Helpless against the mutated cyan python with his current strength, Yunhai had no choice but to return to the cave dejectedly.
The Lynx and Porcupine aliens were still nowhere to be seen. They had been gone for almost half a day, but the profound mental connection was still there. At least he was certain that they, the most combat-capable of all the aliens, were still alive, which put Yunhai's mind at ease.
The Queen had laid quite a few more eggs, densely packed all over the ground.
Sweating profusely, she had been laying eggs for several days. Perhaps she had gotten used to it. In his mental perception, at least Yunhai couldn't detect any more painful emotional fluctuations from her.
Now, Yunhai felt that her egg-laying was completely like a hen laying eggs, perhaps even easier.
[Comment]
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There were some more hosts in the cave, all kinds of mutated small creatures, but none of the mutated beasts that Yunhai was hoping for.
The excess host corpses and empty eggs were gone, obviously devoured by the Queen. He estimated that adding these, including the recyclable energy, would be enough to make up for the Queen's physical depletion during egg-laying.
Opening a bag of charcoal, he poured some on the ground, then poured some high-proof liquor on it and lit it with a lighter.
The porcupine quills he had collected earlier came in handy. Opening a bottle of water and washing them clean, Yunhai soaked them in some more liquor.
Not just for disinfection, but thinking about the porcupine's slovenly appearance, Yunhai felt a little disgusted. Doing this was just to make himself feel more comfortable.
The host rabbit meat that he had deliberately saved from yesterday was still there. Yunhai took out a boning knife and cut it into small pieces, rinsed it with water, then strung them together with porcupine quills and slowly roasted them over the fire.
Snapping his fingers, a messenger who received his mental command quickly ran over and brought a bundle of beer.
Opening a bottle, Yunhai took a gulp of half the bottle, feeling a burst of refreshment all over his body.
Grease dripped from the meat onto the charcoal, sizzling and emitting a fragrant aroma.
Opening some salt and seasonings, Yunhai sprinkled them evenly on the meat. After waiting a while, estimating that it was cooked, he began to eat heartily.
He couldn't even remember when his last proper meal was.
Something that was so simple before the apocalypse was now so precious and luxurious.
He didn't know if others were still alive, but even if they were, Yunhai believed that such a cave barbecue and a few bottles of beer would be enough to drive them completely crazy.
Tough and chewy, a bite of fragrant grilled meat, a sip of ice-cold beer, Yunhai felt like he was happier than an immortal.
Taking advantage of the rare leisure, he just wanted to find a feeling of living like a person. After a few skewers of grilled meat, feeling comfortable all over but not quite satisfied in his heart, Yunhai wiped his mouth and walked towards the nearby fungal carpet.
The area covered by the black fungal carpet hadn't increased much, mainly because the aliens that were born were basically constantly on the move.
If they were all guarding the Queen, the fungal carpet formed by the constantly secreted mucus, if not covering the entire huge cave, would at least cover a small half of it.
Sitting on the fungal carpet, Yunhai closed his eyes, eliminating all distractions from his mind.
His breathing was steady, and his mind was as calm as water.
In the space, some indescribable energy flowed into his body more quickly.
Passing through his skin, entering his flesh and blood, and through his bones, in the three-dimensional image formed in Yunhai's mind, the black energy, like silk and mist, floated from the starlight-like spots, and finally entered the blue Alien Mother imprint in his heart.
On the deep blue imprints, black light flowed endlessly, full of agility, setting off the Alien Mother imprint as if it were about to come alive.
Without noticing any obvious improvement in his strength or physical fitness during this process, Yunhai, who would do this during his leisure time, felt more that his mental power was stronger.
He still couldn't determine how to define mental power, but Yunhai could clearly feel that after each "practice," whether it was his xenomorph-enhanced senses or his own senses, all of this was slowly improving.
He couldn't say for sure who deserved the credit.
If it was the Alien Mother, then after these few days of "practice," the starlight spots surrounding the Alien Mother imprint were brighter.
If it was the starlight spots, then the xenomorph-enhanced senses, mental control, and communication were all abilities of the Alien Mother.
Yunhai became more and more confused.
He stopped thinking about it for the time being. All the aliens were working hard for reproduction, and Yunhai naturally wouldn't be idle. As long as he could improve his abilities, he wouldn't slack off, no matter what it was.
Time passed slowly, and the Alien Mother imprint on his heart became more agile as more black light flowed into it.
Suddenly, a strange intuition appeared. Yunhai suddenly felt that this strange imprint seemed to bring him a huge change.
He couldn't say what it was, but he could only be sure that the change would be complete.
"Could it be..."
A terrible thought flashed through his mind, and Yunhai's heart surged, unable to calm down for a long time.
At this moment, feeling an anomaly in the mental connection, he opened his eyes and looked at the dark cave opposite him.
Huge figures appeared at the cave entrance. The Porcupine and Lynx aliens led a large group of messengers rushing over.
"Huh!"
His gaze fell on the monster held in the forelimbs of the Lynx alien, and Yunhai couldn't help but be stunned. He quickly stood up and ran over to take a look.
It was a strangely shaped creature that looked more like a beetle.
The thick carapace was pure black, and the body length was about one meter. The head grew a pair of inwardly curved mandibles, like a pair of sharp scythes exceeding thirty centimeters.
More tiny mandibles were distributed on both sides of the mandibles and mouthparts. Its neck was slightly slender, and the oval back carapace looked very hard.
The six long legs were covered with steel needle-like fine hairs. The strange insect twitched from time to time. Yunhai looked at it carefully for a long time, only feeling that it was somewhat similar to the tiger beetle he had seen, but he couldn't find the existence of wings under its carapace.
Held tightly in its forelimbs, the Lynx alien's hind limbs were constantly dripping green blood. Not ignoring this, Yunhai walked behind it and was dumbfounded.
The Lynx alien's strong hind limbs had been clamped with a laceration. The green blood dripping on the ground was actually corroding a hole in the ground. In the "sizzling" sound, green smoke rose straight up.
"No wonder the Queen dared to eat obviously poisonous centipedes. It turns out that alien blood has such amazing corrosiveness. How terrifying!"
This discovery made Yunhai overjoyed, even more joyful than the Lynx and Porcupine aliens bringing back a seemingly excellent host.
As if feeling no pain, the Lynx alien walked forward holding the mutated strange insect. An alien egg opened, and a facehugger ejected like an arrow, landing on the Lynx alien and quickly climbing towards the mutated strange insect.
"All along, facehuggers have been parasitizing mutated mammals. Can this mutated insect be parasitized?"
Yunhai was curious and walked over to take a closer look.
Not knowing what kind of serious injuries it had suffered, half of its six sharp limbs were broken, there were cracks on the hard carapace on its back from being pierced by sharp objects, and a large number of spiracles on its chest and abdomen were constantly oozing yellow blood.
Almost like it was dead, except for the occasional spasm like a nerve reaction, the strange insect's mouthparts were tightly closed and motionless.
The facehugger seemed a little confused at first, climbing up and down the mutated beetle several times. The fleshy and sticky tentacles lifted from its abdomen, but it could never reach into the mutated strange insect's mouthparts.
"Hiss..."
The Lynx alien's huge mouth trembled, and its slender tailbone silently lifted up. The sharp tip of its tail probed into the mouth of the mutated beetle, and then twisted it violently.
Yellow blood gushed out of the mutated beetle's mouthparts. The comatose mutated strange insect's body suddenly tensed, then relaxed, and then there was no more movement.
The facehugger couldn't wait to climb up. From the pink and sticky gap in its abdomen, a tentacle suddenly probed out and directly stabbed into the mutated strange insect's mouthparts.
"That works too!"
Watching the blood constantly dripping from the mutated beetle's mouthparts, and the facehugger, which had stopped moving, its sticky body stiffening at a speed visible to the naked eye, Yunhai was somewhat dumbfounded.
Next was a long wait. In six hours, the first mutated insect alien would be born.
Yunhai was very much looking forward to what kind of insect alien would be brought to him by parasitizing an insect that was so sturdy and could even injure the Lynx alien.
He fully believed that as long as this insect alien was born and molted to grow, the action of hunting the mutated cyan python could be put on the agenda immediately.
PS: I wish everyone a happy Children's Day. Whether the age is right or not, keep a childlike heart to live a happier life.