I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

Less than three seconds.

[Time synchronization acceleration (off)]

[Sanity: -3...115/120]

Lu Yuan turned off the accelerator and grabbed Wolf's shoulder, pulling him backward.

Wolf is still resisting.

The dark red patterns flickered, like red-hot iron struggling repeatedly in cold water.

His jaw was clenched so tightly that it made a grinding sound, and the veins on his temples were bulging.

"Retreat!" Lu Yuan shouted into his ear.

Wolf's eyes suddenly turned to Lu Yuan, and then the dark red patterns suddenly shone brightly, as if a furnace fire had burned something through in one go.

He suddenly took a few steps back, moving out of the fruit's reach.

He was panting heavily, his face covered in sweat.

"...What is that?" The voice was hoarse.

Lu Yuan did not answer.

He looked at the sphere, which had visibly shrunk after releasing its flowers and fruits, and its pulsation had become weak.

[Target for detection: ? ...It has released its allure to all living things...]

[Note: The mycelial spores contained within the fruit can invade the host's nervous system in a very short time...infection occurs upon contact...]

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.8…16.6/100]

"Everyone retreat to the entrance! Do not approach the fruit!" Lu Yuan's voice echoed in the water collection room.

"This thing's bewitching effect seems to have little effect on me?"

Lu Yuan looked at the two fruits in the small bottle in his hand, then with a flick of his wrist, put them into the satchel at his waist.

Ever since he learned that this strange 'creature' could evolve things, Lu Yuan had already set his sights on it.

Especially after activating the time synchronization, and after getting close to the fruit, I realized that my rationality was holding up.

He decisively used the alchemical sampling bottle, a small accessory from the professional equipment Laurena had given him, which had excellent sealing properties.

They used a bronze sword to pick off two and carried them away.

Two soldiers from the Iron Guard Battalion dragged the four unconscious men back.

Heinrich rushed to the two unconscious armored soldiers and glanced at the soldier who had grabbed the fruit.

At this moment, the gray-green lines on his arms had spread to his shoulders.

The good news is that the rate of spread slows down significantly after a person loses consciousness.

"Is there any hope for him?" Heinrich looked up at Lu Yuan.

[Detection Target: Holy Armor Army (Contaminated...Rationality Collapse...)]

Seduced by evolution, humanity seems to be moving in an irreversible direction.

"I don't know," Lu Yuan said truthfully.

"But his will has been extinguished, the holy light on his armor has been extinguished, and you know better than I what that means."

Heinrich paused for a moment.

Of course he knew.

The armor of the Holy Armored Army is linked to the will of the wearer through inscriptions.

Where there is will, there is holy light.

When the will is extinguished, the holy light is extinguished.

The moment the soldier's holy light went out, Heinrich sensed that a link in the energy chain of the arc-shaped military formation had broken.

It was like a taut string suddenly snapping, causing the entire defensive line to tremble.

He pulled a bottle of dark gray potion from his waist, forced it down the throat of the armored soldier, then stood up and said nothing more.

"Can those flowers be burned?" Wolf had regained his senses, stood up, and glanced at his palm. The dark red lines were still there, but much lighter than before.

"Mithril can burn," Lu Yuan said decisively.

"Bohr!"

Upon hearing this, Bor decisively pulled out a can of mithril from his waist and threw it out.

Silver-white flames exploded among the vine remnants, pale blue petals withered and curled, and fruits burst open, hissing and emitting black smoke.

The sweetness dissipated quickly as the silver flames burned, but it hadn't completely disappeared.

Wolf did not hesitate upon seeing this.

He stepped away from the crowd a few paces and placed his right hand on his chest.

A dark red light shone from his fingertips, then spread along his arms to his shoulders, from his shoulders to his chest, and then covered his entire body.

Something was burning beneath every inch of my skin.

A heat wave suddenly swept in.

The Iron Guard soldiers behind him made the same move.

Dark red lines appeared on the skin of ten people simultaneously.

The temperature soared to a suffocating level within seconds.

[Environmental Awareness: Pure Fire detected! You have received a slight purification... Your resistance to pollution has slightly increased...]

The last lingering sweet scent in the air evaporated completely with a hiss.

Even the remaining mycelium on the wall curled up in the high temperature.

Heinrich arranged for two armored soldiers to carry the four unconscious wounded men back into the passage.

"Tell Glock to chain the one who touched the fruit and prevent anyone from touching his skin directly."

"yes!"

Six people left the team.

Four wounded soldiers plus two escorts.

Thirty-five becomes twenty-nine.

The number of Holy Armor soldiers was reduced from fifteen to eleven.

The Iron Guard Battalion was reduced from twelve men to ten.

After the sweet smell dissipated, Lu Yuan finally took a serious look around the water collection room for the first time.

The silver flames and furnace fire cleared away most of the vines and mycelium, finally revealing the entire space.

It was bigger and more complicated than he had anticipated.

The entire space is an irregular ellipse, with a copper dome and a floor made of copper plates.

In addition to the main entrance, there are four other entrances.

The largest one on the right has a copper frame and is also Buren's target.

The dark green vines emerged from that direction, but were burned to their roots by the silver flames.

But the root is very thick, with a diameter of about half a person's height, and it is still twitching slightly.

On the left are two smaller drainage branch channels, each about the width of a person, with their inner walls covered with a layer of mycelium.

There is also a medium-sized maintenance access point directly opposite.

It is well-connected in all directions.

The sphere is still there.

It has shrunk considerably, and the pulsation is extremely weak.

Lu Yuan glanced at it.

It was on its last legs, but still pulsating; it couldn't be left to be processed after Buren finished carving it.

If it recovers and triggers another wave of flowering and fruiting, no one can withstand a second one.

Lu Yuan took the last can of mithril from his waist, unscrewed the cap, and smashed it towards the sphere.

Silver flames exploded.

The sphere burned in the silver flame, the eyeballs on its surface burst open, and the hyphae carbonized and peeled off.

The pulse stopped.

The sphere broke off from the vine debris, crashed to the ground, and shattered into dozens of charred fragments.

Only then was the sub-core completely burned away.

Something was exposed below the spot where the sphere shattered.

Previously, it was obscured by the sphere and a dense network of vines, making it difficult to see clearly.

Now that everything is burned to ashes, it has finally been exposed.

A single main vine.

It has a diameter of at least half a meter.

Extending from the depths of the right-hand passage, passing through the copper frame, it connects to the original location where the sphere was suspended.

The cross-section at the point of contact resembles a giant tree that has been cut down.

The dark green surface has no eyeballs, only dense vein-like patterns.

The wound was still throbbing.

The frequency is consistent with the rhythm of the ball's previous pulsations, only much weaker.

Like an umbilical cord, it connects the recently destroyed sub-core to something deeper inside.

[Target for detection: ? (Injured)]

[An existence beyond the ordinary, possessing a rare and powerful force, and you have unveiled another corner of it...]

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.5…17.1/100]

Lu Yuan squatted down, picked out a relatively well-preserved fragment from the spherical pieces, and sealed it in a glass container with wax.

He then carefully picked up a fruit remnant that hadn't been completely burned by the silver flames with the tip of the copper knife and sealed it inside as well.

Two samples.

"Berlen!"

The old man had already walked in, leaning on his cane.

Squatting in front of the copper frame, I opened the toolbox, took out the engraving knife, and a faint blue-white light shone as I applied it to the copper surface.

"Don't interrupt me now, my life is in your hands," Beren shouted without looking up.

Kel pressed close to his side, gripping the toolbox strap.

Four armored soldiers stood guard on both sides.

The remaining seven armored soldiers, including Heinrich, formed a semi-circular square in front of the right-hand passage entrance.

The three people in the front row held bronze swords, while the four people in the back row were evenly spaced.

The holy light inscriptions on the armor were all activated to their highest brightness, and golden energy flowed among the soldiers, like an invisible chain linking the seven together to form an arc-shaped light curtain.

The seven-man formation was much thinner than the full fifteen-man formation, but the passageway was only wide enough for this number of men to seal it completely.

Wolf led the Iron Guard to lay slag in front of the other three passageways.

[Target for detection: Ashes of the Pure Furnace (creations of believers)]

[A type of slag repeatedly burned in pure fire, containing trace amounts of residual furnace embers. Contact with contaminants will ignite its internal structure. It is particularly effective against mycelial organisms.]

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.1…17.2/100]

"How long will this hold out?" Bor asked as he joined in sprinkling copper powder.

"It won't hold out for long," Wolf replied directly.

"But the things you step on will catch fire on their own."

Lu Yuan positioned the four night watchmen at the rear between the direction they came from and the left passage.

The veteran, missing his little finger, stood closest to the left-hand entrance of the passage, his back against the wall, his bronze sword held horizontally across his chest, his expression calm.

Boren began engraving.

Half an hour countdown.

For a moment, the entire water collection room fell silent.

Only the scorching heat and the sound of Boren's seal engraving could be heard.

About five minutes later, a sound came from deep within the passage on the right.

Numerous limbs trampled the wet ground, densely packed and heavy.

The shockwave released before the sphere was destroyed summoned reinforcements.

The ghouls that emerged were covered in gray-green mycelial patterns, all of them parasitized.

The vanguard type in the front row lands on all fours and moves at extremely high speed.

Behind them stood two large ghouls, with thicker keratin layers and clearly defined fleshy pouches on their palms.

Upon seeing this, Heinrich led his armored troops to meet them in large strides.

The moment the vanguard ghoul charged into the light barrier, its entire skin began to smoke, its mycelial patterns contracted violently, and its speed plummeted.

The ghouls controlled by the mycelium are much more resistant to holy light than ordinary individuals, but the width of the passage is limited, and at most three or four can enter at the same time.

It's enough to handle a seven-man army formation.

The three men in the front row slashed in perfect unison, each strike carrying the afterglow of holy light.

The four people in the back row maintained the light barrier, and the inscriptions on their armor flickered, continuously transmitting holy light to the front row.

"Number Two, step back half a step; Number Three, take your place," Heinrich gave a brief instruction.

The shift interval is less than one second.

The ghouls fell down much faster than they poured in.

Bodies began to pile up at the entrance of the passage.

Almost at the same time, a commotion was also heard from the small passage on the left.

Three or four vanguard ghouls attempted to flank them.

They stepped on the slag.

The first one took two steps and then stopped.

Lower your head.

The gray-green mycelial patterns on the soles of my feet are changing color at a visible speed, from gray-green to dark red, and from dark red to charred black.

It was as if an invisible match had ignited the mycelium all over its body from the soles of its feet.

The flames did not burn in from the outside.

Instead, it ignites spontaneously from within the mycelium.

The dark red flames spread along the mycelial veins, from the soles of the feet to the calves, from the calves to the thighs, and all the way to the torso.

The hyphae cover their entire bodies.

So the whole body is burning.