459: Chapter 456 The Final Counterattack

Meanwhile, at the entrance of the water treatment plant.

Lu Jianchuan stood on the open ground soaked in blood and severed limbs, his silver-white armor covered in dust and unknown bodily fluids.

He panted slightly, his gaze sweeping over the corpses strewn about—things that had once been Evolved Animals.

A wild boar the size of a truck had its head pierced by a single punch and was driven entirely into the soil, with only its two hind legs sticking out. It had originally been covered in a thick, rock-like shell, but now those plates lay shattered across the ground.

Not far away, the corpses of several wolf-like evolved forms were piled together. Their bodies looked as if they had been crushed by immense force; bones were shattered, and flesh was blurred, making them almost unrecognizable. Deep claw marks and impact craters remained on the ground.

An eagle-like evolved form was embedded in the wall. Its wingspan should have been five or six meters, but now its wings were broken, and its entire body was sunken into the concrete wall, surrounded by a ring of radial cracks. Its eyes were still open, but they had lost focus.

Several more bizarre creatures lay on the ground—some were covered in scales with a metallic luster, which were now peeling off piece by piece;

Some had exceptionally long limbs, like some kind of mutated primate, but their heads were missing;

There was also one that looked like a Body Integration of a pangolin and a crocodile; its entire body had been smashed into the earth, leaving only a section of its tail exposed.

Ye Ouyang stood a few paces behind Lu Jianchuan, his golden armor reflecting the warm afternoon sunlight. Looking at the mess everywhere, he couldn't help but swallow hard.

"S-Such terrifying stats..." he muttered under his breath. "As expected of the first generation Senior."

Ye Ouyang stood amidst the carnage, staring at the Evolved Animals that had been beaten out of shape, unable to snap out of it for a long time.

Lu Jianchuan turned his head slightly and glanced back.

"Move inside."

Ye Ouyang nodded and followed quickly. The two of them stepped through the gates of the water treatment plant, one after the other.

The plant area was very quiet, with only the sound of flowing water and the occasional mechanical hum. The massive sedimentation and filtration tanks were lined up, the water surface as calm as a mirror. They walked all the way in without encountering any resistance—at least on the surface.

Lu Jianchuan stopped, his gaze falling on one of the sedimentation tanks.

Bubbles were constantly rising to the surface in strings. A purple light faintly emanated from the bottom of the tank; as the bubbles surged, the light flickered like a living thing breathing.

He walked to the edge of the pool and squatted down to take a look. The object was submerged at the bottom, resembling a small device, its surface covered in patterns he didn't recognize.

Without hesitation, he jumped straight into the water.

A few seconds later, he surfaced, clutching the purple-glowing object. He squeezed hard—the thing shattered into a pile of scrap in his palm, and he tossed it aside.

"This should be what was affecting the water source."

As soon as he finished speaking, the water surface suddenly exploded.

A massive figure soared from the bottom of the pool, half its body submerged as it lunged at Lu Jianchuan in a U-shape, jaws agape. The creature was grayish-white all over with no eyes, only rings of inward-growing fangs—like some giant worm, or the sandworms found in deserts.

Lu Jianchuan flashed to the side, and the creature missed its bite. Half its body slammed onto the ground, making the earth tremble.

He grabbed the creature's slimy skin with his backhand, digging his fingers in deep. Electricity surged from his palm, and blue-white arcs instantly spread across the creature's entire body.

Zzzzt, zzzzt—

The creature convulsed violently, its body stiffening straight before sliding back into the water limp and motionless. A burnt smell wafted from the surface.

Lu Jianchuan let go and shook the mucus off his hand.

He looked up toward the city center in the distance.

"The main body isn't here," he said softly. "Where could it be? The city center?"

He paused.

"Since the water source is handled, I might as well head to the city center to take a look."

Lu Jianchuan deactivated his transformation, took the Nutrient Solution Ye Ouyang handed him, and tilted his head back to gulp it down. The cold liquid slid down his throat and was rapidly absorbed by his parched body. He nodded to Ye Ouyang, and golden claws pierced his arm—a micro-injection. Those warm golden cells flooded his body, beginning to accelerate his recovery.

Seconds later, Lu Jianchuan stood up again, crossed his wristbands, and the silver-white armor covered his body once more.

"Let's go."

Ye Ouyang nodded.

"Moving out."

The two left the water treatment plant and headed straight for the city center.

The closer they got to the city center, the more figures appeared on the streets. Those controlled people wandered aimlessly with stiff strides and hollow eyes. Before the duo even got close, those people turned their heads in unison—all eyes staring at them simultaneously.

Then the crowd moved.

They weren't walking; they were running. Like beasts, they used all four limbs to pounce toward them.

Lu Jianchuan and Ye Ouyang didn't hesitate; they turned and ran. They couldn't possibly attack these innocent people.

Ye Ouyang dodged a man lunging at him, tapped his foot, and used the momentum to leap onto a nearby railing. Two more people pounced from the side; he twisted his body in mid-air, dug his claws into the wall, and climbed onto a second-floor windowsill in a few motions.

Lu Jianchuan was even more direct. He grabbed a nearby drainpipe, kicked off the ground, and flipped onto a second-floor balcony. The crowd below surged like a tide, and some began to climb the walls.

"Go!"

The two leaped between rooftops as the crowd behind them pursued relentlessly. Some surged up from stairwells, while others climbed directly from below; dense silhouettes covered the entire block.

Ye Ouyang glanced back, his scalp tingling.

"How do they know where we're going?"

"As long as one sees us, it's the same as the whole collective seeing us," Lu Jianchuan's voice came from inside his helmet. "Just keep heading for the city center; the main body is definitely there."

A controlled person pounced from a nearby rooftop. Lu Jianchuan dodged, grabbed the person's collar, and used the rotational force to hang them onto a nearby lamp post. The person struggled while hanging there, unable to get down for the moment.

"We can't hurt people, so this is the only way."

Ye Ouyang nodded, dug his claws into the wall, and flipped onto a higher roof.

The further they went, the more people there were. Controlled people poured out from every street and every building, forming moving walls of humans. Lu Jianchuan and Ye Ouyang leaped, climbed, and dodged between rooftops like two ants struggling in a flood.

Lu Jianchuan's gaze passed over the dense human tide and landed on the tallest building in the city center far away.

He was certain.

The main body was right there.

But the problem was, how could they cross this sea of people and reach that place without harming anyone?

Regardless, moving forward was the only option.

The two continued to jump between rooftops. The figures below grew more numerous, dense like a tide. They couldn't hurt them, so they could only dodge and bypass; every step had to be precisely calculated, and every second they were being tracked by countless pairs of hollow eyes.

Finally, they reached the city center.

What should have been a plaza was now occupied by a massive, unfinished building. Scaffolding was everywhere, rebar was exposed, and the concrete hadn't fully dried. Countless workers climbed, carried, and poured like ants, their movements perfectly synchronized, tireless and unceasing. No slacking, no laziness—only never-ending mechanical labor.

The speed of the construction was staggering; it seemed to become more complete with every glance.

In the center of the building, a thick fleshy tentacle extended from deep within the foundation, wrapping around the completed structure like some eerie weight-bearing pillar. At the tip of the tentacle, a giant eye was open, its pupil rotating as it scanned everything around it.

That eye stopped.

It looked in the direction where Lu Jianchuan and Ye Ouyang were.

A second later, all the workers stopped their movements simultaneously.

They turned their heads, and thousands of pairs of hollow eyes looked toward the two people on the rooftop at the same time.

Lu Jianchuan stood on the edge of the roof, his silver-white armor reflecting the cold light of the sun.

He saw it. That tentacle, that eye, and the countless masses of flesh surging deep within the building—those were all vessels carrying the consciousness; it was the main body of the collective.

It was right here.