Greedy Wolf
The cold, peeling sensation of bacterial invasion completely permeated Lu Heng's entire body.
There was no intense pain, only a slow and terrifying descent. It was as if one's flesh, nerves, and consciousness were being peeled away, replaced, and covered up little by little.
The sounds of the outside world gradually faded away; the roar of the surging zombie horde and the soft friction of wriggling Mycelium slowly receded from perception. Vision began to darken and collapse from the edges of the field of vision, and the visible range continued to narrow and dim.
My eyelids feel as heavy as a thousand pounds.
He strained with his last remaining will to open his eyes, his fingertips trying to tense, raise his hand, struggle, but there was no bodily response. Control of his body was being gradually taken away by the invading microbial consciousness.
The parasitic consciousness of the Blood Taisui was cold and viscous, seeping into the depths of his body through every wound and every pore, eroding the control of his nerves. Lu Heng's self-awareness was constantly squeezed into the smallest corner of his mind, just one step away from complete succumbing.
This is the moment.
In the boundless, pitch-black depths of consciousness, a burst of extremely bright white light suddenly exploded.
It was glaring, abrupt, and completely illogical.
Lu Heng's remaining consciousness trembled violently, and a strong sense of absurdity welled up in his heart.
He was in the underground cavity of the sewage treatment plant, with only the concrete roof of the plant and a thin layer of soil above him. No sunlight fell into this place, and he could no longer open his eyes; his visual senses were almost completely deprived.
Logically speaking, he shouldn't have seen anything.
But he clearly sensed it—
Above, separated by a concrete roof and a layer of soil, deep in the sky, a star shone brightly.
During the day, in a clear sky, most stars would be hidden by sunlight.
Only that one beam, piercing through the soil and concrete, disregarding the rules of day and night, hung alone in the void, casting a downward beam of light that pierced through the soil and fell upon his crumbling body.
None of the survivors or Aberrant in this city ruin were aware of this bizarre celestial anomaly.
Only Lu Heng, who was on the verge of death and about to be possessed by the bacteria, received this ray of starlight.
The Survival Bracelet on his wrist suddenly lit up with a pure white glow without his knowledge.
The system silently unlocked, and the long-forgotten astrological archives loaded automatically.
[Astral Binding: Greedy Wolf Star]
[Under the illumination of the Greedy Wolf Star, awaken the Hunting Instinct]
[Greedy Wolf: The inauspicious star that seizes life in dire straits, the star that seeks survival through killing]
[Traits: Defy Fate in Desperation, Seize Vitality, Restore the Body Through Killing, Wildness Balance]
One by one, hidden data points are silently laid out and stored in the deepest layer of encryption on the Wristband.
The Wristband screen flashed briefly before dimming again, but Lu Heng was completely unaware of it.
The only thing he could sense was a power completely different from the Energy Core, Soul Crystal, and Starwater.
It's not violent, not excessive, and won't burn your meridians. A rich, thick warm current flows through your consciousness into your limbs and bones.
This wasn't the fleeting, temporary respite achieved through the forced exploitation of the body. This was a genuine replenishment of the damage at its root, repairing the nerves and muscles eroded by the Mycelium. Every cell in my body felt a sense of secure satisfaction, and the persistent weakness and numbness slowly dissipated.
The feeling of being stripped of consciousness caused by the invasion of bacteria gradually faded away.
Lu Heng regained control of his body.
He suddenly opened his eyes.
Before his eyes, countless dark red Mycelium were still writhing wildly, winding and piercing upwards along his limbs, still stubbornly trying to invade his body. The Blood Taisui did not stop its possession; in its perception, its prey should have already fallen under its control.
With a thought, Lu Heng activated his High-Temperature Talent.
This time, the power has completely changed.
The previous high temperatures were generated by burning one's own Mental Energy, which had an upper limit and consumed a great deal of energy over time. Now, with the blessing of the Greedy Wolf Star, the temperature suddenly soared, and the burning range expanded outwards significantly. The scorching heat wave exploded and swept around the body.
The Mycelium wrapped around the body instantly carbonized and curled up, forcibly driven away under the high temperature.
Deep underground, the original consciousness belonging to the Blood Taisui suddenly froze, filled with astonishment.
It watched the entire parasitic process closely, clearly sensing that Lu Heng's consciousness was on the verge of annihilation and his body was about to be completely under its control. Just as the possession was about to be completed, the prey suddenly unleashed a strange and powerful force, forcefully breaking free from its bacterial invasion.
This was completely beyond its expectations.
After a brief moment of shock, rage surged again. The Blood Taisui no longer insisted on parasitizing a single individual and immediately mobilized all the remaining corpses. Countless mummies surged in from all directions once more, and the black tide once again surrounded Lu Heng.
Lu Heng gripped the bone knife tightly and stepped forward steadily.
With a swift swing of the blade, he cleaved the head of the oncoming mummified corpse in two.
The moment the corpse shattered, a wisp of extremely faint gray energy drifted out from the remains and flowed into Lu Heng's body through the air.
The power provided by a single corpse is negligible, almost imperceptible.
But the horde of corpses before him continued relentlessly, one after another falling, and fragmented power continuously flowed into his body, gradually replenishing the losses left by the previous battle. This constant, weak absorption, little by little, accumulated to sustain his continued combat.
He diverted a portion of his mental energy to activate the tattoo mark. A jet-black King Snake slithered out from his side, obeying his command to rush towards the rear passage and coil up at the entrance. The King Snake's body blocked the retreat, cutting off the route for the zombie horde to outflank them and confining all enemies to the open cavity in front of the main lair.
With the battlefield locked down, Lu Heng began his reaping.
The blade rose and fell, slice by slice, relentlessly slicing through the onrushing corpses. The sounds of bones shattering and decaying flesh tearing echoed continuously in the cavity. Countless dark figures charged forward, only to fall again and again beneath the blade, becoming nourishment for the enemy's power.
A sense of exhilarating slaughter surged up, but the endless repetition of killing slowly breeds a sense of weariness in one's heart.
He relentlessly slaughtered the mutated corpses of his own kind, the endless waves stretching as far as the eye could see. He didn't want to be trapped in this monotonous cycle of slaughter forever.
Lu Heng no longer focused on simply swinging his sword. He chose to further amplify the output of his High-Temperature Talent.
The boundless heatwave spread outwards, no longer confined to a small area nearby. The scorching energy wave swept across the entire cavity, simultaneously burning countless Mycelium clinging to the rock walls, the ground, and the corpses.
The dark red Mycelium rapidly dehydrates and carbonizes, disintegrating into extremely fine grayish-brown powder that floats lightly in the damp underground air.
Without the nourishment of the Mycelium and the guidance of consciousness, the mummies that hadn't yet reached them instantly lost their support. Their bodies rapidly weathered, their flesh and bones disintegrated, and then turned into powder, which flew everywhere.
Inside the cavity, Mycelium powder floated everywhere, and the murky, foul-smelling air was baked by the high temperature, while the putrid smell was diluted by the heat wave.
The high temperature continued to expand outwards, clearing away the remaining scattered Mycelium in patches. Lu Heng stepped on the ground mixed with silt and powder, slowly and steadily approaching the main nest of the Blood Taisui.
With each step forward, the scattered remains around them crumbled and crumbled.
Soon, he reached the edge of the enormous Fungal Nest, facing directly the origin of this pulsating, intricately veined Fungal Collective Source.
Lu Heng gazed silently at the boundless, slowly wriggling Fungal Nest before him. Deep within his pupils, a faint blue light, unnoticed even by himself, quietly lurked.
This power from the Greedy Wolf Star flows within him; its latent wildness has not yet fully erupted, but it has already subtly altered his perception.
The Blood Taisui's fungal colony trembled violently, its countless main vein Mycelium twitching uneasily. It had been sitting firmly in its own territory, holding an endless horde of corpses, and was about to successfully possess someone, but in an instant, the situation completely reversed. The human before it had gone from being prey to a hunter who could threaten its very foundation.
It could sense the unfamiliar Star Force within Lu Heng's body, a foreign force that it could neither understand nor parasitize or erode.
Lu Heng stood quietly amidst the swirling fungal powder, his gaze fixed on the massive, writhing nest, without any urge to act hastily.
The newly awakened power still needs time to adapt. The pale blue in the eyes is another hidden side of the Greedy Wolf Star, plunder and savagery, quietly lurking in the shadows.