Chapter 298: Fire Book

Click-click-click.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a fungal head in the corner began swelling grotesquely, its horrifying face twisting like a balloon inflating.

Lin Xian immediately sensed trouble and shouted to Kiki: "Kiki, wrap it!"

"Got it!"

Kiki instantly enveloped the swelling fungal head with a telekinetic barrier—sure enough, the next instant, the head exploded violently, spraying out pale-green, rotting brain matter and thick brown-yellow spore mist, all tightly contained within Kiki's telekinetic shield.

"So disgusting!"

Meanwhile, the other fungal heads began swelling rapidly, rolling toward the group.

"Go now."

Realizing the danger, Lin Xian acted decisively—Kiki no longer held back, using telekinesis to lift everyone off the ground and fly them away at speed.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Muffled explosions echoed continuously; the center of the street they'd just left was instantly blanketed in dense spore mist.

"What is this? Spore bombs?" Ningjing's gaze held traces of dread; terrifying monsters weren't what frightened her—but this parasitic, consuming spore mist filled her with helplessness. Fortunately, their team had Kiki, a telekinetic—otherwise, they'd have been in serious trouble.

"Head straight for the Auto City—two streets away. Move fast." After realizing how dangerous these things were, Lin Xian had no choice but to risk penetrating deeper into Yijin City—he didn't want to stay here a second longer.

Whoosh~

Above Yijin City, the air reeked of damp mildew. Kiki extended a transparent telekinetic barrier, enclosing the seven of them, then sped toward the Auto City.

Not long after, a low stretch of streets appeared ahead, behind which lay vast parking lots filled with countless abandoned, wrecked cars piled haphazardly across the Auto City's open ground—by sight, at least hundreds. Now, every car was covered in fungal mats and bioluminescent mushrooms, creating a dreamlike scene… if only one didn't know the foul, brown-yellow fungal mats lay beneath.

"Any drivable vehicles were probably taken already," Luo Yang muttered, frowning.

"Doesn't matter—I don't need vehicles."

Ningjing noticed Bai Bai's grim expression and asked: "Bai Bai, what's wrong?"

"Ning-jie… I keep feeling like monsters are everywhere—watching us…"

Ningjing scanned the surroundings. Beneath the silent, pitch-black city, fungal mats stretched everywhere—yet apart from the human-fungi, she saw no moving life.

But she knew Bai Bai's perception was never wrong; she turned her gaze to Lin Xian and signaled him.

Lin Xian nodded: "We move fast and finish this. There's definitely something strange here—if we're marked, we must eliminate it at all costs, or we won't escape this polar night."

"Understood." Ningjing nodded.

Neither the human-fungi nor the fungal heads had marked them, nor had the giant rats from earlier—so despite the strangeness, Lin Xian and the others had pressed on to find consumption materials.

"Hey, Lin Xian, look!"

At that moment, Kiki pointed toward the center of a large parking lot in the Auto City: "That looks like a vehicle convoy camp!!"

Everyone turned to look—sure enough, amid the chaotic pile of cars, a circular formation clearly served as a survival base: twenty or so heavy trucks formed an outer defense line, while inside were various vehicles—SUVs, trucks, buses, fuel tankers, solar-powered generators—totaling over fifty, making it a sizable convoy.

But now, the convoy camp had no life or light—completely smothered in fungal mats and bioluminescent mushrooms, resembling a circular mushroom garden nestled in the parking lot's center.

"This convoy is dead—no heat signatures at all," said Ding Junyi, clad in the Black Hawk battle armor.

Kiki slowly lowered the telekinetic field—when suddenly, the crimson Phoenix Tokens on Lin Xian and Ningjing emitted a sound.

Beep-beep-beep.

Both reacted instantly.

"Someone left a Fire Book message packet!"

"Is this convoy a Phoenix Token convoy?"

"Not necessarily—could be Night Walkers'."

Lin Xian immediately pulled out his crimson Phoenix Token and opened it—revealing a recorded audio signal.

"Static… this… this is Night Blade Convoy, static… I'm deputy leader Liu Chong."

"We can't evacuate… static… massive fungal spore infection here—all the zombies…"

"Static… spores rapidly invade the brain, causing hallucinations—firepower is useless, static… the parasitized entities are drawn to sound and light… don't fire, don't get out, don't turn on lights, hiss… we can't break out… the entire city's fungal network is alive—it's alive!!"

"We've been forced to hold here for three days. The captain led a reconnaissance team into the underground levels of Deep Red Pharmaceuticals—they discovered a secret research facility studying the polar night and these fungi. They destroyed roads and bridges to trap anyone entering the city, then captured survivors as experimental specimens for fungal testing. We clashed with them, but it was too late. Any survivors or Phoenix Society members receiving this message, eliminate them at once. These fungi are more dangerous than any virus—they'll bring humanity to ruin. We can't escape anymore!!"

"Hiss…! We couldn't breach their research facility—it's underground in that building!! Aaah!! Something's growing inside my head!! Aaah! "

Beep…

The Fire Book signal vanished—the group felt the air grow cold.

"Deep Red Pharmaceuticals? Again?!" Ningjing frowned.

Lin Xian asked: "You know this organization?"

Ningjing nodded, glancing at Bai Bai: "This pharmaceutical group is backed by a secret faction called Deep Red World's Descentists. Extremely mysterious—Bai Bai and Xiaoqing were both captured by them…" She trailed off, eyes returning to Bai Bai.

Everyone turned to Bai Bai—his face was filled with terror.

On the other side, Lu Xingchen watched Bai Bai, his expression darkening.

"Deep Red Pharmaceuticals…" Kiki quickly searched on her phone and immediately found the target: "Hey, really—223 Nandong Road. Deep Red Pharmaceuticals' Yijin branch. Used to be the city's top R&D enterprise."

"So they're the ones who destroyed the tracks and bridges—how vile!"

Lin Xian immediately tried transmitting the information back to the train via communicator—but the signal was completely dead. All the signal poles he'd left along the route were now smothered in fungal filaments, utterly ruined.

"Trouble."

"What do we do, Team Leader? Retreat?" Luo Yang asked cautiously.

Lin Xian shook his head, eyeing the human-fungi in the shadows: "Retreating won't help. Without tracks, we can't leave Yijin. If those human-fungi latch onto the train, none of us will escape."

"This corporation ranks among the world's top pharmaceutical firms—immense financial power, authoritative research in genetics and cancer treatment," Ding Junyi said. "According to this Fire Book message, they've sustained research here, meaning they have protective measures and some baseline understanding of these fungi. If we find them, we might find a countermeasure."

"Makes sense!"

Lin Xian nodded immediately, gazing toward the Union Train tracks and said grimly: "Once I've gathered enough track material here, we'll head to Deep Red Pharmaceuticals. If they're still alive, we either eliminate them or use them to find a way to isolate the fungi. I have a feeling—even if we repair the tracks, we won't escape easily."

Repairing the tracks required crossing the city—a slow process accompanied by unavoidable noise. Even with Lin Xian's mechanical ability to rapidly fabricate tracks and deploy laying machines, covering twenty kilometers while clearing obstacles made it nearly impossible to avoid fungal attacks.

Realizing their situation, Lin Xian immediately adjusted strategy.

"So you mean we go to the pharmaceutical company and get a solution to the fungi from them?" Ningjing asked.

"Could these people be watching us right now?" Luo Yang said.

"Technically, the fungal network has information transmission and hunting capabilities. Biologically, the entire fungal colony functions as a single organism—the largest living thing on Earth is fungus. Your concern isn't unfounded," Ding Junyi said. "Our train has definitely been spotted by some creature in this city."

"Then we should strike first," Lin Xian said, his tone urgent. "And fast. If these things attack our train, we have zero countermeasures." He pointed to the heavy armored apocalypse truck ahead.

"This convoy wasn't defeated by gunfire."

Looking at the dozens of survivor vehicles now smothered in fungal mats, everything inside rotted and decayed, Lin Xian realized the severity—these fungal spores and human-fungi posed no threat the Infinite Train could counter, not even allowing them to return fire.

Ningjing and Luo Yang both nodded grimly.

"Makes sense. With a train this long, if a chain reaction starts, things could spiral out of control immediately," Luo Yang said.

"Then let's go confront them," Lu Xingchen said coldly. "Eliminating this threat for humanity counts as merit."

Ningjing's gaze flickered; she exhaled deeply: "I didn't expect these things to be this stubborn. Now it's clear—they're far more troublesome than weirdbody attacks."

"Don't be so pessimistic," Ding Junyi said. "So far, these fungi haven't shown overt aggression. As long as we stay quiet, we still have options."

"Mm."

Lin Xian and the others landed on the parking lot—he wasted no time and began consuming the convoy's heavy trucks.

【Consumption successful. Mechanical Source Points +20. Mechanical Consumption skill proficiency +10】

【Decomposed: High-manganese steel *10, hot-rolled forged steel *10, cold-rolled dual-phase steel plate *5, ordinary carbon steel *20, non-metallic foam material, non-metallic composite material…】

【Consumption successful. Mechanical Source Points +15】…

As Lin Xian consumed, Kiki and Ding Junyi scouted the convoy—discovering not a single corpse among such a large group.

"Where is everyone?"

"They've all become human-fungi," Ding Junyi said, scanning the vast parking lot. In the darkness everywhere stood countless black silhouettes—each with bizarre fungal growths, fungal vines on their legs rooted into the ground, interconnected.

Ding Junyi stared at the dense fungal network beneath her feet and said: "I remember an experiment using the branching network of Physarum polycephalum to design subway systems. This fungal root system acts like a physical information network—now the entire Yijin City is covered like that…"

"Wait—you mean each human-fungus is a sensory terminal? Like a monster's tentacle, watching us?!" Luo Yang realized first, his face pale.

"If the fungi are conscious, then yes," Ding Junyi replied calmly. The others felt a chill.

Lu Xingchen impatiently stomped on a fungal vine—he felt energy flowing through it and muttered bitterly: "I just want to burn it all clean."

"Hey! You'll blow us all up!" Kiki spat back. "I didn't bring you along to cause chaos—don't touch anything."

"Sigh~" Fire Brother shook his head helplessly.

At that moment, Bai Bai stepped back a few paces and leaned against Ningjing.

"What's wrong, Bai Bai?"

Bai Bai pointed at the abandoned cars: "They're… watching us."

Everyone looked up—and suddenly, all of them realized: the human-fungi around them had multiplied. A click-click-click sound echoed faintly, as if they were slowly shifting.

"They're closing in?"

"We didn't turn on any lights."

!

"It's not just light—we emit heat and bioenergy. They've already marked us as prey."

"Fungi?"

"I hope so," Ding Junyi frowned slightly. "If this is just instinct, it's simpler. But if not… our trouble just got much worse."

Lin Xian, still rapidly consuming, said: "Don't move. If they keep approaching, we'll consume them from the air."

Click-click-click~

Click-click-click~

As seconds passed, it reached 20: 0—the atmosphere grew increasingly eerie. More and more humanoid shadows stood in the darkness, moving slowly, their joints emitting strange, faint clicking sounds as they crept toward the convoy's center.

The squad formed a defensive circle around Lin Xian, eyes alert, watching the human-fungi draw ever closer.

Whoosh~ whoosh~

One by one, cars vanished under Lin Xian's remote ingestion, their contents clattering to the ground in a cascade of debris, leaving behind hollow fungal frameworks.

During the ingestion, Lin Xian noticed that all internal components of these once-functioning survivor vehicles appeared aged by a decade—yet the Firebook data packets contained information no older than ten days. This deepened his wariness of the mycelium; if the Wuhao were to be overtaken by this, it would be a catastrophe.

"They're getting closer!" Kiki cried anxiously.

"Let's go up!"

Lin Xian immediately shouted. Kiki instantly lifted the seven others into the air, fifteen meters above ground. Soon after, the spot they had just stood on was completely overrun by human-fungal stalks.

By now, Lin Xian had ingested more than half of the convoy's vehicles. The decomposition center's material reserves were expanding rapidly, and simultaneously, his mechanical origin point and ingestion proficiency were rising swiftly.

Lin Xian had finally achieved his wish to ingest the parking lot. It had been a long time since he'd ingested so much at once. Had the situation not been so strange, he could have easily cleared the entire lot with his remote ingestion.

"Lin Xian!"

Kiki called to him: "Look below."

Focused on ingestion, Lin Xian glanced down at the parking ground and saw that beneath the dense human-fungal feet, the tangled root network of the fungal mat glowed faintly—something like a pale red aura flowed through it like blood.

Everyone now noticed this phenomenon. The red flow grew brighter and clearer, the crimson hue intensifying. The entire fungal network across the ground resembled a living bloodstream, as if the whole area were breathing in a rhythmic pulse.

Seeing this, Lin Xian sensed something was wrong. He immediately halted his ingestion. Just as he was about to order Kiki to raise everyone higher for safety, a floating bioluminescent fungus drifted slowly down beside his shoulder. It emitted soft white and pink luminescence, its cap light as goose down or dandelion fluff.

Lin Xian's gaze sharpened instantly. At that moment, Kiki screamed.

"Lin Xian, watch out!"

Before the words were out, Kiki instantly raised a massive telekinetic barrier, enveloping them all. The floating cap shattered under the telekinetic shock, exploding into thousands of tiny white light particles—a dreamlike haze of dust.

"Above us!"

Everyone looked up and saw countless tiny white and pink fungal caps drifting down from beneath the dark clouds. The telekinetic barrier had shattered them, filling the sky above with a swirling mist that quickly fell onto the human-fungal below.

Instantly, the human-fungal began violent mutations. Thick white mycelia erupted wildly from their bodies, rapidly growing through flesh, bursting limbs and torsos apart. Only their heads rolled away, while each body transformed into a grotesque, one-meter-tall fungal mushroom, draped in horrifying tumors. From their necks, countless mycelia sprouted into a magnificent, ornate cap. As the wind stirred, clouds of spores scattered everywhere.

Lin Xian and the others turned pale. In less than a minute, those white fungal caps had split and grown to this extent.

"This is weird—only above us are these things falling!" Luo Yang cried, staring at the sky in shock.

Lin Xian looked up. Indeed, only this area was showered with them. He immediately told Kiki: "Quick, get us out of here."

Whoosh~

Kiki instantly flew the team toward a distant open zone. After several kilometers, the falling caps noticeably thinned. When Lin Xian looked back, he saw that above the car city, glowing fungal caps rained down like a storm—while everywhere else remained eerily still.

Ding Junyi stared at the pulsing fungal network across the city and said: "Of course. This entire city's fungal network is one massive biological web. We stayed too long in one spot, so the network responded to us."

Soon, the airborne fungal caps seemed to lock onto their position, beginning to drift down from directly above them.

"What do we do now?"

"We head straight for Deep Red Pharmaceuticals. Going back to the train now is just waiting to die!"

"Alright!"

After ingesting the twenty or so heavy trucks, Lin Xian's decomposition center had gathered considerable materials—still slightly short of his estimated rail material needs. As they flew toward Deep Red Pharmaceuticals, he ordered Kiki to snatch abandoned cars along the way and ingest them midair.

Lin Xian's instinct was correct. The entire city's fungal mats had come alive. As the team flew overhead, blood-red glows flickered constantly along the underground mycelial roots.

Meanwhile, in the shadows, countless fungal heads rolled across the ground. Fungal caps sprouting from streets swayed in the wind, spewing clouds of spores. Instantly, the once-clear, luminous night of the city was choked by a brownish-yellow spore mist. The mist expanded and rose, gradually engulfing Jincheng in a suffocating haze.

Seeing this, Lin Xian told Kiki: "Quick, take us over there!"

"Got it!"

"The fungi are releasing spore mist—what if something happens to the train?!" Luo Yang said, tense.

"Worrying won't help. Hope they can hold out—no sound, no light."

On the other side, Shi Di and Chen Sixuan on the United Train watched the brownish-yellow spore mist rise from the city sky and immediately sensed danger.

"Quick! Activate all air recyclers on internal mode! Block every gap between carriages!"

"Use wet cloth strips!"

"And seal the ventilation ducts, sewage pipes—no spores can get inside!"

"We've lost contact with Team Leader Lin. What do we do?" Shu Qin said.

"They'll find a way. Follow Lin Xian's orders—no noise, no light. Cut all power on the train."

"Yes!!"

"Everyone, put on your gas masks. No exposed skin!"

Chen Sixuan, grim-faced, checked each person's protection alongside Shu Qin. Even with the train as protection, no one dared relax—even pulling on their cold-weather suits from the snow plains.

In an instant, over four thousand people moved silently. They found every usable item to seal gaps and leaks in the carriages. The Wuhao's every door was shut tight. The United Train fell utterly silent, as if the air itself had frozen into stillness.

Minutes later, thick, amber-colored spore mist surged like a tidal wave, swallowing the train whole. A thin layer of yellow spores coated the windows.

On the other side, as fungal caps continued falling from the sky, Kiki carried Lin Xian and the others swiftly across the heights. Soon, they spotted a massive triangular single-building complex in Jincheng's industrial zone. The original perimeter wall had been upgraded into a high-voltage fence, thick with barbed wire. Every few dozen meters stood machine-gun towers—built to counter zombie threats. Outside, sandbag barricades had collapsed, fused with fungal mats into honeycomb-like fleshy tumors. One heavy machine gun's barrel had been twisted into a knot by mycelia; unspent bullets on its belt sprouted black fungal caps like mushrooms.

The towering triangular main building was entirely covered in glowing fungal mats and various fungi, like a giant tumor hatchery. Purple-black fungal tumors clustered across its exterior. The glowing skin was semi-transparent—up close, human silhouettes could be seen inside, wrapped in mycelia: security zombies and researchers in lab coats. On the roof, the blue characters "Deep Red Pharmaceuticals" were barely legible—only "Deep Red" remained faintly visible.

"What kind of fungus is this? It eats people?!"

As the group flew closer, Kiki frowned. The scene was grotesque and horrifying—the mycelial network resembled internal organs, revolting beyond words.

"The mycelial coverage here is denser. We must be close to the fungal core," Ding Junyi said, watching the rising brownish-yellow spore mist. "These spores are flammable. We must be extremely careful."

The entire city was blanketed in spore mist. If ignition occurred now, the explosion would be unimaginable. Gazing at the endless haze, Lin Xian furrowed his brow—even his AT field offered no guarantee of survival in such a blast.

Then he noticed something.

"Kiki, get closer."

"Where?"

"There!" Lin Xian pointed toward the main building of Deep Red Pharmaceuticals.

He saw several unusual black experimental cargo vans lying horizontally in front of the building, entirely wrapped in fungal mats. Kiki flew them over, tore away the mats, and revealed a symbol on the van's side.

It was a triangular symbol.

Lin Xian and Kiki had both seen this symbol before—on the special metal case Wu Shu had given Lin Xian when they first left Hengshan Pass, the one holding the Silver Dragon's Ten Thousand Catastrophe Plant!

(End of Chapter)