206: Chapter 206 The Black Tide Erupted

That inconspicuous little grey mushroom grew quietly and humbly in the shadows of the entrance passage.

Compared to the surrounding bizarre, claw-baring giant fungi that seemed to come from an abyssal nightmare, it was tiny, ordinary, and even somewhat ugly.

The cap was covered in a thin layer of dust, as if forgotten by the entire noisy and eerie world.

Any normal person, after experiencing such a thrilling battle, would never let their gaze linger on it for more than half a second.

It was like an inconspicuous background prop in a grand opera, destined to be ignored by the protagonist's halo.

But at this moment, in Song Yiqing's eyes, it was more dazzling and more lethal than that "gate of death" composed of countless spores and light-shadows, which emitted an alluring aura!

Under the vision of Wuhou Qimen, the true face of the entire cave was revealed in minute detail.

That seemingly gorgeous "Gate of Life" had energy flows that were mixed and chaotic.

It was like a magnificent stage hastily built with inferior materials; glamorous on the outside, but filled with unstable energy traps leading to destruction on the inside.

This little grey mushroom, however, presented an entirely different scene.

All the flowing rhythms of the entire cave, all the violent, ghostly blue energy lines—whether from the vitality of those giant fungi...

...or from every frantic regeneration of the mycelium, eventually converged into this inconspicuous little mushroom in an extremely secretive and efficient manner, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea!

It was like a miniature black hole hidden beneath the deep sea, greedily devouring everything around it, using all the energy to construct itself...

...while simultaneously releasing a small portion of energy to form that indestructible, space-distorting energy barrier.

"All the energy points to it; it's absorbing the power of the entire formation to disguise itself..."

Song Yiqing murmured to himself, his voice carrying a hint of unprecedented solemnity.

His brain was like an overclocked supercomputer, with countless hexagram runes frantically deducing and colliding in his sea of consciousness, attempting to analyze this never-before-seen formation core.

"No... it's not disguising..."

His pupils shrank suddenly, as if he had seen a deeper, hair-raising truth.

"It is... hatching!"

In his ultimate vision, he clearly saw that beneath that grey mushroom cap...

...tiny cracks, unnoticeable to the naked eye or even a microscope, were slowly spreading like a spiderweb.

Every vibration of the cave, every attack from the mycelium...

...even the faint air currents stirred by their every breath, was providing the final energy for its hatching!

From the beginning, this formation was not meant simply to trap them to death.

It was a massive, living incubator!

And they, the group of intruders, along with the ammunition they consumed, the Qi they released, and even every drop of sweat they shed...

...were the most efficient catalysts for this incubator!

"This formation isn't to trap us to death, but to stall for time, using us as... nourishment to hatch it!"

"It's on a countdown!"

Song Yiqing's voice suddenly rose, the urgency in his tone like a red-hot steel needle, stabbing fiercely into everyone's nerves!

"Once it fully hatches, this Bewildering Array will instantly collapse, but what replaces it will be something a hundred times more terrifying than this!"

"We have no more time!"

His words were like an invisible heavy hammer, smashing hard against everyone's hearts.

The color that had just surfaced on Lin Tianyi and Lord Pang's faces because they saw the "Gate of Life"...

...vanished instantly, leaving them as pale as dead men.

They finally understood.

This was no longer a thrilling level-clearing game.

It was a race against an unknown Grim Reaper! Every extra second they stayed, every extra shot they fired, was adding a shovel of dirt for their own gravedigger!

The price of losing was becoming the "birth feast" for some unknown horrific creature!

"Forget about that fake gate!"

Song Yiqing suddenly pointed to that dark corner everyone had ignored, shouting sternly with all his might!

"Everyone! Focus fire on that corner! At all costs, destroy it before it hatches!"

"Let's do it!"

Lord Pang's eyes were bloodshot; the instinct for survival overwhelmed all fear, and he was the first to respond!

He no longer had any thought of saving ammunition. He crudely flipped his rifle to full auto, braced the stock firmly against his shoulder, and fired frantically in that direction. The muzzle spat out long, vengeful tongues of fire, and hot shell casings clattered to the ground beside him like raindrops.

"Die for Lord Pang! Die!!"

In an instant, he emptied an entire magazine, then swapped in a new one with almost barbaric speed, continuing to roar as he fired.

Lin Tianyi also didn't hesitate. He pulled out the last two high-explosive grenades from his tactical pouch...

...bit off the safety rings of the fuses with his teeth, his arm muscles bulging, and threw them with all his strength in an extremely tricky parabolic arc!

He hoped the grenades would explode in mid-air as close to the target as possible, aiming to use the shockwave to bypass any potential obstacles.

Wang Shan was even more silent, her actions faster than words.

She pulled out her last three spare flying knives from her lower back. With a flick of her wrist, three cold gleams formed a triangular pattern, spinning toward that inconspicuous corner with sharp whistling sounds!

However, the scene that followed caused everyone's hearts to sink into a cold abyss.

The moment the bullets, grenades, and flying knives approached within three meters of that grey mushroom, the space ahead seemed to turn into an invisible, absolutely smooth, and indestructible glass wall!

Bang, bang, bang!

The moment the high-speed spinning rifle bullets touched that area, it was as if they hit something harder than diamond. They instantly deformed and ricocheted, striking sparks of despair against the surrounding rock walls!

Boom! Boom!

The two high-explosive grenades detonated in mid-air, and the violent shockwaves and steel fragments swept outward...

...but upon touching that invisible barrier, it was like a clay ox entering the sea. The fire and energy of the explosions were completely absorbed and devoured by a weird...

...energy field that rippled like water. Not even a faint breeze reached that mushroom!

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Wang Shan's flying knives, imbued with all her strength, only produced three crisp clangs against the invisible barrier before tumbling powerlessly to the ground.

"It's useless... there's an energy barrier!"

Lin Tianyi watched this scene, his voice filled with unbelievable despair.

"Keep attacking! Don't stop!"

Song Yiqing's eyes were terrifyingly calm! His face grew paler due to the intense consumption of Qi, but his eyes were startlingly bright.

"Every attack is consuming its energy! Its defense isn't infinite!"

His gaze finally landed on the two strongest combatants in the team.

"Zhang Qilin! Wang Xianzhi! You two are the keys to breaking this!"

He stared fixedly at the constantly rippling energy field, the hexagram runes in his eyes flowing rapidly.

"Your power is the only thing that might penetrate the barrier! Listen to my commands.

The energy flow of the barrier isn't equal; it has nodes and tides! I want you to attack the positions I designate—those are the weakest nodes during the barrier's moment of energy conversion!"

...

[Inside the Livestream]

The entire livestream room was completely enveloped by this suffocatingly tense atmosphere.

The number of bullet chats had decreased significantly. The joking comments had long since disappeared.

In their place were waves of uniform "Go for it!" messages spontaneously started by countless viewers!

[God Song, go for it!!!]

[You must hold on! Crush that damn mushroom for me!]

[I'm about to have a heart attack watching this! My palms are covered in sweat! This is too intense! Please don't let anything happen!]

[Kirin Bro! Miss Wang! It all depends on you! Please!]

[I've never been this nervous! I feel like I'm more on-site than they are! I don't even dare to breathe loudly! Please! You must succeed!]

[Please! You must break the situation! For all of humanity!]

...

Dawn Squad.

"He's using the clumsiest, and also the only effective method in this situation—brute-forcing the formation."

Wei Fengzhao stared fixedly at the screen, his fists clenched so hard they turned white, his knuckles losing color from the excessive force.

"Using high-frequency, relatively weak attacks to continuously drain the defensive energy of the formation's core, forcing its energy flow to become disordered and thus exposing a flaw.

Then, the top experts in the team seize that fleeting opportunity to deliver a fatal blow."

His voice carried a hint of praise for Song Yiqing's on-the-spot commanding ability, but more so, it was thick with solemnity.

"A textbook tactic, with terrifyingly calm judgment. But... time... time is their greatest enemy. If they can't succeed before that thing hatches... the consequences will be unthinkable. We must be faster!"

...

On the livestream screen.

The battle had entered a white-hot stage!

Lord Pang and Lin Tianyi were almost mechanically swapping magazines, frantically pouring out firepower. Their attacks were no longer for killing, but to "tickle" that invisible barrier, continuously draining its energy.

Veins bulged on Song Yiqing's forehead, and a streak of blood slowly flowed from his nostril.

But he was completely unaware, simply wiping it away with the back of his hand.

In his eyes, the speed at which the hexagram runes flowed was so fast it had formed an afterimage indistinguishable to the naked eye!

He had to find that unique, fleeting flaw in the ever-changing energy flow...

...amidst the waterfall-like flood of data!

Under the cost-ignoring fire suppression from Lord Pang and Lin Tianyi, that energy barrier...

...was rippling more and more rapidly, and its color changed from completely transparent to a slight, grayish-pale tint.

It was nearing its limit!

And the cracks beneath the cap of that grey mushroom were also spreading faster and faster!

"Now!"

Song Yiqing suddenly roared, his voice sounding somewhat raspy from using all his strength!

"Zhang Qilin! Three inches down to the left! That's the Kan Water position!"

"Wang Xianzhi! One foot directly above! That's the Li Fire position!"

"Water and fire clash! Break it!"

No extra communication was needed, not even a shred of confirmation.

The moment Song Yiqing's words fell!

A finger shadow as black as ink!

A sword light as cold as frost!

Zhang Qilin's figure was extremely fast, as if shrinking the earth into inches, instantly crossing a distance of over ten meters.

His intact right hand, with the index and middle fingers pressed together, had a visible layer of Qi energy at the tips, as solid as black jade.

With an unstoppable decisiveness, he stabbed toward the "Kan Water position" Song Yiqing had pointed out!

At the same time, the longsword in Wang Xianzhi's hand let out a clear dragon-like hum.

She and her sword seemed to merge into one, turning into a flash of light that tore through the darkness. At the tip of the sword, peerless sharp sword intent condensed into a point of cold light...

...piercing with incomparable precision toward the "Li Fire position"!

One high and one low, one left and one right!

One extreme Yin, one extreme Yang!

The attacks of the two seemed to have been rehearsed thousands of times, moving at a speed that transcended the limits of time and space—

At that exact moment, they struck that invisible energy barrier with unerring precision!

Crack—!

A crisp sound, like a frozen lake being smashed open by a giant hammer, echoed clearly throughout the entire cave!

Under the pincer attack of two forces with completely opposite attributes yet equally condensed to the extreme, that indestructible energy barrier could no longer maintain its stability!

Centering on the two points of attack, countless spiderweb-like cracks spread frantically.

Then, with a sharp wail, it shattered violently!

It turned into firefly-like spots of light dancing in the sky, then quickly vanished into the air.

"It worked!"

Seeing this, Lin Tianyi almost wept with joy and shouted in ecstasy!

Almost at the same time the barrier shattered, Zhang Qilin's figure didn't pause for a second.

Like a black arrow leaving the bow, he passed through the broken energy light spots, pressed his two fingers together, and stabbed fiercely at the body of that gray mushroom!

He wanted to end this eerie formation with a single blow!

Puchi!

A dull sound, like a sharp blade piercing leather, rang out.

That seemingly fragile cap was tougher than imagined; Zhang Qilin's Fa Qiu Finger, infused with his full strength, only managed to pierce half an inch!

And at that very moment!

A sudden change occurred!

The gray mushroom's cap could no longer maintain its disguise and suddenly exploded!

What emerged from within was not some hideous tentacle or a monster's mouthparts, but a hand!

A withered, pale, wrinkled hand, about the size of a premature stillborn baby's!

With a completely illogical speed, it lunged out like lightning and grabbed Zhang Qilin's finger before he could pull it back!

"Not good!"

Song Yiqing's expression changed drastically, a strong sense of foreboding surging in his heart!

But it was already too late.

The moment that tiny baby hand grabbed Zhang Qilin, it was as if a final switch had been flipped.

In the entire cave, all remaining fungal plants, regardless of size, seemed to have all their vitality drained in an instant.

Their flickering eerie blue light extinguished in a moment, and the giant caps and stalks withered and rotted as quickly as dehydrated vegetables.

Within a mere two seconds, they turned into puddles of blue liquid emitting a strong, fishy stench, flowing all over the ground.

At this moment, the entire Ecological Soul-Bewildering Formation collapsed in an extremely bizarre and thorough manner!

The scene before everyone's eyes spun violently, as if the whole world had been thrown into a tumble dryer.

When that nauseating dizziness gradually receded and their vision cleared again, they were still standing in that huge underground karst cave.

However, those bizarre, alien jungle-like glowing fungi surrounding them had all disappeared.

In their place was an endless darkness and dead silence that seemed capable of swallowing all light.

"We succeeded... we... we survived?"

Fatty slumped onto the ground, the immense joy of surviving a disaster leaving him completely drained; he panted heavily like a fish out of water.

Lin Tianyi and Wang Shan were also relieved; once their tensed nerves relaxed, they felt soaked in cold sweat, finding it difficult to even lift a finger.

"Something's wrong..."

Wang Xianzhi's cold voice broke the brief peace.

She wasn't looking around; instead, she was staring fixedly at Zhang Qilin. For the first time, an incredibly solemn expression appeared on that eternally frozen, ice-mountain face of hers.

"Look at his hand!"

Hearing this, everyone's hearts tightened, and they looked over abruptly.

They saw Zhang Qilin still maintaining his attacking posture,

And where his right index and middle fingers were grabbed by that pale baby hand,

The skin was becoming shriveled and ashen at a speed visible to the naked eye!

It was as if an invisible pump was frantically sucking away all the blood, moisture, and even the vitality from his fingers!

In the blink of an eye, his two fingers had become like a century-old dried corpse, skin tightly wrapped around the bone, showing a morbid grayish-black color.

And that tiny baby hand, after gorging itself on vitality, showed a faint flush on its skin. It suddenly let go and, like a startled snake, retracted lightning-fast into a crack in the rock wall and disappeared.

Zhang Qilin slowly withdrew his hand and glanced at his two fingers that had become like withered branches and lost all sensation; he didn't even frown,

As if it weren't his own hand. He just silently pulled his hand back and regripped the black gold ancient blade on his back.

It was also at this time.

Sha... sha sha... sha sha sha...

A faint yet incredibly clear and scalp-numbing crawling sound,

Came like a tide from all directions, from the bottomless darkness deep at the top of the cave.

The sound was dense and chaotic, as if tens of thousands of tiny claws,

Were scratching against the rough rock walls. Just hearing it made one feel like countless ants were crawling inside their bones.

"What... what is that sound?"

The smile on Fatty's face froze instantly. Like a startled rabbit,

He leaped up from the ground and fearfully raised his tactical flashlight, shining it toward the source of the sound.

The bright beam of light, like a sharp sword, pierced the thick darkness.

Where the light reached.

On the dark rock walls, pairs and rows of densely packed eyes emitting an eerie crimson glow suddenly lit up!

They emerged from the darkness like countless blood-colored stars instantly lit in the night sky—tens of thousands, boundless!

Then, spiders with bodies comparable in size to an adult human's head, pitch-black all over, and eight long legs covered in black bristles,

Poured out frantically from every corner and every crack of the cave like a bursting black tide!

They covered the ground, making a tooth-aching "sha sha" sound.

They crawled all over the walls, forming a constantly writhing black curtain.

They even hung down from the dome dozens of meters high, spitting out tough spider silk,

Forming a writhing "ceiling" composed of countless spiders!

Within a few seconds, the entire cave turned into a veritable, three-dimensional Pansi Cave that would make anyone's mind collapse at a single glance!

...

[Inside the Livestream]

[Holy sh*t!!!!!!!!!!]

[What the hell?! I f*cking thought they cleared it! Didn't the formation break?! Why is there more?!]

[Oh my god! Spiders! Spiders! I'm most afraid of spiders! There are f*cking too many! My trypophobia is acting up, ahhhh!]

[It's over, it's over! This is even scarier than the mushrooms just now! Out of the wolf's den and into the tiger's mouth! This forbidden zone simply doesn't give people a way to live!]

[Was that thing hatched from the gray mushroom the 'Mother Queen' of these spiders?!]

Just as the bullet screen was filled with wails, an officially verified user with the ID [Chinese Academy of Sciences - Institute of Paleontology - Dr. Chen] sent a bolded, eye-catching golden bullet screen that instantly drowned out all the wailing.

[Everyone, do not panic! But... the situation might be worse than you imagine! If I'm not mistaken, the morphological characteristics of this spider]

[Highly match the long-extinct prehistoric species—the 'Giant Middle Eastern Funnel-web Spider,' but their size has been magnified dozens of times! They are mutants!]

[The venom of the original species is one of the most potent neurotoxins in the world, capable of paralyzing the respiratory system and causing death within minutes!]

[The toxicity of this mutant will only be stronger! Moreover, they are extremely aggressive, pure predators. Once disturbed, they will launch a relentless swarm attack!]

This bullet screen was like a giant boulder, crashing the hearts of all viewers into a bottomless abyss.

...

On the livestream screen.

Facing this overwhelming tide of spiders that could make any tough guy's mind collapse, not a trace of panic could be seen on Song Yiqing's face.

He didn't even frown.

"Don't move."

He spat out two words. His voice wasn't loud, but it was like a stabilizing pillar, carrying an unquestionable, heart-settling power.

"Everyone, stay where you are, turn off all light sources, don't make any sound, and don't make any unnecessary movements."

His voice was exceptionally clear in the dead silent cave.

"These things' eyesight has severely degenerated; they primarily rely on sensing air vibrations and sound to hunt. As long as we don't move, they won't find us."

Hearing this, everyone immediately froze as if a petrification spell had been cast on them, not daring to move an inch.

Fatty and Lin Tianyi almost subconsciously turned off their tactical flashlights. The entire world instantly returned to darkness, leaving only those tens of thousands of flickering red eyes, like hellish ghost fires.

They even subconsciously slowed their breathing to the extreme, fearing that even a little airflow would bring about a fatal disaster.

Fatty's body was as stiff as a stone. He could clearly hear his heart beating like a drum. Cold sweat from his forehead slid down his cheek, eventually gathering at the tip of his chin, hanging precariously.

Drip.

A light sound.

That drop of sweat eventually fell to the ground after all.

Right behind him, on the ceiling.

A spider hanging upside down, less than half a meter from the back of his head, suddenly turned its head. Eight crimson eyes, like compound-eye gems, stared fixedly at him!

"Fat... Fatty..."

Lin Tianyi was right next to him. Aided by the faint red light from those eyes, he saw this scene.

His voice trembled with extreme fear, almost squeezed out from between his teeth.

Fatty didn't dare to look back. He could feel that cold, murderous gaze behind him, as if an ice needle was pressed against the back of his neck.

He nervously and silently swallowed a mouthful of saliva. His body began to tremble slightly uncontrollably due to fear. To stabilize himself, his feet unconsciously shifted back half a step.

Click.

An extremely faint sound of metal colliding with rock rang out.

He... he had accidentally bumped into an empty magazine that had fallen to the ground during the fierce battle earlier.

The sound was small, but in the cave so silent that even a heartbeat could be heard, it was like striking a gong in a quiet concert hall!

In an instant!

The ubiquitous "sha sha" sound stopped abruptly!

The entire cave fell into an absolute, suffocating dead silence!

Then!

Those tens of thousands of crimson eyes, as if a single switch had been pressed, turned toward their location simultaneously, like the most precise instruments!

The next second, the black tide exploded!