Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Sun Worms
That night, everyone was sent to the hospital, including Chen Beiwang.
After all, his injuries weren’t light, and they were all from Xu Bamboo’s beating.
The strange events in the mountains tonight had finally come to an end... Yang Shen, who had suffered only some superficial wounds, was lying in his hospital bed around three in the morning, but he couldn’t fall asleep.
Neither the doctors nor the police were willing to say much to a minor, but after Yang Shen’s repeated insistence, he managed to learn about the condition of some of the others.
Teacher Zhou Yao... ultimately didn’t make it...
Although Cyan Blue stood out for its Martial Arts-biotechnology, and Zhou Yao herself was at the Early Innate Stage, the injury was just too deep, too severe.
She also hadn’t reached the hospital in time.
That bottle of Copperman Anti-Fall Oil had only made her passing less painful.
The news was incredibly heavy, making it hard for Yang Shen to breathe.
Of the other dozen or so students, five had been caught in the final chaotic battle and were in intensive care. It was unknown if they would be permanently disabled. The rest were also injured to varying degrees.
Looking at it this way, the three third-year high school students—Yang Shen, Xu Bamboo, and Huang Gang—were ironically the least injured.
The hospital room was exceptionally quiet late at night. Perhaps worried that Yang Shen still posed a risk of going berserk, they had arranged an expensive private room for him, complete with a bathroom and a small sitting area, costing 3,000 yuan a night.
If the police hadn’t told him he wouldn’t have to pay for it, Yang Shen might have recovered on the spot.
A police officer stood guard outside his door, simply telling him to get some rest. But Yang Shen just tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Finally, he tiptoed over and picked up his backpack from beside the bed.
As the only person who could still walk into the hospital on his own two feet, he’d had time to go back to his room and pack his things. Of course, the bag itself wasn’t the main point; the valuable Vajra Sect supplements inside were almost all gone.
It was...
Yang Shen pulled two bright yellow beetles out of his backpack.
They were the size of walnuts and heavy in his hand. If not like lumps of iron, they were at least as dense as solid wood.
The beetles seemed to be in a state of hibernation. Their six legs and even their mouthparts were retracted, and their carapaces were round and glossy, like hemispherical glass beads.
These were the crimson beetles the woman had spat out, but after she died, they had gradually turned bright yellow, and their temperament had become much more docile...
The "Bee Control Technique," in principle, didn’t just work on bees. It was effective on any "organized" insects that appeared in swarms.
It was a rare opportunity for Yang Shen. The crisis had passed, and seeing the ground covered in yellow beetles scurrying about aimlessly, he had secretly used the magic again, making a few of them fly to his room and crawl into his backpack.
He hadn’t dared to take them all. There were probably several dozen on site, and it would have been too strange if they all disappeared. So he had only taken control of six, all of which were now curled up into balls in his backpack.
In the "Spirit Plant Inheritance" Yang Shen had obtained, insects weren’t the main focus, but they were definitely highly relevant. By injecting his Spiritual Power, he could get a general sense of them.
To say he could know what the insects were called or how to quickly advance them into higher-level Spirit Insects would be nonsense.
But basic information like what they ate, how to keep them alive, and whether they were poisonous was no problem. He also confirmed that the insects posed no hidden dangers. Their former master hadn’t been a particularly powerful character, just a bit disgusting at most.
After the woman died, these insects had immediately become docile. They remained motionless after receiving Yang Shen’s command...
’I don’t know what they’re called... Maybe I should just give them a name myself?’
He examined them under the light for a moment. The bright yellow color was actually quite nice, not as ugly as most insects.
’Let’s call them Sun Worms. It fits them well.’
Yang Shen formed a hand seal for the technique, controlling one of the Sun Worms to extend its six legs and fly a lap around the hospital room...
With a thought, the beetle bit down on the bed’s railing, making a harsh, grating sound and leaving a moderately deep tooth mark on the iron bar.
’Such great strength... But with mouthparts this size, it’s still not lethal to a Martial Arts Practitioner, unless there’s a huge number of them... thousands upon thousands.’
’I’ll see if I can breed them later.’
After playing with the plump little insects for a while, exhaustion began to wash over him. It had been a long day, and too much had happened.
But in the end, Yang Shen fought off his lethargy, assumed the posture for Cultivation, and slowly began to circulate the "Qi Cultivation Guiding Technique".
He had consumed too much last night; he needed to recover some of it...
Just now, controlling the insects for that short time had cost him another 0.2 in his Qi and Blood Value.
He now deeply craved reaching the third layer of Qi Cultivation: "Opening the Sea of Qi".
————
The next morning, after some thought, Yang Shen gave up on his plan to do Body Forging under the sun.
’Cultivation was fine, but practicing fist techniques really did hurt. No point in forcing myself to suffer through it.’
After eating the breakfast that was delivered to his room, Yang Shen immediately hopped out of bed, only to run into Chen Beiwang walking in.
Chen Beiwang had some bruises on his face, but otherwise seemed fine. "Where are you going? To find Xu Bamboo?"
Yang Shen nodded. "Have you heard anything about her? How is she?"
Chen Beiwang pushed Yang Shen back onto the bed. "She’s already been transferred. Her mother took her away before dawn, to a major hospital in Jianghuai City."
"Don’t you worry. Her injuries aren’t even as bad as mine! I was beaten on for a solid ten-plus minutes. That Xu girl is mostly just suffering from the aftereffects of Martial Arts Psychosis, so her spirits are a little low."
Yang Shen breathed a sigh of relief. "That’s good... As long as there’s news."
Chen Beiwang sat on the edge of the bed. "Well, I do have some other news about what happened last night. Want to hear it?"
"Yes!"
Yang Shen had participated in most of the battle, but he still felt like he was in the middle of a game without knowing the rules.
Chen Beiwang crossed his legs. "First and foremost, it’s been confirmed to be the work of the ’Exotic Realm Opposition.’ The person who escaped last night hasn’t been caught yet, but a lot of evidence was found at your dead gym teacher’s home."
"Then... how do you know all this?"
Chen Beiwang pointed at himself. "You forgot? My company was commissioned by the government to develop something to suppress ’Martial Arts Psychosis.’ Doctors and police alike were pulling me aside for questions last night."
"You could call me a semi-official expert on the matter. I even sat in on two discussion meetings. I was busy all night and got pretty much the whole story."
’I really underestimated you...’ Yang Shen thought.
’I’ll change your contact name later. To: Awesome Tractor.’
Chen Beiwang continued, "I’m telling you this mainly so you can relax. The problems behind this incident are sky-high and far from over. But for you high school students, it was purely a random disaster. Whatever happens next won’t affect you."
"Your teacher was likely a low-level regional leader in the ’Opposition.’ He secretly used his position to provide students with supplements that were spiked with his own stuff. These supplements are related to an Exotic Evil Technique, which is equivalent to planting a seed..."
Yang Shen murmured, "A seed...?"
"These seeds are actually mutated ’Sources.’ Those Opposition members come from an Exotic Realm with a ’Witchcraft and Gu Inheritance.’ Their application of ’Source’ is very different from how we use it on Cyan Blue. In any case, it’s very dirty stuff."
Chen Beiwang clicked his tongue. "This technique isn’t actually a secret. It’s usually detectable. But this time, it couldn’t be traced because it’s the first time we’ve encountered a non-corporeal ’Gu.’ Maybe they had some kind of breakthrough over there, or perhaps a genius has emerged."
Yang Shen asked in surprise, "Source has that kind of ability? I’ve been using it for so long and never knew..."
Chen Beiwang said dismissively, "You’ve used a phone for so long, but do you know how the chip works? Cyan Blue has been studying the mysteries of Source for thousands of years and still hasn’t figured it all out."
’That’s true... If ’Source,’ or ’Spiritual Qi,’ can control insects and summon wind and rain, then planting a seed in someone’s mind doesn’t seem so strange.’
He suddenly realized something. "Right! Liu Yuankui gave me a box of ’Dragon Mother Bone-Strengthening Granules’!"
If he hadn’t happened to have a bunch of Vajra Sect supplements that he hadn’t gotten around to, he might have already taken them!
Chen Beiwang snapped his fingers. "If this were twelve hours ago, that would be a major lead. But now... they’ve already found quite a lot of it. Just remember to hand it over to the police."
"Those who have a seed planted in them will go berserk when it’s activated. You’ve already seen the effects. Because this ’Mutated Source’ dissipates after one psychotic episode, it’s very difficult to detect any problems in previous victims... Plus, each student took a wide variety of supplements from different sources."
Yang Shen thought for a moment and frowned. "Are you saying... it’s not just Liu Yuankui..."
"Of course! Liu Yuankui was just a small-time regional leader, only affecting two or three schools. If the new Vajra Sect product hadn’t accidentally caused the ’seeds’ to sprout uncontrollably, he never would have rushed to silence everyone. He would have just continued to lay low."
"Think about it. You ten were the only group of victims with a ’pattern.’ By observing you, sooner or later, someone would have discovered the suspicious fact that all of you had received supplements from Liu Yuankui."
"He must have been under pressure from his superiors, forcing him to take a risk. First, he created a few ’Martial Arts Psychosis’ incidents outside the training camp to divert attention. When he found that wasn’t working, he finally just went all-in."
Liu Yuankui wasn’t afraid of being discovered himself; he was afraid of the "pattern" being discovered. There had to be a much larger scheme behind it all.
As long as everyone at the training camp died, even if it caused a temporary sensation, the pattern of a certain "Witchcraft and Gu Technique" could be concealed.
Yang Shen suddenly caught a blind spot. "Wait, you’re saying Liu Yuankui’s original intention was to lay low indefinitely... and the outbreaks were just an accident? Then what about all those previous cases in Jianghuai City..."
Chen Beiwang looked Yang Shen up and down, his appreciation for the young man growing.
This high school student possessed a maturity and insight that belied his age.
That’s why he had always been optimistic about Yang Shen’s future.
He snapped his fingers again:
"You’ve found the blind spot. Yes, the ’Buddha Sound Body Refining Technique’ was an accident, and all the dozen or so previous cases throughout Jianghuai City were also accidents. This means... the number of people affected is far greater than anyone imagined. The cases that have appeared so far were just sporadic, unpredictable outbreaks caused by flaws in their technique."
A chill ran through Yang Shen. "Then when did they originally plan to... activate these seeds on a massive scale?"
Chen Beiwang smiled. "In the next month or two, what’s the most important event that’s related to students? And what could cause a huge social impact?"
Yang Shen froze...
’The college entrance exams!’
’These lunatics!’
——————
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