Free Web NovelChapter 150: Chapter 150: Another Catastrophe!
Flying Tiger looked at the bark in Jiang Che’s hand, then glanced again at the area where the bark had been stripped away.
The tree, with its rough exterior, after having a piece of bark torn off, revealed bright red muscle fibers beneath. Red blood slowly oozed out like branches, the muscle cells twitching in apparent pain.
She reached out to touch the nearby tree, but as soon as her fingers met the trunk, they were instantly sucked onto it.
In just a moment, a few wrinkles appeared on Flying Tiger’s face.
Jiang Che quickly pulled her away, but it was already too late.
The young girl’s tender skin had already loosened a bit, and several fine lines appeared at the corners of her eyes.
"Don’t touch this." Jiang Che hurriedly spoke up. "Anyone below Tier 13 who touches this will have their life force drained."
Only then did Flying Tiger realize that aside from Jiang Che, none of the others had any intention of touching these things.
Bitterness crept onto her lips, because she knew Jiang Che had surely learned this from the evil spirits.
But more than that, what Jiang Che said caught her attention: anyone below Tier 13 would be in trouble from touching this.
Where could humans find so many Tier 13s?
Looking at the endless stretch of monstrous trees, a creeping chill settled in her heart. These mutant trees appearing in the Human Realm would be an epic disaster.
"What happens if someone below Tier 13 touches this?"
"Whether human or evil spirit, anyone who touches it will become its nutrients." Jiang Che recalled what Hua had told him along the way.
That’s why all the Lords keep opening up space for their followers to survive.
The smaller dungeons are the areas carved out by the Lords for their subordinates to guard, so that eventually these regions can be gradually linked together.
"You’re Tier 13 now?" Flying Tiger blurted out, startled. She knew Jiang Che’s wife was strong, so his tier shouldn’t be low, but she hadn’t expected it to be this high.
"Just recently ascended, actually."
Jiang Che brushed aside dead leaves on the ground and found many modern items, all left behind by people lining up earlier.
Seeing this, he was absolutely certain.
The place they stood now was the dungeon entrance from before, and this wasn’t some deserted forest after all.
He remembered Ding Ning mentioning that once the passage between the Human Realm and the evil spirit world was breached, it would bring about irreversible consequences.
For example, the two worlds’ atmospheres would seep into each other, with the stronger side gradually swallowing up the weaker’s presence.
That’s still not the most crucial issue, since at worst, the presence contamination alters the survival environment; the real problem is that humanity has too many ordinary people.
This was originally an ordinary world. Some higher-ups wanted to open the path to superpowers, so that humans could advance without clearing dungeons, and in time, humanity could fight evil spirits on equal footing—even seize the advantage.
They always believed in humanity’s adaptability.
The greater the pressure, the stronger the rebound.
There might be many sacrifices in this process, but in the long term, humanity’s life level would leap forward.
And those sacrifices are just a part of that pressure.
Jiang Che recalled that not far from this entrance was a small city. He led the others, quickening their pace toward it.
"Brother Che, my mom..." Zhou Ang’s face turned grim.
"We’ll go now." Jiang Che didn’t hesitate for a second; Zhou Ang’s mother wasn’t in the city’s family district.
This is something the Flying Tiger Group did right: dispersing management makes already scarce manpower even more stretched, so all family districts are set up at headquarters, which always has Flying Tiger Group experts stationed.
What Jiang Che most wanted to see first, though, was how far the forest had expanded.
From the moment they came out, he hadn’t seen a single evil spirit.
But this forest’s expansion was out of control.
He felt this was something neither Ding Ning nor the other Evil Spirit Lords had anticipated.
Even humans hadn’t seen it coming.
The biggest winner this time wasn’t humans or evil spirits, but the Dark Forest—growing by devouring anyone below Tier 13 as nourishment.
The human population is enormous.
The city lay not far from their entrance; just over ten minutes later, Jiang Che and the rest saw its silhouette.
But it was just a silhouette.
The city’s steel-and-concrete landscape was overgrown with monstrous trees; trees burst out from windows and doors, making the already sealed city even harder to enter.
Tower stairwells were clogged with an endless rush of mutant trees, walls cracking under their expansion, yet the sheer mass of trees propped up the buildings.
The entire city—no survivors.
Jiang Che’s breath caught; this scene was even more shocking than he’d imagined.
"Let’s move." Jiang Che wasn’t afraid of these things, but he had more important business.
He was going to help Zhou Ang protect his mother.
If this keeps spreading, even if Zhou Ang’s mother is far away, irreversible disaster would come.
After much trouble, Jiang Che finally found a working car lodged amidst the trees.
They escaped the city to the main road outside; perhaps because there weren’t human-like lifeforms here, the forest’s expansion slowed.
Even the countryside had few living creatures now, mostly birds and rabbits—no large animals left.
And it seemed rabbits and birds couldn’t sustain the monstrous trees’ spread or growth.
Zhou Ang drove, silent.
After leaving the forest area, the signal on everyone’s phones finally returned.
Checking their devices, they saw humanity had raised its alert to Level One.
The car’s radio kept broadcasting the latest news.
[Since the entrance to the SSS-level dungeon Six-Star Pond opened, we lost contact with the Survivors inside.]
[The livestream is gone; we don’t know what happened to them, but clearly, no one has returned yet.]
[But from the ticket seller’s severed finger, we can tell it’s extremely dangerous inside.]
[Four hours after they entered the dungeon, the original entrance began sprouting black mutant trees, which are ravenously devouring life.]
[Tier 10 Survivors have been sent to fix the problem, but all failed! The mutant trees’ spread is terrifying! Citizens, please evacuate to the following cities for emergency refuge. Don’t bring belongings, hurry! This is a crisis of life and death for humanity!]
They listed ten cities—each protected by high-tier Survivors.
For now, all they could do was gather everyone together.
Not because more hands make lighter work, nor because three fools make a wise man, nor because there’s strength in numbers.
The city wasn’t large, but the numbers escaping were huge.
Still, they had to keep accepting refugees, because leaving them outside to be devoured would mean even greater disaster.
