Chapter 32: Dragon-rank Threat
Ether brought the White Ape's corpse and the Brain-Clinging Neural Parasite back to Qilin's headquarters. The entire research department immediately pulled an all-nighter to dissect and study the two specimens.
By morning, a massive amount of data had been delivered into the hands of Qilin's top executives. After reviewing the data, every one of them instantly realized the severity of the situation. An emergency meeting on the Aberrant Parasites was called at once.
While the emergency meeting was underway back at Qilin's headquarters, over in Silver City's Public Security Bureau, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou sat side by side. Across the desk from them sat Tang Dali.
Yu Xian began the questioning. "Name?"
"Tang Dali."
"Gender?"
"Male."
"Age?"
"Ninety-eight."
"Rank?"
"Lower Wolf."
"Where were you when the incident broke out at the Silver General Arena?"
Tang Dali's expression twisted into an awkward grimace. "Can we skip this question?"
Yu Xian looked at him with a touch of helplessness, but still maintained a strictly professional demeanor. "Please answer the question."
If an ordinary officer from the Combat Police unit were interrogating him, Tang Dali would have played dumb and brushed them off like a seasoned rogue. The problem was the badges Yu Xian and Zhang Shou had placed flat on the desk.
Even though Yu Xian and Zhang Shou were young enough to be his great-grandsons, he dared not be careless. This was especially true of Yu Xian. When all those big shots had descended upon Silver City, ordinary people had no idea what was happening, but Tang Dali knew exactly what it meant.
This young man had already caught the attention of the higher-ups. In ancient times, that would have been called enjoying the emperor's favor. No matter how weak Yu Xian currently was, he could not be underestimated.
Tang Dali scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin. "At the time, I was at... Rain Pavilion, getting a foot massage."
Yu Xian nudged Zhang Shou, whose eyes had suddenly lit up at the mention of the massage parlor. He noted down Tang Dali's statement and proceeded with a few more standard questions.
Once he had his answers, Yu Xian stood up. "Alright. If any follow-up questions arise, we'll reach out to you again. Thank you for your cooperation."
Tang Dali wasn't the only one summoned for questioning. All shareholders, staff, and security guards at the Silver General Arena had been brought in. After all, down the line, this incident was bound to result in issues regarding accountability, heavy fines, and compensation payouts.
As Yu Xian and Zhang Shou stepped out of the interrogation room, Zhang Kai, the leader of the Combat Police unit, immediately stepped forward to thank them.
The Combat Police unit couldn't exert enough pressure on powerful individuals like Tang Dali, and any routine questioning with them would likely be met with evasive answers. With Yu Xian and Zhang Shou stepping in, the problem had become much easier to handle.
Under normal circumstances, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou certainly wouldn't have overstepped their boundary to do another department's job. However, this involved the Aberrant Parasites. So, after some consideration, they had decided to intervene, wanting to get their hands on the latest intelligence.
Half an hour later, the duo received the report regarding the hunting team.
Zhang Shou went over the report. "Gold Nugget Mountain? I think that's quite a distance outside Silver City. Do you have to go that far to capture supernatural creatures now?"
Zhang Kai, standing nearby, explained, "One of the missions of the military bases outside Silver City is to clear out high-risk supernatural creatures in the surrounding area. Most of the nearby mountains no longer pose any significant danger, just some small fries in the Insect and Ant ranks.
"The arena is aiming to capture supernatural creatures that offer a certain level of challenge, so they have to go farther out to have a chance of encountering them."
Yu Xian also looked over the report. "The parasites were still lingering near the Gold Nugget Mountain yesterday. No matter how fast they can run, they couldn't have gone too far in a single day. Hold on. Let me ask the Captain if we can launch a long-range strike covering the entire area around Gold Nugget Mountain."
He pulled out his phone and immediately contacted Jin Sheng, sharing the latest intelligence with him.
Lion Radiance: Salted Fish, the situation is likely a bit more complicated than that. I'm sending you a file. Take a look at it first.
A moment later, Yu Xian received the file from Jin Sheng. Upon opening it, he realized it was a medical record. Nowadays, the vast majority of hospital medical files were stored in the cloud. Consequently, even though the archives at the Cangshan Psychiatric Hospital had been physically destroyed, the authorities were still able to retrieve all the medical records via cloud backup.
The file Jin Sheng sent over was none other than Zhou Tai's medical file. Zhou Tai suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder. His primary personality didn't actually have any major issues and could even be considered to have a good nature. However, his alternate personalities were highly problematic.
After successive diagnoses, Chen Qingsong had confirmed nine distinct personalities inside Zhou Tai. These personalities were fully aware of one another's existence. Based on the chronological order of their emergence, they referred to each other as Boss, No. 2, No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, No. 6, No. 7, No. 8, and No. 9.
Boss was the primary personality. According to the audio recordings left by Chen Qingsong, this personality had already been replaced by an Aberrant Parasite. His exact status right now remained unclear.
No. 2 had a fixation with collecting human fingers. During his time at the hospital, he had nearly bitten off Chen Qingsong's finger. He was a man of few words, giving off an inscrutable, deeply introverted impression.
No. 3 possessed a playful nature, though his emotions were wildly unpredictable. He could pivot from sheer euphoria to profound grief in an instant. At the same time, he was the most talkative of the group. Much of the intelligence Chen Qingsong had gathered was actually provided voluntarily by No. 3.
No. 4 had a rather sinister disposition, styling himself as a "skin-peeling artist." Whenever he laid eyes on a beautiful physique, a look of obsession would wash over him, making him appear alternatively lecherous and deeply vulgar.
No. 5 was completely insane and a pure, unadulterated homicidal maniac. Whenever he took control of Zhou Tai's body, his eyes would flare with a frenzied intent to kill, accompanied by strong self-harming tendencies. This personality was almost entirely impossible to communicate with, though he seemed to obey orders from the other personalities.
Since the remaining personalities had emerged much later, Chen Qingsong hadn't been able to gather much data on them. Consequently, their traits, behaviors, and preferences remained completely unknown.
Yu Xian's brow furrowed tightly. Dealing with a single Zhou Tai was already a massive headache, but now it turned out there were eight such personalities. He wasn't even sure which one he had run into last night.
Furthermore, Zhou Tai's personality could move freely between Aberrant Parasites, switching bodies at will. Unless all Aberrant Parasites were completely eradicated, there was no way to kill Zhou Tai.
According to Jin Sheng's information, Zhou Tai's danger level had originally been assessed as Serpent rank. However, due to the critical intelligence Yu Xian had provided the night before, the danger level had been upgraded directly to Dragon rank. It made him an even greater threat than the entire swarm of Aberrant Parasites itself.
If Zhou Tai could fully unlock the potential of all supernatural creatures, humanity would likely soon be facing an army composed entirely of high-ranked monsters.
Yu Xian handed his phone over to Zhang Shou. "Take a look at this."
After Zhang Shou went over the file, his expression turned grave. "At this rate, wouldn't it basically be impossible to wipe them out?"
Aberrant Parasites could infect basically any living organism. If they ever chose to infect cockroaches or rats, creatures with staggering reproductive rates, and spread out across the world, humanity would never be able to hunt down and kill every last one of them.
Yu Xian turned serious. "Don't panic just yet. The higher-ups have definitely taken notice of the current situation. I'm sure they will soon deploy powerhouses specifically to deal with Zhou Tai. Let's wait and see."
A Dragon-rank threat would undoubtedly receive the highest level of priority from Qilin's headquarters.
Yu Xian was curious about just how many top-tier powerhouses Qilin's headquarters would dispatch to eliminate Zhou Tai. Moreover, the goal of the operation would likely be to exterminate the Aberrant Parasites. As long as a single Aberrant Parasite remained alive, Zhou Tai could never truly die.