ABFA Chapter 24

Jiang Yue saw the scan image in the monitoring hall.

In the three-dimensional image hovering in the air, a massive root system occupied half of Liyue City.

It seemed like a colossal tree growing deep underground. In the scan, that terrifying cluster of spiritual energy was surrounded at the very center by thousands of branches.

Countless fine threads connected to the giant tree, and the points of light moving along these threads would converge into the cluster of spiritual energy every two hours.

There were twelve monitors in the monitoring hall, working in two shifts of six.

After signing yet another stack of confidentiality agreements, Jiang Yue followed Xiang Sui into the hall.

The two of them, barely seventeen or eighteen, couldn’t be of much help, they could only carry water and run errands for the monitors.

At that moment, Jiang Yue, holding a water jug, was completely dumbfounded. Her worldview was rapidly collapsing, and she was starting to seriously question everything.

What kind of bizarre world had she even landed in?

Every time she thought she understood it, reality slapped her in the face at lightning speed.

Covering her dizzying head, she whispered to Xiang Sui from the back, “I knew it was big, but I didn’t realize it was this big… it must have roots sprawling across most of Liyue City.”

Xiang Sui leaned over and whispered, “Do you remember our Apartment Building No. 2?”

Jiang Yue snapped out of the scan image. That incident still made her scalp tingle, how could she forget it?

“Of course I remember! I experienced it myself! I was the one who discovered the Thousand Threads. Major Ye Xi said these threads aren’t a product of this era, they’re only recorded in classified files. That’s why no matter how much I researched, I couldn’t find anything about them.”

Xiang Sui took a sip of the nutrient drink through his straw and said, “Didn’t you notice Major Ye Xi’s choice of words?”

Jiang Yue looked at him. “What choice of words?”

Xiang Sui replied, “She said the Thousand Threads are a product, not a living creature.”

Jiang Yue blinked. “You mean… the Thousand Threads were artificially made? Who’s powerful enough to pull that off?”

She looked at the root system sprawling across half of Liyue City and exclaimed, “What was the person who made this thing thinking? If it keeps growing, it’ll pierce through the entire city!”

Xiang Sui sighed. “It already has. The first to suffer was our Apartment Building No. 2.”

“What?!”

Jiang Yue rubbed her head. “But… wasn’t it supposed to be the construction crew’s fault?”

Xiang Sui said, “The construction crew did raise suspicions, but the Thousand Threads in Apartment Building No. 2 came up from underground. The crew must have noticed something unusual during construction, yet they didn’t report it, they covered it up. That’s the strangest part. What benefit could it possibly bring them for the Thousand Threads to invade the entire building?”

“No, why do all the recent incidents seem to target our Federal Military Academy?” Jiang Yue muttered softly.

She counted on her fingers. “First the blue-eyed millipedes, and now the Thousand Threads… Is our academy just unbelievably unlucky? And now even threads from another era are showing up, this is way too intense.”

A monitor in the hall looked up, it was the red-eyed male Alpha.

This male Alpha resembled the legendary vampires: pale skin, blood-red eyes, and even blood-red lips.

Like Ye Xi, he held the rank of major. His name was Lu Xiu, a very rare alpha with a gentle temperament. He had a particular fondness for tomato-flavored foods, and even the candy he carried around was tomato-flavored.

He also had a huge sweet tooth and loved drinking vanilla milk tea.

Most importantly, to keep Jiang Yue from getting bored, he even gave her a giant plush tomato pillow, which made Jiang Yue overjoyed.

As an Alpha, his hearing was naturally extremely sharp, so the quiet whispers between Xiang Sui and Jiang Yue didn’t escape his ears.

He smiled and said, “Humanity once had a remarkably glorious civilization. The level of scientific and technological development back then far surpassed what we have now. Unfortunately, repeated wars destroyed that brilliance, and we can only catch glimpses of it through some classified files.”

“The Thousand Threads appeared in that era. Strictly speaking, they are more like a hybrid of mutant species and Zergs. In addition, they also possess certain human traits.”

Jiang Yue now understood. She refilled Lu Xiu’s cup with water from her jug and asked, “Major Lu Xiu, the human traits you mentioned, are you referring to that massive cluster of spiritual energy?”

Lu Xiu raised his cup and took a sip of water, nodding. “Yes, that is spiritual energy that has developed a certain degree of self-awareness.”

He gave a bitter smile. “And that’s where the problem lies.”

At first, no one knew just how massive this thing was, and everyone agreed that the safest solution would be to destroy it with a nuclear bomb.

When Jiang Yue heard this, she silently cursed under her breath.

Holy crap!

The entire population of Liyue City and the surrounding cities would have to be evacuated. Liyue’s real estate is insanely expensive, and the area is rich in energy resources. If they actually detonated a nuclear bomb here, it would be catastrophic.

If you imagine this happening in Imperial City, countless people would probably cry themselves unconscious.

Lu Xiu said, “But that’s not even the main point. It wasn’t until the imaging from the optical scanner came in that we realized just how serious the situation was.”

Just like Jiang Yue’s first reaction, they knew it was big, but none of them had imagined it could be this big!

Not only was it vast, it was very deep.

A nuclear bomb simply wouldn’t reach that far down; a bunker a few dozen meters deep would be enough to keep it safe from a nuke.

Jiang Yue knew nothing about military matters, so she asked Lu Xiu, naively, “Why don’t we just dig a hole, bury the nuke in it, and detonate it?”

Just as Jiang Yue finished asking, Xiang Sui suddenly kicked her under the table.

Jiang Yue looked completely confused.

Xiang Sui looked at the innocent-looking female Alpha, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

After a long silence, he finally said in a low voice, “Jiang Yue… are you really a student at the military academy? Burying a nuclear bomb underground and detonating it would at most create a spherical cavity that compresses the surrounding geology. The soil wouldn’t fly anywhere, you’d barely feel a tremor standing on top. This trick is often used to control underground natural gas well blowouts.”

He raised his hand and pointed at the scan image. “This thing’s roots go down kilometers. Do you really think a nuclear bomb would work?”

Jiang Yue: “…”

The monitors in the room all let out a soft chuckle.

Jiang Yue felt deeply ashamed. For the first twenty years of her life, she had spent her time indulging in eating, drinking, and having fun. Ask her which brand had released a new bag, piece of clothing, jewelry, or perfume, and she could talk about it fluently for three days straight.

But she really knew nothing about military firearms, and that was perfectly normal. When girls get together and chat, who talks about firearms? How many girls casually study weapons for fun?

Jiang Yue had only ever known two guns: one called the Desert Eagle, and the other called the AK-47. She had picked up the names years ago from reading gangster romance novels.

It couldn’t be helped, the two guns appeared far too often in those novels. And the Desert Eagle was small and beautiful; the male lead often gave it to the pretty female lead as a keepsake.

As for burying a nuclear bomb underground to stop a blowout?

Good heavens, unheard of!

That level of technical know-how was way beyond Jiang Yue.

She awkwardly rubbed her nose, trying to save face. “If a nuke won’t do it, surely other weapons would? Like a deep‑earth tank, or antimatter weapons. If antimatter’s too extreme, we could always unleash a bunch of nanobots.”

She scraped together a few halfway‑decent answers using the little military knowledge she had.

Xiang Sui shrugged. “If only it were that simple. You know that cluster of spiritual energy, the problem lies there.”

“We can’t detect or capture that spiritual energy; it’s beyond our detection range, as you know. Even antimatter weapons can’t destroy spiritual energy.”

Jiang Yue looked baffled. “Don’t take advantage of the fact that I didn’t study much, if you destroy the spiritual‑energy carrier, the spiritual body will just dissipate. Why worry about that cluster of energy, then?”

Xiang Sui gave her a look that clearly said, Are you an idiot?

“Seriously, Jiang Yue… did everything they taught you at the military academy go in one ear and straight out the other?”

Jiang Yue got angry, itching to jump up and hit him. “How dare you insult me like that!”

Xiang Sui pointed to his own nose, utterly exasperated. “Huh, me? Insult you? Isn’t it common knowledge that spiritual energy and the spiritual body are the same thing?”

Jiang Yue: “…”

Her anger immediately weakened, and she meekly said, “Fine, then just tell me. I can’t use the terminal right now anyway, so just give me a little crash course. Nothing else to do.”

Xiang Sui rolled his eyes subtly, rubbed his temple, and patiently began to explain. “A spiritual body is the physical manifestation of your own spiritual energy; it’s innate and can be used by us.”

“The formation process of spiritual energy is unknown. Some scholars even think spiritual power comes from another dimension. The reason we can interact with it is only one aspect, basically, we can capture spiritual energy and put it to use ourselves.”

Jiang Yue was in utter agony, her face scrunched up as if she might collapse, and she made a “pause” gesture. “Please… make it simpler, I beg you.”

Xiang Sui: “…”

He ran a hand over his buzz cut and, with no better option, started gesturing. “Alright, let me put it this way. Spiritual energy is like a gun without an owner, whoever picks it up can boost their combat power. But spiritual energy that has developed self-awareness is like a sentient gun—it can aim and shoot on its own.”

Xiang Sui pointed at the cluster of spiritual energy in the scan image. “See that? That’s a sentient gun, or no, it should be called a sentient antimatter nuclear weapon. The blastozyme only puts it into a temporary dormant state. If you wake it up, no one knows what will happen.”

He looked at Jiang Yue and asked, “Understand?”

Jiang Yue: “…I-I still don’t really get it.”

Xiang Sui started to walk away, but Jiang Yue quickly grabbed his shoulder and pleaded gently, “Hey, hey, don’t go! I just don’t understand, how did that tree-like thing become the carrier for that cluster of spiritual energy?”

Xiang Sui rubbed his forehead. “You blockhead, spiritual energy naturally seeks out a suitable container!”

Jiang Yue nodded like a little chick pecking at rice. “Ohhh, I see, so that’s how it is.”

Four days later, the activity of the mutant species reached its lowest point, entering a deep dormant state.

Another special team was preparing to set out to explore the giant pit.

The team consisted of six members, including Major Ye Xi and Major Lu Xiu.

The day before departure, everyone gathered for a meal. Jiang Yue, who had been serving them water in the monitoring room for several days, had managed to become familiar enough with them to be recognized.

The nine-section hotpot on the table steamed invitingly, but a shadow hung over Jiang Yue’s heart.

Xiang Sui sat beside her, expressionless, nearly snapping his chopsticks in frustration.

In short, the two eighteen-year-old Alpha freshmen looked like the world was about to collapse on them, faces twisted in despair.

Lu Xiu picked up a piece of lamb and dropped it into the tomato broth, then pointed at Jiang Yue and Xiang Sui with his chopsticks. “Look at you two, nothing’s even happened to us yet, and you’re already about to cry.”

The older Alphas laughed to soothe them.

At their laughter, tears welled up and fell from Jiang Yue’s eyes.

The next day, the special team set out.

By the fifth day, the special team was completely out of contact.

 

 

 

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