Chapter 336: Chapter 336: Poison Abyss Beast Variant
Ning Xuan re-entered the area contaminated by the poisonous miasma, this time with the Direct Lineage troops she had personally trained. Whenever Ning Xuan killed a Poison Abyss Beast and removed its Poison Sac, Liu Linfeng and the others would dismember and dissect the corpse, breaking it down into useful materials to be kept as their spoils.
Most of the Black Iron Trees Ning Xuan had previously used as Energy Amplifiers had taken on some of the properties of Thunderstruck Wood. When Lin Ye had been with her, she hadn’t collected the wood, nor had she mentioned its value to him. Of course, this was mainly because, in Lin Ye’s eyes, the contaminated Black Iron Wood was worthless.
But in Ning Xuan’s eyes, they were treasures. So, the moment she returned to the area, she ordered Liu Linfeng to lead a team to fell and retrieve all the Black Iron Trees that had been struck by lightning.
These were her trophies.
In front of her Direct Lineage subordinates, Ning Xuan didn’t hold back in the slightest, unleashing her full power. Since her troops worked in perfect sync with her, their efficiency was even higher than before. However, by the time only the final quarter of the poisonous miasma-contaminated area was left to be cleared, the Poison Abyss Beasts began appearing in much denser numbers. The formation, which had been bulldozing its way through, started to feel the strain.
Although Ning Xuan’s Thunder Energy precisely struck and killed a Poison Abyss Beast every time, once their numbers swelled, some inevitably slipped through the net. Her soldiers, despite being equipped with powerful weapons, couldn’t kill every Poison Abyss Beast in a single blow. Faced with a mortal threat, the beasts began spewing poisonous fog again. In an instant, the fog billowed out, causing the nearly-cleansed poisonous miasma to spread outward once more.
This was the crux of the mission’s difficulty. The poisonous miasma was created by the Poison Abyss Beasts, but the vast majority of them hadn’t been eliminated—they were merely being suppressed outside the range of the sonic jammers. And the deterrent effect of those jammers was gradually weakening.
If Ning Xuan wanted to complete this mission, she would have to eliminate every last Poison Abyss Beast.
Seeing her soldiers trapped by both the poisonous miasma and the Poison Abyss Beasts, Ning Xuan suddenly spread her arms. A thunderstorm vortex, more than ten meters in diameter, erupted with her at its center.
Dazzling white electrical arcs spread out like silver serpents. Wherever they passed, the Poison Abyss Beasts convulsed and collapsed, their carapaces bursting as they were charred black. Even the poisonous miasma in the air was completely disintegrated.
"A Thunderstorm Domain? General, this has to be a domain ability, right? We’re all inside it, but we aren’t hurt at all. That’s incredible! When did you master this?" Liu Linfeng asked, staring at the scene in shock.
"I just mastered it. This is my first time using it. Everyone, check on the comrades beside you. See if anyone was accidentally harmed," Ning Xuan asked, panting slightly, with fine beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
"No one was hurt by the lightning, but a third of the soldiers have damaged protective suits and have been exposed to the poisonous fog. The area of contact and the severity of exposure vary, but a dozen or so are in serious condition." Liu Linfeng quickly reported the statistics.
"In that case, prepare to break out!"
The squad members quickly reformed their formation, shielding the wounded in the center. Ning Xuan took the lead, continuously releasing fine streams of electricity from her hands to clear a path forward.
But there were simply too many Poison Abyss Beasts; as soon as one wave fell, another immediately took its place. More worrisomely, Ning Xuan could feel her energy depleting at a rapid rate.
Just then, a blood-curdling screech echoed from within the fog, and dozens of pairs of ghastly green eyes flickered in the gloom. Suddenly, a giant Poison Abyss Beast the size of a truck burst through the miasma. Its carapace-like skin was covered in corrosive slime, and its compound eyes shone with a scarlet light.
"General, look! That Poison Abyss Beast up ahead is huge!" a mid-level officer named Chen Rui shouted in terror.
Ning Xuan turned and saw the giant, which was easily five times the size of an ordinary Poison Abyss Beast. ’This must be a variant,’ she thought.
And it wasn’t alone. A quick glance revealed at least five of them.
They were massive, with antenna-like organs on their backs that constantly emitted high-frequency sound waves. As the waves spread, the movements of the surrounding Poison Abyss Beasts grew more coordinated. Clearly, these variants could command the ordinary ones.
They no longer attacked in a disorganized swarm, but instead displayed tactical coordination. Smaller Poison Abyss Beasts scurried along the ground to close the distance, medium-sized ones flanked from the sides, and one of the giant variants charged the defensive line head-on.
To break their assault, she had to eliminate the variants first. However, when she precisely struck one of the variants on the head with a bolt of lightning, it wasn’t destroyed. Instead, it was only enraged.
"All units, tighten the formation! Defense squad, advance!" Ning Xuan’s voice crackled over the comms, accompanied by a blinding bolt of lightning that sliced through the dense poisonous fog.
The defense squad members instantly shifted their positions. Sixteen soldiers wielding specialized alloy shields swiftly formed a hexagonal defensive perimeter. Blue sparks danced across the surfaces of their shields, creating a translucent, web-like wall of electricity. Ning Xuan stood at the center of the formation, her hands cupped as two dazzling orbs of lightning spun in her palms.
"Fire!"
At Ning Xuan’s command, six laser beams shot out from the rear of the formation, precisely striking the Poison Abyss Beast variant.
The monster let out a bloodcurdling shriek as red flames suddenly erupted across its body.
The black poisonous fog it had been about to spew was instantly incinerated by the red flames, turning into wisps of white smoke.
"That variant just burst into flames!" Liu Linfeng exclaimed in pleasant surprise.
Ning Xuan had imbued the laser shots with the Vermilion Bird Fire. It had successfully taken down one of the variants. With this successful trial, the rest became much easier.
Ning Xuan quickly eliminated the rest of the variants before leading her subordinates in cleaning up the remaining stragglers. By the time Lin Ye sent people to investigate her progress, they found that not only had the poisonous miasma been completely cleared, but even the tenacious Poison Abyss Beasts had been wiped out.
The mission had taken a heavy toll on Ning Xuan. Upon returning to the temporary base, she went to her assigned quarters in the quarantine zone and slept for a full day and night.
When Ning Xuan awoke, she found the atmosphere in the base had grown even more tense.
"Contractor, General Ying and President Yu are requesting to speak with you." Yun Han knelt before Ning Xuan, holding out a device that resembled a Light Computer.
To conceal her identity, Ning Xuan had left her officially registered Light Computer with her puppet avatar. All the information on the Light Computer she currently carried had been altered by her.
Therefore, Ying Yaoshi and Yu Mingche had no way of contacting her directly.
However, Yun Han had brought his own Light Computer.
"Did they contact you, or did you contact them?" Ning Xuan asked Yun Han, her curiosity piqued.
