Star Hunter.

Chapter 119 Bird of Paradise

Inside the main hall, Emus watched the images on the projector in his hand. Karanio had indeed refrained from using ranged attacks, and even his aircraft and fighters hadn't been used to breach the hall's energy shield. This was largely thanks to the parasites that Xilin had planted, which disrupted the fighting capabilities of those in the area and bought them time.

"Karanio should send people to transport the energy-absorbing weapons from the armory now. If the energy-absorbing weapons arrive, no amount of energy ore will last long." Emus operated a control panel that popped up on his arm. "I've jammed the ranged weapons and some of the weapons on the aircraft. There's nothing I can do about the rest. We have about twenty minutes left."

"Where are their armories?" Sirin asked.

Emus zoomed out on the map on the projector and pointed to a spot on it, "Here, in the Red Desert region."

"The Red Desert region?"

"Yeah, it's called the Red Desert because the sand is red. In fact, most of this planet is a red desert. The radiation in the red sand is very strong. Even a person with a B-grade gene wouldn't live past forty if they lived in that environment. So I either don't go out, or I spray a protective liquid on my skin every time I go out. That's why they look down on me." Emus shrugged. "Even the strongest genes aren't worth the risk. I'm not like those lunatics from 'Fang' who don't value their lives. In fact, I'm quite afraid of dying. I've been infiltrating 'Fang' for so long. If you guys can successfully wipe out 'Fang' this time, I can go back smoothly. A bright future awaits me. I'll be promoted to colonel, and maybe even general before I'm forty. I haven't really enjoyed myself in these past twenty years. I don't want to be sentenced to death so young."

Xilin thought for a moment and said to Emus and Vaching, "Shrink the area protected by the energy shield a bit. You stay inside the energy shield, I'll go out. If Karanio's energy-absorbing weapon can't be delivered here, you'll stay inside until the energy blocks run out." Xilin pointed to the four semi-circular objects. The energy ore inside should last for about twenty hours, and by then it would be about time, and there would be no need to replace the energy blocks.

"You're going out alone?" Waqing frowned. Although he was still somewhat weak, he was not incapable of fighting.

"That's enough. You'll only die if you go out."

Although Xilin's words were harsh, direct, and hurtful, neither Emus nor Waching refuted them. They thought of the "bird of paradise" that Xilin mentioned. Although they didn't know what it was, it should be much more dangerous than those parasites.

"Aren't you afraid I'll do something bad to Vice Captain Waqing?" Emus laughed.

"It's alright, I saved you the 'Bird of Paradise'."

"No, please don't! I promise I won't harm Vice Captain Waqing, okay?" Emus raised his hands to show his determination.

"If everything goes smoothly, you can go directly back to the military headquarters. This can be considered a collaboration."

"make a deal!"

Emus adjusted the energy shields one by one, letting Xilin go out. When he was adjusting the outermost energy shield, the moment it opened, the people secretly watching outside aimed their fire at Xilin, who was not protected by the energy shield. However, Xilin was faster. He disappeared from the hall in a few flashes. The light bullets hit the surface energy shield and splashed up tiny ripples, but only on the surface. The three inner energy shields remained unmoved.

As Xilin disappeared from the main hall, Emus, chin in hand, asked Vaching, "Xilin has a lot of influence in your Vanguard Sixth Fleet, doesn't he?"

Waqing remained silent. After learning that Amus was a member of the military, he didn't want to say anything. The military and the hunters had always disliked each other and had done a lot of things to trip each other up in secret.

  

Suddenly, Waqing's gaze sharpened, his face slowly turned pale, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, as if he had seen something terrifying.

Emus followed Vaching's gaze and felt a chill run down his spine to his head.

Although there was an energy shield separating them, the distance wasn't far enough to see the situation inside the main hall beyond the four layers of energy shields.

The bodies of the men with the long braids, killed by Amus, were not moved; they remained in their original place. This was the cruelty of "Venomous Fang"—there was no such thing as camaraderie among teammates. However, at this moment, both Amus and Vaching felt that what was even more cruel and disgusting than this were the tiny worms slowly crawling out from inside.

Watching the tiny, rice-grain-sized worms crawling out from various parts of Big Braid's body, Emmus felt his stomach churning. He wondered if he would have ended up like this if he hadn't taken the "insecticide" Xilin had given him. Emmus also felt that if he hadn't killed Big Braid and the others, they would still be alive when these worms emerged. This was a form of torture, both physically and psychologically.

The guards of "Venom" outside had obviously also noticed the situation here. They had been injected with suppressive drugs, but they were not truly effective drugs. Once the suppressive effect wore off and an effective drug had not yet been developed, they would end up in the same situation as Big Braid and his group.

At this moment, an inexplicable panic began to truly erode their minds.

"Venomous Fang," things have gone awry.

Although Aemus, Vachin, and the guards outside had lost sight of Xilin, Xilin had not actually left the hall. Instead, he had entered the upper section of the hall, which was separated by thick metal barriers. This was the original location of the Karani's throne, the place where the Skeleton King had fled.

The native beast remained lying beside the throne, seemingly asleep, but in reality, it had lost consciousness. Its resistance was clearly better than that of Big Braid and the others, and moreover, it wasn't dead yet, so no worms had emerged. Suddenly, the native beast began to tremble, and the first parasite crawled out, then a second, a third…

Seeing that the time was about right, Xilin flipped his hand and took out an oval ball the size of a quail egg from his leaf-patterned ring, the same one that the gray cat had spat out.

After the outer shell melted away, tiny worms, each about one centimeter long, were revealed inside. These were the "birds of paradise" that Xilin had mentioned.

The reason Xilin named them Bird of Paradise wasn't because they were birds. In fact, they were a type of semi-parasite, created by Xilin based on a parasite he extracted from a large fish deep within the river of that green planet. He added genes from several other cosmic parasites to better meet Xilin's requirements. The name "Bird of Paradise" came from a poem in one of Engie's diaries.

After releasing the little guys, Xilin left.

The birds of paradise seemed to have caught the scent of food, and one by one they pounced on the native beast. The newly hatched birds of paradise instantly tore the insects emerging from the beast's body to pieces and then devoured them. For these birds of paradise, this was undoubtedly an exceptionally rich feast. They ate heartily, their bodies growing larger and larger, swelling to ten times their original size in less than five minutes. Ten minutes later, they began to lay eggs. By then, the native beast was completely unrecognizable.