“Oh my god!”
“What is that?”
At this moment, everyone was captivated by the strange phenomenon in the sky. Only Qin Sang and Xu Lin exchanged glances, both feeling the same unease.
At that moment, numerous black fissures appeared across the entire sky, like a perfect mirror cracking into countless slits. From these openings, black energy orbs fell and merged into the insects in midair and on the ground.
Whether they were mutant insects that had already evolved energy cores or ordinary insects that hadn’t, at this moment it was as if they’d been pumped with hormones—they swelled and grew larger at a visible rate.
Everyone who witnessed this felt a chill run down their spines.
The piercing sound of the air-raid siren rang out again.
This meant the situation wasn’t limited to what they were seeing—it was happening elsewhere as well.
While the mutant spider boss was still absorbing the black energy mass, everyone in the hospital ran without exception toward areas devoid of insects.
Qin Sang and Xu Lin did the same. Without a second thought, they hopped on their electric scooter and sped off.
However, whether they ran or not didn’t make much of a difference. There were simply too many insects. It was as if the black energy masses had drawn out every hidden insect from their lairs.
As they fled, they could see insects fighting each other over the black energy orbs, completely ignoring the humans they’d normally love to attack.
The more Qin Sang witnessed this, the heavier her heart grew.
It was then that she noticed Little Gold in her arms—unlike the other insects, it wasn’t rushing to snatch the black energy.
“Stinky energy, Sang Sang no eat,” Little Gold said, staring at the black energy masses with clear disgust.
Qin Sang could feel that deep revulsion and realized that Little Gold and these outside insects might not even be the same species. Though both were insects, there were differences between kinds.
“Okay, okay, no eating gross stuff. But Little Gold, can you beat those insects that are growing bigger?”
Even as they fled for their lives, some insects had already absorbed the black energy and grown to over three meters tall. And it seemed the growth hadn’t stopped yet.
These energy masses were truly like fertilizer, fattening up the insects at an alarming rate.
Fortunately, the black fissures in the sky had now disappeared. Just as they had appeared without warning, they vanished just as abruptly.
But the black energy orbs that had fallen in that brief half-minute were already enough to deal a devastating blow to the world.
—
Clang—
Using her Dragon-Howl Bow to block an attack, Qin Sang quickly retreated several steps.
Before her stood a mutant mantis over three meters tall.
With that height, its two razor-sharp scythe-like forelimbs, and its ability to take flight at any moment, Qin Sang found it extremely difficult to handle.
Speaking of which, she and Xu Lin could be considered unlucky.
The two had been riding the electric scooter home, encountering many mutant insects along the way—but those insects were too busy fighting over the black energy masses to attack them. They thought they’d make it home safely. But right at the village entrance, three mutant mantises blocked their path.
These three mantises must have been fortunate—they’d already finished absorbing the black energy masses, and their bodies had grown to terrifying proportions. Their strength had more than doubled along with their size. Qin Sang could clearly sense the surging energy concentration within them.
Left with no choice, she, Xu Lin, and Little Gold had to split up and fight the three mantises separately.
Qin Sang’s weapon was the Dragon-Howl Bow. Against such sharp scythe-wielding mantises, this was her only option.
Little Gold, a golden ant that could bite through anything, was small but held its own against the mutant mantis in a back-and-forth battle.
As for Xu Lin, whom Qin Sang had been most worried about, he turned out to be quite surprising.
He was fighting the mutant mantis with a laser sword!
A laser sword! Something that only existed in anime or sci-fi movies was now appearing right before her eyes. If she weren’t in the middle of a fight, Qin Sang would have loved to grab it and ask when this thing was invented.
Clang—
The mutant mantis struck again. Qin Sang focused her mind, determined to finish this thing off first before worrying about anything else.
But taking down the mutant mantis was no easy task. Despite its enlarged size, its speed was incredible. And with those two scythe-like arms, each over a meter long, getting in close meant certain injury.
Qin Sang had already been slashed twice on the arms before she finally adapted to its attack patterns.
During the fight, she also noticed that these mutant mantises were far more aggressive—almost as if they’d lost all reason. The previous mutant insects hadn’t been smart either, but at least they’d flee when outmatched. These insects that had absorbed the black energy orbs seemed utterly unafraid of death.
Dodging another double-scythe strike, Qin Sang gritted her teeth and lunged straight at the mutant mantis.
This excited the creature, which assumed its prey was delivering itself right to its doorstep. It flapped its wings and charged forward as well.
Qin Sang controlled the distance, and in the instant she was about to collide with the mantis, she vanished on the spot. The next moment, she reappeared behind it. With an arrow in her right hand and her left hand pressing down on the mantis’s head, she drove the arrow straight into its skull.
The entire sequence was extremely perilous, yet fluid and seamless, as if she had done it countless times before.
Of course, Qin Sang had indeed performed this move many times. It was specifically designed for dealing with large mutant creatures. The technique looked somewhat risky on the surface, but with the special ability granted by the mutant dandelion seed, there was no danger of it backfiring.
In that instant when she vanished, she had actually entered her spatial realm. She wasn’t sure whether Da Linzi had noticed.
Oh well, even if he had seen it, he’d pretend he hadn’t.
Sure enough, Xu Lin, who was fighting not far away, had indeed witnessed it. But at that moment, he had no time to dwell on it. All he wanted was to take down the enemy before him.
And the one who moved even faster than him was Little Gold.
Compared to the mutant mantis, Little Gold was practically a tiny plaything. It parkoured all over the mantis’s body, looking less like it was fighting for its life and more like it was toying with the creature. It would run and dart about while taking bites here and there, looking rather pleased with itself.
Only when it sensed that Qin Sang had finished her fight did Little Gold leap onto the mantis’s head and bite out its energy core in one go.
The massive energy core was the size of an adult’s fist. Without any hesitation, Little Gold held it in its two little paws and crunched it down in a few bites, swallowing it whole.
Qin Sang could tell it was thoroughly satisfied with the meal. This made her curious.
Earlier, Little Gold had been so repulsed by the black energy masses. Yet it didn’t seem to mind eating the mutant mantis that had evolved by absorbing that very energy.
Sensing her confusion, Little Gold spoke directly into her mind: “The black energy mass is extremely violent and chaotic. Eating it would be disastrous. But the meat and energy from these insects? Barely passable.”
Hmm. That comment gave Qin Sang plenty to think about.
But this wasn’t the place for deep contemplation. After collecting the useful scythes from the two dead mutant mantises, Qin Sang let Little Gold consume the rest while she stood by, watching Xu Lin’s battle and ready to provide backup at any moment.
Xu Lin noticed her intention and felt a surge of warmth in his heart. But the movements of his hands grew even fiercer.
In the end, after about another ten minutes, Xu Lin finally ran his laser sword straight through the mutant mantis, impaling it completely. Of course, because of the laser sword, the mantis’s corpse was covered in scorched gashes. Even its two sharp scythes were damaged.
Little Gold found this insect meat unappetizing and refused to eat it. Instead, it trotted over, dug out the energy core, and scampered back to Qin Sang.
“This is Da Linzi’s trophy, you know…” She reached out and tapped Little Gold lightly.
“Keep it,” Xu Lin said immediately upon hearing Qin Sang’s words.
Seeing this, Qin Sang didn’t stand on ceremony with him for the moment. Her main concern was figuring out exactly what the black energy masses were. Why did the insects that absorbed them transform the way they did?
And these energy cores they now held—could humans absorb them directly?
—
The answer was yes.
The two didn’t waste any time lingering. They hurried back to the village, where they happened to see Second Aunt absorbing a fist-sized energy core. Many of the cats and dogs surrounding her had died, but those that survived had all grown a size larger in body.
In the village, aside from the deaths of these cats and dogs, quite a few people had also lost their lives.
This was the first time so many young people had died in the village. Previously, a few had died from mutant parasites, and a few more from fighting mutant insects. But just the bodies they could see right now numbered nearly ten. That was a terrifying figure.
Though their village was large, in this era each household had only one or two children. With these young people gone, their parents and grandparents would face a much tougher struggle for survival.
Qin Sang and Xu Lin set aside everything else and immediately joined the fight.
And this battle dragged on for several more days.
During those days, mutant insects with grotesquely enlarged bodies attacked from time to time. Fortunately, Qin Sang and Xu Lin were formidable fighters. And Little Gold, along with the cat-and-dog army that had evolved energy cores, were no pushovers either.
Every time, they managed to kill the attacking insects, and no one else in the village died.
Their situation was improving. But outside, things were growing increasingly brutal.
The reason was simple: wherever there were more people, there were more insects. And with the insects having absorbed the black energy masses, the number that grew massive was correspondingly higher.
And naturally, those places suffered terribly.
That said, densely populated areas also had heavier firepower deployments. But ammunition always ran out eventually. Once the firepower was gone, it came down to hand-to-hand combat.
The military stationed in these areas became the group that sacrificed the most.
Only ordinary civilians were protected. As for the spatial ability users with combat prowess, upon witnessing the death toll among soldiers, they would step up to help—whether voluntarily or out of necessity.
After several days, a large number of mutant insects had been killed, and the remaining ones finally retreated from human settlements.
Qin Sang learned all this news from Xu Lin.
After repelling the mutant insects in the village, Xu Lin didn’t even take a moment to rest before rushing back to work.
It was only then that people learned this wasn’t happening just in their country. Across the entire world, on that very day, fissures had appeared in the skies everywhere, black energy masses had fallen everywhere, countless insects had evolved everywhere, and massive numbers of people had died everywhere.
Those who survived were all asking the same question: Where exactly was humanity’s future headed?
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