Chapter 282 - 168: Chen Chong Arrives! A Violent Slaying! Mutation Is Useless
Ning Yu sat on the ground, blood dripping from the wound on her arm as she gasped for breath.
The Frenzy effect faded rapidly, and the flush quickly drained from her face.
In its place came an immense weakness and searing pain.
The Frenzy hadn’t just amplified Ning Yu’s power; it had also shielded her from the distraction of pain.
Now that the ability had worn off, she didn’t even have the strength to stand, let alone lift her blade.
At the same time, a dizzy spell from the blood loss was threatening to swallow her whole...
"Sis!"
Ning Feng rushed forward. Seeing Ning Yu in this state after she had protected them, his eyes filled with anguish. His lips trembled, but he didn’t know what to say.
Shen Xinrou and the Medicine Lady hurried over.
One began dressing her wound to stanch the bleeding, while the other carefully poured a special medicinal solution into her mouth...
...
To shatter the barrier, the Bloodthirsty Vines forcibly drained energy from their hosts to become stronger.
The price was the host’s accelerated death; after this battle, they would be nothing more than discarded pawns...
Large swathes of Parasites visibly withered, moving like desiccated corpses.
The once-slender vines grew thicker, their color darkened, and even the barbs covering them became more terrifying and menacing.
WHAP—
A vine lashed against the door, only to be instantly repelled by the light shield covering it.
But as one vine after another struck the door, the impacts became a ceaseless roar, and the shield’s flickering grew more frequent.
Everyone inside stared, their hearts pounding with anxiety.
They didn’t know how long the shield would last.
Their only Transcendent had lost her ability to fight, and almost everyone else inside was sick or injured.
Once the defensive line was breached, certain death awaited them all.
To everyone’s despair, as the Parasites outside attacked again and again, the shield flickered constantly...
The light covering the room’s walls seemed to be dimming rapidly, no longer as bright as before.
If only one person had sensed it, it might have been dismissed as a trick of the eyes. But nearly everyone in the room saw the change.
...
「Meanwhile, on the seventh floor!」
A dozen or so Parasites used the security guard’s memories to easily locate Chen Chong’s room.
Looking at the room number, their faces twisted into eerie, pseudo-human grins...
Then, without hesitation, they attacked!
But an intense light instantly enveloped the entire doorway.
Their attacks struck the light like a pebble dropped into a lake; aside from causing a faint ripple, they had no effect whatsoever.
Compared to the barrier of light enveloping the entire building, the one on Chen Chong’s room was immeasurably stronger.
The golden light within it was so condensed it was nearly solid, obscuring the door and walls behind it.
It was as if the barrier protecting the entire building was merely an incidental extension of this one.
The Fortress Defense Line’s true purpose had always been to protect this single room...
The Parasites began to convulse.
Like the Parasites downstairs, they began to forcibly drain the energy from their hosts, attempting to grow strong enough to break down the door.
But their empowered attacks only served to make the ripples more pronounced; beyond that, there was no change.
Instead, the commotion they caused alerted the Rock Armor Eagle inside the room...
Ever since the Rock Armor Eagle had grown a little larger and taken to wandering around the living room, Chen Chong no longer restricted its movements.
He had only strictly forbidden it from damaging anything in the apartment, including the crops and the creatures in their enclosure.
As an Extraordinary Creature, the Rock Armor Eagle was highly intelligent. It could communicate and took its master’s instructions to heart.
It had been dozing on the sofa, but at the sound of the commotion outside, it immediately spread its wings and fluttered to the door, letting out a series of cries as it prepared to face the enemy.
Sensing the approaching danger, a strange transformation began to occur in its body.
Perhaps this change was due to the special feed it had been eating recently, or perhaps it was an inherent trait of the Rock Armor Eagle species...
...
"AH!!!"
"My hand, my hand..."
Downstairs, at the apartment building.
Members from the gymnasium, armed with a motley collection of weapons, were trying to contain the Parasites.
Zhang Meng and Huang Mao were among them.
They had rushed over as soon as they’d heard the commotion.
Jia Wen and Zhong Fang had gone off-campus to scout and establish detailed hunting protocols for the group. Most of the other members had either gone with them or were out scavenging for resources.
Fewer than fifty people had remained at the gymnasium, and now all of them had come.
But as ordinary people facing Parasites, they were completely outmatched.
They’d been here for at least half an hour, yet they were still pinned down by just four or five Parasites, unable to even get close to the door of the traditional Chinese medicine clinic.
Worse, nearly ten members had already fallen. Some were gravely wounded, while others had been... infected.
Fortunately, as core members, Zhang Meng and Huang Mao had each received an Extraordinary Artifact from Chen Chong, even though they hadn’t become Transcendents themselves.
These artifacts were low-grade, crafted from leftover materials, but they were just enough to help them survive against low-level Extraordinary Creatures like the Parasites.
With a shield that could cover several meters and a stinger capable of ranged attacks, they had weathered dozens of assaults and even managed to kill two Parasites.
Zhang Meng’s face was pale, and Huang Mao’s voice trembled.
"Damn, this thing Brother Chong gave us is the real deal! It really is an Extraordinary Artifact!"
"Watching Brother Chong kill these Parasites made it look easy. It’s only when you’re fighting them yourself that you realize how fucking terrifying it is. I almost got whipped to death a few times!"