Chapter 37 – Sneak Attack

The two or three pedestrians by the roadside, the two sanitation workers standing frozen in place with brooms in hand, and the handful of food carts clustered near the hospital entrance, long since cold and no longer steaming… As Su Lifeng drove past them, they all turned to look at him at once. Their smiles were so stiff they looked painted on, and Su Lifeng, who was watching them from inside the car, felt his scalp crawl.

From the moment he learned the Wisdom Species had been taken to the hospital, he had known it was already too late. But he had not expected the spread to be this fast. From the looks of it, it was not just the Third People’s Hospital-this entire street had already become a Nest for the Xenospecies. Every day, ordinary people with no idea what was happening came here, only to be absorbed by them and turned into new Xenospecies…

“Still, at least they don’t seem inclined to attack on their own. Are they trying to avoid causing a major disturbance for now?” Su Lifeng deliberately slowed the car, but the Xenospecies only watched him and did not approach. Even so, he could still sense an intense hunger in their gazes. If it were not broad daylight, they might already have swarmed him.

When the car passed the hospital gates, Su Lifeng glanced toward the outpatient building. Behind every glass window stood one or two figures staring at him. But unless someone was paying deliberate attention the way he was, most people passing by would probably never notice such an eerie sight.

“Patients, doctors, nurses… all of them have relatives. And then there are the family members who come to visit patients, people constantly coming and going. Looked at that way, even though the Nest is here, the Xenospecies have already used this place as a foothold to spread across all of Ningnan like a spiderweb. They’re developing way too quickly…”

Only after the gate had fallen behind him did Su Lifeng realize a layer of cold sweat had broken out across his back.

He turned a corner, parked the car on a street corner without surveillance cameras, and jumped out.

When he drove past just now, he had definitely caught the Wisdom Species’s attention. But among all the figures staring at him, Su Lifeng had not spotted the girl.

“Maybe she’s already changed skins. Either way, I’ll only know if I go in and take a look.” There were many Xenospecies here, but perhaps he still had a chance to kill her. Once he absorbed the Wisdom Species, his Exoskeleton would be able to evolve. With such an enormous reward tempting him, the risk was worth taking.

Thud!

Su Lifeng vaulted lightly over the wall and entered the hospital grounds.

This was the northwest corner of the hospital. Judging by the distance, it was closer to the rear gate, while the outpatient building stood several dozen meters ahead.

Aside from that, there was also a smaller building and a warehouse. All three buildings were unnaturally quiet, yet Xenospecies were moving around inside them. As for the Wisdom Species, it could be hiding anywhere.

Su Lifeng did not know exactly how the Xenospecies sensed his presence. However, at the very beginning, the one that had tracked him all the way from that cracked mountain had clearly been the Wisdom Species; that other Xenospecies did not possess the same ability. This was another reason Su Lifeng dared to sneak in. The Wisdom Species could sense that he was nearby, but it could not possibly sense his exact movements or situation. Once the Xenospecies it sent out failed to deal with him, perhaps it would show itself in person.

“It’s only a guess, but it’s still better than knowing nothing…” Su Lifeng did not linger. After a brief scan of his surroundings, he quickly ran toward the warehouse closest to him. From there, he could approach the two main buildings with more cover.

But after only a few steps, Su Lifeng felt his foot come down on something. He turned and saw that the grass beside him was full of black plastic bags. One of them had toppled over, which was how he had ended up stepping on it. Through the opening, which hadn’t been sealed all the way, a shriveled finger was clearly visible, with a wedding ring still on it.

Su Lifeng opened the bag and took a look, then immediately frowned. Inside was the corpse of a woman. Everything below her neck had been sucked dry, and judging from her clothes, she was not very old.

A textbook case of what remained after a Xenospecies had absorbed someone.

But the young woman’s head looked as if it had been melted. Her features were blurred beyond recognition, and a layer of mucus coated the surface.

“A snake…” The mucus gave off a foul, serpentine stench. Su Lifeng had handled plenty of snakes during his experiments, and he knew perfectly well that there was absolutely no snake in the Ningnan area capable of swallowing an entire human head-let alone digesting only the corpse’s head and nothing else.

“Maybe it has nothing to do with the species itself. Maybe the Xenospecies absorbed snake genes from the mountains.” Su Lifeng thought in silence, then tied the bag shut again.

Perhaps even in the moment of her death, this young woman had never known what had really happened to her.

After parting the grass, Su Lifeng saw even more plastic bags. There was no need to guess; they were all filled with people who had been absorbed. Perhaps some of them were old husks discarded after the Xenospecies had updated their skins. He also noticed flattened patches in the grass not far away, but the plastic bags there were already gone. Clearly, these Xenospecies knew how to dispose of bodies.

“At this rate, dozens of people across the city could be dying to the Xenospecies every day, and even more are probably being turned into husks… Even if the death toll still hasn’t reached the point where it would cause mass panic, it should be raising some questions by now, shouldn’t it?”

The more Su Lifeng looked, the more alarmed he became. By then, however, he had already circled around the grass and was approaching the small building while keeping close to the warehouse.

A security guard was walking out of the building. His cold eyes swept left and right, but the instant he drew near the warehouse, a blood-red blur suddenly shot out from his side and stabbed straight into his temple.

The security guard’s steps halted at once. There was no terror in his eyes, but they still flew wide open.

The Bone Wings’ ambush had succeeded. Su Lifeng darted out right after it and, before the guard could make a sound, precisely sliced through his windpipe and vocal cords from behind.

“Ghk, ghk…” Su Lifeng caught the guard’s body and dragged him into the grass beside the warehouse. His Bone Wings withdrew with a sharp swish, a drop of blood still clinging to the pointed tip. Its form, already covered in blood-red veins, now looked even more savage and gory. If anyone saw him like this, they would never believe he was still human.

A Black Thread emerged from the guard’s temple, then slipped into Su Lifeng’s body with a whoosh. He immediately felt warmth spread from the point of entry through his entire body, but to his slight disappointment, this had only been an ordinary Xenospecies.

“Still, it let the Bone Wings ‘feed’ on a little something. At this rate, absorbing around ten of them should be enough to fill it up.” Su Lifeng flexed his Bone Wings, listening to the sudden whoosh they made as he calculated silently.

And at that moment, it seemed more Xenospecies inside the building had begun to move.