The main body
Lu Heng was already standing in the core area of the main workshop.
The view to the naked eye was clean and empty. The crooked giant tank collapsed half of the ground, and the broken metal pipes hung in the air above the factory. Water flowed from the pipe openings, slowly sliding down along the rust lines, dripping every few seconds and hitting the grayish stagnant water on the surface.
The entire factory was silent and enclosed, with no wind, no noise, and no unusual movement of living things.
However, the scene was completely different in Lu Heng's mental perception.
Thousands of transparent Mycelium, as fine as a net, covered every crevice in the walls, equipment, and the bottom of the waterlogged areas. The delicate threads, completely invisible to the naked eye, intertwined layer by layer, slowly converging from all directions, and finally all pierced into the thin cement crack in the ground.
This is the only main vein in the entire Mycelium network of the sewage treatment plant.
Lu Heng steadied himself, his gaze falling on the crack beneath his feet, without taking a single step rashly. The Bone Demon stood close to his side, its skeletal limbs straight and taut, its empty eye sockets staring straight ahead, maintaining an absolutely vigilant posture.
During the brief moment of silence, Lu Heng mentally connected all the suspicious points he had encountered since entering the factory area.
The factory's perimeter was littered with corpses of various kinds, a chaotic mix of wild beasts and Mutant. Their bodies showed no signs of violent fighting, suggesting they were uniformly subdued and abandoned. The vast data area of the administration building was thoroughly searched, but all that could be found was an unreadable city map. The crucial blueprints concerning underground drainage and pipeline layout were completely missing.
Then there was the Bronze Tier Poisonwater Lizard we encountered earlier.
That was a genuine Bronze Tier Aberrant, possessing full combat power in terms of physical strength, toxin invasion, and adaptability to the aquatic environment. Even if it encountered attribute counters, it would never be completely devoured in an instant, without even having a chance to struggle or fight back.
An unreasonable battle situation, an unreasonable pile of corpses, and an unreasonable gap in data.
All the anomalies now pointed to the main vein of Mycelium beneath their feet.
Lu Heng's mental energy steadily covered the entire workshop, meticulously scanning the flow trajectory of every strand of mycelium. These invisible Mycelium did not grow naturally; their arrangement, convergence direction, and spread range were extremely regular, exhibiting clear controllability.
The entire sewage treatment plant is a captive farm completely controlled by Mycelium.
All the Aberrant inhabiting this place are Puppet parasitized, restrained, and locked in combat by the threads. They are controlled to guard key routes and ambush invaders, and after defeat, their corpses are carelessly discarded, becoming expendable resources for this area.
Having grasped the whole logic, Lu Heng gently tightened his grip on the Deboning Knife in his palm.
Instead of launching an immediate attack, he slowly lowered his mental perception and gently touched the main vein Mycelium gathering at the crack.
The next instant, the invisible Mycelium throughout the entire workshop suddenly stiffened.
The thousands of slowly flowing mycelial threads suddenly tightened and trembled, a sharp, piercing pain shooting straight into the mind, followed by a brief, slight dizziness. The entire Mycelium network instantly switched from a static state to a state of full alert and stress response.
The surface of the water began to ripple irregularly, and a series of faint, dense, wriggling sounds came from underwater, spreading out along the surface.
The silt churned, the black water bubbled, and countless transparent Mycelium rapidly entangled, pulled, piled up, and solidified underwater.
There were no dramatic events, no sudden noises, only pure material reorganization. Within moments, a half-person-tall, grayish-white body steadily rose from the turbulent black water.
The body is entirely composed of wet silt and coagulated Mycelium. The limbs are stiff and straight, and the torso is covered with crisscrossing silk-like patterns. The head is flat and blank, without eyes or mouth, and there are no facial organs. It has no vitality, no breath, and no independent thought. It is a bio- Mimetic Organism generated by the main vein of Mycelium.
Its sole purpose was to intercept any intruders that approached the main vein.
The moment the Mimetic Organism form took shape, its stiff legs kicked and stomped through the puddles, splashing up a cloud of murky water. Its body charged straight ahead, locking onto Lu Heng's position and lunging for the kill. The movements were mechanical and rigid, yet the trajectory was precise and accurate.
Lu Heng took a light step back, sidestepping to avoid the splashing mud and water, maintaining a stable stance throughout, his gaze fixed on the oncoming Puppet body, observing calmly without making any unnecessary movements.
The Bone Demon beside him immediately stepped forward to engage in battle.
The skeletal body met the force of the Mimetic Organism's charge head-on. The opponent's hardened mud arm slammed into the Bone Demon's ribcage with solid force, producing a dull thud. Countless filamentous Mycelium rapidly climbed, adhered, and entwined along the hollowed-out gaps in the skeleton, attempting to take root in the skeleton and complete their parasitic erosion.
But the bodies of the dead have no blood, no flesh, no life, and no breath.
It is completely ineffective against all parasitic, corrosive, and toxin-induced damage to living organisms.
The entangled Mycelium cannot take root, and the attached silt cannot erode it.
The Bone Demon raised his hand and unleashed a horizontal slash.
The moment the blade touched the muddy body, a clear resistance was visible. The condensed Mycelium was extremely tough, pulling the blade tightly in an attempt to cushion the chopping force. As the bone blade continued to exert force, the hard Mycelium broke one after another, producing a fine, crisp cracking sound, and countless fine filaments bounced and scattered in the air.
With a crisp, muffled cracking sound, the Mimetic Organism split completely in two from the middle.
Large chunks of silt, along with broken Mycelium, detached with a crash and slammed into the stagnant water below, splashing up murky water. The moment they sank to the bottom, they disintegrated into fine mud fragments, and the once intact body completely vanished without a trace.
Lu Heng kept his eyes fixed on the collapsing water, not letting his guard down even after the battle was over.
Within moments, the remaining tiny Mycelium at the bottom of the water began to wriggle rapidly.
The broken threads stick together, connect, and recombine; scattered mud particles are actively drawn together by the Mycelium, gradually piling up, filling, and shaping. The incomplete outlines become clearer, and the loose body becomes whole again. The entire recombination process is quiet and regular, without the slightest disorder.
In a short while, the Mycelium Mimetic Organism that had been completely shattered stood perfectly upright again in the center of the water.
His body was as it was before, his posture as it was before, and the murderous intent that had locked onto him was as it was before.
The Mimetic Organism took another step, stirring up the black water beneath its feet, and charged towards the two once more. The Bone Demon did not hesitate, stepping forward to block, and swung its bone blade again, shattering the Puppet once more. Muddy waves rose on the water's surface once more, and the remains sank to the bottom.
But before long, the remaining threads underwater continued to wriggle and coalesce, and the Puppet reformed once again.
Lu Heng's pupils narrowed slightly as he quietly watched the scene repeat itself before him.
Through two consecutive rounds of destruction and rebirth, he thoroughly understood the underlying rules of this Mycelium ecosystem.
The Mimetic Organism is never an independent combat individual, but merely a temporary vessel extending from the main vein. The body can be broken, scattered, or destroyed, but as long as the root of the main vein underground is not destroyed, the remnants will always exist, and reorganization will never stop.
Endless resurrection, endless interception, endless entanglement and attrition.
A thought flashed through Lu Heng's mind: if it were any other survivor trapped here, they would only slowly exhaust their physical and mental strength in this cycle, eventually becoming powerless to break free.
Engaging in a fight with Puppet is pointless.
The only way to break this deadlock is to destroy the root cause.
Lu Heng ignored the Mimetic Organism in front of him that could regenerate at any time. His gaze pierced through the water and dilapidated equipment, fixing on the inconspicuous cement crack in the ground that supported the entire network. A faint earthy smell wafted from the crack, and a weak tremor came from the ground beneath his feet.
He took steady steps forward, his pace calm and his rhythm constant, without any haste or rushing.
The Bone Demon stayed behind, continuing to block the repeatedly regenerating Mimetic Organism. Its skeletal feet waded through the shallow water, each step firmly pressing down on the surface, the subtle sound of the water exceptionally clear in the silent factory.
When only a few steps remained between them and the core of the main vein.
Deep within the thick rock strata beneath the factory, a muffled roar pierced through layers of soil and cement, slowly reverberating upwards.
The sound was hoarse, heavy, and deep, lacking the sharp ferocity of a mutated beast, yet carrying the tangible tremor of rock erosion, spreading along the ground and echoing throughout the enclosed workshop. Water droplets hanging from the pipes were shaken and fell one after another, crashing into the stagnant water and splashing out in circles of tiny ripples. In the mental perception, the thousands of Mycelium of the main vein also trembled violently in sync with this low growl.
This was not the mechanical movement of Mycelium Mimetic Organism, nor the roar and howl of an ordinary mutated monster.
It is a warning and response from the true original host that dwells deep underground in the sewage treatment plant.
His actions of touching the main vein and breaking through the Puppet' defenses one after another completely alarmed the ultimate being hidden in the darkness underground.