In the wilderness, the motorcycle roared as Qi Yuan approached the edge of the blue zone before stopping.
Qi Yuan took off his black sunglasses and looked into the depths of the wilderness, allowing the wind to blow the gravel on his face.
In the blue zone, insectoids of rank 3 and above would often appear. Although the wilderness was vast and the density of powerful insectoids wasn't high, even a pinnacle rank 3 aptitude user wouldn't be able to survive if they encountered a rank 4 insectoid.
For a Wasteland Hunter, venturing deep into the Blue Zone was always a gamble with their lives.
Other than clearing the old cities, there was an iron rule for Wilderness Hunters to enter the blue zone, which was that they couldn't drive vehicles.
Because the movement of vehicles was too loud, rashly driving a motorcycle in the blue zone was a provocation to the powerful insectoids inside. The probability of encountering powerful insectoids would increase exponentially. Even with the Blazing Angel accompanying him, Qi Yuan didn't dare to run rampant in the blue zone.
After observing for a while, Qi Yuan put on his sunglasses again. The Blazing Angel turned into a shadow and disappeared into the ground from Qi Yuan's right foot.
For an energy body, going through walls was the most basic ability.
Just as Qi Yuan stopped, Little Tail from the Iron Chariots who had been chasing him from afar also stopped. Mustard turned into a dark shadow and used binoculars to spy on Qi Yuan's back from afar.
As a spy of the Black Gold Commerce, Mustard only had the strength of a normal rank 3 and wasn't very qualified. However, this ability to blend into the shadows was indeed a good way to track someone. Although he didn't know why the higher-ups wanted to track Qi Yuan, since it was an order, Mustard could only carry it out.
Qi Yuan's movement to the edge of the blue zone made Mustard hesitate. If Qi Yuan really entered the blue zone, should he continue to track him?
Just as Mustard was hesitating, he suddenly felt uneasy, as if he had been discovered.
Did Qi Yuan discover me?
Jie shook his head and threw the thought out of his mind. He was at least two kilometers away from Qi Yuan. No matter how strong Qi Yuan's perception field was, it was impossible for him to discover him.
In order to eliminate the uneasiness in his heart, Jin took out the bug detector from his pocket and glanced at it. Except for himself, there were no other creatures within a radius of dozens of meters.
Just as Jie was about to put the Bug Beast Detector back into his pocket, the screen suddenly reflected a figure standing behind him.
Jie's body stiffened. He subconsciously activated the Insect Beast Detector again, but he was still the only one on it!
What was going on?
Cold sweat dripped down Jin's face. As a phase-3 aptitude user, he knew that what he saw on the bug detector wasn't an illusion.
Even now, he could still see the little girl through the reflection of the Insect Beast Detector.
It was a little girl wearing a floral dress. She was standing behind him, staring at him with empty eyes.
Endless fear spread. Mustard did not even dare to turn around. The Insect Beast Detector was the signature item of the Hunter's Guild. Very few things could escape its detection. Be it Insect Beasts or Corruptors, it was impossible for them to escape the detection of the Insect Beast Detector.
There were only two kinds of beings that could escape the detection of the Insect Beast Detector in his hand. One was a powerful being whose energy level exceeded the limit of the Insect Beast Detector. Such a powerful being would be at least phase-4!
The other was a rare monster. The wilderness was vast. In the blue or even red areas, there were too many unknowns other than the Insect Beasts and the Corruptors. There were many monsters that humans didn't know about. These monsters were usually more terrifying than the Insect Beasts and the Corruptors.
His body gradually turned cold. He felt the presence of death. Under the threat of death, Mustard unleashed his powerful potential. His eyes focused. His body turned into a shadow and quickly moved away from the danger behind him.
Seraph tilted her head and glanced at Mustard who was running away. Her body blurred and when she appeared again, she was already in front of Mustard.
Mustard, who had turned into a shadow, didn't notice how the little girl appeared. He was caught off guard and his shadow clashed with the little girl.
It's over!
Mustard felt his body turn cold. A thought flashed through his mind. His consciousness slipped into endless darkness.
The shadow turned and floated toward Qi Yuan.
Mustard walked out of the shadow and stood in front of him with empty eyes. Qi Yuan frowned. He felt a powerful pressure from Mustard's body. This was the instinctive warning of danger.
Seraph had crossed the threshold of phase-4. Although she had just crossed it, she still had the strength to crush Qi Yuan.
Seraph floated out of Mustard's body. The clear and fatal sense of danger suddenly disappeared.
Qi Yuan raised his eyebrows. He just realized that the reason Seraph, who was a pure energy body, could only eat and act cute was because it didn't have a physical body that could fight.
As long as it had a physical body, Seraph would be able to turn its phase-4 strength into real combat strength.
Seraph only possessed a phase-3 aptitude user and it was already a fatal threat to him. This meant that even if it couldn't use all of its phase-4 strength, it would still be much stronger than him. If it could possess a phase-4 aptitude user or a phase-4 insectoid, its strength wouldn't be weaker than a normal phase-4 aptitude user.
"How much strength can you use after possessing him?" Qi Yuan asked.
Seraph tilted her head and thought.
"Seventy percent at most. His body is too weak. It can be damaged easily!"
That's enough!
Qi Yuan's eyes flashed. There was a huge gap between phase-4 and phase-3. No phase-3 aptitude user could cross it. Even if a group of phase-3 aptitude users wanted to kill a phase-4 aptitude user, they would have to pay a huge price. Seraph being able to use seventy percent of its strength was enough to crush any phase-3 aptitude user!
After a simple search, he didn't find anything valuable on Jie. Other than a few high explosive grenades, there was only an energy gun for self-defense.
Qi Yuan looked at Jie's empty eyes. Since the items on him couldn't affect Black Gold Commerce, then he could only read his memories.
It was rumored that some aptitude users from the Mysterious Domain could forcefully read the memories of their targets by touching their brains. Since this aptitude user was still alive, if he could dig out some of Black Gold Commerce's secrets, he might be able to blackmail them again.
"Can you read his memories?" Qi Yuan asked.
Seraph shook her head, indicating that she didn't have such a package. Qi Yuan had no choice but to suppress the idea of blackmailing Black Gold Commerce.
"Control a few more insectoids and explore the blue area!" Qi Yuan said.
Seraph replied with an "Oh", then she possessed Jie's body and hopped away.
Looking at Jie's back as he left, a man in his thirties hopping in the wilderness, Qi Yuan felt an inexplicable sense of humor.
Seraph was very fast. In less than half an hour, she used the insectoid detector to find an insectoid nest.
After a battle, Seraph directly controlled nine of the strongest phase-3 insectoids. She then used the insectoids under her control to kill the remaining phase-2 and phase-1 insectoids. While destroying the nest, she also absorbed a wave of blood to replenish her energy.
The insectoid nest that Wilderness Hunters avoided was no threat to the phase-4 Seraph. Even if she couldn't use her full strength, the insectoids wouldn't be able to cause any trouble.
The only regret was that the number of insectoids she controlled was much less compared to the polluting beasts in the old cities.
Compared to the muddled beasts in the cultivation cabins, these insectoids with their own consciousness were much more difficult to control. Even Seraph couldn't control too many phase-3 insectoids at once.
Looking at the nine insectoids of different shapes squatting in a row under Seraph's control like a husky, Qi Yuan felt a little funny. Although Seraph was powerful, her intelligence seemed to have been perfectly integrated into the kindergarten level.
Qi Yuan gave the order and the nine phase-3 insectoids quickly rushed into the blue area that symbolized danger.
Seraph possessed Jie's body and pressed on Qi Yuan's shoulder with one hand. The two of them turned into shadows and quickly disappeared into the wilderness.
The nearest checkpoint wasn't far from the border area. If it wasn't for the fact that it was too dangerous to drive in the uncleared blue area, they would have arrived in less than an hour.
After merging into the shadows, the two of them only slowed down slightly. If it was a newly advanced phase-3 like Chestnut, they would be exhausted in less than ten minutes due to the exhaustion of their extraordinary power.
With the help of Seraph's large battery, Jie, who wasn't considered strong among phase-3, seemed to have become a perpetual motion machine. He carried Qi Yuan all the way and was always in a state of being full of extraordinary power.
In the shadows, the world seemed to have turned into a hazy black and white color. Everything in his eyes was shrouded in a layer of shadows, making it a little unreal.
Feeling the scenery behind him, even Qi Yuan had to admit that the Shadow Traversal ability was indeed useful in many situations.
The world was like an ink painting, constantly changing in his eyes, bringing a strange sensory impact.
In the black and white world, Qi Yuan felt his left hand being hugged tightly.
Qi Yuan looked back and saw two Jie's hands tightly hugging his left hand, as if they were about to hang their whole bodies on him.
This gay scene made Qi Yuan's body stiffen. He had a faint impulse to throw him away.
It was clearly an elegant ink painting of a landscape, but Seraph's intelligence changed the style of the painting to that of Brokeback Mountain.
Danger lurked in the blue area.
Although they had avoided most of the dangers with the help of the nine phase-3 insectoids, they still encountered a phase-4 insectoid when they were about to reach the checkpoint.
It was a four-eyed green lizard. It had been hiding in the wasteland all this time. When a probing insectoid passed by it, it suddenly attacked. It drilled out from the ground and bit the insectoid's neck, killing it in one bite.
The four-eyed snake lizard was biting the insect beast's neck. Its four green eyes were wide open as it stared intently at Qi Yuan, who was in the shadows.
Qi Yuan subconsciously glanced at the four-eyed snake lizard. The black and white ink world suddenly became chaotic. Qi Yuan cursed in his heart and immediately closed his eyes. However, it was too late!
This exchange of glances allowed the four-eyed bug's consciousness to successfully invade. His consciousness felt as if it had been hammered. Qi Yuan groaned as warm blood dripped from the corner of his eyes.
Qi Yuan's chaotic figure appeared from the Shadow Traversal and knelt on one knee.
Even if Qi Yuan had the strength of a phase-3 pinnacle and the resistance of a phase-1 Mechanical Intelligence, the four-eyed lizard still managed to heavily injure Qi Yuan with a single glance.
Jie, who was possessed by Seraph, appeared at the same time. The violent shadow force boiled as he stood in front of Qi Yuan and confronted the four-eyed lizard.
The other eight insectoids that were being controlled turned around at the same time and surrounded the four-eyed lizard.
Although the phase-3 insectoids were no match for the four-eyed lizard, it was not a phase-4 elite insectoid with an extremely strong physique. Eight phase-3 insectoids working together was enough to pose a threat to it. In addition to Seraph's existence, even the four-eyed lizard did not dare to act rashly.
Qi Yuan, who was kneeling on one knee, recovered from his chaotic consciousness. The injury to his eyes healed rapidly with the help of Steel's Self-Healing.
Qi Yuan opened his eyes and stood up.
"That was close!"
Qi Yuan wiped the blood off his face with lingering fear.
The Hunter's Guild had detailed information about the phase-3 insectoids near the gathering point. However, there was relatively little information about insectoids above phase-4, and they had to pay for them.
However, most Hunters in the Wilderness did not have such a requirement. That was because other than a few Hunters in the Wilderness, not many would venture into the blue zone. Moreover, with the average strength of the gathering point, it did not make much of a difference whether they knew the details or not when encountering a phase-4 elite insectoid. The end result was basically being eaten by the insectoids.
Just like Qi Yuan at this moment. Even if he was at the peak of phase-3, he would still become the four-eyed lizard's food if he did not have Seraph's protection.
A phase-1 Mechanical Intelligence was only phase-1 after all. It was already difficult for it to deal with a phase-3 Distorted Thought, let alone a phase-4 Consciousness Impact.
The settings of these checkpoints were simply suicidal!
Qi Yuan could not help but complain in his heart.
Qi Yuan closed his eyes again and prepared himself for a tough battle. As long as he did not look into the four-eyed lizard's eyes, the threat of the Consciousness Impact would be reduced exponentially.
Qi Yuan took a deep breath as it was his first time encountering an elite insectoid. He began to calculate the difference in strength between the two sides.
Although the four-eyed lizard was stronger than the Seraph, the difference was limited. Moreover, it had the support of eight phase-3 insectoids, so he had at least a 50% chance of winning.
If he was not a match, he could let the Seraph carry the plasma bomb and self-destruct together with the four-eyed lizard. In terms of not being afraid of death, the Seraph, as an energy body, had a unique advantage.
Just as Qi Yuan was about to activate the berserker, the four-eyed lizard seemed to have sensed the danger and suddenly gave up on the confrontation and drilled into the underground cave.
Run!
Run!
You don't have any morals, so I won't play with you!
Qi Yuan breathed a sigh of relief after the four-eyed lizard retreated. If they really fought, even if they won, other insectoids might come and take advantage of the situation.
Insectoids in the wilderness were very sensitive. Once they sensed the energy fluctuations of a battle, they would most likely take advantage of the situation.
"Let's go!"
Qi Yuan urged.
The Seraph turned around and once again controlled Mustard's body to hug Qi Yuan's right hand and lightly shook it.
Qi Yuan was speechless.
With the eight insectoids in front and the two at the back, they continued to run toward the checkpoint.