Parasite (16): Conquer the country

The sound of a growling stomach echoed in the living room. Tan Xiao felt a bit embarrassed and looked down at his own empty stomach.  

All the way there, he had been moving very quickly, never stopping his pace. Although he had followed traffic rules while driving, he had been almost at the maximum speed allowed for the current road section.  

After expending a lot of physical energy, it was only natural to get hungry quickly.  

“Baby, I’m going to make dinner. You just sit on the couch and rest,” Wen Yi said with great concern. “You’ve had such a hard time coming all this way. You haven’t eaten much before this, have you?”  

The two of them had been busy in the penthouse for so long, and at that point, it was impossible to go back and prepare those dishes. If he remembered correctly, Tan Xiao had only eaten a chocolate bar before.  

Tan Xiao took off the apron from the kitchen door and said, “I’ll join you. Let’s cook a bowl of noodles first.”  

He was in a hurry to fill his stomach, and Wen Yi’s cooking speed was too slow. Fortunately, he had only taken the food from the fridge, and the grains, oils, and seasonings at home were still there. All kinds of kitchen utensils were complete.  

“Tap.”  

Tan Xiao turned on the gas switch, and the gas stove successfully produced a ring of blue flames, quickly bringing the water in the iron pot to a boil.  

He first cracked two eggs, and when the eggs were set, he added four instant noodle cakes he had bought from the supermarket downstairs.  

Thinly sliced cured sausage, ham, and fresh, crisp greens, plus a small piece of mushroom-flavored hot pot base.  

A few minutes later, he called out to Wen Yi, “The noodles are ready, yours is served.”  

The steaming noodles quickly filled Tan Xiao’s hunger-driven belly. While the two were engrossed in their meal, Wen Yi quietly split off a part of himself. A silvery-gray liquid slipped through the cracks of the door and the window screen, first making its way into the neighbor’s front door.  

The silver liquid made a round, detected no signs of parasites, left, and then took the elevator to the top floor.  

It entered Room 1 on the top floor and then confronted the already parasitized homeowner.  

The homeowner saw a part of Wen Yi and greeted him friendly, “Same kind?”  

The silver Yan immediately lunged forward, taking a deep breath. The Yan parasitizing the human shell was like being hit by a Dementor’s ultimate move—the entire soul, no, the entire Yan, was forcefully pulled out like this.  

The host fell heavily to the ground, their mind blank.  

After all, they had already died, their brain completely devoured by Yan. Wen Yi killing Yan merely allowed them to regain their original form ahead of time, at least preserving the body.  

The energy of the same kind was indeed very powerful. Clearly, it was just a parasitic species, but the energy it provided to Wen Yi was comparable to several tons of fresh meat.  

He burped, and Tan Xiao was a little surprised: “Are you full now?”

He had cooked noodles according to twice his usual portion, and Wen Yi usually ate so much. How could he suddenly be full after just one bowl of noodles?  

Wen Yi shook his head and nodded again, if he said he wasn’t full Tan Xiao would work hard to cook again.

“I’m full.”  

Wen Yi’s face flushed, his eyes full of lust. He grabbed Tan Xiao’s hand, and his voice sounded quite charming: “Let’s exercise to digest it.”

Eating brought too much energy, and there were some side effects. He needed to use another kind of happiness to suppress this greed, fearing that he would eat too much and cross Tan Xiao’s bottom line.

Tan Xiao glanced at him and pushed the bowl of noodles towards him: “Then go wash the dishes. Standing for a while will help digestion.”

He hadn’t been home for over 20 days. Even with the doors and windows closed, there was a thick layer of dust inside. After eating a bowl of noodles, he might as well do some housework—slowly mopping the floor, slowly wiping things down. After all, one couldn’t do intense exercise right after a meal.  

And what time was it now? Wen Yi was still thinking about that kind of thing, really not caring about the occasion. What if someone else barged in while they were having fun?  

Although this was their home, those parasites didn’t care about law and morality at all, and Tan Xiao didn’t have any special hobbies.  

Wen Yi let out a sound, and although he looked downcast, he still obediently went to wash the dishes.  

Confirming that he could truly digest his kin, Wen Yi continued to persevere. Their time was too short; he had to eat and digest diligently.  

After devouring a fellow kin, he could clearly feel his digestive abilities enhancing, giving him more strength to eat the second, the third!  

Wen Yi washed two bowls, swept two floors, digested some of the other remnants, and then returned. Once the energy was integrated, Wen Yi sent out two more teams to proceed in parallel.  

Devour, devour… accelerate the devouring!  

Wen Yi’s face was getting redder and redder, b he couldn’t hold back any longer and rushed into the bedroom, grabbing Tan Xiao. To keep himself sane, he had to do something else to maintain balance.  

His sudden movement startled Tan Xiao, causing the vacuum cleaner in his hand to drop to the ground with a thud.  

“What’s going on?”  

Wen Yi’s mind was a complete mess, but the fresh and pleasant scent on Tan Xiao’s body briefly restored his sanity. However, it wasn’t enough; such a simple hug was far from sufficient for him.  

He kissed fiercely, like a beast under the influence of an aphrodisiac.  

Although Tan Xiao said he disagreed, upon noticing Wen Yi’s unusual behavior, he still reached back to hold the back of Wen Yi’s head, obediently parting his lips to cooperate with Wen Yi’s actions.  

At the beginning, Tan Xiao could still keep up, after all, he was well-fed and full of energy.  

But Wen Yi was really off that day, and his movements were much more intense than usual. In the end, Tan Xiao had no choice but to lie down.  

“I can’t do it anymore, you should do it yourself.”  

He lay down and rested for a bit, but after a while, Tan Xiao felt a strange force surging within his body. He was once again filled with energy and felt particularly invigorated.  

Half an hour, one hour, two hours…  

Tan Xiao only felt that time passed in a cycle, unaware of the world around them.  

Although he was prepared to die, he didn’t want to die in such a disgraceful manner.

“One building, two buildings…”  

The number of Wen Yi’s sent out to harvest prey was increasing. Healthy humans were being spared, and the residents with parasites in their bodies were falling one by one.  

After the building they lived in became a human safe zone, the entire neighborhood was engulfed by “kindred” that were completely different from them.  

Some clever Yan, in a panic, ran outside: they originally wouldn’t die, but after being devoured by this strange creature, they disappeared from this world.  

After gaining ample power, Wen Yi naturally wouldn’t use the initial method of going door-to-door in a sweeping manner.  

With the building as his center, he transformed into a silver-gray mist. The mist was dense, like a special large net enveloping the entire building, and then it began to spread outward from this residential building, simultaneously permeating thousands of households.  

Endless prey continuously replenished the mist, adding energy to its spread, transforming from a single building into a small area, and then radiating outward from the small area.  

In a place Tan Xiao could not see, a silver-gray mist enveloped the street community he was in.  

Wen Yi did not parasitize humans and was not interested in other life forms either. He precisely identified every potential threat to Tan Xiao, and one by one, the people on the street fell down.  

“This mist, this mist is toxic! Hurry and hide!” People were in a panic, trying to avoid the mist’s invasion.  

The footage taken before by Tan Xiao, along with the evidence collected by Wen Yi, was displayed on a giant screen in the street.  

Regarding the existence of parasitic species, it had been released and made public to the residents.  

There were people who were in the mist but didn’t fall down, comparing themselves to the characteristics after being parasitized. Thinking about how they hadn’t been eating well or sleeping well during this time and had lost a few pounds, they confidently said, “I’m definitely not parasitized, I’m a normal person!”  

Someone boldly knocked on the heads of those who had fallen, and the sound that came back was hollow, like a rubber ball. The sound was loud and crisp, as if there was an empty cavity inside, with nothing in it.  

“These guys are people who have been parasitized by monsters! That mist is safe, it only affects those who have been parasitized!”  

“Open the doors and windows, it’s safer for everyone to go into the fog!”  

The survivors were spreading this message, calling out to their companions.  

“The top leadership team of this city’s highest leaders has been parasitized; absolutely do not listen to their orders!”  

Humans were very weak in the face of Yan, but they could also unleash some special energy.  

The identity of General Yan was exposed, and naturally, the rights that came with this identity were affected.  

After all, this was a human city. Even if humans couldn’t kill Yan, they could at least slow him down.  

At least, it wouldn’t be as easy for the other party to quickly find Tan Xiao and Wen Yi using surveillance.  

The mist created by Wen Yi continued to spread through the city at a terrifying speed—10%, 20%, 50%.  

More than half of the sky over the city had turned into a somewhat strange silver-gray. Countless people had fallen, and without exception, they were all hosts whose brains had been eaten.  

The leader Yan felt the threat, but just like when Tan Xiao had faced them with no way to retreat, this time it was Yan’s turn to be relentlessly pursued by the eerie silver mist.  

The silver mist finally stopped expanding because Tan Xiao couldn’t take it anymore: “Let’s call it a day. We can’t continue like this. If we go on any longer, the iron pestle will be ground into an embroidery needle. Enough is enough, Wen Yi!”  

Without Tan Xiao, this super powerful mental soothing agent, Wen Yi had to stop reluctantly: “Okay.”

He could feel that he could now defeat that general. If the two were to clash, he would give the other a severe beating.  

Then let’s take it easy for now. Wen Yi then put on a clean nightgown and regained heis composure.  

He pulled back the curtains in the room, gesturing for Tan Xiao to look out the window. A silvery-gray mist enveloped the sky in this area, making it appear dim and hazy.  

Wen Yi, full of spirit, said, “Tan Xiao, look, this is the territory I’ve fought for you. Now half of City A is a safe zone!”