Hyphae

Lu Heng continued deeper into the factory area through the passageways, leading the Bone Demon to inspect each office building room one by one.

The entire administration building has numerous rooms, with cubicles, offices, and storage rooms arranged in layers. He broke down doors one by one, rummaging through drawers, cabinets, and document racks, with scraps of paper and accumulated dust falling off in a flurry, revealing a collection of long-abandoned office clutter.

He was extremely focused, searching only for paper drawings and archives, but after searching most of the area, he still couldn't find any information about the underground pipe network.

Upon entering the largest core office area, a huge, fixed floor plan remained in the center of the empty wall.

The old, yellowed blueprints, with curled and torn edges, covered the outline of the entire city.

Lu Heng stepped forward to examine it closely.

This is a typical city urban area map.

The text was densely covered with labels and section numbers, but unfortunately, the writing system of this world was completely different from what he knew, and he couldn't recognize a single character.

But his efforts were not in vain.

The road layout, block divisions, factory area boundaries, waterways, and building outlines were clearly and intuitively presented. Lu Heng's gaze was calm as he scanned the entire map, memorizing all the key locations and regional patterns.

Without written words, he relied on images, locations, and relative distances to memorize.

Having confirmed everything, he already had a clear understanding of the situation.

The office building only has a general map of the city's surface, but no drawings of the underground drainage network.

The archives are not located in the administrative area.

Based on the actual layout logic of the factory area, core technical data such as underground pipelines, water conservancy processes, and sewage pipeline distribution maps are mostly kept in the production facility area, rather than in ordinary office buildings.

Lu Heng wasted no more time, turned around and led the Bone Demon out of the administration building, across the empty factory area, and headed towards the deep, sprawling sewage treatment facilities.

The deeper you go, the damper and darker the environment becomes.

Giant sewage pipes crisscross the area, the ground is perpetually flooded and covered in moss, and the air is filled with a lingering, musty, and damp smell. The deathly silent factory area is devoid of any living sounds, and the silence is excessively oppressive.

The moment they stepped into the shadows of the facility's corridor, a sudden attack erupted from the darkness!

From the depths of the floodwater, a dark figure suddenly shot out, moving with incredible speed, skimming along the slippery ground as it charged forward.

It was a robust, giant lizard Aberrant with dark, damp scales, powerful limbs, a slightly open mouth, saliva dripping into the stagnant water, and tiny, corrosive bubbles hissing out.

Lu Heng stopped in his tracks, instantly on alert. He raised his Wristband, and quickly appraised the monster.

A blue light from the Wristband scans the screen, and a message pops up.

[Name: Poisonwater Lizard]

[Rank: Bronze Tier]

[Description: Long-term immersion in heavily polluted sewage has caused mutations in this organism. Its body surface is covered with highly corrosive and toxic substances. It excels at lurking in damp, aquatic environments and is extremely stealthy in its attacks. It is only slightly restrained by unknown external forces.]

Upon recognizing the level and characteristics, Lu Heng's eyes narrowed slightly.

Bronze Tier Aberrant, definitely not a nobody.

Before he could coordinate an attack, the Bone Demon beside him stepped forward, its skeletal body heading straight for the onrushing Poisonwater Lizard.

The Poisonwater Lizard opened its mouth and spat out a cloud of corrosive venom, the foul-smelling mist splashing onto the skeleton of the Bone Demon.

The anticipated corrosion damage and dissolution of the body did not occur at all.

Skeletons contain no flesh, organs, or living cells.

Sewage toxins and corrosive venoms have no effect on the bodies of the dead.

All of the Poisonwater Lizard's deadly attacks failed.

Before it could pounce a second time, the giant rift running across the Bone Demon's torso suddenly opened, revealing a dark, bottomless abyss.

In an instant, the force was overwhelming.

It snapped its jaws shut and swallowed whole!

The Bronze Tier Poisonwater Lizard, which had just launched a ferocious attack, didn't even have a chance to struggle before being swallowed whole into the skeleton's belly.

The whole process was clean, efficient, and ridiculously fast.

The battle ended instantly.

Lu Heng stood behind, his brows slowly furrowing, a strong sense of unease rising in his heart.

Something's not right.

This is highly abnormal.

Even if Bronze Tier Aberrant is countered, it shouldn't have been killed so easily and so stiffly.

This doesn't resemble the fighting state of a normal monster; it's more like... its entire fighting power has been suppressed and bound by something.

With doubts arising in his mind, Lu Heng dared not be careless. He immediately released his Mental Energy, spreading his perception over a wide area to carefully screen the entire surrounding sewage facility area.

Mental power can penetrate damp air, the shadows of pipes, and layers of waterlogged ground.

The next instant, his pupils contracted slightly.

Invisible to the naked eye and intangible to the touch, the entire space was covered with countless, extremely fine, invisible Mycelium.

It is everywhere and pervasive.

Hidden between moisture and darkness, it silently enveloped the depths of the entire sewage treatment plant.

These Mycelium are extremely fine, completely evading sight, and can only be clearly detected by mental perception.

They floated silently, spread, and intertwined, like an invisible net, tightly covering the entire facility area.

Lu Heng's heart sank.

Is this what it is?

The Poisonwater Lizard from earlier wasn't in its normal state when it was guarding this spot.

It is Puppet parasitized, bound, and manipulated by this invisible network of Mycelium.

Its combat power was locked down and its movements were restricted, which is why it was so easily swallowed up by the Bone Demon.

Deep within the desolate sewage treatment plant, it appears to be completely empty.

The real danger has already taken root in every corner of this dark and damp place.

Throughout the entire wastewater treatment facility area, invisible Mycelium intertwine in layers, dense, cool, and omnipresent.

Lu Heng stood still, his mental energy remaining fully deployed.

He could clearly sense that these Mycelium were not evenly distributed; all the fine threads were slowly converging and extending in the same direction, like the veins of the entire area, eventually converging towards the deepest part of the factory.

The source is not in the corridor, not in the pipes, not in the stagnant water drain.

Further inside.

Lu Heng suppressed the gloom in his heart and looked toward the darkest end of the facility area.

That was the deepest, most enclosed, and most humid main treatment workshop in the entire sewage treatment plant. The iron door was half collapsed, and the entrance was so dark that it didn't reflect any light, like a dead, lifeless mouth that had been sitting still for a long time.

The endpoint of all Mycelium is right there.

"Walk."

He uttered a single word and strode forward at a steady pace. The Bone Demon followed closely beside him, its skeletal feet making no sound as they stepped through the puddles.

The closer you get to the main workshop, the stronger the stagnant, cold feeling in the air becomes.

The changes were not visible to the naked eye, but in Lu Heng's mental perception, the density of the Mycelium increased exponentially. The originally thin and floating filaments became dense and intertwined, covering the walls, the ground, and the broken equipment layer by layer, like a huge parasitic network taking root here.

He proceeded steadily deeper into the territory, and no more Aberrant appeared along the way.

Too quiet.

An unusual quiet.

Just now, there were Poisonwater Lizard lurking and attacking, but the closer we got to the source, the less we could see any monsters. It was as if all living things in the entire area were under the unified control and silenced by this Mycelium network.

Lu Heng's gaze grew increasingly calm, his vigilance reaching its peak.

Following the last main vein of Mycelium forward, passing through the collapsed iron gate, we entered the main workshop.

The huge, empty, and dilapidated sewage treatment plant was completely revealed before our eyes.

The giant treatment tank was tilted and overturned, with broken pipes hanging in mid-air. The ground was covered with dark, stagnant water, and a thin, gray film floated on the surface.

And right in the center of the entire factory.

All the invisible Mycelium gathered, took root, and converged.

The ultimate source of the Mycelium is clearly visible.