Chu Zhixiao was greatly alarmed.
There were too many ghouls.
Although the main-force warship Light Chaser was an outdated antique, it had just been modified more than thirty years ago to further improve its automation. Therefore, there were not many operators in the engine compartment.
Most of the operators had become food for the ghouls, and the Purgers and Cleaners were guarding and evacuating the outside. Therefore, there were only a few hundred ghouls active deep inside the engine compartment.
However, there were at least a thousand ghouls in her field of vision, and they were all bloody shadows.
Also, the ghouls were much faster and tougher than the common people of the Holy League and the bottom-level warriors. Some of the ghouls could even dodge her lightning-fast strikes.
Even her Crystal Suit had been ripped open by the bloody and strangely long fingers. The fingers crawled into her skin like maggots and leeches. They were slippery, greasy, and cold.
This was impossible.
Chu Zhixiao immediately realized that it was an illusion.
What a powerful mental illusion. Had the King of Puppets' strength improved again? He could invade her brain remotely without alarming anyone and create such a vivid illusion.
"Black Dream? Black Dream?"
Chu Zhixiao shouted twice, only to find that there was no response behind her. She believed that her or 'Black Dream' Yun Haixin's auditory system must've been invaded, too.
She stopped shouting and focused her soul to the maximum. Then, she sent a powerful brainwave to Red Pig, the spider tank next to her. Through the enhancement of the spider tank, the brainwave was sent out of the engine compartment.
"Seven Star, can you hear me? The King of Puppets has probably invaded Black Dream's and my Crystal Suit's systems, visual nerves, and auditory nerves at the same time. It will greatly interfere with our battle."
Chu Zhixiao was very calm. She sent out her telepathic thoughts unhurriedly. "Don't bother about me. Just pretend that you are in a hurry and let him continue invading. You can take the opportunity to find out where the source of the invasion is.
"Remember, do not alert the enemy. 'Xiao Ji' who has turned into a ghoul is not our target. Our target is the King of Puppets. Even if we cannot capture him, we must at least figure out his methods. So, don't go on a rampage and destroy everything, understand?"
"… Understood."
After a while, from the spider tank as a springboard, the voice of Seven Star, the expert of crystal processors and tracking in the team, came over. But his voice was somewhat hesitant. "However, the Titan has already entered. I don't know if his mental defense wall has been invaded by the King of Puppets. If he also has hallucinations, I don't think that he will have as much patience as you, Major. He will only solve the problem in one way."
"What, he —"
Chu Zhixiao's pupils suddenly shrank.
Then, she heard a deafening explosion. It was like a huge wave crashing against the shore, shattering the illusion and rushing towards her eardrums.
"Boom boom boom boom boom!"
Flames raged in the depths of the blood mist. All the ghouls, both real and illusory, were blown into pieces and burned to ashes amidst their twisted howls. Judging from the destructive momentum, even the entire engine compartment was about to be blown apart.
The mountain of corpses and sea of blood in front of Chu Zhixiao suddenly disappeared. She fell from the illusion and returned to the real world. In the lead-gray engine room.
However, there was not the slightest bit of joy from escaping the illusion on her face. Instead, it was filled with anger from her plan being disrupted.
With a cold face, Chu Zhixiao strode forward.
There was not a single intact ghoul in front of her anymore. There were not even many pieces of flesh that were more than the size of a fingernail.
The tubes were full of holes. Even the strengthened shell of the reactor that was half a meter thick had hundreds of shocking fist marks. With the fist marks as the center, the blood was spreading out in the shape of a ray, as if it had smashed a person into nothingness.
The fog in front of her dispersed, and her vision gradually became clear.
All the steam and the smell of blood seemed to have been sucked into the nostrils of the muscular man who was at least five meters tall and covered in scars and iron armor.
Sensing Chu Zhixiao's scorching eyes, the muscular man — "Titan" Yuan Kou — turned around and grinned innocently at his major.
Just like Chu Zhixiao, he had indeed been broken through by the King of Puppets, who had invaded his brain and hijacked his visual and auditory nerves to create a terrifying illusion.
The way for "Titan" Yuan Kou to break free from the illusion was very simple, too — blow up everything in front of him.
If the illusion created a thousand ghouls, he would blow up a thousand ghouls.
If the illusion created ten thousand ghouls, he would blow up ten thousand ghouls.
It did not matter even if there were a hundred thousand ghouls or a million ghouls. In Yuan Kou's eyes, they were all the same.
Chu Zhixiao glared at Yuan Kou.
Yun Haixin appeared from the side and looked at the scene that had almost been destroyed by Yuan Kou. She twitched her lips and did not say anything. She had an expression that said, "I knew it."
"Well …"
Seven Star tried to smooth things over awkwardly through the spider war chariot. "Even if the Titan didn't destroy everything, with the King of Puppets' rich anti-tracking experience, there's no way I could lock onto him so easily, right?"
Chu Zhixiao snorted softly and shifted her gaze to Yuan Kou's feet.
Under Yuan Kou's specially made steel boots, he was stepping on an old man in a gray robe with a halo of thorns on his chest.
The old man's face, which should have been kind and holy, was covered in blood. His sharp teeth were like two daggers, but they were already broken.
He was the priest who had turned into a ghoul.
Chu Zhixiao crouched down and stared at the ghoul that was different from the others.
"I'm hungry. I'm hungry!"
The priest's pupils were melted into the blood red eyeballs. He seemed to have lost his vision and could only identify the prey with his developed sense of smell. Smelling Chu Zhixiao's scent, thick saliva flowed out of his mouth again.
"Why are you eating people?"
Chu Zhiyun asked casually. She wanted to know how much intelligence the priest had left after he was infected with the Taotie Virus.
Although regular ghouls were animals without intelligence, they were like that before they were infected with the Taotie Virus. There was no telling whether or not the Ultimate Benevolence people still had the ability to think after they turned into ghouls.
"I'm hungry. I'm hungry!"
The priest licked his thorny tongue and still moaned monotonously.
"Why are you eating your boss, the only priest on the starship? Is there … a voice that asked you to do so?"
Chu Zhixiao continued to ask patiently.
"The higher your Cultivation is, the purer your mind is, and the firmer your faith is, the more delicious you are."
The priest's eyes suddenly became clear. He made a very logical response and even extended his nose toward Chu Zhixiao. "You smell so good. You must be very delicious. Let me eat you. Let me eat you …"
"Do you know that you've been infected with the Taotie Virus and are under someone's control?"
Chu Zhixiao was expressionless. He did not even have the interest to lean back slightly. He stared at the priest's eyes from a short distance away.
"I know."
Ripples spread out of the priest's blood red eyeballs and formed countless concentric circles, which looked like some kind of weird pupils. He was suddenly wide awake to a creepy extent. He stared at Chu Zhixiao and asked, "What about you, Major Chu? Do you know that you've been under someone's control?"
Chu Zhixiao blinked. Suddenly, he grabbed the priest's head with his lightning tentacles.
"Seven Star, track him now! The King of Puppets is right here!"
She shouted angrily.
However, the King of Puppets fled even faster than she extended her hand. Before her fingers deeply pierced into the priest's skull, the priest already put on a smile that was gradually dispersing. The crimson ripples inside his eyes were frozen, too, and he turned into a ghoul that had been completely controlled by his appetite.
Vague laughter seemed to have escaped from the priest's body and drifted to the depths of the darkness.
Chu Zhixiao stood up, deep in thought with an awful face.
"The King of Puppets seems to have improved again."
The casual mockery on 'Black Dream' Yun Haixin's face was gone, too. Narrowing her eyes, she sensed the brainwaves that remained in the darkness and mumbled, "Few people in the Imperium of True Human Beings are capable of invading the brain remotely. Only the Meditation Healers with the deepest Cultivation and the unparalleled experts above the Divinity Transformation Stage with the magical equipment passed on from the primeval era …
"Damn it. This' King of Puppets' can't be an expert in the Divinity Branching Stage, can he? Are you kidding me? Even the Imperium of True Human Beings doesn't have any experts in the Divinity Branching Stage. Did this guy fall from the sky?"
"It's really possible that he fell from the sky," Seven Star's voice echoed.
Seven Star's voice rang out again. "Otherwise, how could he have suddenly risen to power a year or two ago, yet we couldn't find any information on him earlier than that? Also, he is growing very fast. It's almost like he is using the innocent people of the Holy League for some sort of … training. He is absorbing the strength in their souls with drugs such as the 'Taotie Virus' to strengthen himself.
"I vaguely have a feeling that, if we cannot capture the King of Puppets soon and he trains himself for another year and a half, we will never be able to catch him. No, we will be invaded and swallowed by him instead!"
"I'll catch him," Yuan Kou said.
Yuan Kou said, "Crush him into a cloud of dust and blow him into the vacuum."
"What I'm more concerned about is, what's his motive for causing such a 'ghoul incident' again?"
Chu Zhixiao was still staring at Xiao Ji, who was struggling hard and drooling. "The ghoul incident this time is different from the previous infections and outbreaks. No. It's not about the number of ghouls, and it's not about the fact that the priests of the race of Ultimate Benevolence are all infected, but … I can sense that he is very close to us this time. He is even holding his breath and observing us in the darkness.
"Doing so is highly risky. He can invade our brains, which means that we may be able to trace back to his source and invade his brain.
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