Chapter 58

Chapter 58

"Ssshh."

The sound wave seemed to create ripples in the air. In that instant, An Zhe realized that it was not relying on sight but rather sound to locate its target.

Countless limbs wriggled as it moved closer.

"Bang!"

Gunshots pierced the nocturnal sky, and a gust of wind brushed past An Zhe. With an unimaginable velocity, Lu Fen ascended to a high stone and fired the first shot.

The rustling ceased. Its multiple eyes rolled slowly, accompanied by a muted, intermittent howl. An Zhe imagined its windpipe must be congested with abscesses.

The second shot struck one of the eyes in the upper right.

The howl intensified, and An Zhe's eyes widened abruptly.

Blood.

Jet-black blood spurted from the wound where the eye had been - not merely flowed, but gushed out in a fountain.

Lu Fen fired several shots, causing the rupture to worsen and expand. Blood shot out like a geyser from the wound, and the monster's howl echoed loudly.

An Zhe looked up at Lu Fen, noticing the man's calm gaze as if everything was within his expectations.

He turned back to the creature—its wings fluttered, but its body was too heavy to fully lift off. It lunged forward frenziedly, crashing directly into the rock where Lu Fen stood. A deafening boom echoed, and the stone trembled as dust and debris fell, yet Lu Fen remained motionless atop it. He overlooked the massive lump of flesh with an elevated perspective.

The collision accelerated the bleeding; it was as if a punctured water sac. An Zhe watched this unimaginable scene, wondering if the monster's body was made of countless fluids.

After the tenth impact, the noise subsided, and the colossal form slowly collapsed.

Not just blood, chunks of tissue and bizarrely shaped organs poured from the wound. The heart and lungs seemed fused into a semi-solid flow, emitting an indescribable stench that permeated the area. Even for a creature from the Abyss, its internal organs had an unimaginable composition.

An Zhe: "…?"

His comprehension faltered, and he looked up at Lu Fen, who raised an eyebrow and jumped down beside him. "What's wrong?"

An Zhe: "…That's it?"

Lu Fen: "That's it."

An Zhe: "It died so easily."

"Uh-huh." Lu Fen holstered his gun, the stock gently spinning between his pale fingers before it was tucked away at his waist.

An Zhe was in a state of immense confusion, to the point that he began to wonder what it would be like to be shot. He felt a little frightened.

Lu Fen glanced at him, a hint of a smile in his eyes, then turned and walked out.

The monster's ugliness surpassed An Zhe's imagination, as did its speed in collapsing. The Abyss was filled with huge and grotesque creatures, but this pile of flesh clearly didn't adhere to the principle that the uglier the monster, the stronger it was.

The creature's corpse lay on the sand dune, black-red pus seeping from under its body and staining the soil dark. The same pus also dripped onto the nearby shrubs, hanging there like a dewdrop for a minute before retracting and merging into the branches and leaves – absorbed.

Lu Fen checked his watch. After confirming that the monster had been dead for thirty minutes, he approached it, with An Zhe following – albeit still limping slightly.

Under the aurora, its bizarrely shaped body shimmered with an eerie metallic luster. Despite its components coming from different organisms, they were all seamlessly connected, seemingly growing from within its body. Recalling how it had devoured the black bee, An Zhe realized that it would immediately grow organs dominated by the genes of the organism it ingested.

After observing the creature for a long time, Lu Fen said to An Zhe, "Let's go."

An Zhe asked, "Where to?"

Lu Fen replied, "There might be more of these around here. Let's find a safe spot."

Scanning their surroundings, An Zhe could only see a dusty desert stretching out before them. "Where do you suggest we go?"

"There's an ancient ruin up ahead," said Lu Fen.

An Zhe wondered how he hadn't noticed the ruins during his flight. But then he realized that he had been riding on a bee, while the Colonel had traveled by airplane, which naturally provided a wider field of view.

Lu Fen inquired, "Are you able to walk?"

An Zhe answered, "I can manage."

In truth, he wasn't exactly a mushroom who cowered from pain – even though it did hurt a bit.

The colonel glanced at him indifferently and said, "Come here."

In the end, An Zhe still returned to Lu Fen. He wrapped his arms around Lu Fen's neck, burying his face in the crook of his shoulder. He could feel Lu Fen's breath and the undulating terrain that was actually more suitable for quadrupedal creatures to traverse. The ground wasn't hard either; it sank slightly with each step, making it unsuitable for exertion by bones and muscles. If it were limbless snake-like creatures, they might have thrived here. There were many places in this world that were not conducive to human activity. Walking here consumed extra energy, and carrying someone would require even more. But Lu Fen seemed unbothered. In his limited memories, the colonel, apart from being reticent, had never been stingy with anything.

Amidst the silence, An Zhe looked back and saw a trail of footprints, deep and shallow, on the endless expanse of white sand beneath the dark sky, like some profound symbol.

Suddenly, he recalled that day in Eden – when he passed by an empty corridor, a few white officers were gathered in an unused room, reciting a beautiful poem. The one leading them held a silver cross. At that time, Earth's magnetic field had vanished, and electricity had been cut off, plunging everyone into panic. Yet, their expressions were serene as if they'd found a strength that allowed them to move forward.

"I will fear no evil, for thou art with me," he recited the tranquil poem to Lu Fen. "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

Lu Fen's voice seemed to carry a hint of warmth amidst the chill. "Is there more?"

An Zhe tried hard to recall. "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."

"And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

"They're religious," An Zhe said. "Believe in God?"

He recalled that in An Ze's manuscripts for the base, terms like "God" or "divinity" had appeared.

Lu Fen merely responded with a nonchalant "Mm."

An Zhe continued, "What about you?"

Lu Fen didn't answer.

Silent, Lu Fen prompted An Zhe to recite poems that he had jotted down in the child's textbook or elsewhere, simple ones or complex, all the way up to "Do not go gentle into that good night." After finishing, he repeated them from the beginning. He didn't have much to talk about with Lu Fen, no topics to chat about. Wanting to liven up this silent and desolate night, this was all he could do.

The wind was strong, swiftly dispersing their words, but they were so close that An Zhe knew he could still hear him.

They had been walking for a long time.

An Zhe didn't know what kind of training an army colonel had undergone, but he also knew that this journey and this night were too long.

So long that it felt as if they could walk for a lifetime, reaching the edge of this world or the end of their lives.

He secretly transformed a portion of his body into lightweight mycelium, afraid that this change was negligible. After a while, he quietly transformed another part.

Finally, Lu Fen said, "Do you know why that monster was so easy to kill?"

An Zhe was unsure why Lu Fen had brought this up suddenly. He paused his recital of poetry and replied, "I don't know."

"Low-level mutations result from genetic contamination," Lu Fen explained. "For high-level mutated monsters, there are two types: hybrids and polymorphs."

"After a hybrid consumes genes, it will possess part of the original organism. Many organisms' genes and traits can coexist within it. However, there's an intermediate stage." Lu Fen took a step forward, continuing, "During the period when its original genes conflict with the newly acquired ones, its genetic structure undergoes intense changes, conflicting with the functions of its original organs. Its body becomes chaotic internally. That's why intelligent hybrids consume genes with a long interval, allowing them to establish stable genetics. The one just now... was too greedy."

An Zhe asked, "What about polymorphs?"

"Polymorphs are currently the highest level of mutation we've observed, and they're not numerous. They mainly reside in the Abyss. Their method of mutation isn't gene coexistence but rather free transformation. For example, changing from a bee into a plant... Sometimes, they can also change parts of themselves."

"The genetic sequence of a polymorph is more stable than that of a hybrid," Lu Fen said coolly. "But consuming too many at once can affect one's mind. The Court of Judgment once collected a case where a monster with both plant and animal polymorphism didn't complete its transformation, resulting in the fibrosis of all its organs and immediate death."

An Zhe grew a little frightened, hugging Lu Fen's neck silently.

However, he felt that the colonel's words held hidden meaning.

Author's Note: The colonel teaches you how to be a mutant.