148: Chapter 148 The Mysterious Fifth Floor

The giant stone stairs extended upward.

The frost grew thicker.

Lin Ye's boots crunched against the frosted surface, making crisp sounds.

Zhao Mengmeng lagged half a step behind, her crossbow hanging across her chest, her right hand hooked firmly around the trigger guard.

The entrance to the Fourth Floor had been left far behind.

The heat waves of the lava were completely swallowed by the gray-white mist.

"Brother Lin, I have a small wish now."

"Speak."

"Please don't roast me on the Fifth Floor; the fur on my back is almost cooked."

"Then we'll switch to freezing."

"Your mouth really is blessed; I suggest you seal it when we go back."

Lin Ye didn't respond.

He used his left hand to push the freshly sharpened Fire Axe at his waist out by half an inch.

The bronze pillars on both sides of the stone stairs were intact.

The pillar bodies were covered in a large number of mycelium-like protrusions, and the surface was covered in frost.

Zhao Mengmeng swept her gaze over them: "These patterns make me dizzy."

"Don't touch them."

"Don't worry, I don't even want to touch the dust in this tower right now."

At the end of the stone stairs lay a large bronze door.

There was no handle.

The door face was carved with two vertical grooves, with cold blue light overflowing from the gaps.

Lin Ye stopped, and a pale blue light screen popped up from his Left Eye.

[Fifth Floor Entrance]

Zhao Mengmeng stared intently at the air.

"No environmental type prompt?"

"No."

"Trying to screw us over again."

Lin Ye raised his hand and pressed it against the bronze door.

The moment his palm touched the metal, the door gap silently receded to both sides.

A cold wind rolled out from the ground.

The remnant leather armor on Zhao Mengmeng's shoulders rattled violently.

There were no stone stairs behind the door.

Nor were there any walls.

A vast underground forest lay spread out over the black soil.

Giant fungal columns dozens of meters high rose from the ground, piercing straight into the black mist at the top.

The caps emitted a light source intertwined with cold blue and fluorescent green.

Thick fungal roots coiled like dragons, carving deep trenches into the ground.

In mid-air.

Dense, gray-white flocculent matter was slowly drifting down from between the caps.

It carried a faint glimmer.

Spinning silently.

Zhao Mengmeng looked up: "Snow?"

The Great Xia Live Stream bullet comments suddenly changed direction.

[The art style changed! This floor looks quite fairy-like!]

[The previous floors were getting dirtier, did we suddenly get a bonus this floor?]

[Wake up! The better a place looks, the more miserably you die; that's survival common sense!]

Zhao Mengmeng extended her left hand.

Her palm met a piece of gray-white flying floc that had fallen in front of her.

Lin Ye's Left Eye activated instantly.

In his retina, the giant forest shed its fluorescent camouflage.

The gray-white flocculent pieces dancing in the sky all turned into dense, dark red patches.

The gray patches were extremely thick.

Between the patches, thin, invisible fungal threads were pulling at each other.

Lin Ye reached for the outside of his backpack with his right hand.

The broken aluminum pot was snatched up.

Slap!

The aluminum pot fiercely smashed onto the back of Zhao Mengmeng's hand, knocking away the floc that was about to touch her skin.

Zhao Mengmeng felt sharp pain in her wrist: "What are you doing!"

"Pull your hand back."

His tone was extremely cold.

Zhao Mengmeng saw the look on Lin Ye's face and the curse stuck in her throat.

That piece of gray-white floc landed on the outer wall of the aluminum pot.

There was no sound.

It stuck firmly.

Several tiny gray-white spots quickly appeared on the outer wall.

It took three seconds for it to be torn apart by the cold wind.

Zhao Mengmeng's pupils constricted slightly.

"It's alive?"

"Don't touch anything that falls."

Lin Ye flipped the aluminum pot and used his bone blade to scrape the residue off the metal surface.

Zhao Mengmeng stopped talking.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out two layers of dried, tattered animal skin.

Lin Ye took one of them: "Seal your mouth and nose, stick the dry skin to your face, with the wolf fur facing out."

Zhao Mengmeng folded the animal skin into a thick mask and locked it behind her head with animal tendons.

She took two heavy breaths, her voice muffled: "Will this work?"

"It blocks large particles."

"What about the small ones?"

"Stay far away."

Lin Ye also sealed his mouth and nose.

The animal skin pressed tightly against the bridge of his nose, and the thin tendons locked tightly against the edges of his neck.

His Left Eye flashed on and off.

His vision stung.

The concentration of red spots in mid-air and directly under the caps was the highest.

Where the fungal roots coiled along the ground, the red light was thinnest.

Lin Ye drew his bone blade, the tip pointing toward the continuous, slippery fungal roots on the left.

"Walk along the roots."

"It's all a sewer down there."

"The ditch is cleaner than the sky."

The two avoided the large open space in the center where the fluorescence was strongest.

Their soles stepped into the black soil at the edge of the fungal roots.

The soil was extremely soft, oozing a cold, damp smell of rotten earth.

Zhao Mengmeng lowered her waistline, controlling the arc of her backpack.

Lin Ye walked in front, pausing for half a second every dozen steps.

He activated his Left Eye to find the weak areas of the red spots.

Then he led Zhao Mengmeng through the gaps.

Walking to the right side of a giant blue-green fungus.

Lin Ye stopped.

Zhao Mengmeng immediately leveled her crossbow.

Under the shadow of the fluorescent trees on the side, a gray-white alien beast walked out.

Its body was like a sheep, with two horns on its head, and its torso was covered in fluff.

Its four hooves stepped alternately on the black soil.

There was no sound.

It didn't even splash any mud.

The veins on the back of Zhao Mengmeng's hand bulged: "A sheep?"

Lin Ye's Left Eye activated instantly.

There was not a trace of green vitality inside the alien beast, and its cervical spine began to twitch violently and irregularly.

Immediately after.

Its head cracked open from the central axis.

The skull, flesh, and mouth flipped outward like flower petals.

From deep within the split, a stream of thick black-gray dust sprayed out violently, rushing straight toward them with the airflow.

"Retreat behind the stone platform!"

Lin Ye backhanded the strap of Zhao Mengmeng's backpack, fiercely throwing her behind the black stone platform half-buried in the black soil to the left.

The thick gray dust swept through the air above.

The flocculent matter in mid-air was stirred by the airflow, and the area ahead immediately became a dead zone.

The split-headed alien beast kicked its limbs wildly.

It ran over.

There was no roar.

Only the sticky friction sound of its knee joints folding backward.

Lin Ye squatted on the side of the stone platform, staring at the beast's lower body.

This thing's upper body was severely mutated and extremely heavy, but when it ran, its front hooves landed rigidly, and its pace was stuttering.

The mechanism on his right arm clicked.

The Dark Weaver fired an anchor point in low-tension mode.

The slender metal slid across the black soil.

It grazed the edge of the fungal roots.

It precisely bit into the outside of the alien beast's left front hoof.

The momentum of the sprint erupted.

The Nano-wire instantly pulled taut into a straight line.

The front hoof was forcibly twisted inward by the external force.

The moment its body lost balance and fell, Lin Ye dashed out from behind the cover, hugging the ground.

The remnant axe swung horizontally.

A dull explosion sounded.

The curled, thick blade of the Fire Axe smashed into the soft joint of the left front limb.

The foul-smelling ligament snapped on the spot.

The huge body crashed into the muddy black soil.

The head, split into four petals, was less than two meters from the tip of Lin Ye's shoe.

The black powder brewed to spray again.

Lin Ye had already rolled two yards to the side, his animal skin mask pressed tightly against his jaw.

Thwack!

The string of the crossbow vibrated.

The wooden arrow broke the wind, precisely chiseling into the center of the split head.

There was no scream.

However, the body began to spasm at a high frequency, and its limbs carved deep trenches into the mud.

Thwack!

The second wooden arrow pierced through the side of the neck.

Thick green juice sprayed out.

Zhao Mengmeng maintained her holding posture: "No red blood?"

Lin Ye raised his left hand to stop her from approaching.

He circled to the back, and the back of the Fire Axe pressed heavily on the beast's remaining limbs.

He flipped the bone blade.

He pried open the fluff and skin layer of the abdomen.

It was completely empty inside.

Red and gray filamentous structures filled the space where the organs used to be.

The bone blade went in another three points, piercing the stomach pouch.

Sticky flocculent pieces rolled out in clumps, the surface covered in white fungal threads.

Zhao Mengmeng's stomach churned: "A dead shell?"

"It's been used as a nest by the things above."

Zhao Mengmeng subconsciously looked at the back of her left hand.

Cold sweat seeped from her back.

If that broken pot hadn't blocked it, she imagined this stuff would be growing in her blood vessels right now.

Lin Ye rubbed the bone blade clean on the ground.

"Keep moving."

"Will staying here attract monsters?"

"Yes."

Zhao Mengmeng didn't pull out the wooden arrow stuck in the monster.

The two hid back into the shadows of the fungal roots.

At the entrance of the stone stairs.

The bronze door axis turned again.

Blake rushed out first.

The icy air of the Fifth Floor rushed toward him.

The large blisters and charcoal-like burnt skin were instantly cooled.

Ivan followed closely behind.

Martin dragged his mangled right leg and crossed the threshold last.

Blake stared fixedly at the two rows of fresh footprints on the mud ahead.

He didn't cover his mouth or nose.

Several pieces of gray-white flying floc landed in the deepest rotten pit of his left arm.

There was no corrosion.

There was no stinging pain.

The light screen had no waves.

Blake only felt his flesh go numb.

Immediately after, a frenzied stream of warmth climbed rapidly along his blood vessels.

He lowered his head and looked at his left arm.

The rotten flesh was shrinking and scabbing over crazily.

Tiny gray-white patterns broke through the blood scab and spread to the surrounding healthy skin.

Power.

The power that had been evaporated by the high temperature not only returned, but was even expanding.

Ivan tore off a piece of animal skin to cover his mouth and nose, his voice muffled: "This snow cannot be touched."

Martin also pulled his collar tight.

But Blake cracked his dry lips.

He raised his head.

He swallowed large mouthfuls of the cold, damp air mixed with flocculent matter.

Outside the whites of his eyes, dense gray blood vessels quietly emerged.

"Lin Ye."

The Great Xia language was stiff and venomous.

Blake took the first step, crushing the residual frost on the mud.

Facing the sky full of flying floc.

He ran wildly along the footprints.

More gray-white flocculent pieces hit his broad back, seeping into the deep layers of his muscles.

His pace grew faster and faster.

The sound of his footsteps grew heavier and heavier.