Feihong’s black fog could block out sunlight.

"If the outer layer holds low-level undead, then what is contained within the inner layer?" Shen Yiyun asked.

"Of course, the higher-level undead," Chen Qing said solemnly.

"These undead devour each other on the periphery, growing stronger like Gu insects.

Once they evolve to a certain level, they can delve deeper into the next layer of the formation, where more advanced creatures are held.

The combination of the two will give rise to a new existence. "

"Creatures?" Shen Yiyun’s eyes narrowed.

"Yes... creatures!" Chen Qing nodded. "The clouds and mist conceal the world’s most terrifying poison insects, so horrific that the formation must continuously suppress and decompose their components. So, what the formation truly suppresses are thousands of these insects!"

"Thousands of insects?" A sense of foreboding rose in Shen Yiyun’s mind. "Decomposed?"

"Yes..." Chen Qing nodded again. "Because the insect is too terrifying, it must be decomposed, which has led the formation to be made up of the insect, divided several times. These insects each inherited a portion of the poison insect’s power, choosing suitable hosts to grow stronger. The formation’s existence is immeasurable in age, already harboring many ancient undead that inherited from the insect. What Weichi mentioned, the one that annihilated the West Sea’s seventeen nations, is likely just one of them! "

Just one of them could annihilate the West Sea’s seventeen nations?

Both Shen Yiyun and Murong Yun felt a frown forming, wondering if the other party was exaggerating a bit too much. According to him, if a thousand poison insects were released together, wouldn’t they turn the heavens upside down?

"Then shouldn’t the formation be isolating the undead?" Murong Yunji, sensing something amiss, spoke up. "Why let the excellent undead merge with the insects you spoke of?"

"It’s deliberate..." Chen Qing patiently explained.

"Aside from sealing, the clouds and mist also create illusions. Once these insects have found suitable hosts, they will, as arranged by the formation, fight to the death in the deepest layers. It precisely calculates the insects’ strength, orchestrating encounters between evenly matched adversaries.

When the battle is nearly even, it will use means to destroy both their bodies.

The insects will then be seriously injured, either dying outright or going into hiding and deep sleep.

Over time, the strength of these insects is diminished, ultimately subdued by the formation! "

"Such intricacy?" Murong Yunji’s curiosity grew as she listened. "Is someone controlling it?"

"No..." Chen Qing shook his head. "That’s why there are flaws. Some insects that figure out the pattern begin to conserve their power and hide within the depths of the formation."

Hearing this, Shen Yiyun’s unease grew stronger, and he asked pensively, "But what if someone could control the insects?"

"Control the insects?" Chen Qing was taken aback, then responded, "If someone could control these insects to act in unison, without fighting each other, the problem would be severe!"

At that, Shen Yiyun immediately stood up and looked behind him, then turned to Murong Yunji with a strange expression, "Sister-in-law, where’s Old Jiu?"

Murong Yunji was startled and turned to look, only to be equally shocked. Old Jiu, whom she had locked with Wind Walk Sorcery, was nowhere to be seen!