Chapter 212 - Upgrade Equipment
After the Stone Statue Fungi which had been cut down by the superhumans were nourished by the sticky liquid, their wounds gradually closed up, and the incomplete parts regrew.
The corpses of the humans and their equipment that remained on the ground were covered by the liquid as it squirmed about, and they became one with the ground and the Stone Statue Fungi.
The Ten Thousand Blade Flying Spiders and Demonic Stone Statue Spider did not give chase.
Perhaps it was because they knew that without the liquid from the Stone Statue Fungus, they would be unable to do anything to humans. Instead, they would end up as the prey.
It could also be that their harvest for the day was already enough for them.
They hid in the depths of the Stone Statue Fungi and disappeared.
Silence returned to the depths of the cave. It was as if the fierce fighting a moment ago was just a nightmare that plagued their minds and refused to leave.
“Butterfly!”
There was a girl in Sharp Blade known as Butterfly Knife. She had fallen in the Stone Statue Fungi forest.
The eyes of some of the men turned bloodshot. They wanted to go back and fight.
“Stop!” Scimitar took a step forward and blocked their way. “Butterfly is already dead. Her corpse was enveloped by the liquid from those fungi. How are you going to get her out? You’ll just be casting your lives away!”
Those Sharp Blade members who wanted to go back were pulled back by the others. After struggling for a while, they wept. Someone hit the wall beside him, and sparks flew.
“Those bastards from Universe Corporation… They’ve clearly gotten through this place, so why didn’t they get rid of all those fungi and monsters? Instead, they left an undead superbeast for us… They just want to destroy the path behind them! They set up this trap for their competitors!” Lu Siya cursed.
“It’s those bastards who killed our teammates! I swear that once I catch up to them, no matter who their leader is, I will kill him!”
The attack by the Stone Statue Fungi and Ten Thousand Blade Flying Spiders resulted in the loss of five more people.
Along with the four people who died tragically before, there were only fifteen people left in the mine exploration team. When they started off, they had twenty-four.
The eyes of the mine explorers and hunters were red.
But when things had progressed to this stage, it was meaningless to try and figure out who was responsible.
They could not return without any results. They could only brace themselves and continue onward.
“Should we destroy this fungi settlement?” Scimitar asked. “We know that their weakness is fire, so it won’t be difficult to handle them. We still have some flares and fuel with us. With the help from fire-type skills, we can create simple napalm bombs and burn them all.
“That undead spider isn’t afraid of fire, but the fungus on its back exploded. It should be in a weakened state right now. Once we burn all the fungi and spiders, we can get rid of it.”
Lu Siya thought about this for a moment. When she saw their dark looks and the strange light shining in their eyes, she shook her head and said, “There might be fresh air in the cave, but it’s still an airtight space. Air seeps in through the winding cracks. If we recklessly use fire, we might burn away all the fresh air and face the lack of oxygen, which will be dangerous.
“Forget it. Right now, the most important thing is to look for the Red Radiance Jade mine. We can’t let those bastards from Universe Corporation beat us to the draw. When we come back, we can get rid of the fungi and the undead. At that time, I will personally cut that undead into pieces to comfort those who passed away.
“Everyone, the dead are gone. We have to carry their dying will and persist onward! The appearance of the undead means that there were once Blood Flowers here. This means that we’re very close to the Red Radiance Jade mine!”
Lu Siya was about to motivate the people to move forward when Lin Chuan suddenly grunted and sat down on the ground.
It was only then that Meng Chao noticed that Lin Chuan’s right arm was drenched in blood, and his face was pale as a sheet.
Meng Chao quickly used a dissection blade to cut through his sleeve, and he saw that his arm was covered in fine wounds. His flesh was flipped out like a baby’s mouth.
“I’ve been hunting for so long, and in the end, I was attacked by one of those I hunt, and a small one at that.” Lin Chuan smiled in embarrassment. “The interference to vitality magnetic fields here is too strong. I was careless and got injured by an undead Nightmarish Beast with its spider threads. How embarrassing!”
Meng Chao knew that Lin Chuan had only decided to fight against the Demonic Stone Statue Spider to save him, since his vitality magnetic field was heavily affected.
He quickly disinfected Lin Chuan’s wound, applied medicine on it, and sprayed medical gel on him.
“We need to rest!” Meng Chao looked up and stared at Lu Siya. “We can’t continue like this. If we run into another attack like this, we will all end up dead!” he said stiffly.
He had been the first to give the warning just now and pointed out the strange properties of the liquid from the Stone Statue Fungus. He had also told them about the fact that the Ten Thousand Flying Blade Spiders were afraid of fire, which was why he had the trust and favor of most people in the team.
At that moment, they instinctively stood on his side.
Lu Siya narrowed her eyes and thought about it for a moment before she nodded and said, “But of course. I told you that we will search for a place to rest for eight… no, six hours once we get past this strange fungi settlement. Let’s recuperate and seek to locate the Red Radiance Jade mine after!”
They found a rather large and dry space far away from the Stone Statue Fungi settlement.
The exhausted and wounded mine explorers could finally stop and catch their breath.
The temperature deep underground was very low. It was not suitable for the wounded to recover.
Fortunately, everyone had a tent in their bags, and it was covered in insulation coating. After they lit up a small stove inside with heat provided by a fire-type crystal, the temperature became as warm as in spring.
After dressing their wounds and taking in gene medicine as well as high-calorie nutritional fluid, quite a number of people sat down in meditative positions to enter deep meditation. They wanted to recover as much strength and spirit energy as they could.
Meng Chao also found a corner and spent thousands of contribution points to perform full-body health care.
Moments later, Lu Siya summoned him into her tent, and she even zipped up the entrance.
She had a tent used to survive underground. The space inside was not big, and two people felt a little cramped.
The bodyguard was gone.
Lu Siya was alone. She removed her bloody military pants, which were covered in sticky liquid and used a secret medicine to massage the muscles on the calf to ease the fatigue from traveling for so long.
Her legs were covered in black and blue spots. They were bruises she suffered on the way.
They made the skin around them look like crystal white jade. It was so beautiful that it could cause hearts to race.
If Meng Chao were a normal eighteen-year-old boy full of passion, he might have been enraptured by her.
But he had the whole city’s hopes on his shoulders, and he was a man who had miraculously returned from the apocalypse. He had gone through all sorts of trials and tribulations, so it did not work on him.
He snorted coldly in his heart and fixed his gaze sternly on Lu Siya’s thighs. He wanted to see what she wanted to do to him.
Lu Siya picked yellow ointment with her fingertip and wiped it on her calves. She slowly smeared it all over her muscles while saying faintly, “Do you know what part of you I admire the most?
“Your performance during the national college examination’s practical examination and the admission test of Agricultural University’s martial arts course were indeed exciting, and Lin Chuan praises you highly. The Ultimate Style you’re currently dabbling in is also very interesting, but what I admire the most about you is your performance during your mental strength test.
“Back then, you hadn’t awakened to supernatural powers, but in the virtual battlefield, even when you faced all sorts of terrifying monsters and your pain feedback was more than 120%, your mental strength index remained at 100%. It shows that you have extraordinary willpower, which is something you can’t train no matter how much you practice.
“And just as I expected, just now, it was all thanks to you not panicking in the face of danger and reacting quickly that I was saved.”
Meng Chao thought about it and said, “Since we’re all teammates, no matter who is in danger, as long as I have the power to do so, I will save them.”
Lu Siya smiled. “I don’t care about anyone else, but my life is very valuable. You saved me, so I will do something to thank you.”
As she spoke, she brought out an exquisite, dark red leather pouch from behind her and handed it to him.
It had a short saber that was slightly longer than a dagger.
Meng Chao had not even drawn the saber yet, but the moment he touched its hilt, he felt a numbing electrical current flow through his entire body. It was as if every drop of his blood was dancing in his blood vessels.
Whoosh!
He drew the short saber, and the small tent filled with a blood-red light. It looked as if the two of them were in a red ocean.
“This is a good saber!”
Meng Chao’s pupils shrank. He saw the dense runic symbols covering the saber, and he praised it from the bottom of his heart.
Even if he was not a weapons craftsman, he could tell that the short saber was much stronger than the Surging Lightning Flagship Model. It was a truly good weapon.
“I heard that Lin Chuan gave you a pair of chains as a gift and taught you the ways to dual wield them. You used those chain sabers to save my life just now.”
Lu Siya watched Meng Chao’s expression with satisfaction and said with a grin, “Unfortunately, the sabers you use are nothing much. The one in your right hand is only of average quality and ist just somewhat usable. As for the one in your left hand, it’s just scrap metal. It’ll break the moment something touches it.
“Coincidentally, I have here with me a short saber I have been carrying with me for years. I seldom have the chance to use it, but I can now gift it to a hero.
“This saber is known as Bloody Flame. It was created from the fangs of a Grade Six Hell Beast known as Bloody Fire Tiger. They are hard to come by, but what makes this even rarer are the runic symbols carved onto the blade. This is the third-to-last item engraved by runic symbol master Shi Xunmo before he stopped writing runic symbols.
“Everyone knows that Master Shi has to use his brain’s capacity when he comes in contact with runic symbols all year long. His brain filled up with too much information after a while, and it can no longer bear the burden of writing runic symbols.
“The last item he inscribed was Celestial Death, a broadsword. It was sold in an auction in the Supernatural Tower for the exorbitant price of 990,000 Supernatural Coins.
“Bloody Flame might not be like Celestial Death and not have all of Master Shi’s blood, sweat, and tears poured into it, but it’s still an exceptional weapon. Once it enters the enemy’s flesh, it can break their vitality magnetic field and absorb it as well as send it in endless streams into the user’s body.
“I can sense that it will be even more suitable to be bound to your chain compared to the shattered saber you were using earlier!”
Meng Chao swung Bloody Flame gently and sensed the layers of red ripples surging like waves. It contained a destructive power that did not fit to its size.
His Surging Lightnings were heavy cold weapons. After he processed them and turned them into chain sabers, while he could still control the saber in his right hand, he could not quite use the one in his left hand as agilely as he wanted.
He could use the Surging Lightning Flagship Model with his right hand to execute Demon Subduing Slash or other such ultimate moves that were powerful and fierce.
Meanwhile, if he attached the chain to Bloody Flame, he could use attack trajectories that were agile, strange, and unfathomable, and the blade could even suck blood from his enemies.
This would definitely have the one plus one is more than two effect!