Chapter Twenty: Visitors from the North

The night was quiet, but the gunshot startled the night birds and alerted the squad.

Yu Shuang opened the car door: "What's wrong?"

Qi An and Zhao Bohan ran up the high slope, and Jiu's figure was already at the edge of the woods on the opposite bank of the river.

There was no doubt that there was someone in the woods; the dove had spotted them.

In its full state, his ears are like a sophisticated sonar, able to hear the faint sound of every bird flapping its wings, and naturally, the sound of people stepping on dry branches.

The other party did not notice him.

After shooting and killing the fallen insect, the person came out. He was a tall man with a dirty and torn camouflage jacket. He walked with an unnatural gait, looking like he was injured or had a tendency to mutate.

He leaped across the stream and stopped not far from the corpse of the fallen insect. He lowered his head, and a heavy sorrow permeated the silence.

But the man then spotted two groups of people moving toward him from the high slope and immediately retreated behind a thick willow tree.

The other members of the second team also saw him. The silent standoff seemed familiar. Yu Shuang knew that Jiu was hiding behind this man, so she boldly spoke up:

"We're camping here and were alerted by gunfire. Which base are you from, friend? Do you need help?"

After a moment of silence, the person emerged from behind the tree. "North Base 1."

Everyone's heart skipped a beat!

They weren't some wilderness refugees; they were people who had left the base, specifically from North Base 1.

“We are from the Central Plains First Line base. If our friend really needs help, put down your gun and prove your identity,” Yu Shuang said.

If no help is needed, then the two sides part ways, but because of that fallen insect, the team must be very vigilant afterwards.

The man fell silent again, then spoke in a hoarse voice after a moment: "Do you have doctors and purifiers?"

......

The person the team encountered on this starry night truly needed help.

He was about 25 or 26 years old, tall, with black hair like steel needles, and a handsome and upright face.

However, there is a deep scar on the corner of his left eyebrow, which looks like a bullet graze. The location is very dangerous, and the pupil in his eye under his thick eyebrows has already split open.

It was a severe Level 2 mutation, with a pollution level of at least 50%, which Qi An could tell at a glance.

Despite the guns of the second team, the man endured the abnormal behavior caused by the mutation and pulled a military name tag from his neck.

Yang Yuning, male, blood type A; 9th Regiment, Zhenyue Squadron, 1st Base of the Northern Army; Sergeant No. 10019932669T.

He also took out a document holder from his combat uniform. It contained no identification documents, but rather a group photo, a medal, and handwritten text on the back of the photo:

[Xiao Ning, today is your official enlistment day. Grandpa is giving you the first medal you've earned in your military career. May you overcome any adversity and achieve great things!]

In the photo, the old man and the young man are both smiling brightly. They are in a friendly pose and have similar dignified and strong features. The younger one is indeed the one in front of us.

Yu Shuang checked the military number and found it, which showed that the base it belonged to was indeed the North 1 Base.

"I was on a mission to escort researchers on a field expedition when we encountered a sandstorm... a sandstorm, and insects... insect attacks, my companions mutating, and..."

The pollution level was too high, and the person exhibited obvious incoherent speech and discontinuous thinking.

This is a bit urgent. Everyone can see that the fallen insect that was killed was this person's teammate. If they don't save him, this person might soon follow in his teammate's footsteps!

Yu Shuang glanced at Qi An hesitantly.

Qi An had recovered quickly and stepped forward, "I am a Purifier..."

Yang Yuning looked up at her, and like a drowning person seeing a straw, he grabbed her hand.

There was a "crack" behind them; it was a dove stepping on a dry twig. It must have stepped on it too hard, because it sank a hole in the ground.

Qi An felt a spiritual resonance and instantly sensed a powerful surge of anger!

The raging fire and despair were the source of his rapidly changing emotions. Qi An's spiritual power transformed into a gentle but powerful wind and icy but life-giving snow, falling heavily into his fiery spiritual world.

That world was originally a small city.

The calm, cool, and vibrant snow quickly drove away the fire, restoring peace to the city and then to its orderly prosperity.

The city in the snow has an even warmer and more dreamy feel.

Qi An observed the city from the perspective of a snowflake. Just as the snowflake landed and she was about to leave, the scene changed to a hospital ward.

It was still a hospital bed, piles of instruments and tubes, but this time Qi An stood by the bedside, watching the elderly man on the bed tremble as he struggled to speak to the middle-aged man on the other side:

"Energy...the foundation of the nation! Insect oil, the consequences will be endless! It must be replaced...You must support the new...the new..."

The old man passed away before he could finish speaking.

Qi An, or rather, the body she was in, Yang Yuning, felt immense grief and tears streamed down her face.

The scene changes again. Inside the half-collapsed bungalow, several dusty-looking people sit in a corner, taking shelter from the terrible sandstorm outside.

Qi An's lips were chapped. He picked up his military water bottle to drink some water when gunshots suddenly rang out outside!

Blood splattered everywhere, and she was utterly shocked to see the person lying at the door!

The scene twisted and spun, turning into a raging sea of ​​fire.

Qi An pulled herself out of her memories, steadied herself, and found that she was still surrounded by the quiet night sky and her companions. Yang Yuning's rough hands were still tightly wrapped in her palms.

Yang Yuning's pollution level has dropped significantly, and Qi An withdrew his hand.

It's still so hard to get it; she's really exasperated!

Before the next deep purification, she must place a remotely controlled gun in a corner.

If any more patients get agitated, she'll threaten them with a bullet!

Jiu grabbed Yang Yuning's arm and pulled him away.

Yang Yuning regained consciousness, looked at Qi An, her gaze shifting with surprise, and after a moment she hurriedly said, "Thank you!"

He seemed eager to ask something more, but there was something more urgent to discuss. He spoke to Yu Shuang, who was clearly the team leader:

"We encountered a sandstorm and an attack, leaving only me and two teammates. One of them completely mutated, and I shot him..."

He paused for two seconds, a clear look of pain flashing across his face, before continuing, "There's another one, the leader of the research team. He's been shot and is in critical condition. Could we ask the comrades at the Central Plains base to rescue him?"

Yang Yuning parked his car at the edge of the woods on the opposite bank of the river, where there was a ranger's hut.

His car was in such a terrible state that it was hard to look at. Half of the glass was broken, the dashboard looked like it had been licked by a bear, and the items inside were in disarray.

His teammate in the cabin was a middle-aged man with graying temples.

Su Qingran cut open the dirty gauze on the middle-aged man's abdomen, and Qi An immediately saw a terrible wound on one side of the abdomen, near the spleen, which was so infected that it was hard to look at.

The area around the wound was colorful; purplish-red veins were growing from the hole left after the bullet was removed, and dense granulation tissue was wriggling in the pus and blood!

He was experiencing both death and mutation symptoms simultaneously. Was he praying to an evil god for survival?