After the flesh pellets in the cave absorbed the fresh blood, they twisted even more violently and, in the blink of an eye, carried the injured Little Lamb deep into the cave.
Mo Ling hurriedly flew forward to check, but the Little Lamb had gone too deep and vanished from his sight.
Seeing their companion harmed, several soldiers' eyes turned red. They charged straight to the cave entrance and followed it inside.
They too were carried deep into the cave by the flesh pellets.
Captain Su immediately barked, "What are you doing? Don't pursue a cornered enemy. Save the wounded first!"
Only then did the remaining soldiers, who had been eager to give chase, come to their senses and stop their reckless actions.
"Can he still be saved?"
"His injuries are too severe. There's nothing we can do."
The injured soldier lying on the ground now had dilated pupils and had stopped breathing.
Captain Su reached out and closed the soldier's eyes, then ordered that his body be carried back to the Outpost Station.
Afterward, he stood at the cave entrance with his fists clenched. The atmosphere around him was as cold as frost.
What had just happened left everyone unable to process it.
A weak Little Lamb had killed a soldier while surrounded by the Outpost Station's squad, then turned around and escaped?
"Captain, this was the weapon it used for long-range attacks." A soldier brought the liquid matter fired by the Little Lamb to Captain Su.
It was a broken Chainsaw Chain. The fractured end looked as though it had been melted by high heat, yet also like metal whose casting process had been halted halfway through.
"Did it come from inside its body?"
"Yes."
Captain Su carefully picked up the chain, turned it over in his hands a few times, then returned it to the soldier.
He called over the soldier who had discovered the cave entrance again and asked about the Tree-Cutting Sheep. "Had they used this kind of long-range attack before?"
The soldier hurriedly waved his hands, saying that he had also been part of the group that surrounded the Little Lamb. Something like this would definitely have been mentioned beforehand.
"I've never seen its healing ability either, let alone it directly producing Chainsaw Chains from its own body," the soldier explained.
Captain Su was about to ask more questions when Li Luo, who already knew there were Red String Worms inside the Little Lamb, walked over and explained the reason behind its healing ability.
"I see." Captain Su fell into thought.
At that moment, the investigators examining the massacre site also came to Captain Su and reported their findings:
"Based on the blood samples, surveillance from the nearby high walls, the traces of battle at the scene, and the remains left behind, that Little Lamb was indeed the culprit who massacred its own herd."
After learning this, Captain Su looked up information on Red String Worms and then asked Li Luo, "Would Red String Worms control their hosts into killing their own kind? And evolving special attack abilities?"
Li Luo thought for a moment before answering, "Possibly. If the herd obstructed it from seeking a host for the mother worm, or if it had to evolve special attack abilities in order to keep moving forward."
Only obstructive actions would trigger evolution.
Mo Ling also began pondering the Little Lamb's special abilities.
Having experienced the Shock Beast incident, Mo Ling knew that if others of the same species did not stop an individual infected with Red String Worms from moving forward, the infected individual would not even bother with its companions.
Much less massacre its entire herd as if it bore a blood feud against them.
Besides, what kind of obstacle could only be overcome by evolving long-range attack abilities?
"Shouldn't its greatest obstacle have been something like the high walls?"
Mo Ling was deeply puzzled.
"Could its herd have been desperately blocking it, refusing to let it enter the cave?"
Captain Su asked the soldiers the same question. "Would a Tree-Cutting Sheep herd prevent young individuals from leaving the herd?"
The soldier spread his hands. "I wouldn't know. Young ones all stay beside their mothers. Only descendants with something wrong in their heads would run off on their own."
Then the soldier added, "Even if the ewe tried to stop it, it should have been able to leave just by killing her. Tree-Cutting Sheep have a very weak sense of herd attachment. The others wouldn't interfere."
After hearing that, Captain Su stopped asking.
The situation reached a stalemate. No one could explain the Little Lamb's behavior.
At that moment, Mo Ling suddenly thought of a contradiction.
He quickly told Li Luo through the electronic screen.
"Red String Worm-infected individuals all have clear objectives. They would never leave and then turn back."
"Although Red String Worms were found in its brain, this Little Lamb is indeed very different from Red String Worm-infected individuals."
"Could there be some other Relic Phenomenon or creature that would cause this kind of massacre?" Mo Ling prompted.
Looking at the information on the electronic screen, Li Luo's eyes lit up. She replied, "When it comes to this kind of massacre, I can only think of one unclassified phenomenon—the Ugly Duckling Phenomenon."
"The Ugly Duckling Phenomenon?" Mo Ling was confused. What a strange name.
Li Luo took out her electronic screen and showed Mo Ling the records of this phenomenon.
During the Great Cataclysm, an egg on a farm in Denmark refused to hatch.
The Master found the egg strange. Its patterns were beautiful, so he left it alone, intending to collect it after some time.
But not long afterward, a strange duckling hatched from the egg.
This duckling was different from the moment it was born. Other ducklings slowly pecked open their shells and gradually crawled out.
But this duck directly blasted its eggshell apart as if bursting out of armor.
Its yellow down had already faded, and like a drake, it jumped straight into the fishpond after being born and began catching fish.
As though it did not need to go through a growth stage, this duckling knew everything from birth. By the time the farm Master noticed that all the fish in the pond had disappeared, he only discovered the strange duck after checking the surveillance footage.
The Strange Duck was locked up, and the Master directly called the relevant authorities, saying that an Abyss Creature had invaded his home.
The cage was still placed beside the pond. The other ducks attacked it in terror, even trying to push it into the water.
With the efforts of the flock, the cage fell into the water, and the ducks swarmed over it, trampling the cage down to drown it.
Although ducks could swim, they could still drown.
The Strange Duck was pressed into the water, but the wooden latch on the cage came loose because of buoyancy.
The Strange Duck crawled out and began attacking the flock around it. Its feathers became sharp, its body grew strong and powerful, fangs emerged from its beak, and claws grew from its feet.
How could the flock possibly be a match for such a monster? They were slaughtered madly by the Strange Duck. Even those that fled far away were pierced through and killed by feather bullets fired from its wings.
The Strange Duck could also fire high-pressure streams of water from its mouth. After massacring the entire flock, it severely injured the Master, who had come out carrying a hunting rifle.
By the time the hunters arrived at the farm, all they saw were duck corpses strewn across the ground and the farm Master lying there.
The other animals had not been harmed by the Strange Duck. Only a few had died after being caught in its attacks; most had hidden away, trembling in fear.
The farm Master was barely alive and unable to speak. Only after the arriving hunters checked the surveillance footage did they learn that this so-called Abyss Creature was merely a duck born on the farm!
This egg had been laid by a mother duck under surveillance. Its other siblings, hatched alongside it, were all normal ducks. Only it was different.
The Hunter Squad immediately reported the bizarre duck, then began tracking it.
Before you continue