In the blink of an eye, around 80% of the one thousand or so Flame Rats were killed.
Only a small number of rats avoid death. They were not shot through by bullets, and the unique fat that had an incredibly low ignition point in their bodies did not come into contact with air, so it did not end up burning. They were still scurrying about in confusion.
Meng Chao threw his chains forward and bound two Flame Rats. He dragged them over. During the process, they did not lose even a single strand of hair.
He first bound one Flame Rat tightly with a chain.
Then, he brought out a full set of harvesting tools and blasted the other Flame Rat with a liquified condenser that was at more than negative ten degrees Celsius.
When the Flame Rat was frozen to the point that it could not move and even had a thin layer of ice outside its eyeball, Meng Chao calmly cut into the back of its neck. He peeled open its scalp and removed its entire cranial bone.
Meng Chao’s vision had not been trained to the point where it could replace microscopes.
He had a spirit energy microscope made specifically for dissections fixed around his eyes, and he focused it while he investigated the Flame Rat’s brain.
After admiring it for a while, he used a long needle that was finer than hair to extract the Flame Rat’s central nervous system.
Once he was done, he used a scalpel that was as thin as a cicada’s wing to dissect the brain until it was divided into thin slices that were less than 1mm thick.
When he was done investigating the rat’s brain, he started dissecting its organs to investigate the flammable substance.
Ten minutes later, Meng Chao obtained his answer.
“These creatures should have been lurking around the place for some time. Their stomachs are filled with fermented refuse derived fuel. It shows that they have been hiding in the fuel warehouse of the power plant and eating the fuel. They stuffed their stomachs full of these things.
“But I feel like they’re just mooks. There must be a ‘commander’ hiding behind them.”
“Why?” Lu Siya asked.
“First, don’t you think that it’s too easy to kill these Flame Rats? The scale and length of the fog this time is something we haven’t seen over the past half a year. If I were an abnormal beast with superior intellect, I would not ignore this God-given chance. There’s no way I’d just send a few measly rats to cause trouble.
“Second, their intestines are clearly unable to completely digest the refuse derived fuel. Even if they weren’t shot or burnt to death, before long, their stomachs would burst and they would die. This means that they didn’t do this due to their instincts or to fill their stomachs. Instead… they were ordered to by something with greater intelligence.
“Third, their brains are too small and simple. It’s hard to imagine just how these Flame Rats could gain real intelligence and carry out such a complicated task as performing a coordinated attack with the monsters who invaded Dragon City.
“Big Sis Ya, look here. Do you see a small hole on this Flame Rat’s forehead?”
Lu Siya observed the rat carefully and nodded before she said, “I saw it. There’s a ball of…”
“Parietal Eye. Its scientific name is parietal eye,” Meng Chao said. “In ancient times, many of the vertebrates didn’t have just one pair of eyes. Aside from the normal pair of eyes, they had another eye at the top of their head. But it’s hard to say just what function it had.
“Some biologists say that the parietal eye was used to sense light and regulate a living being’s sleeping time. Some believe that the parietal eye was used to help living beings sense the changes of the planet’s magnetic field, so they could locate things very accurately. They might have been just like the magnets in a pigeon’s brain. Some experts also believe that humans’ epithalamus is the evolved form of the parietal eye.
“Most of the mammals are like us. Over the course of a long evolution, they have long closed their parietal eye.
“But through simple gene editing, it’s not hard to make rat-type monsters show signs of atavism and grow their parietal eyes once again.
“As for their function… If my guess is correct, they should be used to sense the changes of spirit energy magnetic fields and receive information.”
Lu Siya frowned. “Receive information.”
“You can think of it as a biological chip that receives information. The ‘commander’ hiding in the dark uses some sort of method to enlarge its brainwaves. The slight changes caused by the spirit energy ripples it creates can be sensed by these mutated Flame Rats through their parietal eyes.
“It’s just like how a commander gives orders to his or her soldiers, and because of it, the Flame Rats launched their suicidal attack. Perhaps the goal of this attack is just to confuse us and make us think that the invaders have all been destroyed.”
Lu Siya cast a deep glance at Meng Chao. She had personally seen him performing outstandingly in many of the training courses.
She had also heard many of his analysis and remarks of some of the training courses in private. They were all things that she had never heard before.
So, she trusted his judgment a lot.
She immediately said, “Is there a way to find the ‘commander’?”
“I can try and find the general location of the commander. As for the precise location, I’m going to have to rely on your sharp spirit energy perception.”
As Meng Chao spoke, he stabbed the other Flame Rat’s ear canal with a few long needles that were finer and softer than hair.
He closed his eyes slightly and focused. A drop of sweat appeared on his forehead. It was as if he was performing an incredibly difficult microscopic surgery.
The Flame Rat was just bound by a chain. Its central nervous system was not frozen, so it should feel pain.
But even after Meng Chao stabbed four long needles into its ear canal, and those needles that were finer than hair and longer than fingers sank into its brain, it did not let out a single screech. It was still looking around as if it could not sense the slightest bit of discomfort.
“What are you doing?” Lu Siya asked.
“I’m cutting the connection of nerves between the parietal eye and the brain,” Meng Chao said. “This way, the parietal eye might turn into… an organ that is a pure magnet, just like the magnet in a pigeon’s brain.”
“And then?”
“Then, it might bring us to the commander,” Meng Chao said. “You should know that pigeons are able to find their nests accurately even if they are hundreds of kilometers away. That’s why humans were able to train pigeons into messengers.
“I believe that the commander’s brainwaves aren’t that strong. To avoid interference, when it gives commands to the Flame Rats, they must be together. That place might be their nest and where the commander is lurking.
“As long as I cut the connection between the parietal eye and the brain, the Flame Rat will no longer be controlled by any external commands. Its fear and survival instincts will suppress everything else once more. Then, it might pick up on the magnetic field and run to the place where it feels the safest, which is the commander’s nest.”
As Meng Chao spoke, he flicked the chain.
Despite the Flame Rat having needles in its head, it scurried away.
“After it!”
Meng Chao was now a three-star superhuman, so it was impossible for a rat to run away from him.
Lu Siya was levitating in the air and saw it clearly as well.
Meng Chao stopped the factory protection team and the operations members of the abnormal beast research department while he was running after it.
When the Flame Rat arrived near the cooling tower, it suddenly disappeared.
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes and flared his nostrils. Soon, he found an incredibly hidden crack under the cooling tower.
“Looks like we’ll need to find a map detailing the entire power plant’s underground structure before we can find the rat’s hiding place,” Meng Chao said.
“We don’t need to go through so much trouble.” Lu Siya smiled.
She spread her fingers before clenching her fist. Then, she released an incredibly powerful spirit energy magnetic field. It rammed into the underground like an ordnance penetrator, and as if it had created a small-scale earthquake, a lot of rocks were forced against each other.
In the first half a minute, nothing happened. Only smoke gushed out from the intersecting cracks.
But soon, a black figure jumped out of the thickest crack and slithered up the cooling tower.
They focused on it and quickly realized it was a shiny python.
Its scales were a semi-transparent purple, which gave off a crystalline feeling. Its organs could even be seen faintly.
Its scales rubbed against each other to create sparks. Electricity surrounded its body, which made it look like a dragon that was soaring among clouds.
There was a huge tumor growing on its forehead. It had a pulse, and the sound was like a war drum sounded by an army when chasing after a prey. It struck at the humans’ brains and hearts.
“The python shares the same nest with the rats! That thing is the commander!”
Meng Chao swung his saber chains and chased after it.
After he became a three-star superhuman, his speed reached another level. When he stomped fiercely on the ground, he created aftershocks as if the area had been blasted by cannons. With a layer of smoke hiding his body, he jumped high into the air and arrived above the Lightning Python.
Sizzle!
The Lightning Python’s scales instantly turned completely transparent.
A ball of plasma formed in its throat and gushed out like a volcano eruption. It struck Meng Chao in the face while he was in midair.
But the plasma only managed to tear apart Meng Chao’s afterimage.
It had not been a simple afterimage or optical camouflage.
Instead, it was the advanced Spectro Illusion that he learned from Ghost Tribe’s training camp, which he remembered from his previous life.
Aside from leaving behind an afterimage at high speed, he also poured his vitality magnetic field into it so that it would look alive, thereby tricking monsters and enemies.
The real Meng Chao was still lurking in the dust that he had kicked up.
The moment the Lightning Python spat out the plasma, he attacked with the two chain sabers and formed a spiral killing formation. The chains went to the area seven inches below the monster’s head.
The Lightning Python jumped up as if it had fallen into a pot of boiling oil.
Meng Chao’s chain sabers acted as if they were not beholden to physics. They turned in an unimaginable angle and chased after the area seven inches under the python’s head.
The Lightning Python let out a screeching sound that sounded similar to a rat’s.
The tumor on its head was covered in veins. It had swelled up to the max, and now, it released a powerful mind attack.
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes as if he was suffering from a terrible headache. He lost control over his chain sabers, and like dried-up earthworms, they slumped down.
The Lightning Python’s eyes shone with delight, as if it had not expected things to happen this way. It switched from defense to offense and opened its mouth to bite Meng Chao’s neck.
But there was not a single hint of confusion in Meng Chao’s eyes, which was the typical symptom of someone whose mind was thrown into chaos. There was only cold calmness and an unstoppable killing intent that spilled out from within them.