Kill one monster, stack one poison, and I alone will poison my way across the world!

After giving the command in a low voice, the falcon's figure blurred again, merging into the gray mist that filled the air.

Grizzly, shielded by a tower, led the way, the heavy armor plates emitting a dull metallic scraping sound as it moved.

Su Chen followed in the middle of the group, carrying his staff.

The broken bricks and tiles were covered with layers of dark red viscous liquid, emitting a pungent, fishy stench.

"rustle--"

A strange noise suddenly came from the bushes on the right.

Two swift-type aberration chimeras suddenly sprang out.

Su Chen raised his hand and unleashed a bolt of lightning.

Snapped!

Green pus splattered onto the withered leaves, making a hissing, corrosive sound.

The group continued their advance.

The number of chimeras encountered along the way had clearly increased.

"There's an underground entrance ahead."

Suddenly, Falcon's voice rang out on the channel, carrying a hint of solemnity.

The group passed through a cluster of collapsed houses and found an entrance that had been violently widened in what was originally a cellar.

Simple wooden steps led into the dark depths.

There were large amounts of bloodstains left on the steps, some of which had turned black and dried, while others were still strangely bright red.

"Grizzly, raise your shields."

The falcon emerged from the shadows and stood beside the cellar entrance.

"Su Chen, Viper, stay close. The space inside is narrow, be careful to avoid area-of-effect damage."

"clear."

Su Chen tightened his grip on the Thunder Touch.

In narrow terrain, if monsters cluster together... he was already prepared to switch back to the Bursting Staff.

After walking down the steps for about fifty meters, the original damp earthy smell completely disappeared, replaced by a strong, almost tangible, mixed smell of rotting flesh and formaldehyde.

The underground space is larger than one might imagine.

This place originally appeared to be an air-raid shelter used by the villagers to store sweet potatoes and yams.

But now, the surrounding walls are crudely supported by steel bars and wooden boards, with dim emergency fluorescent lights hanging from them.

"Click".

The grizzly bear's boot snapped off something white.

He looked down and saw it was a leg bone belonging to a human child.

"brute……"

The grizzly bear's jaws clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white from gripping the edge of the tower shield with excessive force.

The scene here can only be described as hell on earth.

On both sides of the passageway, piles of mutilated corpses lay.

Some of the corpses had their chest cavities completely opened, their internal organs removed, and replaced with wriggling, gray, egg-shaped objects.

Some corpses were forcibly sewn together with the monster's limbs, with yellowish-green pus oozing from the stitches.

"Help...help me..."

An extremely faint sound came from an iron cage deep inside the passage.

Su Chen walked over quickly.

Three villagers were lying in the iron cage.

No, to be precise, they were three people who were still alive.

Their lower bodies had completely disappeared, and the wounds were covered by a black mycelium, barely maintaining their vital signs.

"Please... kill me... or... save me..."

One of the villagers, with his cloudy eyes, looked at the military-style equipment on Su Chen's body, and a last glimmer of light appeared in his eyes.

The venomous snake strode forward, its staff glowing with a green healing light.

however.

The healing spell, when applied to the villager, not only failed to restore his health but also triggered a frenzied rebound of the black mycelium.

"-50"

"-50"

"..."

The villager let out a painful howl, and his body began to convulse violently.

"Don't use healing skills."

Falcon pressed down on the snake's arm. "These hyphae are completely bound to their nervous systems. The life energy from healing spells will become nutrients for these parasites, accelerating their death."

She walked up to the iron cage and looked at the villagers struggling in pain.

"Tell us, what happened here? Who locked you up here?"

The villager's lips trembled, and copious amounts of bloody foam spilled from the corners of his mouth.

"It's...it's people dressed in black...they...they're at the shrine...ahhh!"

Before he could finish speaking, the villager's chest suddenly exploded, and a gray-black limb covered in barbs pierced out from between his ribs.

[Parasitic Larva (Juvenile Stage)]

[Level: 10]

"puff."

With a blank expression, Su Chen used the tip of his staff to pin the juvenile to the ground, drawing out a spray of black blood.

"They're beyond saving."

Su Chen looked at the other two villagers who had lost consciousness and whose bodies were beginning to change.

Falcon took a deep breath, and the short knife in his hand transformed into a cold light, precisely piercing the foreheads of the remaining two villagers.

The team continued deeper into the area.

The further you go in, the deeper the water becomes. The water is a disgusting dark purple color and feels sticky when you step on it.

Sudden.

A strange chewing sound came from an open space ahead.

"Smack, smack..."

The sound was exceptionally clear in the empty, oppressive underground space, accompanied by heavy breathing.

The grizzly bear suddenly raised his shield, and the eagle's gun instantly locked onto the source of the sound.

Under the dim fluorescent light, three disheveled villagers dressed in tattered clothes were squatting beside a rotting chimera carcass.

They frantically dug at the stinking, dead flesh of the monster with their fingernails, then stuffed it haphazardly into their mouths, even chewing and swallowing the green venom glands and hardened keratin.

Their faces were covered in green blood and black rotting flesh, and their eyes were vacant and crazed.

"stop!"

With a low growl, the falcon flashed and appeared directly in front of the villagers, kicking away the severed limbs they were gnawing on.

"What are you doing?! That's monster flesh! It's highly poisonous!"

The villager whose flesh had been kicked away suddenly raised his head and let out a low growl like a wild beast, as if he wanted to pounce on it and snatch it back.

But upon seeing the gleaming dagger in Falcon's hand and the fully armed soldiers behind him, they cowered and retreated.

One of the older villagers wiped the green blood from the corner of his mouth.

His eyes held no light, only a deathly stillness.

"poison?"

The old villager gave a bitter laugh.

"Girl, if you don't eat this, we would have starved to death yesterday."

The falcon's body trembled slightly.

"There are relief supplies in the shelters in Takayama City, why don't you go there? It's only 20 kilometers from the city center!"

"refuge?"

Another, younger villager looked up.

"What are you going there for? To wait to die?"

"We've harvested all the crops in the fields, and we have three years' worth of stored grain at home, plus the grain for next season's planting..."

The old villager stared intently at the Chinese military emblem on the falcon's chest, a mocking sneer playing on his lips.

"And the result?"

"With just one sentence, 'For the defense of the front line, requisition all reserve grain,' you didn't even leave us a single rat poison."

"..."

The entire underground passage fell into a deathly silence.

Grizzly's shield drooped slightly, and Eagle's fingers gripping his gun were somewhat stiff.

The venomous snake opened its mouth as if to say something, but ultimately uttered no words.

Su Chen also fell silent.

He grew up in Tianhe City and received government subsidies for orphans, so he was unaware of these policies.

"We have no food."

The old villager pointed to the stench emanating from the chimera carcass on the ground.

"The flesh of this thing is bitter and spicy; eating it makes your stomach feel like it's on fire."

"But we were absolutely starving."

"If I can live a few more hours, what if... what if there's a way out?"

He looked at the falcon, his eyes devoid of pleading, only displaying an almost numb questioning.

"Your Excellencies from Dahua, you've arrived just in time."

"Now, are they going to arrest and execute us who stole and ate the monsters?"

Falcon's hand, gripping the dagger, trembled slightly.

She looked at the villagers before her; their stomachs had turned an eerie green from ingesting large amounts of chimeric toxins, and tiny scales were beginning to grow on their skin.

They are no longer purely human.

Mutation is only a matter of time.

"team leader……"

The eagle called out softly.

"They are...deeply infected."

"Feel sorry."

The falcon closed its eyes.

Her voice was very soft, so soft that it seemed to be drowned out by the smell of blood in the room.

next second.

A cold glint flashed.

The old villager's laughter stopped abruptly, and a thin red line appeared on his throat.

Then came two more.

The three corpses fell limply into the puddles, splashing up a dark purple spray.

Falcon sheathed his short sword, the blade unstained by a single drop of blood.

"What... exactly have we protected?"

The serpent chuckled self-deprecatingly, and the light on its staff went out completely.

"Watch your words, viper. Don't let a few words sway your will."

Falcon looked at the corpses and said, "Collect their bodies and move on."