Chapter 56 : Chapter 56
Chapter 56
A Black Tide?
Ji Qing lowered his eyes in a deliberately concealing manner, pretending to be deep in thought. He secretly observed the reactions of the two people around him and found that both of their expressions had changed drastically.
Liu Mu quickly opened his terminal and began drafting a report.
Looks like this is going to take a while, Ji Qing thought.
Perhaps because he had never personally experienced a Black Tide, and perhaps because his sense of belonging to the wasteland was nowhere near as strong as one might imagine, Ji Qing’s reaction was not as intense as theirs.
In fact, he felt less affected than he had when he saw the starfish.
“A setback?” Ji Qing murmured softly.
To him, it really was just a setback. Although mishandling the situation could indeed lead to a Black Tide, for now it looked like the students would manage to resolve it.
Just as Liu Mu was about to submit the report, You Xingluo suddenly stopped him.
The gazes of the other two immediately turned toward You Xingluo.
In a serious tone, You Xingluo said, “For now, we should proceed according to the original plan.”
He explained, “The key to this entire matter lies with the Lord. If it cannot be dealt with, then even if we resolve this crisis on the island, the same crisis can be recreated later. We happened to discover it this time, but what about next time?”
“If we alert it prematurely, we’ll lose its trail.”
“And the more serious problem is...” You Xingluo’s brows tightened unconsciously. “We don’t even know who the Lord is, where it came from, what connection it has to the previous Lord, or why it has the ability to command marine Aberrants...”
“If we lose its trail, none of those questions will ever be answered.”
Liu Mu froze in place after hearing that.
He truly had not thought that far ahead. But shouldn’t reporting the situation to the school first be the most important thing to do? The school could organize the other students to search together with them, and that would be far more efficient than a single team acting alone...
Before Liu Mu could speak, You Xingluo had already read his thoughts.
“If the Lord exists, then that means the island’s Infection Index is far too low,” You Xingluo said with a frown. “The school didn’t notice anything before, but now we’ve discovered an anomaly. That’s strange...”
At the end of his sentence, his tone grew grave. “I suspect this Lord is an intelligent Aberrant. It’s deliberately hiding its existence and avoiding a human siege.”
“An intelligent Aberrant?” Ji Qing asked with a slight frown.
In other words, an Aberrant with self-awareness, one that could understand human speech? That immediately sparked Ji Qing’s interest. He had never seen that type of Aberrant before.
The corners of Ji Qing’s lips unconsciously curved upward, but he quickly suppressed the expression again.
The current situation was not suitable for that kind of reaction.
After hearing this, Liu Mu instinctively swept his gaze around the surroundings, then lowered his voice and asked You Xingluo, “Are you worried that the Lord has already noticed what we’re doing?”
“I’m worried it might have mixed in with the students,” You Xingluo said gravely, nodding.
The teachers serving as student liaisons must already know about the island’s mutation, but since they had not come to the scene in person, they could not confirm what exactly had happened.
Aberrants were capable of controlling or parasitizing students.
The symptoms of aberration would not show themselves that quickly. If the Lord used that to infiltrate the students and trigger widespread infection, it would become a disaster for the Federation.
The Federation could not afford to lose its new generation.
“The Principal made the wrong decision,” You Xingluo sighed softly.
Faced with the lives of more than ten million people in Xicheng, the Principal of Third Ability Academy had taken a risky step, but no one could have imagined that a highly dangerous intelligent Lord was lying in wait on the island.
“In truth, I think the Principal would have been wrong no matter which decision he made,” Ji Qing said calmly, lowering his eyes. “The greatest disasters are often upheld by the smallest kindness.”
“You...” You Xingluo suddenly froze.
Just as he was about to say something, Ji Qing said coolly, “Let’s keep exploring the island. Right now, it probably doesn’t want to attract human attention. It should take advantage of the Team Competition to move the important things, then leave as quickly as possible.”
“Mm.” You Xingluo felt a weight in his heart.
At that moment, he could not even tell whether he hoped they would run into the Lord or hoped they would not. For some reason, he suddenly thought of the prophecy result he had obtained before the Team Competition began.
“For now, the problem can still be resolved. It’ll just be a little troublesome,” You Xingluo said softly.
He trusted his own Prophecy.
That was not only the confidence of a Seer, but also the result of the many times he had verified it in childhood. This prophecy proved that even if he did nothing, fate itself would still lead toward a result that was not bad.
But the crisis on the island had clearly exceeded the range of what could be called “a little troublesome” in the prophecy.
There had to be something he had overlooked during this process. There had to be some existence on the island, something he did not know about, that could drastically alter fate. But what exactly was it?
You Xingluo took a deep breath and quickly followed the other two.
Since he could not figure it out anyway, he might as well go along with Ji Qing’s idea for now, he thought.
So he asked, “Where are we going next?”
“There are still a few unexplored areas left on the island map the school gave us,” Ji Qing answered. “Let’s explore those first and collect the points for exploring unknown areas. After that, I want to look for caves.”
“The number of Aberrants in the caves might be enough to push us into first place.”
The moment those words came out, the other two stared at Ji Qing in surprise.
Since waking up, Liu Mu had reverted to the taciturn and reserved demeanor he had when they first met. He knew very well that his own experience was nowhere near enough for him to participate in matters involving the Federation, policy, and the new generation, but he had not expected Ji Qing’s way of thinking to be even more direct.
Ji Qing was still focused on the Team Competition!
For a moment, Liu Mu could not tell whether Ji Qing was simply impressive, or simply unbelievably composed. After pondering for a moment, You Xingluo suddenly showed a startled expression. “That’s actually true.”
Liu Mu: “...Huh?”
He immediately darted his gaze back and forth between the two of them in complete confusion. Wait, was he the only one who could not understand what they meant?
“Think about it more simply,” You Xingluo said, his usual smiling expression returning.
He leaned close to Liu Mu’s ear and whispered, “Since the fish eggs can undergo non-autonomous evolution inside the caves, there must be something unusual inside them.”
“The Lord will definitely try to stop us from getting close.”
Liu Mu instantly understood. The look he turned on Ji Qing was filled with admiration. Seeing that, Ji Qing shifted his gaze away and forced himself to remain calm. But could he really say... that he genuinely only wanted the points?
The Team Competition scholarship really was too tempting.
And yet that very reaction only made Ji Qing’s image in Liu Mu’s heart seem even loftier.
“Let’s get moving,” Ji Qing cut in hurriedly.
He shot You Xingluo an annoyed glance. That troublesome You Xingluo. It had clearly been his own line of thought, but now it had all been misunderstood as some grand contribution on his part.
This was genuinely the most awkward display of forced posing he had ever put on in his life.
You Xingluo blinked in confusion, utterly unable to figure out what he had done wrong. Wasn’t he just explaining the logic?
In the end, Ji Qing could only accept his bad luck.
So the three of them followed the previous plan and decided to act separately. Ji Qing stayed in the middle zone between the other two, and with Gravity Control, he could provide support very conveniently.
Once the other two had gone, Ji Qing suddenly let out a breath of relief. Rising onto his toes, he allowed gravity to lift him to the highest point in the forest. His field of vision widened at once, taking in the vegetation and rivers below.
Ji Qing raised a hand to shield his eyes from the blazing sun and looked around.
For some reason, when he heard You Xingluo deduce that “the Lord is intelligent,” a sudden urge arose in Ji Qing’s heart to meet this Lord in person.
The impulse was inexplicable, almost identical to how he had felt when he first saw the wasteland.
When Ji Qing first awoke on the train, he had also wanted to leave the elevated train and take a walk outside.
“This is interesting,” Ji Qing said with a slight curl of his lips.
The Infected themselves were beings closely tied to Aberrants. As the leader of an Infected organization, it was not all that strange for him to think this way.
Even though Ji Qing himself did not understand why he felt like this.
But now that things had reached this point, failing to meet the other party at least once would almost seem rude. Just as Ji Qing was about to call out to the system, a tremendous crash suddenly came from the other side of the forest:
“Boom—”
Ji Qing turned calmly in that direction.
He saw tiny, sparkling ice crystals scatter into the air like heavenly blossoms, followed immediately by the sound of vines growing wildly and the howls of an Aberrant.
“Looks like Xie Chang’an’s team has run into a pretty formidable Aberrant,” Ji Qing said calmly.
Unlike the calm and uneventful progress of his own team, the other teams had probably already encountered Aberrants and fought several times. But Ji Qing did not feel the slightest frustration.
The points for exploring unknown areas were far higher than the points for eliminating Aberrants.
As a team that had landed in the first batch and had the ability to explore the island, if they failed to seize the points for exploration, Ji Qing himself would despise himself for it.
But their battle successfully drew Ji Qing’s thoughts back to reality.
He had been listening to You Xingluo and Liu Mu discussing the island’s rules for so long that he had nearly forgotten to compare them against the actual situation. Ji Qing opened his terminal and checked his current position.
They were already deep inside the island’s inner ring, but they had not yet crossed to the other side.
Working backward from that angle—
Even if another team wanted to accelerate and overtake them, at most they would still only be wandering around the nearby region. The others had neither You Xingluo’s clarity of thought nor Liu Mu’s memory-reading ability. Very few of them would truly understand the situation they were in.
“Looks like I should still be able to meet it without too much trouble,” Ji Qing murmured.
He casually lowered his terminal and called out to the system. [System, keep an eye on the movements of the other two for me. If an Aberrant gets close, let me know.]
[Understood.] The system responded quickly.
But before the system’s words had even fully fallen, Ji Qing was already darting rapidly through the forest with Gravity Control. Time waited for no one. He had to meet the Lord before the other teams realized what was going on.
As he passed a waterfall, Ji Qing spotted Gu Lingxue, Xie Chang’an, and Song Xiaoran.
Layer upon layer of ice crystals had frozen the waterfall’s flow solid.
The three of them stood on the frozen lake surface, locked in fierce battle with a giant octopus. Gu Lingxue stood alone in the rear, supporting the other two while also reinforcing the lake’s frozen surface.
As the ice cracked apart under the octopus’s repeated attacks and the growth of the vines, Gu Lingxue quickly restored it again and again. Fine beads of sweat had formed on her forehead, yet she still gritted her teeth and persevered.
Judging from their soaked clothes, Ji Qing had no trouble telling that the three of them had just been dragged beneath the lake by the octopus.
He did not see Ling You’er, but his spiritual perception told him that she was right beside Gu Lingxue, helping stabilize the battlefield.
That’s a good ability, Ji Qing thought.
His gaze then shifted toward the area behind the waterfall. The location Liu Mu had given them was a cave, and the parent generation of the marine Aberrants would still need a damp, warm environment for shelter.
This really was an ideal place.
He quickly opened his terminal and informed You Xingluo of what he had found. He did not mention his own location, only reminded You Xingluo to contact Shao Huayu as soon as possible.
He himself had been held up by a few troublesome Aberrants.
After a brief pause, Ji Qing also emphasized that he had seen Song Xiaoran’s team and that the cave ought to be behind the waterfall where they were fighting.
“With that... I can also determine Shao Huayu’s location,” Ji Qing murmured.
The trajectories of the three teams immediately took shape in his mind.
When Ji Qing looked once more at the frozen waterfall, a meaningful smile curved his lips.
If the Aberrant Lord was hostile, he could join forces with the others and eliminate it; if the Lord could be communicated with peacefully, he would not mind doing it a favor.
No matter what, the outcome would work to his advantage.