21: Chapter 21 Fungal Vine Corpse Forest

Wang Ting and Zhao Hu's two groups of men, each gathering seven or eight people, followed the corpses and bloodstains on the ground, rapidly pursuing in two separate directions.

This tracking was not like the needle-in-a-haystack investigation within the patrol range from before.

The Parasitic Fungus Vines had gathered so many corpses of zombies and wanderers here; even though they could travel underground to a certain extent, they still left behind plenty of traces.

The reason Zhao Hu decisively ordered the pursuit was to quickly find the source of these monsters before the wind and sand buried these traces.

The members led by the two men were all veterans in the team. Even after being suddenly attacked, they were now able to quickly calm down and track along the traces at an extremely fast speed.

All the way along the vine-dragging traces left on the parched land, they soon pursued for about two to three kilometers. The figures of the two teams drifted further and further apart, gradually losing sight of each other.

The team led by Wang Ting kept moving forward. The long drag marks were intermittent, becoming increasingly clear as they went deeper. The vines scraped across the ground, and the marks varied in depth, which seemed to be caused by the different volumes of the prey. The pitch-black blood oozing from the prey seeped into the soil, exuding a bloody stench.

Rustle, rustle, rustle!

At this moment, the sandy ground churned, and seven or eight Parasitic Fungus Vines suddenly emerged. Their walking vines danced continuously, rapidly rushing toward the few of them.

"Don't let them get close!"

Wang Ting reacted the fastest, directly firing a shot at the approaching Parasitic Fungus Vine. The bullet snapped its walking vines, and the entire Parasitic Fungus Vine rolled on the ground.

Feng Bo and the others had already witnessed the Parasitic Fungus Vines and were on high alert in their hearts. At this sight of them pouncing in a swarm, they immediately began to raise their guns and shoot.

This time without zombie husks as a blind, even though the Parasitic Fungus Vines were very fast, the rifles could still capture their figures. Bullets rained down, blocking their path, and always managing to hit their bodies.

After a round of attacks, only a sporadic two Parasitic Fungus Vines managed to rush to the front. Before they could launch an attack, Wang Ting stepped forward, lunging close to slaughter them, and directly severed them with a machete.

"How could this kind of monster suddenly pop out?"

Everyone successfully killed the attacking monsters, finally breaking the gloom of the recent ambush.

However, the expressions of Xiang Nan and the others remained extremely solemn, without any appearance of lowering their guard.

The aggressiveness and gregariousness exhibited by the Parasitic Fungus Vines made them feel a hint of fear, because this was not some solitary anomalous entity. If their numbers were left unchecked, it was feared they would soon endanger Scarecrow Town.

Dong Hu said in a low voice, with a hint of worry hanging on his rugged face: "If an Infinite Building has descended, it explains why so many monsters suddenly popped out. Being able to discover this in advance can also be considered good news."

Unknown danger was even more terrifying than danger laid out in the open, and an Infinite Building was not necessarily just a crisis.

Wang Ting kicked over the carcass of the Parasitic Fungus Vine stuck in the gravel, flipping it over from the sandy ground. Bullets had snapped several of its vines, making it look quite miserable.

He squatted down halfway, poking and inspecting the body of the Parasitic Fungus Vine with his machete.

The shot Parasitic Fungus Vine, although it looked like pure green vines, when its core was sliced open with a knife, the tissue within the vines felt just like flesh and blood tissue, except that the color was green.

He raised his head to look at the place where these Parasitic Fungus Vines had burrowed out. The dry ground was covered with gravel, but there were no more traces of traveling through.

He reminded: "Everyone be careful. These monsters should have been lying in ambush in the soil layer here all along rather than lurking over. We are not far from their source."

Everyone quickened their pace, continuing to rapidly pursue in the direction the monsters came from.

They only walked a distance of about 3 kilometers. Descending from the hillside, bypassing a section of undulating path, and following the dragging traces, they finally arrived at a gravel wasteland.

Wang Ting raised his head to look, and hundreds of meters away on the Gobi Desert earth, a large patch of emerald-green vines had unexpectedly grown.

The green vines formed a sharp contrast with the parched, earthy-yellow land. They didn't look like dead grass, but rather like living tentacles rooted in this earth.

They danced gently with the wind and sand, and their length was only twenty or thirty centimeters. This cluster here, that cluster there, layered and overlapping, extending deeper.

Crawling atop these vine grasslands were many pale-skinned zombies, as well as one Lizard Hound and wanderer carcass after another completely sinking into the vines.

At the end of the carcass-scattered vine-covered land, a pale building sat alone and abruptly upon the earth.

Xiang Nan couldn't help swallowing a mouthful of saliva, the shock on his face lingering for a long time: "This Infinite Building has already begun to project..."

An Infinite Building would affect the surrounding environment; to put it nicely, that was projection, and to put it harshly, it was pollution and erosion.

Monsters breaking through the Infinite Building to descend into the real world and even spreading out could only mean that the Infinite Building had descended for quite some time.

"Those things should all be parasitized, right? But they seem to still be dormant."

The midday sun was extremely blazing, and the scorching sunlight shone on this team, yet it completely failed to dispel the chill rising from their spines.

Xiang Nan swallowed a mouthful of saliva: "I think, just based on the few of us, it's best not to disturb these things."

Several people cast their gazes toward Wang Ting; the right of decision lay with him.

Although Wang Ting was just a newcomer, relying on a few decisive and fierce moves, he had already proven himself with his strength—he was a warrior who had undeniably broken his limits once, and this combat power determined his dominant position.

"The team falls back fifty meters and conducts observation on the small slope. Keep your voices down and don't disturb the monsters. Xiang Nan, you sneak over from the left, paying attention to the oasis condition and monster situation. Dong Hu, sneak over from the right, checking the boundaries of the oasis. Be careful everyone, don't disturb the monsters. Once the scouting is done, we'll go back to find the main force."

[Lizard Hound archiving progress 15%]

Among the parasitized monsters in the Vine Oasis, there was the presence of Lizard Hounds, causing Wang Ting's archiving progress for Lizard Hounds to suddenly increase by a small section.

However, Wang Ting was in no mood to pay attention to this right now; instead, his gaze was fixed tightly on the oasis to prevent any abnormal movement from the monsters.

Xiang Nan and Dong Hu each removed the canteens from their waists to prevent accidental clinking while walking, and then lightly and briskly sneaked toward the edge of the oasis.

The other members of the team each stared at one side, helping the two of them set up their guns and guarding against monsters that might appear.

The searing ground temperature was like a furnace. Ren Chuan, Feng Bo, and the others who were closely watching the two figures already had bean-sized sweat oozing from their faces, yet they didn't dare blink for even a second, fearing that Parasitic Fungus Vines would suddenly rush out and they wouldn't have time to support.

Fortunately, there were no dangers despite the suspense. Keeping a safe distance, Xiang Nan and Dong Hu quickly gathered information about the Vine Oasis.

"I visually estimate that the radius of the entire oasis is about 300 meters or so. On my side, I roughly counted the number of monsters; zombies and Lizard Hounds add up to about 45. Among these monsters, there should also be those vine monsters we encountered mixed in the vine bushes and underground; I have no way to completely distinguish them."

"It's about the same on my side." Dong Hu's steady voice came over: "25 zombies, 7 Lizard Hounds, and 4 vine monsters that can be found, but there should be more. The phenomenon of transcendent factor overflowing from the Infinite Building doesn't look that serious yet; the current situation might be contamination brought along with the descent, rather than diffusion caused by an anomalous riot."

The continuous accumulation of transcendent factors would trigger transcendent riots, causing anomalous entities and phenomena to run rampant and ultimately irreversibly affecting the real world.

Hearing Dong Hu's words, Ren Chuan's tense face finally relaxed, and he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"This is a blessing in misfortune."

Everyone understood what he meant. If it were anomalous pollution caused by a true anomalous riot, then the number of monsters here would probably be unimaginably high. The scope of the Vine Oasis would also be several times, or even dozens of times, larger than it was now.

Qu Ling looked at the Infinite Building, his gaze thoughtful.

"We need to head back early to report to Boss Zhao and Boss Fan and the others."

A singly descended Infinite Building—this was different from the Infinite Buildings inside those Dead Towns or Abyss Old Capitals.

Every single Infinite Building meant that it possessed one or even multiple Floor Worlds inside.

It represented both being filled with infinite danger and infinite possibilities.

Just these newly emerged special vine monsters—the transcendent materials born on them were enough for people in the surrounding Shelters and even sanctuary cities to pay a heavy price.

After listening to the report, Wang Ting immediately led the team to quickly evacuate back.

About an hour later, they returned to the location of Fengyan Slope. Zhao Hu's team also returned here about half an hour after them.

What Zhao Hu and the others brought back together was also a carcass of a Parasitic Fungus Vine and the transcendent materials they dug out from the Parasitic Fungus Vine carcass—two emerald-green, seed-like cores.

"We found their second nest over there. It's larger in scale than this side, and green vines have already grown on the ground and corpses. What did you guys find over there?"

Just as they had guessed before, the Parasitic Fungus Vines piled up corpses precisely to collect nutrients and then began to gradually spread their population.

Zhao Hu noticed that the expressions of everyone in Wang Ting's team were not quite right, so he inquired at the very first moment.

"A new Infinite Building, and a Vine Oasis larger than the one on your side."

As soon as these words fell, Zhao Hu's expression changed drastically, and he took a deep breath: "Wang Ting, your team take a truck and station yourselves 2 kilometers back from Fengyan Slope. Be careful tonight; at any sign of trouble, drive back immediately. Everyone else come with me and bring all the wounded back to town. Tomorrow we'll bring the main force over."