261: Chapter 261 Spiritual Core

The night was deep, like a massive black curtain, shrouding the entire Jiangcheng.

The zombie horde, which should have been active at this time, was unusually quiet tonight.

There were no roars, no wandering footsteps, and even those Mutated Beasts that always loved to launch sneak attacks at night seemed to have evaporated into thin air.

The entire world was left with only the rustling sound of the seven-colored snowflake falling.

This silence did not feel like peace; it felt more like the suffocation before a storm.

In the Shelter's monitoring room.

Lin Yuan sat in front of the main control console, facing dozens of high-definition screens displaying real-time footage of every corner around the Shelter.

"Isn't this too quiet?"

Ye Qingyue leaned on the back of her chair, looking at the empty streets on the screen.

She muttered softly, "Usually at this time, shouldn't those zombies be throwing a party? Why is everyone muted today?"

"When things are abnormal, there must be something sinister."

Lin Yuan took a sip of tea, his eyes deep.

"It seems Qinghan's intelligence was correct; they are brewing something big."

"Boss, look at this!"

At this moment, Xia Muqing, who had been staring at the thermal imager, suddenly exclaimed.

She pointed to one of the screens.

Her fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard, "I pulled up the thermal induction scan at a depth of ten meters underground. Look!"

Everyone immediately gathered around.

They saw that on the underground thermal imaging map, which should have been ice-blue, large patches of eerie dark red spots had appeared.

Moreover, these patches were constantly squirming and converging, looking like countless red earthworms tangled together, making one's scalp tingle.

"What is this?"

Su Yuyan asked with a frown, feeling goosebumps rising on her skin.

"It's a heat source reaction."

Xia Muqing pushed up her glasses, her tone filled with a hint of undisguised fanaticism.

"Although the surface temperature is extremely low, a special exothermic chemical reaction is occurring underground beneath the snow cover. These red dots... indicate that high-intensity biological synthesis is taking place there!"

She pulled up an enlarged simulation image: "Simply put, it's like using building blocks. Countless small biological organisms are being dismantled and then reassembled into a larger biological organism. This is practically God's operating table!"

"God?"

Lin Yuan sneered, "I think it's more like the Devil's blender."

He stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window.

The snow outside was falling harder, and the brilliant seven-colored snowflake glow appeared exceptionally bewitching in the night.

"It seems we don't have to wait until dawn."

Lin Yuan watched as large mounds suddenly bulged under the thick snow layer in the distance.

His eyes turned cold, "They can't wait to come out and die."

Three o'clock in the morning.

This was exactly when humans were at their sleepiest.

"Crack—"

A crisp sound of ice breaking sounded exceptionally jarring in the silent night sky.

Immediately after.

"Squish! Squish!"

Sounds like mud being stirred rang out one after another.

Outside the Shelter, the previously flat snowfield suddenly exploded.

Creatures with strange shapes and bodies oozing with mucus crawled out from underground.

The scene was practically a live-action version of Resident Evil, and an un-censored one at that.

Some of them had seven or eight arms.

Some had heads growing on their bellies, and others were simply twisted balls of flesh, covered in various severed limbs and fangs.

These were Fused Entities.

They were the juvenile stage of what Luo Qinghan called the "Flesh Titan."

Although they were only in their juvenile stage, their size was already terrifying enough.

The smallest were three meters tall, and the slightly larger ones were heading straight for five meters.

"Roar—"

Accompanied by a roar that didn't sound human.

These monsters, like sharks that had smelled blood, rushed madly toward the direction of the Shelter.

Their speed was not fast.

They were even a bit unsteady, but the sense of oppression was ten times stronger than a regular zombie horde.

Because they didn't fear pain at all!

"They're here!"

A fierce glint flashed in the eyes of Su Yuyan, who had been waiting on the city wall.

"Sisters, don't save money for the Boss! Give it to me hard!"

"Copy that!"

The women shouted in unison.

The next second.

"Zzz—!"

Beams of eerie blue light pierced through the night sky, like the scythe of the Grim Reaper, precisely cutting into the horde of monsters.

The plasma penetration gun, the debut begins!

There was no suspense.

The thick, keratinized skin that even heavy machine guns struggled to penetrate was as brittle as paper in front of the two-thousand-degree high-temperature plasma beam.

"Puff!"

A five-meter-class Fused Entity charging at the front didn't even have time to display its intimidation, its head was vaporized directly by a beam of light.

Immediately followed by its chest and limbs.

In less than two seconds, that massive body was riddled with holes, emitting a nauseating burnt smell as it collapsed with a crash.

However.

The next second.

Those shattered chunks of flesh actually seemed to have a life of their own, squirming and converging crazily.

"Zzz..."

In just a few seconds, that monster that had been riddled with holes actually stood back up!

And its size was a circle larger than before!

"What?!"

Su Yuyan was shocked, "Physical attacks are ineffective? Is this thing immortal?"

The other women panicked too.

If even the plasma penetration gun couldn't kill it, how were they supposed to fight this battle?

"Don't panic."

At this moment, Lin Yuan's indifferent voice sounded.

He slowly raised his hand, pointing his fingertips at the monster that had stood back up.

"If physical attacks can't kill it, then let's try Spiritual Power attacks."

Before the words had even faded.

An invisible wave burst out from within Lin Yuan, that was the terrifying Spiritual Power of 14,000 points!

"Hum—"

The air seemed to solidify at this moment.

The Fused Entity that was still roaring suddenly froze, as if a pause button had been pressed.

Immediately after.

"Bang!"

A muffled sound.

The monster's head exploded directly like a watermelon!

This time, it did not reassemble.

The massive body completely lost its vitality, sagging down like a pile of mud.

And within that burst of flesh, a grayish-white crystal slowly emerged, emitting an alluring faint glow.

Spiritual Core!

"So that's it."

Lin Yuan curled his lips into a cold smile.

"As long as you destroy the core on the spiritual level, no matter how strong the physical body is, it's just for show."

"Well done!"

Lin Yuan praised.

He didn't rush to act, but stood at a high vantage point to oversee the overall situation.

This level of combat was the perfect opportunity for training troops.

With the new weapons and intelligence advantage.

Coupled with the women's own impressive Superpowers, this disaster that should have been "Despair-level" was forcibly turned into a "tower defense game" by them.

And it was the kind with invincibility cheats enabled.

"Xia Muqing, don't just stand there."

Lin Yuan glanced at the mad scientist who was hiding behind cover and recording data frantically, "Shouldn't you be collecting some samples at a time like this?"

"Already prepared!"

Xia Muqing excitedly pointed not far away.

They saw a few tentacle samples wrapped in Spiritual Power floating in mid-air.

"Thanks to Qingyue's Spiritual Power, these samples were 'airlifted' here immediately! Boss, this is living material! Do you know what this means? This means infinite possibilities! I want to slice them! I want to..."

"Alright, alright, don't expose your perverted side."

Lin Yuan interrupted her rant, "Be careful, don't get yourself killed for a few samples."

"Don't worry, Boss, I cherish my life."

The battle lasted for a full hour.

When the first ray of dawn pierced through the clouds and shone on the devastated snowfield, the battle finally neared its end.

Outside the Shelter, the corpses of various monsters lay scattered everywhere.

The air was filled with an indescribable stench.

But everyone's face was filled with the joy of victory.

This is the power of the version!

This is the joy of a pay-to-win player!

"Clean up the battlefield!"

Lin Yuan gave the order, "Dig out all the cores that weren't shattered; those are good stuff."

The women endured the disgust and began digging through the piles of corpses.

In a short while, dozens of grayish-white crystals were brought to Lin Yuan.

These crystals were about the size of a walnut.

They felt warm and smooth like jade, and seemed to contain some kind of pure energy inside.

"Indeed, good stuff."

Lin Yuan curled his lips slightly.

This thing is practically a natural attribute pill!

He picked one up casually, his Superpower instantly cleared, and he threw it directly into his mouth.

"Crunch!"

The texture was a bit like cartilage; after biting it, it turned into a warm current that instantly flowed through his entire body.

That feeling was like just finishing a full-body spa, with every cell cheering.

[Ding! Host constitution increased!]

One gave 500 points of constitution?

Although for Lin Yuan now, it was just a drop in the bucket.

But for ordinary Ability Users, this was like taking a rocket!

"Come, time to divide the loot."

Lin Yuan waved his hand and distributed the remaining Spiritual Cores to the women.

"This thing is edible?"

Su Yuyan looked at the grayish stone in her hand with disgust.

"It won't give me diarrhea, right?"

"Don't worry, it's more nourishing than the collagen you eat."

Lin Yuan teased, "Eat it, and you can change your class from a mage to a berserker. In the future, if anyone dares to get close to you, you can teach them a lesson with one punch."

Hearing this, the women's eyes lit up instantly.

In this Apocalypse, who doesn't want to become stronger?

Especially this kind of good stuff that can compensate for weaknesses!

"Gulp!"

Everyone stopped hesitating and swallowed the Spiritual Core one after another.

The next second.

Exclamations rang out one after another.

"Oh my god! I feel my strength has increased so much!"

"Me too! It feels like my skin has hardened... not that kind of hard, but it's become more resilient!"

"This is simply a miracle drug!"

Watching the women's excitement, Lin Yuan nodded with satisfaction.

For their bodies they have Spiritual Cores, and for weapons they have the plasma penetration gun.

Now they are practically fully armed hexagon warriors!

However.

Just when everyone was immersed in joy.

Lin Yuan's Crisis Insight suddenly went haywire with warnings again.

This time the alarm was more urgent than any before!

"Roar—"

A deafening roar suddenly came from the direction of the city center, several kilometers away.

The sound was so loud that it even shattered the glass of the surrounding buildings!

Everyone's expression changed instantly.

Lin Yuan turned his head sharply toward that direction, his eyes grave.

That direction...

There was an incredibly terrifying aura awakening there.

A hundred times stronger than these small fry from just now!

Luo Qinghan's face turned pale instantly, her body trembling uncontrollably:

"It... it has awakened..."

"That big guy... that real... Titan!"