Chapter 159: Poisoned

Chapter 159 Poison

Towering over ten meters, a dense forest of umbrella‑shaped fruiting bodies rose from the ground, their caps spanning an astonishing five meters or more in diameter.

The white stipes formed a bundle of translucent ribs, through which a crimson, blood‑like sap coursed.

Near the ground the ribs glimmered with a faint phosphorescence, and the stalks were riddled with orderly pores that opened and closed, expelling gases mingled with clouds of dust‑like spores.

At that sight, Chen Jian realized they could go no further.

The fungal organisms before his eyes surpassed his comprehension; without first discerning their nature, any rash advance would be a march to death.

“Stop!”

Chen Jian barked his orders:

“Lei Jie, monitor the environmental data.”

“He Shuo, keep the drone moving forward for reconnaissance.”

“Shen Yue, don the air‑supply mask and collect samples.”

“Everyone else, spread out, keep watch, and withdraw swiftly after gathering specimens.”

“Understood!”

At the sound of his command, the team sprang into action.

Chen Jian powered up his exoskeleton, gun in hand, scanning the surroundings.

He felt a slight relief: neither the anti‑sniper radar nor the drone’s thermal signatures reported any anomaly.

The area remained as silent as ever, save for the faint pop of a spore sac bursting, no other sound reaching his ears.

“In the intel you have, does the Mechanical Cult record anything about the fungal forest ahead?”

Chen Jian asked Ji Xing.

The latter shook his head and replied:

“I don’t know.”

“But I can say for certain they treat this as something inconsequential.”

“Still, is it really that dangerous?”

“From what we can see now, it’s merely a collection of unusual plants, isn’t it?”

“You consider them unusual plants?”

Chen Jian clicked his tongue twice, then explained:

“We’ve faced plenty of monsters, and the vast majority live in environments no different from ordinary human habitats.”

“Yet the things in the Jinling Ruins are utterly bizarre.”

“Fungi cover the ground everywhere, so densely that they have even displaced the native flora.”

“Moreover, as we move toward the core of the Jinling Ruins, the fungal density only grows thicker.”

“You claim the monsters have nothing to do with these fungi— I won’t believe it a hundred times over.”

“Perhaps that creature lives in symbiosis with the fungus.”

“If that’s the case, our entire battle plan may have to be scrapped.”

“Why?”

Ji Xing asked, eyes wide.

“What difference does it make?”

“A huge one!”

Chen Jian adjusted the grip on his 191 and answered:

“Against other monsters, no matter how strong, our fight is a fair contest.”

“We pick a field, set our formation, and it’s you versus me, death against death.”

“But if this truly is a fungus‑symbiotic beast, the situation changes entirely.”

“We would be fighting on its home turf, with the very environment turning against us!”

“No wonder it’s classified as a Tier‑2 monster; even before seeing it I can already feel its menace.”

As Chen Jian’s words faded, Lei Jie reported the latest environmental readings.

“Oxygen 19%, carbon dioxide 7%.”

“Hydrogen cyanide 6 ppm, hydrogen sulfide 2 ppm.”

“The air here is indeed toxic, though the concentration of poisonous gases remains relatively low for now.”

“Shen Yue, what’s your side reporting?”

“Hydrogen cyanide 11 ppm.”

Shen Yue replied briefly:

“The closer we get to the base of the fruiting bodies, the higher the toxic gas concentration; it seems to be a by‑product of breaking down some exotic material.”

“I suspect the toxic gases recorded by the Mechanical Cult weren’t produced by monsters at all, but are deposits in the environment—much like the carbon dioxide we generated when we detonated the lake at Xià Mǎ Town.”

“Copy that, hurry the sampling, then pull back.”

Chen Jian issued another order, but at that moment a dark speck flickered across his vision.

A minuscule, lightning‑fast shadow.

He first thought it might be a stray insect.

Yet combat instinct forced him to raise his barrel toward the spot where the shadow vanished.

Simultaneously, the nearby Blood‑Singers reacted in an instant.

“Enemy spotted!”

Ji Xing shouted the warning; Shen Yue, hearing the call, rushed back without hesitation, and Chen Jian fired a rapid burst toward the direction Ji Xing indicated.

“Bang‑bang‑bang—”

The bullets shattered a spore‑filled sac, releasing a puff of pale‑white mist that the wind then carried away from the group.

After a brief hush, the sparse trees interwoven with the thriving fungus stirred once more.

The shadow flashed again, and this time the squad opened fire together.

“Bang‑bang‑bang‑bang—”

A hail of rounds rained into the fungal thicket; without further orders from Chen Jian, Lei Jie and He Shuo, driving the cat‑cart, swung the vehicle around and led the team back the way they came.

“Recall the drone! Lower its altitude and monitor enemy movement!”

“Understood!”

The command issued, He Shuo immediately adjusted the smart visor.

Yet the massive caps blocked every angle, rendering the drone incapable of effective reconnaissance.

The hunter concealed within the forest roamed like a phantom, and apart from the occasional swaying thicket, the few of them could not at all discern its whereabouts.

At that moment, within Chen Jian's field of view, the environmental monitoring system suddenly sounded an alarm.

The concentration of toxic gases in the air was rising rapidly; without hesitation he donned his respirator and signaled the few Sanctified Blood to hold their breath.

In such moments, heroics are futile—the greatest foe is the environment itself—so first we must escape the poisonous surroundings!

Two cat‑cars sped forward, the muck from the active sediment layer splattering across the ground, yet the few had already taken precautions; the proteases that could dissolve organic matter posed no threat to them.

After a few dozen seconds, the toxic gas concentration fell within safe limits.

Chen Jian let out a slight sigh of relief, but before he could issue new orders, something burst from the woods.

This time, it was a true monster.

"Fire!"

Chen Jian's gunfire rang together with his command, a bullet ripped from its case and struck the small creature lunging at them.

He had no time to even glance at the monster's form, and neither did the others.

The reason was simple: the creatures that surged forward were certainly more than one.

In fact, dozens of them.

The dense volley of fire drowned everything out; Chen Jian's heart hammered, a thin sheen of sweat forming on his brow.

For reasons unknown, he felt fear for the first time.

And this emotion had never visited him before, not even after his crossing, not even when confronting the massive Tier‑Three behemoths.

Perhaps it truly stemmed from the so‑called ‘away‑game’.

In all previous battles, they had held the advantage of terrain and intelligence.

But this time, the advantage lay entirely with the enemy!

Their greatest support had been lost, and their own combat power had been severely diminished.

He even dared not rashly employ explosives, fearing the blast would stir up more toxic gas and worsen the situation further!

Their tactics were severely constrained, yet after emptying a magazine, Chen Jian quickly regained his composure.

"He Shuo, Lei Jie, maintain speed, don't worry!"

"Everyone else hold your positions and use ranged weapons to intercept!"

"They won't get far!" "Hold the line and we will win!"

"Understood!"

The gunfire suddenly grew even denser; bullets, bearing an unstoppable force, pierced the bodies of those creatures that scarcely possessed any discernible “shape,” splattering the ground with a mingling of crimson and pallid fluid.

Chen Jian snapped off the 3× scope from his 191, switched to a red‑dot sight, and rapidly shifted targets, firing in quick succession.

At the same time, the weapon rack already unfurled on his shoulder, and the 201 unit, guided by the smart ocular tracker, continuously spewed tongues of flame.

The horde of monsters surging from behind them could not draw near, stymied for a moment by the overwhelming firepower.

Yet their numbers were simply too great.

From dozens at first to now hundreds.

At a glance, Chen Jian felt a prickling crawl up his scalp.

Where on earth did these things come from?

Where were they initially concealed? How could even the drone’s infrared reconnaissance miss them?

Instinctively, Chen Jian pulled down his thermal‑fusion night vision; through its lens, the entities indeed emitted a faint infrared glow.

They were unmistakably alive.

There was no time for contemplation; wherever they had hidden before, now they were certainly being targeted by those things.

Retreat first!

Chen Jian glanced swiftly at the map: they had already withdrawn two kilometers, now thirty‑four kilometers from the heart of Jinling City.

"How long will they keep chasing us??"

Chen Jian shouted the question, while Ji Xing, fumbling with his 191, aimed and fired, replied:

"I don’t know!"

"My intel has never contained any record of such things!"

"But the fungal carpet is the key; as long as we reach a place without it, we’ll be safe!"

"Understood!"

Such a vague assessment is no better than none, yet now Chen Jian had no other recourse.

The good news: the cat‑car’s speed was gradually picking up.

The pursuers behind were increasingly unable to keep pace.

But the bad news: the wind had shifted.

The toxic gas concentration began rising again, and the respirator could now sustain them for less than eleven minutes.

If they could not evade the monsters and skirt upwind of the poison within those eleven minutes, the squad might be suffocated by the gas.

Chen Jian grew increasingly restless, constantly ordering the allocation of firepower, striving to eliminate the monsters before them with maximal efficiency.

At that moment, he could no longer concern himself with any “potential threats.”

If there were grenades, throw grenades; if there were mortars, fire mortars!

"Li Shi, my twelve‑o’clock direction, fire an automatic mortar round at rapid speed!"

"Xie Liu, three‑o’clock, 201 unit, intercept fire—don’t let those things get close!"

"Shen Yue, nine‑o’clock, enemy approaching!"

"Eleven‑o’clock!"

One command after another rang out, and the men’s reaction times grew ever swifter.

The squad’s lethality surged to unparalleled heights in a short span, but at the cost of diminishing command precision.

Within a mere two minutes, Chen Jian noted three instances where two guns fired at the same directional target.

Undoubtedly, this was a massive waste of firepower, yet Chen Jian could not yet devise an alternative.

He could only continue to increase the density of orders—a near‑instinctual response.

——

Yet, as he again ordered a block fire toward three‑o’clock, Shen Yue’s voice suddenly cracked through the gunfire.

"No enemy at three‑o’clock!"

Chen Jian froze for a heartbeat, then swiftly removed the smart visor; with the naked eye he confirmed there truly were no foes there.

Putting the visor back on yielded the same result.

Did I misread it?!

In the fierce crucible of battle, such a minor slip was hardly surprising.

Yet in that fleeting instant of calm, a sudden thought sparked in Chen Jian's mind.

Damn.

Was the situation truly that dire??

We have vehicles, we wield heavy arms, our firepower is savage and our speed is swift.

Those things have been on our heels, yet they never catch us.

What the hell am I hurrying for?!

Like a bucket of cold water poured over his head, Chen Jian instantly sensed the oddity of the affair.

His own emotions had been swayed.

No.

It was his faculty of perception that had been compromised!

The blurred vision could be a symptom of hydrogen sulfide poisoning, but the decline in cognition—

—must be the work of some other toxic vapor!

‘Cease fire!’

Chen Jian clenched his teeth, then said:

‘We’re all poisoned! Hallucinogenic gas!’

‘Take a deep breath! Use the vent to expel the lingering toxin!’

‘He Shuo, Lei Jie, just drive!’

‘Those things can’t catch us!’

‘Understood!’

The two instantly grasped Chen Jian’s meaning; after a few hard breaths, the restless agitation that had churned within them settled into a calmer steadiness.

Sinister.

Chen Jian stared at the monsters still bearing down, a chill crawling up his spine.

At last he understood why the Mechanical Cult had allowed that beast to linger in the Jinling ruins for decades.

With their level of technology, not even touching the creature’s edge would be a feat, let alone slaying it!

Had it not been for the vent, they all would likely have fallen prey by now! —

Hold on.

Chen Jian glanced at Ji Xing beside him, only to find her expression growing ever more frantic.

Even after his cease‑fire command, her finger never ceased to pull the trigger.

We’re doomed.

They had no vent.

Worse still, the Sanctified Blood’s metabolism surged faster, deepening their poisoning!

Without a moment’s hesitation, Chen Jian raised his 191 and slammed the butt of the gun into Ji Xing’s occiput.

Immediately, Shen Yue and He Shuo, having recovered, mimicked him, crushing the equally frenzied Xie Liu and Zeng Yi.

Only Li Shi, who had already lowered his weapon, instinctively raised a hand to block when Shen Yue aimed at him, then stared wide‑eyed, his face an innocent mask, and asked:

‘What are you doing?’

‘—Nothing.’

Shen Yue exhaled deeply, then said:

‘He’s fine; his bulk gives him high drug tolerance.’

‘Understood.’

Chen Jian replied calmly.

By then, the pursuing monsters had been left far behind.

And for the first time Chen Jian truly beheld the shape of those creatures.

They were a horde of ‘humanoid’ monsters.

Their bodies were festooned with pustules and wounds born of fungal parasitism, and tiny fruiting bodies blossomed like flowers in their eye sockets.

Clearly long blind, they seemed guided by some unseen force, moving with uncanny precision toward their target.

Bulky forms, bio‑electric pulse nodes

Chen Jian’s mind lit up with realization.

That contraption, too, was part of the fungal carpet.

Beneath the squad’s wheels the fungal carpet had grown ever thinner, and the monsters’ chase had slowed to a crawl.

Safety was almost within reach.

Chen Jian let out a sigh of relief, but when he lowered his gaze to Ji Xing, the outlook was far from hopeful.

Her body twitched involuntarily, as if she might erupt from unconsciousness at any moment.

Chen Jian hesitated briefly, then addressed Li Shi:

‘Li Shi, come here!’

‘Hold her down!’

(End of chapter)