Chapter 141: Death
Not a single trace of light showed overhead. Mutated mosquitoes formed an airtight canopy above the team, while parasol trees surged toward them from all directions.
“I’m never calling Shenjian a paradise on earth again.”
“It’s hell,” said someone from Wen Yuan’s team. The moment the words left his mouth, his whole body suddenly dropped— the mountainside beneath his feet collapsed, and he sank straight into it.
Yang Xiaoyun reached in, blasting a winding tunnel through the earth and stone underground, but the teammate was nowhere to be seen.
Wu Heng finally sat up. He ran his fingers over the ground, grabbed hold of a tree root, and wrenched upward. The tangled, coiling root system beneath the soil was ripped out in one pull, and a towering tree that would have taken a dozen people to encircle began to sway.
From underground, a black shadow howled as it was dragged out. Its legs were wrapped tight with tree roots, while thick vines locked its arms in place.
The young man was covered in mud. He sucked in two deep breaths, spat the dirt out of his mouth, and cursed, “There’s a plant web underground—everything here is on the same damn side!”
Wu Heng let go of him and pressed his other palm to the ground. Light poured out endlessly, spreading like rippling waves.
Everyone stared at the ground. Suddenly, the light shot upward, closing together above their heads—several mutated mosquitoes that had been charging down at full speed were sliced cleanly in half the instant the barrier sealed.
Immediately after, an uncountable mass of mutated animals launched a coordinated assault. Amid a constant crackling of impacts, the warm yellow surface of the shield gradually turned blood-red.
The entire team looked up at the sight. It was as if they stood in the depths of night: ever-growing swarms of insects hurled themselves at the barrier, then fell in swarms, only for their mangled remains on the ground to be swiftly devoured by centipedes and converted into energy for yet another attack on the humans.
Ten minutes later, the temperature of the light shield dropped, its energy fluctuating between strong and weak.
“This can’t go on—A’Heng won’t be able to hold out much longer!”
Lin Mengzhi grabbed two tree roots at his feet. A plume of black smoke rose up; seconds later, the forest outside the barrier erupted into raging flames. Countless mosquitoes were incinerated in an instant, turning into chunks of charcoal that rained down from the sky.
He charged straight out of the light barrier. “Come on! Fuck—that’s huge.”
A centipede reared up high in front of him. Along both sides of its broad abdomen, long legs writhed and danced; its mouthparts and mandibles were smeared with fresh blood, like some colossal beast.
It loomed over him, and the mutated centipedes that had been attacking the barrier all around turned at the sound and rushed over.
A cold flash swept down from above Lin Mengzhi’s head, cleaving the centipede in two. But the mutated centipedes drawn by the noise had already merged into a vast black sea.
Wen Yuan appeared. That black sea was struck as if by a sudden typhoon—receding like a tide in an instant. When they tried to surge forward again, countless wind blades pierced them with pinpoint accuracy.
Lin Mengzhi turned back, trying to reinforce the barrier from the outside, only to realize that his energy couldn’t even form a tenth of a proper shield, and that just a few mosquitoes were enough to smash through his energy zone.
Thankfully, the ability users had all left the barrier. Each attack from them could wipe out hundreds of mutated mosquitoes at once.
A centipede was pinned down in front of Jiang Xun. Jiang Xun pressed her palm to its abdomen without hesitation. Her hand sank down as she lifted her face—and in that instant, several hundred nearby centipedes lost all signs of life.
“Holy shit!” Lin Mengzhi punched one mosquito after another as he jumped over to Jiang Xun. “How did you do that?”
“Creatures of the same species share a single energy-operation system. Magnetic or metal-based abilities can do this—killing hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands at once. But it drains too much energy. For ability users, storing up strength and releasing it at the right moment is the only way to go far.”
Lin Mengzhi half understood, half didn’t. Wouldn’t it be better to just go all out and finish things as fast as possible?
The swarm allowed them only a brief moment to catch their breath before splitting into three fronts: mosquitoes, centipedes, and centipedes that burrowed underground and crawled up from beneath their feet.
The mutated mosquitoes that were too far away were handled by Yue Shanjing and X. The parrot’s body was massive, but flight was this species’ weakness. It wasn’t as slender as a white crane, able to carve a path of blood with ease. Instead, it stuffed all kinds of things messily into its mouth, its belly growing more and more distended.
Wu Heng narrowed his eyes on the ground. The number of mutated centipedes and mosquitoes outside was indeed decreasing, but the rate at which they were being replenished was even faster.
He forced down the discomfort in his chest. Vines spread beneath him, locking onto the underground plant network. The mountains and forests—dead and immobile on the surface—suddenly grew clamorous. Ancient vines tore themselves down from the treetops, stabbing again and again into the centipede swarm. Flowers from the canopy fell, releasing mist-like clouds of pollen. Shrubs opened themselves to the mosquitoes, blood seeping out from their roots.
At that moment, a centipede’s mouthparts suddenly thrust up from underground and snapped clean through Yang Xiaoyun’s lower leg as he stood on the surface, then burrowed back into the earth with the leg still clamped in its jaws.
“Captain Yang!” someone shouted in alarm. He had only run two steps forward when a black proboscis shot straight into his mouth and down his throat. His eyes widened in disbelief—until a massive mutated mosquito pinned him to the ground.
“Don’t worry about me!” Yang Xiaoyun sat on the ground, cold sweat pouring down. “The mission comes first.”
Wen Yuan temporarily drove the swarm back, and in the brief gap before they surged again, he threw Yang Xiaoyun into the protective barrier.
“Oh my god, oh my god!” Luo Lei covered his eyes at the sight of Yang Xiaoyun’s missing lower leg.
Wu Heng looked on calmly. Outside, two more people had fallen. There were simply too many mutated creatures. They were the natives here—familiar with the terrain, fearless and confident.
“I’ll go take a look.” He stepped out of the barrier.
The mountains and forests had become a sea of corpses and blood.
The youth pressed his palm against an ancient vine reaching toward him. From beneath, vines spread out into an all-encompassing net, leaving no gaps and no escape routes. Heaven and earth were drenched in blood. The screeching of insects sounded like the wailing of ghosts. The pale yellow dance of pollen was gradually soaked red; the air filled with drifting threads of blood. The poppy drank its fill, and light and wood drew sufficient energy from every direction.
When the surroundings finally fell completely silent, the mutated mosquitoes vanished without a trace within minutes. Only a scattered few remained, buzzing faintly.
Wu Heng’s body swayed. Seeing this, Lin Mengzhi hurried over and caught him from behind.
“Do you even understand the concept of ‘accumulate strength and release it at the right moment’?!” Lin Mengzhi shouted at Wu Heng.
Wu Heng’s face went pale. He was about to speak when he saw that Lin Mengzhi was bleeding from the nose.
Lin Mengzhi felt it too. He raised a hand to wipe his nose. “What the hell?”
The blood flowed faster and heavier. He hurriedly tilted his head back.
“Don’t tilt your head up!” Jiang Xun came over and patted him, but the moment she did, she too started bleeding from the nose, just like Lin Mengzhi. “Ugh, damn it.” She reflexively tilted her head back as well.
“You’re still scolding me!” Lin Mengzhi covered his nose; the lower half of his face was covered in blood.
Wu Heng reached out toward Lin Mengzhi, but Lin Mengzhi slapped his hand away. “It’s fine. Just a nosebleed. Don’t waste energy on it.”
No sooner had he spoken than his throat started itching. He scratched his neck, then suddenly fell to his knees. His cheeks heaved up and down as if something was hiding inside.
“Waaah—” Lin Mengzhi opened his mouth and spat out a fist-sized mosquito, covered in saliva. It wobbled on the ground, still immature, but the moment its proboscis touched the back of Lin Mengzhi’s hand pressed to the ground, it tried to sting.
“Holy shit!” Lin Mengzhi raised his hand and smashed it into a pancake with a single punch.
“What’s going on?” Wen Yuan strode over.
“Captain Wen, you’re… nosebleeding too?”
Wen Yuan froze mid-step, covered his nose—but blood streamed through his fingers like water.
In an instant, over ten people among the group began bleeding from their noses.
“Are the mosquitoes poisonous?” Shen Ping’an asked. He was unharmed, standing next to Wu Heng.
“I didn’t even get bitten!” one teammate said, pulling a mosquito out of his throat. He crushed it, wiped his hands on the moss-covered ground in disgust—but soon, his throat began to itch again.
Wu Heng frowned. He forcibly held Lin Mengzhi, but he wasn’t a doctor—he could only heal or revive. Just as he was about to release Doctor Chen, small lumps began to bulge under Lin Mengzhi’s clothing, one after another.
Shen Ping’an yanked Lin Mengzhi’s shirt up. In his view, the boy’s back was covered with lumps of all sizes. The skin stretched over them was semi-translucent, and the creatures coiled beneath the surface were wriggling, eager to move.
“This is…” Shen Ping’an froze in shock.
At that moment, Lin Mengzhi suddenly collapsed. A muffled groan came from his throat as his limbs flailed wildly. Wu Heng and Shen Ping’an quickly held him down.
Wu Heng released Doctor Chen.
But before Doctor Chen could even reach Lin Mengzhi, the boy’s body loosened under Wu Heng’s hands. Grabbing the thin fabric of his clothes, Wu Heng saw newborn mutated mosquitoes flying straight out of the boy’s body into the sky.
Wu Heng went rigid, nearly frozen in disbelief. He let go of Lin Mengzhi’s sleeve. Light flowed from his palms toward the boy’s body. He poured energy into it ceaselessly—but Lin Mengzhi’s body didn’t respond at all.
The others watched in horror. Their own symptoms were the same as Lin Mengzhi’s… so what would happen to them—
Chen Qiong reacted first. He looked at Yang Xiaoyun, who was still unharmed. “Captain Yang, you know where my home is, right? Take care of my grandfather for me.”
He couldn’t allow his own body to become a breeding ground for monsters. Without anyone else reacting in time, he drew his sidearm and fired a shot directly into his heart. The energy core inside shattered on impact.
“Qionggui!!!! Chen Qiong!!!”
After he fell, numerous mosquito larvae crawled out from his mouth and nose. Wen Yuan stomped on them, crushing them instantly.
“Organize your gear. Report in.” Wen Yuan ordered in a deep, commanding voice.
Xue Shen glanced worriedly at Xue Qi. “Xiao Qi, are you okay?”
Xue Qi, hanging from a tree, said he was fine—but no sooner had he answered than a stream of bright red blood flowed from his brother’s nasal tube.
“Brother!” Blue Spider jumped to the ground, scampering quickly to Xue Shen before shifting back into humanoid form.
“Chen Meng, go check on those who are nosebleeding,” Wu Heng said hoarsely. He bent down and gently patted Lin Mengzhi’s purple-streaked face. “Mengzhi?”
In an instant, their numbers had been reduced by two-thirds. Corpses piled together with the bodies of mosquitoes and centipedes, making it nearly impossible to distinguish one from the other.
Doctor Chen slowly stepped back behind Wu Heng. “I don’t know the exact cause. I didn’t find any eggs in their bodies, but somehow, mosquitoes hatched from them.”
The newly hatched mutated mosquitoes swirled above their heads, reeking of blood, only to be knocked down one by one by the vines.
Wu Heng slowly rose to his feet, took a deep breath, and pushed back the tears. Scanning the area, he saw that on his side, only Shen Ping’an, Ruan Silian, Xue Qi, and Wang Meixia were still standing; the rest had fallen. Wen Yuan’s team fared even worse, with only Yang Xiaoyun, Jiang Yi, and Yue Shanjing alive.
Yang Xiaoyun sat beside one corpse after another, crying his heart out.
Even Yue Shanjing, who didn’t have much attachment to the others, couldn’t bear to watch.
“We have to leave this place,” Jiang Yi said, pulling a map from Jiang Xun’s backpack and gathering as many usable supplies as possible. “I’ll lead the way.”
“Yeah, we can’t waste any more time. With this many corpses, it won’t be long before other mutated creatures smell them and show up,” Liu Dongfan said, worry in his voice. He slung another pack over his shoulder and handed one to Wang Meixia. “Let’s carry extra, just in case.”
Doctor Chen buried his head in eating leopard meat beside them.
“Wu Heng, we have to go,” Shen Ping’an said, holding back his grief. He never imagined that just a swarm of insects could cost them so many teammates.
Besides mosquitoes and centipedes, there were surely other suspicious creatures nearby.
Jiang Yi sat on the ground. “We need to change our route. The terrain here is complex and unstable. Based on our current position, we need to move in the opposite direction of the mountain shifts; that’s the correct path.”
“At our speed, we should be able to cross in about a week. If it takes longer, it means the route is wrong,” Shen Ping’an said quietly, as if not wanting to disturb the eerie silence surrounding Wu Heng.
“It’s like this,” Jiang Yi said.
“I’m not going. You all go on,” Yang Xiaoyun said, tying up his lower leg. The wound had stopped bleeding. He lay down beside Wen Yuan, staring blankly at the towering tree trunks around them. “Humanity has reached its limit… there’s no hope left.”
“…Suit yourself,” Jiang Yi replied, lifting a pack from the ground. “Let’s go.”
Wu Heng’s eyes followed Jiang Yi as he moved.
Jiang Yi walked a few steps in the direction he had indicated, then suddenly stopped and stepped back. He gave Wu Heng a strange look. “Do you have any more questions?”
Xue Qi, holding Xue Shen, opened his mouth, his face red with anger and grief. “They just died… can’t we at least collect their bodies before leaving?”
“Oh, what’s the point?” Jiang Yi strode over to Xue Qi and stomped on Xue Shen’s thigh. Crack. The leg bone broke, yet the corpse beneath Jiang Yi’s foot didn’t react in the slightest.
“Damn you—” Xue Qi’s curse was cut off halfway as Jiang Yi gripped his chin. Tears poured down his face. He would rather die alongside his brother than follow this cold, merciless soldier.
“He’s already dead. The living are always more important than the dead. Delaying will only get more people killed,” Jiang Yi said coldly.
Xue Qi couldn’t hear any of this nonsense. Panting, he swung a fist at Jiang Yi’s face.
But a figure was faster. Jiang Yi was instantly pressed to the ground. Wu Heng knelt on one knee beside him, leaning forward slowly. His gray-green eyes blazed with murderous intent as he murmured, “An illusion… or is it the inherent toxicity of the Dracaena? You should be able to give me an answer.”