Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

Seeing that it seemed to be working, Ou Yun continued, "Mike? Do you remember me? I'm Ou Yun! We were drinking together the other night!"

Although that memory wasn't pleasant—perhaps it was his last memory as a human being?

Mike's body began to tremble violently.

It raised its left claw and grabbed its own face, its fingertips digging into the flesh, black pus and blood dripping down between its fingers.

The face, already distorted beyond recognition, became even more contorted—as if it were waging a desperate battle against something within its body.

"Uh...uh..."

—A strange cry with no clear meaning.

"roar--!!"

Mike pounced again, this time even faster than before.

Its two arms mutated simultaneously, splitting open at the elbows and extending two bony tentacles identical to those on its right leg.

The three tentacles lashed wildly in the air, like three black whips, completely blocking Ou Yun and Leng Ruolan's escape route.

Leng Ruolan dodged with a backflip, her face expressionless, and then looked at President Ou. "Big brother, it seems you've angered him."

"Haha..." Mr. Ou laughed awkwardly.

"well……"

Leng Ruolan thought to herself, "Never mind, I've been through this all along anyway."

She immediately gripped her twin swords, a cold glint in her eyes. "Brother, cut its tentacles first. Your Abyss Sword deals double damage to these things."

"Received, received."

Ou Yun gripped his sword with both hands, aimed at a tentacle that was whipping towards him, and slashed down with a fierce blow.

The moment the sword's edge collided with the tentacle, an extremely piercing metallic scraping sound erupted.

The red light on the sword surged the moment it touched the tendrils.

The tentacle trembled violently beneath the sword's edge, and cracks began to appear in its surface bone layer, spreading along the tentacle's texture.

click!

The whiskers broke off.

A large amount of black pus and blood gushed from the cut, and Mike let out a shrill scream, staggering back several steps.

"It's actually quite useful!"

With renewed vigor, Ou Yun immediately caught up and slashed at the second tentacle.

But this time Mike learned his lesson. Instead of attacking proactively, his remaining two tentacles coiled around his body, forming a defensive circle.

When Ou Yun's sword struck it, it could only leave a shallow mark, unable to cut it off in one blow like before.

"Wow, it can even adapt to our attack methods?"

Leng Ruolan's twin swords slashed at the tentacle's defensive circle several times, but they were all deflected.

"Don't stop, bro! This guy can heal himself!"

Ou Yun noticed that new bone tissue had begun to grow from the wound where Mike's whisker had broken off.

The new tendrils are thicker than the previous ones, with longer barbs on the surface, and their color has changed from dark purple to deep black.

If this drags on, it will only get stronger the more we fight it!

"Brother, we need to finish this quickly."

Leng Ruolan landed, her eyes calm and serene.

"I'll hold its tentacles back, you cut down its body!"

"Huh? Me?"

"quick!"

Leng Ruo twirled the twin blades in her hands, then charged straight at Mike.

Her figure darted swiftly through the gaps in the tentacles, the black mist churning on the blades of her twin swords more intense than ever before.

"Look this way!"

As expected, the mutated Mike was drawn to her, and all three tentacles immediately lashed out at her at the same time!

At the last moment, Leng Ruolan suddenly turned to the side, the whiskers almost brushing against her back, the resulting wind pressure making her hair fly high.

"Big brother! Now's the time!"

Ou Yun had already circled around to Mike's back.

He gripped the sword with both hands, the blade gleaming with an eerie red light—

With all his might, Ou Yun aimed at the throbbing tumor on Mike's back and stabbed it hard!

"ah--!!"

Mike let out a bloodcurdling scream.

The moment the sword of the abyss pierced the tumor, countless cracks burst open on its surface, and a large amount of black pus and blood immediately gushed out.

The energy on the sword reacted violently with the energy in the tumor, causing the entire tumor to shrink and shrivel at a visible rate.

Mike's body began to break down.

Its limbs, whiskers, skin, bones—all the mutated parts—were disintegrating simultaneously.

The disintegration was extremely rapid, as if someone had pressed the rewind button, replaying the entire mutation process in reverse—

In less than ten seconds, Mike transformed back into his original human form.

He lay on the ground, his facial expression no longer distorted, reverting to his golden-haired bipedal form, his face pale and his lips purple.

But his eyes were still red.

"European... luck..."

Mike's voice was so faint it was almost inaudible.

Ou Yun stood beside him, sword in hand, looking down at him.

Leng Ruolan walked over and stood behind Ou Yun.

"you say."

"You...you come closer..."

"Go ahead and say it."

"Closer, closer..."

"?"

Leng Ruolan said coldly, pressing down on Ou Yun with one hand, "Don't get too close, this thing might be poisonous."

Mike closed his eyes and read aloud in his hoarse voice:

"To the west of that circular valley... there's a canyon... at the end of which is... a basin..."

"There's a pillar inside...and it's...steaming out..."

"Inside the fog...it's all...they're devouring each other..."

As he was speaking, Mike's lips suddenly twitched, a hint of resentment flashed in his eyes—then he stopped moving completely.

"Dead?"

Leng Ruolan gently touched Mike's body with the tip of her knife to confirm that there were no signs of any remaining mutations.

"That canyon—that must be the direction he ran in yesterday."

Ou Yun pondered, "Have we been to that canyon before? I have absolutely no recollection of it."

Leng Ruolan said she had never been there. "We've searched this area countless times, and we've never seen any pillars or fog."

If she hadn't heard Alexander's recent report, she wouldn't have believed a single word from this handsome Chinese man.

"Could the pillars and mist he mentioned be the same as the abyssal energy we encountered before?"

"Possibly."

"Even devouring each other? That sounds a bit like it..."

Ou Yun sheathed his longsword, looked at Mike's corpse on the ground, and seemed lost in thought.

It seems the Forbidden Zone is going all out this time!

The first stage consists of mutated beasts, and the second stage consists of abyssal monsters.

The third stage is just about raising Gu poison, right?

Leng Ruolan sneered, "Put a bunch of monsters into a closed space and let them devour each other. The one that survives to the end is the strongest."

"And what is that pillar?"

"We'll have to go see for ourselves to know the specifics, but we definitely can't go now."

Leng Ruolan slowly sheathed her sword.

"Judging from his description, that place is too dangerous, and we don't even know the specific rules of the third stage yet."

We haven't even figured out the rules on the surface yet, so who knows what kind of trouble the forbidden area is up to behind the scenes.

Ou Yun nodded and said, "That makes sense. Let's bury him first—hmm?"

Only then did he notice that Mike's skin was rapidly losing moisture, becoming dry and cracked.

The entire corpse deflated rapidly, like a punctured balloon.

Leng Ruolan's pupils contracted. "Step back!"