Why is my territory in a 2D anime art style?

Chapter 124 The Strange Reappearance of Parasites

On the fourth day after Erhu returned to his residence, the Blood Moon Rift reappeared after 17 days.

Looking at the rift that was only about 300 meters away from his territory, Sui Anxin breathed a sigh of relief.

This rift was only three meters high, and in terms of scale, it was about the same as when I encountered the rock golem, and even weaker than the one with the ice crystal giant.

"It looks like the interval is correct, and the size looks much more normal."

Erhu chuckled, patted the cannon emplacement beneath him, and let out a long sigh.

"Yes, I'm quite worried," Sui An said, leaning against the watchtower and putting down his binoculars.

"The source beasts that appeared this time were also very diverse, but the majority were just ordinary level two or three source beasts, so there shouldn't be any major problems. The source beasts that rushed in from afar were mostly common low-level source beasts, which looked no different from wild beasts, and the number of level three source beasts was not even the largest."

Because this rift opened very close to the territory, both the slow and fast runners rushed over.

As usual, Sui An sent out illusions to begin gathering source beasts.

But then a strange thing happened: most of the low-level source beasts ignored the illusion and charged straight towards their territory. This peculiar scene stunned everyone present. All eyes turned to Sui An, and Erhu asked curiously, "Why didn't your illusion work?"

A piece of information from a long time ago suddenly surfaced in Sui An's mind. A month ago, he seemed to have encountered a similar situation. At that time, there were only a dozen or so mantis source beasts that ignored his illusions.

"Focus fire first!"

Sui An and Wang Hu exchanged a glance; clearly, Wang Hu had also remembered.

It was that strange parasite that appeared once that night!

They can ignore the existence of illusions. Moreover, they parasitize a group of mantis-like source beasts, making the source beasts' movements more uniform and giving them a military feel.

The insects that were exposed when I blew my body apart that night had all died on the ground, but they miraculously disappeared the next day, so I forgot to ask them about it at the time.

I only remembered it when I encountered it again today!

Although the other three were somewhat confused, they still followed Sui An's instructions and began to operate the turret to bombard the area.

With six elemental stone statues and four gold-shattering cannons, the firepower had increased significantly compared to the previous rift. The source beasts that charged forward were quickly bombarded into pieces by the dense artillery fire.

Sure enough, the white parasite reappeared in everyone's sight, but it was quickly blasted into several pieces by subsequent artillery fire.

Erhu and Fang Si had clearly seen it too, but since it was their first time encountering it, they thought their eyes were playing tricks on them and were hesitant to confirm it.

When the second round of artillery fire came, they saw this scene again in the afterglow of the artillery fire.

When they both looked at the illusion not far away, there were still a small number of source beasts that had been attracted there.

Unconvinced, the two turned their fire towards the illusion, but after several rounds of bombardment, they didn't even see a single insect.

"What is this thing? Is it some kind of parasite that can control the actions of source beasts?"

The sound of the erhu came from the side again, tinged with deep doubt.

Sui An reopened the encyclopedia, trying to find information related to this type of source beast.

However, he had already flipped through most of the booklet when he was bored, and even if some details were unclear, he could still confirm whether such insects existed.

"As expected, there isn't one."

Putting the booklet away, Sui An looked at Erhu and Fang Si and asked loudly, "Do you recognize this kind of thing?"

"I've never seen this before. It doesn't look like a source beast. The insect is so thin, and there are no source stones inside it."

"I've never seen anything so peculiar!"

"Tiger and I saw it once a month ago. That time, it was a rift opened by someone else, and about a dozen mantis-type source beasts appeared. But this time there are too many, and the types are different too. It's a mix of all kinds of source beasts!"

As Sui An watched the corpses of the source beasts gradually pile up below the wall, his doubts deepened. This time, the number was much greater than before; in just four or five minutes, there were already two or three hundred below.

In the distant, illusory area, there were only a few hundred or so source beasts.

"Who cares what it is, as long as it can be killed!" Erhu Li grinned and kept manipulating the turret to bombard everywhere.

At first, he thought these source beasts would undergo some other changes, but he soon discovered that they were simply ignoring illusions and becoming more resilient. His head had to be blown off before the parasitized source beasts would completely stop moving.

"That's right, let's ignore that for now and focus our fire on clearing out the source beasts outside the wall!" Sui An shook his head, no longer considering what these things were.

Although the source beasts parasitized by these parasites seem to be immune to pain and will continue to attack as long as their heads are not broken and their bodies can still move, they are ultimately no different from ice demons.

At most, our own walls will be badly worn, but it's not a big problem; our own firepower is enough to suppress them.

Moreover, since the soul essence remains even after being killed, there is no difference.

Looking at his own detection station, he realized that this rift had opened almost at the edge of the detection range, meaning that basically no source beast could escape this range.

So far, not a single level four source beast has appeared. Logically speaking, this situation is not normal. Among so many level three source beasts, how could there be one or two level four ones mixed in?

But another five minutes passed, and still nothing happened.

In the twentieth minute, Sui An summoned a third illusion, which was still entirely composed of low-level source beasts, but the controlled source beasts gradually stopped appearing.

I estimated that about five or six hundred were under control.

In the twenty-fifth minute, the rift closed completely, but no intermediate-level source beast appeared.

"It's strange today, not a single level four source beast has appeared~" Erhu touched the hilt of his knife, clearly a little puzzled, but he didn't think much of it and waved to another direction.

"Come on, Tiger, I'll take you to clean up the loose pieces!"

"Alright!" Wang Hu jumped down with his big sword. Because of Sui An, he wasn't allowed to touch the Ice Demon, which left him quite idle.

It's time to practice my swordsmanship again.

Erhu and Wang Hu, carrying large swords, scaled the wall to clear out the remaining source beasts.

Sui An touched his head, feeling like something was missing.

"It's rare to see such a uneventful Rift; I'm almost not used to it~"

Fang Si, on the other hand, boldly went outside the wall, rummaged through the piles of source beasts, and found half of a blown-up insect. He examined it closely, but suddenly uttered something astonishing.

"These bugs don't look like real bugs!"

"What do you mean?" Sui An was a little confused. If it wasn't a real insect, could it be man-made?

"Look!" Fang Si held up a half-eaten insect with a straight knife, pointing it at the edge of the insect's body against the courtyard wall.

"Look, its body is slowly dissolving and dissipating!"

Sui An frowned and leaned closer to examine it, and immediately discovered that the edges of the white insect were gradually dissipating, like stones eroded by wind and sand.

No wonder I didn't see any of them the next day last time, and I even overlooked their existence.

So it all vanished overnight?

"How about letting Fang Nian try to refine it?" Sui An asked tentatively.

"this--"

Fang Si hesitated. He himself didn't dare to touch the thing directly, but instead stuck it up with a knife. He was a little worried about letting his sister get close to it.

Fang Nian, however, had already climbed onto the wall and looked over curiously: "Let me try it. I'm curious about what it is too."

The younger sister spoke up first, and although Fang Si frowned, she still climbed into the yard and placed the half-eaten insect on the ground.

Fang Nian released her energy in an attempt to envelop the half-insect, but she quickly widened her eyes.

"This thing seems to be a creation of source energy—"

"Why is it called a creation of source energy? It's clearly not alive!" Sui An asked curiously.

Fang Nian did not attempt to continue refining. The transparent source energy slowly dissipated into the air. She turned to look at Sui An and quickly explained.

"To put it simply, source beasts or professionals can indeed use source energy to shape and create all sorts of things. This insect is no exception. However, in addition to source energy, this insect's body also contains something special. It is this special thing that gives it characteristics similar to intelligent life."

"These kinds of things are usually called source energy creations by alchemists. They often have some special functions, and alchemists cannot refine them because their essence is the aggregation of source energy belonging to an owner."

Sui An seemed to understand but not quite, so Fang Nian thought for a moment and then explained it to Sui An in a different way.

"The bodies of recently killed source beasts usually contain a lot of flowing source energy. We can't extract this source energy, and it will slowly dissipate. But their flesh and bones are actually special materials that have been tempered by source energy. Alchemists can use them to extract special factors and synthesize corresponding source materials."

"This thing is essentially the same as the source energy flowing inside the source beast, only the form is different."

Upon hearing this, Sui An immediately understood. To put it simply, each person or source beast can only control the source energy within their own body. Even if they die, the source energy within their body cannot be controlled by others and will only dissipate.

"What kind of source beast could create this thing?"

"With this ability, wouldn't a single source beast be able to control an entire herd of beasts, and if they all obeyed his commands—"

As Sui An was talking, he suddenly remembered the domestic movies he had watched. Wasn't this thing similar to a Gu worm?

The reason why the Blood Moon Rift is both terrifying and not terrifying is because of that berserk buff, which forcibly reduces the intelligence of the source beasts. If these source beasts attack the territory in unison, even a normal territory cannot withstand it.

"Why do I keep encountering such strange and unusual things in my territory?"

Fang Si used a knife to pick out the half of the worm and said with a smile.

"This thing may appear in other territories as well, but they don't have your magical illusion, and you can't see any difference under the blood moon."

"That's true."

"The four vehicles carried a total of 32 tons of level-three source beast meat, which cost 2300 source stones."

Wang Zhen tore a list off the notebook and handed it to Sui An. He was about to take the source stones when Sui An stopped him.

"Keep these source stones for me. If anyone sells out of crystal source stones, just buy them for me so I don't run out of money!"

"That's fine too," Wang Zhen said, not really bothered. He put the notebook away, pulled Sui An aside, and whispered.

"Speaking of this material, I have some clues. I spent some money to find an appraisal master in the trading company. He is quite senior. The common material guide I gave you was compiled by him. He also has a deep understanding of intermediate materials."

"He saw this material in the appraisal room of the trading company a month ago, but that person thought his offer was too low, so he didn't sell it. I'm looking for that person now."

Sui An asked curiously, "How low is the bid?"

"The master said he would offer one thousand yuan."

"I wouldn't sell it for a thousand dollars. This is a mid-grade purple-quality material." Sui An shook his head, clearly feeling that the appraisal master's offer was too low.

"Is it still possible to find this person now?"

"There's a clue."

Wang Zhen replied with a smile, "Otherwise, why would I spend money? I'm spending money to buy this clue. Don't think that everyone in the business is tight-lipped. It might be difficult for outsiders to find out, but as long as it involves big shots, the people in our business are willing to talk.

"The person who asked him to appraise the item didn't try to hide himself, so the appraiser remembered some of the hunting party's characteristics on him. After all, it involves purple materials, so maybe some important person wants it."

Upon hearing Wang Zhen say he was somewhat confident, Sui An immediately beamed and pulled Wang Zhen aside, asking, "Then you're quite lucky! How much did you spend? I'll make it up to you!"

Wang Zhen waved his hand: "It's not much, just 50 yuan. It's not particularly important information. I'll calculate it for you later."

"By the way, regarding the Zhao family matter we discussed before, has there been any follow-up?"

As Sui An was chatting, he suddenly remembered what Wang Zhen had told him about Crescent City and the Zhao family after the Ice Fog Tide ended. Many days had passed, and he hadn't heard any other news.

When Sui An asked, even Wang Zhen was stunned for a moment. He tried to recall, but quickly shook his head.

"There's no follow-up. Crescent City is still fine. As for whether the city lord investigated or if anything happened in between, we don't know."

"So that's how it is?" Sui An found it somewhat unbelievable. The reputation of the city lord in Jiangcheng was well-known, but he didn't expect that this matter would just be left unresolved like this.

Zhao Yuan also told me to report to the city lord, but if I actually went to report it, I'm afraid I'd only be sent back.

Could Crescent City have some other background?

But what kind of background could prevent the city lord from stirring up trouble? It couldn't be the city lord's illegitimate son, could it?

Suddenly, Wang Zhen seemed to remember something and said softly, "Although Crescent City is fine, something has happened to your neighbor." "Neighbor?" Sui An was taken aback and almost blurted out, "The He family?"

"Not the He family~" Wang Zhen shook his head, seemingly sighing, and subconsciously grabbed the flagpole next to him, speaking softly.

"It's the territory of the Song and Chen families to the northeast of your home. Neither of them survived the Ice Fog Tide; they were completely wiped out."

"During this ice fog surge, four low-level territories, two level three territories, and one level one and one level two territories disappeared along Line 7. The losses are quite heavy."

"I actually guessed it was the Song family." Upon hearing the news about the Song family, Sui An was not surprised, after all, the transfer of the ice demon that night clearly foreshadowed the destruction of the Song family's territory.