The Max-Level Sacred Mountain Begs Me to Save the Interstellar [Apocalypse] - Chapter 9

Shen Ye felt he was running at a speed that would be the highlight of his life, but unfortunately, he was still a notch slower than the aberration. The Inverted Walker braked sharply the moment it overtook him.

Shen Ye thought: This isn’t scientific. How can a person be this unlucky?

“Zhou Zhou, bring out whatever plants you have! It is time to fight for our lives!”

“Wait. Why isn’t this monster moving? Does he also think my blood smells bad?”

The Inverted Walker did not continue its attack. It sniffed around Shen Ye’s face and then, quite clearly, raised its left arm. Shen Ye followed the direction of its finger, his brain working at full speed. “Is this monster giving me directions? How kind of him!”

But the “kind” Inverted Walker seemed to have a bit of a temper; it raised its other hand and forcefully pushed Shen Ye away. Shen Ye looked back every three steps, looking like a toddler who had just stepped through the gates of a kindergarten. “Zhou Zhou, this monster is so strange. Why didn’t he eat me?”

[…]

Although Mount Buzhou was exceptionally silent, miraculously, Shen Ye was not alone on this journey. Pale skeletons exhaling cold air, giant winged wolves, bats with tattered fleshy wings, and scorpions with metallic tail hooks all walked alongside him. The giant wolf even tried to rub its fur against Shen Ye’s leg, but he politely refused.

That was right; the monsters likely mistook Shen Ye for one of their own!

“Zhou Zhou, it is you, isn’t it?”

Shen Ye checked his own breath, confirming he hadn’t actually died yet. There could only be one truth to the situation: there was something wrong with that mushroom!

[Only mushy-mushy… glow-glow… just now… Zhou Zhou told Ye Ye.]

Shen Ye realized: So it was his own doing.

More and more monsters gathered around, all heading in one direction. Midway, a rabbit monster tried to leave the line, but it was immediately sliced in half by the Inverted Walker. Its scattered flesh was instantly devoured by the surrounding aberrations. The headless wolf even snatched a rabbit ear and brought it back for Shen Ye.

Shen Ye refused again: “Good brother, thanks anyway.”

After a short while, the procession came to an abrupt halt. Shen Ye politely pushed aside the skeleton standing in his way and focused his gaze ahead.

There was a suspended nest with surface patterns resembling human faces. Inside the nest lay a Parasitic Wasp about to give birth. Its abdomen was like an over-inflated amber balloon, and Shen Ye could clearly see the dense, unformed follicles inside.

Shen Ye understood. He and the others had been lured here to be the breeding ground for the young wasps. No wonder the companions were all the weakest Servant-level aberrations, so weak that they could not tell the difference between a human and a monster.

Shen Ye stared at the skeleton monster behind him for a moment, feeling bad for cutting in line. He silently muttered a thank you and then kept moving toward the back of the group. Shen Ye wanted to escape.

Unfortunately, several humanoid monsters were stationed at the back. They had likely been parasitized by male wasps and were diligently guarding the first dinner for the newborns.

[Run, run, Ye Ye run! Birth, birth!] Mount Buzhou’s voice was very anxious.

Shen Ye thought: Now you’re anxious when the trouble has already started. You say run when the sky is falling. How am I supposed to get out past hundreds of monsters? Tell me!

[Waaa waaa, Zhou Zhou is sorry, Ye Ye, waaa.]

Shen Ye: “Hey, stop crying. Get all the plants you can ready. We are going to charge out in a bit! Remember, no mushrooms!”

[Have! Zhou Zhou, take, suck!]

Shen Ye wove through the countless monsters and finally selected a spot to break through. The one guarding this area was the Inverted Walker, an old friend.

Shen Ye spoke: “Hey, don’t be scared later. It won’t hurt after a little burning.”

Mount Buzhou could produce one more plant at most, which would consume most of its energy. Therefore, after the plant appeared, Zhou Zhou would fall into a deep sleep, leaving Shen Ye to fight alone.

Thump, thump, thump. The baby wasps were born.

Now!

Just as Shen Ye was about to bring out a plant to break through, a massive white light suddenly illuminated the night sky. The immense heat knocked him a meter away. Under the radiance of thermal weaponry, a disheveled Shen Ye scrambled up and looked at the man in the distance.

Xie Songnian! It was his brother-in-law!

“Brother-in-law, don’t shoot! It’s me!” Shen Ye waved his hands frantically through the dirt and soot.

Among the endless aberrations, Xie Songnian pinpointed the source of the familiar, pathetic voice. When he turned, he saw a skeleton aberration that was nearly falling apart, grabbing Shen Ye’s arm and running for dear life. What a precious display of cross-species friendship!

Then, Xie Songnian calmly raised his hand and blew the skeleton to pieces with a single shot.

“Waaa, Brother-in-law!” Freed from his restraint, Shen Ye ran toward Xie Songnian against the flow of monsters.

He had only run half a meter when a vehicle surged out without warning. With a sharp drift, it stopped steadily in front of Shen Ye. The moment the door opened, Xiao Liu grabbed Shen Ye by the collar and shoved him inside. The armored vehicle turned violently and sped away in the opposite direction without hesitation.

Shen Ye: “Impressive. That move… I’m not even that efficient at opening a soda can at home.”

Xiao Liu: “Ha, with your frame, grabbing you is like grabbing a chick. Wait, you’re actually pretty heavy.”

Shen Ye: “Stop joking! We ran away, but what about my brother-in-law!”

Chen Qikun gripped the steering wheel, the accelerator pressed so hard it was nearly smoking. “We should worry about ourselves. Look behind!”

Shen Ye and Xiao Liu turned in sync, seeing a gray mist through the rear window. No, that wasn’t mist! It was a swarm of baby parasitic wasps that blotted out the sky! They threw themselves suicidally against the car body, even as they were corroded one by one by the plant juice on the surface.

Shen Ye was confused: “Why is the swarm chasing us so relentlessly?”

Xiao Liu: “Because we just destroyed their home and nearly killed them.”

Shen Ye: “That’s quite the grudge! But, I have to ask, is the plant coating on this car thick enough?”

Xiao Liu: “If you were building cars, how much plant juice would you use to cover the whole thing?”

Shen Ye didn’t speak, but if he were a car manufacturer, he would definitely build cars with the absolute minimum coating thickness required by interstellar law. Clearly, the manufacturer of this armored vehicle thought the same, because the speed at which the wasps were being corroded was visibly slowing. The plant juice coating was thinning out.

Shen Ye: “I swear, if I get back to the base safely, I will be a conscientious businessman!”

Xiao Liu: “Huh? What are you going to sell? Your brother-in-law’s autograph?”

Shen Ye: “Can I sell those? Why didn’t you say so earlier!”

If you had said that earlier, I wouldn’t have joined the cleanup squad, Shen Ye thought, beating his chest in regret.

[Ah! Flying! Left side!] Zhou Zhou screamed.

The swarm pounded against the car with a deafening roar. Suddenly, a nail-sized gap was forced open at the bottom of the left door! Before Shen Ye’s brain could react, his hand instinctively blocked the hole.

Using his left hand.

Shen Ye: You’ve got to be kidding me.

Because the gap had opened right next to Shen Ye’s seat, all the parasitic wasps tried to force their way into the opening to eat the brains of these hateful humans and occupy their bodies. However, while the swarm charged in, the people inside were completely unharmed.

[Sweet! Munch munch, Zhou Zhou loves to eat!]

The lead wasps had just poked their antennae in when they were firmly seized by dense white roots. One, two, three—the swarm passed through the gap one by one in an orderly fashion, and Mount Buzhou leisurely feasted.

The wasps in the back: Brother, save some human meat for me! I’m in a hurry! The wasps in the front: Brother, run! It’s a trap!

The car drove for two full hours, and Zhou Zhou ate for 120 minutes.

Burp.

Shen Ye thought: Stop eating if you’re full. It isn’t worth bursting yourself.

[Burp. Zhou Zhou can… can still eat. Burp.]

The child sounded as if they had never had a full meal; Shen Ye felt a tiny bit of guilt.

“Look! It’s the Captain’s car,” Chen Qikun exclaimed. He had noticed the number of wasps chasing them was dwindling. After confirming the surroundings were safe, he slowed down to wait for Xie Songnian to catch up.

Shen Ye didn’t dare open his mouth. Just now, Zhou Zhou had activated “Sensory Sharing.” Shen Ye almost couldn’t hold back the urge to vomit from fullness. It was the first time Zhou Zhou had ever eaten this much, and they insisted on sharing the joy with Shen Ye, no matter what he said.

The two cars drove side-by-side through the thick fog toward the Central Base.

“Stop.”

Three thousand meters from the Central Base, Xie Songnian ordered everyone to disembark. “Chen Qikun, you guys drive my car back.”

The subordinates never questioned Xie Songnian’s orders, and Shen Ye was in no mood to argue. They swapped cars quickly. Chen Qikun sat in the driver’s seat and asked, “Captain, we’re heading back to base first?”

“Go ahead. Shen Ye…”

Shen Ye took a few seconds to react to the sound of his name and turned slowly. “Hmm?”

“…Never mind. Go back and rest.”

“Okay.”

Watching Shen Ye’s car enter the base gates, Xie Songnian took out a cigarette and took a deep drag. The nicotine neutralized his agitated nerves. He then opened the car’s hood, and the cigarette dropped from his fingertips into the fuel tank. In an instant, the air pressure surged, flames erupted, and the car was blown to smithereens.

One day later, Central Base, Xie Songnian’s office.

Shen Ye sat obediently on the brown sofa, silently watching Xie Songnian handle base affairs. He opened and closed his mouth several times, but swallowed his words each time. Finally, thinking of the Star Credits his client had paid, he made up his mind.

“Brother-in-law, I watched the replay of Zhang Hao’s stream. He is so pitiful. He was lured into the Ghost Mist and nearly died. After finally making it back to the base, he was imprisoned by the Agricultural Alliance. Do you really not plan to help him?”

Xie Songnian did not look away from his work. “You care about him that much?”

“Brother-in-law! I just think that life for humanity is already so hard. Shouldn’t we look out for each other more? The streamer braved the Ghost Mist and narrowly escaped death, putting his life on the line to return to the Central Base. We shouldn’t let those who come to us feel disheartened!”

Xie Songnian: “Stop acting spoiled and speak normally. And ‘narrowly escaped death’ is the term you’re using for Zhang Hao?”

Xie Songnian rotated the projection screen. Shen Ye saw the scene in the stream where Zhang Hao was aggressively chasing the monsters. The tantrum he was about to throw died in his throat.

Shen Ye: “He is quite mischievous.”

Xie Songnian: “Not as much as you.”

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