Swamp Slippery Fish

After weighing the pros and cons, Lu Heng abandoned the idea of going deeper into the swamp.

With continuous snowfall, the entire swamp was covered in snow and frozen by the low temperatures. The originally soft, slippery mud and puddles had all frozen into solid permafrost, with a thin layer of residual snow on the surface. It was firm and hard to walk on, without slipping or sinking.

It appears peaceful and stable, but in reality, things are abnormal in many ways.

Lu Heng observed the surrounding area clearly as he walked. The outer area of the swamp was relatively normal, with flocks of birds landing on the snow and digging for food. The frozen ground was covered with tiny holes pecked out by bird beaks, and bird calls rose and fell, with signs of life visible everywhere. However, as soon as one crossed an invisible boundary and stepped into the middle layer of the swamp, all signs of life vanished instantly.

The trees were covered in snow, the branches bare, not a single bird in sight. The ground was clean and smooth, without any new peck marks, footprints, or signs of any living creature. Even though there were still overwintering insects hidden beneath the soil, enough for birds to find food, no birds were willing to set foot in this area.

The quieter it is, the more uneasy one feels.

Lu Heng understood the situation perfectly well. Continuing to venture deeper into the swamp would yield no supplies and would only expose him to unknown dangers he couldn't comprehend. There was no need to put himself in danger for a slim chance.

He gazed at the dark, snow-covered swamp, a pang of regret crossing his mind. But reason prevailed over these thoughts; something was wrong with this place, and he absolutely could not linger.

Lu Heng turned around, preparing to retreat the way he came.

He had just moved his feet, preparing to speed up his departure, when a strange thing suddenly appeared in his field of vision.

A bird circling low in the outer perimeter suddenly lost control of its flight. Without any gale or predator, it seemed to lose control of its body, swaying from side to side before plummeting straight down onto the frozen ground.

The mud layer beneath the snow is frozen solid, and the soft snow provides no cushioning effect whatsoever.

A muffled thud.

The bird crashed heavily to the ground with tremendous force, its neck snapped and twisted, its head lolling at an odd angle. Normally, such a heavy impact would have killed it instantly. But the bird merely lay paralyzed on the snow, its hindquarters twitching and kicking, its wings flapping stiffly, its broken body twisting slightly, looking exceptionally eerie.

Lu Heng glanced sideways, but didn't stop walking.

His first reaction was to assume that the bird had a problem with its food or that the low temperature had caused its bodily functions to malfunction, and that it was just an occasional abnormality. He didn't take it seriously and was only focused on getting out of the middle layer of the swamp as soon as possible.

But after taking only a few steps, similar scenes began to appear one after another.

Above the swamp, birds were falling one after another out of control. Some were flying just fine when their bodies suddenly stiffened and they plummeted; others circled wildly in the air a few times before crashing directly into the snow and frozen ground. In just a few dozen seconds, seven or eight birds of various kinds had fallen to the ground nearby, each in the exact same state.

Despite suffering dislocated bones and severe injuries, he couldn't stop breathing, convulsing and writhing in the snow, the faint thrashing sounds particularly clear in the quiet snow.

Fine snowflakes drifted down, falling in a flurry along with bird feathers, creating a scene that was both absurd and eerie.

The alarm bells in Lu Heng's mind rang completely. He stopped rushing to leave and quickly walked to the nearest landed Cold Crow.

The Cold Crow was half-buried in a pit of thin snow, its body convulsing. Even with its breastbone shattered, it continued to flap wildly out of instinct.

Without hesitation, Lu Heng raised his hand, gripped the knife, and with a swift and decisive stroke, cleaved down with the blade.

The blade easily pierced the crow's flesh, splitting the entire body in two from head to tail.

The moment the blade made its cut, Lu Heng's gaze suddenly sharpened.

Amidst the blood and gore of the cleaved crow's body, tiny creatures were wriggling rapidly.

The blade not only cleaved the crow in two, but also severed the living creature hidden inside its body. Even so, the severed flesh still twitched slightly in the pool of blood, and the two halves of the cleaved crow carcass continued to tremble mechanically, its vitality almost eerily tenacious.

Lu Heng crouched down to examine it closely, his brows furrowed deeply.

At first glance, he thought it was just a common subcutaneous parasite, but upon closer inspection, he completely ruled out that possibility.

This thing is much larger than ordinary parasites, with a slender and slippery body, hiding between the skin, flesh, and internal organs of birds, and is not in the form of an insect at all.

Lu Heng dared not be careless. He raised his hand, turned on the faint light of his Wristband, and scanned the writhing foreign object in the pool of blood.

A few seconds later, a light blue text panel popped up, clearly listing the information about the new species.

[Swamp Slippery Fish]

Opportunistic predators in the mudflats. Lacking direct combat ability, they excel at finding wounds and crevices in their prey's body to sneak inside, hiding among the flesh and organs of living creatures, feeding on blood and flesh. Most individuals are small in size and rely on group parasitism for hunting; larger individuals are of the Black Iron Tier, with significantly increased destructive power.

The few lines of information sent a chill down Lu Heng's spine.

He had seen wild beasts fight and venomous insects ambush, but he had never seen such a vicious hunting method. Instead of direct confrontation or frontal attacks, they quietly burrowed into living creatures to devour their flesh, leaving their prey to struggle and suffer on the outside while they gnawed at its life from within.

Looking at the convulsing corpses of birds scattered across the snow, Lu Heng instantly understood everything.

These birds weren't frozen or sick; they had Swamp Slippery Fish burrowing into their bodies.

The parasitic slippery fish feed and churn inside the birds' bodies, completely disrupting their bodily functions, causing them to lose their balance and ultimately plummet uncontrollably.

Lu Heng felt a chill run down his spine, secretly thinking that this creature was simply outrageous, as if it had become a spirit and was incredibly sinister.

He dared not linger for even half a second longer.

No one knows whether this thing might crawl into the human body through the gaps in clothing or tiny wounds on the skin. Just thinking about the image of it burrowing into the body and gnawing inside made Lu Heng's skin feel numb and tense all over.

We must evacuate immediately.

Lu Heng stopped watching and got up, quickly retreating towards the outer edge of the swamp.

But as he accelerated his retreat, more and more birds fell from the sky. Dense flocks of birds continued to fall out of control, their feathers mingling with the falling snow and covering the ground, quickly creating a carpet of twitching, writhing bird carcasses.

Looking at the chaotic scene before him, Lu Heng felt nothing but endless bad luck.

Of the three areas to explore, he chose this most dangerous, disgusting, and insidious swamp. In other areas, even if there were ferocious beasts, they were fought openly. Here, the dangers were hidden in the soil and within the body, making them impossible to guard against and leaving one defenseless.

Just as Lu Heng was running away with all his might, a faint cracking sound suddenly came from the frozen ground covered with snow beneath his feet.

The sound was so soft that it was almost imperceptible amidst the falling snow.

The next instant, the snow layer a meter in front of him suddenly exploded!

A slender, slimy, and dark body, covered in mud and snow, broke through the frozen ground and lunged straight at Lu Heng's head with unexpected speed.

The distance was extremely close, the attack was extremely fast, and there was simply no extra time to react.

Lu Heng's pupils contracted slightly, and his body reacted instinctively, raising his left hand instantly to firmly block the attack in front of his face with his arm armor.

A dull thud.

The Swamp Slippery Fish crashed heavily into the metal arm armor, the enormous impact causing Lu Heng's arm to go slightly numb.

Taking advantage of the moment he regained his balance while parrying, Lu Heng seized the opportunity, his left hand closing in to grab its tail and subdue it.

The moment your fingertips touch it, all you feel is an extreme, slippery, and icy coolness.

The thing was covered with a thick layer of mucus, so smooth that there was no point of pressure. As soon as Lu Heng's fingertips touched it, it twisted and slipped directly out of his palm.

The attempt to capture the target failed.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Heng stepped to the side to avoid the slippery fish's counterattack, and slashed out with his right short sword.

The blade snapped precisely, cleaving the middle section of the Swamp Slippery Fish's body.

Warm blood spurted out instantly, exploding with wet mud and snowflakes. The heavy stench of blood instantly broke through the cold air of the snowfield and spread in all directions.

With a single, decisive strike, Lu Heng didn't even glance at the writhing, mangled corpse on the ground.

This insidious creature wouldn't die instantly even if its body was severed, so there was no need to waste time finishing it off. He had only one thought in his mind—to get out of this deadly place as quickly as possible.

But just as he lifted his foot to continue retreating, the entire frozen ground beneath his feet suddenly began to tremble.

A faint, yet dense, pulsating sound came from beneath the thick layer of soil.

The stench of blood that had just been released from the blade was like a deadly signal, completely awakening all the tribes lurking beneath the frozen ground.

The snow beneath Lu Heng's feet began to bulge and crack, one patch after another.

Countless tiny cracks rapidly spread across the entire surface of the frozen soil, and beneath these cracks, a dense array of unusual movements were quickly converging towards him.