Free Web NovelChapter 396: Chapter 13: Bai Wu’s True Strongest Support
(Silver Alliance random extra Chapter cannot be used, progress 43/100.)
Before any major event, there are always many small signs.
Yan Zizai and Xie Xingzhi had already learned of a certain plan from a friend.
Qin Zong soon became aware, too.
As a member of the Qin Family, he was faced with a test—how to conduct himself when conflict with his own family inevitably erupted.
The Yan Family, Xie Family, and Investigation Corps were about to face a tremendous threat.
They were well aware that if this transformation truly came to pass, it would likely involve multiple levels. The battle would be prolonged and particularly brutal.
At that moment, Qin Zong was in the Investigation Corps’ branch, which was on the second floor of the High Tower, calculating the odds of victory and defeat.
Yan Zizai began making arrangements for the households. Using the Traction Disc left behind by Bai Wu, he sent off the crucial individuals of each warrior to leave the High Tower.
Contending with Evil Fallen outside the tower versus humans inside was completely different.
When fighting humans inside the tower, there were many additional factors that could tip the balance of victory or defeat.
What Yan Zizai had to do was eliminate these factors as much as possible.
Meanwhile, the Xie Family began to take control of some key locations.
The major families each took action. Though these actions were covert, they inevitably caught someone’s attention.
Consequently, at some unknown time, the people on the first, second, and third floors began to feel uneasy.
They sensed that something was about to happen in the High Tower, but what exactly it was remained unclear.
Over these days, Qin Zong had simulated battles over and over again. Being the individual most capable of unifying forces, he realized... the chances of victory were almost zero.
What you look at in a confrontation is soldier versus soldier, general versus general.
When it comes to combat power, whether it’s the top fighters or the overall troop strength, the gaps are vast on both sides.
Besides Yan Zizai, our side lacks guardian-level experts almost entirely.
But the opponents... Five rulers, five guardians, a gap that simply could not be bridged.
Throughout human history, there were many rebellions, all suppressed by the absolute power of the rulers.
This time was different, this time... it seemed as if the rulers stirred up strife for no reason, initiating suppression.
Thus, Qin Zong was certain that this was a fight to the death. The High Tower would face a new state of affairs after this great war.
Only... he couldn’t see a path to victory. The current situation didn’t even allow for a large-scale retreat because when exactly the five families would strike was still unknown.
"If Qingyu and Bai Wu... are truly dead... there is no chance of winning this battle at all."
Gu Qingyu, Bai Wu.
Qin Zong suddenly realized that, whether inside or outside the tower, these two individuals were extremely important.
If these two could return to the High Tower, then what is called suppression in the name of "transformation" might actually become a real transformation.
But Qin Zong was well aware that reality is unforgiving, and the so-called saviors might die in the very next moment in the most absurd way.
One had gone to the sixth floor of the High Tower; the other had ventured into the most dangerous area outside. Were they—truly still alive?
...
...
Outside the tower. The black area, Mycelium Insect Forest.
The biggest difference between the black and red areas is not the strength of the guardians, but rather that the twisted beings born within can emerge without any constraints on their quality and quantity.
Countless high-level aberrant creatures lurked in the Mycelium Insect Forest, resembling cockroaches in appearance, beetles whose size dwarfed that of elephants, as well as burrowing, serpentine "earthworms" of monstrous size, and fist-sized fleas that constantly leaped in search of blood to suck...
All sorts of bizarre, oversized insects pervaded this area densely.
Black insect nests were everywhere, the air filled with the sour smell of various strange liquids mixed together, and the incessant buzzing noise seemed to linger forever.
The entire ground of the mycelium was black, moist, as though it were mud.
Every patch of land was teeming with innumerable insects.
A slightly short human walking here seemed quite out of place, as this was practically a "no-man’s land" for humanity.
No one could have imagined that a former swamp some six hundred and ninety miles from Baichuan City had become the kingdom of insects.
The diminutive human was surrounded by the corpses of insects, their bodies in shades of purple, green, black, and white, with all kinds of fluids everywhere.
His eyes had gone blind, and his hearing had disappeared.
But by slaying a massive number of insects, he had acquired a new means of perception to replace his sight and hearing, Sequence 600—Heart Net.
An ability that allowed the surrounding images and sounds to be directly displayed in the sea of consciousness.
The saying "where there’s a will, there’s a way" aptly described the plight of this not-so-tall man, or rather many of his plights.
Among the good people, there always seems to be a few who truly receive their just deserts—
Wu Jiu was probably one of that very few.
He had contracted the most fatal negative attributes—Desire for Slaughter, Desire for Blood, and the condition that he would die if he didn’t speak.
Of course, there were numerous other negative attributes that didn’t instantly kill a person but still greatly restricted them...
Sluggishness, Blindness, emotional confusion, cognitive biases, disoriented sense of direction, Evil Fervor, bleeding, surging desires, weakened strength, slowed speed, accelerated physical decline... and so on, nearly two hundred different negative attributes in total.
Although all these attributes were troublesome, they weren’t severe enough to force one into a situation where triggering the Return Roulette was imminent within minutes.
Only those three most fatal attributes once forced Bai Wu to activate the Return Roulette, the life-threatening properties.
Normally, whenever one encountered such rule-changing properties, they would have no choice but to return to the city.
But the place Wu Jiu arrived at was the Mycelium Insect Forest.
In the mycelium, even a single step would cause countless tiny insects to perish, which meant that Wu Jiu could maintain a state of slaughter even if he did nothing at all.
At the same time, Wu Jiu was always muttering to himself.
He was counting. To ensure he was always in a state of slaughter and always talking, without pause.
Even as drowsiness crept over him, Wu Jiu would just close his eyes to rest, but he’d still force himself to recite certain phrases aloud.
He paid no attention to the tiny insects that could be crushed with a footstep. But for those that took more effort to kill, that needed him to wield his sword, he kept a tally of them all.
With one thousand four hundred and twenty-five, an average of thirty or forty a day, Wu Jiu became the greatest large-scale predator of this Mycelium Insect Forest!
Half-asleep and half-awake, using his strong will to control his body, no matter how severely or trivially the negative attributes eroded him, Wu Jiu continually asked himself—
Is this really the end? Let’s try again... perhaps I can still hold on.
He had asked himself this question over and over again during those days.
Until later...
He no longer asked such questions.
Under the powerful self-suggestion, Wu Jiu seemed to forget that he could choose to return to the city.
He forgot that he had the Return Roulette on him.
Only by continuously extending his survival time outside the tower, could he improve himself to the greatest extent.
So, to become stronger, Wu Jiu went from "perhaps I can still hold on" to "I can continue to hold on."
His strength increased slowly, just as Qin Zong had said.
But as a combat genius, Wu Jiu was becoming more and more adapted to this place, his control over his body becoming ever more exaggerated.
In the beginning, these insects could survive a few rounds, but as Wu Jiu continued to master their habits, he killed them faster and faster.
The insects he slayed became more powerful.
The terror of the black area lay in the fact that those creatures, seemingly so powerful that they should be exceedingly rare, might be found everywhere in the black area.
Just as in Mechanical City, the top-tier members of the Mechanical Race, who could stand alone or even be comparable to an area’s Guardian in other regions.
In the black area, however, they thronged in dense masses, seemingly inconsequential beings.
But for Wu Jiu, none of that mattered.
"I need to kill insects, and you are insects. Beyond that, I make no other considerations."
In such a perilous place, simplifying problems is undoubtedly dangerous.
Time and again, the insects thought Wu Jiu was doomed, but he adapted more and more to his body riddled with negative states, and to combat while in a state of extreme weakness.
Thus, he accomplished one kill after another.
...
The guardian of the mycelium carpet, a notoriously infamous monster within the black zone, was the Insect Queen.
Wu Jiu knew that as long as he killed the Insect Queen, he would be able to find the Doomsday Fragment and cleanse himself of his status condition.
However, for many days, Wu Jiu’s pace had been sluggish, and he still hadn’t reached the deepest part. This was also related to his intention to slowly fight his way in, bit by bit.
This place was far from Baichuan City, but now that the regional restrictions had been lifted, Wu Jiu left hardly any survivors on his way.
The incessant insects were no different. His ultimate goal was not to kill a powerful monster but to surpass himself from a second ago.
As for the immensely large mother insect, growing inside a thick carapace in the deepest part of the mycelium insect forest—the Insect Queen, a human-faced beetle like a bastion, it too had sensed Wu Jiu’s presence early on, but did not confront him.
On the contrary, the Insect Queen curled up in fear, enclosing itself within its thick and sturdy carapace that could withstand any attack, as if she were a timid queen hiding in a fortress. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
What she was avoiding was not Wu Jiu.
Recently, when the regional restrictions were broken through, a creature that equally didn’t belong in this place appeared in the mycelium.
The arrival of this creature instilled fear in the Insect Queen.
And this creature... soon encountered Wu Jiu.
...
...
Acid rain fell upon the land, and Wu Jiu took shelter under a strange plant to rest.
His breath came in harsh gasps, each muscle in his body seemingly sore and numb.
If it were anyone else, their body might have forced them into a comatose state to preserve function.
Wu Jiu didn’t, as if control over his body was a kind of innate talent. A decline in vitality and physical strength could cause many abilities to decrease and even certain abilities to be completely sealed off.
But Wu Jiu maintained his formidable combat strength throughout.
He slowly regulated his breath, allowing his Innate Force to restore his body under an extremely balanced mode.
Suddenly, Wu Jiu furrowed his brow.
A cat had appeared within the range of his Heart Net.
When the image of the cat emerged in his mind, Wu Jiu thought his nerves were playing tricks on him.
However, the acid rain fell on the cat, corroding its fur until the festered epidermis was exposed, which was too real.
Wu Jiu watched the cat warily, but he was truly tired now. If the target showed no intent to kill, no hostility, he would not act rashly.
"How can there be a cat in this place?"
In the mycelium, cats were as out of place as humans.
"It looks like it’s injured..." Wu Jiu thought to himself.
Eyes closed, face covered in blood, Wu Jiu sat slumped under a large tree, motionless like a corpse. If it weren’t for his constant muttering, one might think he was dead.
The cat knew Wu Jiu was still alive. Its perception could cover the entire mycelium insect forest.
It was curious, how could there be a human in this place, the severed corpses of the insect race on the outskirts, were they the work of this human?
"He looks like he’s injured..." the cat thought to itself.
Fur corroded, skin festering, the emaciated cat seemed to have been through inhuman torture.
But in the end, when it approached Wu Jiu, he knew it still possessed a vigorous vitality.
"I read in a textbook, after humans die, animals eat their bodies, do you want to eat me?"
The cat looked ragged and feeble, but in fact, the acid rain couldn’t harm it at all, it was just trying to look very weak.
To gain the sympathy of the human or to make him let his guard down.
But the human didn’t seem to care about these things, he even knew it wanted to eat him?
"Well, if I die, it’s better to be eaten by you than by the insects."
Wu Jiu didn’t know what the cat was thinking; he was really just trying to relieve himself.
And the cat felt it was very strange, had this human seen through my disguise?
Shouldn’t he be very afraid?
It seems pointless to eat him now. Why is he so calm? Perhaps I should wait until he starts to feel fear and despair before devouring him.
All of a sudden, the cat was a bit dazed.
Because Wu Jiu had... embraced it in his arms.
"The insects are coming, don’t be afraid."
The cat suddenly understood; it had actually sensed the insects approaching long ago, but was this human, protecting me?
How arrogant this human is! If I showed my true form, I could scare you to death!
When this thought crossed the cat’s mind, it was stunned again.
Because the human had torn off a piece of cloth and wrapped its body in it.
The uniform of the Investigation Corps, resistant to high temperatures, low temperatures, and corrosion. Although not an absolute isolation, it also had quite an impressive effect.
The cat pretended to be corroded, to evoke the human’s compassion, but listening to the human suggesting that it eat him, the cat had originally thought that the human might have known something.
But now... it was somewhat at a loss.
Could it be that this human... really thought I was just a cat?
"Forget it, let’s see what he does." The cat decided to give up thinking.
Wu Jiu truly believed it was a cat, and even though he possessed extreme balance, which made his perceptive abilities very strong, he couldn’t sense a creature of this level.
Over the past seven hundred years, this world wasn’t only touched by Zero... in the domain of the Well.
It was just that Zero was the only one who ostentatiously built up a power base.
And the few other powerful beings that had also crossed that threshold mostly became mysterious legends.
The Insect Race approached once again.
Wu Jiu held the cat in his arms, dealing with over two hundred negative attributes, and swung his sword again.
"He has that disc on him... It seems to be this thing that causes humans to suddenly disappear. Is this your way out?"
The cat noticed that Wu Jiu seemed to fight the insects sideways almost the whole time, as if to protect it.
Giant mosquitoes, chain-like iron threadworms, and countless oddly shaped insects resembling prehistoric creatures, were continuously being slain by this human.
The cat was keeping an eye on the disc:
"When you try to activate it, I will destroy it, and you will surely fall into despair."
It began to wait for the man to enter a dead end, then flee.
But as the dying man kept swinging his sword and the insects died one by one, it suddenly realized... the plot wasn’t following its expected course.
Is he mad? Not running away in a situation like this? What’s driving him?
It couldn’t imagine a human not retreating in the face of certain doom, but instead advancing further.
The cat thought this man must be foolish.
Ten minutes later, the rain stopped, and the human continued to slump under the big tree, with his eyes closed, muttering some meaningless, indistinct monosyllabic sounds.
The cat really wanted to become human and ask him what he was doing, but in the end, it didn’t.
Wu Jiu’s palm, full of thick calluses, gently stroked the cat’s head, and the cat actually found it quite comfortable, feeling an urge to squint its eyes and enjoy the sensation.
But it quickly felt that something was off, as it was supposed to eat him.
"It’s good... the Insect Race we encountered wasn’t strong, you’re not hurt," Wu Jiu said weakly.
The cat was very perplexed; this human was clearly close to death... why wouldn’t he just leave? Of course, it didn’t know that the human’s insane actions were just so he could forever protect his dear friend.
There is a kind of pride in some people of this world, not outwardly shown, but when they find themselves to be a burden, they will do everything they can to return to their peak.
It’s precisely because Wu Jiu was such a person that Bai Wu always believed that the captain could be trusted forever.
The cat naturally couldn’t understand all this. It just stared at the human’s face for a long time, noticing by human standards, he was quite good-looking, just a bit too serious...
Forget it, I’ll watch a little longer. He must be dying next time.
I’ll eat him when that time comes, definitely next time.
