Abyss Sequence-Chapter 432 - 7: Water Pollution

Many demons were shattered into pieces, but fortunately, Yan Luo didn’t need their complete corpses; as long as the spine was intact, it was enough.

Sasa had the automated armored vehicle turn back to Yan Luo’s side, then jumped out of the car, looking at the spines that Yan Luo had dismantled, and asked, "How’s the situation?"

Yan Luo didn’t speak, instead raising a dismantled spine for Sasa and Julia to see.

What appeared before their eyes was not the spinal cord but calcified parasites inside the spine.

The parasites filled the entire spine, replacing the function of the spinal cord and connecting with the demon’s nervous system.

Yan Luo used magnetic field force to stimulate the parasites, and corresponding neural reactions could still be seen.

Seeing this, Julia didn’t know whether to feel relieved or worried.

The facts proved that their guess was correct; the parasites were indeed the main cause of the demons’ abnormal behavior, but how did these parasites appear? Where is the otherworldly life form that created them hiding now?

The Gass Forest is so large, with many places to hide.

These parasites primarily rely on water bodies to spread. Since the parasites do not have the means to reproduce by themselves, the unknown mastermind must still be within the Gass Forest, but as it is often said, the Gass Forest is too vast.

They don’t know how many parasite eggs the mastermind casts into the water sources at one time, so they cannot approximate the mastermind’s location based on the parasites’ development.

Thinking of this, Julia could only feel a wave of annoyance.

On the other side, Sasa had already begun dissecting the calcified parasites.

These parasites possessed survival instincts; before they controlled the host, if they sensed the host might die, they would immediately escape from the spine. However, once they fully controlled the host, the parasites would quickly calcify, replacing the demon’s spinal cord to control its body.

During this process, the demon should still have self-awareness, but it would be unable to control its own body.

After calcification, the parasites also lose the ability to control their bodies, so when Sasa dissected them, they did not react, merely tugging at the nerves.

Unfortunately, Yan Luo had already killed all their hosts, so no matter how much they manipulated the nerves, they couldn’t harm Sasa.

Sasa’s dissection went very smoothly, and from this round of dissection, she further understood some characteristics of these parasites.

"The creator of these little things never intended for them to live long."

Cleaning her gloves’ exoskeleton with alcohol, Sasa explained her dissection results: "After calcification, the parasites lose the ability to absorb nutrients, meaning once they start controlling the demons, their countdown to death begins. Although this countdown might last ten days to half a month, they inevitably die automatically."

Hearing this, Julia questioned suspiciously: "So does this mean the mastermind didn’t intend for these demons to attack the city?"

From the current situation, the demons controlled by parasites did not make any special moves, not even intruding into the barrier; they just wandered in the forest, with no apparent objective.

If the parasites controlling the demons had a survival limit, does it suggest that the mastermind’s intentions might not be malicious, perhaps merely wanting to deal with the demons?

After all, with their spines hollowed by parasites, once the parasites died, the demons would be unable to control their bodies and would calmly wait for death, unable to do anything else.

"No, we can’t conclude that yet," Sasa shook her head, "We don’t know the mastermind’s intentions yet, but whether the elves drink the polluted water remains a concern."

When she heard this, Julia broke out in a cold sweat.

Right, not only demons could be controlled by parasites; if elves also drank polluted water and parasites appeared in their bodies, would they also be controlled?

Though city water would be purified before use, since you never know if demons might pollute the water source, who can say whether the parasite eggs can be purified?

At this point, Yan Luo offered his perspective: "Could it be that the mastermind spreads these eggs to determine which water source Gass City uses?"

The demons controlled by parasites do nothing but simply walk about in the wilderness.

If Yan Luo were the mastermind, he certainly wouldn’t allow these valuable demons to wander aimlessly.

Yan Luo believes the only reason the mastermind abandoned them is to avoid alerting others.

If those demons attacked Gass City, they certainly couldn’t destroy Gass City, since parasites couldn’t control Catastrophe-Level demons, and attacking a city with only City-Breaking Level demons is somewhat forcing it, given Gass City is protected by the Lingge Corps’ Deputy Corps Commander, a strong warrior of general rank. No lesser demon can handle that.

Low-level demons alone can’t overwhelm a powerful warrior; at least an equivalent force is needed for a challenge.

"But this is deep within the forest, a great distance from Gass City..."

As she spoke, Julia suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

She remembered that the underground waterways of the Gass Forest are interconnected, and Gass City primarily uses groundwater, not directly introducing river or stream water from the surface.

This could explain why the mastermind uses parasites to locate Gass City’s water source.

Although it is deep in the forest, if the mastermind were to release parasite eggs into the underground waterways, the eggs could indeed reach here.

From the beginning, their investigation direction was wrong; the issue did not originate deep in the forest.

Yet, who could predict it wasn’t a powerful demon leading the maddened demons, but rather a host of parasites?

It’s common sense that there shouldn’t be parasites in a demon’s body!

Thinking about this, Julia became very anxious, turning her gaze toward Yan Luo.

She herself was incapable of traversing the forest depths. If Yan Luo wasn’t planning to return, she would have to find a way to leave the forest and report this back to Gass City.

"Hunting is suspended."

This matter concerns the lives of an entire city’s elves; Yan Luo couldn’t continue hunting, he wasn’t that selfish.

Moreover, Gass City serves as a trade starting point between worlds, and not long ago, Gass City’s productivity had just been enhanced. Should Gass City fall, they would suffer significant losses.

Realizing the mastermind’s target might be Gass City, Yan Luo called Sasa and Julia to get in the car and immediately changed direction, heading towards Gass City.

Driving, Yan Luo suddenly had a bold guess and asked, "Julia, do you think the mastermind is just one person?"

Julia paused, her expression suddenly changing, and she exclaimed, "Other cities!"

If the mastermind came from another world with the purpose of killing the elves here, they certainly wouldn’t only target one city.

Julia only operates near Gass City, unaware of the situations in other cities.

Gass City uses groundwater for its water supply, so there’s just a ’possible’ risk of unexpected events, but Mayin City draws from those three major rivers.

If the mastermind intends to harm the city’s elves by introducing parasites into the water supply, Mayin City would be most vulnerable.

The more she thought, the more anxious Julia became.

But there was no choice; although Yan Luo could fly, he couldn’t carry an armored vehicle.

Thus, Yan Luo slammed the accelerator pedal to the floor, pushing the armored vehicle’s speed to its limit.

"Hold on tight."

Yan Luo’s warning was late; he hit the gas pedal before reminding them.

The intense backpressure surged, pinning Sasa and Julia to their seats, making them clench their jaws to stifle screams.

The armored vehicle operated at full speed, reaching 280 kilometers per hour; without mishaps on the way, Yan Luo estimated they’d return to Gass City in about two hours.

Even if slower, it would only take over three hours.

Time was still on their side.

In the complex forest environment, daring to drive at such high speeds was typical for Yan Luo.

His dynamic vision and nerve response allowed him to react before crashing into anything, alleviating worries about collisions.

So, after two hours, Yan Luo and his crew returned to Gass City.

The first thing Sasa and Julia did after getting off was to run to the bushes on the side and throw up.