Chapter 576

"Heh, so what exactly are you trying to say?"

Sha Yufeng let out a cold snort. "The winner is king, the loser is a bandit." No matter how he had previously mocked Su Jingming, he also knew Su Jingming was on the right side.

While he mocked Lingxiao for hesitating in Tianmian City, the other party actually had no intention there and silently dismantled the entire Undercurrent.

He laughed that Su Jingming was a dog who betrayed his former master, only to become a homeless stray himself.

"...... I just hope that, at least during this mission, we can temporarily set aside past grudges and at least achieve cooperation."

Su Jingming has always had a good temper; even when Sha Yufeng mocked him as hypocritical before, he only ever smiled.

"You should be well aware that, given the current state of the Eternal Silent Abyss, if we can't cooperate properly, death is the only way."

Su Jingming knows Sha Yufeng's abilities; Sha Yufeng has always pursued his goals by any means, often even bringing disaster onto crowds, and many times, to evade the Supervision Bureau's chase, he would use ordinary people's lives as leverage.

The Undercurrent's boss prized Sha Yufeng's ruthless vigor, whereas Lingxiao kept him out.

Yet Sha Yufeng's innate talent with guns is another extreme Su Jingming has seen.

Why do such talents always show up by his side?

Su Jingming let out a silent sigh; in truth, he had long realized that Sha Yufeng was better suited to dual guns than he was.

Truly......

While practicing sniping, Su Jingchuan's accidental arrival made him understand what a natural sniper is.

While undercover in the Undercurrent, Sha Yufeng's sudden emergence taught him what a natural dual‑gun wielder is.

Even with the best temper, when confronting these talents, Su Jingming feels a lingering resentment......

If Sha Yufeng's temperament weren't so extreme, Su Jingming would have been dispatched by Mu Lingxiao specifically to teach him firearms, yet the outcome is that Sha Yufeng never studied weapons systematically; through his own experimentation and training alone, he achieved his present skill.

"Cooperation...... heh."

Sha Yufeng sneered, his side glance catching the unusually bright Ying Guang Lu over there; Ying Duo seemed to be speaking to Qi Junyi, and Xie Jingyan crouched beside Xi Ren Sheng.

Xi Ren Sheng has already awakened; although the Mutation's sudden increase has caused him many drawbacks, he still has the mood to act goofy with those nearby.

The point is that the protagonist never dies.

He only worries what it would be like if he developed a Mutation Feature.

If there were positive bonuses—say, sprouting three heads and six arms—he would certainly want to fire up his Mutation Value himself.

Yet hearing that the most probable result is a mushroom on his head, Xi Ren Sheng chose to decline.

If grass or fruit grew on his head, he could cosplay a sheep; a mushroom—who could he cosplay?

Sha Yufeng is ruthless, yet not ungrateful.

He closed his eyes, having been suppressed and reprimanded in turn by the Church and the Dome; the once arrogant Sha Yufeng's sharp edges had been considerably dulled.

"In your eyes, am I some petty person who can't discern importance and only seeks to settle trivial grudges?"

Sha Yufeng sneered, but Su Jingming merely stared at him quietly, a silent acknowledgment.

Aside from other matters, Sha Yufeng's penchant for nitpicking and holding grudges is something he deeply appreciates.

Sha Yufeng also grasped his meaning and rolled his eyes at him.

"Rest assured, your grudges aren't even worthy of me taking special action against you here; even if I truly needed to end you, I'd go after Lingxiao......"

"As for now......"

He glanced at Ying Duo and Xie Jingyan, "I'm working for the Dome; since the superiors haven't spoken, I will of course only act to stay alive."

Upon hearing that, Su Jingming and Butterfly Speaker Si Jing involuntarily relaxed their breath.

The present situation is already sufficiently troubling; if Sha Yufeng were still stabbing from behind, this journey would be worrisome.

They don't trust Sha Yufeng's character, yet they believe he also wishes to live earnestly.

Their coincident actions made Sha Yufeng slightly squint, his blood‑red eyes lingering on Si Jing's nape for a moment.

Though he previously looked down on anyone under Lingxiao, at that time he and Si Jing had fled to the Dome together, having spent that long together.

In his memory, they were always pretentious and foolish, yet harbored other motives.

Sha Yufeng is highly sensitive to murderous intent; even at a distance, a fleeting glimpse of killing intent he can sense.

Including in the air.

He seems to have misplaced his trust once more.

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After a rest, they once again set foot on the path ahead.

With Xie Jingyan leading, their journey has been relatively smooth, yet the underground caves are a maze; even with a small map, walking through each passage consumes considerable time.

They still cannot act separately, as only Xie Jingyan can discern the dangers ahead.

Fortunately, the Dome's people brought a detector, specially developed by the Mutation Division, which functions even within the Eternal Silent Abyss.

Though its utility is not obvious, it allows them to discern the general forward direction, at least toward the location of this bizarre fungal Mutation Core.

Food is not a concern; they have ample dry rations, and the provisions in Ying Duo's Game Backpack are sufficient to sustain them underground for roughly six months, though they cannot truly remain that long.

The only somewhat scarce resource may be the medicines.

Since Fang Zhiyan meddled with the medicines, Ying Duo did a brief sorting and discovered that most of the medicines Fang Zhiyan had given him were now unusable, with only a few of the earlier ones still functional.

Yet he didn't discard them; if needed, these medicines could be given to Luo Jinyou, and should he eventually become an Aberrant Species, they would shift from 'poison' to 'medicine' for him.

Whether expelled from humanity or dead, he can still distinguish.

They appear to have moved from the outer rim to near the interior; visibly, the mycelium adhering to the surrounding rock walls grows denser, and when they entered a passage, Xie Jingyan could no longer locate a stable foothold for them.

"This passage here is now completely made of mycelium; if we go further, it will inevitably draw the fungal colony's attention."

Yet this also means they've found the right route and are drawing ever nearer to the target's core location.

"Then let's burn it down."

Ying Duo said expressionlessly.

Since they're drawing nearer and will inevitably trigger a fungal swarm, they should act first.

A fire both provides illumination and eliminates the fungi; why not be happy?