Chapter 42 Spreading Pollution, Do You Know Who My Grandfather Is? Hmph…

Chapter 42: Spreading Contamination

"Do you know who my grandfather is? Hmph..."

By the end, the woman on the ground had become a mere skeleton draped in human skin. The grotesquely obese infant lay in her arms, still suckling.

But the woman’s body was utterly devoid of blood. After several futile attempts, the infant realized it could no longer draw a single drop. It opened its mouth and let out a heartbroken wail.

"Waaah... waaah..."

The infant’s piercing cries echoed through the amusement park. Not far away, Zhao Lan and her three companions felt a prickle of unease upon hearing the sound. Miao Yuanjin, in particular, felt as if her heart were being squeezed by a fist, making it difficult to breathe.

"What’s going on?" Zhao Lan shouted. "Why is there a baby crying?"

Yu Xing gazed down for a moment. By then, the skeletal woman on the ground was shakily rising, her emaciated arms—painfully thin to behold—still clutching the corpulent infant tightly.

Though newly born, the infant was strangely clean, free of any bloodstains. It was plump, fair-skinned, and tender—quite adorable, if one overlooked the rows of tiny, sharp teeth in its mouth.

Yu Xing observed the scene with detached curiosity. This was a type of contaminant she had never encountered. She couldn’t discern whether the contaminant was the infant or the woman, nor how it spread its corruption.

Hearing Zhao Lan’s question, Yu Xing tilted her head slightly and called back, "Oh! The contaminant might be the baby!"

A baby being a contaminant wasn’t unusual—what was strange was Yu Xing’s use of "might." What did "might" imply?

But since Yu Xing said so, there was definitely a contaminant nearby. The four exchanged uneasy glances. They had learned much at the church recently, including how to handle contaminants. Typically, the solution was to neutralize the source as quickly as possible. But this was an amusement park, teeming with people.

For one, a circle of onlookers had already gathered around the contaminant.

In such a situation, ensuring the safety of ordinary citizens was nearly impossible—especially since the four of them were newly awakened Divine Chosen, still clumsy in wielding their Divine Skills.

Miao Yuanjin clenched her fists. "Should we neutralize the contaminant immediately?"

Zhao Lan frowned, admitting to herself that she was panicking.

Da Ya looked left and right. Her Divine Skill, used alone, had no offensive power, so she was at a loss.

Ke Yuan’s face had gone pale. He whispered, "Should we notify the church...?"

"There’s no time," Zhao Lan gritted her teeth. "There are so many ordinary people here. The source of contamination could infect them at any moment. Once the pollution spreads, the consequences would be unimaginable."

By then, the skeletal woman had lurched to her feet. The plump infant in her arms darted its eyes around, as if scrutinizing the surrounding crowd—or perhaps choosing its next target.

Strangely, the surrounding onlookers showed no reaction. They remained standing there, gazing at the woman and infant with joyful expressions, as if nothing were amiss.

The infant’s eyes darted around before finally settling on Yu Xing.

It extended a chubby little finger toward her, gurgling softly.

Immediately, the skeletal woman carried it toward Yu Xing, her spindly, brittle legs looking as though they might snap at any moment.

Seeing the infant choose her, Yu Xing felt a sense of inevitability. With her charm, if she was present, there was no reason for the infant to choose anyone else.

From behind, Zhao Lan’s voice snapped again. "What’s happening now?!"

Yu Xing replied, "It seems to like me!"

"?"

What kind of answer was that?

Zhao Lan was out of patience. She whispered to her companions, "First, evacuate the crowd. Then, deal with the contaminant."

The other three, regardless of their feelings, nodded solemnly.

Zhao Lan called out to Yu Xing again, "We’re going to start evacuating the crowd. Cooperate on your end!"

By now, the woman had carried the infant right up to Yu Xing. Raising her left hand, Yu Xing flashed an "OK" sign. "No problem!"

The next moment, the infant stretched out its hands toward her, as if asking to be held. After a moment’s thought, Yu Xing reached out and took the infant into her arms.

She still hadn’t figured out how this contaminant spread its taint, but the best way to control it was to keep it in her grasp—that way, it wouldn’t target anyone else. Besides, she had the Broomstick Star Skill. Did this contaminant really think it could cause trouble while in her arms?

Once in Yu Xing’s embrace, the infant giggled happily.

Its tiny hands pressed lightly against her before it opened its mouth, revealing rows of needle-like fangs.

Zhao Lan and the others had already begun evacuating the crowd. Zhao Lan instructed Miao Yuanjin and Da Ya to keep other visitors away while she and Ke Yuan tried clearing the onlookers around the contaminant.

"Get out of here!" Zhao Lan grabbed a man in a white T-shirt. "Why aren’t you leaving?"

The man turned to her, looking puzzled as he pulled his arm back. "What’s wrong with you?"

Zhao Lan was desperate. "Hurry! Get away from here! Can’t you see it’s dangerous?"

"You nuts?" The man gave her a weird look.

Ke Yuan was having the same trouble—none of them sensed any danger.

This made Zhao Lan both anxious and curious. What kind of contamination source didn’t trigger panic in people?

Just then, the crowd suddenly parted, and a figure carrying an infant emerged.

Zhao Lan’s eyes widened—it was Yu Xing!

In her arms, Yu Xing cradled a deceptively normal-looking infant, its tiny limbs thrashing as its mouth stretched unnaturally wide, exposing something...wrong inside.

At the sight, Zhao Lan’s blood ran cold. If the infant was the contaminant, how could Yu Xing dare to hold it? Had she already been contaminated?

Beside her, Ke Yuan choked out. "Look!"

As the crowd dispersed, Zhao Lan noticed Yu Xing wasn’t alone. Behind her, a skeletal, nightmare of a woman followed.

Upon closer inspection, the woman wasn’t walking on her own—she was being dragged. From beneath her skirt trailed a purplish, intestine-like appendage, connected directly to the infant in Yu Xing’s arms.

The scene was so surreal and horrifying that Zhao Lan felt her grip on reality slipping.

Voice shaking, she called out, "Yu Xing, what are you doing?!"

Yu Xing turned her head and replied, "Since we can’t evacuate the crowd, we’ll just take the contaminant away instead."

Zhao Lan: "..."

Ke Yuan: "..."

Her casual yet serious tone made Zhao Lan feel like she was being hysterical.

With that, Yu Xing walked off with the monstrosity away from the crowd. Soon after, the onlookers dispersed.

Watching Yu Xing leave, Zhao Lan urgently gestured to the others. "Hurry, follow her!"

Ke Yuan followed behind Zhao Lan, taking a few deep breaths before whispering, "I feel awful—my head's pounding, and I can't seem to catch my breath."

Truthfully, Zhao Lan also felt something similar, though her symptoms were much milder. She knew this was a sign of contamination. When people are contaminated, they experience discomfort, and the higher one's mental resistance, the better they can resist it. Among the five of them, only Ke Yuan had B-rank mental resistance, so his reaction was the most severe.

"Don't worry," Zhao Lan reassured him. "Miao Yuanjin can purify us, and once we deal with the source, we’ll head straight back to the church."

Ke Yuan nodded. Meanwhile, Miao Yuanjin, who was helping evacuate the crowd, suddenly sensed something amiss. She turned and saw a man in a white T-shirt walking past her, radiating disturbing energy.

Just as she was about to speak, she sensed the same energy behind her.

Miao Yuanjin glanced around—there were people everywhere emitting that same disturbing energy.

Her heart pounded violently, a gut feeling that something major was about to happen.

Before she could react, Ke Yuan rushed over and said, "The situation's contained for now. Let’s go!"

Following Ke Yuan to a hidden alcove, Miao Yuanjin and Da Ya were both startled to see Yu Xing holding an infant and the gaunt, corpse-like woman beside her.

"Contaminant!" Miao Yuanjin gasped, pointing at Yu Xing. "Get rid of it! It’s dangerous!"

Zhao Lan frowned and asked Yu Xing, "How... how are you feeling right now?"

"Pretty good," Yu Xing replied. "So, how do we deal with this contaminant?"

Honestly, Zhao Lan thought this was surreal. She was now even more convinced that Yu Xing’s mental resistance had to be SS-grade—she was holding a contaminant without any adverse reaction. The rest of them were already feeling uneasy just looking at it, yet Yu Xing was completely unaffected.

"This infant..." Zhao Lan pointed at it, then hesitated, feeling odd calling it that. "Doesn’t it attack people?"

"Oh, it does. It sucks blood," Yu Xing said, turning slightly to show them. "It sucked its mother dry. It tried to suck mine too, but I didn’t let it, so I jammed its mouth with needles and broken glass."

The four of them leaned in to look—sure enough, the infant’s mouth was crammed with shards of glass and needles embedded in its flesh.

"..."

Even though they knew it was a contaminant, they couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy.

Miao Yuanjin gave Yu Xing a look. "Where did you get the glass and needles?"

"Oh, Teacher Jiang gave them to me for injecting nutrients," Yu Xing replied.

Da Ya was baffled. "You carry those around?"

Yes, because Yu Xing stored the nutrient solution in her storage ring. But she couldn’t say that, so she just grinned awkwardly.

The four of them: "..."

The infant’s mouth was stuffed with glass and needles, and it tried to bite Yu Xing. But with its mouth full, it couldn’t close its jaws, so it could only thrash helplessly.

At the moment, the contaminant seemed practically harmless, as if it posed no real threat.

Which brought up the question—what now?

"How do we deal with it?" Ke Yuan asked.

"Kill them," Zhao Lan said coldly. "For contaminants this thoroughly corrupted, the only solution is to eliminate them."

They looked at the infant in Yu Xing’s hands—its chubby limbs flailing, looking almost cute if not for its mouth.

"Who’s going to do it?" Ke Yuan pressed.

They all knew the procedure, but when push came to shove, they hesitated.

If the contaminant had been aggressive and threatening, they wouldn’t have hesitated. But right now, it looked pathetic.

"Fine," Zhao Lan said after a pause. As the oldest and most responsible among them, she stepped forward. "I’ll do it. I’ll freeze it."

Zhao Lan instructed Yu Xing to place the infant on the ground. Just as Yu Xing was about to let go, the infant clutched her clothes tightly and let out a wail.

The infant’s cry would have sounded normal, but with its mouth blocked, it emitted a chilling, distorted sound.

At the same time, the skeletal woman, who had been silently standing behind them, suddenly lunged at Yu Xing.

"Watch out!"

Zhao Lan and the others shouted in alarm. Da Ya instinctively stuck out her leg to trip the woman, Zhao Lan activated her Divine Skill, and even Ke Yuan, in a flash, used his Divine Skill to turn his body to metal and charged at her.

The emaciated woman was already unsteady on her feet, and Da Ya’s trip sent her crashing forward. Yet even as she fell, she clawed desperately for the infant in Yu Xing’s arms.

At the last second, the woman managed to grab the infant’s feet—but in that same moment, her entire body was flash-frozen. She froze into an ice sculpture, toppling forward, still gripping the infant’s legs. The infant was yanked from Yu Xing’s arms and smashed against the ground.

Luckily, the infant was unnaturally tough. Even after such a hard fall, it was still alive—though purplish blood oozed from its glass-filled mouth.

But Da Ya and Zhao Lan weren’t the only ones who had acted. Ke Yuan had too.

Ke Yuan was still green with his Divine Skill. Once he turned his body to metal and charged, he couldn’t stop easily. Before the frozen woman even hit the ground, Ke Yuan plowed into her, and the two of them landed heavily on the infant, which was still coughing up blood.

Yu Xing could've sworn she heard a crunch.

The combined weight of two people crushing an infant—for a normal baby, that would have been fatal.

They stood frozen for a moment before noticing dark, filthy blood spreading beneath the ice sculpture. When they moved it aside, the infant was gone—only a mangled mess of flesh and blood remained.

"That’s it?" Miao Yuanjin said, incredulous. "It was that easy?"

Da Ya added, "Feels like we hardly lifted a finger."

"No," Zhao Lan analyzed. "It might seem like the contaminant died by accident, but Yu Xing’s Divine Skill was the real factor. You all know how her abilities work—this is exactly what happens."

True, this contaminant’s death was absurdly unlucky, much like Beck’s fate that day.

The four of them looked at each other, grins spreading. Da Ya pressed a hand to her chest. "Did we just... take down a contamination source?"

Zhao Lan nodded. "That we did."

"Does that mean we’re like those Divine Chosen Team members now?" Ke Yuan’s face flushed with excitement.

Miao Yuanjin took deep breaths, unable to suppress her grin. "This is nothing. We’ll bag a second, a third—a hundred more contamination sources!"

In her excitement, Da Ya slung an arm around Miao Yuanjin’s shoulders. Usually fussy about physical contact, Miao Yuanjin didn’t even mind, still smiling.

Then, in the midst of their triumph, Yu Xing’s voice broke in.

"Why hasn’t the contamination source appeared yet?"

The four of them stiffened. "What?"

"The contamination source," Yu Xing pointed at the gory remains on the ground. "After a contaminant dies, the source should form into a purple orb. They taught us that in class."

It hit them then—yes, the contaminant was dead. So why hadn’t the source appeared?

They gathered around the ice sculpture and the bloodstains, thinking it over for a long while. Da Ya pointed at the ice sculpture and said, "Could it be because the ice sculpture hasn't been dealt with yet?"

"That makes sense." Ke Yuan nodded, then his body metalized again. He slammed an iron fist into the ice sculpture.

*Crack!*

With a crisp sound, the ice sculpture shattered into pieces, and the woman inside was also broken into fragments.

Now, the contaminant was truly dead for sure. All five stood in the middle of the wreckage, waiting in tense silence.

One minute, two minutes... Several minutes passed, but the source of contamination still hadn't appeared.

Everyone was getting antsy. Da Ya said, "This source of contamination is taking way too long to emerge."

Zhao Lan remained silent, her expression grim. Yu Xing, the only one with experience among them, spoke up, "I don’t think the source of contamination is just slow to appear."

The others turned to look at Yu Xing. Under their gazes, she pointed at the ice fragments on the ground and said, "This isn’t the source of contamination at all—it’s just an infected being. The real source of contamination isn’t here."

After a moment of silence, the faces of Zhao Lan and the other three went pale.

Especially Miao Yuanjin. Her lips trembled slightly as she said, "Earlier... when I was evacuating the crowd, I sensed signs of infection on some people. But... but then Ke Yuan came to tell me that the source of contamination had been contained, so I didn’t pay much attention..."

A terrifying thought filled the minds of the five. Zhao Lan’s hands shook as she pulled out her comm device.

She contacted the cultivator Jiang Lingwen, whose calm voice came through, "What is it?"

"Teacher," Zhao Lan said, fighting to keep calm, "We encountered a contaminant in the amusement park in Zone C."

There was a beat of silence on the other end before Jiang Lingwen asked, "I’ll contact the Divine Chosen Team immediately. What’s the current situation?"

Zhao Lan glanced down at the ice fragments on the ground. "We took out one contaminated being, but... that wasn’t the source of contamination. We suspect the source of contamination has already spread throughout the amusement park, and possibly... even beyond it."

Jiang Lingwen moved fast. In less than ten minutes, members of the Divine Chosen Team arrived—and not just one team.

Accompanying them was a group of heavily armed troops, the same ones Yu Xing had seen guarding the city gates of each district.

The soldiers immediately locked down the entire amusement park, while the Divine Chosen Team led people inside. Yu Xing knew the squad leader—it was Bai Qinghe’s team.

This was the first time Yu Xing and her friends had faced such a situation, and they were on edge. Bai Qinghe approached them with a stern expression, nodding at Yu Xing before asking, "What's the sitrep?"

"The contaminant was an infant—"

"No, no, it was a woman—"

"Lots of people were contaminated—"

"..."

They all spoke at once, making Bai Qinghe's head spin. He quickly silenced them and pointed at Yu Xing. "Everyone else, quiet. *You* explain."

Everyone immediately fell silent. Yu Xing thought to herself that Bai Qinghe really never missed a chance to talk to her.

She collected herself and began, "Here’s what happened. My boyfriend invited me to the amusement park, and I wanted to introduce my new friends to him, so—"

"Stop!" The moment Yu Xing mentioned her boyfriend, Bai Qinghe’s mind immediately flashed back to the video he’d seen on the Seventh Middle School forum. "Get to the point. Start from when you discovered the contaminant."

Yu Xing sighed. Seeing Bai Qinghe’s wounded look, she figured hearing about her loving relationship with her boyfriend must be hard for him.

She continued, "We were about to go eat when Miao Yuanjin suddenly got a bad feeling. Then we saw a crowd gathered around something. I decided to go investigate and saw a woman giving birth in the middle of the crowd. The infant was born with a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. The woman held the infant, and it bit through her skin to suck her blood, quickly draining her dry in seconds. Then the infant tried to attack others, so I took it away—"

"Wait!" Bai Qinghe interrupted. "You knew it was a contaminant. Why did you take it?"

"I was worried it would attack others," Yu Xing said with a smile. "Didn’t you say that we, the Divine Chosen, are meant to protect people?"

"But not like this—" Bai Qinghe cut himself off mid-rebuke, realizing now wasn’t the time for this, especially since Yu Xing was unharmed.

"Go on," he said.

Yu Xing smoothly recounted the rest. Behind Bai Qinghe stood his teammates and some soldiers, all of whom grew grim-faced as they listened.

What looked like an officer spoke up, "It seems this place has indeed been contaminated. There’s no way to estimate how many people have been affected. My suggestion is..."

He paused before continuing, "Leveling the whole place."

When faced with uncontrollable contamination, the usual solution was a scorched earth approach.

"No!" Miao Yuanjin shouted. "There are so many visitors here! How can you destroy it? That’s murder!"

Bai Qinghe was the decision-maker here, but he remained silent.

The officer glared fiercely at Miao Yuanjin. "You're out of line."

Miao Yuanjin’s eyes widened even more. "How dare you speak to me like that? Do you know who my grandfather is?!"

The officer was taken aback before his anger flared. "Are you looking for death?"

Before he could act, Zhao Lan suddenly said, "Her grandfather is Miao Pengwei."

"..." The officer froze. Not just him—everyone else turned to look at Miao Yuanjin.

Miao Yuanjin crossed her arms, a smug look on her face. "Now you know who I am? Listen up—I won’t allow you to destroy this place. There must still be clean people here."

Bai Qinghe frowned, his gaze sweeping the surroundings with deep concern. "If the contamination is only within the amusement park, the situation is still manageable. But the worst-case scenario is..."

He didn’t finish, but everyone understood. The real fear was that the contamination had already spread beyond the amusement park. If the outside was contaminated too, would they have to destroy all of Zone C? Or even the entire Seventh City?

Just as everyone hesitated, a scream rang out in the distance.

"Ahhh!!!"

It was a man’s scream. Bai Qinghe immediately led the group toward the sound.

When they arrived, they saw a group of trapped park-goers gathered around something.

The officer raised his weapon and violently pushed back the crowd. "Back off! Clear out!"

The soldiers forced their way through, revealing the scene. A man lay on the ground, his abdomen horrifically bloated—like a full-term pregnancy.

In fact, he *was* pregnant—and currently in active labor.

The man thrashed in pain, screaming in agony as copious amounts of blood spread beneath him.