63: The tsundere class representative and the curry-flavored suicide squad.

Guji... guji... The decaying silt was like living, brown grease; every time she pulled her leg out, it made a sickening sucking sound.

Li Yaozhi felt like she was going insane.

As a famous school beauty known for her germaphobia, her current appearance was nothing short of a disaster.

Those long, jade-like legs, worshipped by countless boys as divine, were now covered in black mud.

Her plaid JK skirt clung damply to the tops of her thighs, and her high-top leather boots had long since been lost in some muddy pit.

She could only walk barefoot, stepping unevenly through the sludge.

“Chen Du... you bastard...”

Li Yaozhi bit her lip, clutching a coin in her hand.

This was the coin he had shoved into her mouth right before the teleportation.

Aside from that, she really was starting with a naked loadout.

She had nothing but these tattered clothes and her damnably proud figure.

The surroundings were filled with half-man-high reeds, each tip bearing a fruit that looked like a human eyeball.

They turned with the cold wind, staring fixedly at the intruder.

Fear crawled up her spine; she was almost scared to tears.

“I am a Diviner, not some vase that only knows how to scream.”

Li Yaozhi muttered under her breath, cheering herself up.

She opened her palm, which was covered in mud.

The coin in her palm was growing slightly hot, and like a magnetic pull, it was leading her toward the northwest.

That way lay the boundary between the Bone Forest and the Rotting Marsh.

“This coin was given by you...”

A look of stubbornness appeared in Li Yaozhi's eyes.

“Why can't I find you yet? Where on earth are you?”

Just then.

A strange flute melody drifted over with the hot, humid wind.

How could she describe that tune?

It sounded like someone whistling while being strangled; it was not only unpleasant but also had a distinct 'curry' flavor to it.

Li Yaozhi alertly crouched down and quickly slipped into a dense cluster of purple ferns.

On a patch of dry high ground ahead, seven or eight dark-skinned men wrapped in turbans were gathered.

They had smeared their bodies with yellow-brown mud and painted incomprehensible symbols on their faces.

“The Curry Country team?” Li Yaozhi frowned. “Are these people here for comic relief?”

The bearded leader was puffing out his cheeks, playing a reed pipe with a look of intoxication.

In the bubbling swamp opposite them, a giant python the size of a water bucket was slowly poking its head out.

“Lakuli! Even in the God-Forsaken Land, let the world see the beast-taming talent of the children of the Ganges!”

A skinny team member beside him shouted excitedly.

Holding a lump of thin mud mixed with unknown herbs, he was scattering it into the swamp.

“As soon as this beast comes up, light the fire! We'll roast it into Beggar's Snake! We're having a feast tonight!”

Li Yaozhi's eyelids twitched as she watched.

Are these people insane?

Playing with fire in a Rotting Marsh filled with methane? And making such a huge commotion in a place crawling with monsters?

As it turned out, these people really were there to liven up the atmosphere.

The bearded flute player probably tried to hit a high note, but his breath didn't hold up, and the sound cracked.

“Hiss!!”

That one sound failed to control the mud python and instead attracted other species.

Buzz, buzz, buzz—!

The surrounding reeds suddenly erupted!

Countless beetles the size of washbasins with red pustules on their backs crawled out of the silt.

Poison Gland Beetles! Social! Strong acid!

“Oh! Lord Shiva! What the hell are these things?! This isn't according to the script!”

Lakuli threw all the 'Ganges Secret Recipe' in his hands to drive away the swarm.

“Light the fire! Quick, light the fire! Burn them to death!!”

The bearded man panicked, and a blast of orange-red flame suddenly erupted from his palm—he must have awakened a fire-type talent.

Li Yaozhi's pupils shrank, and she quickly buried her head in the mud.

“You idiots! That's methane!!”

BOOM—!!!

A small mushroom cloud rose over the Rotting Marsh!

Those seven or eight Indians didn't even have time to scream before they were physically liberated by the shockwave and high temperatures of the explosion.

But that wasn't even the worst part.

The explosion didn't kill many beetles; instead, it enraged the mud python.

The frenzied giant beast and the bloodthirsty swarm instantly overwhelmed the high ground.

The Curry Country team, which had been singing and dancing moments ago, turned into a mess of roasted meat on the ground in the blink of an eye.

Immediately after, a strong shockwave swept through, and foul-smelling mud splashed all over Li Yaozhi.

“Cough, cough...”

She felt the ground beneath her feet give way.

The violent tremors caused the soft mud to collapse.

Li Yaozhi sank uncontrollably!

The mud rose past her calves, her knees, and the tops of her thighs!

Then it reached for her waist!

An icy, bone-chilling sense of suffocation enveloped her whole body; the more she struggled, the faster she sank.

“No... calm down! Don't panic...”

She slowly stopped all struggling movements.

The value of being a top student manifested at this moment; her knowledge of physics saved her life.

“Increase the surface area... don't apply force to a single point...”

Enduring extreme disgust, Li Yaozhi slowly leaned backward.

With her entire back pressed against the surface of the mud, she spread out her limbs in an extremely ungraceful posture.

Mud poured into her collar and ears, but the sinking trend stopped.

Like an insect, she pulled herself out of the trap bit by bit.

Finally reaching a solid tree root, Li Yaozhi panted heavily, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

It was too pathetic.

It was too disgusting.

If those 'simp' followers who treated her like a goddess saw this, their dreams would probably shatter into a million pieces.

“If you don't want to die, hold it back.”

She pinched her thigh hard, forcing back her weak emotions.

Swish, swish, swish!

Several nearly weightless footsteps passed overhead.

Li Yaozhi held her breath and shrank into the shadow of the tree root.

On the withered branches, three dark shadows flashed past like ghosts.

They were all dressed in tight black combat suits, wearing Hannya Masks on their faces.

They weren't foolish enough to walk on the ground like the Indians; they leaped between the treetops as if on level ground.

The Sakura Country team!

One of the dark shadows paused for a second on a branch, looking down at the carnage below.

“Heh, how does that old saying the Huaxia people often use go?”

A cold, mocking laugh came from beneath the mask.

“Pig teammates lead to a quick death.”

“Tanaka-kun, ignore this trash.”

The lead ninja's voice was indifferent. “The Bone Forest is ahead; through it lies the Golden City.”

“According to the intelligence, there is equipment left behind by God there.”

“Hai!”

The dark shadows set off again, quickly disappearing into the depths of the mist.

Li Yaozhi covered her mouth, her whole body cold.

She couldn't hear what they were saying at all; there was only the sound of her heart beating like thunder in her ears.

She looked too pathetic right now, her clothes torn and her body covered in mud.

If she were discovered by this group... as a female player with no defensive capabilities, what awaited her would likely be humiliation and torture more miserable than death.

“No... I can't die here...”

Cold sweat mixed with muddy water dripped down.

Li Yaozhi took a deep breath, suppressing the alarm and helplessness in her heart.

“Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, all things follow the trail. By my will, locate the spirit—Order!”

As the incantation was recited, the coin lying flat in her palm actually stood up on its own.

Then it began to spin frantically!

A few seconds later, the coin stopped abruptly!

Heads up, the pattern pointed to the northwest!

Moreover, its surface temperature was rising sharply, burning her palm painfully.

“So hot... it means the distance is very close!”

A glimmer of hope burst into Li Yaozhi's eyes, and she stumbled toward the direction the coin indicated.

Passing through the reeds, the terrain suddenly changed.

The mud disappeared, replaced by a land of pale bone powder.

Giant ribs pierced the sky like a graveyard for giants.

“Chen Du~~”

Li Yaozhi finally ran out of the mist, coming to a halt under the skeleton of a mammoth.

She finally saw the figure she had been thinking about day and night.

Chen Du was shirtless, his muscle lines full of tension.

In his hand... he held a strange weapon.

The front had sharp bone serrations, and the back was connected to a tendon acting as a pull cord.

Beside him, Xia Lai, dressed in light underwear, was sweating profusely as she tightened a bone nail.

“Captain! Done! The transmission structure is tuned!”

Chen Du nodded, gripping the handle with one hand.

He gave the tendon a sudden pull!

Vroom—vroom, vroom, vroom!!!

The Bone Chainsaw spun frantically, its teeth leaving afterimages in the air.

This was clearly a wasteland-style Bone Chainsaw!