One person: Starting with the Snow Drinking Blade

The blood pool exploded violently! The viscous liquid shot into the sky like a fountain! It was no ordinary fountain; the liquid column was several meters thick, shooting up the dome, crashing into the metal frames, and exploding into a huge, dark red flower composed of flesh and bone fragments.

The liquid stream fell, "whoosh—" like a torrential rain, drenching every person, every monster, and every inch of the ground. The raindrops hit their faces, warm, sticky, and carrying a strong, fishy smell, as if someone had spilled a vat of blood on their heads.

The mother nest's will to lock onto Xiaoyun was instantly interrupted and disrupted by this sudden and extremely fierce energy surge!

That invisible connection—that steel cable—looked as if it had been cleaved in two.

Xiaoyun's body trembled violently!

Her whole body jolted as if she had been electrocuted, bouncing a few inches up from Chen Duo's arms before falling back down.

A glimmer of life returned to the empty eyes. Something lit up again in those lifeless, dull eyes—not light, not vitality, but something more primal: consciousness.

The dark red light of the mother nest in her pupils was rapidly fading, replaced by her own clear, black pupils.

immediately--

"Wow!"

She spat out a small mouthful of foul-smelling, grayish-black blood with strands of it. The grayish-black strands seemed to come alive as they hit the ground, wriggling a few times before slowly stopping, drying, and turning into dust.

The blood fell to the ground with a hissing sound, releasing a wisp of blue smoke.

Then, she collapsed softly into Nie Lingfeng's arms and lost consciousness.

But his breathing became much more even—no longer the rapid, short, choking breath, but a long, even breath, like a child's breathing when asleep.

The abnormal bluish-gray color on his face had faded somewhat, turning from a deathly gray to a waxy yellow, and from a waxy yellow to a pale white. Although he still lacked color, at least he didn't look like a small corpse as before.

efficient!

But this also thoroughly enraged the "mother nest"!

"roar--!!!!"

This time, it was a truly terrifying roar that resounded throughout the entire underground space, a combination of physical and psychological impact!

The roar didn't emanate from within the mass of flesh, but from its "mouth"—if it even had one. No, it roared with its entire body. Every inch of its skin vibrated, every crystal glowed, every vein contracted. Its entire being was filled with rage.

The dome trembled violently! Not the slight, continuous tremors of before, but a violent, intense tremor, as if a giant were shaking the house from the outside.

The rock face crumbled, and boulders rained down! Large slabs of rock, some as big as cars and others as big as fists, fell from the dome above, crashing onto the ground, the platform, and the pool of blood with a deafening roar, creating craters and kicking up clouds of dust.

Those metal rooms clinging to the rock walls—not just a few, not a dozen—but more than half of the rooms!

More than half!

The tightly closed metal doors snapped with a clang, the locks snapped open with a crack, and the doors were blasted open from the inside by internal forces! Not pushed open, but blown open—the doors flew outwards, spinning as they crashed into the opposite rock wall, shattering into pieces with a loud crash.

More, more powerful, and more distorted and terrifying experimental subjects roared and swarmed out!

What poured out of the door were no longer individual monsters, but hordes of them.

The Rippers burst out of the room in hordes, their bone plates darker, their claws larger, and their aura more ferocious. Their skin was no longer grayish-white, but dark red—as if stained with blood.

The "Screamer" pressed down from the dome like a dark cloud, the sound of its wings flapping so densely it sounded like a helicopter taking off, and the sound waves from its mouth intertwined, forming visible, distorted ripples in the air.

The "shapeshifters" surged in from the ground, walls, and ceiling—from every direction. They no longer crawled along the ground but advanced in waves, corroding the ground in their wake, leaving behind scorched, smoking trenches.

There are also giant monsters that have never appeared before, with a size comparable to a small truck, covered with a thick exoskeleton, and exuding a suffocating pressure!

The colossal monsters emerged from the largest rooms—they were so large that they had to bend over to pass through the doorways. Their exoskeletons were black, like beetle shells, with a glossy sheen. Their heads were triangular, eyeless, with only a massive mouth that took up the entire surface, containing three rows of inward-curving, hook-like teeth.

With each step, the ground trembled.

There were also several monsters that resembled a hybrid of spiders and humans—each with eight legs, each ending in a sharp bone spur, allowing them to move freely on rock walls, the ground, and ceilings. Their upper bodies were human-like, but their skin was gray and wrinkled, as if it had been soaking in water for a long time. They had facial features, but the features were misplaced—the eyes were below their mouths, the noses were on their foreheads, and their mouths were horizontal, not vertical.

They crawled in from all directions at breakneck speed, faster than the Rippers, and with more unpredictable paths than the Screamers—sometimes on the walls, sometimes on the ground, sometimes hanging upside down from overhead.

And around the platform—

The monsters and people from Eagle Country and Cherry Blossom Country affected by the time lag field also recovered from the sluggishness and interference.

The effects of the "Time Lag Field" were fading. The monsters' movements slowly returned to normal speed from 0.5x, as if someone were gradually speeding up a video. Their scythes became sharp again, and their roars became deafening once more.

The British suit-wearing elite and Catherine were both shocked and furious, their eyes filled with murderous intent as they looked at Nie Lingfeng. They had just woken up from their hallucinations, their minds still reeling from those distorted and bizarre images, their temples still throbbing, and their chests still heaving violently.

"What did you do?!" the suit-wearing elite roared.

His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping glass. The control panel screen in front of him had turned into static—not gibberish, not a warning, just a pure, grayish-white screen, like the static on an old-fashioned television when there's no signal. All data connections were lost; the screen was completely blank.

The dark blue data cables dimmed, stopped vibrating, stopped glowing, and hung limply on the ground like dead snakes.

It was clearly completely ruined by Nie Lingfeng's attack just now.

"We did what you wanted to do but didn't dare to do."

Nie Lingfeng, holding the unconscious Xiaoyun, slowly turned around.

His voice was calm, but as calm as the sea before a storm. Every word seemed to have been drawn from the depths of an glacier, cold and devoid of warmth.

Faced with the surging tide of monsters, both old and new—thousands upon thousands of monsters pouring in from all directions, like a tsunami crashing down from every angle.

And a formidable enemy loomed large—the suited elite's saber was still dripping blood, ice crystals were still forming on Catherine's palm, and Fujiwara Sousuke got up from the ground, supporting himself with one arm, staring at him with venomous eyes.

"Now, this thing has completely gone berserk. We either die here together, or... cooperate for now and survive."

His suggestion surprised everyone.

Cooperation?

Fighting these enemies who were just fighting to the death?

With those who would love to eat your flesh and drink your blood?

"Are you crazy?! Cooperate with you?" the suit-wearing elite gritted his teeth. His teeth were grinding so hard that his cheek muscles bulged into a hard lump.

"You can choose not to cooperate, and then wait to be torn apart by these monsters, or devoured by the rampaging 'mother hive'."

Nie Lingfeng calmly stated the facts. His tone was devoid of any emotional fluctuation, like a judge reading a verdict.

"It hates everyone now, especially the person who just 'provoked' it. And here, the only one who might know how to temporarily cope or escape..."

He glanced at the bald bear, who was sprawled on the ground, his face ashen.

Bald Bear was so frightened he was almost incontinent. His face wasn't pale, but ashen—like the color of paper ash. His lips were bluish-purple, his eyes were wide open, his pupils had shrunk to pinpoints, and his body was trembling like a leaf.

He watched as the terrifying monsters surged forth like a tide, especially the newly appeared giant individuals—the "Tyrant" and the "Nest Guardian" were so frighteningly large, each bigger than a truck, and there were four of them—their voices were choked with sobs, like the voices of the dead.

"We can't escape... That's the 'Tyrant'! And the 'Nest Guardians'! It's all over... It's all over..."

"waste!"

The man in the suit cursed. His lips trembled, not from anger, but from fear. But he refused to admit his fear, so he channeled it into anger.

But as the monster horde drew ever closer—the leading "Rippers" were less than fifty meters from the platform, their footsteps shook the ground, and the wind they generated when they swung their scythes could already reach your face.

And in the center, though in pain, the aura was even more dangerous and violent, seemingly locking onto all the "stimuli" present—its hundreds of "eye" crystals were all shining brightly, each staring at one person, each conveying the same message: you will all die.

He knew Nie Lingfeng was right.

If the infighting continues, everyone will die here.

"How do we cooperate?"

"Catherine asked coldly," she said. Her voice was soft, but everyone heard it in the chaotic melee. Her hands trembled, not from fear, but from exhaustion. Her frost powers were almost depleted, and she wouldn't last much longer without help.

The ice crystal in her hand condensed again—a thin layer, only the size of a fingernail, hovering above her palm, faintly glowing blue.

"Simple."

Nie Lingfeng looked at the people from the Eagle Country and the Cherry Blossom Country, and then at his companions on his side.

"Our people, along with you, will temporarily form a defensive line to hold off the monsters, fighting our way back towards the exit. Bald Bear, give directions. Wang Ye, find weak points in the terrain or possible escape routes. Once we find the exit, or a relatively safe area, we'll each rely on our own abilities. How does that sound?"

His voice wasn't loud, but every word was firm and resolute. It sounded like he was making a deal, not asking for a favor.

The suit-wearing elite and Catherine exchanged a glance.

That glance was brief, less than a second. But the tacit understanding between them wasn't something that had developed overnight; a single look conveyed a wealth of information: Can they fight? Yes. How long can they hold out? They don't know. Is there a chance? Yes. But they need help.

Then he looked at Fujiwara Sousuke.

Fujiwara Sousuke had just gotten up from the ground, propping himself up on his knee with one arm, panting heavily, his face ashen, and blood still stained the corner of his mouth. He grim-faced, gritted his teeth—they made a "crunching" sound as if he were crushing some hard bone—and nodded.

He didn't want to cooperate with Nie Lingfeng either. But he didn't want to die here even more. He still had many things to do; he couldn't die here.

"Okay. But once we leave here, the agreement will automatically become invalid."

The man in the suit spoke in a deep voice. His voice regained its composure, the kind of composure a businessman would have when issuing an ultimatum at the negotiating table.

"make a deal."