Chapter 104: Yun Sheng Starts to Get Stronger
"All students, attention! Maintain a defensive formation and don’t scatter! The maintenance team is on its way. Assistant guides, expand the security perimeter. Focus your scans on the vehicle’s undercarriage and the surrounding terrain to confirm if the malfunction involves... an external attack."
Just then, the guide’s unusually grim voice rang out again.
’External attack?’
The term drained even more color from the students’ faces.
Yun Sheng noticed that after hearing the command, one of the two assistant guides crouched down and began scanning the undercarriage with an instrument. The other raised his weapon, surveying the surroundings with heightened vigilance, but his attention remained primarily fixed on the withered forest and the road ahead.
The hillside to the southwest, however, was being ignored.
Yun Sheng took a deep breath, deciding not to dwell on White Tiger’s incomprehensible motives.
’No matter who he is or what his purpose is, the most important thing for me right now is to stay alive!’
She subtly adjusted her stance, keeping a watch on the southwestern hillside from the corner of her eye while she began to slowly gather her faint spiritual power.
The seconds ticked by.
The wind, carrying the faint, rotten scent unique to the contaminated zone, whistled through the dead branches. In the distance, the gray fog seemed to writhe slowly.
Suddenly, the assistant guide scanning the undercarriage snapped his head up, his voice taut.
"Report! There’s... there’s non-mechanical damage on the driveshaft! It looks like it was hit by some kind of highly corrosive substance!"
"What?!" The guide’s face fell.
At that very same moment.
WHOOO...
A strange and extremely faint sound, part baby’s cry and part mournful wail, drifted over from the direction of the southwestern hillside.
A collective shiver ran through the students, and they stared in horror in that direction.
"On alert! Everyone, on alert! To the southwest!"
The guide’s voice shot up, cracking with alarm. He had obviously sensed something was wrong.
Every muscle in Yun Sheng’s body went taut, but her eyes were calm, far more composed than the other students around her.
She clenched her fists. Within her spiritual landscape, her faint spiritual power coalesced, forming a thin needle that she silently aimed toward the source of the sound.
’The real crisis had arrived, one step ahead of reinforcements.’
The two assistant guides reacted instantly, whipping their guns around to lock onto the southwestern hillside.
One of them reported quickly, "Detecting a large number of Life Energy signatures! Medium movement speed. Energy fluctuations are... jumbled. Suspected swarm of low-level pollutants."
’Not scattered pollutants, but a swarm.’
Yun Sheng’s heart clenched.
A SHHH-SHHH-SHHH sound grew louder and more intense, as if countless things were approaching.
Under the dim sky, twisted, writhing shadows began to emerge from behind the boulders on the hillside.
"It’s—it’s corrosive worms! And... is that a variant of the Bone-piercing Vine?!"
A sharp-eyed student cried out, their voice filled with terror.
Several corrosive worms, each as thick as an adult’s arm, slithered out from the rock crevices and began to descend. Dark green slime oozed down their bodies, and their heads consisted of nothing more than a circular maw of sharp teeth.
At the same time, several variants of Bone-piercing Vine that looked like dead creepers shot forward, slithering across the ground like living snakes, their tips flashing with a cold, metallic glint.
’They were all D-level pollutants. A single one wasn’t much of a threat, but such a large number was more than enough to pose a lethal danger to this group of Preparatory Guides, all of whom lacked any real combat experience!’
"Don’t panic! Hold the formation! Guides, try to use Spiritual Interference to slow them down. Assistant guides, prepare for elimination by fire!"
The guide commanded in a loud voice, his own spiritual power flaring to life as he rapidly issued tactical orders.
"The corrosive worm’s weak point is the nerve cluster an inch below its maw! Hitting it there will paralyze it for a moment. A follow-up strike to the center of its head will kill it! The Bone-piercing Vine fears high-frequency vibrations—striking metal will disrupt its directional senses! Does everyone understand?"
The students nodded frantically, but fear had already completely gripped them.
A few students tried to gather their spiritual power, but the fluctuations they emitted were chaotic and weak, like a guttering candle in the wind.
One student’s spiritual power barely extended an inch before they yanked it back in fear. Another stood with her eyes squeezed shut, muttering for what felt like an eternity. A worm had already crawled within three meters of her, and she still hadn’t managed to attack.
"Hurry up! Hit it!"
The student next to her stomped her foot in frustration.
"I—I can’t hit it..."
The targeted corrosive worm was completely unaffected. It continued to slither forward, its circular maw of sharp teeth snapping open and shut as corrosive slime dripped to the ground.
’The guide’s instructions weren’t wrong, but the Preparatory Guides’ reaction times and accuracy—without the benefit of accumulated combat experience—were completely inadequate.’
Yun Sheng ignored the hideous pollutants. Instead, she opened her terminal and quickly typed out a message.
F-3: Can support get here any faster? We’re under attack by corrosive worms and variant Bone-piercing Vines. There are a lot of them, and they’re getting closer. The guide told us the weak points, but the students can’t land a hit.
A reply came back the instant she sent the message.
S-1: Hitting a worm one inch below its maw stuns it for a full three seconds. You can do a lot in three seconds. Aim, be steady, then follow up with a strike to the center of its head. Bone-piercing Vines fear high-frequency noise. Strike the vehicle’s chassis with something metal, the faster the better. Hold out for ten minutes, reinforcements are almost there!
’Three seconds.’
’The duration of the worm’s stun had been clarified.’
’Three seconds really was enough time to do a lot!’
Yun Sheng snapped her head up, her gaze locking onto a spot one inch below the maw of the corrosive worm charging at the very front.
She closed her eyes and focused.
Her spiritual power condensed into a thin needle and shot out in an instant!
The massive body of the foremost corrosive worm suddenly went rigid, its head rearing back in pain.
Its circular maw snapped open and closed uncontrollably. Its forward momentum halted abruptly, and it began to writhe violently in place.
One.
Two.
Yun Sheng stared intently at the hideous, thrashing head, unable to move from its spot. Within her spiritual landscape, a second thin needle of spiritual power was already taking shape.
Three.
The second needle struck instantly!
The worm convulsed violently. Its circular maw let out a final, grating CRACK-CRACK, and then its entire body collapsed as if its bones had been removed, slumping limply to the ground, motionless.
Yun Sheng gasped for breath, her fingertips trembling.
However, the second worm right behind it was completely unaffected.
It slithered around its comrade’s twisted body, its circular maw snapping open as it lunged straight for the short-haired female student closest to Yun Sheng.
The girl seemed frozen in terror, her legs rooted to the spot. Her pupils contracted, but she was too scared to even scream.
The worm’s maw was less than half a meter from her calf. Dark green, corrosive slime dripped from between its teeth, burning small puffs of white smoke into the ground.
Yun Sheng’s mind went blank.
She had no time to think, no time to weigh the options. She didn’t even realize she had moved.
Her body reacted before her mind did.
She lunged forward, grabbed the girl’s arm, and used every ounce of her strength to haul the girl behind her!
They both tumbled to the ground. The back of the girl’s head knocked against the hollow of Yun Sheng’s shoulder as the worm’s teeth scraped past the sole of her boot, chomping on empty air.
HISS!
The worm let out a piercing hiss, its head swiveling to take aim at the two prey now just inches away.