The Fourth Stage of Heaven!

Beside the airstrip at Weifu Military Base. An Overlord transport plane slowly taxied to a halt, and two "human" silhouettes emerged through the open cargo bay door. Wearing an expression of complete exhaustion, Xiao Yu's fruiting body gave a feeble imitation of a sigh. "Ee-woo... (Tastes awful.)" Able to understand the message conveyed by the sound, Luo Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "They weren't food to begin with... Whatever you do, don't eat them." Three days ago, the Administrator had suddenly wholesaled a thousand biological prosthetics from Xiao Yu. Although that tiny bit of biomass amounted to little more than a speck of dandruff for Xiao Yu, who had inherited the Qingquan City broodmother, the little fellow harbored quite a few complaints about the users who had been inoculated with them. In its own words, those guys were dreadfully boring—so many individuals pooled together, yet sharing a single brain. What was more, they despised talking and communicated with one another entirely through "eye contact." It didn't quite know how to describe them, only feeling that they didn't seem like normal people. Xiao Yu: "Ee-woo, ee-woo! (Mhm! Xiao Yu won't eat things randomly! But it doesn't matter, that one will be delicious!)" Luo Yu: "That one?" Xiao Yu: "Ee-woo! (The broodmother under the mountain... It's so big! Mm, I'm not sure if I can eat the whole thing. I might need to use more fruiting bodies.)" Some broodmothers were not particularly formidable in their primary bodies, but their fruiting bodies were extraordinarily powerful, and the spores they produced could blanket an entire city. Others were the exact opposite, producing virtually no fruiting bodies or spore clouds, channeling their limited organic matter entirely into strengthening themselves. Listening to Xiao Yu's murmurs, Luo Yu reached out and dotingly rubbed its round head. "Just do your best." If worse came to worst, they could always haul carloads of fruiting bodies from Qingquan City to the front line by train. The communication cables here had already been laid, and the base stations had been erected; the total bandwidth wouldn't have any problem supporting one or two thousand "ee-woos." Savoring the warmth atop its head, Xiao Yu happily rubbed its head against his hand. Yet right at that moment, it abruptly froze in vigilance, its amber pupils turning toward the sky. Noticing the sudden change in Xiao Yu's posture, Luo Yu withdrew his hand and asked solemnly, "What is it?" "Ee-woo. (Something that reeks is approaching...)" Pausing as if in thought, its eyes lit up slightly. "Ee-woo! (... But it should taste savory!)" ... A grayish-green mist gradually rose, drifting across the boundless wasteland. At a construction crew along the Wei River, a middle-aged man wearing a hard hat and holding a shovel suddenly wore a look of terror, his lips trembling as he muttered, "... Fog is rising." His name was Wang Youtian, a survivor from the southern part of Jinchuan Province. Hearing that working here offered pay as well as land, he had joined the Southern Construction Corps and had been working for three months now. As a local, he naturally knew the situation here inside and out. Seeing how pale his face was, construction crew leader Hong Liming realized something was wrong and walked over to ask, "What's the matter? Do you know something?" Swallowing hard, Wang Youtian said in a quavering voice, "It happened once before..." "Happened?" Hong Liming frowned, pressing him. "What happened?" Recalling what had occurred back then, fear crept into Wang Youtian's eyes. "Last time was just like this. The fog suddenly rose, and when it cleared, all the people in Fuzhuang were gone. The livestock were gone, the orchards were gone, the crops were gone... Aside from the houses still standing, every living thing had vanished." All vanished? Hong Liming froze, looking at him with a strange, incredulous expression. He had never heard of anything so bizarre, yet judging by the man's expression, it didn't look faked. After a moment's consideration, seeing that it was getting late, he shouted to the working crew members, "Pack it up! Back to base!" Hearing their leader's command, the road construction crew immediately gathered their tools, and two excavators began turning around to return. Watching the construction team abruptly stop work, the Rat Clan laborers toiling in the fields lifted their heads, looking over with curiosity. "Why are those folks calling it a day so early?" "Did the sun rise in the west?" "Could it have something to do with this fog?" "The fog really did come in strangely... and it smells a bit off, too." Everyone exchanged glances, whispering among themselves. Just then, one of the construction workers walked over to the edge of the field ridge and called out to them, "Things aren't right here! You folks hurry up and pack it in too—don't stay outside!" A decurion's heart stirred, and he shouted back to the worker, "What on earth is happening here?" "Don't know, but it looks a lot like the fog that rose over Jinhe City before... Heard that breathing too much of that stuff makes you lose your mind, kind of like Na fruit. In short, it's nothing good." Although Weifu Military Base was also enveloped in the mist, researchers from the Alliance and the Enterprise were stationed there. With so many experts and scholars present, they were bound to come up with some solution. Tossing those words behind, the worker covered his nose and mouth with his clothing and hurried off to catch up with the retreating crew. The decurion and his fellow Rat Clan kinsmen stood frozen where they were, looking at each other in bewilderment, unsure of what to do. Jinhe City? Where was that? And Na fruit... Ever since coming to this wasteland, they had heard of far too many things they had never known before, and seen far too many things that didn't exist in Bolo Province—things that struck them as downright unfathomable. In the past, hardly anyone would have taken it seriously, but having received a severe beating just over half a month ago, they still remembered the sting. "I'll go report to Officer Makur." Not daring to hesitate, the decurion quickly cast aside his farming tool and dashed toward Millenarian Makur's post. When he arrived, Makur was sitting beneath a shade awning, glaring with an unsettled scowl at the fog overhead, muttering, "Why is fog rolling in at this hour?" It didn't look like a storm was brewing, either. Seeing his subordinate officer running over, Makur straightened up in his chair, putting on an unperturbed facade, and cleared his throat to ask, "What is it? What's got you in such a panic?" Casting all decorum and etiquette aside, the decurion blurted out anxiously, "Sir! The Alliance's Southern Construction Corps just warned us that there's dirty stuff in this fog. They told us to pull back to the military base right away and said we shouldn't stay outside!" Hearing that, Makur frowned and stood up from his chair. "Retreat? Did the mutants attack?" The decurion shook his head hurriedly. "No... but this sudden fog seems to have something to do with the Torch people." Hearing that it wasn't a mutant attack, Makur rolled his eyes and slumped back into his chair. "Tch, I thought it was something serious. It's just a bit of fog. Look at you, scared out of your wits." Seeing his superior's utter disregard, the decurion was dumbfounded, panic surging within him. "But—" Before he could finish, Makur waved a dismissive hand, gesturing for him to leave. "I told you, it's just a little fog. It's not like you're blind. Get back to work! Stop trying to slack off all damn day." The Alliance harbored bad intentions; this was likely another act orchestrated by those fellows. He remembered clearly that the coalition's front line had pushed halfway up Ten Peaks Mountain; how could Torch possibly reach all the way out here? Seeing that his superior hadn't listened to a word, the decurion broke into a cold sweat, yet dared not say anything more. Catching the hostile glare of the whip-bearing overseer, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and return to the field, picking up the tool he had dropped by the ridge. Those overseers functioned as disciplinary enforcers on the battlefield. They never showed any mercy to their own kind, and their beatings were ruthless; he had no wish to return home with a bloody face. Right at that moment, with a sudden thud, someone collapsed into the field nearby. The man looked to be in his thirties or forties, with a sallow complexion and a frame so emaciated he was skin and bones—unmistakably of serf origin. Seeing this, those nearby quickly dragged him out of the field and laid him flat on the ground. The commotion soon caught the attention of the overseers. A man carrying a whip strode over, barking at the gathered crowd, "What are you all crowding around for?!" A Rat Clan member cried out tremulously, "Someone fainted, sir!" The overseer let out a cold sneer. "Fainted? Looks to me like he's begging for the whip! Wake him up!" Seeing that no one could rouse him, the overseer walked over, crouched down, and slapped the middle-aged man twice across the face. Receiving the two slaps, the man finally showed some reaction, weakly opening his eyes. Yet what showed was not dark pupils, but ghastly white sclera. "Oh? Looks like you're tired of living." Assuming the man was defying him, the overseer flared with rage. Raising his brow, he reached out to throttle his throat—only to see the man snap his jaws open and violently bite down. That bite showed not a shred of mercy, as though venting all his daily resentment in one go, tearing the overseer's hand to shreds and sending blood spurting everywhere. "Aaaaargh!" The overseer's shrill screams echoed across the fields. He pulled desperately to yank his hand from the man's mouth, but the man clamped down like a vise, refusing to let go. The surrounding crowd was dumbfounded with terror, momentarily paralyzed and forgetting to intervene. No one expected that emaciated skeleton of a man to unleash such terrifying strength, nor did anyone imagine he would dare strike a member of the enforcement corps. Had he lost his mind? After all, they belonged to the expeditionary force; who knew when General Babita might have another impulse and send them back to the battlefield? Offending the enforcement corps now meant practically guaranteeing a bullet to the back of the head later. Out here, far beyond the Emperor's reach, even if a couple of people died, no one would ever investigate how. To put it bluntly, they were merely a swarm of rats scraping by on noble estates; nobody would even remember their names... A dark emotion swelled in everyone's hearts, twisting uncontrollably. What if this world was destroyed? It had never belonged to them for a single second anyway. They suddenly lost all desire to separate the two. They only wanted to watch that white-eyed rat disembowel the Horse Clan overseer and let his blood drench this earth. More than that: it would be best if everyone died... Only when all human vermin were dead and wiped out along with humanity's inherent vileness could they start anew with fresh identities and truly end that agonizing cycle of misery—not just the cycle in Bolo Province, but the cycle of everything! Suddenly, another person collapsed to the ground, only to crawl back up from the mud a moment later. Before long, beastly roars and ear-piercing shrieks echoed across the fields once more. The mist seemed to carry a bizarre magic capable of affecting the human mind, amplifying primal instincts and desires without limit until people were reduced to puppets driven by them. Such as appetite. Tiny hyphae crept slowly out of the soil, infecting all the crops and vegetation, then releasing spores that assimilated every other living thing. This appeared to be the source of the dense fog. Where the vegetation was thickest, the grayish-green fog was densest. And the more malnourished and frail a person was, the easier they fell prey to infection. Especially on the tract cleared for orchards: out of an entire company of a hundred men, only a scant few remained conscious, fleeing in shrill terror. These wretches, who had rarely eaten a full meal in their entire lives, were undeniably the perfect breeding ground for the plague! Stunned, Makur stared agape at the chaotic fields, panic finally surfacing on his face. "These lunatics... are they staging a revolt?!" Over this?! He had merely told them to do some work, and working here was hardly more exhausting than back home! Only now did he recall what the decurion had said earlier, and cold sweat broke out across his forehead. "It's no longer safe here... We have to get out immediately. Yes, to the train station!" The entire wasteland was full of madmen, and anyone who came here would gradually lose their sanity. He was a believer now. Bolo Province was the only safe place; he had to return at once! He spun around to flee, only to find a mob of madmen closing in, sealing off every retreat. The overseers beside him looked at him in terror, their eyes pleading for what to do. Hardening his resolve, Makur roared, "These people are traitors! They... have betrayed the Empire! Show no mercy! Shoot them!" Given the authorization to open fire, the overseers drew their pistols and aimed at the enclosing madmen, pulling the triggers without hesitation. Gunfire echoed across the fields, but the firepower of a few handguns was far too feeble to suppress the surging human tide. Four officers and twelve overseers, Makur included, were quickly pinned down by thousands of bodies. Screams rose and fell, soon drowned out by sickening crunches of gnawing teeth. "Stop! You disgusting rats! Let go of me! Aren't you afraid His Majesty will execute your families—Aaaaargh!" "Help... please..." That insincere pleading yielded no mercy. Makur's voice grew weaker and weaker until he was reduced to a mangled pulp of bloody flesh. The frenzied Rat Clan members gorged themselves. People who hadn't tasted meat twice in a year now had mouths dripping with grease and intestines. Their pupils burned with a craving for flesh and blood, a crimson haze creeping over the whites of their eyes. At the same time, nourished by the gore, dark green spore coatings slowly sprouted from their nostrils and ears like moss creeping up a damp wall. More than that—the soil beneath their feet began to loosen, and something crawled out from the foul, decomposing earth along the newly sprouted hyphae. Skeletons buried for who knew how many years emerged, most of their bones long since brittle. Yet grayish-green spore mantles bound them back together, absorbing residual genetic material and gifting them new "bones" and "flesh." The spores suffusing the air guided their march. Dragging their mutilated forms and hissing in ragged rasps, they shuffled toward the obstinate organisms that refused to embrace evolution... Gunfire erupted not only across the boundless fields along the Wei River, but also in Kun Town, not far from Weifu Military Base. Most survivors stranded here were wastelanders from Jinchuan Province, particularly from Mafu Town. Robust and fiercely tough, few among them fell victim to the Na fruit hyphae. Still, the things suddenly sprouting from the ground caused them no small amount of trouble... At the tavern near the town entrance, Mosquito emptied a clip, dropping a dozen lunging fruiting bodies, and cursed aloud, "Motherfucker! What the hell are these things?!" "Did a new expansion drop or what?!" Standing beside him, Kakarot looked completely bewildered, unable to fathom what was happening. The Rat Clan youth who helped Mosquito sell game cards cowered under a table, trembling. He had been eating well lately, and likely due to adequate nutrition, had not mutated. Ten-Punch Superman said with a tense expression, "These guys are like straight-up zombies... Could they be the survivors who disappeared from Fuzhuang before?" "More than that, I'd bet! Those Torch bastards probably dug up graves from two hundred years ago!" Reloading his rifle, Mosquito reached down to drag the young Rat Clan lad out from beneath the table, hollering toward the tavern owner hiding behind the bar, "Stop hiding back there! Get out here and come with us!" "W-what on earth is happening?" The owner crawled out from behind the counter in sheer terror, his voice shaking as he looked at him. Listening to the chaotic gunfire outside, Mosquito said tersely, "No idea. We'll find out once we reach the military base." ... What Mosquito did not know at that moment was that heavy gunfire was echoing inside Weifu Military Base as well. Aside from the creatures clawing their way out of the dirt, a massive mutiny had broken out among the Legion's clone troops. At least half of the entire Glorious Army had been infected by the Na fruit hyphae. Unlike the Rat Clan who bit with their teeth, the frenzied clones snatched up their Ripper rifles and turned their muzzles on comrades beside them—and even other members of the coalition. After taking a beating for over half a month, the Church of the Torch had finally mounted a counteroffensive. And it emerged from underground in a manner no one could have anticipated. At the front, the Alpha Mobile Task Force and the mutants on Blood Mountain instantly locked in a stalemate. Learning of the situation in the coalition's rear from the Beastmaster, Prophet Sodo of the Bloodhoof Clan seized the opportunity, summoning his Plague Monks to launch a fierce counterattack. At the same time, on the positions across Broken Blade Mountain, Black Cloud Mountain, and even Fu Mountain, goblins who had hidden in caves and crevices without being wiped out swarmed forth, launching suicidal charges against the garrisons. Chaos engulfed the battlefield. Flashes of fire flared from front line to rear as everyone fought into a frenzy. Aboard the airship Loyalty, General Lium nearly blew a gasket upon hearing the news, bellowing at the messenger, "Tell General Melka that if he can't execute every single one of those brain-rotted clones within half an hour, he can bring his own head to me!" "Yes, sir!" The messenger saluted hurriedly and scrambled over to the radio to relay the order. Lium sat fuming, yet inwardly he was stunned. A clone mutiny—in his memory, such a thing had never happened before. It appeared the Church of the Torch had indeed produced something formidable. Without question, it was tied to the uncanny fog blanketing the wasteland. His face shifted unpredictably. Glancing at his equally silent adjutant, he lowered his voice. "Notify Bannote in Dawn City. Have him contact Triumph City. The front line needs five... no, ten divisions of reinforcements." Not only did they need to secure victory, but they also needed to maintain control over Haiya Province after the war—at least until they figured out what that clone-subverting fog was all about. At the very least, that technology could not fall into the hands of the Academy or the Enterprise in secret. The adjutant nodded gravely. "Understood!" Meanwhile, inside Weifu Military Base: Composed of Awakened, the Guards Corps swiftly put down the clone soldiers charging the coalition's Supreme Command, linking up with the Enterprise's quickly reacting 2nd Regiment of the 100th Division. Na fruit primarily corrupted those with low immunity and weak willpower. Every member of the Guards Corps was an Awakened. Not only had they undergone rigorous screening and training, but they were also fiercely loyal to Chu Guang; thus, not a single one was assimilated into a puppet of "Heaven." Though the Enterprise soldiers were not Awakened, most had bionic implants or prosthetics that boosted their immunity, leaving them largely unaffected as well. The Alpha Mobile Task Force went without saying: while their baseline immunity was mediocre, their gas masks were no mere decoration. Only the Alpha protozoans could penetrate those NBC masks; ordinary spores and slime molds could not pass through. What was more, most operatives had undergone mental castration surgery; even if infected, they were virtually incapable of becoming puppets of Heaven. In the end, the only ones disgraced were the Legion. While the Wilante officers acted as if nothing had touched them, the Glorious Army had suffered a catastrophic blowup, throwing the entire 31st Division into disarray. As for the Empire, since most Rat Clan laborers were scattered outside without firearms, even when they went berserk, it failed to harm the garrison. The situation within the military base was quickly brought under control, but more "zombies" continued to rise from the Weifu Wasteland, converging on the base. Some survivors from Kun Town fled into the base, while others fled north along the railway toward Mafu Town on horses, motorcycles, or tricycles. That lay at the fog's edge, where the filthy abominations shouldn't be rising non-stop. Inside the coalition's Supreme Command: Lyu Bei, clad in an exoskeleton, walked up to Chu Guang and said solemnly, "Sir, the perimeter is secured. Please return to the airship immediately!" "No need," Chu Guang replied casually, glancing up at the sky cloaked in gray mist. "I have already ordered the airship to withdraw." Radar data from the airship showed a swarm of aerial units approaching the Weifu Wasteland from south to north. Unsurprisingly, they were likely the "bat-winged men" they had encountered in Jinhe City—or an improved breed. The airship Loyalty seemed to have sensed the approaching threat as well and was relocating northward. Having those creatures board an airship would indeed be troublesome, especially with Chu Guang not aboard and few players remaining on it. Thus, he had ordered the airship to pull back and fulfill its role as a mobile artillery platform and aircraft carrier. As for himself, Chu Guang wasn't particularly worried. Just because he rarely stepped into battle didn't mean he couldn't fight. Yet worry lingered in Lyu Bei's eyes, and he tried to urge him again. "But—" "I don't care to hear equivocal words like 'but.'" Seeing that Chu Guang had no intention of changing his mind, Lyu Bei could only lower his head. "Yes, sir." Chu Guang nodded in satisfaction and continued, "Now, take me to the temporary research institute." When the crisis first erupted, he had ordered half of the Guards Corps to head to the temporary research lab. Housed there were not only wounded from the Alpha Mobile Task Force, but also prisoners rescued from the front who were already Na fruit addicts. True to expectations, those people had also gone wild. Fortunately, the Guards Corps had moved quickly; otherwise, the few security guards in the facility might never have held off those hundreds of thrashing hands. To give credit where it was due, the bishop atop Ten Peaks Mountain had truly delivered a surprise. While everyone's eyes were fixed on Ten Peaks Mountain, he had planted a bomb right beneath their feet. Chu Guang had actually considered that "Heaven" in the Weifu City area might already be complete. And in Heaven's fourth stage, its preservation no longer relied on the physical entity of a pseudo-broodmother. Perhaps that was the real reason the Church of the Torch had evacuated the survivors, rather than pulling back their defensive lines out of fear of the coalition. However, tests by the Alliance Institute of Biological Research on local soil samples had found no trace of hyphae, nor had researchers from the Enterprise later on. The hyphae seemed to have burrowed deep underground, deliberately concealing their presence. They had even learned to set bait. That was exceedingly strange. "I'm sorry... it was my oversight." Heya looked pale, her lips trembling, her eyes full of remorse. Bloodstains marked her white lab coat, left when security personnel were protecting her. She blamed herself entirely for the current catastrophe. At the thought of those who had died because of it, an ache pierced her chest, and she couldn't help but stifle a sob... Unlike Heya, who was drowning in guilt and self-blame, Chu Guang didn't think it was her fault. Any doctor faced with an unprecedented disease would inevitably be at a loss, let alone something that defied common sense. From his perspective, the card played by Torch was bizarre to the point of being nearly "magical." She had already done remarkably well. It was just that her senior peers, trained under the same academic pedigree, were hardly pushovers—they had over a decade more experience than her. Giving her a comforting hug, Chu Guang waited until Heya calmed down, then said gently, "This isn't your fault. You did everything you were supposed to do, but we can't expect to guess every card in the enemy's hand every time. And I have to admit, they hid this card exceptionally well. Even I almost believed the mutants on the mountain were that fellow's only trump." "Rather than grieving for those who died, what we need to do now is solve the problem before us. You're an expert in this field; I need your experience and knowledge. All of us need it." Perhaps feeling embarrassed by her breakdown, Heya took the tissue Chu Guang offered and wiped the wetness from her cheeks. Blowing her nose hard, her usual calm and capable demeanor quickly returned. "How... how is the situation outside now?" Chu Guang answered patiently, "Don't worry about the outside. We have already brought the situation under control." Heya: "What about those who lost control?" After checking with Xiao Qi, Chu Guang replied, "Those who can be contained are being restrained; those severely infected could only be executed on the spot." Take the Glorious Army clones: they were simply too dangerous. When they went mad, they didn't just stab people with bayonets; they fired wildly. So much so that without Chu Guang even needing to give the command, the Legion had already ordered their execution. The Wilante officers had even wanted to execute the uninfected clones as well just to be safe, but he had stopped them. What worried him most now wasn't the hundred thousand or so zombies surrounding the military base. Against modern weaponry, those things were cannon fodder, roughly on par with Gnawers. On open plains, they possessed little real combat effectiveness; the only nuisance was their ceaseless emergence from the ground, catching people off guard. Yet knowing Torch as Chu Guang did, those zealots likely carried more than one card up their sleeve. This time was almost certainly like before: the things clawing out of the dirt were merely bait to divide their attention. Something else had already set its sights on them. That fellow's counterattack had finally begun! Hearing that people were still alive, Heya buried her nose in her hands, took a deep breath, and suddenly spoke in a composed tone: "Strain B..." Chu Guang looked at her. "What about it?" Heya: "Strain B, which we collected in Baiyue Province! Clinical trials showed that it inhibits the growth of Strain J... Since it was difficult to cultivate outside Baiyue Province, we tried collecting its extract. Based on experimental results in Singularity City, the specially processed extract has a pronounced therapeutic effect on Na fruit victims and should be able to restore patients whose symptoms aren't yet severe." Hearing that, Chu Guang asked immediately, "Is there enough extract?" Heya nodded. "Production isn't too difficult... but it would be best to transport the patients outside the contaminated zone for treatment." Tapping near his ear, Chu Guang instructed Xiao Qi, "Have the 100th Division detach a regiment to transport the restrained patients to Singularity City for quarantine and treatment. Also inform Frost to prepare a quarantine zone capable of holding at least three thousand people." Xiao Qi: "Understood!" After the order was given, Chu Guang looked out the window at the darkening sky, frowning slightly. The bat-winged men circling in nearby airspace were probably waiting for darkness before making a move. He had already received word earlier that the ornithopters of the Enterprise's 7th Air Group were on standby on the tarmac. Considering the enemy's numbers and the risk of having their forces spread thin, he had not ordered an immediate strike. Still, those were tactical details; even without his personal deployment, the coalition's branches would execute their battle plans according to protocol. What truly concerned him was the strategic level. Heaven, blanketing the Weifu Wasteland, had bared its fangs; continuous hordes of puppets would severely disrupt the coalition's logistics. Unless they could eradicate every Na fruit hypha across the wasteland. Yet achieving that through physical sterilization would require an astronomical amount of fuel, no easier than flattening Ten Peaks Mountain. In fact, it would be far more troublesome—after all, they hadn't stopped growing; they constantly drew energy from the soil. Only magic could defeat magic. To wipe them out completely, they had to employ similar means. For example... the biological technology the Alliance excelled at. Right then, a sudden thought struck Chu Guang, and he blurted out an inspiration: "What if we inoculate Xiao Yu's fruiting bodies with Strain B and produce spores through them?" While fruiting bodies cultured directly by Xiao Yu's main body could not produce spores, those produced through the "grand incubation chamber" in downtown Qingquan City possessed the ability to secrete spores. It was just that these fruiting bodies had lost the ability to communicate via spores. He thought of the mutants of the Bloodhoof Clan; those brutes seemed to have been used by the broodmother codenamed Alpha as a medium to cultivate spores. If they used a similar method to turn Xiao Yu's fruiting bodies into vectors for Na fruit Strain B, they might solve the problem of Strain B's inability to reproduce outside Baiyue Province, and perhaps even accelerate the strain's spore secretion rate. And whenever they were no longer needed, purging them would be much simpler: they could just have Xiao Yu herd them off to Baiyue Province. Though it was only a half-formed thought, Heya blinked in mild surprise, then said, "I don't know... but it might be worth a try. In clinical observation, spores secreted by Strain B likewise exhibit an inhibitory effect on Strain J." As she spoke, her mind seemed to unlock, and her eyes gradually brightened. Seeing that this might work, Chu Guang said without hesitation, "Then run the experiments immediately! You have ample samples here to study. Whether it's Strain B or any other equipment you need, I'll arrange planes to airlift it all to you. Ask for anything you need. If the Alliance can't provide it, I can find a way to get it from the Academy or the Enterprise." This wasn't just the Alliance's problem; it was a crisis facing all member parties of the Slime Mold Community. He believed those old fossils wouldn't just sit by and watch.