Leo’s expression changed.
He sat there as still as a bell, his eyes fixed on the little fox before him.
“What’s your name?”
“Leonardo.”
Leo activated the recording function on his optical computer. “Good, Leonardo. I hope you understand that if this information is false, you will receive the harshest punishment allowed by the Federation.”
Every time the Insect Mother reproduced, she laid at least one hundred thousand eggs.
Those eggs matured into adults capable of combat in less than five months.
And she reproduced on such a massive scale once every year.
If they could learn the exact location where the Insect Mother laid her eggs, the military could send people to destroy the unhatched eggs. They might even be able to kill her while she was at her weakest.
However, the Insect Mother’s breeding grounds changed every year, and despite exhausting every possible method, the Federation had been unable to predict where she would appear.
Therefore, the moment Leonardo revealed a specific location, the military would do everything in its power to investigate that insect planet.
That would inevitably cost the military a great deal.
If the information proved true, everyone would naturally be overjoyed.
But if it was false, death would be only the lightest punishment.
Leonardo knew this, of course.
He raised one forepaw and tapped the optical computer on Leo’s wrist.
A string of coordinates appeared on the unfolded holographic screen.
Leo rose to his feet. “If these coordinates are correct, I’ll help you apply for a gene-repair serum.”
A flicker passed through Leonardo’s eyes.
He wasn’t sure whether the gene-repair serum could help him awaken an ability.
But if it could, then perhaps… he would be able to greet her openly.
·
The fifty people who had waited a little longer in the purification room showed no trace of dissatisfaction.
They still offered Lady Yunyang the highest respect when she appeared.
“Good morning, Lady Yunyang.”
“Good morning.”
Yunyang took her seat in her designated position and cast a blessing on herself at the same time.
The members of the guard immediately stepped forward and bound the fifty Federation soldiers.
After ensuring that they would be unable to break free even if they lost control, Yunyang finally released her mental power and began purifying their contamination.
None of the Federation soldiers had a contamination level above 90, so the purification proceeded smoothly at first.
Yunyang’s mental power was rapidly depleted, but the results were equally striking.
Just as she was preparing to finish the purification, an expression of pain suddenly appeared on one of the soldiers’ faces.
Scales spread across his exposed skin, while his eyes gradually turned crimson.
The five beastmen husbands immediately surrounded Yunyang, and the members of the guard also acted before the Federation soldier could fully transform.
At the same moment that the strongest restraint net fell over him, the Federation soldier completed his transformation.
A pangolin burst into everyone’s view.
Having already encountered this several times, Yunyang was no longer as tense as she had been the first time.
She separated out a strand of mental power and sent it into the pangolin’s mental landscape, clearing away some of the contamination before the landscape collapsed entirely.
Once the pangolin beastman’s contamination level returned to 80, Yunyang had only 27 percent of her mental power left.
She withdrew her mental power.
“Mistress, are you all right?”
Qin Mo was the first to approach her.
Yunyang shook her head.
Within the mental landscape just now, the pangolin’s mental entity had initially resisted. But after her mental thread gave it a sharp tug, it obediently accepted the purification.
She had not been affected at all.
Qin Mo breathed a sigh of relief before walking over to question the pangolin beastman.
The pangolin beastman had already returned to human form.
But he had no idea why he had suddenly lost control.
His rutting period had clearly just ended, so losing control because of it was impossible.
Moreover, under Lady Yunyang’s purification, his contamination had just dropped to a little over 70. There was even less reason for it to suddenly rise above 90.
Listening to the pangolin beastman’s account, Yunyang frowned.
This was exactly the same as what Lulu had described that day.
She spoke up. “Did you hear anything just now?”
The pangolin beastman tried hard to remember, then nodded frantically.
“There seemed to be a voice just now. It didn’t sound like the cry of any beastman, and it was horribly unpleasant.”
He had been wondering where such an awful sound was coming from when his contamination level began shooting upward, causing him to lose control and transform completely.
Qin Mo looked at the other Federation soldiers. “Did you hear it just now?”
The remaining forty-nine Federation soldiers looked at one another and shook their heads.
Had there been a sound just now?
Qin Mo furrowed his brows. “You stay. The rest of you are dismissed.”
He walked over to a robot nearby and sent the footage it had recorded to Adjutant Pan En. Then he returned to Yunyang’s side.
“Mistress, let them escort you back to rest first. I’ll take him to see Adjutant Pan En.”
Yunyang had no objections. The matter was too strange, and she didn’t particularly want to remain there.
Qin Mo looked at the other four beastmen husbands.
“I’ll ask Commander Lei Ou to cancel this afternoon’s purification session. Protect Mistress.”
Xuan Yu rolled his eyes. “Do you really need to say that?”
Even without this incident, they would do everything in their power to protect their Mistress.
Although he hated to admit it, Qin Mo knew that among his four rivals, everyone except Rong Jin was stronger than him.
With the guard as well, they could escort Yunyang safely back to her residence.
Qin Mo said no more. After escorting Yunyang out of the command tower, he took the pangolin beastman to find Adjutant Pan En.
On the way back to the residence, Yunyang asked Fu Shiyi, “Fu Shiyi, do you know what that sound might be?”
It could raise a male’s contamination level, yet only a tiny number of people could hear it…
To put it somewhat bluntly, she found the whole matter rather eerie.
Even the well-informed Fu Shiyi was unable to provide an answer this time.
“There’s no record of such a sound in the Federation’s archives.”
Although he specialized in mecha design, he had also read materials from many other fields.
There was no similar description in any of them.
Yunyang hadn’t wanted to concern herself with the matter at first, but it seemed they had to resolve it now.
Previously, only Brother Shaoqi had heard the sound, which could have been dismissed as an isolated case.
But now, both she and Lulu had purified beastmen who had heard it as well.
This time, several of her beastmen husbands and the guards had reacted in time and restrained the pangolin beastman.
But what if an SSS-rank beastman heard the sound and lost control next time? If no one could stop him immediately, Yunyang’s situation would become extremely dangerous.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t hear the sound herself. Otherwise, she might have been able to study it.
Yunyang sighed silently and continued toward the residence.
Since the afternoon purification session had been canceled, she didn’t drag her beastmen husbands into recovering their mental power. Instead, she absentmindedly scrolled through her optical computer.
Of course, she didn’t neglect absorbing the insect cores either.
Xuan Yu and Rong Jin prepared lunch, while Fu Shiyi and Pei Wenye sat on either side of her.
Knowing that Yunyang was troubled by what had happened that morning, the two of them also opened their optical computers and began rereading the Federation’s materials on contamination, word by word.
The video playing on the holographic screen before Yunyang ended and automatically switched to the next one.
It showed a male singing.
Yunyang was utterly uninterested and was about to swipe past it when she caught sight of the fin hidden in the male’s long blue hair.
