Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 174 Everything is animistic
The two of them squeezed through the narrow gap between the huge corpse and the cave wall and came to stand behind it.

This was not a loophole left unforeseen by the other party. Their original plan should have been to directly cause the cave to collapse, which, even if it could not kill Su Xun and his group, could still create more obstacles.

However, it did not expect that Su Xun also possessed a similar ability. Before it could take action, Su Xun had already reinforced the surrounding area.

The cave wasn't exactly short, and the mutated dog had used its powers to repair it. The two walked side by side, but not very fast.

It was just the den of an ordinary fourth-tier mutated dog. It wasn't a zombie king, so there wasn't much danger after it was dealt with. There weren't even any other mutated beasts in the latter half of the cave.

"When exploring in a team, try to stick with the strongest member of the team... If you can trust them, the survival rate is higher in most cases if you stick together."

As they walked, Su Xun shared some of the little tips he had accumulated in his previous life with his teammates.

"Of course, if the strongest person can't be trusted... Actually, this rarely happens. If you can't even trust the strongest person in the team, then why did you join the team in the first place?"

Hearing these words, Jiang Yi pursed her lips and said, "It's alright, Commander-in-Chief, I will always follow you."

"Right."

The other side isn't a proper combat unit; going out to participate in missions is just to gain some combat experience and better understand and utilize their own extraordinary abilities.

When it comes to going out, it's usually Su Xun who takes care of him; he might not feel comfortable leaving him with someone else.

In fact, Jiang Yi is not the only one in this situation. There are many superhumans in the corps who are in non-combat positions. A typical example is Tao Yue, who is currently in the research institute. That girl is now the darling of the research institute. Let alone going out for training, even going to the entrance of the research institute to buy a steamed bun makes a group of people worry. If Su Xun took her out like he did with Jiang Yi, the research institute would probably be furious with him.

However, her situation is better than others, and using her precognitive abilities can be considered a form of training.

After much deliberation, Su Xun decided to wait until the grand martial arts competition to see how the competition went. Although the competition would certainly not be life-threatening, it was still a battle nonetheless.

Once the spirit of martial arts spreads throughout society, various measures can be taken simultaneously to address these issues in relation to the competition.

While they were pondering, the two had already reached the end of the cave. This place was more spacious than the one behind, and it was obviously where the fourth-tier mutated dog had lived. The spiritual energy around them was strong and heavy, and Su Xun even felt that he could hardly suppress his instinct to advance.

If I were to actually reach the fifth rank here... it wouldn't be unacceptable, but it would still be a significant loss.

The two looked around. There were bloodstains and corpses, some human and some animal. The corpses of superhumans and mutated beasts still had spiritual power. Even individuals who had reached the superhuman level and did not need to eat normally would still use these as food. Su Xun was already used to it. This was the norm in the apocalypse. In his previous life, he had been to many high-level mutated beast lairs. Compared to those scenes, this mutated dog could be said to be harmless.

Of course, quite a few mutated beasts have been eaten these days. There are many mutated beasts around Xinfu that are unwilling to form a friendship with the army, and most of them have ended up in the soldiers' stomachs. The mutated dogs that they killed this time will probably suffer the same fate.

With just that one mountain-sized fourth-tier mutant dog, Haiqu's troops are probably in for a treat; they could have enough to eat hot pot for days.

The sentry might have to avoid the area at that time.

Just as Su Xun was about to deal with the corpses of several superhumans here, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

"careful!"

He waved his hand, not caring about anything else at the moment. The violent wind stirred up the surrounding spiritual energy, pulling Jiang Yi, who was a few steps away, to his side. Under these circumstances, Jiang Yi stared wide-eyed at a shadowy spot and pulled the trigger.

"Om-"

The activation of the spiritual energy jet was almost silent; a figure suddenly emerged from the darkness, seemingly crashing straight into the halo of light.

In the stream of spiritual energy that could easily tear apart the head of a third-tier mutated dog, the figure was inevitably annihilated, with most of its body destroyed. A large hole appeared in its chest, and only a thin layer of skin connected its neck to its shoulder. However, these were fatal wounds to the zombie, but they did not kill it completely. Instead, it let out a shrill and ear-piercing howl.

"Stop, let me see."

Su Xun patted Jiang Yi on the shoulder and gave her a thumbs up, then walked towards the entity that had suddenly launched the attack, completely unaware that Jiang Yi, who had fallen behind him, was slightly pouting. What appeared before him was a corpse with bluish-black skin and slightly ulcerated appearance. That's right, a corpse, not even a zombie, but a genuine undead.

Despite being missing most of its body, the corpse was still moving. It was actually only at the second level, but mixed in with the other corpses, it only had a wisp of death energy on its body. Su Xun didn't even realize its existence until it made a move.

It's not that it's that good at hiding; the main problem is that Su Xun didn't expect to encounter something like this here.

To be honest, he initially thought there might be a litter of puppies there, and he came here to eliminate them completely.

After carefully examining the body for a long time and checking many other corpses, Su Xun confirmed that there was only this one undead. Then, he threw out a spark and burned all the corpses in the vicinity to ashes.

For a long time in the past, superhumans categorized zombies and undead together. It wasn't until the prototypes of the natural disasters Mahisha and Satan appeared and humanity's research on these two became more in-depth that they became more aware of their differences.

If judged by life and death, the dead are inanimate objects, living dead beings that can move, while zombies are difficult to define as either dead or alive.

Zombies often show extreme hostility towards individuals who have not become zombies. This hostility is innate and deep-seated. Even if higher-level zombies develop intelligence, their perception is completely different.

The undead are essentially confused and chaotic. They are often unaware of what they are doing. However, compared to zombies, these beings have a much higher probability of developing intelligence and may retain their cognition and memories from when they were human, depending on how well the corpse is preserved.

The reason this undead suddenly attacked them was probably because it was a zombie before it became an undead.

In the previous life, when humans were exterminating many zombies, their corpses were not properly disposed of, which led to a large-scale undead transformation of these corpses, catching many shelters off guard.

That crisis also led many people to believe that the undead, like zombies, are essentially extremely hostile to the living, but in reality, they are still remnants of zombification.

Zombification and undead transformation are caused by two completely different reasons.

The reasons for zombification remain shrouded in mystery, and there may be some complex reasons behind it. However, the emergence of undead, although it involves deep fundamental issues, is logically quite simple.

It is related to the essence of spiritual power, that is, the spirit of the dead. Zombies are directly infected as humans, but the dead are not reborn as humans, but are born with spirituality as objects.

The appearance of the undead signifies a significant increase in the influence of spiritual power on the world, and also indicates that the path to the fifth tier has emerged.

Although this undead was created in this special environment, how can a small area truly be independent of the larger environment? This can already be considered an early omen.

Before this, this land was mostly a war between living beings: humans, mutated beasts, mutated plants, and a zombie that was neither dead nor alive.

After that, inanimate objects will join this chaotic battlefield: the dead, ghosts, even mountains, rocks, mineral deposits, and man-made machinery and tools...

Spiritual power permeates everything, giving all things a spirit.

This also means that the prototype of the tenth-order natural disaster, Oswell, is about to appear. It was born in the ocean and will soon oppress the living space of all the sea monsters in the ocean from the inside out. This is the fuse and the biggest source of motivation for these sea monsters to seek space on land.

The sporadic attacks by sea monsters are just minor disturbances. In as little as two or three months, or as long as a year and a half, the real large-scale landing of sea monsters will begin.

Su Xun took a deep breath. He had achieved his purpose in coming here. He stood up and calmed his mind again.

What has already happened, there is nothing to be afraid of.

However, all things under the frosty sky are free to compete. He was reborn and has already enabled humanity to gain a foothold in the great catastrophe.

Who will rule the world in the future?

(End of this chapter)