Armor-Piercing Munition: Face Me, Carbon-Based Monster!
Chapter 106 - 18 Element B

Chapter 106: Chapter 18 Element B

A single mortar shell couldn’t possibly hit a small boat drifting 3 kilometers away with such precision. No one has that kind of luck.

But when the explosive shell detonated less than 50 meters from the boat, Zhou Qin and the man on board were both startled.

The man hadn’t reacted yet; he just frowned and asked:

"Have their shells deviated over here?"

"If they can’t even control basic shelling directions, they’re probably almost all dead, right?"

Zhou Qin was stunned by his words and looked at the man beside him incredulously, his gaze first puzzled, then changing to a peculiar sense of pity.

Indeed.

This "Supervisor" beside him still hadn’t understood what was truly happening.

His arrogance as a superior has deeply corroded him, making him overlook the obvious truth before his eyes.

All dead?

Perhaps they’re all dead indeed.

But the dead are definitely the monsters.

Haven’t you noticed that on this silent night, the howls of monsters have already disappeared?

Haven’t you noticed that the sounds of distant artillery and gunfire have completely stopped?

Haven’t you noticed that those explosive flashes have long dissipated into the air with the smoke?

You don’t know....

At this moment, Zhou Qin felt a deep-seated sorrow piercing his bones.

For the first time, he realized that the "superior" he always trusted and revered might not be as... correct as he imagined.

The Holy Blood Temple should have been a powerful and wise organization, but for some reason, he always sensed a kind of "moribundity" pervading within.

As if it’s the moribundity of a dying monster.

He originally thought it was just a temporary setback, after all, the Blood Doctor of the temple was still continually researching the secrets of the Holy Blood.

He originally thought that one day, when the abilities of the Holy Blood were further developed, the Holy Blood Temple would rise again under the leadership of the Holy Father, sweeping across the world and trampling all enemies underfoot.

But now, he suddenly realized that this "ideal" seemed not so realistic.

The moribundity wasn’t from an external source but was caused by internal corruption.

When even the superiors have become foolish, the problems here are probably already quite severe....

"They’re almost all dead."

What a foolish statement this is.

It’s even foolish enough to leave Zhou Qin utterly dumbfounded.

He took a deep breath to calm his tumultuous thoughts, then slowly shook his head and said to the man beside him:

"Lord Guardian, perhaps you... are mistaken."

"The battle has indeed ended, but the winner is definitely not that monster; it’s... the Huaxia Army."

"Are you kidding me??"

The man looked angrily at Zhou Qin and questioned him harshly:

"How could they possibly win??"

"It’s a Level 3 Monster---- no, you could say it’s a Second-level Monster!"

"Even the Mechanical God Sect would have to dispatch the Holy Temple Guard and use their giant cannons to have a chance at annihilating it!"

"Those heretics you’re talking about, how many of them are there? They don’t even have giant cannons!"

"Those explosions, though grand in scale, you can see that they’re just some big fireworks!"

"What are they going to use to kill the monster? With the shell that just landed near us?"

"This shell’s power isn’t much less than the Mechanical God Sect’s 7-kilogram cannon’s power!"

"And its accuracy is so poor, it can’t even...."

"We can go and have a look."

Zhou Qin, unusually adopting a stance of "offense," interrupted the man in front of him, then said:

"They’ve already spotted us, this shell is just a warning."

"In that case, we might as well show ourselves openly."

"If they really are dead, you can return to the Imperial City to report."

"But if they won.... it proves they are formidable opponents, and moving ahead of the Mechanical God Sect doesn’t hurt us..."

His words finished, the man fell silent.

He seemed to be hesitating.

After a long while, he suddenly said:

"I must return to Jiujiang."

"You go and have a look."

"Bring the news to me as soon as possible!"

"Yes, my lord."

Zhou Qin bowed his head humbly, but a peculiar gleam already flashed in his eyes....

....

On the other side, Chen Jian and his team had already approached the monster’s corpse after firing one shot.

The lingering smoke permeated the forest, mixed strangely with the aroma of roasted meat.

Chen Jian couldn’t help feeling nauseous, but instinctively found the smell appetizing; probably because he knew this was a monster and not one of his own kind. Hence, smelling the roasted aroma, he couldn’t help associating it with its taste.

Damn, the soul of a Cantonese person has awakened again.

Chen Jian quickly shook his head to clear this absurd thought and then cautiously led his squad to encircle, sending the spasming monster’s corpse on its last journey with a grenade.

Only after confirming that the monster’s nerves were completely inactive did Chen Jian finally approach the monster and use a tactical flashlight to examine the upper half of its body, carefully observing its structure.

"... Tsk, massive lungs, massive vocal cords."

"I initially thought its neck was just a little below its head; turns out its chest is also part of its neck, the actual chest is on the belly, and the actual belly is on the tail...."

"... You’ve completely lost me."

Hearing Chen Jian’s words, Shen Yue said with a wry smile:

"In any case, this thing really is pretty strong."

"If it weren’t for the thermobaric bomb, dealing with it wouldn’t have been that simple for us."

"Come to think of it, how coincidental--- Lei Jie, did those ring traders know we wanted to strike this monster? Did they send it purposefully?"

"I don’t think so."

Shen Yue shook his head, answered:

"They even sent missiles, feels like they randomly picked two sets of seemingly strong equipment to send."

"Let’s not mention the missiles, the rocket launchers... they received intel, knowing we excel at using these things, sending them isn’t unusual; perhaps they just happened to get thermobaric bombs."

"Either way, we still need to communicate face-to-face with them to get the details."

"Captain, what’s the plan, should we head back now?"

"Immediately."

Chen Jian nodded slightly, then ordered:

"He Shuo, take photos of the monster for the record, update the data in the PDA."

"Xie Liu, see if there’s anything useful on the monster, you mentioned it has venom, can you try to collect it?"

"No problem, I’ll take a look."

Xie Liu briefly replied, then went forward to inspect the monster’s tail area.

Shen Yue watched her actions with curiosity, then turned to Chen Jian and asked:

"Were you inspired by that Earth Dragon and want to try biological control?"

"Smart."

Chen Jian nodded, answered:

"If it’s truly a highly corrosive liquid, bringing it back could be useful."

"The basis of industry is sulfuric and nitric acids, and since we currently lack the capability to synthesize them, perhaps this thing’s composition is sulfuric acid?"

"... Oh, come on, what organism produces sulfuric acid?"

"I was just giving an example... Anyway, take it with us, it can’t hurt, treat it as research material."

"That makes sense."

Shen Yue nodded in agreement, and after Xie Liu finished collecting the mysterious liquid secreted by the monster’s tail, carefully sealing it, she too acknowledged Chen Jian with a nod.

At this point, He Shuo also completed photographing the monster for the record.

But just as he finished capturing the last photo, he suddenly said:

"I have a feeling this thing is a mutated type of bat."

"I didn’t look closely before, but now it seems all its features are quite similar to a bat."

"Xie Liu also mentioned earlier that these monsters are relatively small individuals and primarily social, which aligns with bat behavior."

"Didn’t it come from the southwest? There’s a Hidden Water Cave there, full of bats, and the geographical position fits."

"However, it’s quite odd; since the individuals in the species are all small, how did it grow so large?"

"Is this important?"

Lei Jie asked curiously:

"We’ve seen quite a few giant monsters, Earth Dragons can grow this big, is it strange for a bat to be this large?"

"Strange."

Shen Yue interjected:

"You didn’t catch He Shuo’s point."

"His point is, assuming there is some factor, let’s call it Element A, that created these monsters, then the impact of Element A on the same species should be consistent; otherwise, it would violate the laws of physics and biology."

"But now, this giant Qin Yuan has clearly become vastly different from regular Qin Yuan species, which means that in addition to Element A, this thing might have also been influenced by Element B."

"So this is indeed quite a significant discovery."

"If we want to unravel the mystery of these monsters’ emergence, starting with the broadly effective Element A isn’t a good choice, because there are too many samples and no starting point."

"But if we can first identify what Element B is, then that could lead to a breakthrough."

"Understood."

Lei Jie gave a thumbs-up and said:

"But this is a long-term plan, right?"

"We’re not in such a rush to find it right now, right?"

"Right."

Chen Jian simply replied, but several keywords already flashed rapidly in his mind.

Element B, Hidden Water Cave, bats, mutation...

Besides the Hidden Water Cave, there’s a nuclear power plant there that had been planned for decades and only started construction the year they crossed.

Could the appearance of this giant Qin Yuan be related to that nuclear power?

If related..... does that nuclear power plant hold other secrets?

Maybe, such questions can only be set aside for now.

However, Chen Jian had a premonition.

This Qin Yuan might become the key to unraveling the monster mystery in their future...

"Alright."

Chen Jian exhaled deeply, commanded:

"The monster’s dealt with, let’s pack up."

"Those ring merchants are still waiting, we need to hurry...."

"Abnormal heat source! Abnormal heat source!"

Before Chen Jian could finish his words, the drone in the sky suddenly sounded an alarm.

He immediately tightened his grip on the gun in his hand, cautiously aiming in the direction indicated by the drone.

But soon, he saw the outline of the heat source.

It was a person.

And meanwhile, a somewhat familiar voice came from afar in the woods.

"Don’t shoot! It’s Zhou Qin----"