Chapter 22 – The Split Mountain

Su Lifeng felt a headache coming on, but he was powerless to argue. After all, he really had been sneaking out of that place.

“But you were hiding there just now too,” Su Lifeng countered, frowning.

Qiu Yuming stuck out her tongue and whispered, “I slipped out while Senior Shen wasn’t looking. I was afraid the security guards would catch me-how embarrassing would that be?”

Seeing her expression, which looked as if she had committed some great crime, Su Lifeng couldn’t help but find it a bit amusing.

Almost instinctively, he reached out and plucked a blade of grass caught in Qiu Yuming’s hair. “You have something here…”

Qiu Yuming shrank her head back slightly, then looked at the leaf and gave a sweet smile, rubbing her head sheepishly. “Hehe, thank you, Senior Su.”

“Don’t wander around here next time. I have things to do, so I’ll be going now.” Su Lifeng quickly snapped back to his senses; he was still worried about the white mouse in his backpack.

“But Senior Su…”

“Unless you want to be caught by Shen Fei again,” Su Lifeng teased. Sure enough, as soon as Shen Fei was mentioned, Qiu Yuming’s expression changed instantly.

After waving goodbye to Qiu Yuming, Su Lifeng glanced left and right before hurrying away.

Qiu Yuming watched his retreating back, suddenly remembering that she hadn’t finished her sentence. “But I haven’t asked for your phone number yet…”

Unfortunately, Su Lifeng was practically jogging away, and she couldn’t catch up.

After receiving a negative answer from the security guard, Shen Fei returned to the laboratory building with a look of confusion.

The guard hadn’t seen the Junior Sister leave. Was she still in the building?

After checking several labs, Shen Fei returned to the door of the laboratory he had originally wanted to show Qiu Yuming. With a ‘might as well try’ attitude, he placed his hand on the doorknob again.

“Click.” The door actually opened smoothly.

Shen Fei looked inside with surprise and called out, “Junior Sister?”

After walking a few steps, he stopped by the trash can and picked up the charred remains of a clump of paper.

“Who’s burning things in here? So disrespectful.”

Just then, the phone in his pocket suddenly rang.

Shen Fei quickly answered. After listening for a moment, he nodded. “I understand, Auntie. In that case, send the father and daughter over. The pace of life here in Ningnan is a bit slower, which is suitable for recuperation. Besides, my mom really likes her; she says it might help her become more cheerful… What? A girlfriend? I don’t have a girlfriend. But I did meet a pretty cute girl today… Eh? You want me to talk to her? Sure, pass the phone to her.”

Shen Fei’s face still held the excitement of talking about Qiu Yuming. After waiting a couple of seconds, he heard a young girl’s voice from the other end: “Hello.”

Though he felt the girl’s tone was a bit cold, Shen Fei-having already learned about her situation from his aunt-didn’t find it strange. He immediately replied, “Hello there. You must be Nannan, right?”

It wasn’t until Su Lifeng returned home with the white mouse that he discovered the little creature was already dead. Realizing it had died without warning and without a sound, Su Lifeng felt his scalp go numb.

This was practically poisonous blood…

But at the same time, Su Lifeng breathed a sigh of relief. At least for now, it seemed he was different from those Xenospecies; he couldn’t simply absorb other living beings.

“Does that mean I can only absorb Xenospecies? If I want to increase my strength, do I have to keep absorbing them?” Su Lifeng pondered.

He didn’t actually believe those Xenospecies had just vanished, but entering human society from the vast ocean shouldn’t be an easy task. At least in the days since they were rescued, he hadn’t heard of any more missing ships, let alone any riots breaking out on shore.

After disposing of the white mouse’s carcass, Su Lifeng turned on the television.

As expected, aside from some mindless gossip, most of the broadcasts were follow-up reports on climate disasters around the world.

Right after a news segment about a country in Southeast Asia being flooded again, Su Lifeng suddenly heard this report:

“A large mountain in a certain region suddenly split open two days ago. The massive fissure looks as if it were torn apart, presenting a terrifying sight. Experts analyze that this is likely caused by crustal activity, but no major earthquakes have ever occurred in this region before. This is the first time such a situation has appeared…”

A sudden chill raced down Su Lifeng’s spine. He stopped what he was doing almost instantly and lunged toward the television.

On the screen, a blurry live aerial shot showed a massive fissure in the mountains. The crack was almost entirely obscured by thick Black Mist, making it impossible to see what was happening inside. Su Lifeng’s heart felt as if it had been struck by a heavy fist as he stared blankly at the rift. He had a powerful intuition that the fissure was identical to the Spatial Gate that had swallowed the Cruise Ship!

Inside that rift was the World of the Xenospecies…

“I didn’t think it would happen so soon…”

However, Su Lifeng hadn’t experienced a Precognitive Vision regarding this disaster yet. Perhaps people would be able to seal the gap in time?

“Experts say this natural phenomenon is nothing short of a miracle. It’s as if the mountain was torn in two by human hands. However, the mist is too thick for us to see clearly what lies within… Since this occurred during the day in a remote area with no residents, there have been no reports of casualties so far,” the Reporter in the footage said with a touch of awe.

Su Lifeng breathed a sigh of relief. No residents and a remote location-that was good news. Moreover, it didn’t seem like any experts were planning to go on a suicide mission inside.

But a moment later, Su Lifeng’s eyes widened again.

There were no people deep in the mountains, but what about the animals?!

The Xenospecies could absorb any living creature!

And this had happened two days ago… If his theory was correct, the first batch of animals to approach the rift had already been absorbed.

“If it’s just animals, maybe they won’t leave the mountains easily,” Su Lifeng muttered, knowing full well this was just self-consolation. As long as no humans were absorbed for now, it was fine…

“Back to you, Xinna,” the Reporter said to the camera. After finishing his sign-off, he turned toward the rift with a grin and leaned his head out. Without looking back, he said to the cameraman beside him, “Old Wang, this thing is actually pretty terrifying. Good thing it’s out here, far away from the city…”

Just then, a Shadowy Figure suddenly lunged upward, only to be instantly shredded into a mist of blood by the helicopter’s rotor blades.

The helicopter jolted, but since it was in a hover, it wasn’t severely affected.

The Reporter cried out, quickly grabbing the doorframe. He wiped a face full of gore and cursed, “Is that bird insane? That’s the first time I’ve seen one fly straight into its own death! Did you see that, Old Wang? That damn bird was looking for a suicide mission!”

Old Wang, the cameraman, was also splattered with blood. He glanced at the footage he had just recorded and said with some trepidation, “Why do I feel like it was coming for you?”

The Reporter didn’t hear him. He looked at the blood on his hand-it was viscous, with a Black Thread visible inside…

“Disgusting. Get me some water to wash this off.”

What the Reporter failed to notice, however, was a tiny Black Thread slowly slithering into his nostril. He simply rubbed his nose, completely unaware of what had happened.

At that moment, a young female reporter sitting in the cabin with a laptop, who had also been badly startled, suddenly snapped out of it. She clicked on a received email and shouted, “Wash it later, Brother Li! This is happening somewhere else too!”

Old Wang asked in bewilderment, “What?” It seemed he hadn’t yet recovered from the shock.

The female reporter hurriedly said, “This kind of natural disaster, of course! But it’s not in Huaxia, so… sigh, we can’t report on it. Li-Ge? Li-Ge?”

Li-Ge seemed to be dazed. When he finally turned his head, the female reporter was startled by the look in his eyes. “Li-Ge, are you okay? Are you still feeling nauseous?”

Reporter Li mimicked her expression, widening his eyes, and then scanned his surroundings. After a long pause, he squeezed out two words: “I’m… fine…”