Chapter 1548: Chapter 1190: This is the Hive
Mina had realized the threat of the worms from Long Yi’s recent conversation, and Long Yi had even left some of the God Eaters here to protect her. Though Mina was wild by nature, she was still essentially a girl and naturally had an aversion to things like worms.
Long Yi slowly approached the Ancient Mage Tower, attempting to sense the faith of the believers. Strangely, when the Ancient Mage Tower vanished, Elma didn’t tell anyone that Long Yi was actually a Giant, and no one in the entire Ancient Mage Tower truly knew what had happened. They still worshipped the Ascender. It seemed, however, that this faith was strangely disturbed, as if the prayers of the believers were being shielded by something.
But now that he was close enough, Long Yi could hear the content of the prayers.
"Great Ascender, a strange sleep epidemic is infecting one person after another, regardless of strength or faith. They are falling asleep without warning, never to wake up. At first, Master Ailma led us to find a solution tirelessly, but a few days ago, even Master Ailma fell asleep. What should we do? What can we do? Now we are in a race against time to build nutrient pods to move all those who sleep within. But there are too many people in this Ancient Mage Tower. Even if we construct enough nutrient pods, where will we find enough nutrients? Ah, Great Ascender, please respond to my prayer. I will... uh... I’m... so sleepy... I..."
The prayer disappeared.
Clearly, the person praying had also fallen asleep.
There were many entrances to the Ancient Mage Tower, but Long Yi had a special passage since there were many Teleportation Arrays here, allowing him to use teleportation magic to directly enter the interior.
Upon entering, he saw that a multitude had fallen asleep around him, their slumber visibly sudden and without warning. Even severe injuries from falling failed to stop their slumber.
However, there was a glaring issue.
These sleeping people all exhibited clear worm signals. But, the activity of these worms had been suppressed. Evidently, the rules of the Human Realm were what suppressed the worms’ activity.
The Divine Worms were beings of the rules, creatures of consciousness, and also high-level life forms capable of parasitizing the bodies of deities. This meant that their very existence would be suppressed by the rules of the Giants. The consequence of this suppression was that the parasitized humans entered a hibernative state along with the worms.
Long Yi was now also suppressed.
"Long Er," Long Yi whispered.
Long Er appeared.
"Detecting the rules, attempting to resist and interpret... interpretation failed, unable to resist, readjusting to the rules," Long Er said a mouthful, essentially confirming his own conjectures, implying that even divine decrees had to obediently follow the rules here.
"Long Er, can you still analyze the worm’s form?" Long Yi asked.
"Yes, although suppressed by the rules, analyzing worms is one of my most basic abilities," Long Er said.
"Let’s try," said Long Yi as he had a God Eater pull a worm from the consciousness of a person. The person almost woke up immediately, but Long Yi cast a sleeping spell to keep him asleep.
"This worm is complete, not just a fragment," Long Er said.
"And then?"
"But that’s it. These worms do not have any independent consciousness; they merely receive instructions to parasitize within higher life forms. They seek to infest the strongest life form nearby and then wait for further instructions. However, due to the rules’ limitations, since their appearance, they have been suppressed. After parasitizing the human body, it leads to sleep, so they have not yet had the chance to receive further instruction."
Long Er checked thoroughly, ensuring nothing was overlooked.
"Breeding grounds, breeding grounds, which means these creatures have just been hatched," Long Yi frowned as he spoke.
Long Er remained silent; he wasn’t adept at conjecture, always precise in his definitions.
Long Yi took out the Giant tablet and checked the energy fluctuations of the worms around him.
When he left the orbital space station, Long Yi was clear that the number of worms hadn’t reached a thousand. But now, they had soared past ten thousand! Moreover, the number of worms was still rising by the hundreds every second. This hatching speed was ludicrous!
The energy fluctuations of the worms were nearly pervasive throughout the entire Ancient Mage Tower, but at one location, it was almost zero. That spot was exactly the plantation area of the Ancient Mage Tower, also where Long Yi knew the breeding grounds to be.
This time, Long Yi didn’t waste time on the ordinary parasitized beings. Instead, he headed straight for the main issue; he needed to deal with the trouble of the breeding grounds.
Sensing Long Yi’s presence, a vast number of worms surged in his direction, forming a sinister tide on the Giant tablet. Many signals stopped midway because they were suppressed by the rules, causing them to enter a dormant state. These worms that had not yet managed to parasitize would soon disappear, while those that had just been born were swarming towards Long Yi. Long Yi immediately triggered his worm fluctuations, and almost simultaneously, the actions of the breeding grounds halted.
At this point in the worms’ perception, Long Yi was already infected and had become one of them, so there was no need for further parasitization.
