BOOM!
Qixia Border Town trembled violently. The tremors were intense, and by the time over a dozen Earth Envoys sensed the attack from underground, it was already too late.
The ground was violently ripped upward like a massive carpet. A giant worm burst forth from the earth, the sheer force of its emergence causing two nearby high-rises to collapse.
"Holy shit!"
"Run! The Bloodthirsty Fungus is here!"
Amidst the panicked cries, the giant worm crushed a five-story building under its weight. A deep cavity on its front slowly opened, revealing a writhing, ring-shaped maw.
The next moment, piles of bloody corpses mixed with a crimson, spore-filled mist sprayed out frantically.
From this feast of blood, four tall and ferocious human-beast chimeras rose to their feet.
A Bearman Warlock at the forefront faced the charging human figures. With a single outstretched hand, it unleashed a terrifying Earthquake Wave combined with a Gravity Skill. The attack erupted from its palm, expanding rapidly in a ring.
The ground cracked and buckled like brittle paper. The few people charging at it disintegrated piece by piece within the gravitational shockwave, their surrounding elemental barriers not even holding for half a second.
At the same time, a lion-maned warlock on the other side let out a long roar, spewing a torrent of flames from its throat. It combined the fire with a hurricane technique from its right hand, instantly creating a fiery tornado that swept down a main commercial street.
Shops and watchtowers were completely incinerated. Wherever the tongues of flame licked, even metal melted rapidly.
On a rooftop, several ranged fighters were setting up Rune Crossbow Cannons to bombard the giant worm. But the lion-maned warlock merely lifted a hand, shifted its technique, and an Acceleration Skill combined with a Bursting Fireball slammed into the rooftop.
The reinforced concrete was as fragile as building blocks. The roof caved in amidst a pillar of fire that shot toward the sky.
"This has to be the power of a Lv7 Rune!"
Faced with such heaven-shaking power, the group of Rune Casters who had come to the rescue were struck with terror.
Meanwhile, the scattered flesh and corpses began to stir. Pulled by the mycelia within, they slowly rose, one after another, forming the shambling figures of Parasite Bodies.
They lunged toward the surrounding shops like zombies.
Just then, another powerful tremor came from underground.
A second giant worm burst from the ground directly beneath the resource exchange depot. Its ring-shaped maw opened to its absolute limit, its layers of serrated teeth spinning like a meat grinder as it chomped down on the outer wall of the rune and mineral storage room.
At this moment, the towering city walls along the border were rendered completely useless.
It wasn’t just Qixia Border Town. Multiple districts throughout Dongfu City were under siege by the giant worms.
From a bird’s-eye view, it was clear their targets were the city’s resource hubs. One pilot essence bank, not yet even in operation, was breached, and most of the essence in its vault was devoured.
It was as if the Bloodthirsty Fungus was trying to seize Power and immense Life Force from these resources.
There was evidence to support this.
Two of the fungal giant worms, their auras weak and their bodies decaying, headed straight for the shelters. This was because the environment there was the warmest and most comfortable, thanks to the Constant Temperature Skill and a steady energy supply.
The Bloodthirsty Fungus was betting everything on this one move.
Severely weakened by one night of extreme cold, it now sought to devour the entire city in one gulp, turning it into a warm cradle to ensure its own survival. Dongfu City was facing its darkest hour.
After hearing the broadcast, Su Chen set out immediately. He was enveloped in Wind Fluff. Thanks to an exquisite triple-composite Technique called ’Void Wanderer,’ the turbulent airflow formed a streamlined membrane around him, keeping his clothes from being ruffled during his high-speed flight.
In the canvas backpack on his back, he carried a Holy Sword, a shotgun, and a Pure White Short Staff.
For the Rune Sequence bound to his primary Core Authority today, he had removed Shadow Summoning and added Water Mirror Refraction.
Within this sequence, his Jingzhe Rune was equivalent to Lv6.
It was the only one at such a low level.
The reason he hadn’t swapped it for another Lv6 Rune was that the Jingzhe Rune was an indispensable part of his personal combat build. He needed a way to guard against the formidable physical toughness of the human-beast chimeras.
Far behind him, a group of figures struggled to keep up as they flew in his wake.
「Seventeen minutes later.」
Su Chen was the first to arrive in the skies above Qixia Border Town.
The outer walls were unscathed, still standing tall.
But as soon as his gaze passed over the top of the wall to the scene beyond, his heart sank. Smoke and dust billowed like a gray curtain over a landscape of rubble and ruins. Deep gouges carved by the giant worms crisscrossed the ground.
The creative park in the rear was hit particularly hard, having been reduced to a complete disaster zone—perhaps as an act of retaliatory vengeance, or perhaps so the creatures could absorb the Plant and Mineral Crystals there.
A fiery tornado, woven from Wind and Fire, was still raging wildly through the area.
"Just hold on! An Investigation Legion that was dispatched is on its way back to reinforce us!"
"Dammit, why’d they have to attack right now of all times?"
Some people wept as they looked out at the devastated landscape. Qixia Border Town had been peaceful for the past two days, so an elite battalion had been reassigned to another location and had even participated in yesterday’s expedition.
Furthermore, the local garrison’s investigation squad had also been sent out on an exploration mission.
As a result, the Forward Base was left with far fewer high-level personnel. Faced with this sudden, city-breaching offensive, they were stretched desperately thin.
What’s more, the cross-species human-beast chimeras were astonishingly powerful. An ordinary Professional would be defeated in a single exchange, left either dead or grievously wounded.
However, the remaining guard battalion and the powerful civilian teams were no pushovers.
One of the giant worms was already on the verge of collapse. It let out a low, mournful cry as its flesh rotted and sloughed off like melting wax. It couldn’t help but vomit out the various rune minerals and building debris it had swallowed.

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