A dull thud signaled the elite hunter instantly losing all combat capability.
Fast!
Too fast!
The earthen-yellow wasp flew out of its nest like a ghost, bypassed Lin Jie with an eerie trajectory, and then precisely inserted its neurotoxin-laden stinger into the back of Ethan's hand.
The entire process took less than two seconds!
It was so fast that everyone present only had ti to gasp in shock, with no ti to perform any effective physical interception.
This was a dinsional reduction strike.
A little thing the size of a fist, with no independent number in the Record of Anomalous Creatures, existing only as an appendix, had instantly "one-shot" a battle-hardened elite Investigator?!
"Buzz— Buzz—"
While everyone was still reeling from the shock of Ethan collapsing, a dense fluttering sound erupted from the nest in the dry well.
"Damn! We've stirred up a hornet's nest!"
"Quick! Grab Ethan and retreat!!"
Lin Jie quickly snapped back to reality. He then raised the Serene Heart in his hand, aid at the well opening now spewing forth a swarm of earthen-yellow death, and pulled the trigger.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
William reacted in sync with him.
The veteran roared, positioning himself between the well opening and his teammates, aiming his Church Holy Cannon at the tide of wasps surging forth.
"Boom! Boom!"
Gunfire erupted on the open ground by the well!
Revolver bullets imbued with divine ballistic stability and alchemical rounds roaring with the power of Sanctified Oak wove together into a deadly web of fire, blasting the wasps that had just flown out of the well into pieces by the dozens!
However, the swarm was too nurous. They surged forward wave after wave, assaulting the fragile dam Lin Jie and William had constructed.
On the other side, Yan Xilou rushed to Ethan's side. Ethan had already lost consciousness, his body twitching slightly as the neurotoxin took full effect.
He attempted to drag Ethan with his seemingly frail, scholarly body.
But Ethan was simply too heavy. Combined with his heavy gear, his weight was at least over a hundred kilograms.
Yan Xilou's fra was utterly incapable of moving him.
"Mr. William! Brother Lin! I need help!" Yan Xilou cried out in anxious distress.
But William was completely entangled by the massive swarm.
The Church Holy Cannon in his hands was imnsely powerful, but the lever-action reloading speed ultimately had a physical limit.
In that half-second firepower gap as he worked the lever for the next reload.
A wasp, larger in size and of a deeper, more profound color, flashed through the opening in the fire.
Its target was still Ethan, who had lost all ability to resist.
"No!"
Lin Jie watched helplessly as the earthen-yellow death god traced an eerie arc through the air, aiming to strike the unprotected carotid artery in Ethan's neck.
He knew that if this wasp's stinger struck again, what awaited Ethan wouldn't just be full-body paralysis.
It would be true, literal brain death!
And the even more terrifying insult of being used as a living flowerpot for egg-laying.
It was too late.
Everything was too late.
Whether it was intercepting with a gunshot or throwing himself in the way for a rescue.
Human reaction speed seed pathetically inadequate and laughable at this mont.
In this mont of despair, Lin Jie made a decision.
He pinned his hopes on the brand-new module that had just been installed on his arm.
ntal Staircase, activate!
Lin Jie felt as if his entire brain had been struck by an intangible lightning bolt from another dinsion.
The precise chanical module on his arm, constructed from miniature brass gears and an ivory escapent, erupted with a roar, sounding like ten thousand watches being wound simultaneously.
The drop of "Liquid Ether" imprisoned in the crystal container at the module's core began to boil furiously.
An ultra-high-frequency "Thought Synchronization Beat" erupted from the module and surged into his cerebral cortex.
At that mont, Lin Jie's sense of self was overridden.
All his emotions—anger, fear, despair, worry—were forcibly suppressed by the unreasonable chanical logic.
His brain no longer belonged to a "human."
It transford into a cold, calculating differential engine, left with only computation and execution.
His world underwent an earth-shattering change as well.
Everything in his vision beca extrely slow.
The wasp, fast as lightning, appeared in his forcibly overclocked field of view like a pitiful insect trapped in thick amber. The trajectory of its wingbeats and the details of the deadly cold light shimring on its stinger beca unprecedentedly clear.
He could even calculate its flight path, its attack angle, and that fatal weak point at the junction of its wings and thorax.
Ti had been slowed down by at least tenfold.
In this "bullet ti" under his dominion.
Lin Jie raised the Serene Heart in his hand. His movents were calm and elegant, not like a desperate life-or-death gamble, but like a relaxed, casual daily practice session at his own shooting range.
He aid the muzzle at the wasp's weak point.
And pulled the trigger.
"Bang."
The bullet infused with the concept of ballistic stability, in Lin Jie's world which had returned to normal flow, arrived later yet struck first, its speed akin to teleportation.
The wasp, before it could even react, was blown apart mid-air by the bullet, transforming into a splatter of yellow-green pulp.
Crisis averted.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
The "overclocking" state ended, and excruciating pain and exhaustion imdiately swept over Lin Jie's entire body.
His vision went dark, and he nearly fainted on the spot.
Gritting his teeth, he issued a hoarse command to William and Yan Xilou.
"Take Ethan, withdraw!"
William helped Lin Jie up, then roughly hauled the rigid Ethan up with his right arm, slinging him over his right shoulder.
The iron-blooded veteran erupted with astonishing strength at this mont.
Yan Xilou helped William bear Ethan's weight, while simultaneously retrieving an inconspicuous linen dicine pouch from his wide sleeve.
He violently scattered the pouch's contents—a gray powder emitting a pungent odor—towards the pursuing Canopic Wasp swarm behind them.
The powder acted like a powerful insect repellent. Upon contact with the pungent sll, the wasps retreated one after another, their assault thereby slowing.
"Go!"
Finally, the three survivors, with a heart-stopping close call, successfully rescued the unconscious Ethan from the death swarm, left the village, and retreated back to the relatively safe defensive periter of the cal caravan.
"What happened? Ethan, he..."
Julian, who had been waiting anxiously in the camp, saw William carrying the unconscious Ethan back in his rough manner.
Julian stumbled forward. When he saw Ethan's purplish-blue, rigid complexion and the chest that had already stopped rising and falling, his entire body froze.
"It's... it's the 'Sleeping Sting'!"
The one-eyed guide Hassan, standing nearby, was also filled with horror. After clearly seeing the tiny red swollen puncture mark on the back of Ethan's hand, he let out a terrified shriek.
Hassan's single eye revealed a deep-seated superstition and fear passed down through ancestral legends.
"It's over, completely over." Hassan's voice trembled. "Anyone stung by the 'Sleeping Sting', their soul will be dragged by devils into the land of eternal sleep forever!"
"Shut up! Hassan!" Julian whipped his head around, fury blazing in his eyes, as he roughly cut off Hassan's superstitious death prophecy.
"Bring the first aid kit, quickly!"
However, the neurotoxin from the Canopic Wasp was far more potent and bizarre than they had imagined.
Whether using the broad-spectrum antidote supplied by I.A.R.C. or attempting any known alchemical potion for spiritual purification, nothing had any effect on the toxin that had penetrated Ethan's central nervous system.
Ethan's body was growing increasingly rigid, his body temperature slowly dropping.
He was becoming a "living mummy" in the making.
At that mont, Yan Xilou walked over.
He first crouched down, carefully examining Ethan's purplish-blue wound and his pupils, which had completely lost their reflex response.
His movents were as professional as those of an experienced doctor.
Then, unhurriedly, he retrieved a small porcelain vial made of white jade from his personal dicine chest, which exuded an air of Eastern mystique.
He uncorked it and poured out a single "secret pill" that emitted a strange dicinal fragrance.
"Have him take this. Although this dicine cannot eradicate this poison, it can at least sustain the final vital energy of his heart ridian, preventing his body from dying completely in a short ti."
Lin Jie shot a suspicious glance at Yan Xilou.
In the end, he took the pill and carefully placed it into Ethan's tightly closed lips.
"You seem quite knowledgeable about this poison?" Lin Jie's voice carried a probing tone.
"Only a superficial understanding." An inscrutable smile reappeared on Yan Xilou's face. "After all, in my holand, using poison to preserve food ingredients has been a profound art since ancient tis."
He stood up, turning his gaze towards the distant, silent village, which under the setting sun appeared increasingly eerie and ominous.
"It seems my earlier conjecture was completely correct."
"The true purpose of this toxin is not to kill the prey."
"But to transform the prey into an incubator that can preserve its life activity to the greatest extent possible."
"All for the sake of allowing certain things to enjoy the freshest possible dinner."
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