Chapter 67: You, just go with peace of mind!

In District One, on the wide street,

Zhou Yun leaned against the wall of a building alongside many believers waiting to receive baptism.

Leina curled up in Zhou Yun’s arms, frowning deeply, her forehead slick with sweat.

Since entering District One, Leina had begun using her precognition to probe the secrets of the Gene Thief Chieftain.

What did that emissary of the Great Devourer—the worm-god crouching in the shadows of the Undernest—truly intend?

Previously, Leina had been too far away to see anything but the pitch-black warp-shadows entwining it.

Now, sharing District One with the Gene Thief Chieftain, she was close enough for her visions to grow clear.

Leina shrank slightly beside Zhou Yun, as if in pain.

Zhou Yun pulled her closer, gently stroking her hair.

“Is your child sick?” came a hoarse woman’s voice.

Zhou Yun turned toward the source.

A middle-aged woman, head wrapped in a cloth, her face yellowed, sat beside him holding a child.

“Fever?” The woman lightly touched Leina’s forehead: “So much sweat.”

“She started feeling ill after entering District One—probably caught a chill on the way.”

Zhou Yun stroked Leina’s hair, feigning the look of a worried parent.

“Fathers like you just aren’t careful enough.”

The woman shook her head, pulled a synthetic cloth from her pocket, and wiped Leina’s forehead.

Then, from deep inside her clothing, she carefully withdrew a small bottle of purified water and pressed it into Zhou Yun’s hand:

“Make the child drink more—this is clean water.”

Zhou Yun nodded slightly in thanks.

He silently slipped the water into his fourth-dimensional pocket, confirmed it was safe, then gave some to Leina.

“Suffering ourselves is fine—it’s the children who suffer.”

The woman gazed tenderly at her child, whispering softly beside Zhou Yun:

“Your clothes look clean—you’re from the Undernest too, aren’t you?”

Zhou Yun merely nodded. The woman sighed and began speaking at length:

“My husband and I were devout followers of the Emperor—but after having this child, everything changed.”

“Everyone around us claimed this child was a mutant. But we’re faithful followers of the Imperial Cult—how could we give birth to a mutant?”

“They went mad. They killed my husband and wanted to burn my son alive. I ran—carrying my child, I ran and ran until I reached here.”

As she spoke, the woman lowered her head and pulled another bottle from her clothing, beginning to feed water to her child.

Zhou Yun glanced at the child in her arms.

The child’s forehead bore bony protrusions; its body was covered in chitinous armor like an insect’s.

A living human-shaped insect.

A Gene Thief.

Gene Thieves inject corrupted genes into hosts, causing them to conceive and bear blasphemous offspring.

The host itself becomes controlled by the offspring, transforming into a blasphemous lineage of the Gene Thieves.

This woman was exactly such a case.

“I entered the Administrative Tower. There were many followers of the Four-Armed God-Emperor there—highly mutated.”

A small insect vibrated its wings beside Zhou Yun, transmitting Meng Ge’s voice:

“I entered the Administrative Tower. The number of Four-Armed God-Emperor followers inside is not large.”

“They’re leading a group downward— the Chieftain must be there.”

Hearing Meng Ge’s words, Zhou Yun nodded slightly.

In this brief moment, he observed the Gene Thieves outside.

There weren’t many Gene Thieves outdoors.

What drew Zhou Yun’s attention most were several figures wrapped in heavy robes, as if hiding their appearances.

Beneath their robes, Zhou Yun glimpsed distorted claws, pincers, and a third arm.

Hybrid mutation beasts!

They were hybrid mutation beasts.

They were Gene Thieves with deeper mutations—their Tyran gene codes were more active, granting them terrifying weaponized limbs and acid glands.

Such Gene Thieves only emerged when the Hive Fleet neared, stirred by the Hive Mind.

The Hive Fleet was very near.

Zhou Yun stared at the few Gene Thieves, his brow furrowing.

Too few.

Why so few Gene Thieves?

Didn’t Meng Ge and Marquitt say the Gene Thieves had been urgently expanding?

After so much expansion, only this many?

And yet,

Zhou Yun looked at the woman beside him with a strange expression.

This woman and her child were clearly already infected by Gene Thieves—they had already received baptism.

Why were they still joining the queue, heading underground to the Administrative Tower to receive the Chieftain’s baptism?

Wait—

A suspicion stirred in Zhou Yun’s mind.

But this had never happened before—how could it be?

“Zhou Yun.”

The insect beside Zhou Yun vibrated its wings, transmitting Meng Ge’s voice:

“I’m entering the underground area—I should see the Gene Thief Chieftain soon.”

“The number of Gene Thieves along the way is not large. I think our chances are good.”

“.Meng Ge.”

Zhou Yun’s lips twitched. He lowered his voice:

“I have a suspicion—if it’s true—”

Here, Zhou Yun paused, recalling Leina’s warning:

Always be wary of Chaos.

“.Never mind. Go ahead with confidence.” Zhou Yun said to Meng Ge.

“Huh?”

In the underground area of the Administrative Tower, Meng Ge blinked in confusion.

He didn’t understand what Zhou Yun meant.

Meng Ge descended the spiral staircases, slowly moving with the crowded stream into the underground of the Administrative Tower.

When he passed through a doorway, the sight before him startled him:

Before his eyes, beneath the Administrative Tower, lay a vast subterranean palace.

The palace stretched over a hundred meters deep, stood over twenty meters high, supported by heavy metal pillars.

Hanging from the pillars were glowing phthorium lamps, casting an orange-yellow light tinged with blue.

The first thing Meng Ge saw in the palace was the towering metal spire at its far end.

The spire was built of black-gray metal, layered and entwined with complex cables and components like cryptic script.

At its upper-middle section, a circular ring three or four meters wide hung, its interior deep and dark, occasionally pierced by flashes of psychic lightning.

A gate! It’s a gate!

It’s a warp engine!

The warp engine—the very gate Marquitt and he had sought—was here!

If he could infect the Gene Thief Chieftain with his own corrupted gene sequence during the baptism, he could control the entire District One.

Meng Ge’s gaze settled on the alien demi-god coiled beneath the warp engine.

Today’s read count rose by seven hundred. Should’ve waited till Monday for the next round—I shouldn’t have gone live.

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(End of Chapter)