Potential Killing Intent

The bloodstains were surrounded by very few signs of a struggle. That meant there hadn't been a fierce fight, but it also showed that the people caught in the attack had been unable to put up much resistance.

Shute made a hand signal: stay alert, cover him, and move in to rescue them.

Xilin crouched beside the wall and took out a small box, scraping a layer of dirt from the cave wall. The team members saw what Xilin was doing but didn't interfere; they simply kept watch. Xilin had done this before, after all, and they assumed he was taking samples.

What they didn't know was that Xilin wasn't really taking samples. He was using the task as cover, slipping a finger out of his glove where no one could see and touching the cave wall and floor to analyze the faint traces there. Even the most advanced equipment wasn't as convenient as the chip inside him. The instant his finger made contact, the information it received told Xilin what kind of black rat had attacked the personnel here.

It was different! It wasn't like the Big Black Rats that had dug tunnels before! This one was even stronger!

Xilin couldn't say just how strong, but he had a feeling that the people who had come through earlier had encountered the leader of this group of black rats—the Mutated Black Rat that had first escaped from the base.

When Shute found the team member who had called for help, the man was barely breathing and in a deep coma. Under the Light Projector's beam, everyone could clearly see that one of his legs had been bitten off and that blood covered his body. The team's medic came over to stop the bleeding, but before he could finish bandaging the man, he died.

"I'm going to kill those beasts!" One team member's eyes reddened with grief and fury as he slammed his fist against the cave wall.

The others looked much the same.

Shute took a deep breath. "They're sending us a warning. They could've killed everyone without making a sound, but they deliberately left one person gravely wounded."

"He lost too much blood, and the Rat Poison has already spread to his internal organs." The medic picked up two empty vials. "We injected both doses of Serum Antibody, but they had no effect at all. This Rat Poison is vicious."

"Captain, there's no signal on the communicator!" one of the team members suddenly shouted. He'd been trying to contact the reserve team and report their situation, but there wasn't even a hint of a signal.

Every team had brought a signal receiver with them. At set intervals along their route, they installed one on the cave wall or ceiling and disguised it. The signal had been strong just moments ago, but now there was nothing. What had happened?!

Xilin wondered about it. Their intelligence—no, its intelligence—far surpassed everyone's expectations. If every team had done its job and installed and concealed its receivers properly, yet there was still no signal, then either the receivers had malfunctioned or the Black Rat Leader had taken them all apart. The former seemed unlikely; the latter was far more plausible.

It sounded unbelievable. If Xilin said it aloud, few people would believe him. The receivers had been concealed—could they really have been dismantled? All of them, and so thoroughly? Was this thing a rat or a person?

Xilin had never underestimated the Black Rat Leader. The more information he gathered, the more certain he became that this rat was formidable, both in intelligence and in combat ability. And gradually, he was finding the frequency of that sound.

Shute thought for a moment, then took out the sound-wave detector and pressed a button. The reason he hadn't used it earlier was that detecting sound waves might also reveal their location to the black rats. But now, he couldn't worry about that. Something felt wrong.

Shute's expression changed dramatically as he looked at the image on the detector. "Get out of here—now!"

They had barely gone a few steps when the cave walls and ceiling burst open. Black rats came charging through one after another. They appeared at just the right places, separating Xilin and another team member from the other eight. The rats kept multiplying, and even though Shute wanted to go to their aid, he couldn't. The black rats forced the two sides farther apart. Gunshots rang out nonstop, but these Big Black Rats were nothing like the smaller ones they'd faced before. They were oppressively strong.

Xilin and the other team member quickly retreated toward the far end of the tunnel, firing as they went. Fortunately, there weren't too many of these black rats. After the two of them had fought their way backward for more than ten minutes, none pursued them. They were alone in another tunnel, cut off from the other eight members of their team and without any sign of the other teams. In the quiet cave, all they could hear was each other's breathing...

"It looks like we're safe for now," the man said with a smile.

"Yeah..." Xilin smiled too.

A jet of blood burst from the side of the man's neck.

His eyes filled with disbelief. He hadn't expected Xilin to strike so quickly! How could anyone suspect a teammate in a situation like this?!

When the man said "safe for now," anyone would have relaxed for a moment and let go of their tension, especially with a teammate beside them. But the moment he drew his knife, Xilin slashed his carotid artery. They had just finished a fierce battle against the rats, so his blood was flowing fast. He died from blood loss soon after.

Xilin toyed with the Rat Claw in his hand and glanced at the man lying on the ground. He made a few nearly inaudible sounds. This was the first time he had used them since decoding the Black Rat Leader's sound frequency. Ever since entering this network of tunnels deep underground, he had been searching for that sound and working out its code.

Without lingering, Xilin left. Within a minute, a few black rats would come and devour the team member. Given the situation, Xilin could deal with the threats hidden among the action teams more effectively on his own.

Ever since entering Seven Luminaries, Xilin had never ignored the potential dangers around him. Whether they were students, researchers, or soldiers, he had never let down his guard. Aifulan's rivals had actually managed to infiltrate the military. How interesting. They certainly were worthy opponents for Aifulan.

When they had just climbed down from the armed aircraft and started shooting the black rats, Xilin had stood out. But no one would have guessed that even then, he'd been observing every team member for the slightest change in their behavior, using those tiny details to sniff out potential threats. The chain of events that followed had confirmed his suspicions. Before the black rats separated them from the other eight members of the team, Xilin had deliberately slowed his pace. The man had clearly been looking for an opportunity to kill him, too. They were at the back of the group, and Xilin had calculated where the black rats would appear. He had factored in both his own speed and the distance to the eight people ahead. The rats separating them from the others had seemed like a coincidence, but Xilin had predicted it.

Xilin didn't need a sound-wave detector to sense the vibrations coming through the cave wall. Ordinary people couldn't feel them at all. Xilin was like a sophisticated, multifunctional instrument, analyzing the information around him every moment. He knew the black rats hadn't appeared by chance; the Black Rat Leader had directed them.

Like a human detection device, Xilin was keenly aware of everything happening around him. He knew how many people from each team had just passed through which tunnel, and how many black rats were moving near each tunnel entrance. That awareness had helped him avoid plenty of trouble.

Xilin glanced at the buckle on his backpack strap and let the corners of his mouth lift slightly. The next one would show up soon, too.

There was a bend ahead in the tunnel. Xilin walked toward it slowly, and just before he reached the corner, he hurled the Rat Claw in his hand with lightning speed.

A jet of blood burst from the corner.

A man in a Combat Suit had been pinned to the cave wall, his throat pierced through. His eyes were wide with disbelief, and the gun in his hand fell to the ground. He had been about to shoot Xilin.

The Rat Claw's flight path had been curved! And in a tunnel like this, Xilin had still thrown it with such accuracy! The man had never imagined it.

Xilin pulled out the Rat Claw and, as before, made a sound too faint for human ears to distinguish.

Over the next while, Xilin dealt with three more people.

There was a miniature tracking device on the buckle of Xilin's backpack strap. It had been installed before the equipment was issued, and the backpack had been assigned to him specifically. Clearly, they had planned to find an opportunity to kill Xilin here long ago. What they didn't know was that he had detected the tampering as soon as he got the backpack.

That was how you turned their plan against them.

After walking through the tunnel network for so long, Xilin could clearly feel that there were fewer black rats. Since he had provided blood samples and relevant data in a timely manner, the action teams had been able to prepare thoroughly, reduce casualties, and improve their efficiency.

As Xilin walked, he suddenly stopped and turned around.

In the darkness, at the far end of the tunnel, stood a Big Black Rat nearly three meters long. Its red eyes glimmered like blood.