One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

Zhang Chulan was sprayed with acid by the "shapeshifter," causing his protective golden light to fluctuate violently. A large hole was corroded in that area of ​​his clothing, revealing the burned skin underneath, which was red and blistered. He didn't stop to treat it, gritting his teeth and continuing to run.

A bone spur fired from the "Screamer" was embedded in Zhang Lingyu's shoulder—the spur had shot out of the monster's mouth with bullet-like speed, and he couldn't dodge in time, getting pierced in his left shoulder. The spur penetrated an inch into his flesh, then snapped off with a "crack," and black blood gushed from the wound, staining half of his clothes dark. He didn't cry out in pain; instead, he moved even faster.

Feng Baobao fared relatively better, with only a few shallow scratches on her body—left by the "Ripper's" scythe claws. Her speed was unaffected; she moved like a silver lightning bolt through the monster horde, each dodge perfectly timed to slip through the gaps in their attacks.

Chen Duo then formed a mudra with her hands and chanted incantations.

Her lips moved rapidly, producing sounds that weren't human language, but rather ancient, insect-like syllables. The sound wasn't loud, but its frequency was peculiar, sending chills down one's spine and making it feel as if insects were crawling in one's ears.

A strange, colorless and odorless wave, but containing strong mental interference and hallucinogenic effects, mixed with countless tiny Gu worms invisible to the naked eye, surged like a tide toward the suited elite, Catherine, and Fujiwara Sosuke near the platform control console!

The Gu worms were so small that they were completely invisible under the dark red light. They didn't fly there; instead, they spread silently along the air currents, along the temperature gradients, and along any medium that could transmit them.

"Oh no! A psychological attack!"

Both the suited elite and Catherine simultaneously emitted defensive energy light—a light blue, semi-transparent light shield appeared on the suited elite, like a thin film covering her body; while a ring of ice crystal barrier appeared around Catherine, enveloping her entirely.

But Chen Duo's Gu poison was strange and cunning, specifically targeting the nerves and senses. It was unaffected by light shields or ice crystals—because it didn't attack from the outside, but rather originated from within. Those tiny Gu worms silently seeped into their bodies through their breath, pores, and any other possible entry point.

Although the two managed to resist, their movements and thoughts were inevitably disrupted and slowed down.

The man in the suit felt his eyelids grow heavy, and double vision began to appear. He no longer saw one control panel, but two, three, four, overlapping each other, unable to distinguish which was real. He blinked hard a few times, but the double vision didn't disappear; instead, it got worse.

Catherine felt her mind become sluggish, as if glue had been poured into her brain. She wanted to raise her hand to cast a spell, but halfway up, she forgot what she was supposed to do—which monster was the target? Where should the ice crystals be condensed? She paused for a second before remembering.

A series of phantom images appeared before her eyes—she saw countless figures standing on the platform, some like suited elites, some like Fujiwara Sosuke, and some like herself, all making movements she couldn't understand, their mouths opening and closing, but without making a sound.

Operations on the console abruptly ceased. Catherine's finger slid off the console screen, leaving an irregular, twisted scratch.

Fujiwara Sousuke was already seriously injured and had the weakest willpower.

He groaned, his vision went black, and he nearly fainted. He felt his body become very light, as if he were floating. He looked down and saw that his body was still standing in the same spot, motionless, like a statue. He wanted to go back, to return to his body, but a force was pulling him upward, upward, ever upward.

He bit his tongue, and the sharp pain brought him to his senses for a moment, but that moment of clarity was not enough for him to take any effective action; it only made him realize that he had been hit.

It's now!

Nie Lingfeng, carrying Xiaoyun, shot out like a ghost!

The goal is neither the exit nor the monster—

It's the console on the platform!

His speed was so fast that it left a clear "track" in Wang Ye's time-lapse domain—not a footprint, but a passage left after time, disturbed by his Qi, returned to normal as he passed by. In a world where everything around him was in slow motion, he seemed to be the only one who wasn't frozen in time.

Under the combined effects of Wang Ye's time-delay domain and Chen Duo's Gu poison interference, the people of the Eagle Kingdom and the Sakura Kingdom temporarily lost effective control of the control console.

Nie Lingfeng rushed to the control panel in an instant!

His speed didn't slow down. His body didn't stiffen. His thoughts didn't stagnate. He was the only person in this frozen world who could still move freely.

His gaze swept across the frantically scrolling data on the screen and the violently trembling, dark blue data cables connecting to the "mother nest".

The data on the screen had turned into gibberish—not normal data, but strings of unrecognizable symbols, as if encrypted or interfered with by something. Red and green characters flashed alternately, faster and faster, as if conveying some urgent message.

The eerie blue data cables were trembling violently, like snakes being electrocuted. Fine cracks were visible on the surface of the cables, and blue light flowed within them, as if something was struggling inside, trying to break free.

He didn't understand these complex scientific instruments and programming—the circuit diagrams, data streams, and hexadecimal code were like gibberish to him.

But he understands "Qi".

Understand "energy".

They know even better how to "destroy" things!

He didn't touch those buttons or screens. Those things were for scientists and engineers, not for him. His method was more direct, more forceful, and more effective.

Nie Lingfeng suddenly stretched out his free left hand!

His five fingers formed claws. A strange, highly refined aura, a blend of the soft power of the Cloud-Dispelling Palm and the chilling energy of the Heavenly Frost Fist, swirled around his fingertips. This aura wasn't white; it was an icy blue, translucent substance, like a thin layer of ice crystals covering his fingers. These ice crystals refracted a cold light under the dark red glow.

It grabbed hard at the thickest data cables that connected to the "mother nest"!

What he needs to do is not to cut them—cutting is too slow, and there are dozens of cables. If he cuts them one by one, the domain will have already become ineffective by the time he finishes.

Instead—it's reverse indoctrination!

Using his pure and domineering Qi, he followed the data channel and fiercely attacked the fragile and chaotic energy structure inside the "mother nest"!

This was a crazy act. He didn't understand what those cables were for, what kind of data they transmitted, or what the energy structure of the "Hive" looked like—he only knew that he was going to burst it.

It's like pouring water into a glass that's already full; the water will overflow.

What he was pouring in wasn't water, but his Qi. And what he was going to "burst" wasn't a water glass, but a living lump of flesh tens of meters in size.

Since this thing is using its will to corrupt Xiaoyun, let it taste what it's like to be "infused" with external energy!

"Cloud Qi, Ice Soul, Reverse Flow!"

"Sizzle—!!!"

His five fingers, like red-hot branding irons, fiercely "grabbed" into the data cable wrapped in special material!

The cable had a very thick insulation layer, with a fine metal braid inside. Underneath the metal braid was a silvery-white, lifelike light film, and beneath that light film were countless hair-thin crystal lines and biological nerve bundles.

But his fingers—the icy blue aura at his fingertips—cut into the tofu layer by layer.

The insulation layer vaporized—not burned, but directly turned into gas, without the combustion process, transforming directly from solid to gas. With a hiss, a white, pungent odor filled the air.

The metal mesh shattered—not by being cut, but by being frozen. The fine metal wires became as brittle as glass the moment they came into contact with the cold air, cracking and breaking into countless tiny fragments that detached from the cable.

The light membrane dimmed—that silvery-white, seemingly living light membrane, upon contact with Nie Lingfeng's Qi, suddenly brightened, as if making a final stand. But that Qi was too strong, so strong that the light membrane only lasted for a second before quickly dimming, turning into a gray, dead-skin-like film.

The complex internal crystalline circuitry and biological nerve bundle-like structures were revealed—the crystalline circuitry was pale blue, varying in thickness, branching and intertwining like tree branches. The biological nerve bundles were pale pink, with fine rings on their surface, and were still slightly pulsating, like living, pulsating blood vessels.

Immediately afterwards, a violent, pure, and cold mixed energy, which contained Nie Lingfeng's overwhelming rage and killing intent, surged like a flood breaking through a dam, flowing against the original data flow through the data channel and rushing madly towards the "mother nest"!

The energy didn't rush forward in a straight line, but rather flowed, branched, and diffused like a luminous river within the crystalline pathways and biological nerve bundles. At each branching point, the energy split into two streams, then four, then eight—like a tree growing upside down, its roots constantly spreading out.

Wherever it passed, the crystal circuits, like filaments injected with overloaded current, suddenly lit up—so bright they were blinding, so bright they almost exploded—and then shattered with a "pop." The biological nerve bundles turned from pink to gray, from gray to black, their wriggling rhythm becoming slower and weaker, until finally they stopped completely, like dried-out earthworms.

The cable was vibrating violently, as if something inside was struggling and screaming. Cracks began to appear on the surface of the cable, from which blue sparks and black smoke emerged. The smoke was thick and pungent, smelling like plastic and meat burning together.

"Ugh—!!!!!"

The "Mother Nest" emitted the most mournful, painful, and furious scream in its history!

The shrieking sound wasn't a single frequency, but rather a chorus of countless frequencies superimposed, like tens of thousands of people screaming simultaneously. It emanated from every cell, every blood vessel, and every crystal in the mass of flesh, converging into a sound wave that surged in all directions.

The entire mass of flesh convulsed and twitched violently! The surface no longer pulsed rhythmically, but rather writhed in a chaotic, disordered manner, as if something was churning inside it. A bulge would rise under its skin one moment, and a crater would sink in the next, as if hundreds of hands were pushing and pulling inside.

The surface glowed with a chaotic, dark red light—the “eye” crystals were no longer synchronized, but rather acted independently, some bright, some dim, some red, some yellow, some flashing, and some already off. The frequencies were so disordered that no pattern could be discerned, as if someone were randomly pressing buttons on a broken dimmer.

Several of the "eye" crystals developed cracks! These cracks radiated outwards from the center of the crystals, spreading like a spider web, growing larger and more numerous, from as thin as a hair to as thick as a finger. A dark red liquid seeped from the cracks, viscous like blood, but thicker and emitting an odor ten times stronger than a pool of blood.

The "straws" inserted into the blood pool suddenly straightened—those thick, flesh-membrane-covered tubes were stretched taut from both ends as if pulled by a hand, the rings on the surface were flattened, and they made a "buzzing" sound, as if they might break at any moment.

Then--

"Slap! Slap! Slap!"

Several straws broke! The sound was like a rubber band snapping, or a bone breaking. The broken straws swung wildly in the air, and dark red liquid gushed out from the breaks like a waterfall, splashing onto the platform, the boardwalk, and the rock walls with a loud "whoosh." Instantly, a pool of dark red liquid formed on the platform, ankle-deep.