Chapter 10 – Turning the Tables

…Su Lifeng still had many things he hadn’t told Jiang Yushi and the others.

First, there was the Spatial Gate. Since it was large enough to let a Cruise Ship through, would it ever close?

Those Xenospecies were seizing the bodies of Earth’s organisms in order to evolve. This meant that the entire planet, with its rich biological diversity, was nothing more than a sumptuous feast to them!

They wouldn’t give up such a delicacy easily.

Second, the existence of those two Xenospecies Octopuses, combined with the fact that the Cruise Ship had been dragged inside, made it hard to believe the opening of the Spatial Gate was a mere coincidence.

These Xenospecies were acting with premeditation.

Then there was the third point, which was the most dangerous for Su Lifeng and his group… The wounded had clearly lost their mobility after being injured, making it impossible for them to reach the Island on their own.

This meant the Xenospecies themselves still possessed the capacity for independent action.

As for why they chose the wounded first…

Thinking back to the differences between the humans before and after they were absorbed and overtaken, Su Lifeng believed that, on a biological level, humans were a form of “excess nutrition” for the Xenospecies.

Their absorption of humans wasn’t ideal yet, but they were making slow progress.

Targeting the wounded at the start was likely a safer way for them to experiment.

“They really are highly intelligent creatures…”

Su Lifeng reached out to touch the wound on his abdomen. Only a few minutes had passed, yet the pain had already vanished.

“Come to think of it, when I attacked Cheng Peng and that octopus, they didn’t show any reaction to pain either… Self-Healing Ability, physical resilience, and a reduced sensation of pain-are these the biological traits of the Xenospecies?” Su Lifeng silently added another label to the Xenospecies in his mind: a very well-rounded species.

Just then, the boy walking on the left as a lookout let out a low gasp of surprise.

Before heading deeper into the Island, Su Lifeng had just learned their names and arranged for them to scout ahead and guard the rear.

Su Lifeng had saved them out of a natural streak of kindness.

But now that they were on the Island, it was time for everyone to pull their weight.

Even the two delicate girls, Cheng Xiaomei and Jiang Yushi, were alert to every movement around them. Cheng Xiaomei was even constantly muttering under her breath, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, I can do this…”

“Feng Shen, what is it?” Su Lifeng quickly lowered his hand and walked over.

The boy pointed at a corpse in the black grass. Only the upper half of the body remained; the lower half had completely rotted into a blood-red Gelatinous Substance. “Look… look at this.”

Suppressing his disgust, Su Lifeng crouched down and poked the congealed mass twice with the chair leg, then glanced at the corpse’s face.

It was a fairly young woman wearing heavy makeup. She must have been quite glamorous and eye-catching once, but now she was nothing but a cold, terrifying husk.

“She has a wound on her chest…”

She was part of the first batch to be absorbed. It seemed that even when targeting the wounded, the success rate wasn’t that high.

And there was no Black Thread emerging from her…

“Is it because she’s been dead for a while? Or because I wasn’t the one who killed her?” Su Lifeng wondered.

Jiang Yushi suddenly spoke up. “Looking at the direction she was heading, she was probably trying to follow the previous group of wounded toward the shore. If we go the way she came from, do you think we’ll find the Xenospecies’ Lair?” Seeing Su Lifeng suddenly look her way, Jiang Yushi quickly corrected herself with a hint of uncertainty. “That’s just a figure of speech. Because the Xenospecies you described feel like a social species to me, I wondered if they might have a communal Nest… I’m just guessing…”

“No, you’re absolutely right.” Su Lifeng nodded as the image of that Shadowy Figure flashed through his mind… To him, that was the greatest threat, and the place where that Shadowy Figure resided was right here on the Island!

To eliminate a threat, the best way was to turn the tables and take the initiative!

“Even though the things I foresee are bound to happen, it doesn’t mean the outcome is set in stone,” Su Lifeng said, gritting his teeth. “We’re going this way!”

Upon hearing that they were going to seek out the Xenospecies’ Lair, the expressions on Feng Shen and the others’ faces turned unsightly.

However, they also knew there was no other way out. Suppressing their panic, they cautiously bypassed the corpse and headed in the direction she had been facing away from.

…Meanwhile, at a location not too far from Su Lifeng and his group.

“Ah… I’m alive, I’m still alive!” A female college student scrambled onto the shore, instantly breaking down into tears.

She turned her head to look behind her as Zhang Hai also came splashing out of the water.

His face was equally pale, yet his eyes held a trace of madness. “A biological miracle… a biological miracle…”

“Zhang Hai, this is all your fault! If you hadn’t ignored Su Lifeng…” The student’s emotions had completely collapsed. She suddenly lunged forward and slapped Zhang Hai hard across the face. “Are you scared out of your mind?!”

That slap, however, seemed to snap Zhang Hai out of it.

Zhang Hai suddenly looked up and grabbed the student’s hand just as she was about to strike again. “Didn’t you see? These are miracles! What do you know!” He violently shoved her aside, stood up, and looked toward the interior of the island. “They’re all miracles… all miracles…” Mumbling to himself, he began walking inland.

The student was terrified by Zhang Hai’s fanatical expression. It was only after his figure disappeared from sight that she whispered, “He’s gone mad…”

…

Along the way, Su Lifeng and the others discovered several more corpses. As expected, they were the injured people who had gone missing earlier.

Each time, Su Lifeng would step forward to examine them, but the results were always the same.

After seeing so many bodies, Feng Shen and the others gradually grew bolder.

When they found another corpse, Feng Shen mimicked Su Lifeng’s movements and crouched down.

This time, it was a woman in her thirties wearing a swimsuit. Her figure possessed a mature charm quite different from that of a twenty-year-old girl.

Feng Shen stared at the woman’s smooth neck, thinking with a hint of regret that it was a shame for such a beautiful woman to end up like this.

He looked at the butter knife in his hand and then stabbed it into her rotting left arm.

“Pfft!”

Though it looked like rot, the Gelatinous Substance didn’t actually feel like simple flesh and blood.

“It really is a Xenospecies…” Feng Shen thought to himself.

However, at that exact moment, the woman suddenly moved.

Her beautiful neck snapped around, and she lunged, teeth bared, to bite Feng Shen.

“Ah!”

Feng Shen let out a sudden scream, instinctively throwing his hands up as he scrambled backward and fell onto his backside.

The woman only had half a body left, but it didn’t seem to hinder her movements at all…

Supporting herself with her remaining left hand, she crawled rapidly toward Feng Shen.

Feng Shen was filled with lethal regret… He should have stayed closer to Su Lifeng.

He was dead for sure…

Thump!

Feng Shen’s legs shook violently as he stared blankly at the chair leg protruding from the back of the woman’s head. Then, he stiffly looked up at the person beside him.

Cheng Xiaomei stood there, her face a mask of horror. It took several seconds before she collapsed to her knees, whispering, “I… I killed her… Ah!”

By then, Su Lifeng had already rushed over. As soon as he arrived, Cheng Xiaomei threw herself into his arms. Su Lifeng glanced at the corpse and then yanked the chair leg out with a sharp tug.

This time, he saw it clearly. The moment he pulled the leg out, a Black Thread shot out and rapidly burrowed into Cheng Xiaomei’s body…