Chapter 898: Approaching the Sea of Stars
Zhang Yi now displayed his calm side.
After all, someone who had experienced countless battles wouldn't be frightened by some bugs.
Protecting Zhou Ke'er, he said calmly, "Let's go, back to the ship!"
Those maggots had a black ring at their front end. When they pounced on people, the ring would open, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth.
Fortunately, Zhang Yi and the others had taken precautions before landing on the island. Zhang Yi and Zhou Ke'er wore combat suits, while Old Tian and Zhu Yunque were dressed in full-body bulletproof gear.
No matter how sharp those bugs' teeth were, they couldn't bite through materials that could stop bullets.
But the sight of so many large white maggots crawling up from the ground along their pant legs, opening their mouths to bite, completely broke Zhu Yunque and Su Nuanxi.
The two women screamed like madwomen.
There were too many maggots. Zhang Yi, Old Tian, and the others retreated while shooting, but they couldn't eliminate many.This made things difficult for the passengers, who hadn't worn bulletproof vests when they came ashore and had to fight desperately against the maggots while enduring disgust.
Soon the ground became a vast expanse of white, covered with squirming maggots everywhere.
Zhang Yi frowned. He could easily handle this situation.
The problem was that using Void Power would attack the surrounding crew and passengers as well.
"Do your best!" Zhang Yi had no choice. Fortunately, these maggots were just disgusting rather than terrifyingly lethal. These ordinary passengers could survive if they ran fast enough.
Zhang Yi took Zhou Ke'er and directly returned to the ship using spatial traversal.
Zhu Yunque screamed in terror, crying and shouting for Zhang Yi to come back and save her.
But Zhang Yi wasn't in such a good mood.
After putting Zhou Ke'er back on the ship, he flew high into the air to overlook the island.
Just as he suspected, the entire island had now been occupied by that giant tree-like mutated creature.
Unfortunately, this place wasn't suitable for temporarily settling the people from the ship.
Zhang Yi sighed and didn't plan to intervene to help the others, simply waiting quietly on the ship for them to run back themselves.
About half an hour later, Old Tian and the others gradually returned.
After counting the numbers, they found that more than thirty passengers were missing.
Without doubt, they had already become fertilizer for the maggots.
Zhu Yunque and Su Nuanxi, wearing their bulletproof vests, were covered in white, sticky bug fluids.
Although their bodies hadn't suffered any harm, their eyes had lost their sparkle, showing a feeling of having nothing left to live for.
Presumably after this devastation, they would carry indelible psychological scars for the rest of their lives.
"It's actually not that terrifying. This is a kind of half-plant, half-creature mutant with strong reproductive ability but ordinary attack power."
Although Zhang Yi had been thoroughly disgusted, he wasn't frightened by such existence.
Just at this moment, Zhu Yunque suddenly screamed.
"Ah!!!"
Everyone looked at her, only to see her covering her face with both hands, crying painfully: "The child, my child! Tommy is still on the island, wuu wuu!"
Zhu Yunque had previously handed Tommy over to a woman on the island.
At this point, there was no need to doubt that the woman had already been controlled by the mutant creatures on the island.
So Zhu Yunque's action was equivalent to delivering Tommy into death's hands.
She cried bitterly, tears streaming down her face.
Zhang Yi remained unmoved, instead saying to Zhou Ke'er beside him:
"Do you think she's more happy or more sad?"
Zhou Ke'er's face was full of mischievous smile.
"Seeing how hard she's crying, I think she's probably more happy."
"You mean crying tears of joy?" Zhang Yi blinked.
"Otherwise?" Zhou Ke'er tilted her head and retorted.
Zhu Yunque had long lost patience with that baby; she had been looking for ways to get rid of this trouble.
She just didn't want to be criticized or laughed at by others.
Therefore, she had always needed to find a suitable opportunity.
If not for this, why would she casually hand the baby over to a stranger she hadn't investigated?
Zhang Yi walked up to Zhu Yunque, looked at her crying bitterly, and comforted her: "Don't be too sad, I know you didn't do it on purpose. Hmm... if you're really too sad, I'll go help you rescue the child right now, how about that?"
Zhu Yunque's voice suddenly stopped with a "gulp" sound.
She was completely stunned.
"Ah... this, wuu wuu, that's too dangerous. I can't let you take the risk."
Zhang Yi smiled and waved his hand: "Not dangerous, not dangerous. That thing is just a minor monster to me. Wait, I'll be right back!"
"No! Really... no need." Zhu Yunque stopped him somewhat flusteredly.
Her eyes dodged, not daring to look into Zhang Yi's eyes.
She had finally mustered the determination to do such a thing.
If Zhang Yi brought the child back, how would she face that child? How would she face herself?
Better to cry bitterly, gaining sympathy while quickly getting rid of the trouble.
Although evasion was shameful, it was useful.
Zhang Yi stood up, looking at her indifferently: "Oh, is that so."
He didn't say much, yet seemed to have said everything.
Zhu Yunque felt extremely ashamed inwardly, no longer daring to meet Zhang Yi's eyes.
Thinking back to when she had stood on the moral high ground, criticizing Zhang Yi, she was now speechless.
Only now did she understand that when people have no choice, they can only consider themselves first.
And Zhang Yi's indifferent frankness, by comparison, made her seem hypocritical and pretentious.
Zhang Yi wasn't really going to help her look for someone.
After so long, even if found, there would probably only be a pile of bones left.
Zhang Yi turned and left. He called Old Tian and Zhou Ke'er to study their current location together and confirm the next course.
"Since we've already seen islands, it means our current position is near the Starry Sea Region to Malai sea area."
"Probably closer to the Starry Sea Region. Heading north, we can confirm our current position in at most three days."
Old Tian offered his perspective based on years of sailing experience.
...
Everyone remember to send some free small gifts, we're almost catching up to first place.
Author's Note