Chapter Forty-Six: Breaking the Cocoon, Becoming a Butterfly

“Did it work?”

“How did Zera manage to pull this off?”

Just as Joe was reeling from Leanna’s transformation, the Queen Bee launched a sudden attack—her speed as swift as lightning. Joe, distracted, had no time to react. The poisoned stinger was already descending upon his head.

“That’s it! I’m going down to join the master!”

As that thought flashed through his mind, a gigantic tentacle erupted from the earth, surging straight toward the Queen Bee’s abdomen. The tentacle was a deep green, resembling the vine of a plant—much like the roots of the mutated giant tree Joe had slain yesterday.

Caught off guard, the Queen Bee retreated, and Joe narrowly escaped disaster.

Turning around, he saw that all the steam around the Ant Queen’s former position had dissipated. Aside from a few key areas still covered by the Ant Queen’s shell, Leanna’s body had fully reverted to a normal human form. Her skin was now slightly darker, and her right arm and left leg were wrapped in a substance resembling tree bark, extending down to her wrist and ankle.

Beneath Leanna’s feet, the earth teemed with countless vine-like tentacles bursting from the ground. Quickly, from Leanna’s position, they radiated outward. The once withered land was now blanketed layer upon layer by these dark green plant bodies, stretching out for a kilometer in an instant.

The next moment, innumerable plant vines began a frenzied assault on the Queen Bee hovering in the sky. For a time, the Queen Bee darted up and down amid the dense vines. As they converged, tens of thousands of terrifying vines, each one to one and a half meters thick, twisted and stormed through the air, every swing accompanied by a sonic boom—their power wild and violent.

Joe, sitting on the ground, watched all this and swallowed hard.

“So this is Veronica’s Alexia form?”

“To command all plants and animals within her domain, constructing a Veronica ecosystem…”

“It’s… absolutely terrifying!”

Just as Joe was marveling, Leanna’s voice came from behind him.

“Mr. Joe! Are you alright?”

Startled, Joe leapt to his feet, turning to watch Leanna—now changed, with a hint of sinister power—defensively. At last, he saw that her eyes were just as they had been before her evolution, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Girl, well done. You actually overcame the Veronica virus…”

“I admit I underestimated you!”

“Welcome to the Corpse Hunters…”

Leanna smiled slightly and nodded. “I’ll be counting on your guidance from now on, Mr. Joe!”

Joe smirked, “You’re much more confident now… That’s good!”

As the two exchanged pleasantries, Leanna’s expression suddenly shifted. She grabbed Joe, and a vine from below shot up, wrapping around Leanna’s waist and whisking her away underground.

The next instant, the Queen Bee’s thick tail stinger, sprouting rapidly from her abdomen like a Gatling gun, swept across Leanna and Joe’s direction in a barrage. The vines blocking the sky were either shattered or pinned to the earth, writhing under the relentless assault.

After Joe was brought to Zera’s side, another vine whisked Leanna away. Before Joe and Zera could catch sight of her, she vanished into the dense tangle of vines.

Moments later, dozens of vines surged toward the Queen Bee’s underside. The Queen Bee beat her wings furiously, their resonance instantly shredding the vines to pieces.

Just as the Queen Bee believed the threat from below had been eliminated, a nearby vine swung in a wide arc, hurling Leanna onto the Queen Bee’s back.

Without hesitation, Leanna knelt on one knee, bit hard into her thumb until it bled, then pressed her bleeding thumb deep into the folds of the Queen Bee’s body.

The next instant, a massive explosion erupted from the Queen Bee’s body.

This was a key feature of the Veronica virus: when blood infused with T-Veronica virus is exposed to air, it triggers a violent chemical reaction, resulting in a devastating explosion!

Blasted clear by the explosion, Leanna’s body was battered, but the powerful regenerative abilities of the Veronica virus quickly restored her.

The Queen Bee’s back was blown open, leaving a gaping, horrific wound. With a wail, she plummeted from the sky.

Joe and Zera cried out in astonishment.

For the first time since the Queen Bee had appeared, she’d been wounded.

Mid-fall, the Queen Bee managed to steady herself, preparing to ascend and escape the vine-covered terrain.

But Leanna gave her no chance.

Another vine swung hard, tossing Leanna to the Queen Bee’s side. Leanna slashed her palm, flinging blood onto the Queen Bee’s body. While falling, another vine caught her, and she vanished once more.

The Ant Queen’s body erupted in fierce flames.

This time, her abdomen was blasted open, a huge hole gaping wide.

Green venom poured from the sky…

The vines touched by the venom instantly withered and the decay spread rapidly.

Within seconds, a vine a hundred meters long and over a meter thick was completely dead and cracked.

But in this kilometer-wide area, the vines were countless and inexhaustible.

With each toss and catch, Leanna used her blood’s explosive reaction with air to ravage the once invincible Queen Bee; her body now riddled with wounds, the Queen Bee howled in agony.

…

Such a staggering scene was transmitted back to the Boreogen Starship. Edward Teach was so shocked he stood up from his seat, his whole body trembling.

What had he witnessed today?

A human… not only able to control an eighth-stage mutant, but also able to conjure a plant environment out of thin air…

And to inflict such severe, near-fatal injuries on what appeared to be a ninth-stage mutant.

Was all this the result of a single virus injection?

From his initial observations, this girl named Leanna was nothing more than an ordinary person. Even in Javier’s submitted report, only her name was mentioned.

Clearly, she’d never attracted anyone’s attention.

But such a girl, not even possessing the physique of a mutant, with no prior combat experience, suddenly acquired such terrifying power…

Was this virus a gift from the gods?

Otherwise, how could an ordinary person gain such monstrous abilities in an instant?

Compared to the Corpse Hunters, whose virus seemed to have seized divine power, the last twenty years of biochemical research in the Leviathan System were nothing but garbage.

Every expert and scholar involved in virus and genetic studies were, before the Corpse Hunters, nothing but a foul-smelling joke.

Teach felt his earlier assessment that the Corpse Hunters’ technology had the “potential” to change the galaxy was now obsolete.

At this moment, he realized he’d been wrong again…

With this living example before him, Teach understood that the Corpse Hunters already possessed the qualifications to reshape the galaxy’s balance.

Imagine—if hundreds of such “super gene warriors” formed a ground invasion force, the destruction wrought upon any planet would be incalculable.

Even the Four Great Stars would pay a devastating price in facing such power.

And this judgment was based only on the direct impression of Leanna’s battle with the Queen Bee—without factoring in the virus’s infectious nature!

If one added the infection ability, and ignored the firepower of space fleets, a hundred-strong Veronica team could conquer a whole planet in short order.

At this thought, Teach could no longer contain himself. He turned to his adjutant and ordered:

“Prepare the landing force… I’ll be leading the expedition to the Zombie Planet personally!”