Chapter 161 – About Reproduction… How Did You Know That?

The inside of the hole was pitch-black, and it was not a straight passage. Even the headlamp could not illuminate very far. But Su Lifeng had only glanced inside when he saw a piece of clothing that had not yet rotted away. He prodded it with his Bone Wings and saw a hand bone beneath the cloth.

Rotten flesh, deformed bones, and joints that did not look like a normal human’s.

“A skin…” The one that had abandoned this skin might have been one of those giant rats just now, but Su Lifeng was not focused on that. His attention was mainly on the cave itself.

“It isn’t strange for there to be Xenospecies in the tunnel, but why dig a hole here?” Su Lifeng thought for a moment. First, he turned back and absorbed the E-class Xenospecies, then crawled into the hole.

If he did not have his Bone Wings to clear the way, he really would not have dared to go in so rashly.

Sure enough, he had not crawled far before Su Lifeng saw the end of the hole. Below it was an enormous space. The moment Su Lifeng approached, he was nearly knocked unconscious by a wave of foul stench.

Fortunately, he had smelled plenty of terrible odors during experiments. Su Lifeng merely covered his nose, then hooked the edge with his Bone Wings and carefully leaned down.

This was a sewer. Wherever the headlamp swept, Su Lifeng saw a large number of discarded skins. At the same time, on the walkway beside the channel, he saw many fresh human-shaped footprints.

“What’s going on here?”

Had a large number of Xenospecies first transferred into other creatures to dig holes, then allowed even more human-shaped Xenospecies to enter this place?

For what?

Judging from what Su Lifeng could see, the Quarantine Zone’s defenses were definitely very strict.

But the purpose of these Xenospecies gathering here was also self-evident…

Su Lifeng was afraid of being discovered if he stayed here too long. After all, in the darkness, wearing a headlamp made him look like a giant target. But just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed something.

Su Lifeng stared at that red dot for a moment, then released his Bone Wings and jumped down. Almost the instant he landed, he used his Bone Wings to hook up that red dot, and in the next moment he had already returned to the hole.

“Roar!”

A roar of unclear meaning came from deep within the sewer, while Su Lifeng had already returned to the tunnel. When the source of the roar found nothing, the sound gradually vanished.

Yu Zai and the others were arguing endlessly over whether they should go look for Su Lifeng when Su Lifeng returned.

“Are you all right?” Li Heng was the first to spot Su Lifeng. He had just taken two steps forward when his mouth opened and he froze.

Hearing him, Yu Zai immediately looked over as well. He was about to ask Li Heng what was going on, but then his expression also revealed a trace of shock.

As for Firebug, who had opposed searching for Su Lifeng, the instant he turned his head, his pupils suddenly contracted… Su Lifeng had actually come back carrying a corpse…

To be precise, it was a partial corpse that had been dissected: two ferocious blackened spider legs, and a long tail stinger.

The frost-cold female soldier was wiping the dagger she had just used, but at this moment she could not help taking another look at Su Lifeng too.

“You… you actually killed her…” Only when Su Lifeng walked up to them did Yu Zai finally come back to his senses. He pointed at him in shock and said, “And you’re not strength-type either!”

“I never said I was. You assumed that on your own.” Su Lifeng carefully placed the severed limbs on the ground, then took the backpack off his back.

“You’re planning to bring those back?” Yu Zai asked.

Although he did not say it outright, anyone could tell from his expression that he found these things both terrifying and disgusting.

At first glance, these parts still looked very similar to creatures humans were familiar with. But in their details and dimensions, they had nothing at all to do with Earth creatures. And toward things that overturned their own understanding, humans actually possessed an instinctive rejection.

“Yes.” After Su Lifeng said that, he saw everyone staring at him as if they were looking at a lunatic. He had no choice but to sigh and add, “Don’t forget, I’m actually a biology student…”

“Oh, right.” Judging from Yu Zai’s suddenly enlightened expression, he seemed to be saying, “If you hadn’t mentioned it, I would have forgotten you’re actually a refined and scholarly graduate student.”

The female soldier also looked at Su Lifeng with some surprise. But immediately afterward, she heard Su Lifeng recite with the ease of someone listing family treasures, “These parts are the ones where her mutation was the most complete. But if possible, I would actually have liked to bring her entire corpse back. You may not know this, but she even had the ability to reproduce offspring…”

“Offspring? You mean… that kind of monster can reproduce?!” Li Heng’s scalp tingled as he asked in horror.

Su Lifeng glanced at him, zipped up the backpack that already held those limbs, shook it once, and slung it back onto his back. “Don’t be so surprised. I said she could, not that she definitely would. In fact, whether Xenospecies use this kind of sexual reproduction to create offspring is still a completely unknown question for now. And in a case like hers, should she combine with a spider, or with a human? No one can say. Suppose it’s a spider. Would there be a spider that big to cooperate with her? Then suppose it’s a human… sigh. If she really can reproduce, just thinking about it is still terrifying.”

The female soldier stared at him blankly, while Li Heng and Yu Zai shook their heads with all their might and said, “No, we think you’re the terrifying one.”

“Then tell me, how did you know she could still reproduce…?” Yu Zai asked, hitting the nail on the head.

Su Lifeng fell silent for a while, then wordlessly walked toward the front. “Don’t we still have a mission? Hurry up and go.”

These people had no understanding at all of what serious scientific research was…

The two spider legs were extremely hard. After Su Lifeng scraped off the corrosive fluid on them with his knife, he found that if something like this could be made into a weapon, the effect would definitely be better than a knife’s, though it was not especially suited for him to use.

As for that poison stinger, it immediately made him think of someone.

If he made it for her, the effect should be quite good. It could just make up for her lack of offensive power.

Su Lifeng always felt a kind of reverence toward firearms. In the hands of the military, these things could exert tremendous power. But in the hands of ordinary people, once something went wrong, or if ammunition could not be replenished in time, it was very hard for them to play their true role.

So whether as a precaution or not, Su Lifeng kept wanting to find more suitable attack methods for them.

On the way, he looked at the female soldier from time to time. She also seemed to notice that Su Lifeng was looking at her, but she still maintained an expressionless face.

“The military and the survivors have a large population base. Since she’s already using her Awakening ability without restraint, does that mean the Quarantine Zone already has some understanding of this ability? Or is it that… they’re treating her as the first one to test the waters?” Su Lifeng thought to himself.

Just as he was wondering how he should ask in order to get an accurate answer, Firebug, who had not said a word since Su Lifeng returned, suddenly let out a muffled groan.