Li Yao feel into deep thought. “That is why Elder Nether Spring went through all the trouble of exploring the Mausoleum of Chaos. He wanted to get new insights from the Mausoleum of Chaos to make the Demon God Virus more powerful and perfect!
“Right now, it is the sixth generation of the Demon God Virus, which means he has already developed five generations. But the five generations must’ve been too flawed to be put into practice.
“That is why he set you up and looted the Mausoleum of Chaos!
“After analyzing the relics from the Mausoleum of Chaos, perhaps he would have been able to develop the seventh generation, the eighth, or even the ultimate version of the Demon God Virus, one that is unafraid of coldness or heat, easy to spread, and has a perfect balance between conspicuousness and destructiveness!”
The Fire Ant King took a long, slow breath. “That’s what I speculated, too. He almost succeeded, but he neglected to account for you. As a result, he went for wool and came home shorn. Not only did he fail to retrieve anything from the Mausoleum of Chaos, even his own nest had been overturned, and his most important secrets have been found by us!”
“Then, what is our problem now?” Han Tuhu asked. “The ‘Nether World’ at the North Pole is certainly Elder Nether Spring’s most important research center. We have crippled it. The research will not begin for another one to two years.
“It’s quite unlikely that Elder Nether Spring has a second research center that is of such a high level. He cannot find a second ‘Flying Tigers Legion’ or ‘Blood Lion Battalion’ for his experiments, either.
“Therefore, whatever schemes he had, they are all ruined now. The best he can do right now is stir some trouble, but it will definitely be suppressed very quickly.”
The Fire Ant King managed a smiled and replied, “I wish it were as simple as that.
“My brother is truly ten times more terrifying than I imagined.
“He learned my identity as the leader of the Blade of Chaos decades ago, and yet he kept it a secret to this day. He even manipulated me in secret so that every action I took was an implementation of his will.
“Do you think that his scheme will be disrupted so easily and that he does not have a backup plan?
“The development of a virus is similar to training. Even if you have enough money and time, success is not guaranteed. Most of the time, luck plays a vital role. If you are lucky, you might make a breakthrough in a year and a half. If you are not, you might make zero progress despite the resources and specialists you dedicate to the project and the decades you spend on it, which is nothing unusual.
“For Elder Nether Spring, even if everything went well and he had truly retrieved the knowledge of Chaos from the legacies, would it have been guaranteed that the sixth generation of the Demon God Virus could be upgraded to the seventh generation quickly?
“It was impossible. No specialists would’ve dared to make such a promise.
“Assuming that the development of the Demon God Virus doesn’t make any progress in ten years, will Elder Nether Spring simply wait ten years?
“If it were I, you, or any ambitious schemer, would we wait for such a long time?
“Absolutely not!
“He will certainly have come up with a plan with the current sixth generation of the Demon God Virus as the core while overcoming its flaws as best as he can so that the virus will spread most efficiently!
“Right now, the ‘Nether World’ has been seriously damaged. More importantly, it is no longer a secret. With Elder Nether Spring’s cautiousness, he must’ve already abandoned the ‘Nether World’ and activated the backup plan.
“The very backup plan is exactly the topic of our discussion today, which has just been parsed from the memory unit. The name of the backup plan is the Spore Stratagem!”
Li Yao and the two captains chewed on the name slowly. Perhaps because of their bias, ‘Spore Stratagem’ gave them a rather chilly feeling.
The image and shadow behind the Fire Ant King changed, and rows of additional information and data popped up, including the forms of several mutated cells and the pictures of several edited gene strands.
He pointed at the data and said, “While we were analyzing the memory unit, we occasionally ran into a code name ‘spore’. At first, we did not understand what it was exactly. Was it a drug, a cell, or a new living creature?
“But this morning, our specialists finally recovered a shattered document from the deepest part of the memory unit. The document was about a top-secret transportation plan, and the goods to be transported were ‘spores’.
“Then, it finally occurred to us that the code name ‘spore’ did not represent cells or demon beasts—spores are people who stored the Demon God Virus inside their body.”
Li Yao frowned. “Stored?”
“You may consider the ‘spores’ as the carriers of the Demon God Virus,” the Fire Ant King said. “The Demon God Virus will not show any symptoms or reactions when it is incubating inside their body. They will not look unusual from their fellows. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to find them.
“It goes without saying that the ‘awakening’ and ‘outbreak’ of the Demon God Virus are under Elder Nether Spring’s command.”
Li Yao’s eyelids twitched. “Can I understand the ‘spores’ as walking genetic bombs?”
The Fire Ant King nodded. “You can.”
There was a long silence.
Suo Chaolong was sweating hard. “How many spores are there in total? Where are they now?”
“Not a clue.” The Fire Ant King shook his head. “It is a pity that most of the transportation plan was already deleted, including the number, identity files, and destinations of the ‘spores’.
“Judging from the experiment data in the past, there should be at least a hundred ‘spores’. Before we were sent to the ‘Nether World’, they had already been shipped out. As to where they went and how they will be ‘detonated’, no records have been left.
“You see. The ‘Nether World’ is Elder Nether Spring’s secret weapon research center. The files are all about the weapons that are being developed. But there are certainly no traces as to the usage of the hundreds of kinds of weapons that have already been developed and shipped out!”
Li Yao rubbed his face until it was as burningly hot as his high-functioning brain. “Therefore, although we’ve destroyed Elder Nether Spring’s ability to develop a new generation of the Demon God Virus, he still has at least a hundred ‘genetic bombs’ in his hands, doesn’t he? Once he confirms that it is impossible to upgrade the Demon God Virus, he will activate the ‘Spore Stratagem’ and detonate the ‘genetic bombs’ at a certain critical point, right?”
The Fire Ant King’s voice was particularly cold. “Not ‘will’ but ‘has’. It’s been more than half a month since we escaped from the ‘Nether World’, The ‘Spore Stratagem’ must’ve already been activated during the time!”
Suo Chaolong gasped. “Although the sixth generation of the Demon God Virus is flawed, it might have unexpected effects if it is released to certain targets.
“For example, with Elder Nether Spring’s identity and position, he can certainly convene a meeting where all the demon emperors of the Blood Demon Sector will be gathered. By then, he will only need to ask the ‘genetic bombs’ to be his guards or servants and then detonate around the meeting room. If so, all the demon emperors will be fished up and become his slaves. He will seize the supreme power of the Blood Demon Sector!”
“It is not very likely.” Han Tuhu shook his head hard and said calmly, “The survival rate after contracting the sixth generation of the Demon God Virus is no higher than 5%. Even if dozens of demon emperors are gathered, the best outcome he can expect is that two to three live on while all the others are killed.
“Without the support of dozens of demon emperors, how can the Blood Demon Sector fight against the Heaven’s Origin Sector? Elder Nether Spring is not an idiot. He would certainly not commit such a folly.”
Suo Chaolong was dazed and deep in thought. “Fair enough. Then I really cannot figure out the answer now. Even though Elder Nether Spring has a hundred genetic bombs, where exactly is he going to plant them? How can he infect all the experts of the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector at the same time?”
They were seriously lacking the relevant information. It was impossible for them to get a general picture of the Spore Stratagem.
Li Yao calculated for a moment and then abandoned the futile attempt. He changed his way of thinking and said, “In fact, we don’t have to waste our time figuring out Elder Nether Spring’s next move. The Spore Stratagem will be a catastrophe for both the Heaven’s Origin Sector and the Blood Demon Sector, and the Blood Demon Sector will suffer first! As long as we inform the Pantheon of Demons of the scheme, the Pantheon of Demons will certainly be wary of Elder Nether Spring!
“Even though the Mausoleum of Chaos has been completely ruined by Elder Nether Spring, it is unlikely that he can wipe out the ‘Nether World’ in the North Pole entirely. Besides, the Fire Ant King and Suo Chaolong are also the best eyewitnesses!
“Just tell them everything and the key files that we have already parsed. That will do!”
With a bitter smile, the Fire Ant King shook his head. “I had the same idea, but it doesn’t seem to be a possible approach.”
Li Yao was dazed. “Why not?”
The Fire Ant King sighed and pointed at the light beam. “We don’t have undeniable proof to link Elder Nether Spring to the whole scheme at all.
“Have you noticed that the logo of a pair of gene strands and a saber, which is the battle emblem of the Blade of Chaos, is in the bottom left corner of some of the files?”
Of course, Li Yao had noticed the battle emblem of the Blade of Chaos, but he thought that it was a watermark that the specialists of the Blade of Chaos left when they were parsing the memory unit. Was it not?
The Fire Ant King explained, “The logos were not added just now but already in the depths of the tremendous files.
“Besides, Elder Nether Spring never showed up during the experiments on the captives such as Suo Chaolong and Han Tuhu. We are the only ones who know the code name ‘Nether World Watch’, too.
“In fact, you will realize if you think carefully that, even if Elder Nether Spring had shown up in front of Han Tuhu and Suo Chaolong, it still would have been meaningless.”
Li Yao pondered for a moment. “A faked setup?”
“Exactly!” The Fire Ant King smiled bitterly. “Even if Han Tuhu and Suo Chaolong saw ‘Elder Nether Spring’, how can they prove that the ‘Elder Nether Spring’ was not impersonated by someone of the Blade of Chaos? Even if Elder Nether Spring’s personal signature were on every page of the files, how can you prove that it is not a lousy setup?”