Dragon-Rank Crisis

Qilin headquarters. After Ether brought back the corpses of the giant ape and the brain-hugging neural worm, the entire research department immediately worked through the night to study both specimens. By morning, a wealth of data had been delivered into the hands of Qilin's senior executives, and every person who reviewed the files realized at once the gravity of the situation. A conference regarding the aberrant worm crisis was convened immediately. While that meeting was being held, over in Silver City at the East City Public Security Bureau, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou sat side by side with Tang Dali seated across from them. "Name?" "Tang Dali." "Gender?" "Male." "Age?" "Ninety-eight." "Rank?" "Lower Wolf-rank." "Where were you when the incident occurred at Silver General Arena?" Hearing that question, Tang Dali pulled an awkward, sheepish face and lowered his voice. "Could we skip that one?" "Please answer truthfully," Yu Xian said, looking at Tang Dali with a touch of helplessness as he maintained an official tone. If an ordinary combat police officer had been interrogating him, Tang Dali would have acted like a slippery old scoundrel and brushed them off. The trouble was that the credentials Yu Xian and Zhang Shou had placed on the table were Qilin badges. Even though Yu Xian and Zhang Shou were young enough to be his great-grandsons, he dared not act careless. Especially when it came to Yu Xian. When the big shots had made their surprise arrival en masse back then, ordinary people had no idea what was going on, but Tang Dali knew all too well: this young man had caught the eyes of the higher-ups. In ancient times, that would be called having the Emperor's ear—no matter how weak his personal cultivation, he could not be taken lightly. "At the time, I was at... Tingyu Pavilion, getting a foot massage," Tang Dali rubbed the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly. Yu Xian nudged Zhang Shou, whose eyes were gleaming with mischief, and noted down Tang Dali's answer. He then asked a few more basic questions, and once he got the answers, he stood up. "All right. If there are follow-up questions, we'll reach out to you again. Thank you for your cooperation." In truth, Tang Dali wasn't the only one summoned for questioning; all the arena's shareholders, staff, and security guards had been brought in. Down the road, there would likely be accountability reviews, fines, compensation, and many other issues to address. When Yu Xian and Zhang Shou stepped out of the room, Zhang Kaichao, the team leader of the tactical police unit, immediately came forward to thank them. The main reason was that ordinary combat police couldn't hold any authority over experts like Tang Dali, and routine questioning would likely be brushed off. With Yu Xian and Zhang Shou stepping in, resolving things became vastly easier. Under normal circumstances, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou would never overstep their bounds, but since it concerned aberrant worms, the two of them had considered it and decided to get involved, hoping to gather the latest intelligence at the same time. Half an hour later, Yu Xian and Zhang Shou received the hunting team's report. "Doghead Gold Mountain... That seems to be a mountain quite far outside Silver City. Do they have to travel that far to capture transcendent creatures nowadays?" Zhang Shou asked curiously, looking at the report. Beside them, Zhang Kaichao explained, "Because one of the tasks of the military barracks outside Silver City is to purge significant transcendent threats in the surrounding area, there aren't really any major threats left on the nearby peaks—just small fry of Insect and Ant ranks. The arena wants to capture creatures that offer a real challenge, so they have to venture much further out to have a chance of encountering any." Yu Xian analyzed, "The aberrant worms were still lingering near Doghead Gold Mountain yesterday. Even if they can move fast, they couldn't have gotten too far in a single day. Wait, let me ask the captain if we can conduct a long-range strike covering the entire area around Doghead Gold Mountain." He pulled out his phone and immediately contacted Jin Sheng, sharing the latest intelligence. "Salty Fish, the situation might be a bit more complicated than that. I'll send you a file—take a look at it first," Jin Sheng replied. A moment later, Yu Xian received the file from Jin Sheng. Opening it, he found it was a medical record. Nowadays, the vast majority of hospital archives were stored in the cloud. Even though Cangshan Psychiatric Hospital's physical archive room had been destroyed, authorities had still managed to retrieve all medical records through the cloud. The file Jin Sheng sent over was none other than Zhou Tai's medical history. Zhou Tai suffered from multiple personality disorder. His primary persona was actually relatively normal and could even be considered a good person, but his other personas were deeply problematic. According to Chen Qingsong's repeated diagnoses, eight distinct personas had been identified. These personas were mutually aware of one another's existence and addressed each other by their order of emergence: Number One, Number Two, Number Three, Number Four, Number Five, Number Six, Number Seven, and Number Eight. Number One was the primary persona. According to the audio recordings left by Chen Qingsong, this persona had already been supplanted by an aberrant worm; its current state remained unknown. Number Two liked to collect fingers. During his stay at the hospital, he had nearly bitten off Chen Qingsong's finger. He was taciturn and inscrutable, likely introverted by nature. Number Three had a playful demeanor and mercurial moods, shifting from wild joy to deep despair in a heartbeat. He was also the chattiest; much of the information Chen Qingsong had gathered was volunteered by Number Three. Number Four had a gloomy disposition and called himself a 'skin-peeling artist.' Whenever he saw beautiful skin, he would display an obsessed look, sometimes appearing lecherous and at other times utterly grotesque. Number Five was manic and an outright homicidal maniac. Whenever Number Five took control of Zhou Tai's body, his eyes brimmed with frenzied murderous intent, coupled with severe tendencies toward self-harm. This persona was virtually impossible to communicate with, though he seemed to obey orders from the other personas. As for Number Six, Number Seven, and Number Eight, because they had developed relatively late, Chen Qingsong had collected little data on them, leaving their personalities and habits unclear for now. After reading through the file, Yu Xian furrowed his brows. Dealing with just one Zhou Tai was trouble enough, yet there were eight such personas—which one had he encountered last night? Furthermore, Zhou Tai's personas could shuttle through the bodies of aberrant worms and swap vessels at any time. In other words, unless every single aberrant worm was wiped out, killing Zhou Tai was virtually impossible. According to the information provided by Jin Sheng, Zhou Tai's threat rating had originally been evaluated as Snake-rank. But thanks to the fresh intel Yu Xian had supplied the previous night, Zhou Tai's threat level had now been escalated directly to Dragon-rank, surpassing even the danger posed by the entire aberrant worm colony. If Zhou Tai could unlock the potential of every transcendent creature he possessed, humanity might soon face an army composed of high-ranking monsters. "Take a look at this," Yu Xian handed the phone to Zhang Shou. After reading through the file, Zhang Shou said somberly, "Under these circumstances, completely exterminating them is impossible, isn't it?" Aberrant worms could parasitize any living creature. If they infested cockroaches and spread through creatures with astounding reproductive capabilities like cockroaches or rats, humanity would never be able to hunt down every single worm. "Don't panic. The higher-ups are definitely paying attention to the situation now," Yu Xian said seriously. "I'm sure top-tier experts will soon be assigned specifically to deal with Zhou Tai. Let's wait and see." A Dragon-rank crisis—Qilin headquarters would undoubtedly treat it with the utmost gravity. Yu Xian was curious to see how many experts headquarters would deploy to eliminate Zhou Tai. Moreover, this time, they would likely strive to exterminate all the aberrant worms once and for all. After all, as long as the aberrant worms were not entirely wiped out, Zhou Tai could never truly be killed.