Jing Xi’s gaze fell on the name, unsure for a moment whether to feel surprised or shocked.

Chun Qin had said she went to the 810 Base because of Bo Jin.

They were certain Bo Jin wasn’t dead, but they never expected him to be so close.

Hiding his identity all these years and colluding with Ghost in the dark—what was it all for?

Did he know Chi Yao’s identity?

Deliberately giving clues, what did he want Chi Yao to do?

Jing Xi stared at the file for a long time, then closed his terminal after a while and lay back on the sofa.

The sleeping person gathered his arms, naturally encircling him in front.

Jing Xi buried himself in Chi Yao’s chest, staring at the ceiling in a daze.

Whatever Bo Jin wanted to do, he wouldn’t allow the other party to hurt Chi Yao.

---

When the two returned to the command cabin, Xiao Hei flew back from outside with the other two AIs.

[Xiao Hei: 15 bugs detected, repairs completed, currently operating normally.]

Chi Yao flipped through the test data from their outing.

The precision was more than 30 times higher than the detection programs currently used by warships.

“It’s enough.”

Jing Xi nodded and personally sent the program to Pei Zhenyue, ensuring no errors occurred in the transfer.

Soon, Pei Zhenyue’s video request came through.

“Received the program. I’m notifying everyone right now.”

The previously dispatched supervision teams were perfectly positioned to implement this task.

Chi Yao: “If a situation is discovered, do you still have manpower available?”

To prevent Ghosts from infiltrating, the garrison systems everywhere were basically paralyzed. With beast tides erupting simultaneously in multiple locations recently, if split bodies of this monster were truly detected, dealing with them would be a big problem.

Speaking of this, Pei Zhenyue ruffled his hair irritably.

“I’ll hold a meeting shortly and have Old Zhao and Old Bai transfer personnel.”

Jing Xi: “Have Admiral Bai transfer personnel?”

Although the evidence currently available wasn’t sufficient for a direct accusation, it was almost certain there was something wrong with Bai Yi.

Asking the enemy to transfer people to deal with themselves was obviously impossible.

Pei Zhenyue said calmly, “It’s best if he makes petty moves. I’m afraid he won’t.”

This kind of probing was naturally effective, but the premise was that their side had enough military support.

Jing Xi looked at Chi Yao: “Should we discuss it with Commander Lin and ask him to lend some people?”

Chi Yao leaned back against the table with his arms crossed, shaking his head: “There are more suitable ones.”

Looking at his expression, Jing Xi understood almost instantly.

“The Star Pirate Corps?”

Chi Yao nodded: “We don’t know what subsequent moves that organization has. The Shadow Unit shouldn’t be exposed too early. Conversely, star pirates are widely distributed. Almost every constellation has at least two notable star pirate groups active. Right now, their enthusiasm is high, making them very suitable for this mission.”

There was another reason he thought star pirates were more suitable: unpredictability.

Just making the opponent unable to assess their true strength meant winning half the battle.

Jing Xi leaned beside him: “But they haven’t undergone conventional training, and their physical fitness varies. I’m afraid they can’t execute missions alone.”

During the previous clearing of Ghost sites, the star pirate groups acted together with the Shadow Unit, only the Shadow personnel were disguised as star pirates and mixed in.

This time, if the Shadow Unit didn’t show up and they relied solely on star pirate groups, if any link went wrong, it would trigger a series of chain reactions. By then, they would be very passive.

“No need to worry about that.”

Pei Zhenyue chimed in, “If the star pirate groups can mobilize, the supervision teams can assist from the side.”

Chi Yao: “Alright, let’s do that.”

After hanging up, he called Liu Wu over.

“How is the modification of the shielding device going?”

Liu Wu: “The expert teams from Shadow and Flying Dragon are working on it. Brother Zhuo just said they are already testing it.”

Chi Yao walked to the monitoring console and pulled up the previous surveillance footage.

Although its size was huge, apart from parasitic vines and sound waves, it hadn’t shown much other aggression so far.

“I think we can make a move,” Chi Yao said in a low voice.

Jing Xi followed him, looking up at the floating forest on the screen.

“I’ve already told them to be ready for battle.”

Whether it had spread was unknown; the longer they dragged on, the more passive they became.

It hadn’t existed for just a day or two. If it truly had very strong aggression and could freely travel between planets, Cetus would probably have been destroyed long ago.

The evolution and perfection of species took a very long time, and artificial species were the same.

Chi Yao: “Extreme Shadow takes the vanguard, Flying Dragon supports from the rear. Shadow is responsible for guarding the defense line to prevent it from suddenly splitting and letting split bodies escape during the process.”

As he spoke, he marked the positions for each regiment on the map while running a war simulation in his mind.

After weakening the sound waves with interference devices, they wouldn’t pose too much of a threat to Extreme Shadow members. As long as it didn’t emit too strong pheromones, they were confident of winning.

Just as he was speaking, Qiu Shuang and Chun Qin walked in from outside.

“We want to add suppressants against humanoid beasts to the chemical agent.”

Qiu Shuang pulled up a report. “If it also came from a lab, then this suppressant will definitely be effective.”

When they discovered the humanoid beasts before, Chi Yao had asked them to try researching drugs that could suppress the humanoid beasts’ abilities.

Although called humanoid beasts, they were essentially beasts.

Once an outbreak occurred, they would lose control like 820 did at the beginning.

Chun Qin: “It might also be effective in suppressing its pheromones, but we don’t have time to do more detailed tests right now.”

Chi Yao turned his head to look at Jing Xi: “What do you think?”

Jing Xi looked at the report and nodded: “Feasible.”

Qiu Shuang yawned, her voice hoarse from staying up late for a long time.

“If you agree, then we’ll go mix the medicine.”

Jing Xi: “Thank you for your hard work.”

Qiu Shuang smiled: “If you think we worked hard, remember to invite us to your house for a meal when we get back.”

Jing Xi: “That depends on Yao Yao.”

Qiu Shuang: “…”

Chi Yao refused coldly.

“Of course not. My daughter was just born; it’s inconvenient to host guests.”

Qiu Shuang: “…………”

---

After finalizing the plan, Jing Xi gathered the main members of Flying Dragon for a pre-battle deployment meeting, while Chi Yao opened the Star Pirate Alliance group chat again.

Ever since the site clearing mission, this group had been as noisy as a vegetable market every day.

“Don’t know when the next mission is.”

“Are we going back to farming again?”

“If I knew earlier, I would have fought slower. It ended before I had enough fun.”

“Didn’t the military announce many planets attacked by beast tides simultaneously? Can we proactively apply to support?”

While the group chat was heating up, Chi Yao’s message suddenly popped up below.

“New mission, high difficulty. Those willing to participate type 1.”

The screen froze for 0.5 seconds, then was flooded with “1”s.

Everything was ready.

Before setting off, Jing Xi helped check the equipment on Chi Yao.

“Be careful.”

Seeing the unconcealable worry in his eyes, Chi Yao opened his arms and pulled him into a hug.

“Keep an eye on C86’s movements.”

After entering C85, they might lose contact due to signal interruption, and a lot of intelligence couldn’t be exchanged in time.

Jing Xi knew what he meant by mentioning C86.

Thinking of Zhang Sheng, he opened his mouth, but swallowed the words back.

The expedition was imminent; he couldn’t let Chi Yao get distracted.

---

Extreme Shadow separated from the Flying Dragon, carrying a warship full of chickens into the C85 atmosphere.

Although adequate preparations had been made, the strong sound waves and pheromone interference still made most of Extreme Shadow feel uncomfortable.

Chi Yao: “Hei-ge, descend to three thousand meters and release the chickens.”

Xiao Hei: [Okk.]

The warship escorting the chickens was on autopilot, controlled by Xiao Heiinstead of the AI Valkyrie.

Watching the warship hover over the forest and the bottom hatch slowly open, Chi Yao stared at the surveillance screen with a serious expression.

There were more prey this time, but the parasitic vines still digested them very quickly.

Without looking at the detection data, Chi Yao could clearly feel the sound waves and pheromones weakening.

Chi Yao: “Land, prepare for battle.”

They didn’t have much time.

According to the previously set plan, the fleet changed formation to surround this forest and initiated bombardment mode.

Xiao Hei: [Pheromone concentration dropped to historical low, suppressant is effective.]

As soon as Xiao Hei’s prompt flashed in his mind, Chi Yao raised his hand, giving the command to start the battle.

Through the surveillance screen, Chi Yao could almost hear the earth-shaking bombardment outside.

The forest was instantly engulfed by black smoke.

The first round of bombardment lasted a full half hour.

When the thick smoke dissipated, the forest no longer existed. Large patches of green vegetation had turned into charcoal.

“Boss, those vines are still there!”

Someone shouted.

Chi Yao looked at the screen.

Amidst the scorched earth, parasitic vines emerged one after another from below.

These vines could be cut by knives; there was no reason they could defend against bombardment.

“They’re new.”

Chi Yao frowned.

These parasitic vines were only as thick as an adult’s arm, very different from the previous ones.

“Bomb again,” Chi Yao ordered.

An hour later, new parasitic vines sprang out again from the almost sunken scorched earth.

Chi Yao looked at the detection data.

Since eating the chickens, its sound wave fluctuations weren’t large, and the pheromone concentration remained at a very low level.

In other words, it might currently be in a paralyzed state, but the newly grown parasitic vines were unaffected.

Chi Yao opened the video link, connecting to Li Yuan and Fang Liang.

“Each of you lead a team down to the target points and wait for my command.”

Li Yuan/Fang Liang: “Yes!”

Based on the three coordinate points Zhang Sheng gave, they split into three teams and landed separately.

When the warship landed, Chi Yao was the first to walk out of the hatch.

A pungent burnt smell filled his nose, mixed with the smell of blood and other strange odors, very unpleasant.

Just a few steps out, parasitic vines from all around moved towards him.

Chi Yao slowed his pace, drew his military knife, and slashed horizontally.

The parasitic vines broke and fell to the ground; no crimson liquid flowed from the cut surface.

“Everyone split up, clear the parasitic vines in each area,” he instructed over the public channel.

Half an hour later, Fang Liang’s voice rang in his ear.

“These vines seem endless to kill.”

Li Yuan’s irritable voice followed immediately.

“Cut them down and they grow back, cut them down and they grow back, my temper!”

Parasitic vines were essentially parasitic plants. Having such strong regenerative ability even after large-scale cutting only meant the host wasn’t dead yet.

Chi Yao let his team execute on the spot while he walked towards the direction of the eye.

The original location of the eye had turned into a small mound, the surface completely charred black, looking as if nothing remained.

Chi Yao opened his hand, and Xiao Hei flew into his palm, transforming into a long blade.

He observed for a moment, confirmed the position, and stabbed down fiercely with the blade tip.

The sensation from the tip wasn’t very hard.

Chi Yao tried to stab deeper, feeling something strange at the tip, as if wrapped by something, and the blade body began to shake slightly.

Frowning, he pulled out the blade and retreated quickly.

Crimson liquid surged up and splashed on the scorched earth. A parasitic vine shot past him, leaving a bloody scratch on the back of his hand.

Chi Yao slashed it apart. From the corner of his eye, he noticed something moving on the ground and looked closely.

Tiny parasitic vines had actually sprouted where the liquid sprayed.

This growth rate rivaled his wound healing speed.

Chi Yao frowned and looked at the blade edge.

Something seemed to be wriggling in the blood red.

Xiao Hei: [Blegh—Disgusting.]

Chi Yao: “…”

Just as he was about to shake off the dirty stuff on the blade, these wriggling things touched something unknown and suddenly withered motionless.

Chi Yao held up the long blade to his eyes and found his own blood splashed from the back of his hand nearby.

Parasitic vines were afraid of his blood?

Ever since being modified, he knew his body couldn’t be explained by common sense.

Generally, the blood of modified bodies was poison to ordinary people; a little contact would cause skin ulceration.

But he only learned today that it also worked on mutated plants.

A few tiny parasitic vines drilled out from the mound stabbed by the knife, greedily sucking the flowing crimson liquid.

Chi Yao’s gaze swept over the back of his hand, and he took a few steps over.

The blade sliced across his palm, dripping blood onto the parasitic vines.

Like being scalded, the parasitic vines suddenly twisted violently, visibly withering and drying up.

In just a moment, the wound on Chi Yao’s palm healed, and no blood came out no matter how he squeezed.

He observed the surrounding ground. As these vines withered, the tiny parasitic vine sprouts that had just shot up nearby also disappeared.

With just this bit of blood, the effect wasn’t very significant.

Chi Yao was planning to cut himself again when the surroundings suddenly began to shake violently. Strange noises came from the ground beneath his feet, like a hurricane whistling through a forest.

Exclamations came from the public channel.

“Earthquake!”

“Holy shit, the ground cracked! What do we do?!”

“Hug the tree trunks, don’t fall into the pit!”

Li Yuan: “Boss, do we continue cutting vines?”

The scorched earth sank slowly, gradually breaking from the middle.

A crack several meters wide opened at the original position of the eye, but inside was pitch black; the original crimson vitreous body no longer existed.

Chi Yao looked in that direction, saying in a low voice: “Ensure the safety of team members first.”

On the Flying Dragon warship, Jing Xi sat in the command seat watching the surveillance screen, looking nervous.

After a brief loss of contact, the screen restored the image.

Seeing Chi Yao cut his hand, Jing Xi unconsciously clasped his hands tightly.

The ground suddenly cracked. Jing Xi stood up abruptly, saying deeply: “It split, be careful!”

Hearing Jing Xi’s anxious voice by his ear, Chi Yao stabbed the blade tip into a tree trunk to stabilize his balance.

“Don’t worry, I’m fine.”

Just after finishing speaking, Li Yuan and Fang Liang’s voices rang in his ear almost simultaneously.

Li Yuan: “Boss, the parasitic vines on my side suddenly dried up!”

Fang Liang: “Parasitic vines suddenly withered, no new ones popping out.”

Chi Yao: “Check if there are any other living things besides parasitic vines.”

Li Yuan/Fang Liang: “Yes!”

Chi Yao switched to communication with Jing Xi.

“Xixi, how many pieces did it split into?”

Jing Xi: “Four pieces. The three coordinates Zhang Sheng gave are in three separate pieces. The piece to your rear right is rising!”

Chi Yao turned his head and sure enough saw that piece of ground in the distance had risen more than a meter.

“My blood works on it.”

Jing Xi disapproved of this method.

“This area is less than one-tenth of the original. Leave it to me.”

The trajectory of this piece of scorched earth rising had already been simulated on the monitoring console.

“No.”

Chi Yao ran quickly towards there. “Can’t bomb it. The more it splits, the more dangerous.”

Jing Xi’s lips were pressed into a straight line, hands clasped tight.

“But—”

“I want to try one more time.”

Chi Yao jumped up, looking for a place to strike. “Call Qiu Tianlin over. ask if he still has my blood samples.”

Jing Xi: “He does.”

Chi Yao: “Tell him the situation, see if he has a way to make a substitute.”

The scorched earth area was large. Chi Yao ran in one direction by intuition, Xiao Hei’s voice ringing in his brain.

[The sound wave fluctuations here are different.]

Chi Yao stopped immediately, raised his blade, and stabbed fiercely into the ground.

Like before, parasitic vines flew out accompanied by crimson liquid.

It seemed this piece of land was still “alive”.

Chi Yao slid the blade across his palm, squeezing blood into the crack.

In just a moment, the dancing parasitic vines withered and shrank, and the ground plummeted rapidly from a height of one hundred meters.

Falling from this height, even mutated beasts would suffer internal injuries.

Xiao Hei turned back into a ball and stuck to Chi Yao, switching to armor mode, taking flight at the last moment.

Bang!

Accompanied by a loud noise, dust filled the sky.

“Holy shit! Clothes covered in charcoal ash, Chun Qin is gonna scold me to death when I get back.” Li Yuan’s cursing voice came over.

Fang Liang: “Boss, are you okay?!”

“I’m fine.”

Flying twenty meters in the air, Chi Yao looked at the scorched earth under the black fog, his voice very faint: “Hei-ge, activate infrared thermal scanning.”

As soon as his voice fell, his left eye switched to thermal imaging mode.

Under this scorched earth, the crimson area was cooling down rapidly, gradually disappearing.

Xiao Hei: [Sound waves disappeared.]

Chi Yao: “Mm.”

Particle cannons didn’t work, yet a few drops of his blood solved this monster. His mood was somewhat complicated.

His blood was so poisonous; didn’t that mean Xixi was dancing on the edge of death every day?

---

An hour later, the Flying Dragon warship landed around this scorched earth.

Various expert teams and soldiers moved methodically, conducting various surveys and collection on it.

After issuing orders, Jing Xi got off the warship to find Chi Yao.

Lu Meng watched his retreating back. Although it was still that expressionless face, the hurried steps couldn’t hide his current urgency.

Whenever it involved Chi Yao, the Boss could never maintain composure.

It was like this before, and it is like this now.

After searching around, Jing Xi finally found Chi Yao dazing on the branch of a dwarf tree.

“How is your hand?”

Jing Xi went to touch his hand, but was dodged just upon contact.

Chi Yao subconsciously withdrew his hand, but seeing Jing Xi’s confused look, he was somewhat at a loss.

“My blood poisoned it to death.”

If Chi Yao said this in his usual lackadaisical tone, Jing Xi might laughingly scold him for humblebragging.

But at this moment, the confusion in the depths of Chi Yao’s eyes made his heart ache.

Chi Yao looked at his own palm and smiled bitterly: “What kind of monster am I exactly?”

Whenever he felt he was closer to being an “ordinary person”, reality would ruthlessly stretch this distance.

Jing Xi held his hand tightly, expression solemn: “You are not a monster.”

Chi Yao looked at the busy teams searching on the scorched earth.

“Why did they create these things?”

Jing Xi jumped up and sat next to him.

“Probably products of desire.”

Chi Yao spaced out for a moment, mood calming a bit, and turned to look at Jing Xi.

Light shone down from the tree top, casting dappled tree shadows.

Next to the charred dirty charcoal earth, Jing Xi bathed in light was so clean he dared not touch.

“What’s wrong, something on my face?” Jing Xi asked.

“I want to kiss you.” Chi Yao felt somewhat aggrieved. “But I’m afraid of poisoning you.”

Jing Xi was amused by his expression, flashing back to that white wolf stuck at the mecha hatch unable to enter.

Rubbing past his nose tip, kissing the corner of his mouth, Jing Xi teased: “Who was it before that said we wanted to practice highly safe sports?”

Chi Yao: “…”

“Boss!”

Lu Meng ran over from a distance. “There are still parasitic vines under the scorched earth, but they have no aggression, gone with one burn.”

Jing Xi: “Any other signs of life?”

Lu Meng shook his head: “Currently all detection instruments found nothing.”

The clean-up work continued until midnight.

The scorched earth ahead was brightly lit. Chi Yao and Jing Xi sat in a makeshift tent discussing topics about it.

Qiu Tianlin came down from the warship, carrying instruments towards the tent.

“Any discoveries?” Jing Xi asked.

Qiu Tianlin glanced at Chi Yao: “Its tissue test report is out. The regenerative enzyme HP6 in the blood is thirty million times that of a normal person, five thousand times that of a level five mutated beast. If it cannot be vaporized instantly, ordinary bombing is insufficient to be fatal.”

The higher the regenerative enzyme content, the stronger the self-healing ability.

Chi Yao: “Then why could my blood poison it to death?”

Qiu Tianlin turned to look at Chi Yao: “Your blood also contains high concentrations of HP6. After it absorbed your blood, it was like different blood types entering the same human body, producing a series of rejection reactions. Eventually, the HP6 in its blood was killed, leading to death.”

Li Yuan eavesdropping nearby looked confused.

“In other words, its blood couldn’t beat Boss’s blood.”

Qiu Tianlin pushed up his glasses frame: “You could say that. However, normally even rejection reactions wouldn’t be this rapid. I suspect it should be related to the suppressant used earlier.”

Jing Xi: “Is there a way to make a substitute agent?”

Even if Chi Yao’s blood was useful, they couldn’t make Chi Yao bleed every time.

Considering from a war perspective, this method itself was unfeasible.

Qiu Tianlin: “It can be done, but it needs time.”

He looked at Chi Yao again: “I didn’t expect the person Major General Jing mentioned to be you. No wonder your aura felt a bit strange last time.”

Chi Yao drawled lazily: “No use trying to get close. If you want my blood, you have to ask Xixi.”

Qiu Tianlin: “…”

Was his purpose that obvious?

Regardless, they finally found a way to deal with it, and everyone could breathe a sigh of relief temporarily.

Near dawn, after reporting to Pei Zhenyue, Jing Xi returned to the rest cabin. Chi Yao was sitting at the head of the bed dazing.

“Sleep early.” Jing Xi pulled back the quilt and lay down.

Chi Yao turned sideways, propping his chin, playing with his long hair.

“Tomorrow I want to go to C86 to take a look.”

Jing Xi: “Mm.”

Seeing him spacing out again, Jing Xi placed his hand on the back of Chi Yao’s hand.

“Yao Yao.”

Chi Yao: “Hmm?”

Jing Xi’s voice was very low: “Zhang Sheng might be your—”

Before he finished, his mouth was suddenly covered.

Chi Yao lowered his eyes looking at him, chuckling lightly: “What do you want to say?”

Jing Xi: “…”