Chapter 40
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It was easy to say “go to the church,” but doing it was entirely different. Dong Du and Chu Xuhuan moved at an extremely fast pace. They hardly engaged in combat, just continuously launching detectors.
They took two different paths, both leading to the church.
Because of the small number of people and their dispersion, the insects didn’t know which side to block for a moment. They all became flustered, and some even accidentally harmed other insects.
The situation in the wandering city was transmitted in real-time to the main ship through the detectors. Zhu Di slightly frowned as he looked at the screen. Several people in white coats behind him were closely following to analyze. Unlike Xu Yiling, they mainly judged the behavior and habits of the insect race.
Zhu Di let out a light breath, turning to Hanchester beside him. His words showed no emotion, “You’re in charge of commanding the main ship.”
“General,” Hanchester stopped him, “I’m also very worried about the Little Highness, but the main ship can’t be without your command. Let me go.”
“I’ll go.” Zhu Di put a silver object into Hanchester’s hand, the key to the main ship’s authority.
Hanchester pursed his lips. He was usually smiling, but now he couldn’t force a smile. He silently stared at the screen, occasionally catching a glimpse of Dong Du running.
Dong Du suddenly gasped for breath. Using the wall for leverage with the tips of his toes, he avoided the scythe-like legs of the insects. He gasped for breath as he hid behind the wall, glancing at Chu Xuhuan, who was also hiding in a corner.
Although breathing was difficult, he inexplicably wanted to laugh. He asked Chu Xuhuan, “Regret it? Isn’t it more comfortable to stay in prison?”
Chu Xuhuan glanced back at him indifferently. “Indeed.”
After they finished speaking, they both rushed out, weaving through the forest of scythes.
They were still in the middle layer of the insect encirclement. The insects here were not massive, but if they charged further inside, they would encounter larger and more agile insects.
Dong Du fired two detectors with a bang, and before he could catch his breath, a insect charged towards him. Due to a corner, Dong Du had not seen it before. At this moment, he could only barely dodge, and a large piece of flesh was scraped off his waist.
Compared to vision, the insects seemed more sensitive to smell. Dong Du, injured, emitted the scent of blood, attracting more insects. On the other hand, Chu Xuhuan found things considerably easier.
Dong Du’s heartbeat accelerated instantly. With the loss of blood, his mind became somewhat muddled. Unconsciously, he emitted his pheromones. The scent of a peach, originally sweet and fresh, was different now. Dong Du’s pheromones were thick, like a substance. The insects charging towards him seemed to be enveloped in mud, their movements slowed down a hundredfold.
Dong Du pulled out a hemostatic patch from his bag, gently applying it to the wound. The patch instantly formed a film, sealing the entire wound.
Dong Du endured the initial dizziness and somewhat realized how to use pheromones. He continued to emit pheromones continuously, quickly breaking into the inner layer of the insect encirclement. Chu Xuhuan was left behind by quite a bit.
In fact, it was not only the insects influenced by the pheromones but also Chu Xuhuan. Dong Du wasn’t proficient in manipulating pheromones. The pheromone attack didn’t distinguish between friend and foe. He tried to use his own pheromones to resist, but even as an S-rank alpha, he couldn’t keep out Dong Du’s pheromones.
As they rushed to the inner layer, the effect of the pheromones was not as significant as before. Moreover, the reactions of the giant armored beetles were more sensitive than the outer layer’s arthropods, even if Dong Du had enough escape experience from the apocalypse, now it was somewhat difficult to move.
He retracted his pheromones, gasping for breath violently. There was no one around, only the heavy footsteps of the armored beetles and the metallic friction of their forefeet.
These armored beetles were sensitive enough to detect their landing, the reason for their indifference is that they needed humans to arrive.
Dong Du stopped for just a few seconds, and a giant insect leg swung towards him. The beetle’s front leg was much larger than Dong Du, and a hit could have split him in half.
Fortunately, size also meant clumsiness. The approaching leg was not fast, and Dong Du easily dodged it.
Passing through the feet of these giants was almost impossible. Dong Du took a deep breath, gathered his strength, and ran quickly towards the wall. He then used the momentum to run up the wall, kicking off the wall and jumping onto the beetle’s back.
When he landed on the insect, Dong Du suddenly felt a chill.
These insect bodies were exceptionally cold, like stepping on solid ice, slippery and cold. But Dong Du didn’t let go; he tightly grabbed the base of the beetle’s wings.
The grabbed beetle went berserk, making harsh screeching sounds. Dong Du’s ears buzzed, and he breathed heavily, pulling the beetle’s wings like controlling a horse’s reins.
Despite their enormous size, Dong Du guessed that these wings were probably just for show. However, to his surprise, when the beetle opened its wings, it actually took flight.
The spread wings became more efficient, but because the beetle was flying vertically upward, Dong Du found himself dropping in mid-air.
In the wind blowing on his face, sand mixed in. Dong Du squinted and looked down. The beetle was flying at a height of about 4 meters, and from this angle, he was not far from the church.
Swallowing saliva that tasted of blood, his head felt like someone was sharpening a knife. Dong Du was momentarily losing control and wanted to vent his anger.
He was angry that the beetle was flying too high and that it wasn’t flying towards the church.
He gritted his teeth; his lips almost devoid of color. Then, with both legs kicking the beetle’s back, he exerted force and let go of his hands.
“Dong Du!”
He heard someone calling his name heart-wrenchingly, but he couldn’t tell who it was.
The top of the church was made of colored glass. Dong Du hugged his head and curled up his legs like a shell, falling inside like a shell.
Before landing, he didn’t care about anything and shot several detectors out. The priority was to launch detectors, and he didn’t have time to adjust his posture for a soft landing. The whole person spat out a large mouthful of blood.
The blood on his head stuck to his eyelids, and Dong Du’s vision was all red. Blurry, he saw a human standing there—or rather, something humanoid.
He supported himself with one hand and rolled to avoid a tentacle aimed at him. At the same time, he shot several detectors out.
“Wait a moment.” The humanoid thing spoke and surprisingly uttered human words. He pulled a detector off the wall, squeezed it in his hand for a while, found it had no killing power, and casually threw it away.
Thanks to the words “wait a moment,” Dong Du had a moment to catch his breath. He blinked forcefully and finally saw his surroundings.
A circle of deformed insectoids surrounded him. Their bodies were like humans, but extremely awkward, with short bodies and long legs. Their arms were two long tentacles, and they had no facial features, resembling a mosaic.
“My children are evolving.” The humanoid thing spoke. He was more normal-looking than the other humanoid insects, with normal proportions and stable walking. However, he still didn’t have facial features.
He squatted beside Dong Du, pinching Dong Du’s jaw with two fingers. “I never figured out what I wanted to look like.”
He sounded somewhat distressed. As he spoke, his face gradually became clearer, taking on Dong Du’s appearance.
Dong Du flipped over and climbed up. He rushed to the corner of the wall and couldn’t help but vomit.
Nothing is more disgusting than seeing an insect with your own face.
“You, change your appearance.” Dong Du, spitting out blood, shifted his position and sat slumped against the wall. “Seriously, you look too terrifying like this.”
“Huh?” The creature looked puzzled. “Is the human sense of aesthetics different from ours? I think it looks good.”
“Can’t you be more original?” Dong Du said weakly. “Honestly, plagiarism is not good.”
As if influenced by this creature, the surrounding insectoids all twitched, collectively shortening a segment, making their body proportions look more normal.
Dong Du felt a numbness all over; these insectoids were imitating him, developing based on how he looked.
“It doesn’t matter.” The creature shrugged, sounding casual and indifferent. “When you die, decay, and only the white bones remain, won’t this face be mine alone?”
As soon as he said this, the insectoids around started to move. Dong Du spat harshly; his hand gripped the long package behind him, but before he could draw it out, a flying ship suddenly crashed from above, like a cleaver, directly hacking into the church.
The church collapsed completely from the impact. Dong Du was timely shielded beneath someone. He could only hear the pounding impact sounds around, but nothing fell on him. After the collapse, the surroundings were quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
The person shielding Dong Du moved away, and only then did Dong Du realize that the place they were in was quite spacious. The ground felt a bit elastic, like an airbag.
“Zhu Di?” Dong Du called out.
In the darkness, there came a plain “Hmm” from the opposite side.
“I knew it was you. I could smell you.” Dong Du finally relaxed, his nerves no longer tense. The neglected pain gradually spread. He felt sore and hot all over, and his mind became increasingly muddled.
He had jumped from a three-story height before but had never fallen so miserably. Everything felt off; there was a strange sensation gripping his nerves.
He felt like he was being roasted over a fire. His throat was dry, and he couldn’t produce a bit of saliva to moisten his lips. He groped in the darkness until he grabbed Zhu Di’s clothes corner. He pulled it with a hoarse voice, asking, “I want water. Do you have water? Why are you so cool? I’m hot. Is there something wrong from the fall?”
“At such a height, of course, you would have something wrong.” Zhu Di’s voice, rarely with some fluctuations, forcefully opened Dong Du’s hand, lifted him and pressed him onto the airbag. “Your heat has arrived.”
Heat? Dong Du’s arm was numb from Zhu Di’s twisting. He thought angrily, I just wanted to cool off on you; did you have to give my fever a new term?
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