72: "Living" walls in caves

Zizizi—

The image on the central control screen flickered twice, covered by an eerie purple shadow.

Su Chen floored the accelerator, and the modified V12 engine let out a beastly roar, yet the steel beast remained motionless.

Instead, a tooth-aching grinding sound came from the chassis; it didn't feel like being stuck in a mud pit, but rather like being held down by countless invisible hands grabbing the vehicle's ankles.

Through the panoramic window, those purple mycelia that were originally just probing the surface of the crystal shell were now growing frantically as if they were on steroids.

They were no longer slender threads, but quickly tangled and knotted into translucent tentacles the thickness of a wrist, spreading wildly along the gaps in the vehicle's armor.

In just over ten seconds, the entire lower half of the vehicle was wrapped up like a zongzi in this disgusting purple mesh; the six massive off-road tires, in particular, were bound so tightly that deep marks from the mycelia could be seen biting into the rubber treads.

"Damn it, it's Rockwall Marrow-Sucking Fungus!"

Joey had squeezed next to the driver's seat at some point. She stared at the wriggling purple tentacles on the screen, her expression worse than if she had swallowed a fly. "These things are extremely sensitive to heat sources. A living person's body temperature and the engine's residual heat are like searchlights in the dark to them. Once they latch on, they secrete acid to melt through metal until they suck out the bone marrow of every living thing inside."

Su Chen frowned slightly as he watched the tentacles trying to bore into the exhaust pipe.

He had just spent a fortune upgrading the "Palace," and before the seat was even warm, it was going to turn into the Cave of the Silken Web?

"Any weaknesses?" Without looking back, he tapped quickly on the touchpad, searching for vulnerabilities in the vehicle's defense system.

"They're afraid of the cold! Extremely afraid!" Joey spoke rapidly, like a machine gun. "As soon as the temperature drops to minus thirty degrees, their active cells will instantly die. If we had liquid nitrogen or industrial refrigerant..."

"President Ye." Su Chen directly interrupted Joey's lecture.

Ye Hongyu immediately understood and pulled up the logistics inventory.

Her slender fingers swiped across the virtual screen, but her brow furrowed. "We don't have any freezing weapons. Our stock is full of incendiary bombs, thermite, and two high-pressure flamethrowers captured from Thunder Owl."

"Attack with fire?" Lin Mengyao walked over, holding her blade. "Since they're plants, they should be afraid of fire, right?"

"No."

Su Chen rejected the idea without a second thought. "Although this crystal dome has strong defense, its molecular structure isn't completely stable yet. Using flamethrowers now would be like destroying over ten thousand points' worth of renovations. I don't want to have to use an umbrella inside the bus when it rains in the future."

He glanced at the increasingly rampant mycelia outside the window; he could even hear the "screeching" sound of them rubbing against the glass, like fingernails on a blackboard, making his scalp tingle.

Since physical cooling wouldn't work, he would try a magic attack.

Su Chen's finger hovered over the air conditioning system's control interface.

"Qin Ya, close all the vents and turn on internal circulation mode."

"O-Okay." Although Qin Ya didn't understand why, her execution was flawless.

A cold smile curled at the corner of Su Chen's mouth.

So you're afraid of heat sources?

And you like sucking Yang Energy?

Then I'll let you have your fill.

He took a deep breath, and the blazing sun in his Dantian, which had just calmed down, became restless once more.

This time, he didn't release his True Qi outward; instead, he poured it directly into the bus's AC circulation pipes through his palms.

"Warning: Abnormal temperature rise detected in the AC lines, attempting to dissipate heat..."

Before the onboard computer's mechanical voice could finish, Su Chen forcibly muted it.

The golden Blazing Sun True Qi followed the complex ventilation ducts like roaring fire dragons, instantly surging toward the radiator grilles and exhaust ports around the vehicle.

This was no ordinary fire, but Pure Yang True Qi containing the utmost Yang and unyielding power. To this filth that grew year-round in dark caves, it was no different from toxic sulfuric acid.

Sississis—!

A shrill sound, as if countless rats were screaming at once, pierced through the soundproof glass and into everyone's ears.

The purple mycelia outside, which had been vibrant and clawing moments ago, seemed to have their souls sucked out the instant they came into contact with the golden heat wave erupting from the vents.

The translucent walls of the fungus instantly shriveled and blackened, followed by violent convulsions.

The tentacles that had been tightly gripping the tires loosened weakly, and a large amount of black viscous liquid burst out from within the mycelia, sliding down the vehicle and pooling on the ground into a foul-smelling black puddle.

"Now!"

A golden light flashed in Su Chen's eyes as he ordered through the onboard broadcast, "Lin Mengyao, take two people out to clean the residue off the wheel hubs. You only have three minutes; my True Qi scalded them into a stupor, but they aren't completely dead."

By then, Lin Mengyao had already put on the full-body protective suit scavenged from the Biochemical Lab. Hearing the command, she pulled open the Airlock door without a word.

Following her were two girls who were sports majors. The three of them were like special forces charging onto a battlefield, wielding entrenching shovels and high-pressure water guns to unleash a frantic assault on the twitching black residue.

Su Chen sat in the driver's seat, staring fixedly at the movement outside through the monitors.

This work looked disgusting, but as long as they moved fast, there wasn't much danger.

The shriveled mycelia were as brittle as fried potato chips; a single scoop of the shovel could clear a large patch.

"Su Chen! Look at this!"

Lin Mengyao's voice suddenly came through the communication channel.

In the monitor, Lin Mengyao was squatting at the left rear wheel, her shovel picking a fist-sized object out of the pile of black sludge.

It was an irregular Green Crystal. Even through the screen and the filth on the ground, an eerie luster could be seen flowing across its surface.

Su Chen's pupils constricted slightly.

This thing actually has a core?

"Don't touch it with your hands. Put it in an isolation bag and bring it back."

The moment Lin Mengyao stuffed the Green Crystal into the bag, Su Chen keenly felt the ground beneath them... or rather, the entire floor of the Karst Cave, tremble very slightly.

It felt like a sleeping giant had been bitten by a mosquito, causing the muscles to twitch instinctively.

"Everyone, back to the vehicle! Now!"

Su Chen's sharp shout exploded in the communication channel.

Although Lin Mengyao and the others didn't know what had happened, out of obedience to Su Chen's absolute authority, they practically scrambled back into the Airlock.

As the sound of the door locking heavily rang out, Su Chen instantly withdrew the True Qi he had poured into the AC system.

Without the suppression of the extreme Yang Energy, the ambient temperature plummeted.

Gulp—

A loud, muffled strange noise suddenly echoed deep in the vast Karst Cave.

The sound didn't resemble rocks cracking; it was more like the sound of a giant creature's esophagus squeezing liquid as it swallowed saliva.

"What's happening? An earthquake?" Ye Hongyu held onto the back of her chair, her face pale.

Su Chen didn't speak; he stared fixedly at the rock walls outside the panoramic window.

With the help of the bright headlights, he saw a hair-raising scene.

The cave walls, which he had thought were hard rock, were actually starting to heave and wriggle slowly.

The texture of the rock surface cracked, oozing a large amount of transparent mucus, and the wide space of the cave began shrinking and squeezing toward the center at a visible rate.

That was no Karst Cave at all.

It was clearly a giant esophagus covered in folds and digestive glands!