Li Qingzhao's marker can be modified a maximum of 3 times in a maze.
Xiao Lou had just changed the location of the marker and followed the fake Chu Huaying into the trap chamber. The moment Lu Jiuchuan pushed the clone into the trap, he teleported his teammates back to the marker point.
Using clones to play a "minesweeper" game is extremely risky, but it's also the best way to distinguish between real and fake labs.
The maze was far larger than Xiao Lou had imagined. They could search step by step on their own and still not necessarily find the real one. However, the appearance of clones was like a multiple-choice question in an exam, giving them the opportunity to use the process of elimination.
We have to thank Chu Huaying for running away at the crucial moment, which forced the Hunter to send out clones to confuse them.
Xiao Lou carefully recalled the route he had just taken.
If the first clone takes them due west, the second one will take them due east in the opposite direction. Since there are too many forks in the road, Xiao Lou decides to try going due north next.
After walking for a while, another Chu Huaying appeared in the corridor, resting against the wall.
This time, Chu Huaying's entire body was covered in traces of being soaked in blue nutrient solution. Her hair was wet and hanging down, covered in blue slime, just like Liu Qiao, whom everyone found in the mermaid maze.
Ye Qi thought to himself, "This time it should be for real, right?"
Although she looked a bit disheveled from being soaked in the nutrient solution, her expression remained as cold and proud as I remembered.
Chu Huaying quickly walked up to Lu Jiuchuan, nodded, and said, "Everyone, leave here quickly. We can talk outside."
He's decisive and efficient, and his personality is similar.
Ye Qi was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when Lu Jiuchuan turned back to look at Yu Hanjiang, giving his younger brother a knowing look. Ye Qi: "..."
Another counterfeit? How does Brother Jiu distinguish them?
Xiao Lou stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Please take us back. We need to destroy the clone lab."
Chu Huaying raised an eyebrow in surprise, but without asking any further questions, she turned and led everyone forward.
After walking for a while, they found the door facing due north. Chu Huaying was about to say, "This is the experiment..." Before she could finish, Lu Jiuchuan took out the Ice Sword and froze the clone, whose body was covered in blue liquid, into an ice sculpture!
Lu Jiuchuan turned around and said, "Retreat!"
The people who returned to the starting point had mixed feelings.
Ye Qi complained helplessly, "How come this is fake too? I almost don't recognize Sister Huaying's face anymore!"
Xiao Lou comforted him, saying, "Just think of it as defusing another bomb. There are no labs to the north anyway."
The east, west, and north directions were all wrong, and the south hadn't been checked yet. Xiao Lou immediately turned around: "Let's go south!"
The group quickly retraced their steps. Although the maze was winding and circuitous, they had marked all the forks in the road, making the return journey much faster than when they had initially explored the area.
If you keep going along the unmarked side road, you'll be heading south.
Lu Jiuchuan led the way with the luminous pearl, followed closely by the others, who crossed more than a dozen intersections according to the markings.
Suddenly, after reaching a three-way intersection, Lu Jiuchuan felt a gust of wind rush past his ear, as fast as lightning! He quickly stopped, leaning back to narrowly avoid the attack. The next instant, a pair of long, pale hands, like eagle claws, aimed straight for his face!
Lu Jiuchuan attempted a grappling move to grab the other man's wrist, but the man darted behind Lu Jiuchuan like a nimble snake, sweeping his leg across the room and nearly tripping Lu Jiuchuan to the ground.
Fortunately, Lu Jiuchuan reacted quickly, grabbing the wall next to him with one hand and dodging to the side.
At the narrow crossroads, the two found it difficult to unleash their full power. After several exchanges, neither gained the upper hand. This man specifically targeted Lu Jiuchuan's blind spots, and Lu Jiuchuan couldn't even see his opponent's face clearly.
Under the light of the luminous pearl, Ye Qi quickly saw the shadowy figure of the person fighting with Lu Jiuchuan projected onto the wall—a woman with a long ponytail.
Ye Qi thought to himself: "Hiding silently to the side and attacking as soon as we meet, this must be a fake!"
The next second, Lu Jiuchuan said in a low voice, " Hua Ying, it's me."
The other party immediately stopped. Everyone felt as if a gust of wind had blown past them, and then Chu Huaying's serious and indifferent face appeared before them. She said in a hoarse voice, "Sorry, I wanted to test whether you were really me."
Lu Jiuchuan smiled and turned to look at Yu Hanjiang: "She is Hua Ying."
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang: "..."
Is it only those who meet face-to-face and take action that are truly genuine?
Ye Qi stared blankly at Ninth Brother, not quite understanding his logic.
Lu Jiuchuan said, " Hua Ying's physical attributes have been enhanced by the card, including hearing, smell, sight, perception, speed, and so on. She can sense the presence of strangers from a great distance. It's impossible for her to make obvious footsteps while running away, nor would we happen to run into her— Spider Goddess is the most elusive creature, so it can only be that she discovers us, not that we discover her."
Everyone suddenly realized.
Running away in high heels, making noise, is incredibly foolish. The first Chu Huaying not only made her footsteps very clear, but also...
She pretended to be injured there, and when Lu Jiuchuan went to help her up, she didn't react. But if it were the real Chu Huaying, even if she was injured, she would push Lu Jiuchuan away and say, "No need to help me."
The second and third ones weren't quick enough either, and even deliberately bumped into each other to pretend it was a "chance encounter"—Chu Huaying would never have a chance encounter with anyone. She could sense the presence of strangers from a great distance, and if she didn't want to run into them, she would have avoided them long ago.
Therefore, Lu Jiuchuan's method for distinguishing between the real and fake Hua Ying is actually quite simple.
Cloning can only copy Chu Huaying's genes, but it cannot copy the abilities that Card enhanced her with!
Meeting Chu Huaying's calm eyes, Xiao Lou finally breathed a sigh of relief and stepped forward, asking, "How did you escape?"
Chu Huaying said, "I overheard your conversation. Are you looking for the lab? I'll take you there, and we can talk as we go."
Xiao Lou nodded and followed her with her teammates.
Chu Huaying pressed down on the team's voice headset—this was left to her by Xiao Lou at Starship. Since the voice headset card was in Xiao Lou's possession, Hunter only took Chu Huaying's card holder and did not notice the tiny earpiece she had inserted deep into her ear.
As she pressed the button, her calm voice came through everyone's earpieces at the same time: "Uncle Qin put a sleeping potion in my water. He didn't know I have a keen sense of smell. I can smell the sleeping potion in the water as soon as I smell it. I pretended to be unconscious to see what he was up to."
Her face looked rather grim. As she walked quickly forward, she explained to her teammates, "He took me to Zerg Planet, locked me in this underground labyrinth, and even assigned several Space Pirates to guard me. Because my hearing has been enhanced by the card, if I listen carefully, I can hear sounds within 5 kilometers."
"I overheard a strange man talking to the Zerg Queen. He said, 'I've programmed them to die a horrible death.' The Queen said, 'Okay, I can trust you one more time.' I don't know what their conversation meant. After midnight that night, I put on the Invisibility Cloak and went out to look for clues. I almost got lost in the maze."
"These past few nights, every night after midnight, I've used the 30-minute Invisibility Cloak to quickly navigate the maze and familiarize myself with the layout. This maze is like a spider web structure, with a total of four labs. Three of them have never been entered before, so they must be fake. The remaining one is real. Last night, I saw a blond man enter the lab, but I didn't dare follow him. However, I overheard some unbelievable things outside…"
Chu Huaying paused, took a deep breath, and quickly said, "They are mass-producing clones and implanting smart chips in the clones ' brains. By controlling these smart chips, they can control the clones ' actions and even their language. They call the clones produced in this way version 3.0."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Lou felt a chill run down his spine: "Sure enough, that madman has modified clone again!"
Version 1.0 is a fusion of humans and Zerg, but only possesses the ability to heal itself; Version 2.0 is a fusion of humans, Zerg, and deep-sea mermaids, possessing not only the ability to heal themselves, but also the ability to grow fish tails and survive in the ocean for a long time.
What improvements have been made in version 3.0?
Ye Qi speculated, "Could it be that version 3.0 also possesses the Zerg's jumping and climbing abilities? And because of the intelligent chips implanted in their brains, they will completely obey their master's commands, just like a group of self-healing, water-resistant, and equally excellent jumping and climbing abilities—humanoid bioweapons?!"
Chu Huaying nodded: "That's right. This Zerg base has a large underground factory that produces clones on an assembly line. Every clone that is taken out of the culture dish undergoes brain surgery... Strictly speaking, it's not really surgery. Clones can heal themselves, and they have the Zerg implant smart chips directly into the clones ' brains. The clones ' self-healing ability automatically repairs their brain tissue, and these chips will grow firmly in their brains, making them impossible to remove by medical means."
Xiao Lou asked incredulously, "Automated production, and then using chips to control all clones? Who will control them?"
Chu Huaying said with a grim face, "This time it's not the Zerg Queen in control; the optical computer terminal of the chip is in that man's hands. I heard Uncle Qin call him Captain; he's very likely the old captain from our Space Pirate group who was captured back then!"
Xiao Lou: "..."
As expected, everyone should not underestimate Chu Huaying. She was not captured by Uncle Qin, but pretended to be captured and risked her life to find extremely important clues at the Zerg's secret base.
During the days that everyone was investigating the Merfolk Clan incident on Azure Planet, Chu Huaying used the Invisibility Cloak for a short 30 minutes every night at midnight. Relying on her extremely strong flexibility and enhanced senses of smell, hearing, and sight, she overheard many conversations and thus deduced that the Zerg cave contained a base for the streamlined production of clones.
Xiao Lou asked worriedly, "Where is the captain?"
Chu Huaying said, "He just left not long ago, taking a batch of clones with him. I don't know where he went. He left this underground factory to the Zerg Queen to oversee. I just escaped because I found my sample among the mass-produced clones. I'm worried you've been scammed."
At this point, Chu Huaying's expression suddenly changed: "Oh no! The Invisibility Cloak has expired, and the Zerg have discovered us!"
The real laboratory is to the south, where many advanced Zerg are stationed.
Previously, when Chu Huaying escaped, she used the advantage of Invisibility Cloak to deceive the Zerg. Now, 30 minutes have passed, and her Invisibility Cloak has lost its effect. In addition, she brought Lu Jiuchuan and his group here, and the high-level Zerg with their keen sense of smell quickly discovered them and scurried towards them.
Xiao Lou hurriedly said, "Xiao Ye, get ready to control the situation!"
Ye Qi understood, immediately took out his guitar card, and played a...
A guitar song.
A large group of Zerg crawling from around the corner heard the guitar sound as soon as they turned the corner and fell into a deep sleep.
Xiao Lou said, " Hua Ying, hurry up and take us to the lab!"
Chu Huaying nodded and walked forward quickly. Lu Jiuchuan took out Old Gui's brush and drew a wind trail under his feet, which boosted the speed of his teammates. In the blink of an eye, Ye Qi arrived at the edge of the guitar's control range.
Outside of that area, countless insects were crawling towards this side!
Seeing this scene, Ye Qi felt a chill run down his spine and immediately took out his Guzheng, and sang another song, "[Autumn Moon over the Han Palace]"!
The insects in this area, affected by the gentle Guzheng music, were not allowed to attack and could only crawl restlessly on the walls. Shao Qingge held Ye Qi's belt and led him forward. Ye Qi played Guzheng while trudging through the passageway crawling with insects, his heart pounding with fear.
Fortunately, the maze passages to the south were relatively spacious; otherwise, if they had been filled with Zerg, they wouldn't have been able to get through.
After reaching the edge of the controlled area, Ye Qi took out the suona again.
This time, none of his teammates would object to him playing the suona.
Ye Qi took a deep breath and blew a loud suona.
The king of musical instruments was indeed extraordinary. As soon as the sound of the suona was played, the sound echoed in the cave, causing chaos among the surrounding insects. Xiao Lou and the others were also dizzy from the noise and wished they could cover their ears.
Ye Qi had a large lung capacity. The control and playing time of the suona were related; he blew for half a minute straight, his face turning red from holding his breath. Ye Qi hadn't specifically studied how to play the suona, so the sound he produced was exceptionally shrill, like a funeral procession. Xiao Lou and the others noticeably sped up, as if being chased by wolves…
The sound of the Ye Qi suona may also have played a role in this.
Seeing Xiao Ye working hard to control the situation, Shao Qingge tightened his grip on him to prevent him from falling behind and being overwhelmed by the Zerg.
More and more insects were swarming around, but unfortunately, thanks to Ye Qi's musical instruments controlling the atmosphere, they couldn't get close.
Seeing that the instrument card's skill was about to go on cooldown, Xiao Lou hurriedly asked, " Hua Ying, how much further?"
Chu Huaying said, "It'll be soon!"
Ye Qi was somewhat overwhelmed. After finishing playing the suona, he didn't stop for even a second before taking out the piano.
A swarm of insects bared their fangs and claws at Ye Qi, whose face turned deathly pale as she began to play a piano piece.
The piano has a unique feature: all other targets within a 100-meter radius will be collectively immobilized, while all teammates can move but cannot use cards.
Ye Qi sat amidst the insects, playing the piano and immobilizing a large number of insects within a 100-meter radius, giving his teammates time to escape.
He whispered, "Everyone, let's go!"
100 meters, 10 minutes, that's all he can do.
Xiao Lou glanced back at Ye Qi, who was surrounded by the swarm of insects, and said decisively, "Xiao Ye, hang in there, I'll use Peach Blossom Spring to revive you in a bit!"
His teammates quickly disappeared, but Shao Qingge stayed behind.
Ye Qi looked at the man beside her, stunned for a moment: "Why aren't you leaving?"
Shao Qingge smiled slightly, stood beside him, gently pressed the boy's shoulder, and said softly, "How boring is it to play the piano for a bunch of insects? I'll stay and keep you company. Ye Qi, close your eyes, and pretend you're playing for me."
Surrounded by a swarm of insects, their blood-red eyes staring at him, Ye Qi was actually quite panicked.
If he were to stop playing the piano or play the wrong note, he would be instantly overwhelmed by the swarm of insects!
Hearing Shao Qingge say this, Ye Qi suddenly calmed down.
He closed his eyes, trying to concentrate, and devoted himself to the piece he was playing. It was his favorite piano piece, and he knew the score by heart. His slender fingers pressed the keys, and a gentle melody flowed from his fingertips. He seemed to see blue skies, white clouds, and the sea. He was playing for Shao Qingge on the beach, and his only audience was Shao Qingge.
Seeing Ye Qi concentrate on playing, Shao Qingge smiled slightly, but his hand on the boy's shoulder remained on his shoulder.
The surrounding insects: "???"
All the insects had first been subjected to the baptism of guitar and guzheng, and then their minds were confused by the piercing sound of the suona. Now they were all unable to move, lying on the side, watching Ye Qi close her eyes and play the piano with rapture.
The insects were completely dumbfounded.
Dude, are you here to hold a concert at Zerg Planet?