Chapter 190
Lang Ze sat atop the crimson tiger’s back.
After a moment of hesitation, he reached into his pocket, gently pulling out the little black cat. He tucked it into his collar and softly instructed, “Xing Xing, it’s safer here. Don’t run around.”
Zheng Xing nestled into his collar, feeling surrounded by Lang Ze’s warmth, with only his head exposed to the oncoming breeze.
He nodded slightly and let out a quiet hum of acknowledgment.
Relieved, Lang Ze looked down at Ran Lie and curiously asked, “Lie Lie, why did you go into that room earlier? Was it to transform into the crimson tiger?”
But why would transforming require entering a room? Was it some kind of secret about beastification? Yet Xing Xing didn’t go into a room when he transformed!
Ran Lie’s running pace faltered for a brief moment, but he didn’t answer the question. Instead, he sped up, causing the young wolf cub to wobble slightly, forcing Lang Ze to hunker down and sit still.
Once the jolting stopped, Lang Ze pouted and muttered to himself, What a stingy tiger.
Watching Ran Lie and Zheng Xing effortlessly shift between their beast forms, Lang Ze couldn’t help but feel envious.
He wondered what his fully beastified form would look like.
Would it be as cool as the crimson tiger?
Though he thought Xing Xing’s beast form was incredibly cute, if given the choice, Lang Ze hoped his beast form would be tall and majestic like Ran Lie’s. That way, he could better protect Xing Xing!
Before he could dwell on the thought any longer, Ran Lie had already carried them off the spaceship.
With Zheng Xing’s presence clearing the way, they encountered no obstacles. Once off the ship, Ran Lie locked onto the slime monster’s location and sprinted toward it.
*
In the cabin, Yun Zixu stood by the window.
Through the thick layers of mist, he could vaguely see the slime monster wreaking havoc within the base. His face was filled with helplessness and worry. Next to him, Song Zehe sighed heavily.
Trapped inside the cabin, they had no way to join the reinforcements.
At that moment, Yun Zixu’s communicator buzzed again.
He quickly answered, and the voice of the defense commander came through.
“Yun Zixu, what’s happening over there? Have the reinforcements arrived?” The background noise was chaotic, indicating the situation on the commander’s end was extremely dire.
“Uh, yes, Marshal Li is already on the way, and…” Yun Zixu hesitated briefly before gritting his teeth and adding, “And two cubs.”
“Cubs? What cubs?”
The defense commander sounded completely baffled.
“They’re from the nursery… sent by Caretaker Su. They’ve gone along as well,” Yun Zixu began to explain the cubs’ abilities and past achievements, but the commander cut him off.
“This is absurd!”
The commander’s voice rose in anger. “Do you even know what the base is dealing with right now? How could you let cubs join the fight? What is this, a field trip? If anything happens to them, can you take responsibility?”
Yun Zixu found no opportunity to respond as the commander’s tirade continued unabated.
“Take those two cubs to a safe location immediately,” the commander ordered. “Give me Li Sinian’s contact information. I need to get in touch with him. For now, your priority is to protect those cubs. If necessary, bring the mutated garlic seedling for support. Everything else can wait until the battle is over.”
With that, the commander hung up the call.
Yun Zixu’s face twisted with frustration. How can I even do that if I can’t leave this cabin…
*
“How’s it going?”
As soon as the commander ended the call, someone nearby asked for an update.
The commander shook his head and briefly explained what Yun Zixu had reported. Then, he called upon the base’s AI system to locate the two cubs.
With the base shrouded in blood mist, the AI’s surveillance system couldn’t monitor the area as clearly as it once could.
“What was Yun Zixu even thinking? Why bring cubs from the nursery and let them roam around?”
Everyone who heard the news found it baffling.
But when the holographic screen displayed a young crimson tiger carrying a wolf-eared boy on its back, the realization hit them. These weren’t ordinary children—they were beast-blood cubs from the nursery!
“Are they corrupted by the blood mist and going berserk?” someone beside the commander speculated.
The commander shook his head. “Doesn’t seem like it.”
“They appear to be heading toward the slime monster! Are they planning to fight it? And what about Li Sinian? Wasn’t he supposed to be here? Why isn’t he with them?”
The commander had already added Li Sinian’s contact information but hadn’t managed to reach him. The AI also hadn’t located his whereabouts yet.
“Alert the soldiers on-site. Let them know two cubs are heading toward the fight. Whatever happens, they must ensure their safety.”
The holographic feed shifted, showing the cubs nearing the battlefield where the slime monster was rampaging. Suddenly, the young crimson tiger came to a halt.
Did it finally sense the danger and decide not to approach further?
Under everyone’s watchful gaze, the tiger bent down slightly.
The boy on its back agilely jumped off and, with surprising grace, climbed up the side of a nearby building with his bare hands, scaling it to the rooftop in no time.
“This kid is impressive!”
Though the building wasn’t particularly tall, it was still six or seven stories high. For him to climb it unaided was a feat even some military cadets would struggle with.
What’s more, he looked no older than seven or eight. If he could grow up safely, his future would undoubtedly be bright.
“But why is he climbing to the rooftop? To hide?”
As they watched, the boy pulled out a long tube.
Holding the tube horizontally, he aimed at a small hole and began playing it like a flute.
“Is he… playing the flute?”
Everyone in the command center looked puzzled.
While they wanted to keep monitoring the cubs, the commander, satisfied with confirming their safety and location, notified nearby soldiers and minimized the cubs’ feed to a corner of the screen.
The main display returned to the ongoing battle between the soldiers and the slime monster.
Since the blood mist had invaded the base, monsters occasionally emerged from it as though space-time rifts were opening within the mist, allowing them to pour into the base. The defenders struggled to keep up.
In addition to the base’s soldiers, even some well-behaved prisoners had been released to help with the fight. Those who performed well were promised reduced sentences.
After the blood mist first invaded the prison star, the Interstellar Alliance had debated evacuating all soldiers from the planet but ultimately rejected the proposal. However, they had gradually reduced the number of prisoners sent to the planet over the years.
After Prison Planet No. 2 was selected, no new prisoners were sent to the original prison planet—except for one exception: Dr. Ren Yufei, who committed a crime on the prison star itself.
Currently, the soldiers stationed on the prison star not only guard the interstellar criminals left behind over the years but also include ordinary recruits like Song Zehe, who are sent there for potential awakening of superpowers.
The monsters within the blood mist have also become trial targets for these recruits, serving as preparation for future battles against interstellar creatures on the frontlines.
Thus, the prison star has evolved from a penitentiary into more of a trial ground.
However, after the blood mist re-invaded the base, what was originally a moderate-level training ground suddenly turned into a hellish one.
Over the past month of life-and-death trials, many soldiers had indeed awakened superpowers in critical moments. This was one of the reasons the defenders had managed to hold on for so long.
But now… they were at their limit.
The commander stared at the screen, where the exhausted soldiers were clearly struggling. His heart ached, and anxiety clouded his expression as he replayed the characteristics of the slime monster in his mind:
It secretes highly corrosive mucus and is resistant to fire. Shelling can shatter its body, but the splattered mucus causes secondary damage to nearby buildings and soldiers.
What’s worse, it has regenerative capabilities. If the firepower isn’t strong enough to obliterate it completely, its remaining body parts can reassemble, forming a new slime monster.
But with Base 26’s current firepower reserves, they couldn’t destroy this monster completely in one strike.
If this monster were left unchecked…
The commander’s thoughts were interrupted by startled exclamations from those around him. He quickly turned to the screen, only to find that alongside the grotesque slime monster, another figure had appeared: a crimson tiger cub.
It hadn’t hidden with its companions. What was it doing here?
What shocked the commander even more was what happened next—the slime monster, which had been relentlessly destroying buildings and attacking soldiers with its mucus, suddenly… froze.
This was the first time the slime monster had ever reacted this way.
Sensing something unusual, the commander immediately switched to voice communications with the soldiers on the battlefield, demanding an update on the situation.
“Report, Commander! I… I’m not sure what’s happening, but… but I…”
The commander frowned. “What? If you’ve noticed something, report it clearly—don’t stammer!”
“Yes, sir! It’s just… I hear flute music!”
The commander blinked, momentarily thinking he’d misheard. “Flute music?”
“Yes, sir! It’s incredibly pleasant to listen to!” the soldier replied. “Hearing it makes me feel so happy, like I’m back in my hometown! I… I feel so joyful right now!”
The commander froze in disbelief. Has the blood mist driven this soldier mad? But no one affected by the blood mist had ever shown symptoms like this before.
Then he noticed something strange on the screen—the slime monster had changed.
After its sudden pause, its humanoid-like face began to shift. The grotesque, pus-covered visage seemed to form…
“Is the slime monster… smiling?”
The data analyst sitting next to the commander suddenly spoke up with a puzzled expression.
“Smiling?”
The commander stared at the grotesque expression on the monster’s face. It did look like a goofy grin, but… was that even possible?
He suddenly recalled the soldier’s report about the flute music.
Pausing in thought, the commander reopened the minimized feed in the corner of the screen.
The massive display split into two views: on one side was the slime monster with its distorted smile, and on the other was the wolf-eared boy passionately playing the flute. Coupled with the soldier’s claim that the music brought immense joy, the connection between the two…
Was self-evident.
“So, the boy’s flute music is controlling the monster?” the data analyst murmured.
Everyone in the command center was stunned.
Was this flute music part of the wolf-eared boy’s unique ability? Or was it a skill that could be learned and replicated by anyone who played the same tune?
Though they hadn’t figured out how to deal with the monster yet, the fact that it had stopped its attacks on the surroundings provided a much-needed reprieve for the soldiers.
The commander frowned slightly as a thought struck him. He immediately ordered the team sent to assist and protect the cubs to ensure the boy was guarded at all costs and not interrupted.
Just as the commander issued the order, the situation on the screen changed again.
The crimson tiger cub had appeared at the scene but was intercepted by the soldiers. However, the soldiers were clearly at their limit, so much so that they couldn’t even manage to stop the small tiger.
In a moment of inattention, the cub broke through their blockade and bolted toward the slime monster!
Everyone watching this scene felt their hearts tighten in unison.
“Come back!”
At the battlefield, the soldier who had tried to stop the tiger shouted desperately. But no matter how loudly he yelled, the cub acted as though it couldn’t hear, charging ahead without hesitation.
He could only watch helplessly as the tiger cub bounded toward the slime monster, leaping over barricades with agility until its small figure vanished into the hazy blood mist.
Grinding his teeth, the soldier made a snap decision. Amid his comrades’ shouts of anger and disbelief, he jumped onto a hovercraft and pursued the cub into the restricted zone.
Engaging the slime monster usually required attacking from a safe distance because the mucus dripping from its body would dissolve anything it touched, making close encounters extremely dangerous.
Even though the monster had stopped moving, its corrosive mucus continued to drip.
Navigating carefully to avoid the mucus, the soldier finally spotted the tiger cub again after a tense chase. Relief flooded his face as he shouted, “Kid, come back!”
Ran Lie, hearing the shout, turned his head to glance back, his expression shifting to one of confusion.
Why was this person following him?
He looked up at the towering figure of the slime monster, then back at the soldier. After a moment of hesitation, he turned and began running back.
The soldier, relieved to see the tiger cub returning, started to smile—only for his expression to shift to shock.
As the little tiger ran, its body began to grow larger and larger. By the time it reached him, it was already taller than he was!
Ran Lie had been shrunk by Su Ci due to his overly large size, but before leaving the nursery, he had received the key phrase from Su Ci to return to his original form.
Under the soldier’s terrified gaze, Ran Lie restored himself to his full, normal-sized beast form. With a swift flick of his slender tail, he coiled it around the soldier and hoisted him into the air.
Thud!
The hovercraft the soldier had been using dropped to the ground, now without a pilot.
“Ahhh!!!”
The soldier screamed as he was lifted into the air, only to realize moments later that the now-enormous crimson tiger wasn’t going to eat him. Instead, it carefully placed him on its back.
“Huh?”
Hearing his confused sound, Ran Lie rolled his eyes before turning back toward the slime monster and resuming his sprint.
“Why are you running that way again?!”
The soldier, now furious, glanced ahead and suddenly sensed something. Looking up, he saw a massive drop of mucus falling from the sky, about to land directly in their path.
Yet the crimson tiger didn’t change direction. Instead, it charged straight toward the falling droplet and… breathed a plume of fire at it?
But…
“Slime monsters aren’t afraid of fire!” the soldier shouted in panic.
Just as he finished yelling, he watched in stunned disbelief as the droplet of mucus was completely incinerated by the tiger’s flames—vanishing without a trace.
“What…?”
