Obtained a Blue Quality Fruit

After several more minutes of effort, Lin Yi finally squeezed through the dense horde of Corpse Fiends and reached the Brown-Green Ancient Tree.

The Corpse Fiends here were packed tightly together, all staring blankly up at the milky-white fruits on the tree.

As if the fruits would fall when ripe and smash them on the heads.

But the thick stench of rotting corpses here was simply unbearable for Lin Yi. Even with his nose covered, he felt suffocated, as though the smell alone could knock him unconscious.

"We can't drag this out any longer. If I don't act now, I'll probably be fumigated to death before my Spirit Power runs out..."

The next moment, Lin Yi expanded the range of the White Mist.

The mist spread outward, enveloping everything within twenty meters. The entire Brown-Green Ancient Tree was also swallowed by the White Mist.

The Corpse Fiends on the outskirts froze for a moment. Had the good thing in their eyes been swallowed by the clouds in the sky?

As for the Corpse Fiends at the center, wrapped together with Lin Yi and the fruit tree, they began to roar. Restricted by the limited visibility, some had already started lunging, biting, and fighting each other.

After expanding the White Mist's range, Lin Yi felt his head swell with pain. He did not dare delay and immediately climbed the Brown-Green Ancient Tree, beginning to pick the milky-white fruits.

The moment he got the first milky-white fruit, the System finally gave him a notification.

Blue Rotten Wood Fruit: A special fruit that grows in an environment with extremely heavy Yin Qi and takes several hundred years to bear fruit. When ripe, it emits the scent of rotten wood. Newborns who consume this fruit can gain a large number of attribute points, but there is a high chance that their bodies will rot and undergo unknown mutations!

The instant he saw the description, Lin Yi knew his guess had been right. These milky-white fruits really were Blue Quality Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures.

In Apocalypse World, aside from the Holy Water Gu Chenghu had given him, he had never seen a second Blue Quality item.

He had struck it rich!

There were a total of nine milky-white fruits on the tree. Lin Yi darted through the branches, picking them frantically.

In just over ten seconds, all nine Rotten Wood Fruits were in his hands.

After stuffing the Rotten Wood Fruits into his Spatial Backpack, Lin Yi hurriedly jumped down from the Rotten Wood Tree, then shrank the White Mist's coverage and fled toward the edge of the horde.

Roar!!

At that moment, a series of Corpse Fiend roars rang out one after another.

The Corpse Fiends had discovered that not only was the fruit fragrance in the air gone, but when they looked up, the tree was empty as well. How could they not be enraged?

Enraged as they were, their brains were too dull to imagine that a fruit thief was hiding within the White Mist.

Lin Yi ran wildly through the White Mist. He could already feel his Spirit Power about to run dry, and the mist surrounding him was gradually fading.

"Faster, faster! Stop blocking the way..."

After kicking away another Corpse Fiend blocking his path, Lin Yi felt that he could no longer hold on. He decisively leveled up and added points to himself.

This time, Lin Yi gained two levels in one go and put all ten attribute points into Agility.

Lin Yi's Agility Attribute had originally been 10 points, the limit for a normal human.

After adding the points, Lin Yi's speed instantly doubled, allowing him to weave through the Corpse Fiend horde with far greater ease.

About half a minute later, Lin Yi finally charged out of the Corpse Fiend horde. By then, the White Mist covering him had practically become transparent.

But Lin Yi could not release even a trace more mist, because his Spirit Power usage had already exceeded its limit. Waves of stabbing pain kept coming from his head.

If he forced himself to release more mist, he would probably pass out completely.

The moment the Corpse Fiends on the outskirts spotted a human, they immediately became excited.

Although the fruits that had attracted them were gone, having flesh and blood to eat was not bad either.

Without the White Mist to conceal him, Lin Yi was gradually discovered by the Corpse Fiends.

Seeing many Corpse Fiends on the outskirts charging toward him, Lin Yi tried to log out and leave.

"Ding! A large number of dangerous creatures have been detected nearby. Unable to log out!"

Fuck!

What a garbage logout system!

Lin Yi's expression changed drastically. He directly stuffed the somewhat heavy Defensive Armor he was wearing into his backpack, then sprinted off wearing only the leather boots and underwear provided by the System.

There was only one word now: run! Run somewhere safe, then log out and leave!

With 20 points of Agility supporting him, Lin Yi moved like a small gale, covering a hundred meters in just a few seconds.

However, behind Lin Yi was a horde of Corpse Fiends that refused to let him go.

Judging by their numbers, there were more than three hundred Corpse Fiends in this horde.

There were quite a few Level 8 and Ninth Rank Corpse Fiends among them. These Corpse Fiends charged far faster than Lin Yi could run, even with 20 points of Agility.

Lin Yi had no choice but to grit his teeth and gain another level, adding 5 points to his Agility Attribute.

With those 5 additional points of Agility, Lin Yi's running speed rose another notch.

At that moment, Lin Yi glanced back. Most of the Level 7 Corpse Fiends had been left behind, but quite a few Level 8 and Ninth Rank ones were still chasing after him relentlessly.

As he ran, Lin Yi kept trying to log out on the spot, but the System continually informed him that he was not in a safe area and could not log out.

Damn it, it looked like he could not count on the System's logout mechanism.

"Qingshan, over here!!"

A figure in the distance shouted at him. Lin Yi focused his eyes and saw that it was Gu Chenghu, who had come looking for him.

Seeing Lin Yi being chased by such a massive number of Corpse Fiends, Gu Chenghu was greatly shocked.

Last time, Old Fourth Gu had used a Divine Talisman to blast out an entire family of Corpse Fiends, and there had only been around twenty of them. Yet hundreds of Corpse Fiends were chasing Lin Yi now, forming a densely packed mass in the distance.

Good lord, had Qingshan poked a Corpse Fiend nest?

"Captain!! You run first! I can still hold on!"

"Cut the nonsense. There are lots of bushes and trees over here that can slow the Corpse Fiends down. Come this way!"

Although the Corpse Fiend horde was terrifying, Gu Chenghu would not abandon Lin Yi and run away alone.

With no other choice, Lin Yi fled toward Gu Chenghu.

The jungle was thick with bushes, thorns, and dense young trees. But perhaps because Lin Yi still carried a faint trace of the Rotten Wood Fruit's scent, the Corpse Fiends charged in after him without hesitation.

Although many thorns tore large chunks of rotten flesh off the Corpse Fiends, they barely felt pain, so their running speed was not affected much.

"Qingshan, what exactly did you do? How did you lure out so many Corpse Fiends?"

Panting heavily, Lin Yi said, "Captain, we can talk about that later. Right now, we need to find a way to shake these things. I don't think these bushes and thorns can stop them."

Gu Chenghu looked back and indeed saw that the Corpse Fiend horde was still chasing them relentlessly.

Especially the few Ninth Rank Corpse Fiends at the front. They were only twenty or thirty meters away. If Lin Yi and Gu Chenghu relaxed even slightly, those Corpse Fiends would pounce on them in the next instant.

After running at high intensity for seven or eight minutes straight, Lin Yi was beginning to feel his stamina failing. Just as he hesitated over whether to level up again and add points to Endurance and constitution—

Gu Chenghu took out the Dragon Roar Saber and embedded the blade into the towering tree beside him.

The next moment, Gu Chenghu leaped fiercely. Using the Dragon Roar Saber's flexibility, he sprang onto the towering tree.

Then, like an ape, Gu Chenghu hugged the tree with all four limbs and climbed upward. In two swift seconds, he had reached the top of the canopy.

Lin Yi was ashamed by how skilled he was at climbing trees.

"Don't just stand there stupidly. Hurry and do what I did. Climb up here."

"Okay."

By then, the foul stench from the pursuing Corpse Fiends behind him was already close at hand!

At the critical moment between life and death, Lin Yi did not dare hesitate. He immediately jumped onto the Dragon Roar Saber. The tough blade bent slightly, then launched Lin Yi seven or eight meters into the air.

Lin Yi then clung tightly to the massive trunk, moving his limbs and struggling for quite a while before finally climbing to the top.

Gu Chenghu frowned. "Qingshan, you climb trees far too slowly. You need to practice more in the future."

"Captain, stop talking. If I get the chance, I'll definitely practice!"

For the first time, Lin Yi realized how important it was to know how to climb trees in the wilderness. He looked down and saw that a large number of Corpse Fiends had already chased them beneath the tree, with more and more gathering below.

Fortunately, the Corpse Fiends were not intelligent enough to use the Dragon Roar Saber to climb up. Nor could they form a human ladder. They were even a little worse than the zombies in movies.

However, the Corpse Fiends did not leave. They merely wandered around beneath the tree.

Seeing this, Gu Chenghu finally let out a breath of relief.

"Qingshan, your face is pale. Did you overuse your Spirit Power?"

"Yes, Captain. Otherwise, I would have used the White Mist to escape long ago."

Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Lin Yi took a Rotten Wood Fruit from his backpack and said, "Captain, this is a fruit I just snatched from the Corpse Fiend horde. The System says it's a Rotten Wood Fruit... Blue Quality. Do you recognize it?"

"Rotten Wood Fruit? And it's a Blue Quality fruit?"

Gu Chenghu took the milky-white Rotten Wood Fruit and examined it, only to find that he had never seen or heard of it before.

"Based on what you said, this fruit is not suitable for direct consumption. But since it is a Blue Quality fruit, it should be useful even to those at the professional level. If we bring it back to the village, we should be able to exchange it for a large amount of resources with the Village Chief and Village Elder."

At that moment, because Lin Yi had taken out the Rotten Wood Fruit, the Corpse Fiend horde below became restless and violent again. A few particularly clever Corpse Fiends even began hugging and chewing on the tree trunk, which was over two meters in diameter, seemingly intending to gnaw the tree down and make Lin Yi and Gu Chenghu fall.

"Put it in your backpack. The scent this thing gives off is tempting to many creatures. It would be troublesome if it attracted other monsters."

Lin Yi put the Rotten Wood Fruit back into his Spatial Backpack. "Alright. But Captain, this one is yours. Consider it my repayment for all the help you've given me during this time."

Hearing that, Gu Chenghu laughed happily, patted Lin Yi on the shoulder, and flashed his white teeth. "Good kid, you didn't disappoint me. But if you didn't pick many, keep them for yourself. Your captain doesn't need this right now."

"It's fine. I picked quite a few, Captain. Just keep it."

Lin Yi had always remembered how Gu Chenghu had used Divine Water to increase his attributes last time, and he was deeply moved by it.

Giving Gu Chenghu a Rotten Wood Fruit now was not only repaying his kindness, but also telling Gu Chenghu that investing in Lin Yi would never be a losing deal.