Everything vanished in the light.
The falling snow rose up like a living thing, transforming into a giant dragon of ice and snow that roared silently towards the sky and drowned the enemy.
The scholars of the association had to evacuate in a panic.
In the past, the Explorers Association always showed intelligence to others. They never thought that this time they would be the ones who suffered the loss of intelligence.
After the ranch was frozen, most of the association's spies had to evacuate, which led to a fatal mistake in the intelligence about You Huan.
In fact, they found the bald land at the edge of the pasture.
But when the incident happened, the gathering of a large number of White Knights caused the influence of the "White Dust" to intensify, and they were unable to observe it closely.
Even though they checked the area afterwards, they couldn't find any useful traces because it was destroyed so thoroughly.
In addition, although snow dust worms usually love to chirp, their abilities are indeed not apparent from their appearance.
Every time they attacked, they coordinated with You Huan's actions, making it seem as if You Huan did everything himself.
After taking into account the unknown factors of the target, the association has actually overestimated the target's strength as much as possible and planned many backup measures besides poisoning the target's physique.
But the actual strength of the target was still far beyond their expectations!
The remaining scholars used various tricks to escape from You Huan's attack and traveled several miles away. They stood at a distance and talked to each other using the association's special communication device.
"Compared to what we observed ten days ago, its strength has increased by at least 50%! This speed is far beyond the level of normal corpse beasts. The only time we have seen a faster increase than this is in the black dust gathering phenomenon we observed."
One person said in disbelief.
After hearing what he said, despite the urgency of the situation, another person couldn't help but refute in the communicator:
"The numbers should not be as exaggerated as you calculated. After all, we didn't know some of the intelligence about the target before. The premise of your calculation is wrong."
"If you ask me, we suffered heavy losses today." As if feeling that they had reached a safe place, a third voice appeared and questioned the person who had been silent.
"For a situation like this to happen, all those responsible for collecting intelligence are naturally responsible, but shouldn't Dr. A be held more responsible? Didn't he confidently give an action plan based on the behavior of corpse beasts? Why didn't it work at all?"
"That's right..."
As if realizing that everyone was gradually trying to put all the blame on him, a rather old voice finally spoke after sighing:
"...My research is based on normal corpse beasts. Strictly speaking, my specialty is not corpse beast behavior. If we are talking about this field, there are better people in the church than me. My specialty is the analysis of biological behavior based on black dust."
"After today's close observation, I can guarantee with all my past academic works and reputation that this time the goal is definitely not -"
"You know a lot about Black Dust?"
A new voice joined the conversation, drowning out Dr. A's voice.
All the other scholars who heard this voice through the communicator felt a chill in their hearts, as if the frost had come to their door again.
There is no mistake, this is definitely the voice of the target corpse beast!
"Crack, crack—"
The next moment, they heard the subtle sound of something spreading through the communicator.
——Out of their sight, the man wearing the monkey mask lowered his hands, and the communicator in his hand was completely frozen.
"...Yes, I do have some insights into the research of Black Dust and the monsters it created."
Opposite him, a corpse beast about one story tall stood on a high slope. The sunlight shone from behind it, making the outline of its body emit an almost blinding white light, and its front was shrouded in shadow.
A pair of pale red eyes looked eerie in the darkness, looking down at Dr. A.
Dr. A also felt helpless.
He is not one of those monster colleagues, he is a real human being.
Twenty years have passed since the end of the world, and he is now a weathered old man in his sixties or seventies.
He was left alone to face this corpse beast that had just completed a massacre... He was under a lot of pressure!
The next moment, he heard the corpse beast muttering to itself like a devil: "I wonder if the association is willing to pay a ransom to redeem this old man as a prisoner..."
Dr. A was shocked, and in an instant, he learned how to communicate with these "abnormal" black dust creatures. With a flash of inspiration, he said loudly:
"The association believes that life and death are determined by fate, so they will never redeem me - but I can redeem myself! What do you want to know?"
The corpse beast didn't seem to be very convinced by the old man's words: "Doesn't your association have a code of conduct to spread what you know to the public? Can the information you tell me be called ransom?"
Having said that, Dr. A saw hope for life.
His previous guess was correct - this corpse beast had a very different way of thinking from ordinary, normal black dust creatures!
Normal black dust creatures, even if they didn't know it in their hearts, would subconsciously reject non-black dust creatures.
According to the association's theory, this is because the purpose of the appearance of Black Dust is to completely transform the world into the appearance of Black Dust. Anything that is not Black Dust is an enemy in the underlying logic of Black Dust.
But the corpse beast in front of him was more like a wild beast that had strayed into doomsday. It was a purely intelligent animal and was not controlled by any external subconscious.
This difference, which is almost invisible to ordinary people, will cause huge changes like a butterfly effect, causing the plan he designed to work on normal corpse beasts to fail.
...Of course, this is also because his plan is too sophisticated and has a low tolerance for error.
But now is not the time to reflect on yourself.
Dr. A suddenly had an idea and said, "Well... I have studied black dust and black dust creations and have made a lot of progress. I can give you samples of them."
6◇9◇Book◇Bar
After he finished speaking, he saw the white corpse beast finally nodded in satisfaction and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Each scholar in our association has his own research base. I... take you to my place and then give you the things?"
"Can."
The corpse beast didn't seem to consider the possibility that this was a trap.
But that's true. Not to mention that he didn't set any traps at all. Even if there were any traps, they would probably be smashed by this young but powerful corpse beast.
Dr. A thought bitterly.
…
Having captured a scholar who looked very good, You Huan naturally did not chase after other scholars from the association.
The more important reason was that he couldn't catch up with them - once these scholars really reacted, most of them were really good at running away.
After following Dr. A, who was said to be very knowledgeable about Black Dust and Black Dust creations, to his base located in an abandoned hospital, Dr. A readily gave him a sample of all his research results to date.
As the corpse beast curiously looked at the small bottles of black dust and biological tissue samples in front of it, Dr. A observed it with a complicated expression.
Magical, so magical.
He had never seen a corpse beast that was completely unaffected by the black dust.
It seems that the theory of the colleague in the church was correct.
If the corpse beasts can escape the subconscious control of the black dust, then can other lives also...?
Suddenly, his observation line of sight met a pair of red eyes.
Although he was unaware of the corpse beast's ill will towards him, he still shuddered subconsciously.
The corpse beast began to speak, and its expression seemed to be somewhat thoughtful:
"What do you know about black dust? Why do you do this research?"
"I..." You Huan opened his mouth as he looked at the old man who had taken off his mask and revealed his wrinkled face. Finally, he sighed and said,
"In my early years, I had an experience where I was on the verge of becoming a corpse, and I discovered something -"
"Black dust is not only a substance with some biological properties, it also affects all the lives infected by it on a spiritual level."
"Under the myriad monsters, the black dust allows us to share a common 'collective subconscious'." (End of this chapter)