Chapter 139

The second-generation virus allowed the infected to master secondary elemental energy, which was a huge leap compared to the first-generation virus. However, the third-generation virus Adam envisioned would not have such a qualitative change. It would only make every infected valuable, whether 'alive' or 'dead'.

Now, the infected had the ability to consume the corpses of other infected to replenish their own strength. This ability originated from the Abyssal creatures. A truly complete Abyssal creature could devour all energy to promote its own evolution. Adam's current ability could not restore this ability, but he could magnify the shallowest manifestation of this ability.

This research was what Adam wanted to complete next — the mutual devouring of the infected.

If the third-generation virus was successfully developed, it would mean that the evolution of the virus would change from Adam's full control to an uncontrollable evolution. In other words, Adam did not know what would happen to the infected in the future.

But one thing was for sure — this unregulated evolution would inevitably lead to self-destruction.

When Adam's eyes and ears spread throughout Ceylon, he found that although the virus could spread through the air, its range was limited to within the island. Not a single life in the sea was infected. Obviously, The Fifth Element Holy Tower would not allow the virus to spread unchecked. In other words, the number of infected had reached saturation, and no new life would be infected. So when the virus began to devour itself, the number of infected would only decrease.

However, this did not matter. Now that he had the knowledge to develop the virus, the consumption of these infected was not in Adam's consideration.

— — —

Five days later.

Outside Ceylon, in the war training command hidden in the folds of space, the mages from The Fifth Element Holy Tower were having a headache.

"What should we do with this apprentice called Adam?" A male mage asked, pointing at one of the thousands of floating screens with Adam's name on it.

A female mage knocked on the table and said, "He did not violate the rules. All the merit points he obtained are valid, but …"

"But he has disrupted the order of the trial. Look at these things." The first mage waved his hand, and the screen changed to show infected bodies all over the mountains. These infected bodies had caused a catastrophe to ordinary anti-mage apprentices after acquiring their innate magic. "The trial has become a piece of cake for him. Not only that, we can't even issue special missions. Those critical locations that are dangerous to the apprentices have been destroyed by these infected bodies."

The female mage sighed. "If this goes on, this batch will be the batch with the least number of apprentices passing the trial. I suspect there may not even be fifty."

The screen changed again. This time, it showed the image of the large open space outside Adam's lab. The mage pointed at the infected bodies that were moving metal pieces like ants moving house. "Fifty? You have all done your research on Adam, right? Do you still remember the Super Railgun spell? "

The faces of the mages turned sour. The screen of light kept changing under their control. Anti-Mage was being chased away, and the trial apprentices were intentionally or unintentionally chasing after them. The final destination in their deduction, as well as the magic circle and the metal block prepared by Adam, were all connected by them.

"He's going to …"

— — —

In five days, the battle between the anti-mage, the trial apprentices, and the infected bodies had reached a climax. Ever since the battle between the three families of Hill, Lance, and Amu was ruined by the infected bodies, all the apprentices had only one way to deal with the infected bodies, and that was to kill them.

However, there were just too many infected bodies. Every time they fought the anti-mage, there would be countless infected bodies watching from the sidelines. This forced them to be unable to conserve their strength. Most of the apprentices who suppressed their advancement had already become official mages.

"Lilith, if we continue to follow this path, where will our final destination be?" These elites were not idiots. They had already noticed that the infected bodies were leading them, but they had no way to break the stalemate. The feeling of being led by the nose made everyone angry.

Lilith spread out a map full of arrows. She picked up a pen and drew a circle on the left side of the center of Ceylon Island. "The Sainfall Basin. If there are no accidents, it's here."

The war alliance had been under a lot of pressure recently. Their credibility was dropping rapidly by the day. The trial apprentices outside the alliance were very dissatisfied with the efficiency of the alliance.

They had reason to be dissatisfied. In the beginning, it was you who asked everyone to join, unified command and action, and promised to maximize the results of the battle so that more people could pass the trial. Fine, we believed you. But now, other than a few people in the alliance who had earned enough merit points, we saw nothing. If we knew this would happen, we would've gone out and tried our luck instead of working with you.

Therefore, Lilith and the upper echelons of the war alliance urgently needed a big victory to stabilize the morale of the army, at least to let some people see the actual merit points.

"We can't be led around," Lilith said resolutely.

Everyone looked at each other for a while. Then, someone raised a question. "Our people have been spying everywhere, but every time the main combatants arrived, they would find that Anti-Mage had escaped. As long as the infected bodies are still there, we can't not be led."

"Yes, but those things can't be killed."

Lilith was silent for a moment. Then, she asked, "Reinhardt, how are things on your side?"

"These infected bodies seem to be mining and collecting metal materials. They are very cautious and will self-destruct when they find someone spying on them. We have too few people and can't complete a comprehensive tracking. However," Reinhardt pulled the map over, stretched out his hand and pressed his fingers on a spot. "They will eventually flow to this area."

"This is the intersection of the Hill family, the Lance family, and the School of Immortality."

"Yes, a huge wasteland. There are no resources, no towns."

Lilith said thoughtfully. "That's why it's more suitable for hiding, isn't it?"

The other members who were listening to the conversation in confusion suddenly understood. Then, they were all furious. "You're saying that the mastermind is hiding here?"

They hated this person to the core. Although he didn't use the infected to kill any of them, the feeling of being fooled by someone else was worse than being killed.

Lilith nodded. "If I'm not mistaken, it's here. Looks like we have to deal with this problem before the final battle with Anti-Mage … "