Chapter 17: The Best Defense Is a Strong Offense

The deafening roar of the explosion jolted Yu Xia’s groggy mind.

After the first blast, artillery fire kept raining down relentlessly, illuminating the sentries hidden within the thick gray mist.

Among them were those grotesquely twisted figures.

“There are contaminants.”

Huo Lin and Nyx exchanged a gesture. The squad immediately scattered, drawing their steel knives to swiftly dispatch the contaminants.

They were out of ammunition, and supplies had yet to arrive, so they had no choice but to rely on cold weapons against these creatures.

Contaminants were different from the alien species. The aliens were invasive genetic organisms forming the contaminated zone, while contaminants were native creatures that had been assimilated and corrupted by alien genes.

Strangely, contaminants rarely appeared on the outer edges of the contaminated zone.

Those assimilated by the aliens tended to burrow deeper into the zone, seeking to embed themselves and gain further evolutionary advantage from alien genes, while the aliens expanded outward to claim territory.

Typically, sentries guarded the zone’s periphery, suppressing alien expansion with heavy firepower; even the aliens seldom ventured that far.

Huo Lin and Nyx immediately harbored a grim suspicion.

“The contaminated zone is spreading.” Nyx sliced a contaminant in half, revealing a blood-red core nestled within its abdomen. By shattering this core before the creature could regenerate, the contaminant dissolved into an unidentifiable heap of flesh.

One by one, the contaminants fell, their shattered blood-red cores releasing a circle of red mist around them.

Besides their squad, many other sentries were also engaged in purging contaminants nearby.

More sentries were trying to escape the contaminated zone than they had anticipated.

Not only mercenaries but also large numbers of regular troops.

Everyone sensed that this mission had gone awry, and team leaders were preparing to lead their squads out of the zone.

The regular sentries looked much worse than the mercenaries.

Not only was the mission duration longer than usual, but supplies were insufficient, communication with the outside world was cut off, and the rear guards at the exits refused to let them leave.

They felt utterly abandoned.

Physical and mental exhaustion made the sentries irritable; even minor conflicts could swiftly escalate into brawls.

Yu Xia had witnessed many sentries fighting each other along the way; killing contaminants and aliens had become second nature to them.

Fortunately, Huo Lin had temporarily marked her, and the scent of contaminants masked her presence, so no one paid her any mind.

Huo Lin, agile and swift, carried Yu Xia through the crimson mist, steering clear of artillery impact zones.

The artillery was not primarily aimed at the sentries; once past the safety line, only the weapons mounted on the towering city walls targeted them.

The fog had already dissipated here, cleared by rear forces using de-fogging devices to prevent alien ambushes and stop sentries from fleeing the contaminated zone.

There were three exits to the contaminated zone; two were closed, leaving only the central one open.

Before Yu Xia and her companions stood a massive, gray-black wall.

The wall soared into the clouds, shrouded in gray mist in the perpetually dim environment of the contaminated zone, giving the illusion that it had no peak, extending infinitely upward.

It felt as if they had reached the world’s end; this wall separated two realms.

The wall was formed from benevolent contaminants cleared from the zone—a mass of gray fluid substance that could be endlessly extracted. After purification and modification in the laboratory, it became a usable containment material codenamed the [Gray Wall]. Upon contact with the contaminated zone, it would solidify into a tall, thick barrier, isolating the zone from their world.

Once formed, the [Gray Wall] would rapidly self-repair from bomb damage or attempts to dissolve or tunnel through it. Only exits opened with special substances allowed passage.

At this moment, the wall trapped the sentries inside the contaminated zone, forcing them to use the sole remaining exit.

Many sentries gathered outside the exit in a ruined town—the only foothold where they could negotiate with the rear.

Between the town and the exit lay a queueing lane for sentries undergoing inspection.

Huo Lin carried Yu Xia to an abandoned house on the outskirts of the town, away from other sentries, somewhat intact, where they could rest temporarily. Nyx went ahead to negotiate with rear personnel at the exit to understand the situation.

When Huo Lin set Yu Xia down, she began to undergo metamorphosis again.

There were too many sentries nearby—so many that even with conscious effort to regulate her mental energy, Yu Xia could not contain the transformation.

It was truly unbearable.

The moment Huo Lin put her down, she clung tightly to his arm.

He was now the only presence that could calm her.

Unable to detect the sentries’ pheromones, she compensated with heightened mental sensitivity.

The sentries’ irritable mental energy permeated everywhere, creating a force that instilled pure terror in her.

This fear caused her mental energy to overflow, like a frightened little beast poised to fight back.

Huo Lin immediately embraced her, instinctively trying to soothe her with pheromones—but the moment he released them, he recalled she couldn’t perceive their scent.

Here, devices blocked mental barriers, and he couldn’t activate a mental shield for her. If she could smell the pheromones, it would have helped immensely.

Since she couldn’t, he could only hold her tightly, gently stroking her back and head, trying to dissipate her fear and unease.

Yu Xia curled into Huo Lin’s embrace, eyes shut tight, her consciousness flickering between reality and mental imagery.

Her mental energy uncontrollably spread like fungal mycelium, actively seeking out those sentries whose presence stirred her fear.

The best defense was offense—this thought emerged after her mental energy was “attacked” by the sentries’ psychic force.

The sentries of Squad 19 saw Yu Xia’s condition worsen even after their mental counseling; all summoned their mental forms, crawling at her feet to guard her, hoping to offer a sense of security.

“Yu Xia, are you alright?” Huo Lin, noticing her stillness, brushed his cheek softly against hers and called her name quietly.

Yu Xia... was out there searching for targets to “attack.”

She first found two squads of sentries closest to them, who had just arrived and were about to clash in a fight.

Yu Xia observed them for a moment, then split her mental energy into several tendrils. As they raised their hands to fight, her psychic threads slipped into their bodies!

No fighting! You scared her!

These sentries were not deeply penetrated by Yu Xia’s mental energy; rather, it was as if a command had been implanted in their minds, compelling them to calm down.

This unknown psychic force smoothed their aggressive emotions, prompting them to instinctively search for the source of the command.

Seeing that her method worked and that the sentries’ calm reduced her own fear, Yu Xia expanded her mental energy further, “attacking” other irritable sentries.

Unaware of this, Huo Lin and the others were still trying to soothe Yu Xia, not knowing her mental energy had spread out, gradually enveloping the entire town.

Before long, Huo Lin and his team sensed something was amiss.

Their keen senses detected many sentries approaching from all directions.

Not just one or two squads, but sentries gathering from every side.