Chapter 311: Goodbye, Brother Huo!

"Brother Huo, where are you!"

Lin Xian's voice rang out from the communicator. Standing on the roof of the Yijin City building, Lu Xingchen heard Lin Xian's voice and let out a long sigh. He then picked up the communicator and said, "Brother Lin, I have detected some unusual activity in the city, which may be related to the changes in the Mushroom Tower. This is an ominous sign; you all must prepare yourselves. I fear the sky is about to change."

At this moment, both Kiki and Lin Xian, who were in the ascending elevator, wore solemn expressions.

"What is this guy doing? Why didn't he tell us sooner that he was parasitized by mycelium? Running out on his own to play the hero?!" Although she usually liked to tease Lu Xingchen about his "chunibyo" (delusional) behavior, upon hearing this news, Kiki's expression was filled with urgency and worry.

Lin Xian looked heavy-hearted: "Director Ding said the survival pods at the Zero Element Center have mycelium isolation devices. If we are in time, that might be the only way to save Brother Huo."

"Mm." Kiki nodded. "He is an esper; he should... have more resistance than an ordinary person."

These were just her guesses, but in the current situation, there were no other options. The two of them could only risk the danger to bring Brother Huo back first.

Clang.

The vault floor opened again, and Kiki, without a word, grabbed Lin Xian and flew straight outside.

"My communication relay was only set up near this building; he shouldn't be far."

"Good!"

The two flew rapidly. As soon as they exited the bank's main entrance, the human heat source sensor radar on Lin Xian's Lone Wolf S power armor immediately locked onto the direction of the rooftop.

"He's there!"

Whoosh.

The two climbed upward immediately, quickly reaching the roof of the Yijin Bank building, where they saw Lu Xingchen standing on the edge.

At this moment, his proud expression carried a hint of desolation, as if he had already prepared himself for self-sacrifice.

Seeing Lin Xian and Kiki arrive, Lu Xingchen's expression shifted slightly. He immediately raised his hand to stop them from approaching and said,

"Brother Lin, do not come closer. The mycelium on my body is pervasive and fears no fire. If I were to implicate you, I would die with a heavy heart."

"Hey!"

Kiki stepped forward first and scolded, "Don't you have grand ambitions of becoming an immortal or a god? Why are you trying to end yourself as soon as you hit a problem? Why don't you ask us, ask Director Ding? Maybe we have a way! We still have the full-effect medical pod!!"

"What exactly is going on? How serious is it now?" Lin Xian also immediately asked.

Lu Xingchen sighed slightly upon hearing this, stood with his hands behind his back, and said,

"I am not one who fears death. I have already seen the miserable state of those infected by the mycelium—medicine is useless. Rather than being covered in mycelium and rotting into dead wood, it is better to..."

"Better to what?" Lin Xian frowned. "Just now, at the Zero Element Center, a woman connected to the mycelium survived the infection. She was just an ordinary person. Are you telling me you are not even as good as a woman?"

"Exactly! Hurry up and come back with us. Sister Chen might have a way!" Kiki said with an urgent tone.

Lin Xian's words caused a flicker in Lu Xingchen's eyes, but he quickly said with a grim expression,

"No need. I have checked; the mycelium on my body is growing from within. Even if I use my fire-type ability, I cannot eradicate it."

As he spoke, he looked toward the distant Sky-Covering Crown and said, "I am already aware of the crisis just now. There is already unusual activity in the city. If I am connected to the mycelium, the location of our Infinite and our escape route might be detected by that bizarre monster. I do not wish to see that happen, so..."

Lin Xian looked at him: "What do you want to do?"

Lu Xingchen's gaze hardened, and he shouted, "I already have a foolproof plan!"

"What foolproof plan?" Kiki frowned.

Lu Xingchen pointed toward the Mushroom Tower in the distance, his eyes filled with heroic intent as he said,

"Brother Lin, you can safely lead the convoy away. As you evacuate Yijin City, I will use the Fire of World Destruction to burn that demon tower to ashes, completely detonating this entire filthy city. This will not only attract the bizarre entities in the vicinity to help you evacuate, but also destroy the mycelium network that has harmed hundreds of thousands of people. Using my body as the fire to summon the Heavenly Flame to purge the demons—is that not glorious! Hahahahaha!"

Lin Xian's expression shifted upon hearing this, and he looked at Lu Xingchen:

"Have you truly decided?"

"Lin Xian!" Hearing Lin Xian's tone, Kiki thought he was going to abandon Brother Huo just as he had abandoned Tang Yun, and she became anxious.

Lu Xingchen nodded, turned to look at Lin Xian and Kiki, and then his expression dimmed slightly. He spoke to Lin Xian in a rare, serious tone.

"Brother Lin, this journey with you has been the time I have slept most peacefully and lived most freely since the apocalypse began. Even when facing life-and-death situations, as long as the people who need me are there, I feel that death is worth it. So, I am very grateful that you allowed me on your vehicle, treated me as a partner, respected my habits, and even built me a dedicated tea-brewing machine..."

"To be honest," Lu Xingchen looked at Lin Xian, his expression moved, "I have a secret I have never told anyone else. Actually, I also escaped from the esper laboratory in the underground research institute of the Deep Red World. Like Xiaoqing and Abai, I don't know how many levels down I was locked in—perhaps one hundred or two hundred meters underground—and I don't remember how many days I was imprisoned. Those experiments were more terrifying to me than the apocalypse. So, ever since I escaped, I have never wanted to enter any sealed space or underground area again. Now... I am truly going to die, and I only hope that after I die, I won't be buried underground. Perhaps after this darkness is burned away, I will still be able to bask in the sun..."

Lin Xian's expression sank as he listened. He finally understood why Lu Xingchen liked to bask in the sun, why he was unwilling to enter the underground research institute in Qingshui Town, and why he acted so strangely once the joint train entered the underground tunnel.

He had escaped from Dawn alone in his RV; it turned out he himself had escaped from a laboratory.

"Brother Lin, please apologize to Brother Lou for me; I can no longer be his roommate. Actually, I never minded the sound of him tidying his weapons at night disturbing my sleep. Also, please apologize to that girl Shasha for me; her Brother Lu can no longer find her a new mecha. And there is Team Leader Chen, Sister Shu Qin, Director Ding..."

"And... Kiki." Lu Xingchen looked at Kiki as he spoke, tears streaming down his face. He said with a somewhat unyielding spirit, "You are a formidable opponent. Being able to fight side-by-side with you is... is my honor. But my fire shall never be defeated!"

Having said this, Lu Xingchen abandoned his usual high-and-mighty demeanor and began to weep, yet he still held his chest high, his face full of determination and defiance.

Kiki's expression was very complex upon hearing this. Just as she was about to say something, she suddenly heard Lin Xian whisper to her while Lu Xingchen was busy weeping.

"Kiki, quickly restrain him!"

Kiki didn't even think about it; her synchronization with Lin Xian had long reached 100%. The moment Lin Xian spoke, she used her ability without hesitation and fiercely restrained the weeping Lu Xingchen nearby.

Lin Xian immediately drove his power armor and shot out from where he stood, reaching Lu Xingchen in a few strides. Before Lu Xingchen could react, he tore off his upper clothing and used the power armor's biological scanner to check him.

Sure enough, Lu Xingchen's entire upper body and arms were a dark, bruised black—it looked terrifying!

"Brother Lin, be careful of infection, do not come near me!!!"

Lu Xingchen's eyes were bloodshot as he shouted tearfully.

Who would have thought that after scanning, Lin Xian would look bewildered. He then looked at the clothing he had torn off in his hand and fell into deep thought for a long time.

"Is this... your thermal underwear fading?"

Lu Xingchen, who was tearfully struggling and preparing for a determined self-sacrifice, froze, his face still covered in tears.

"Ah?"

Hearing this, Kiki also flew over quickly, took a piece of the clothing fragment from Lu Xingchen's body, looked at it, and couldn't help but frown.

"It is. Where did you find this thermal underwear?"

"It was supplies found earlier." Lin Xian picked up the thermal underwear and studied it. "It must be because the underground tunnel is too damp. I warned about this yesterday, but the quality of this stuff is just too poor."

"Exactly, what kind of crappy clothes are these? Fading like this, dyeing the whole person like a cucumber..." Kiki said, reaching out to rub Lu Xingchen's shoulder, and sure enough, a large chunk of dark green dye came off.

"No choice, wear whatever clothes are available. I remember Brother Huo especially liked this one, thinking it was very cool..."

"If it were cool, he wouldn't be wearing thermal underwear."

"The quality is just too poor, and the style isn't even that good..."

The two of them began to study his thermal underwear right in front of Lu Xingchen.

At this moment, Lu Xingchen felt as if a nuclear bomb had exploded in his brain; he was going crazy with embarrassment, on the verge of cracking apart right there!

"K... Kiki, can you let me go first?" Lu Xingchen said in a trembling voice, his face still covered in tears.

Kiki put her hands on her hips and questioned, "Let you go for what? Are you still going to blow up that Mushroom Tower?"

Lu Xingchen took a deep breath and, in a "might as well go all the way" tone, attempted to salvage something: "With a great disaster at hand, if we are to retreat now, for the sake of these thousands of people, detonating this Mushroom Tower is absolutely the best way!!!"

Lin Xian nodded upon hearing this and said earnestly, "Good idea, but is it possible there is a way that doesn't require self-sacrifice? For example... I build a timed bomb?"

"Oh, right!" Kiki's eyes lit up, and she immediately approved of this plan.

Lu Xingchen: "..."

Rumble!

For a time, following the mutation of the Mushroom Tower, the mycelium and fungal mats throughout Yijin City seemed to be transmitting information. In the darkness, a large number of unknown biological movements began to echo through the streets and alleys.

There were even tall, giant shadows appearing and disappearing in the hazy mist, each step causing the streets to shake violently. Below where Lin Xian and the others were at the Yijin Bank, a large amount of roaring sounds had already begun to pour in.

"The bizarre entities are here; we cannot be marked with the Dark Mark!"

Seeing this scene, Lin Xian immediately signaled Kiki, who promptly used her telekinesis to lift the three of them high into the air.

Lin Xian's expression changed. He discovered that the torrents in the darkness seemed to be surging toward the subway entrances everywhere. He immediately thought, "This is bad." It seemed Director Ding's guess was correct: after the Mushroom Tower connected to Tang Yun's consciousness, it sensed the presence of Lin Xian's group and mobilized the monsters of all of Yijin City to search for them!

At this moment, he had no heart to ponder the theoretical issues; he only knew that if they didn't run now, it would definitely be too late.

"Brother Shi, Teacher Chen, everyone, depart immediately!"

"Good!" Shi Diyuan's voice came through immediately.

"Lin Xian, where are you all?!" Chen Sixuan, having received the notification, immediately shouted over the communicator.

Lin Xian looked at the Mushroom Tower and said to Kiki, "It's too late to go back. We will go blow up the Mushroom Tower and then pursue the train from the air."

Kiki nodded immediately upon hearing this.

Lin Xian then said to Chen Sixuan, "Just keep accelerating outward. We will rendezvous with you at the intersection of the Salt Marsh Canyon sightseeing railway and the main railway!"

On the Infinite, Chen Sixuan's expression changed to one of worry upon hearing Lin Xian's words. She gritted her teeth: "Good, I understand."

After finishing, she immediately notified Ding Junyi and the others to return to the train.

Ding Junyi had already copied the data from the Zero Element Center in advance and even brought away some active mycelium connected to the Deep Red members in a cultivation isolation pod, then immediately returned to the train with the Shu Qin building.

"Depart, depart, prepare to depart!"

"Everyone stay quiet; do not open fire without notification."

"Turn off the lights, remove the tunnel barriers!"

"Pay attention, everyone must follow the commands from the Infinite!"

"!!"

Woo~

The engines of the electric locomotives began to roar. With the coordinated output of massive power, the connected carriages began to pull and tug. This 15-kilometer-long underground joint train began to start ahead of schedule!

Boom, boom, boom, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

At this time, the subway platforms everywhere, the vault outside the Zero Element Center, and the building of the Deep Red Pharmaceutical Group were filled with various clawing and snarling black shadows.

These bizarre creatures seemed to have received some kind of guidance, smelled something, and began to frantically burrow underground!

Beep, beep, beep.

As the train began to roar and accelerate away underground, all the mycelium and fungal mats of the Mushroom Tower began to vibrate violently.

Inside the empty Zero Element Center, the lights flickered, and the glass curtain walls began to shatter. A large amount of debris fell toward the honeycomb below. In survival pod No. 0403, Tang Yun lay peacefully inside. The brain wave lights flickered continuously and finally extinguished. At the last moment, she seemed to have a smile on her face. All breathing and heartbeats stopped, and she left this desperate world peacefully.

On the other side, high in the sky, Lin Xian and Kiki continued to accelerate toward the Mushroom Tower, dragging Brother Huo, who had a face full of black lines and was not saying a word, behind them.

Lin Xian looked back; this guy clearly had breath, but he inexplicably felt as if he had already been dead for a while.

After all, social death is also death. For Brother Huo, who cared extremely about his face, that moment just now was comparable to the arrival of the apocalypse.

However, Lin Xian and Kiki were in no mood to mock him. His sincere confession before "death" was quite moving, and the plan he proposed did indeed give Lin Xian a good solution. He could only try to burn his bridges now; if he detonated the Mushroom Tower, it might truly buy some time for the team's evacuation!

At this moment, while flying with Kiki, he kept manufacturing a large amount of high-energy explosives while observing the situation in the streets below.

"Lin Xian, look!" Kiki suddenly shouted at him.

Lin Xian looked up. They had already approached the Mushroom Tower. This was the first time Lin Xian had seen it from such a close distance, and his pupils constricted. The fungal tower, wrapped in billions of mycelium vines like a towering giant tree, had mycelium on it that looked like data cables, with scarlet light flowing continuously inside. Connected below were tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of human-fungi!

Through Ding Junyi's words, Lin Xian had already sensed that this might be a supercomputer using human brains as computing power!

What was it calculating?

What was it spying on?

The more Lin Xian thought, the more terrifying it felt. Making a prompt decision, he had already manufactured dozens of high-energy explosives. Each of these explosives was enough to flip an armored vehicle; it was the limit of what Lin Xian's mechanical manufacturing and preparation center could convert!

Whoosh, whoosh~

Under the massive Sky-Covering Crown, countless spores drifted with the gale. A wooing sound of wind came from overhead. The folds under the fungal caps looked like a sky full of inverted kelp forests; looking up, it was like darkness swimming!

An extreme sense of oppression came over them. Lin Xian immediately said to Kiki: "Quick, I've set the timer, throw them dispersedly!"

Kiki nodded and immediately used her ability to throw the timed bombs Lin Xian had manufactured toward the dense root system of the Mushroom Tower. The three of them threw them in a full circle around the Mushroom Tower. At this time, some giant shadows in the city began to approach, and a large number of bizarre tentacles kept winding in the dark clouds in the sky.

"Done, let's go quickly!"

The explosives had been deployed to the limit. Whether they could succeed depended on heaven's will. For the sake of survival, they absolutely could not be marked with the Dark Mark by the monsters. So, as soon as they threw the explosives, Kiki immediately took the two of them and flew rapidly toward the east!

"Brother Lin, do you really not need me to use the Heavenly Flame to detonate it?"

Lu Xingchen, behind them, whispered.

"No need."

"Good."

"Brother Lin..."

"I won't tell anyone else about this."

"Thank you very much!!!!"

Lu Xingchen's expression changed continuously, his eyes filled with anger. He gritted his teeth and said: "I... will never wear thermal underwear again. If I find out who the factory owner is, I will definitely grind their bones..."

"Alright, alright, what time is it now..."

Kiki glanced at him irritably. She was angry and helpless at the same time. This guy had really scared them. Fortunately, he wasn't actually parasitized by mycelium, which made her breathe a sigh of relief.

But thinking of his heroic, weeping-and-laughing state just now, which was actually because his thermal underwear faded, Kiki still couldn't help but want to laugh. Brother Huo had really lost face this time; it was estimated that it would be difficult for him to hold his head up in front of her and Lin Xian from now on.

Goodbye, Brother Huo.

Hello, Brother Heroic.

Rumble!

The underground railway train accelerated frantically with violent momentum, beginning to turn into the subway line, shuttling rapidly through the former Yijin subway. The 15-kilometer-long steel flow triggered violent underground resonance. Sand and stones were flying on the streets of Yijin City, sparks were splashing on the subway tracks, and dull air pressure was spraying wildly along the ventilation ducts!

The Infinite was of one mind, quietly watching the situation outside the train. In the leading Longshan No. 1 cockpit, Shi Diyuan and Ning Jing were both in command.

On the Sun convoy side, Li Yi was comforting the children with her subordinates, and Luo Yang and his team members were all wearing power armor, ready for battle. Qian Dele, however, had a calm expression in his exclusive carriage. This was his first time fleeing in a train; he could only follow whether it was up to heaven or down to earth. Even if he wanted to worry, he couldn't find a point to worry about. He actually felt much more relaxed than the previous convoy; after all, the entire convoy was connected together in the carriages, no need to disperse, no need to control the direction, and he didn't even have to consider the road conditions. If it derailed, everyone would derail together.

And Monica on the Queen Mo, at this moment, was sitting in the No. 1 carriage with a serious expression, monitoring all the vehicle conditions, while efficiently dispatching her subordinates in the rear carriages. Beside her left hand was a glass of red wine. The extremely luxurious train shock absorption system kept the shaking in the carriage very small. The red wine in the glass was slightly jolting and vibrating, but it didn't spill out. She looked at the Weilong-class at the tail of the Infinite in front, as if thinking about something.

Soon, the joint train rushed from the underground tunnel into the subway track out of the city, and then rushed toward the direction of an underground sightseeing track of the former Yijin City outside the city.

Lin Xian and Kiki's group of three used a telekinetic shield to withstand the howling gale and also flew rapidly toward the east. Along the way, they had to avoid the ground, stay away from some extremely dark places, and didn't dare to fly into the clouds, for fear of being discovered by some monster and marked.

In this polar night, even if it was just a level-one mark, Lin Xian estimated that it would be like a guiding light over Yijin City, dazzling and incomparable.

At this moment, everyone's hearts were tightened. Fortunately, Kiki's flight speed was already extremely fast, and not long after, they began to move away from the urban area of Yijin City and began to enter above a valley, and the surroundings also became quiet.

"That direction is the Salt Marsh Canyon; the track line should be coming from the elevated line in the suburbs!"

Kiki pointed to the silhouettes of several mountains under the dark night in the distance and said.

"Why is it so dark over there? It gives people a feeling of being full of demonic energy." Lu Xingchen looked at a mountain area in the distance of the elevated track line at this time and said.

"It's dark everywhere; where it's dark, there are bizarre entities."

Lin Xian said: "Now, if the train is marked, as long as we can rush out of Yijin City, we have a chance to run away."

Kiki nodded: "The premise is that the track cannot have problems again, and we must be able to leave the range of the polar night directly."

"Our stay was shorter than expected. According to the tidal expansion speed of Star Abyss No. 5, we can run into the Xidi Gobi in about 6-8 hours at full speed, and then we won't be far from Quancheng." Lin Xian analyzed at this time.

Lu Xingchen didn't pay attention to the two people's words, but continued to say: "I mean the sky over there, is it a bit too dark?"

Lu Xingchen's repeated words finally attracted the attention of the two. Lin Xian and Kiki both looked up at the mountain range in the northeast direction and indeed discovered that the silhouette of a sharp high mountain over there was much darker than the surroundings.

But looking closely at this time, they felt more and more that something was wrong.

Whoosh, whoosh!

Kiki began to slow down her flight speed, her pupils shaking violently, and she opened her mouth in horror: "Lin... Lin Xian, is that... a person?!"

Not just her, Lin Xian and Lu Xingchen's expressions changed drastically at this time.

Because they both saw that the sharp black shadow like a mountain seemed to have arms and was still slowly lifting its feet to take a step.

Boom!

The next moment, as the black shadow stepped down, a dull vibration radiated to hundreds of kilometers away. In the mountain range, the air trembled violently. Lin Xian only felt that a towering humanoid giant mountain was swinging its arms, carrying overwhelming power toward the three of them, coming head-on!

At the same time, in the mountain valleys below, there was a dense torrent of monster tides that seemed to be driven along the way. They climbed over mountains and ridges, crushed villages and towns, and moved forward like a mudslide under the pitch-black night.

Corpse Driver!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 312 =====