Chapter 55: Strength is the Strength of Will
This brief moment would pass eventually, and the raindrops would fall back to the earth once again.
Yang Yuning turned to the front of the vehicle, and Yu Shuang and Zhao Bohan turned around as well.
Several bullets flew toward the apprentice priest; it was hit by two, yet it still managed to escape.
Instead of fleeing under the car, it darted straight into the vehicle.
Liu Weiyun, who was running toward the cabin from the passenger seat, had her belt snagged by a tentacle.
It was not the tentacle of the apprentice priest, but one extending from Li Yi!
Li Yi seemed to have completed his mutation in the blink of an eye, but he—no, it—was merely an ordinary corrupted insect.
Yet even the tentacles of an ordinary corrupted insect possessed enough strength to yank Liu Weiyun back.
Liu Weiyun staggered, forced to take a bullet meant for Li Yi, before the apprentice priest lunged directly onto her face.
Aside from the two tentacles protecting the cyst on its own head, all of the apprentice priest's remaining tentacles tightly wrapped around Liu Weiyun's head.
Its face pressed completely against Liu Weiyun's, its mouthparts split open, and a piece of granulation tissue extended straight into Liu Weiyun's mouth...
It looked as though they were kissing!
This sight left even Yu Shuang frozen in place, her shooting pausing for a full second.
Liu Weiyun's pupils rapidly split, and within seconds, a bottomless blackness occupied her entire eye sockets.
Tentacles began to extend from her own body as well—pale, slender tentacles!
She had mutated into a wisdom insect!
Whether a human became strong or weak after mutation depended on their resistance, with willpower being the most crucial factor, though one's innate mental resilience also played a role.
Liu Weiyun's willpower to resist collapsed at the slightest touch, but she was, after all, a purificator, and her mental reinforcement was at level 8!
She had become a "singer."
All these developments happened far too quickly. Three corrupted insects had suddenly appeared in this semi-enclosed small space, two of which were priests!
Yu Shuang's contamination level skyrocketed from 50% to 69%!
Zhao Bohan was also undergoing a level 2 mutation, but he still retained his mobility and dragged Yu Shuang down off the vehicle.
Because of Li Yi's mutation, Qi An had not been able to reach Sun Yiran. She was right outside the vehicle door, grasping Yu Shuang's hands to perform a rapid two-minute purification.
The apprentice priest had originally chased after Zhao Bohan and the other, but it was violently repelled by Yang Yuning's force field and took a bullet!
It immediately turned around and fled toward the front of the vehicle!
It was said that mutated wisdom insects retained the personalities they had as humans, and higher-level wisdom insects even kept their memories.
Liu Weiyun's mutated singer shrieked incessantly, stumbling about just as she had in life, and fled straight into Jia Wenxuan's vehicle with Chen Yuezhou's bullets hot on her heels!
Veins bulged on the hand with which Chen Yuezhou gripped his gun; the contamination level was impairing his judgment.
His aim had actually deteriorated to the point where he couldn't even hit a singer!
Meanwhile, Jia Wenxuan, still dazed by the tragedy of both his captain and purificator mutating simultaneously, failed to fire a single shot!
You Zi was right beside him. The singer bypassed him and lunged straight onto You Zi's face!
Just as the apprentice priest had contaminated the singer, granulation tissue extended from the singer's mouthparts as well, attempting to pierce into You Zi's mouth.
However, You Zi pressed her pistol against its body and emptied almost an entire magazine!
Even as her pupils trembled and split, her arm trembled as she raised it, and with a single shot, she blew up the singer's cyst!
The singer turned into a corpse, sliding limply off You Zi's body, but its green blood splattered almost entirely over You Zi's head.
You Zi bent over, dry-heaving as if she were about to vomit out her bile! She wiped frantically at her face, then shoved her fingers down her throat, pulling out large clumps of blood without stopping.
She was neurotically rejecting the singer's intrusion, rejecting the contamination, but this was precisely a manifestation of the contamination rapidly eroding her sanity!
Yang Yuning was in hot pursuit of the apprentice priest, while Qi An, enduring the excruciating pain in her right leg, sprinted toward You Zi!
Her intuition told her something was wrong. After lunging to the side of You Zi's vehicle, she saw, just as expected, that You Zi's skin was turning pale, and tentacular granulation tissue had pierced through the fabric of her back, revealing glowing golden patterns!
Qi An was shocked.
The apprentice priest, which had been severely wounded under Yang Yuning's chase and had scurried beneath the third vehicle, suddenly stopped and turned its head in dismay.
It abruptly stopped fleeing and, mustering every ounce of its strength, desperately charged toward You Zi's vehicle!
Yang Yuning fired a shot into the air, hitting its cyst. It shrieked, yet still used the bone spurs at the tips of its tentacles to pierce the rear window of the vehicle, attempting to crawl inside!
Qi An raised her gun, but she dared not fire into the vehicle through the glass.
Jia Wenxuan, finally snapping out of his daze, also raised his weapon, sending two consecutive rounds straight into the apprentice priest's already shattered cyst.
The apprentice priest was thoroughly dead.
Qi An felt a surge of elation! The vehicle doors were locked; she immediately prepared to shatter the front windshield and dive inside, but was yanked back by Chen Yuezhou!
"Are you looking to die?"
That thing was very likely a yellow-robed priest!
Above the apprentice priest was the yellow-robed priest, above the yellow-robed priest was the white priest, and further up were the ash priests who commanded entire legions, as well as the "source priest," which was merely a legend of unverified existence.
For Qi An to approach a yellow-robed priest inside a confined space—what was that if not courting death?
Consumed by anxiety and fury, Qi An found Chen Yuezhou's arm as unyielding as an iron clamp, so she simply bit down hard on his wrist!
Chen Yuezhou was taken aback.
Taking advantage of his surprise, Qi An broke free from his grip and smashed the butt of her rifle fiercely against the front windshield.
Though her strength wasn't enough to shake off Chen Yuezhou, after two blows, she successfully shattered the glass!
The North-2 team member in the driver's seat had already reached a level-4 mutation, and Jia Wenxuan had also reached a level-3 mutation.
Overcome by fear, Jia Wenxuan leveled his gun directly at You Zi!
Qi An dropped her sniper rifle, drew her tactical dagger, and scrambled into the vehicle with the utmost speed.
Chen Yuezhou simply didn't know how to describe Qi An.
Was she a delicate young lady who needed to be carried onto the battlefield? A purificator with strange sensory abilities? Or a little madwoman recklessly hurtling toward a dead end?
The North-2 team member's arm, already mutated into tentacles, lashed out, but Qi An batted it away with a slash of her blade. Stumbling with her petite frame, she forced her way into the backseat, slammed heavily into Jia Wenxuan, and shouted at Chen Yuezhou at the same time: "Don't attack her!"
Don't attack You Zi!
No living creature could resist the instinct for survival. If You Zi were shot at this moment, she would undoubtedly mutate completely to stay alive, and that would be the point where everyone present would face an unpredictable fate!
Chen Yuezhou's finger rested right on the trigger. His pistol possessed immense firepower, and the yellow-robed priest had not yet completed its mutation and was still struggling; this was the optimal moment to eliminate the yellow-robed priest!
As long as You Zi was blasted into a heap of pulp, he refused to believe she could still mutate!