In a makeshift tent.
Chen Yutong used the equipment in the medical kit to draw blood from the lamb, then used a cotton swab to help her press the wound and applied medical tape.
Looking at the silent lamb, Chen Yutong touched her hair and praised her softly.
"You are very brave. When I was your age, I felt dizzy when I saw blood, let alone injections."
The praised lamb smiled shyly and said shyly.
"Actually... I'm still a little scared, but it doesn't seem so scary after seeing it more."
The whole building seemed to be soaked in a blood tank.
Not only blood, but also corpses. No matter how you clean it up, there are always some left.
When she just came up from the basement, she was almost scared to death. Even though she has adapted to it now, she still can't stand the suffocation in the air.
Watching Chen Yutong put the test tube containing his blood into a small silver square box, Xiaoyang asked in a low voice.
"... Can my blood cure those people?"
Looking at the various test parameters jumping on the display screen, Chen Yutong touched his chin and pondered for a long time, muttering to himself.
"... Not sure yet, but there is indeed some kind of antibody in your body that can inhibit the secretion of active enzymes by the Naguo hyphae, which will help us develop vaccines or antidotes against this type of special fungus."
Not all creatures will be affected by Naguo. A very small number of people do not have any reaction after eating Naguo. They rely on some antibodies in their bodies to inhibit the infection of Naguo hyphae and completely digest it with the digestive system. The probability is about one or two in ten thousand.
Xiaoyang is not the only antibody carrier in this settlement, but most of the other antibody carriers share the food with those who have not been brainwashed by Band 03 in the previous commotion.
Therefore, this little girl who carries antibodies and is lucky to survive is particularly important.
The mind interference device can brainwash the Nago addicts who enter the "wandering" state, and the combination of these two is the culprit of the Songguomu Farm tragedy.
If a vaccine or antidote that inhibits the growth of Nago mycelium can be developed, the brainwashing of the Torch Church on the settlements in the diocese can naturally be lifted.
Of course, material-level technology can only solve material-level problems, and spiritual brainwashing still takes a long time to repair.
The Torch Church's dominance over the local area is not entirely achieved through Nago. They use the ignorance of serfs under the plantation economy model to gain a large number of believers.
Rather than saying that their rule is achieved by Nago and mind interference devices, it is better to say that they have the conditions to do this after achieving complete rule.
Similar to the tragedy of Songguomu Farm, I am afraid that there have been more than one cases.
Looking at the big sister who was thinking about something with a solemn expression, the lamb asked curiously in a low voice.
"Is my sister a doctor?"
"Well... I don't think so," Chen Yutong thought for a while, and smiled, "My sister is not good at curing diseases and saving lives, but probably doing research."
"Research?" The lamb tilted his head.
"Yeah," Chen Yutong nodded gently, "Using existing knowledge to explore unknown puzzles, you can understand it this way."
The lamb nodded as if he understood.
I always feel...
She looks so amazing.
Although she still doesn't quite understand what the so-called unknown puzzles are.
Seeing the envy on her young face, Chen Yutong guessed what she was thinking, smiled and reached out to touch her hair.
"Do you want to learn?"
"Yeah!"
The lamb's eyes lit up and he nodded excitedly.
But perhaps because he thought that his abrupt request might cause trouble to others, his bright eyes suddenly dimmed again.
The lamb whispered shyly.
"Well. I don't know anything. Would it be troublesome to teach me... If it will cause trouble to my sister's work, forget it."
"How can it be troublesome? It's better to have an assistant."
Once she started talking, she couldn't stop. Chen Yutong continued with a smile.
"Here, although there are not so many rules and regulations as in the academy, we often see people who think about problems with their muscles... Although those people are not bad, some idiots are quite cute, but there are not enough people who can discuss problems. Such a big project is actually handed over to a newcomer like me."
Stroking her fluffy hair, she looked at her worried big eyes and said softly.
"And... Sister, I will become a grandmother one day. When that time comes, I will have to hand over my unfinished work to you."
The young face was rejuvenated with joy, and behind the joyful Tong Kong, there was a glimmer of hope that she had never had before.
In her past memories, no one had ever said such words to her.
Or to be more precise, no one ever thought she was an important person, not even she herself.
It didn't matter what she thought or did, as long as she played the role of a well-behaved and sensible daughter, a law-abiding hostage, and a playmate of the young lady... just like a vase placed on the windowsill.
But at this moment, she suddenly felt that her life had regained its meaning, and she no longer had to wait for the fate that had been arranged.
With a flushed face, the lamb nodded vigorously and said with determination.
"Well! When that time comes... leave it to the lamb!"
Although he knew that childhood dreams were always fickle, Chen Yutong did not say those cold words, but just smiled and touched her head.
"Well, come on!"
...
The door of the tent.
Chen Yutong walked out of the door curtain with the flushed lamb and patted her shoulder gently.
"Is it okay to go back by yourself?"
"Yes!" The lamb nodded seriously, "I remember the way."
Chen Yutong smiled and nodded, and continued.
"After you go back, you should explain it clearly to your good friend Yinyin. I think... those words may not be her original intention, and she may even regret those words now."
Hearing Yinyin, the little sheep lowered his head in depression, and whispered after a while.
"Yinyin... does she really not think that way?"
Looking at the little sheep who asked seriously, Chen Yutong thought for a moment and said.
"Humans are very complex creatures. They have many thoughts in a day, some negative and some positive... The words spoken when emotional may not be the most in their minds, but may just happen to be the thought that appears in their minds. So adults will control their emotions, and you are still children. It is normal that you can't control it."
When she said this, she smiled.
"After so long, Yinyin should have calmed down. As long as you communicate patiently, you will definitely resolve the misunderstanding."
The little sheep nodded as if he understood, and lowered his head gratefully.
"Thank you... I understand."
"Well, go ahead."
Looking at the girl who turned and left, Chen Yutong waved gently with an aunt-like smile on her face.
What a sensible and good child.
Suddenly I want to raise one...
Just when she retracted her gaze from the back of the lamb, a light cough came from the side, accompanied by a teasing ridicule.
"How did I become a fool who can only think with muscles?"
Hearing the familiar voice, Chen Yutong blushed and looked back at Lao Bai who was leaning against the pillar not far away.
"When did you come... Wait, did you hear it?"
Lao Bai said with a dry cough.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to, I just wanted to come here to ask what was going on, but I just heard it when I got to the door."
And this tent was set up in the patio in the center of the villa.
Even if he wanted to avoid it, there was no place to avoid it.
"I should apologize..." Chen Yutong said with an embarrassed expression on his face, "But I didn't mean any harm, I was just joking..."
"Haha, it's okay, I'm not the kind of petty man," Lao Bai grinned, and then said, "How is the antibody? Can it be used?"
Chen Yutong nodded, but shook his head slightly.
"Well, the phenomenon of inhibiting Naguo hyphae has been observed in clinical practice, but it may take some time to completely solve the impact of Naguo."
Lao Bai nodded and continued.
"Now? Do you plan to go back to the base?"
"Of course I'll stay here," Chen Yutong said without hesitation, "Although it's unexpected, there are the best experimental equipment here, and there are so many 'patients'. If you want to develop an effective vaccine as soon as possible, this is the best testing ground."
Lao Bai joked.
"It seems we have to stay here for a while."
Chen Yutong said a little embarrassedly.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Nothing, this is all we can do."
Grinning, Lao Bai paused for a moment, gradually put away his joking expression, and continued in a serious tone.
"But... I must make it clear to you that the danger here has not been eliminated. Although we repelled the joint offensive of the Torch and the Mutants, to a large extent they suffered from the lack of large-scale combat experience. It is hard to say what will happen next."
Chen Yutong nodded and said seriously.
"Well... I understand. If the situation is not right, I will follow the arrangement and evacuate from here."
"Then I feel relieved."
Lao Bai smiled and was about to say something else. At this time, the signal light on the inside of the helmet flickered slightly, and then the voice of his teammates came from the communication channel.
"Boss, about 500 meters from the north gate, there are two motorcycles approaching this side!"
Hearing the report in the communication channel, Lao Bai's expression immediately became serious, and he pointed his index finger at the helmet and asked.
"What color?"
"I can't tell what color it is... but it's obviously a person. Judging from the equipment, it looks like a local wastelander. But it's too strange to come here at this time."
The Songguomu Farm is not an open settlement to the outside world. Generally, merchants who are not familiar with it will not even approach it.
Many slave-hunting teams active in this area are controlled by the farmers here.
"Wait for me to come."
After hanging up the communication, Lao Bai looked at Chen Yutong.
"We have work to do here. I have to go to the entrance of the settlement immediately."
Nodding gently, Chen Yutong said with a smile.
"Well, you go and do it. Don't worry about me. I will tell you immediately if there is any progress."
"Contact me in time if there is any situation, or contact my teammates."
Leaving this sentence, Lao Bai did not stay and left in the direction of the manor.
At this moment, at the north gate of the Songguomu Farm, two motorcycles stopped on the side of the road, and two dusty men stepped off the car.
They carried rifles on their backs and ammunition bags on their motorcycles. If they came to visit at night in this outfit, they would be targeted in any settlement.
However, when they arrived here, no one came up to question them. Everyone at the door of the settlement had a heavy or numb look on their faces.
They dug a pit next to the farmland, pushed the bodies to the door with a cart, and then poured them into the pit and covered them with soil to bury them.
At first, Li Jinrong didn't see the bodies until he smelled the strong smell of blood and found the corpses piled next to the haystack.
Most of the bodies were in pieces, and many had been gnawed to pieces, as if they were snatched from the mouths of wild beasts.
His Adam's apple moved, and he couldn't say a word.
Xiao Yue, who was following him, was the same. His face became paler, and the corners of his mouth twitched for a long time before he squeezed out a word from his throat with difficulty.
"Damn..."
"What the hell happened here?!"
It was like...
Hell.
At this time, a power armor came out of the open door and stopped in front of him.
The visor of the helmet opened, and Li Jinrong saw the familiar face again.
"Old Bai."
Old Bai nodded.
"We meet again."
Li Jinrong looked around and took a deep breath.
"What is going on here?"
"It's the experiment of the Torch Church. Unfortunately, we were involved." Old Bai's face was a little gloomy, looking at the pile of corpses not far away, he said, "Originally, as long as we control the farmers here, we can dismantle the bombs buried here bit by bit, but they are one step faster than us."
Xiao Yue looked at him blankly.
"Experiment?!"
Old Bai: "About the mind interference device and the experiment of Naguo... You are from the south, you should have heard about what they did."
Li Jinrong's face was a little surprised, and he stood there for a long time, and then he continued to speak with difficulty.
"I've heard about it, but I haven't heard about the specific content of the experiment. The settlements in Haiya Province are more difficult to approach than the settlements here... Damn, what on earth do they want to do? What kind of experiment is this?"
He did hear about the experiments of the Torch Church. After all, those people did things without any concealment.
But seeing the thousands or even tens of thousands of corpses, he still couldn't imagine what kind of experiment they were doing.
However, the evidence was in front of him.
Not far from the pile of corpses, there was a fat giant like a hill, piled on the ground like a pool of rotten meat, emitting a rancid smell.
If he remembered correctly, it was a biological soldier transformed by the Torch Church using mutants, and the model seemed to be called Goliath.
Several people who looked like farmers were swinging pickaxes and shoveling the soil on the ground silently, intending to dig a large enough pit to bury it.
Fortunately, it is winter now.
Otherwise, the smell here would probably be much more impactful than it is now.
Old Bai was silent for a while, sighed and said.
"I am no less confused than you. I'm afraid that except for those lunatics themselves, no one knows what kind of heaven they are going to."
No one knows how much it will cost to get there.
After interrogating the executioner named Li Jie, he has completely understood...
Those guys are simply impossible to communicate with.
Li Jinrong squeezed out a sentence from his throat.
"...We must stop them."
Lao Bai nodded.
"We think so too. If we let them continue to rot, sooner or later they will drag everyone down...Today it is Jinchuan Province, tomorrow it is the river valley, and later the trouble will spread to who knows how far."
"We have our own troubles to solve. The wave that has not stopped for a century and a half is coming again soon, but our managers think we must do something."
"Let's talk about cooperation."
After speaking, he turned and walked towards the door.
Xiao Yue glanced at Li Jinrong standing next to him and asked in a low voice.
"What does he mean?"
Li Jinrong answered uncertainly.
"This is probably a signal of cooperation."
He really wanted to climb the big tree of the alliance. If they could get the help of the alliance, they could at least get a stable rear.
But he didn't expect the alliance to take the initiative to propose it.
Xiao Yue looked at him and said hesitantly.
"Would it be better to report to the organization?"
He knew that the boss suspected that there might be a ghost planted by the Torch Church inside the Iron Tower. Just like they would send spies to the church, the other party would naturally think of this idea.
Moreover, the Torch Church, which has a huge human and technical reserve, can make this matter more secretive and more difficult to guard against.
However, having said that, the two of them alone cannot represent the entire Iron Tower organization.
Besides, at least some people are still trustworthy.
Li Jinrong thought for a moment and shook his head.
"Listen to what they say first."
After saying that, he locked his motorcycle, handed his weapons to the soldiers on duty at the door, and followed Lao Bai into the settlement...
...
The long night was finally over.
When the sun rose at dawn, the Iron Heart finally arrived above the suburbs of Jinhe City, overlooking the ground like a towering fortress.
The birds and beasts hiding in the forest were all disturbed by the invincible power and ran away from it.
Not only the timid alien species were disturbed, but also the mutants hiding in the city.
However, they who did not know what fear was would not run away with their tails between their legs.
The foreheads hidden in the ruins were shining with green oil, and the grinning faces were only bloodthirsty and ferocious.
The only expression on that face was not fear.
They waved their weapons, even fired rifles at airships more than ten kilometers away, and shouted in a rough voice.
"Come over if you have the guts! Two-legged cowards!"
"Show your mutant grandfather how many heads you have that are worth chopping off!"
"%￥#@!"
"Ahhhh!"
Seeing that the airship did not respond, they simply turned around and grabbed a dozen skinny and ugly poor guys from the cages of the prisoners, and pushed them to the top of one of the buildings of the "Champion" Biopharmaceutical Research Institute.
This is one of the tallest buildings in the entire Jinhe City.
Ignoring the pleas for mercy from the men and women, they chopped off their heads with a knife, then hung them by their ankles with ropes and threw them outside the building, letting their blood flow down the outer wall of the building.
Like a scarlet waterfall.
The revelry mutants roared with excitement, whether they were bleeding, being drenched in blood, or just watching the excitement from the side.
For them, blood sacrifice of a few two-legged animals is both an entertainment program.
It is also a ceremony to pray for a "good harvest".
The captives who were locked in cages like animals were trembling, and their faces were full of fear without exception. Some even had no reaction and sat there with their eyes blank...
The airship just looked at them quietly, and then dropped the anchor chain.
Although the minions did not take a mere airship seriously, Garen, the leader of the tribe, still had a trace of surprise on his face when he saw the airship, and then his caterpillar-like eyebrows frowned solemnly.
He finally knew what happened last night.
But he didn't understand why the alliance would go to war at this time.
The apostle of the Torch Church told him personally that once winter is over, Qingquan City will experience an unprecedented wave.
The Alliance should be preparing for war at this moment.
Logically, there is no way to stop their plan.
Standing behind him, Gomo, who was hunched over, said softly.
"Our allies hope that we can get rid of the Pinewood Farm... The Alliance's troops took over there, and the bishop suspected that they were doing something wrong, which might threaten their ongoing plan."
Hearing Gomo's voice, Garn's mouth opened with a cruel grin.
"He still has the nerve to ask us, don't they plan to explain what happened last night?"
Gomo sighed softly.
"He apologized for the accident last night. No one expected the alliance to react so quickly. Usually, those people would make a plan before taking action, but now they obviously sent people here first... In addition, the church will double the compensation for the prosthetics and weapons lost in the battle."
After hearing this, Garen's brows finally relaxed a little.
In the Qi tribe, strength is equal to status, and whoever has the bigger fist is the leader.
Therefore, those equipment that can make people stronger are much more valuable to them than those green-skinned consumables.
What the Qi tribe lacks the least is warriors.
They have been fighting since they were in their mother's wombs. They learned to hunt before they spoke, and they learned to eat people before they walked.
Each of them is a soldier.
But——
"Tell him I'll take the job, but it's not a good idea to leave the city now. At least wait until it rains or fogs up," Garn said solemnly, looking at the airship, "The barrel of the gun is like a hedgehog. I'm afraid we'll get beaten if we leave here."
There are shelters in the city, and without the guidance of ground troops, the damage caused by the artillery fire is quite limited.
But it's different on the plains.
Although there are large tracts of forest from Jinhe City to the Songguomu Farm in the eastern suburbs, there are at least one or two open open areas.
A dozen or twenty people may be fine, but a large-scale march of hundreds or thousands of people will definitely be seen, and then the failure of last night may be repeated.
Seeing Garn's concerns, Gomo smiled lightly and continued.
"Don't worry about that."
"The bishop has a way to get us in."