Chapter Fifteen: There Are Still Masters

Just over ten meters above Zhuang Xiao, nestled in a crevice of the cliff face, was the small but swollen-bellied Wisebug. It had hidden there since the fight began.

Armed with a gun, it was about to emerge, aiming a shot at Qi An, who had the power to purify, while simultaneously leaping toward Zhuang Xiao.

The blossom-like tentacles would envelop Zhuang Xiao, causing him to undergo a complete mutation immediately.

Qi An fired hastily, her aim far from perfect. The bullet grazed Zhuang Xiao’s cheek, startling him into crouching.

But the Wisebug recoiled and failed to leap down.

In the next moment, Zhao Bohan’s automatic rifle burst into rapid fire, turning a patch of the yellow earth cliff into a honeycomb of bullet holes, tearing the Wisebug’s flesh apart.

Yu Shuang moved like a phantom, scaling a protrusion on the cliff and pulling Zhuang Xiao down.

The instant Zhao Bohan forced the Wisebug out of its crevice, Yu Shuang fired a shot that pierced its forehead cyst.

The battlefield fell silent, save for the wind’s whisper.

Thankfully, the wind helped disperse the foul stench carrying the pollution signals, but the spreading odor risked attracting more corrupted insects.

Having come into close contact with a Wisebug, Zhuang Xiao’s pollution level was nearing 55%. Qi An quickly administered an injection of the blocker and purified him on the spot.

After a while, Zhuang Xiao regained consciousness, his agonized wails echoing through the valley.

“Doctor Qi! Sister Qi! You saved my life, sob sob!”

If not for fear of punishment from the two team leaders, Zhuang Xiao would have clung to Qi An’s leg, begging for her protection.

She had driven away the terrifying Wisebug, and the emergency purification was incredibly fast, steady, and reliable!

It felt pleasant, like a massage for the brain, revitalizing the spirit.

With Sister Qi in the Wind Rider Team 2, what worries were there about breaking through the entire base’s special forces and shining on the top page of the battle team leaderboard?

Though he didn’t hold onto Qi An’s leg, only grabbed the hem of her camouflage jacket, the desperate Zhuang Xiao was unceremoniously dragged away by Yu Shuang with a cold “Go dig for insect oil!”

Qi An glanced at Su Qingran and Zhao Bohan’s pollution levels—46% and 38%, respectively.

“Don’t worry about me; I can bring mine down with medicine,” Su Qingran said calmly.

Zhao Bohan’s level hadn’t even touched the red line for second-degree mutation—very safe.

Qi An nodded at them both, swallowed two small blue pills, and said wearily, “I’m going to meditate for a while.”

She sat back in the vehicle. Zhao Bohan glanced at her pollution monitoring bracelet with some puzzlement.

Yu Shuang looked at Qi An as if she were her own sister, or a rare SSR legendary gear she’d found by chance and couldn’t bear to use recklessly—cherishing her deeply. Only after confirming Qi An had no scrapes or bruises did she go off to handle the insect oil.

The wind died down, and the daylight brightened.

Including the Wisebug, the squad collected 32 corpses of corrupted insects, extracting 30 milliliters of high-energy biofuel crudely purified. Though conditions didn’t allow further refining, this amount was enough to power their three vehicles for hundreds of kilometers in the wild.

Everyone tightened their filtration masks during operations. Pollution levels still rose but at a slower pace.

Racing against time for half an hour, the squad left behind a trail of blood and gore, heading toward the coordinates marked by Jiu.

At departure, the weather seemed to improve, but after two hours, the wind picked up again, and the sandstorm blotted out the sky.

The sound of grit hitting the car windows made one fear that the tempered glass might shatter at any moment. Visibility ahead was no more than thirty meters.

“I’m damn fed up!” Yu Shuang cursed.

The pheromones from the insect oil stirred everyone’s tempers; communications cut out again, location beacons went dark, and the rough road conditions pushed their patience to the limit.

“This is the coordinate he reported before, but it seems deserted...” Zhuang Xiao put on his infrared goggles, while Tang Long lit two chemical glow sticks and extended them outside the vehicle.

They were in the ruins of a low-rise residential complex—only the wind howled around them. After a circuit, they found no response. The only heat source was a pack of hyenas sheltering from the dust in a half-collapsed building.

Upon seeing armed bipedal creatures, the hyenas turned and fled.

“Splitting up to search won’t work. We can’t contact each other, and if danger arises, there’s no timely support.

Drones are useless, so we can only guess a direction and search,” Zhao Bohan shouted.

The team murmured assent, about to leave, when Qi An removed her filtration mask.

“Sister Qi?” Zhuang Xiao asked in confusion.

Qi An sniffed deeply toward the ruins, puzzled. “Is there a foul smell?”

Everyone paused. Zhuang Xiao took off his mask and sniffed carefully.

“There really is! Near the stairs!”

They were inside a crumbling residential building, and Qi An pointed to the emergency staircase leading to the basement.

Others removed their masks and soon caught the scent as well.

Though their sensory enhancements were stronger than Qi An’s, she hadn’t really smelled it—she was sensing it.

At the stairwell entrance lay the corpse of a spy insect, a bullet hole in its head.

In such a forsaken place, there was hardly anyone else. Ninety-nine percent certain it was Jiu’s doing—he had encountered corrupted insects while waiting for backup here.

Yu Shuang smiled, giving Qi An a thumbs-up. “You truly are our squad’s lucky star!

Zhuang Xiao, stop wearing your mask. Follow the scent of corrupted insects and look for their blood traces to guide us. Qi An, keep an eye on Zhuang Xiao’s pollution level.”

“Yes, Captain!” they both responded promptly.

With a clear search direction, everyone’s spirits lifted.

Zhuang Xiao, whose vision and smell far surpassed ordinary men, switched to “military dog” mode, painfully sniffing while walking through the dust.

Qi An struggled to sense amidst the harsh weather, occasionally correcting his course. After about twenty minutes, they found the place.

It was a power plant, its colossal cooling towers stretching from earth to sky, faintly visible through the sandstorm.

Flames flickered in the air, and the stench of corrupted insect blood and flesh was heavy on the wind.

This had to be a battlefield—no sensing needed to confirm that.

“Could the hive be here?” Yu Shuang asked in disbelief.

Of course, it was a joke. If the hive were here, they wouldn’t even get close.

“Tang Long, blow open the entrance!”

The convoy had reached the power plant’s gate, which was blocked by building rubble and insect corpses. Yu Shuang immediately ordered the breach.

Tang Long placed a bundle of detonators leeward, clipped the fuse, ignited it, and quickly retreated facing away.

The gate exploded with a roar, debris flying everywhere, dust swirling in the fierce wind.

All magazines were fully loaded; rocket launchers and a whole box of rockets sat by Tang Long’s seat. The squad was ready for a bloody fight, holding their breath as they charged into the power plant.

But inside, it was silent.

The vast power plant was consumed by flames, fueled by the howling wind devouring the buildings and corpses. In this apocalyptic scene, there was not a trace of living presence.