At the sa ti, the whispers in their ears suddenly amplified in that mont of distraction.
It was as if a ghastly, tragic background music was being played to paint the hellish scene before them, pushing emotions to the extre.
"Calm down!"
Zheng Yan Ying spoke in a deep voice, stepping forward.
She focused the searchlight on the charred, twisted human figure to confirm that it was thoroughly dead.
"It looks quite fresh, sothing that happened just in the last few days."
Lin Feng stepped forward, advancing to either side of the staircase, observing the traces of combat on the stairs as others did:
"It seems fire was more effective than gunfire; I should have bought a gas canister and used it with a flathrower. Maybe it would have been safer to just burn our way through."
Zheng Yan Ying shook her head:
"Fire is useful, but it doesn’t repel."
"These mutants fear the Holy Water, the devouring purification of higher beings. It’s more accurate to see them as aggregates of mutated cells. They have no self-awareness, only an instinctual fear, with no concept of death beyond the urge to infect more fresh flesh and blood."
"With a tank of fuel, you might burn ten, a hundred, or even a thousand mutants, but you won’t escape their relentless encirclent."
"Our task is not to exterminate them but to find the treasure within the ruins, so we must conserve energy and ammunition, especially the Holy Water with its limited supply."
Lin Feng nodded; Zheng Yan Ying was right.
Killing mutants yielded no benefits.
Otherwise, the hidden monsters could be easily taken down with just a move from them.
But doing so was pointless, especially since the team had no resupplies and needed to delve into the fourth layer to find wolf corpses and gather Source Material.
"Let’s go. These bodies still have gnawing marks. Unless they’re burned to charcoal and the bones are ground to dust, even if you burn the mutants, the remaining flesh will beco nourishnt for other mutants."
Zheng Yan Ying stood up, leading the group away.
The won forced themselves to endure their nausea and discomfort, walking between Zheng Yan Ying and Lin Feng.
Only these two were least affected in the team.
Zheng Yan Ying had been here before and, as a Combat Priest of the Church, she was a resolute warrior among a thousand.
While Lin Feng had system assistance to clear negative effects, and like many horror gas he played during the Old Earth Era...
Even though this was reality before him, his adaptability, honed by such experiences, was undoubtedly faster than the four won ahead of him.
Thus, after entering the B2 layer, he and Zheng Yan Ying positioned themselves front and back; Zheng Yan Ying led the way, while Lin Feng guarded the rear against mutant ambushes.
The latter needs no further explanation, as the abundant Power of the Holy Spring emanated from her, combined with the Church’s custom battle armor, effectively keeping ordinary Tier One celled mutants at bay.
Lin Feng, at the rear, exuded a powerful Tier One Late-Stage Evolution aura, complented by the Teaching Emblem given by Father Su An containing Tier Two Holy Spring Water, providing a repelling effect that covered a radius of ten ters.
Under their protection, the group quickly traversed the ten kiloters of the B2 layer.
Although they saw more battle traces along the way and an increasing number of mutant figures, the team no longer behaved like on the B1 layer...
Startled and hesitating.
After acclimatization, they soon reached the bottom of the B2 layer, the entrance to the B3 layer.
Standing at the stairway entrance, the light from the torches of those at the front row revealed several frightful monsters with pale skin all over their bodies and heads with only noses and mouths.
They were slick and hairless, secreting a viscous liquid constantly, crawling on all fours with black sharp claws on their fingers and toes.
Their faces split open to the back of their heads, filled with dense sharp teeth.
These monsters were crouched at the stairway’s end, devouring two already decomposed bodies.
So engrossed in their feasting, they didn’t notice Zheng Yan Ying’s group’s arrival.
It wasn’t until the searchlight shone onto them, stimulating their sensory organs, that they abruptly lifted their heads, letting out a low hissing sound.
Zheng Yan Ying snorted coldly, waving the iron hamr in her hand, releasing the aura of the Power of the Holy Spring.
The monsters panicked, skittering away on all fours.
By now, the few behind had already held their breaths,
their hearts pounding in their throats.
"These are Tier One Late-stage mutants, corrupted from Hunters and Wanderers on the surface."
Zheng Yan Ying frowned slightly and said in a low voice:
"Be cautious. If you co into contact with the bodily fluids of a mutant, imdiately wash with Holy Spring Water and drink a few gulps. Otherwise, within half an hour, the contamination will spread to the whole arm or leg, and washing will no longer be a solution then..."
"To survive, you’ll have to amputate."
"Or, like the previous Corruptors, beco a high-level mutant here, a group of selfless Corruptors."
Upon hearing this, the group inhaled sharply.
They were about to enter the B3 layer, thirty ters underground, where the temperature gradually dropped below twenty degrees.
The sealed battle armor, previously sweltering and unbearable on the surface, now served as insulating suits retaining body heat.
Adjusting themselves, they moved forward.
Quickly, in the third layer, they saw a bright yellow-white light in the distance.
"Soone?!"
Chen Shanshan exclaid in a low voice.
In the pitch-black underground ruins, finding fellow humans was always a good thing.
Of course, only when no treasure had been discovered yet or conflicts of interest had arisen.
Traveling together was much safer than going it alone.
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