Dragon-Level Crisis

Qilin Headquarters.

Ether brought back the corpses of the giant ape and the Brain-Hugging Neural Worm, and the entire research department immediately worked through the night studying them.

By morning, a large amount of information had been delivered to Qilin's senior leadership. The moment each of them finished reading it, they realized the gravity of the situation.

A meeting regarding the Aberrant Insect crisis was immediately convened.

While the meeting was underway, over in Silver City, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou sat across from Tang Dali at the East City Public Security Bureau.

"Name?"

"Tang Dali."

"Gender?"

"Male."

"Age?"

"Ninety-eight."

"Rank?"

"Lower Wolf Rank."

"Where were you when the incident occurred at Silver General Arena?"

At that question, Tang Dali's expression turned awkward. He said quietly, "Can we skip that question?"

"Please answer truthfully." Yu Xian looked at Tang Dali helplessly and spoke in an official tone.

If ordinary battle police had been questioning him, Tang Dali would have brushed them off like an old hand. The problem was that the IDs Yu Xian and Zhang Shou had placed on the table belonged to Qilin.

Though Yu Xian and Zhang Shou were young enough to be his great-grandsons, he did not dare take them lightly.

Especially Yu Xian. Back when those big shots had descended en masse, ordinary people had no idea what was going on, but Tang Dali knew all too well. This young man had already caught the eye of the higher-ups. In ancient terms, he was favored by the emperor himself. No matter how weak he was, he could not be underestimated.

"I was... getting a foot massage at Tingyuxuan," Tang Dali said, scratching the back of his head with an embarrassed smile.

Yu Xian elbowed Zhang Shou, whose eyes had lit up, then recorded Tang Dali's answer and asked several more basic questions. Once he had the answers, he rose and said, "All right. If we have further questions, we'll come to you for more information. Thank you for your cooperation."

In fact, Tang Dali was not the only one being summoned for questioning. All of the arena's shareholders, attendants, and security guards had been called in. There would probably be matters of accountability, fines, compensation, and more to settle afterward.

When Yu Xian and Zhang Shou left the room, Zhang Kaichao, the leader of the battle police unit, immediately stepped forward to thank them. The battle police could not keep powerful people like Tang Dali in check, and routine questioning would likely be met with evasive answers. With Yu Xian and Zhang Shou handling it, things became much easier.

Under normal circumstances, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou would never overstep their duties, but since Aberrant Insects were involved, they decided after some consideration to intervene. They also wanted to learn the latest intelligence.

Half an hour later, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou received the hunting team's report.

"Gold Nugget Mountain... that seems to be a mountain quite far outside Silver City. Do they have to go so far to capture supernatural creatures now?" Zhang Shou asked curiously as he read the report.

Zhang Kaichao explained, "One of the military camps outside Silver City is tasked with clearing out nearby supernatural creatures that pose significant threats. The surrounding mountains no longer have anything particularly dangerous, just minor Insect Rank and Ant Rank creatures. The arena wanted supernatural creatures that offered a certain level of challenge, so they had to travel farther away to have any chance of encountering them."

Yu Xian analyzed, "The Aberrant Insects were still near Gold Nugget Mountain yesterday. No matter how fast they can move, they couldn't have gone far in a single day. Wait, I'll ask the captain whether we can launch long-range strikes on every area near Gold Nugget Mountain."

He took out his phone and immediately contacted Jin Sheng, sharing the latest intelligence.

"Salty Fish, the situation is probably even more complicated than that. I'll send you some files. Take a look first," Jin Sheng replied.

A moment later, Yu Xian received the files Jin Sheng had sent. When he opened them, he found that they were medical records.

Nowadays, most hospitals stored their medical records in the cloud. Therefore, even after the archive room at Cangshan Psychiatric Hospital had been destroyed, the authorities were still able to recover all the records through the cloud.

The file Jin Sheng sent was, in fact, Zhou Tai's medical record.

Zhou Tai had multiple personalities. His primary personality did not have any major issues and could even be considered a good person, but his other personalities had serious problems.

According to Chen Qingsong's repeated diagnoses, there were eight confirmed personalities. They all knew of one another's existence and referred to themselves as First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth according to the order in which they were born.

First was the primary personality. According to a recording Chen Qingsong had left behind, this personality had already been replaced by an Aberrant Insect. What exactly was happening now remained unclear.

Second enjoyed collecting fingers. During his stay at the hospital, he had nearly bitten off Chen Qingsong's finger. He was also taciturn and gave people an unfathomable impression. He might have been rather introverted.

Third was playful and emotionally unpredictable. One moment he might be overjoyed, and the next, plunged into despair. He was also the most talkative of them all. Much of the intelligence Chen Qingsong knew had actually been voluntarily provided by Third.

Fourth had a rather gloomy personality and called himself a skinning artist. Whenever he saw beautiful skin, he would reveal an infatuated expression. Sometimes he seemed lecherous, while at other times he gave off a creepy, sleazy feeling.

Fifth was insane, a complete homicidal maniac. Whenever Zhou Tai's body was controlled by Fifth, his eyes were filled with crazed killing intent, and he even showed strong self-harming tendencies. This personality was almost impossible to communicate with, but he seemed to obey the orders of the other personalities.

As for Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth, they had emerged relatively late, and Chen Qingsong had obtained little information about them. Their personalities and preferences were still unclear.

After reading the file, Yu Xian frowned deeply. One Zhou Tai was already troublesome enough, yet he had eight personalities. Which one had Yu Xian encountered last night?

Moreover, Zhou Tai's personalities could travel between the bodies of Aberrant Insects and switch bodies at any time. In other words, unless every Aberrant Insect was killed, it would be impossible to kill Zhou Tai.

According to the information Jin Sheng had provided, Zhou Tai's danger rating had originally been assessed as Snake Rank. But because of the latest intelligence Yu Xian had provided last night, Zhou Tai's danger rating had been raised directly to Dragon Level, even higher than the danger posed by the entire Aberrant Insect swarm.

If Zhou Tai could develop the potential of every supernatural creature, humanity would likely soon have to face an army composed of all kinds of high-level monsters.

"Take a look." Yu Xian handed his phone to Zhang Shou.

After reading the file, Zhang Shou said gravely, "In a situation like this, it's simply impossible to wipe them out completely, isn't it?"

Aberrant Insects could parasitize the bodies of any living creature. If they parasitized cockroaches and spread through creatures with astonishing reproductive abilities, such as cockroaches and rats, humanity would have no way to kill every Aberrant Insect.

With a Dragon-Level crisis at hand, Qilin Headquarters would certainly attach great importance to it.

Yu Xian was very curious how many experts headquarters would send to deal with Zhou Tai. This time, they would likely exterminate every Aberrant Insect completely.

After all, as long as the Aberrant Insects were not wiped out, Zhou Tai could never truly be killed.