Chapter 112 – Solution
Despite all coastal nations searching for the pest queen, they had yet to find anything resembling it. However, they did discover many mutated sea creatures. Most of the time, they were conducting underwater searches while being chased by these creatures—slow and dangerous. Now, with the Demon Hunter System involved, the chances of finding the queen greatly increased.
Si Xu was no longer leading the search himself. He handed the task entirely over to Lu Yu and took Lin Jiu to act on their own.
The two of them moved through the sea in a spacecraft. Ever since they acquired energy stones to build energy pods, Si Xu was more confident in using the spacecraft. He could make the energy pods himself, so there was no longer any need to worry about running out of energy.
They had been searching underwater for several days now. The Demon Hunter System had a wide detection range, and the spacecraft wasn’t slow. They had already scoured their local waters but hadn’t found the queen. Other coastal nations had also come up empty in their territories, leading to one conclusion: the pests were likely spread by marine creatures, and the real queen was probably hiding in uncharted waters.
This theory was soon confirmed. The Demon Hunter System tracked infected marine creatures to a deep, seemingly bottomless trench. Even though Lin Jiu was of the Merfolk clan, he dared not venture into such a deep abyss.
[All the marine creatures emerging from the trench are carrying pests. The queen should be down there. Do you want to check it out?]
Of course, they had to go. A dark, deep trench like this surely hid dangerous sea creatures. Even though they knew it was perilous, they had to investigate; otherwise, the entire ocean could be destroyed by the pests.
The spacecraft’s large lights pierced through the thick darkness as it slowly descended.
The craft was equipped with a sensing system, and Lin Jiu could see from the control panel display that there were many large red dots moving slowly within the trench. These were the giant sea monsters lurking there, their shapes varied and strange. Even though Lin Jiu couldn’t see them in person, he knew they must look bizarre.
Si Xu carefully maneuvered the spacecraft to avoid the large red shapes, slowing down as they went deeper.
“Is that it?” Lin Jiu suddenly pointed to a red outline on the display.
The massive shape resembled the green creature Si Xu had pulled out earlier, but the one in the trench was enormous. What were once thin threads on the earlier creature were now massive, tentacle-like appendages on this one, densely packed and spine-chilling to look at.
Si Xu stopped the spacecraft, not diving any deeper. He turned off all the lights, and in the pitch-black trench, silver-green tentacles swayed with the ocean currents. A huge patch of silver-green gleamed, looking beautiful yet terrifying. Both Si Xu and Lin Jiu had goosebumps.
They didn’t dare to get closer. Instead, they recorded the scene with the spacecraft’s built-in cameras and quickly returned.
Lin Jiu asked the system, “Did you detect anything?”
[It’s covered in pests. You have to be very careful when destroying it—don’t let its fluids leak.]
Lin Jiu asked, “Any good methods?”
[Manual destruction is dangerous. If its tentacles are severed and its fluids leak, they’ll be full of pests, and all marine life will be affected.]
So far, only a small portion of mutated sea creatures had been infected. But if all marine life were to be infected, humanity would have no hope.
Lin Jiu and Si Xu returned to the South Sea and handed over the trench’s coordinates, along with the photos and videos, to the relevant authorities for them to decide how to deal with it. This matter concerned the safety of the entire planet, and nations large and small would have to collaborate to overcome this crisis.
With the pest queen located, the searchers at sea could now return home.
Si Xu accompanied Lin Jiu to a rehabilitation hospital. Now that the Demon Hunter System had returned, Lin Jiu wanted it to examine the “awakened” individuals. Whether or not it could help, the system would send the results to the Demon Spirit Main System, which would provide a solution.
When they saw the awakened individuals again, they seemed much more natural than during their previous encounter.
As Lin Jiu walked through, the awakened were busy with various activities—reading, watching movies, playing games, sleeping. One awakened individual was even chatting with a nurse, who looked stiff, ready to run away at any moment.
They were no longer the hollow, emotionless beings from before. They were becoming more and more human.
Lin Jiu approached an awakened person who was sleeping and asked the system to check their brain.
The system no longer needed magic points for everything. It knew that Lin Jiu wouldn’t let it run out of magic to the point of hibernation, and whenever it truly needed magic, Lin Jiu would provide it. The system no longer had to worry about gathering magic energy.
After the examination, even the Demon Hunter System was surprised.
[These pests are quite interesting. They almost fooled my diagnostics—they’re disguised perfectly.]
Lin Jiu: “Is there any hope for them?”
[No hope. There’s nothing left to save when their brains are already gone.]
Lin Jiu was deeply concerned. These awakened individuals could still run, jump, talk, and laugh just like normal people. Many of their families believed they had fully recovered. If they were to suddenly die, the families would be the first to refuse to accept it, and it would definitely cause an uproar.
Moreover, the fact that the pests had eaten the original brain tissue and then perfectly mimicked it was not only bizarre but also hard to explain. It would be difficult to convince the public.
Lin Jiu took the Demon Hunter System to see the infected who were still in a frenzied state. This stage was referred to by researchers as the early stage of infection, while the awakened were considered mid-stage. Since there was no hope for mid-stage infections, was there still a chance for early-stage ones?
[There is hope, but it’s very difficult. The challenge is in overcoming the pests’ rapid reproduction and completely clearing them out, which is extremely hard.]
Lin Jiu decisively said: “Send this data to the Demon Spirit Main System and have them come up with a solution.”
The Demon Hunter System didn’t bother to think hard either. With a more powerful system overseeing things, it simply threw the problem to the big boss.
The boss system lived up to its reputation, quickly sending back a solution, which came from the Demon Spirit Clan.
Early-stage infections could be treated, but for mid-stage infections, a brain transplant was the only solution.
The method to treat early-stage infections was simple—kill the pests with a drug.
The first instinct when hearing about pests inside the body was to take antiparasitic medicine. However, these pests reproduced quickly and could combine, separate, and mimic. Once they mimicked human tissue, an attempt to kill them with drugs might result in killing the human instead. This was why no country had yet developed an effective treatment—these pests were incredibly tricky.
The Demon Spirit Clan, possibly held back for too long, couldn’t wait a moment longer. Without Lin Jiu urging them, they were eager to resolve the matter.
They quickly provided a solution, and soon after, the formula for the extermination drug was sent over. The Demon Spirit Main System even pressed the Demon Hunter System to urge Lin Jiu to hurry up and deal with the issue so they could focus on finding the energy vault.
The Demon Hunter System, performing its duties diligently, converted the formula into one suitable for Earth’s dimension. As soon as the drug was manufactured, early-stage infected individuals could be saved.
The Demon Hunter System, knowing time was of the essence, worked quickly to adapt the formula. Unfortunately, one magical ingredient could not be substituted with anything found on Earth. To create the extermination drug, Lin Jiu and Si Xu would need to go to the Demon Sea dimension to find this material.
When Golofitz heard they were planning to head to the Demon Sea dimension for materials, he was so frustrated he nearly crawled out of the dimensional rift.
[Why bother searching? The universal warehouse has everything you need! Just take what you want, as much as you want—free!]
Thus, Lin Jiu received a batch of magical materials without spending any magic points.
Si Xu personally crafted a batch of extermination drugs and, accompanied by researchers, went to test it.
The researchers were quite baffled. They had been working day and night, only to be outpaced by a non-professional.
The extermination drug had already been tested in the lab with surprisingly good results against the pests, which gave them the confidence to use it on the infected.
The first batch of treatments was administered to only ten people. Once their results were in, they could determine if the drug was truly effective.
After injection, the infected individuals struggled violently for almost an hour before gradually calming down. Their eyes regained clarity, and they could speak again, though they were mentally weak and physically frail.
The extermination drug, while killing the pests, also took a toll on the human body.
Subsequent tests confirmed that no pests remained in their bodies.
The pests had indeed been eradicated.
Lin Jiu handed over the extermination formula to the research institute, along with the magical material that Earth lacked. He left it to them to manufacture the drug, and he and Si Xu stepped away from further involvement.
Their focus now was on the issue in the sea: how could they destroy the queen without causing harm?
Once the queen’s location was revealed, other nations sent people to investigate. All returned shaking their heads, saying it couldn’t be done. Not only was it impossible to destroy the queen, but even if they could, defeating it was another challenge altogether.
Si Xu said, “Actually, I have an idea.”
Everyone looked at him.
But Si Xu only looked at Lin Jiu. “If my abilities were strong enough, I could isolate the queen from the outside world, drag it out of the trench, and throw it into a volcano to be incinerated.”
It was a good idea, but the difficulty of execution was incredibly high.
Lin Jiu understood what Si Xu meant by “strong enough abilities”—he wanted to use a high-level genetic enhancer.
The system became their go-between.
Lin Jiu: “No way, your body isn’t strong enough yet. Forcing it could be life-threatening.”
Si Xu: “I’ve been eating magic meals regularly. My body’s foundation is solid—I’ll be fine.”
Lin Jiu: “I won’t let you take the risk. If your ability can do it, then mine can too. I’ll use my water prison technique to pull the queen up.”
Si Xu: “What I meant was that I need your help. Otherwise, it’ll be hard for me to pull this off alone.”
Lin Jiu hesitated and then said, “Let’s ask Golofitz if he has any safe and effective solutions.”
Golofitz: “…”
[Thanks a lot. If you want a drug, just say so!]
Thus, before even getting access to the energy vault, Golofitz lost another dose of the body-strengthening potion.
Golofitz issued a final ultimatum.
[After you deal with the queen, I expect you to find the energy vault immediately!]
Even with the body-strengthening potion, Si Xu was still in danger when using the high-level genetic enhancer. It scared Lin Jiu enough that he constantly pestered Golofitz to come up with a way to ease Si Xu’s suffering.
Golofitz, utterly fed up, cut off communication to avoid further annoyance.
In Golofitz’s view, pain was insignificant—as long as you didn’t die, nothing was a big deal.
After Si Xu completed the full awakening of his Demon Spirit Clan genes, both his eyes and blood turned completely silver. Before the full awakening, his eyes only turned silver when he tapped into his Demon Spirit bloodline, but now silver was the constant color of his eyes.
Si Xu had become a true member of the Demon Spirit Clan, and his aura grew more mysterious and unfathomable. No one knew just how powerful he had become.
Just as everyone was gearing up to head out to drag the queen pest up from the trench, Lin Jiu and Si Xu simultaneously received bad news.
Vera and Song Mozhi had gone missing.
