Abyss Sequence-Chapter 429 - 4: Transmission

"Investigate while hunting." Yan Luo said.

Upon hearing this, Julia’s eyes lit up, and she immediately thanked Yan Luo.

Yan Luo waved his hand, watching Sasa begin to dissect the frog demon.

Generally speaking, one feels sleepy after a full meal, but Sasa is the opposite; she feels energized after eating, without a hint of sleepiness.

Yan Luo needed some time to digest the City-breaking Level giant eagle, so he wasn’t in a rush to hunt the second demon.

This was the depths of the Gass Forest, filled with City-breaking Level demons, no need to worry about not finding them.

"...Something’s wrong."

Suddenly, Sasa spoke.

Yan Luo’s keen ears caught it, and he asked casually, "What’s wrong?"

Sasa frowned, holding up the frog demon’s spine, "Look."

From the outside, the spine appeared normal, but when Sasa tapped it, a hollow echo emerged from within.

Hearing this, Yan Luo raised an eyebrow, "Hollow?"

Sasa nodded and handed the spine to Yan Luo, asking for his help to open it.

Casually, Yan Luo snapped the frog demon’s spine into several sections.

The spine was indeed hollow, but not all segments were; only some were like this.

The frog demon inexplicably lost the contents of several spine segments, yet Sasa found the nerves unchanged during examination.

Yan Luo thought for a moment and looked at the parasites Sasa had already dissected.

Using his magnetic field power, he grabbed a parasite’s corpse and stuffed it into the spine, realizing that a whole parasite perfectly filled the spine’s hollow segment.

Julia’s eyes lit up, pointing at the spine in Yan Luo’s hand, "I knew it, it’s definitely the parasites causing the problem!"

Yan Luo then dismantled the spines of a few other demons he had caught earlier, observing briefly, and discovered that demons with parasites had hollow spines, whereas demons with only parasite eggs had complete spines.

In other words, the hollow segments in these demon spines were created by the parasites.

Sasa muttered, "The signals for biological activity come from the spine, controlling the spine is equivalent to controlling the entity... Julia’s guess makes some sense."

Yan Luo chimed in, "The problem is, we haven’t found parasites in the demon bodies before."

Julia interjected appropriately, "Isn’t there a possibility that only when parasites hollow out the spine can they fully control the demons? At that point, they’re unable to leave the spine and move independently, so when you hunted demons and dissected them, you didn’t find the parasites."

It could very well be!

Yan Luo and Sasa exchanged glances, nodding slightly.

As Julia said, previously hunters didn’t break open the spines when dissecting demon bodies.

Things like spines, the more complete they are, the higher their value. Since the demons were already killed, there was no need to dismantle their spines into sections, damaging their value.

Therefore, it was normal for them not to notice parasites.

Hunters carry space boxes, which can fully accommodate a demon’s spine; only the skeleton needs dismantling.

"This isn’t the source of the demon anomaly."

Looking at the spine in Yan Luo’s hand, Julia said quietly.

She turned back to the direction they came from, realizing the anomaly’s source should be elsewhere, beyond the forest’s depths.

Generally, demon bodies don’t contain parasites because parasites can only infest creatures with similar muscle strength.

As parasites survive by ’parasitism’ indicates they’re weak, if they’re as strong as demons, there’s no need to parasitize.

Higher-level demons are stronger than lower-level ones, with much greater muscle strength, making parasitism nearly impossible.

If these parasites can’t reproduce independently, doesn’t it imply they’re man-made?

But could Alfheim’s elves really create such parasites?

Recently, Saint Fuer personally admitted that he guided the transformation of Alfheim’s elven civilization, making all elves morally and benevolently rich.

Over his eight thousand years of guidance, it’s likely all elves silently completed the transformation.

Such a society lacks the conditions for antisocial personality birth, even if genes suggest so; the societal atmosphere can’t breed evil thoughts, and even if they arise, there’s no impetus to act.

Thus, these ’man-made parasites’ may not be the elves’ creation.

"...Otherworldly invaders’ doing?"

Sasa voiced her speculation, causing Julia to gasp.

Alfheim hasn’t had contact with otherworldly beings for over eight thousand years; the last contact was with humans.

Humans couldn’t control demons like this, and even Abyssal Believers wouldn’t have this ability.

Abyssal Believers’ magic technology isn’t advanced enough to create such parasites, and the technology lock firmly restricts Blue Star’s tech, so it’s definitely not Abyssal Believers’ doing.

The entity that made these parasites comes from an otherworld outside Blue Star.

Realizing the frog demon might hold more clues, Sasa turned back to continue dissecting.

Under sharp blades and power saws, the frog demon was sliced into pieces, scattered across the ground.

After completing the frog demon’s autopsy, Sasa found that parasite eggs likely entered through the mouth, weren’t digested by stomach acids, but instead traveled with other food to the intestines.

As the frog progressed with digesting the eggs, the parasites hatched, feeding on intestinal food, and grew rapidly.

Then, they broke through the frog’s intestines, burrowing into the muscles.

Because Sasa found rotting food debris outside the intestines in the frog demon’s body, likely brought out by parasites breaching the intestines.

Subsequently, the parasites entered the frog demon’s spine through joint connections, gnawing at spine contents while connecting with the frog demon’s nervous system.

If Yan Luo and his companions hadn’t appeared, the frog demon may have been completely eaten by the parasite, which would then transform into its spine, controlling its body.

"A terribly vicious method," Sasa muttered.

In such a scenario, the demon’s brain still perceives its body clearly but can only watch helplessly as its body gains self-awareness, acting independently beyond its control.

Listening to Sasa’s analysis, Julia glanced at the demon corpses around, a thought emerging in her mind.

"Water source! Parasites spread through the water source!"

Herbivorous and carnivorous demons move together, despite having predatory relationships and different diets, indicating a problem with the water source.

The hidden manipulator introduced a large amount of parasite eggs into the water source, since demons need water, they’ll inevitably have parasites inside them once they drink.

It’s uncertain if these parasites can control Catastrophe Level demons; if they can, it’ll be a huge trouble.

However, neither Sasa nor Yan Luo believes parasites can control Catastrophe Level demons. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Catastrophe Level demons’ stomach acid must be powerful, digesting parasite eggs entirely.

They all don’t believe parasites can control Catastrophe Level demons, but words alone aren’t proof; only facts can verify or refute this.

Thus, Yan Luo and his companions boarded the vehicle, started the armored car, and randomly headed in a non-returning direction.

On the road, Yan Luo opened the window, occasionally capturing demons and using his magnetic field power to dissect them, checking for parasites.

In Yan Luo’s eyes, demons are meant to be killed; he has no sympathy for them, he kills as he pleases.

Demons don’t attack the armored car because Yan Luo is present, sensing his dangerous aura.

If only Sasa and Julia were here, demons would undoubtedly attack.

This is demon nature, they’re derivatives of the Evil God, born hostile to all life except themselves.

As Yan Luo expected, he caught twelve demons, only one had neither parasites nor eggs, while the others did.

Parasites are spreading in this area.