The Leech Queen

The human-shaped mass formed from countless leeches had actually opened its mouth to speak?!

It was hard to say whether it should even be called human. The leech conglomerate stood upright on the water with its hands behind its back, carrying itself with a gentlemanly air. Countless black leeches kept gathering beneath its feet to maintain its shape.

Strangely, the ferocious Zombie Piranhas in the pool didn't attack the leeches. Instead, they seemed afraid to go near them.

The Leech Man had no facial features, yet seemed able to sense everything around him. When he spoke, only the leeches around his mouth moved rhythmically, producing the sound.

The scene was extraordinarily horrifying. Even Xia Tianming couldn't help widening his eyes.

Could it be that, besides being a bioweapon world, this place was also experiencing a supernatural resurgence???

Neither the memories he'd consumed from Wesker nor those of the shareholders contained any mention of this monster.

But in his own memories, he seemed to recall a bizarre biological monster made up of a mass of creatures in the early Resident Evil games. What was it called again... the Leech Queen Virus?

The Leech Man stood steadily on the water and turned his featureless head as if surveying the area. The Biochemical Garden here had been nearly flattened. Could the man on the shore have done it all?

So it spoke again, in a very gentlemanly manner. "May I ask you..."

Whoosh!

Before it could finish, a fierce gust of wind struck, instantly shattering its head!

Xia Tianming had transformed his arm into [Whip-fist Form] and attacked from a distance!

Since he didn't know what this thing was made of, he might as well attack first. Only dead things were safe.

But after the Leech Man's head was destroyed, leeches from the rest of its body quickly crawled up and formed a new one, seemingly unaffected!

Even the leeches at the severed neck, which had come into contact with the Blacklight Virus, automatically detached from the mass, preventing the virus from spreading any further.

The Leech Man lowered its head to look at the leech corpses gradually liquefying into black sludge and said in a surprised tone, "What kind of virus is this? Has that old bastard Spencer developed another new one?"

"Spencer?"

When the strange Leech Man mentioned that name, Xia Tianming instinctively repeated the name of the final mastermind he was on his way to meet.

Seeing that the young man had calmed down, the Leech Man continued in a friendly tone, "Are you going upstairs to find him? You can't get up from here."

Xia Tianming paused. He couldn't get up?

But according to Wesker's memories, he usually went to see Spencer through the door behind this pool.

Could this neither-man-nor-beast be trying to fool him?

Then again, Xia Tianming himself was already neither man nor beast...

Seeing that he didn't seem convinced, the Leech Man parted his leech-covered lips in what looked like a smile. "Seeing how you've destroyed so much of his hard work, I assume you're going to cause him trouble too. That old bastard is cunning. He set up several different routes for this elevator. If you just take it up without thinking, you might end up at the planet's molten core. Only those he wants to see can reach his location by the normal route."

Hearing this, Xia Tianming hadn't expected Spencer to be so devious. He'd clearly underestimated him. He'd almost taken the elevator straight up.

The Leech Man kept calling Spencer an old bastard and an old geezer. Could it have some grudge against him too?

So Xia Tianming asked, "Who are you... or what are you?"

"Sorry, I've been talking so much that I forgot to introduce myself. My name is James Marcus. Like Spencer, I'm one of the three founders of the Umbrella Corporation. All those bio-monsters you saw here were creatures I made in my spare time to keep me company. Though it seems you've taken care of them all. By the way, why can't I see their corpses?" The Leech Man called Marcus asked in confusion.

Xia Tianming cleared his throat and changed the subject. "You're one of the company's founders? Then why are you here, and how did you end up like this?"

At his question, Marcus's body suddenly began to tremble violently. The leeches making up his body writhed even more fiercely, constantly peeling off and dropping into the water. Thinking about it seemed to infuriate him.

After a long while, he finally calmed down and answered Xia Tianming. "Decades ago, when we were first establishing the Umbrella Corporation, Spencer and I had disagreements over our ideals. On top of that, he wanted to claim the results of my personal virus research..."

"Enough, don't tell me the whole story. Just tell me whether you can get me upstairs to find him."

Xia Tianming cut off the Leech Man before he could go on and got straight to the point.

He was going to start from the founding of the Umbrella Corporation?

By the time he'd finished recounting decades of love and hate, Spencer would probably have died of old age up there...

Besides, the moment the Leech Man said his name was Marcus, Xia Tianming had remembered the game's plot.

In short, it was an internal power struggle among the company's higher-ups. Marcus lost and was purged, but just before he died, he happened to be infected by the Leech Queen Virus he'd developed. That was how he ended up like this.

And Marcus wasn't exactly a good person either. He was the one who caused the infamous Raccoon City Incident.

As for why he was here now, perhaps Spencer in this world had a sadistic streak and wanted to occasionally admire the sorry, inhuman state of his former rival, so he had confined the Leech Man to this Ecological Garden.

But Xia Tianming wasn't interested in any of that. He just wanted to complete his mission to cleanse the world as soon as possible.

Interrupted mid-sentence, Marcus was briefly at a loss. This kid has no manners at all. He'd thought that, after being alone for so long, someone had finally come along to talk to him. But the kid was so cold.

Is my story really that boring...

Marcus gave up and said directly, "I had a hand in designing this underground base. Spencer doesn't know that I know where his office is. I have other routes that lead to..."

Before he could finish, Xia Tianming suddenly tossed out the Virus Net, wrapping it around the Leech Man Marcus, who was exposed above the water. Then he twisted it, grinding up and devouring every leech caught inside!

He wanted to get the hidden route to Spencer's location directly from Marcus's memories instead of worrying about whether his words were true.

But after consuming those viral leeches, Xia Tianming gained only ordinary nutrients. He didn't receive any memories at all???

Did he have to consume every single leech without missing one to obtain Marcus's memories?

But the leeches were scattered all over the place. There were bound to be stragglers. How could he possibly eat every last one?

Forget it. He'd just let Marcus finish speaking.

After Xia Tianming destroyed part of him, the densely packed viral leeches beneath the water gathered together again and quickly formed a human shape.

Once he had re-formed, Marcus roared in irrepressible fury, "What were you trying to do just now?!"

Xia Tianming replied in his usual calm tone, "Sorry. Go on."

Marcus...