Chapter Forty: The Power Structure Needs to Be Restructured

As darkness fell, the flames surrounding the convoy shone even brighter.

Two groups of fallen insects attacked, one large group launching a frontal assault, and the other smaller group flanking from behind; the one flanking from behind was more elite.

In Jade Pear Village, there is a full-strength battalion of Fallen Insects, and two Wise Insects: one is the lowest-ranking officer, "Captain," and the other is the lowest-ranking priest, "Singer."

Priests are generally more difficult to deal with due to their strong polluting properties and high intelligence.

The singer is now in the flanking group. He hasn't shown himself since the beginning of the battle. After lurking in the dark grass for a few minutes, he suddenly appeared behind Li Yi!

Li Yi's combat instincts were still astonishing. In a split second of fear, he rolled forward and turned to fire!

A burst of bullets did not hit any vital organs, but the flames from the gun barrel illuminated the singer's appearance.

The priestly wisdom insect is generally smaller than an adult human. Its skin is not covered with disgusting wrinkles and sores, but is relatively smooth and pale white, with symmetrical golden patterns on its head and back.

The lowest-ranking priest singer had a cyst on its head the size of a peach, with four pairs of tentacles, one more than a typical worker insect. The tentacles were thin and long, and its face retained human-like features. All the eyes on its body were coldly staring at Li Yi!

So close!

Li Yi paused for a second, his posture seemingly as if he were about to retreat and flee, but his years of combat experience compelled him to continue pulling the trigger and unleashing a barrage of fire!

The singer, having missed his shot, had already fled at top speed. The bullet followed his stealthy path, leaving only a trail of green blood!

Li Yi's contamination level soared to 45%. Wherever the singer went, the team members with lower mental resistance also generally had their contamination levels rise above 45%!

"Purifier!" he shouted.

The purifier in Qin Tianshuo's team is purifying a member of North 2.

Liu Weiyun, Qin Tianshuo, and Jia Wenxuan were also almost there in the distance.

Jia Wenxuan's night vision came in handy at this moment, and he successfully sniped two insects when he was still hundreds of meters away from the battlefield!

However, the remaining less than 10 insects seemed to have received the singer's order and scattered, fleeing the battlefield.

A trail of light swiftly darted past Qin Tianshuo and the others, having already bypassed them, but then paused for a moment, seemingly hesitant, before turning and lunging towards Liu Weiyun!

This is a singer who has discovered that another group of their kind has been wiped out and has decided to retreat.

Liu Weiyun's reaction was far slower than Li Yi's. When her legs were entangled by two tentacles, she was unable to turn around and fire immediately. Instead, she was tripped and fell into the grass.

But her scream also caught the attention of her teammates, and Jia Wenxuan turned his gun on the singer and fired a barrage of shots.

The singer's scream pierced the night sky as he fled, only to be shot in the head by Qin Tianshuo, who had turned back.

The singer's dying scream was perhaps a command to protect it or to avenge it, and the few remaining insects that had already fled fiercely rushed back.

Li Yi was frantically calling for a purifier, but Liu Weiyun's legs were swollen, and her calves had been pierced by a bone spur from the tip of the singer's tentacle, leaving her unable to get up for the time being.

The purifiers from North 2 rushed towards Qin Tianshuo, who was also contaminated by the singer!

Li Yi unleashed a string of profanities, just as Qi An's question rang out on the public channel: "Do the comrades in North 1 need any help?"

He was speechless for a moment.

“We’re all working together on this mission, so let’s not worry about what some people think or do. We have to help,” Yu Shuang added.

Su Qingran had already assembled the folding stretcher, and Yang Yuning and Tang Long carried Zhao Bohan behind them. Yu Shuang and the other two had already returned to the convoy with Qin Tianshuo and the others.

Unlike Liu Weiyun, Yu Shuang acted immediately upon hearing the offer to help.

She jumped onto the roof of the truck and sniped a bug that was trying to ambush the North 2 team members.

Qi An visually assessed the pollution levels of the few people remaining in the convoy and purified them one by one.

When it was Li Yi's turn, seeing that the other party's level 2 mutation was already deep, exceeding 50%, she still did not step forward.

"The commander has high resistance; he can take medicine."

She turned and left after she finished speaking, leaving Li Yi almost grinding her teeth to powder, barely suppressing the urge to drag Qi An back and force her to resonate.

The battle was completely over. Two people from North 1 were injured, one seriously and one slightly. One person from North 2 was injured, slightly, but one of them had a pollution level of 65%. When Qi An arrived, she was frantically tearing off her face! But before she could actually tear off her face, Qi An purified her in time.

The truck drivers remained in their vehicles in case the front line fell; they needed to escape with their trucks.

At this moment, the wind and rain stopped, and the young driver of North 1 recognized Qi An and couldn't help but ask, "Excuse me... has your team finished killing the other batch of insects?"

"Yes." Qi An nodded.

"Is there another batch...30?" the driver asked.

The killing was so fast, the main force of the Fallen Insects should have arrived at the convoy by now. Although the Central Plains Team provided timely assistance, it seems that they didn't manage to stop many insects on the front line.

The young man felt ashamed of his thoughts, but then he heard Qi An say, "The other group has about 70 of them."

She glanced at his contamination and instructed, "Take one Gan Ning tablet later and meditate for at least half an hour."

The young man was stunned by the number "70", and after listening to Qi An's instructions, he nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, his face flushed.

However, Qi An had already gone far away.

The young man's eyes followed Qi An's retreating figure as he excitedly spoke into their chat channel:

"70! The team from the Central Plains killed 70! That's incredible!! And they're so kind! Their purifier even talked to me!! She cares about me!!!"

The young driver transformed into an excited, screaming chicken.

But the number was still unbelievable. It wasn't until the second team, Zhuang Xiaotanglong, went back to clean up the battlefield and retrieve the equipment that wasn't too badly damaged, and the other two teams sent people to take a look, that they were shocked into silence by the fact.

In the dark, ravaged swamp, the soldiers, covered in blood and mud, regrouped, some of them looking utterly wretched.

"We have successfully thwarted the Fallen Insects. Will there be even more difficult missions and more blatant provocations next?" Yu Shuang leaned against the hood of the car, and her first words, breaking the silence, were full of aggression.

This prolonged the awkward silence.

Li Yi, who had been purified by Liu Weiyun, stood in the shadows without speaking, and his teammates also hung their heads and remained silent.

Yu Shuang sneered.

These people are quite active when they're bullying, so why are they pretending to be dead now?

Qin Tianshuo, though his complexion wasn't much better, vigorously pulled out a handful of his already disheveled hair and said with a flourish:

"I misjudged you before and was disrespectful to you. I...apologize! Your team is awesome!"

It was incredibly difficult to say. The young man, who looked to be only in his early twenties, stiffened his neck, glanced to the side, and his handsome face turned bright red.

Yu Shuang raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Okay, we accept the apology."

She then immediately said:

"I'm going to submit a request to the higher command to delegate Li Yi's command authority to the three team leaders, with the final decision to be made by vote. Team Leader Qin, would you like to agree?"

Qin Tianshuo's eyes widened.

His first reaction was that this mission should be directly commanded by the 9th Regiment of the North 1 Morning Star Team, so how could it be approved?

His second reaction was to look at Yang Yuning.

Before Qin Tianshuo could speak, his team's vice-captain and Sun Yiran, the female team member whose contamination level had previously reached 65% and had been purified by Qi An, frantically grabbed his clothes:

"Hurry up and follow! Hurry up and follow!"

The road ahead is long. If you want to survive until you get back to base, you'll have to stick with Qiang!