"What's going on?"
Duan Chen rushed to Yuan Yuan and Jun Ci's room and found Yuan Yuan holding a tablet, frowning in thought.
"Captain, you're here just in time. Help me take a look. The detector shows something strange approaching, but the surveillance can't see anything at all."
This scene seemed eerily familiar.
Duan Chen's brow furrowed as he took the tablet.
"Captain, you..."
Good heavens, her beautiful back was exposed. Her skin was quite good, to be honest.
Yuan Yuan's mouth twitched.
"True Sight!"
Duan Chen activated his True Sight, and the scene before him immediately underwent a drastic change.
The detector was placed on the corpse of a sea monster. Next to it, dense red worms were approaching. The worms resembled caterpillars but were covered in eyes, making them quite terrifying.
"Ancient Texts!"
Fortunately, the Ancient Texts contained records of these eye worms.
Eye worms, early anomalies, often found in ancient times, during the Republican era. They are no longer seen in modern times. They are adept at sucking the blood of sea beasts, feeding on mud and the fresh blood of sea beasts. Their reproduction rate is extremely fast and they are not controllable by humans.
This...
Without a doubt, these worms were heading for Sun Xiaoxiao and the other two women.
"Captain?"
"Oh..."
Duan Chen shared the scene in his mind.
"Duan Chen—!"
Du Qingyi, holding a pillow and with her hair disheveled, charged down from the second floor.
She saw the worms and was about to go down and teach Duan Chen a lesson when she noticed him standing in front of Yuan Yuan and Jun Ci, his clothes torn at the back.
From her angle, it looked very much like...
"Don't overthink it."
Duan Chen coughed and showed her the anomaly on the detector on the tablet.
"Now! Turn off the sharing in my head!"
Du Qingyi hated being disturbed from her sleep, and she hated creatures like worms even more. Now, Duan Chen had unintentionally violated two of her taboos.
"Are those eye worms?"
Xier yawned and walked down.
"Yes."
"Are we going to fight?"
Jia Yunlian was clearly not asleep and was still holding a whip.
"No."
Duan Chen felt that if he killed these worms, he would regret it.
"Thousand Illusions Pandora - [Shield] Form!"
"Boom!"
A large shield materialized, blocking the entrance and preventing the advance of the eye worms.
There were so many of them. When Duan Chen activated True Sight and saw his beloved weapon crawling with dense eyes from the detector, even he almost fainted.
"This won't work, will it? If this continues, they'll be over the shield soon. Captain, let's act!"
Jun Ci was eager to fight.
"No!"
"We can't fight," Du Qingyi said, sitting beside them, shaking her head.
"That old man is watching us not far away. He's guarding those eye worms. If even one dies, we might not be able to leave Moon Ridge Village alive."
"Eye of God!"
Duan Chen activated his God's Eye and indeed saw the old man standing on a nearby rooftop, his hands behind his back, a pipe in his mouth, exuding an air of immortal grace.
"Besides, although those worms look disgusting, they aren't bad guys. We have no reason to fight them."
Du Qingyi yawned. Duan Chen had turned off the sharing in her head, and she appeared much calmer, no longer so agitated.
"Then what do we do? If we can't fight, we can only let them go to the basement and suck Sun Xiaoxiao and the others dry."
Jia Yunlian spread her hands, showing indifference.
"That won't do. They know some things about the Apostles that will be useful near the Gate of Realms. That part of their memories is locked, and it's a very strong lock, so I can't read it."
Du Qingyi shook her head, not entirely agreeing.
"Oh?"
"I don't know the specifics. In short, they don't know about this either, but the Apostles have sealed a part of their memories. Only when they approach the Gate of Realms will those memories be unsealed. With my current abilities, I can't read those memories."
"Your ability is... memory reading?"
No wonder. It wasn't mind reading, but memory reading. No wonder she could read things that Duan Chen couldn't, and no wonder You Jiawei said he couldn't steal Du Qingyi's abilities.
"It's not that simple," Du Qingyi pouted.
"Let's not talk about that. Is it really okay not to hurry and intercept the eye worms?"
Duan Chen looked back and saw one or two eye worms squeezing through the tiny gap between the shield and the ceiling, landing on the floor.
"Ahhh... I didn't see it, I didn't see it, I didn't see it," Du Qingyi began to pray.
"Hmm... I'll catch a couple."
Xier's body moved faster than her words. Before Duan Chen could react, she was already beside an eye worm.
Just as she reached out to grab it, before she could, the worm's plump body twisted and dodged. Then, it rapidly crawled onto the shield and, to the astonishment of everyone, burrowed back through and returned outside the large door, which was the shield.
At the same time, Duan Chen looked at the tablet. The eye worms outside the door were also retreating. The swarm receded, but lingered nearby with a hint of unwillingness.
Perhaps... Xier could make these worms retreat?
But... why were they so fixated on sea monsters?
Logically, most anomalies were mindless. Only a few with strong intentions had their own consciousness, knowing fear, joy, and emotions.
So, what was the obsession of these eye worms?
Was it this village?
Were they protecting this village?
So, even though they were afraid of Xier, they wanted to find an opportunity to come in and kill Sun Xiaoxiao and the other two sea monsters?
Duan Chen felt that his decision not to fight was correct.
"Xier."
He called Xier over and whispered something in her ear.
"Why go through all this trouble?"
Xier directly tore off one of her arms and handed it to Duan Chen.
"No, Xier, you are a human, and you deserve respect." Duan Chen sighed and called for Willbenya to help her reattach her arm.
"Then I..." Xier smiled, seemingly resigned.
She no longer considered herself human, but Duan Chen still treated her as a complete person and respected her unconditionally.
"I'm counting on you."
After speaking, Duan Chen actually removed the shield.
"No!"
Du Qingyi, like a koala, pounced on Duan Chen, tearing off another piece of the pathetic fabric at his collar.
Duan Chen looked resentful.
...
"Ahhh—!"
At this moment, the eye worms had filled the entire basement. Duan Chen had specifically enabled visual sharing before sleeping, allowing them to see the eye worms. Although the visual sharing was now off, the feeling was undeniable; they were surrounded by countless worms.
Meanwhile, Xier had moved a bed and was dozing opposite them. The eye worms were restless but dared not approach. Occasionally, one or two bolder ones would get close and suck on Dingding or Sun Xiaoxiao's mouth. Tianqi, tied in the center, was spared.
The gaps left for the eye worms were intentionally created by Duan Chen.
Heh heh, he was going to get that torn piece of cloth back!
The screams continued incessantly throughout the night.
And Xier slept soundly.