Chapter 61: Ominous Gloom

The corridor was enveloped in a dead silence, broken only by the increasingly hurried footsteps and heavy panting of the group. Walls, ceiling, and floor—every visible surface was coated in heavy black crystals that flickered with an ominous, sinister glow and radiated a bone-chilling cold. The thick, sweet, and foul stench hanging in the air pressed down on them so heavily that it was almost suffocating.

Chen Si walked in the middle of the formation, forcing herself to hold on. The light of her barrier flickered faintly, and her face grew paler by the second.

"Chen Si, can you still hold out?" Chen Jiahe supported her, her voice laced with anxiety.

Chen Si barely managed to squeeze out two words: "I'm... fine."

They clenched their teeth and inched upward step by step.

Every single step felt as heavy as a thousand weights, oppressing their chests until it was hard to breathe.

Tenth floor, eleventh floor...

Finally, they stepped onto the landing leading to the twelfth floor!

Almost at that exact instant, chaos erupted!

"Crack... Crackle..."

The blood-curdling sounds of shattering and friction echoed dully from deep within the crystalline walls on both sides, growing louder and closer by the second!

"What the hell is that sound?!" Xie Youyou screamed, instinctively grabbing Muchen’s arm so hard that her knuckles turned white.

Before her voice even faded, the crystal wall on the left suddenly exploded with a deafening roar, blasting open a gruesome hole!

Countless flickering black crystal fragments, carrying a piercing chill, shot toward the crowd like a torrential storm!

"Hiss—! Watch out!"

Muchen reacted the fastest. With a sharp shout, he yanked Xie Youyou behind him, whipped out the long blade strapped to his back with his free hand, and held it horizontally before him!

A giant centipede-like worm, as thick as a water vat and covered in a thin layer of black crystals, burst violently from the wall cavity! Its hideous mouthparts flung wide open, letting out an intensely sharp shriek as it lunged like lightning toward a Pang Guang defector at the very edge of the formation!

"Ah!" Terrified out of his wits and completely unable to react, the defector was clamped around the waist by the worm's jaws, its razor-sharp mouthparts instantly tearing through his flesh!

"Help me!" A piercing, despairing scream echoed through the stairwell.

"Watch out!" Muchen roared, his wrist snapping as he hurled his military dagger straight at the worm's eye socket.

"Pfft!" The dagger sank precisely into the target, and the worm emitted a painful screech, though it refused to let go, instead dragging the defector back toward the wall cavity with brute force.

Almost simultaneously, the wall on the right and the wall directly ahead of them exploded with a series of thunderous roars!

"Hiss—!"

Three or four more crystal-covered worms of the same size emerged from the ruptured holes. Though massive in bulk, their movements were shockingly fast. Screeching, they closed in on the group from multiple directions!

"These freaks!" Chen Jiahe cried out. Her psychic wave swept over them instantly, only to find that the minds of these creatures were chaotic and violent, rendering her [Emotional Manipulation] practically useless.

"Their shells are too hard!" A defector swung a steel pipe with all his might, striking one of the worms only to produce a pitiful shower of sparks. The worm remained completely unharmed, growing even more enraged and lunging forward with heightened ferocity.

"Chen Si, shrink the barrier! Protect Youyou and Dr. Li!" Muchen commanded decisively, his speech rapid-fire.

Chen Si did not dare hesitate. Her mental barrier rapidly contracted, tightly shielding the three women, Dr. Li, and the severely injured, unconscious defector in the center.

"Dadui, roar at them!" Muchen shouted at the same time.

Facing monsters covered in radiation crystals, even Muchen dared not engage them in close combat lightly. With a flash of thought, his entire body suddenly transformed into a surging, rolling mass of pitch-black mist!

[Black Mist Form]!

In his Black Mist Form, Muchen was completely immune to the radiation corrosion on the worms' bodies. He darted rapidly and erratically among the cluster of worms, drawing their attention. The worms' bites and strikes missed him entirely, unable to inflict any substantive damage.

"Hiss-roar!" One of the worms was tightly entangled by the black mist into which Muchen had transformed. It whipped its ugly body frantically, but could not break free. Yet, more worms were swarming in from all directions, their sharp screeches threatening to puncture eardrums!

"ROAR—!!!"

Instantly, Dadui jerked his head upward and unleashed a deafening roar.

[Sonic Roar]!

The formidable sound wave manifested into a tangible shockwave that blasted outward.

Under the violent vibrations of this sonic wave, the hard black crystals covering the giant worms' bodies cracked loudly, peeling off in large sheets and exposing the relatively fragile grayish-white flesh underneath.

"Now's our chance!" Chen Jiahe brightened. "Hit the spots where their crystals fell off!"

A stream of the black mist that Muchen had transformed into immediately split off, tightly wrapping around the worm whose crystalline armor was most severely damaged, dragging down its mobility.

Although the remaining two Pang Guang defectors were scared out of their wits, the instinct for survival drove them to summon their last ounce of courage. Wielding their steel pipes, they smashed down fiercely at the exposed flesh of the worms.

"Pfft!"

The steel pipes sank deep into the worms' flesh, sending dark green, foul-smelling fluids splashing everywhere.

"[Emotional Resonance]!" Chen Jiahe activated her superpower again, and a strange ripple swept over the worm closest to her.

That worm's movements suddenly stiffened, turning sluggish and chaotic as it abruptly spun around to attack its own kind.

"Hit them! Kill all these freaks!" Xie Youyou pulled a fruit knife from her backpack. Although her fingertips trembled, she mustered her courage and, lingering at the edge of Chen Si's barrier, seized every opportunity to stab at the soft underbellies of the worms.

The scene plunged into utter frenzy. Screeches, roars, the dull thuds of metal striking flesh, and the desperate cries of humans all blended together.

The black mist controlled by Muchen was unimaginably slippery, continually harassing and pinning down the worms to create openings for the others.

Dadui’s sonic roars blasted intermittently, continuously wearing down the worms' crystalline defenses.

Under the desperate onslaught of the group, one giant worm after another suffered heavy injuries, collapsing limply to the ground with no further movement.

When the final worm was completely eliminated, the foul stench permeating the entire fire escape felt nearly asphyxiating.

Everyone was utterly exhausted, leaning against the walls and panting heavily. Chen Si looked particularly close to collapse, the light of her mental barrier dimmed to the absolute limit.

"We... we finally... took them down..." A defector sat paralyzed on the ground, his entire body soaked in sweat.

Muchen reverted from his Black Mist Form back into human shape, his breathing somewhat ragged; maintaining that form took a considerable toll on his mental energy.

Just as he was about to speak, his heart suddenly tightened.

"No!"

Deep within the fire escape, heading upward past the thirteenth floor, came a sudden influx of even denser, more rapid cracking sounds.

Following that were wave upon wave of worm screeches, far more shrill and frenzied than the ones they had just faced.

The scale of that commotion easily doubled the number of worms they had previously encountered.

The sound of shattering walls was rapidly approaching, bearing a terrifying momentum as if countless monsters were surging out from the masonry in all directions.

"Move!" Muchen barked, pulling up the nearly unsteady Chen Si. "Their main force is here!"