Chapter 635: Crisis

Cough.... cough cough...

Accompanied by a weak cough, on Qi Yu's blood‑stained face, a pair of eyes slowly opened a slit.

Master....

Fortunately he didn't die; Zhang Jie heaved a huge sigh of relief—it seemed his blood was truly a great tonic for Qi Yu, and that mouthful directly revived her.

At the severed limb, flesh buds had already begun to wriggle, showing how terrifying Qi Yu's vitality is.

Are you alright?

Qi Yu panted heavily, her gaze toward Zhang Jie full of guilt.

I'm sorry... Master... I...

I need to... sleep for a while...

Don't worry... don't worry about me...

After Qi Yu finished speaking, everything on her body began to melt like cream, and the surrounding flesh fragments and insect limbs all turned into bodily fluid, flowing toward her.

Under Zhang Jie's astonished gaze, it slowly condensed into a small watermelon rind, a size larger than when Zhang Jie first saw her.

She curled up lightly, still with only three fingers on her palm.

Is this... reverting to her former state?

It should be that her injuries were too severe to fully recover, so she degenerated to her previous form and began regrowing.

Zhang Jie wrapped her in remnants of Qi Yu's clothing, then gave Lei Na a sharp look from not far away.

What on earth happened?

Lei Na explained everything that happened to you; you don't know who set this up, but you feel it's inseparable from that mysterious person.

Who is he? What does he want? Even if you wanted to say it was him, you're not sure, after all he's the one who brought you back.

I don't understand, but Qi Yu is like this now; it's said she was struck in the body by something of immense power, shattering her directly, and after firing that shot, the attacker seemed to encounter some repulsion, vanishing on the spot without delivering a follow‑up blow.

You silently memorized the appearance features of that person Lei Na described, and arranged for Qi Yu to stay in a new residence.

Fortunately, she seems not to have forgotten you; upon waking, she immediately clung to your finger with the claw of her remaining three fingers, refusing to let go.

The little creature's eyes held affection, unlike the dazed look of her childhood; this time Qi Yu's intelligence had clearly improved a lot, which put you more at ease.

After Qi Yu reverted to her watermelon‑rind form, her appetite became enormous again, but this time you didn't feed her pig feed; instead, anomaly.

Around here in the outer area, this stuff is everywhere—you can't eat it all—and Qi Yu's mucus‑worm body once again undergoes rapid growth, with changes visible almost every day.

But the only downside is that she's overly clingy, always wanting to stay by your side with that mucus‑worm‑like body; even if you lock her up while sleeping, it's useless—she'll still sneak out to find you.

At the same time, you heard the inner area had descended into chaos, especially the Star Bridge District; without you and Qi Yu holding the fort, the anomaly occurrence rate there surged nearly tenfold, and the Anomaly Bureau's casualty rate rose sharply.

The mimicry forces expanded rapidly, from merely surviving at first to later posing a threat, and now forming a power in just a few years—no one knows what this thing actually is.

Moreover, mimicry forces have also appeared on Azure Star; they had already slipped onto the second planet via transport ships, seizing a large territory belonging to anomalies and continuing to expand.

This thing... will likely become another major threat to humanity besides the anomalies!

You're worried; this world is truly awful—humanity not only faces the anomaly as a great enemy, but also all kinds of strange, mysterious things; I really don't know what humanity has offended.

Age 24: Qi Yu grew quickly—within less than two months she reached the size of a small cat; it seems the anomaly's nutrition agrees with her, and now she can even speak, calling 'Master, Master' all day.

Cough, but that's the only thing she can say—she calls for Master when hungry or thirsty, and nothing else.

According to Ceng Tian, the Anomaly Bureau's interior is now so chaotic that nobody wants to bother with you; the Chief named Chuan Xu Feng, for that reason, has stopped urgently pursuing you.

But from what he means, after this major reshuffle in headquarters, the eventual winner probably won't be favorable to you....

Only a Chief who possesses a fifth‑level will can free yourself from all this.

Ceng Tian's words over the phone were utterly helpless; his strength is at the bottom, even among Chiefs he's at the bottom, and the next Chief is nowhere in sight.

Just think back to when I was a child—humanity still had over a hundred Chiefs spread across the two major planets, and Cloud Star hadn't fallen.

What I fear most is this gap between generations; since becoming a Chief, nearly five years have passed without a new Chief appearing.

Zhang Jie:.....

So how exactly does one break through this fifth‑level will?

In my case, just as I told you before, once I understood what I should do, I broke through.

But everyone's heart is different; you.... I don't know.

Zhang Jie was speechless; after talking for half a day, it was all nonsense.

But actually.... deep in Zhang Jie's consciousness there is another method—he just doesn't know whether it works.

That is, go into the Super‑Intensity Forbidden Zone!

But although it's also Super‑Intensity, the highest intensity value inside this Forbidden Zone is under 200,000.

But everywhere on Cloud Star, the intensity can easily reach a million or more!

As for Zhang Jie himself, he doesn't know how high a contamination he can endure, nor whether the contamination he absorbs has a limit.

Ceng Tian, honestly, do you have a way to get me onto Cloud Star or Azure Star?

I can absorb contamination to grow stronger—you know that—and I want to... test my limits.

The other side stayed silent for a long time—long enough for Zhang Jie's mind to wander, long enough for Qi Yu to lick his finger with her sticky tongue—before they answered.

I can, I can send you to Azure Star—but... it's different from the home planet.

There, S‑Rank Anomalies usually require three Chiefs working together to kill—do you understand?

Elite garrisoning is merely the basic condition for survival there.

Zhang Jie looked at Qi Yu, still sucking on his finger, and did not retreat.

If he doesn't want Qi Yu to die one day for no clear reason, and doesn't want to be labeled an 'anomaly,' he must! He must become a Chief!

Go ahead and do it.

I won't have a problem.