What does that mean?
Everyone turned their heads in confusion.
But in the very next second, every hair on everyone's body stood on end!
Because...
Ivan's corpse, whose head had been completely smashed, actually stood up again, swaying unsteadily!
Moreover, no blood gushed out from the bloody, mangled severed neck!
Instead, accompanied by a tearing sound of flesh and blood, countless dark red tentacles covered with barbs quickly sprouted out!
"Hiss!!!"
The headless Ivan let out a hiss, brandishing its tentacles, and lunged at the group!
"Monster!!!"
The soldiers roared and raised their weapons, ready to fight back.
And at this very moment!
"Whoosh!"
A sword light flashed out!
Before anyone could even see how Xing Wu, Ivan's massive body froze mid-charge!
It then collapsed to the ground with a loud crash.
His four limbs were all severed at the same time!
By the time everyone realized what was happening, Xing Wu had already sheathed his longsword.
"Something did happen... but thankfully it was discovered quickly."
But the next moment, an even more terrifying scene unfolded!
Ivan's body, now only a torso, did not stop; instead, apart from his neck, the cuts on his four severed limbs continued to spread!
It actually grew countless tiny tentacles!
These tentacles swung wildly like legs, lunging at Sergei, who was closest to them, in an inhuman manner!
"Bang!"
A second shot rang out!
But this time, the bullets fired by the Mosin-Nagant were no longer ordinary bullets.
Novsky's right eye, hidden beneath the brim of his hat, suddenly emitted a deathly aura!
Sequence 04 [Death's Eye]!
The bullet, carrying a tangible death aura, pierced through Ivan's mangled torso!
The instant he was struck, Ivan's entire body went numb, and his still-waving tentacles instantly withered, turning into a pile of rotting flesh.
[Death's Eye] can apply an [Instant Death Buff] to locked-on objects or attacks within its field of vision.
Anyone struck by this will have their soul forcibly pulled into death and vanish instantly!
However, this incredibly powerful Supernatural Ability also has irreversible side effects...
Novsky stumbled slightly, but quickly regained his footing.
Xing Wu, watching Novsky's trembling arm, asked in a low voice with concern, "Are you alright?"
"It can still hold up."
Novsky shook his head. "At least... enough for me to get through this journey."
Xing Wu nodded. "Then I'll go up and take a look."
As soon as he finished speaking, Xing Wu stepped forward, his fingertips together, and several Sword Qi were unleashed from a distance, directly dissecting Ivan's corpse on the ground!
What one sees is chilling.
Ivan's original internal organs had long been devoured, replaced by some kind of dark red parasite!
Its tentacles, like intertwined tree Tree Roots, were embedded in Ivan's bones, nerves, and every muscle!
It's as if it had been perfectly integrated with this body from the very beginning!
"Disgusting creature..."
Xing Wu snorted coldly.
He unleashed another sword strike, shredding the disgusting mass of flesh into countless ashes to prevent it from ever rising from the dead again.
Then, Xing Wu turned around and glanced at everyone present.
"Ivan has been parasitized by some unknown flesh-and-blood creature without his knowledge!"
"Moreover, the degree of integration of this organism is extremely high, even perfectly Simulation the host's state before death."
"Just now... who had close contact with him? Everyone step forward!"
Upon hearing this, the China soldiers all took a large step back in unison.
Clearly, they didn't know this drunkard at all.
The soldiers from the Su Country, unable to understand what Xing Wu was saying due to the language barrier, could only stand there scratching their heads.
So, Novsky, with a cold face, translated Xing Wu's order again in Soviet language.
Soon, a hand tremblingly rose from the line.
It was Sergei. He was covered in sweat, his face pale, and he swallowed hard.
"Elder... I... I'm Ivan's partner. We were the only two standing close together just now..."
The words had barely left his mouth!
Novsky actually picked up the Mosin-Nagant and pointed the muzzle at Sergei's forehead!
The Death's Eye in his right eye shone brightly once more!
"Feel sorry..."
Sergei was trembling with fear, tears welling up in his eyes.
But he knew that when faced with this potentially contagious and bizarre parasite, it was better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free.
He gritted his teeth and shouted, "Long live the Su Country!!!"
But just when everyone thought Sergei was doomed!
Novsky's wrist suddenly twisted!
He immediately turned his gun around and aimed it at someone standing at the very edge of the line...
The China soldier who tried to approach him fired a shot!
"Bang!"
With a gunshot, a cloud of blood exploded from the chest of the China soldier, and the power of death instantly pierced his soul.
He collapsed to the ground on the spot!
The crowd erupted in chaos!
"Wang Zixuan! That's Wang Zixuan!"
What are you doing?!
This sudden shot immediately ignited the fury of all the China soldiers!
They never expected that the Su Country elders would suddenly turn on the China soldiers and kill them!
"Do you want to break the contract?!"
Several China soldiers had bloodshot eyes, and some even drew their melee knives, ready to charge at Novsky!
Seeing this, the Su Country soldiers, though puzzled, immediately raised their weapons and stood protectively in front of Novsky.
The atmosphere at the scene plummeted to freezing point, tense and ready to erupt into a bloody battle at any moment!
"Quiet down, everyone!!!"
Xing Wu quelled the situation that was about to spiral out of control.
"Put down all your weapons!"
He walked to Wang Zixuan's body.
Without a word, he used his sword to pry open Wang Zixuan's Combat Suit, and then cleaved open his chest cavity with a single stroke!
"Hiss..."
Upon seeing the scene inside, all the China soldiers gasped in shock, their swords and spears falling limply to their sides.
All that could be seen inside Wang Zixuan's chest cavity was the absence of a human heart and lungs.
Instead, it contained the exact same dark red, writhing flesh and tentacles as those inside Ivan's body!
He was also parasitized!
"This... how is this possible?!"
Chen Xiaoyu was so shocked that she took two steps back and clutched her head in disbelief.
"Wang Zixuan is my partner!"
"We weren't separated for a single second from beginning to end, so when exactly did he...?"
"Why did I turn into a monster?!"
However, Xing Wu did not offer much explanation to Chen Xiaoyu.
He stood up, his gaze sweeping over a few corners of the crowd before settling on Novsky.
He raised his voice and spoke in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Let's get started."
"You were already aware of the hidden killing intent within the crowd, weren't you?"
Upon hearing this, Novsky was slightly taken aback at first, then gave Xing Wu a meaningful look.
He nodded obligingly and said in a deep voice, "Alright, leave no one alive."
Just as the word "good" was written, at that critical moment!
In the crowd, a China soldier and two Su Country soldiers suddenly seemed startled and broke away from the ranks!
They were racing headlong in three completely different directions!
"Ha, they fell for it!"
Xing Wu's eyes flashed with a cold light, and he let out a sneer.
With a stomp of his foot, his figure transformed into a blur!
"Sizzle!"
The longsword drew a Half Moon arc in mid-air!
The Su Country soldier who attempted to break through in his direction was instantly sliced into mincemeat by the Sword Qi, his blood splattering all over the ground!
On the other side...
Novsky didn't even look, turned around and pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
The China soldier, who was trying to escape up the mountain path, burst into a spray of blood, his body tumbling down the cliff.
The last remaining Su Country soldier was finally completely surrounded by the others who had come to their senses!
"Die!"
Li Tie roared and smashed his meteor hammer into the monster's back!
"Snap!"
A cracking sound rang out, and the monster's spine was smashed open on the spot, causing it to collapse to the ground.
"Sukabul! Die, monster!"
A Su Country soldier named Volod, his eyes bloodshot, lunged forward and straddled the monster.
He raised his fists high, intending to pierce the monster's chest in the most violent way possible!
"If it's not the brain, then it must be the heart!"
But just as Volod's fists slammed down!
The Su Country soldier pinned beneath him revealed a sinister smile!
"Click click click..."
The next second, its chest flesh tore open to both sides!
Those ribs were actually transforming into rows of fangs!
It turned into a gaping, bloodthirsty maw!
It snapped upwards, biting down on Volod's fists as they came crashing down, and then yanked hard!
"Crack!"
"Aaaaaaaahhhhh!!!"
Volod let out a bloodcurdling scream as his hands were bitten off at the wrists!
"Volod!"
The surrounding soldiers were shocked to see this and quickly stepped forward to pull the writhing, agonizing Volod away.
"Spread out! Use ranged attacks! Don't get close to it!"
The remaining soldiers pulled the triggers, and specially made bullets rained down into the monster's gaping maw!
But they could only beat it until it was a bloody mess; they couldn't kill it at all.
The monster even braved the hail of bullets, trying to stand up again!
"Get out of the way! Let me handle this!"
Li Tie roared and shoved through the crowd.
He threw away his meteor hammer, pulled out a specially made flamethrower from behind his back, and aimed it at the monster on the ground!
"Call!!!"
A blazing fire several meters long completely engulfed the monster!
Under the scorching heat of thousands of degrees, the monster finally let out a scream of extreme pain!
The tentacles inside his body writhed and struggled, but were quickly burned to charcoal in the flames, turning completely into black ash.
Seeing this, Li Tie, covered in sweat, raised his flamethrower and shouted.
"It works! Brothers, fire is a powerful attack against this kind of monster!"
In the distance, Xing Wu and Novsky, who had already swiftly dealt with the other two monsters, heard this.
He silently memorized this information.
The two walked together and looked at each other through the mess on the ground.
"Xing, you're still so good at adapting to situations."
Novsky wiped the gun barrel with a rag. "Actually, I have no ability to sense killing intent at all."
"I just noticed that one of your soldiers was walking strangely."
Xing Wu sheathed his sword. "You're not bad either."
"I simply went with the flow, using a little lie to expose these three guilty monsters."
"There aren't many people in this world who can cooperate with me so perfectly in this charade."
Novsky chuckled, a rare occurrence, but his gaze quickly fell upon the remains of the soldiers, and his eyes dimmed again.
Xing Wu followed his gaze and sighed.
"It's just a pity about these good kids..."
"They should have had bright futures, but now they've died mysteriously in their own hometown."
Novsky slowly closed his eyes.
He looked up, gazing at the eerily smiling ball of flesh in the sky.
"Xing, you don't need to worry about it too much."
"The road to truth and hope always needs to be paved with blood and flesh by someone."
"In the face of this collapsing world, these children are abandoned..."
"Aren't we old folks just like pawns on the chessboard, ready to be sacrificed at any moment?"
He gripped the Mosin-Nagant tightly in his hand.
"But as long as it's to protect our families, to find what we cherish most..."
"It was all worth it."
After listening, Xing Wu remained silent for a moment, then smiled with relief, "That makes sense."
However, Xing Wu's expression quickly turned cold again.
He glanced at the pile of charcoal on the ground and spoke in a solemn tone.
Let's save our reflections for when we get back.
"Getting back to the main point, since this thing can even fake the fear of death, and even knows to split up and run away when exposed..."
"Novsky, we must now re-examine..."
"What exactly are these monsters that have taken over our hometown?"