The weapon refiner is not doing her job properly

Chapter 240 The Slaughterhouse (18)

Qian Rujin twitched her lips, suppressing the urge to discourage her teammates, and instead said, "They must have killed a lot of pig-headed men today, because the stench on them is very strong."

“We noticed that too,” one team member chimed in, his tone speculative. “They’ve been operating very stealthily…could there be something wrong with the meat itself?”

"It's extremely polluting; it's probably part of the Filthy Banquet Spirit. We were the ones who discovered it first, but they beat us to it. We were too conservative in our actions." Another person said with some annoyance. The others who heard this secretly glanced at Qian Rujin.

Qian Rujin was slightly annoyed, but he couldn't show it. He sighed heavily in his heart, thinking that the more he experienced, the more easily he would lose his way and become confused. He was no longer suitable to be the leader of these people.

Instead of getting impatient with hindsight and getting into a bad mood, it's better to take action first.

He added, "Their haste suggests they may have discovered something more important."

His expression was grave. "Don't forget, they have a Word Master in their team who might possess information we don't. Since they've started slaughtering the pig-headed men, we can't fall behind. We outnumber them, which is a huge advantage. We can split into two groups; those with higher resistance can follow me..."

After being teleported back to the rest room, Qian Rujin quickly issued a series of instructions, requiring the team members to cooperate in the operation and launch a counterattack and interception against the pig-headed men.

At the same time, Tong Zi returned to the lounge with Ying Gu. As soon as they entered, they heard a distinct snoring sound coming from inside.

Xuanxi turned her head with a long face: "Snoring... What should I do? Why am I talking like this? Is it a side effect of going to the factory manager?"

Zhao Piku covered his head and looked at Song Hu: "Are you alright?"

Song Hu checked his SAN value, which was just above the passing mark and was still slowly declining, teetering on the brink of collapse.

"I don't feel anything right now, but judging from my SAN value, I won't last much longer."

The overseer's fingernails and body tissues were highly corrosive.

I originally thought that what I needed to guard against was their weapons and immense strength, but it turned out to be their most insignificant ability.

After listening to Tong Zi's brief explanation, Xuan Xi understood what had happened, but he couldn't relax at all. Given his current "luck," if he were to turn into a pig, he would definitely be the first one.

"How about... you knock us out? See if that can delay the mutation a bit?" Xuanxi's voice was filled with trepidation. The eyeballs on his clothes were still recording everything in the contaminated area. He didn't want to leave behind such a dark history!

Tong Zi shook his head: "This kind of erosion is more like some kind of superpower or pathogenic infection. It's fast and urgent. The pig-headed man's pollution is not as strong as the overseer's."

"What should we do then? Snort!" Xuanxi felt a wave of shame and simply shut his mouth and stopped talking. His mind was becoming increasingly sluggish, his thoughts like being stuck in quagmire, unable to function.

Tong Zi and Zhao Piku were extremely anxious as they listened to the increasingly frequent squeals of the pigs, but they couldn't think of an effective solution. The most direct way was to immediately relocate them and have them handled by outside support.

But if she quits halfway, her and Zhaopiku's situation will become even more difficult.

Just then, Su Ninglong returned. She had just finished her "outing" trip.

As soon as she stepped into the lounge, she heard a continuous snoring sound and thought she had entered the wrong room.

After taking a closer look at their clothes, she frowned and asked, "You haven't recovered yet?"

Tong Zi had no choice but to briefly recount what had just happened. "Thank goodness you're back! Quick, help them with their resignations; they probably won't last much longer!"

For security reasons, the seals are all kept with Su Ninglong.

Su Ninglong watched them snoring with a smile and said, "You might be attacked after you leave the company."

"Given their current state, the only option is for them to resign first." Zhao Piku shook his head, wanting to laugh but managing to hold it in.

Song Hu was slightly better, only occasionally letting out a snore; but Ying Gu and Xuan Xi's eyes were darting around, almost unable to focus, clearly on the verge of losing control.

"Okay, let them resign first, and we'll see how things go." Su Ninglong quickly helped the three of them write their resignation applications and stamped them. "That should count as a successful resignation, right?"

If all else fails, we'll have to send it away.

She carefully observed their changes, and to her surprise, the pig-head features on the three faces actually began to fade, gradually returning to their original human faces.

The process was strangely magical. The pig heads on their faces seemed to shrink and wrinkle as if they were losing moisture, and finally, unwillingly, they turned into a wisp of black smoke and dissipated into the air.

The other three witnesses fell into deep thought, feeling a chill run down their spines. The black smoke had probably covered their faces as soon as they entered the contaminated area.

Once they fill out the onboarding form, it's equivalent to completing a secret "ritual".

Regardless of whether their work badges are pierced into their bodies, they will eventually be assimilated into the slaughterhouse because of this layer of black smoke.

"Have you guys noticed that the pig-headed people we've met seem to be divided into two factions?" Su Ninglong suddenly asked. "It's like an organization being controlled by two forces, each responsible for a part of the work, each doing their own job, but never getting close."

Her views were quickly accepted by others.

Having calmed down a bit, Song Hu was able to think things through and added in a low voice, "The attack patterns and styles of action are also completely different."

"If that's the case, do we need to investigate further?" Eagle Bone asked.

“There’s no time to hesitate,” Tong Zi said decisively. “Qian Rujin and the others must have discovered something yesterday. If we don’t gather as much information as possible now, it will be difficult to outmaneuver them.”

Zhaopiku sighed: "Unfortunately, the main body of the Filthy Banquet Spirit has not yet been found."

Xuanxi was puzzled: "Why is the teacher certain that the Filthy Banquet Spirit still has a 'main body' instead of distributing its power among each pig-headed man?"

"Those pig-headed men only showed half the strength they had in life at most. If the Filthy Spirit had truly given the clones more power, they wouldn't be hiding in their offices all day, refusing to move without 'bait.' They're too weak." Zhao Piku was quite familiar with the hunters who entered the contaminated area. "That finance pig-headed man was clearly one of the hunters; she originally had strength close to four stars."

"If she hadn't been severely suppressed, she could have killed someone silently with her shadow within a ten-meter radius."

To ensure the pig-headed men are constantly in a state of terror, their power has clearly been intentionally suppressed.

This is precisely why Su Ninglong is confident in dealing with the managers in the office, but unwilling to get too entangled with the supervisors.

The overseers had virtually no weaknesses. Yesterday, when she lured them away, she deliberately attacked from all angles with her Shadow Binding Silk, even severing their arms and disarming them, but she still couldn't find a breakthrough. The severed arms would turn into a wisp of black smoke and quickly revert to their bodies.

Su Ninglong gently tossed the Secret Agent Token back to her and said, "Let's rest today, everyone's had a long day."

Xuanxi volunteered, "I can't sleep, I'll take the night watch." He hardly participated in the operation that night, staying in the rest room on standby. Originally, he was there to deal with emergencies, but who knew that disaster would strike and he almost turned into a pig.

To avoid further risk, they spent the rest of the time quietly hiding in the dark.

Su Ninglong toyed with the Mysterious Token. In her current state, she could already block out those dark prying eyes and wouldn't fall into the previous hallucinations again. But at this critical juncture, it wasn't suitable to risk investigating the truth of the mysterious spirit within the token. Everyone was still in a "pig-headed" state and could easily fall into a trap.

The chunks of flesh crawling out of the corpses were so difficult to burn that even with spirit fire, they took a long time to dissipate, which was particularly troublesome. Was containment the only option?

Before I knew it, dawn had broken, and I was still pondering these questions.

Su Ninglong pushed open the door to the lounge.

The red light in the corridor had disappeared. She looked around and found that all the doors behind the No. 50 lounge were open, and the pig-headed people were lined up neatly.

Qian Rujin's gaze met hers, and several hunters also looked over.

Su Ninglong chuckled dryly and whispered to the people behind her, "We need to speed things up."

Tong Zi had expected this and was not surprised. She and Zhao Piku walked out of the room one after the other, and then the three team members who had just regained their human form also appeared calmly.

The hunters of the Shining Alliance froze in place. Because the Star Alliance had sent relatively few people, they had already memorized the appearances of Song Hu, Xuan Xi, and Ying Gu.

At this moment, the three people have completely returned to their original appearance. Could it be that they have had their heads swapped with those of humans and animals?

Come to think of it, it’s unlikely.

If one were to actually take that path, they would usually only sacrifice one person to test it out. The fact that they restored three at once clearly indicates they achieved their goal through other means.

Tong Zi greeted her with a smile, "Hi, are you guys up and about today too?"

Qian Rujin couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or simply asking a question, so he decided to focus on the task at hand. He had already distributed the specific instructions during the assembly, and now he simply commanded in a deep voice, "Proceed to your respective posts."

Tong Zi snorted coldly, having never liked Qian Rujin's behavior, and her smile vanished: "Let's go too!"

As soon as I left the corridor, a piercing bell rang throughout the area.

The pig-headed men in the break room poured out and numbly headed towards the canteen and work area, completely embodying the typical early-morning state of "oxen and horses".

Today, Su Ninglong has temporarily chosen to stay with her teammates.

When they slowly arrived at the slaughter area, several pig-headed men had already arrived.

Upon seeing Song Hu and his two companions, drool immediately began to drip from their mouths.

"Humans and beasts...living humans and beasts!" The pig-headed man lunged forward, but Song Hu used a "freeze" technique to hold him in place. Xuan Xi quickly stepped forward and swiftly severed its head.

"Just as expected." What was said came true; the pig-headed man was extremely aggressive towards "living people."

When the second and third pig-headed men pounced in succession, Tong Zi immediately ordered everyone to find a position that was easy to defend and difficult to attack. The pig-headed men would naturally gather around, drawn by the scent.

Su Ninglong suddenly had an idea: "Let's go to the livestock area."

Even someone as clever as Tong Zi was taken aback for a moment, but then she understood Su Ninglong's intention.

“We are outnumbered, and it will be difficult for us to defeat the Star Alliance in a direct confrontation. But the pig-headed people have a very keen sense of smell, so perhaps we can make use of those ‘live animals’.”

Tong Zi had to admit that Su Ninglong was indeed very suitable for this type of task. With her on board, efficiency always improved significantly.

In the livestock area, the "humans and animals" that originally had the faces of Song Hu, Ying Gu, and Xuan Xi were gone, replaced by three normal pigs. If one hadn't personally experienced the "resignation" and restoration, it would be easy to mistakenly believe that they had undergone head transplants to return to their original forms.

"This contaminated area... is full of traps." Having experienced the near-turning into a pig, Eagle Bone still feels lingering fear when he thinks about it.

The pollution in the livestock area was extremely severe, and only Su Ninglong could go in and drive the livestock out.

Without a word, Su Ninglong stepped forward and pushed open the gate to the livestock area. But she was a little careless; as soon as the door opened, all that was revealed was endless darkness.

For a moment, she was as if she had been pulled into another space: before her was a swaying human head and pig body, with incessant snoring that constantly tempted her to go deeper. For a fleeting instant, she almost lost her senses.

Upon seeing this, Tong Zi and Zhao Piku slammed the door shut. Unlike the illusion they had witnessed, what they saw were countless ferocious eyes and waving arms.

The Mystic Realm possesses an infectivity that is difficult for ordinary people to resist; even someone as powerful as Qi Shen may not be completely immune.

"It was my carelessness," Su Ninglong said softly, calming herself down.

“It’s not entirely your fault,” Tong Zi calmly analyzed. “You usually have very sharp hearing; you can hear what’s going on behind you even without pressing your ear to the door. This might be related to our current ‘pig-head’ identities. Moreover, this is a subspace inhabited by the Filthy Banquet Spirits, which overlaps significantly with the Secret Spirit Zone.”

"Opening the door completes the ritual" is a basic consensus among hunters, so everyone is subconsciously extra cautious. Given Su Ninglong's combat awareness, it's impossible for her to be completely unprepared subconsciously.

"Let's all resign," Tong Zi said seriously. "This idiot's condition is affecting our judgment."

She gave everyone time to consider, then turned to Eagle Bone to discuss setting up the trap.

To maximize his superpowers, Eagle Bone has studied various subjects, including explosives and mechanics. Tong Zi only needs to explain the desired effect, and Eagle Bone can immediately design a corresponding solution.

Before long, the passageway was filled with a considerable number of pink bubbles, scattered from afar.

For Eagle Bone, the "Spiritless Bullet" is the least energy-consuming ability, so he doesn't care about the amount used. The only difference is whether he controls the detonation or sets it to a timed explosion.

Su Ninglong eventually agreed to resign.

She couldn't face the Filthy Spirit while in her pig-headed state.

The Star Alliance is determined to win, and they might be able to end their battle with the Pig-Headed Men today and begin the real battle of the Mystic Spirits.

The moment the resignation letter was stamped, the slaughterhouse's rules took effect. Su Ninglong felt a distinct repulsive force emanating from the space, attempting to push her out.

She quickly placed a concealment talisman on herself, greatly reducing her presence.

The effect was immediate; the spatial repulsion stopped instantly, but this also brought a small drawback.

After setting up the trap, Eagle Bone looked back and couldn't help but wonder, "Where's Ning Long? She was just here a moment ago."

Xuanxi craned his neck and looked around, but his gaze kept missing the actual spot where Su Ninglong was standing.