Ding Yi's team had already set off before others had a chance to, as their bounden duty was to protect Li Yuxin. Immediately after, Aeolus and Ling Feng squads also rushed out without any hesitation. Their cars fumed thick black smoke, speeding all the way in hot pursuit after Jiang Liushi's minibus.
Hou Dingkun, who was sitting on his heavy truck, couldn't help but look at Lu Changyang on his heavy truck. He already had a glum expression because his brother had just reprimanded him, and when he noticed Hou Dingkun looking at him, he felt annoyed.
"Let's go! Keep up with my brother!" Lu Changyang roared.
"Shi Can Squad, you will all stay here to kill and collect all the injured mutant beasts. We have to help the Shi Ying Squad keep what they earned. Everyone else, follow me! We are going to the beast nest!" Hou Dingkun also shouted.
Tall green trees with thick foliage and densely-packed green vines covering the land and various buildings could be seen everywhere. White snow, which was filtered by dense tree crowns and vines that traversed the space above the forest, heightened the forest. The dark forest's ground was full of weeds and covered by a thick layer of blood lichens.
It was eerily silent, but it did not last long as a large group of frenzied mutant beasts, and minibus chasing after them, traversed the dark forest in the middle of the night.
The minibus was moving in the dark, narrow forest and bulldozed everything standing in its path. It had knocked down many trees, but some of them had sturdy stumps, which were like thresholds of bluestone, and they made it tremble violently with every impact. Hence, they slowed down the minibus a lot.
'The MCV's explosion-proof tires were damaged. Some of the small split airbags were destroyed. The tires' efficiency has been reduced by 25%.'
'Collision ram's damage has increased to 30%.'
'The Collision function's effect has been reduced.'
Starseed's ceaseless notifications sounded in Jiang Liushi's mind. Actually, he was not surprised about the extent of damages, but what made his heart ache was that the Collision Ram had received 30% damage. It was distressing to see one of his powerful weapons like that. This time, he paid a really high price!
However, he decided to repair it without a second thought. He used the robotic arm to pull out from the ram more than 20 mutant beasts' horns, spikes, and antlers. The ram's structure was a complicated combination of a large number of alloys, so many of the rare metals stored in the MCV's storage space had to be sacrificed to repair it.
Fortunately, they had gotten plenty of rare metals in Pan Zhu City. Naturally, Jiang Liushi had taken the decision to hunt the mother beast because of the rare metals' stock in his storage space.
It was finally the humans' turn to pursue and hunt the mutant beasts!
'Repair Collision Ram, explosion-proof tires as well as the main body of the compartment alloy. Replenish diesel...' Jiang Liushi ordered in his mind.
In Jiang Liushi's minds, the MCV's holographic structure, as well as the damaged parts structures, had appeared, and he could also see the consumption rate of the stored resources to repair the MCV. What made Jiang Liushi agitated was the diesel's high consumption. Thankfully, he had stored a lot of diesel, so he did not have to worry about running empty for the time being.
About an hour later, while still chasing, the minibus had gradually reverted to its former state and looked as good as new.
"Uh?" Jiang Liushi suddenly discovered that the direction in which the mutant beasts were running was inconsistent with the direction that Hou Dingkun had given.
According to Hou Dingkun's intel, the beast nest was located on the east side of Yangchang County. But this group of mutant beasts, which was under the mother beast's orders, was running northeast.
'The mother beast is on the move!' Jiang Liushi thought for a moment and verified his conjecture.
'It seems that Hou Dingkun's plan is no longer plausible. Since the mother beast has left the beast nest, we just need to follow it,' Jiang Liushi said to himself.
"Brother Jiang, Lu Changfei has caught up with us!" Suddenly, Ran Xiyu's voice sounded.
Jiang Liushi was startled, and he looked at the front mirror. He saw a muscular man, whose body was emitting a dark metallic luster, sprinting through the forest and approaching his minibus. Naturally, the muscular man was Lu Changfei.
Although the minibus was powerful, it could not show its full power in the forest. However, Lu Changfei was quite different. It was not an exaggeration to call him a humanoid tank.
On a closer look, several dark metal blades protruded from Lu Changfei's skeleton, and his body was covered with countless sharp sword-like scales. Whether it was vines or any other obstacle, they would be slashed apart or smashed under Lu Changfei's body.
'Lu Changfei is a dual-ability paranormal!' Jiang Liushi realized after seeing Lu Changfei's current form. It seemed that his real power was far stronger than Jiang Liushi had imagined.
Jiang Liushi had already met a dual-ability paranormal, Chang Shengkai, and now, Lu Changfei was the second one.
'Boom!'
Lu Changfei's legs were like powerful springs, and he shot forward from a big tree and appeared next to the minibus.
"Jiang Liushi, your car is cool indeed!" Lu Changfei said coldly.
Jiang Liushi heard what he said and responded coldly, "Thanks."
"Do you intend to find the mother beast? It belongs to me!' Lu Changfei said again.
"We can compete for it!" Jiang Liushi answered while looking at Lu Changfei.
"What qualifications do you have to compete with me?" Lu Changfei laughed loudly and then he jumped forward like a meteor. He appeared in front of the minibus and rushed as fast as possible.
After some time, he jumped again, and he landed on a mad mutant buffalo's back. The mutant buffalo was enraged and started jumping like crazy to shake him off. Lu Changfei didn't sit idle and grabbed the buffalo by its horns, and no matter what it did, he remained on its back as firm as a rock. Then, a sharp razor blade was extended from the back of his hand, and he stabbed its head slightly. Blood covered the mutant buffalo's eyes, and it dashed at a speed several times faster than usual due to pain.
"This man is amusing," Ran Xiyu said while staring Lu Changfei's figure.
"He wants to battle it out for the level-5 mission. Unfortunately for him, we will be the ones who will succeed in the end!" Jiang Liushi smiled as he was not worried about the outcome at all.
Presently, Ran Xiyu's spiritual vision could cover an area of four kilometers, and every movement within it. Naturally, Jiang Liushi could also perceive everything through the shared vision. Currently, he could see several dazzling red spots, which were obviously mutant beasts, gathering quickly at a certain location.
The mother beast had not only summoned the beast they were chasing after, but also the ones in the blood lichens' vicinity.
Lu Changfei had already forced his way in the center of the group of mutant beasts, but Jiang Liushi estimated that he would soon suffer a lot, no matter how powerful he might be.
After seeing all that, Jiang Liushi slowed down the minibus and made a sudden but perfect turn.
'Boom!'
The minibus crushed a large piece of decaying black roots on the ground, advancing in the other direction. Jiang Liushi's purpose was very clear- they had to find the mother beast as soon as possible. However, he did not want to directly enter the mutant beasts' encirclement and be attacked too. Although he was not afraid that his minibus would get destroyed, the cost of repairing it would be extremely high. In this post-apocalyptic world, wasting resources was simply a crime.
At that moment, Jiang Liushi suddenly heard the sound of breaking glass. With a single thought, the storage space appeared in his mind. The mutant egg, which was originally placed within a glass box in the storage space, had frown to the size of two basketballs, and thus, the glass could not handle it and was shattered in pieces.
Two dark circles resembling compound eyes had appeared on the egg, while a black hardshell exuding a hint of metallic sheen was slightly exposed.
'The mutual queen's egg resonance has become more intense,' Ying notified Jiang Liushi through their mental connection.
'What?' Jiang Liushi became excited after hearing Ying's words and wondered why that had happened.
'Fifteen kilometers to the northeast, an unknown and massive source of energy is approaching,' the notification of Starseed sounded.
After receiving it, Jiang Liushi was 100% sure that it was the mother beast. Generally speaking, Starseed would not notify him of any usual sources of energy.
At that moment, the blood lichens dazzled once again in Ran Xiyu and Jiang Liushi's shared spiritual vision. The overwhelming blood lichens once again conveyed the spiritual will of the mother beast.
'...return, fusion…turn and attack...' Ran Xiyu concentrated and carefully comprehended the vague meaning of the spiritual will.
Jiang Liushi shuddered when he heard Ran Xiyu's words. If that were the case, then things would take a turn for the worse.
'Received external resonance reactions…'
'Received external resonance reactions…'
The notification of Starseed once again sounded in Jiang Liushi's mind.
'Duang! Duang!'
In the storage space, the mutant queen's egg was struggling crazily and hitting in all directions. Fortunately, there was a pile of mutant meats and a few tough materials, so its struggle was futile. However, that behavior made Jiang Liushi certain that the mutant queen's egg was related to the mother beast.
The mother beast, which had previously attempted to flee, had actually changed its mind because of the presence of the mutant queen's egg. It was self-evident that the mutant queen's egg was important to the mother beast.
'...return, fusion… This means that the mother beast wants to devour the mutant queen's egg!' Jiang Liushi thought. Although he just knew little about the mother beast, he trusted Ran Xiyu's ability.
"Brother Jiang, a large number of mutant beasts turned their direction, and they're rushing over to our side at a fast speed." Ran Xiyu looked up suddenly with a pale face. In her vision, about 100 mutant beasts were rushing toward them. It could be regarded as a small beast tide.
"We should leave this forest as soon as possible," Jiang Liushi said and rushed to the other direction immediately. The thick explosion-proof tires banged back along the crushed blood lichens in the dark forest. Jiang Liushi believed although it sounded ridiculous, that the mother beast would chase them to get the egg in his car.
"Brother Jiang, several mutant beasts are approaching us. They are aggressive!"
"It's nothing we can't deal with!" Jiang LIushi responded.
'Activate the Accelerate function!'
The accelerate function may consume a lot of diesel every time it was initiated, but Jiang Liushi did not have the luxury to be a miser nor would he put their lives in danger. In such a dark, narrow forest, it was very inconvenient for his minibus to fight, so Jiang Liushi wanted to pick a good spot as a battlefield.
About a quarter of an hour later, just out of the woods, the front headlights of the minibus illuminated the whole road. Jiang Liushi saw the fleets of Eagle Guards and Aeolus Squad far away.
Ding Yi couldn't help but feel excited after seeing the minibus again. They had been following the tire marks on the crushed blood lichens along the way, so they had a hard time keeping up with the Shi Ying Squad. However, they had never expected that they would actually turn back.
Qi Liang was also very excited. He wondered whether Jiang Liushi was coming back to bring them with him.
Before they could even talk, Jiang Liushi stretched his head out the window and shouted, "Ding Yi, Qi Lang, and Little Seven, all of you drive your heavy trucks in a row and get off. Unload all the weapons and ammunition you have, and use the vehicles as cover to attack! A large number of mutant beasts will be coming here shortly!"
"What?"
Hearing Jiang Liushi's words, Ding Yi, and the others fell in a daze for a few seconds.
At that moment, Jiang Liushi's minibus completed a perfect drifting maneuver, and the minibus' front was pointed at the dark forest's entrance.
"It's too late to explain! Do what I told you as fast as possible because the mother beast is on its way here too!" Jiang Liushi added.
That piece of information was like a thunderclap piercing their ears. They were all shocked, but they soon appeared excited. They all knew what the mother beast represented- it was the primary task of the level-5 mission!
They all started acting quickly and immediately jumped out of their vehicles with rifles and cartons of bullets in hand. They could all tell how agitated Jiang Liushi was, so they had to prepare for battle!
Currently, even Ding Yi's attitude toward Jiang Liushi had changed, and he did not doubt his words or made unnecessary questions, but instead, he quickly connected the modified armored vehicle with the other heavy trucks. Not only that, but he also brought out powerful weapons such as rocket launchers, which attracted the envious looks of the Aeolus Squad and other members.
Zhang Hai and Sun Kun also got off the minibus with shotguns to join Qi Liang and Little Seven.
All the heavy trucks had been arranged in a defensive formation, providing cover.
At that moment, the ground started trembling slightly. The tremors only grew stronger as time passed, and at the end of the rumble, it seemed as if countless drums were stamping on their hearts.
Deep in the forest, Lu Changfei was frowning as the peculiar situation puzzled him. Lu Changfei's blood was boiling, and his battle intent had been ignited. However, he had never expected that the mutant buffalo, which he was sitting on, would actually return to the direction from which the group of mutant beasts had fled. Moreover, the other mutant beasts were also acting the same way, chasing the clear traces of Jiang Liushi's minibus.
Only now did Lu Changfei realize what was happening. When they were about to rush out of the forest, he suddenly heard incredibly weird sounds coming from behind. As a mature level-2 paranormal, Lu Changfei's five senses were far more sensitive than ordinary people. Even in the thick darkness, he turned around and still picked up a dark red shadow in a very distant place.
'The mother beast?!'
Lu Changfei felt ecstatic, but he suddenly heard a familiar sound. It was the sound of a rocket launcher which had just launched the projectile! He suddenly snapped out of his ecstatic state and looked ahead to see a large amount of billowing smoke in the darkness. A rocket had been fired in his direction!
"F*ck!" For a split second, Lu Changfei and Ding Yi cursed at the same time.
Lu Changfei felt his life was in danger, so he naturally cursed. But Ding Yi cursed because he only saw Lu Changfei after launching the rocket and felt perplexed as to why he was amongst the mutant beasts' group. And on top of that, he was even sitting on a mutant buffalo's back!