249: An immortal stroked my head

Wei Ziqing finally caught an opening in the four-armed berserk Sentry Dog caused by its uncoordinated limbs. His bone sword slashed upward like a flash of lightning, precisely cutting into the gap of the newly grown bones in its neck, and with a forceful twist, completely severed its massive, twisted head!

Foul blood sprayed as the frantically proliferating body finally crashed to the ground, no longer moving.

He immediately turned to look at the Hanfu Immortal, only to see that the dozen or so Centipedes extending from the other's arms had now become glossy black and nearly doubled in size after sucking enough Sentry Dog flesh and blood; they were no longer slender, but appeared ferocious and thick.

They were no longer in a hurry to attack, but instead circled around the Immortal, raising their front bodies and spewing out a large amount of thick, dark purple poison mist as their mouthparts opened and closed!

The poison mist spread rapidly, enveloping the Immortal's figure and forming a lethal, writhing barrier with a pungent, sickly sweet smell.

Wei Ziqing frowned deeply. His armor and scabbard were indeed closely related to "poison" and had considerable resistance to toxins, but facing a poison mist of unknown scale and strange composition, charging in blindly was by no means a wise move.

The armor might be able to withstand it, but if it was permeable or corrosive... He chose to temporarily avoid the brunt of the attack, circling the perimeter to find a weak point in the poison mist or a flaw in the Immortal.

However, those bloated Centipedes flickered in and out of the poison mist, occasionally lunging out like venomous dragons emerging from their caves. Combined with the pervasive poison mist, it was difficult for him to get close, and the situation began to turn passive.

"Whoosh—!"

Just as an exceptionally thick Centipede seized an opportunity to lunge like lightning from the flank's poison mist, seemingly about to coil around Wei Ziqing's sword-wielding arm, a beam of dark red, searing plasma shot from a distance, precisely hitting and melting through the middle section of the Centipede by a hair's breadth!

The severed remnant of the Centipede writhed violently, spraying a large amount of foul-smelling liquid. The pressure on Wei Ziqing lightened, and he instantly retreated, escaping the edge of the poison mist.

It was Shen Mingyuan!

Under the protection of a solid fire barrier from two GUPA combatants, he had already combined the "twin stars" into a sniper rifle form, standing by with his weapon in the distance.

The reason he didn't snipe the Immortal's main body immediately was precisely because he saw the critical situation Wei Ziqing was facing—those poised Centipedes were too close; once they coiled around and injected toxins, the consequences would be unpredictable. Saving the person came first!

After clearing the danger with one shot, Shen Mingyuan's deep red eyepiece instantly switched to long-range vision mode, ignoring the churning poison mist and steadily locking the crosshairs onto the clear heat signature of the Immortal at the center of the mist—especially the head.

His finger pulled the trigger.

Inside the poison mist, the Immortal felt an extreme warning sign the moment the Centipede was shot and severed from afar!

This feeling of being locked on by a lethal long-range weapon could never be wrong!

The next shot would surely aim for a vital spot!

Shen Mingyuan pulled the trigger. A second dark red plasma beam tore through the air, shooting at an incredible speed directly toward the center of the heat source that was the head within the poison mist!

Just an instant before the beam was about to penetrate the head, a horrifying scene occurred—the heat signature representing the head was actually split vertically down the middle as if by an invisible blade, suddenly rending into left and right halves!

The gap created allowed the searing plasma beam to pass right through, failing to hit any solid matter!

Immediately after, the two halves of the head's heat signature merged back together, returning to their original state as if just completing a lightning-fast "opening" and "closing" of its mouth.

Shen Mingyuan's eyepiece clearly captured this scene that defied common sense. Even with his composure, he couldn't help but feel a chill in his heart: "Holy crap?! That works too?!"

Although this shot missed, it completely disrupted the Immortal's rhythm and exposed his position.

The Immortal dared not hesitate any longer. Using the poison mist and the desperate cover of the remaining Sentry Dogs, his figure retreated like a ghost into the deeper, complex, and dark corridors of the main hall, his presence rapidly receding and vanishing.

The poison mist gradually thinned and dissipated as the Immortal fled. Without their leader, the remaining Sentry Dogs still wandering and attacking became more frenzied but disorganized, their threat greatly reduced.

Everyone took the opportunity to counterattack. Shen Mingyuan's twin guns fired with precision, Lu Jianchuan's punches and kicks were like the wind, Cynthia's Mechanical Gauntlets broke the bones of the Sentry Dogs with every heavy blow, and Wei Ziqing's bone sword wove through the pack of Sentry Dogs to harvest them. Under the efficient cleanup of the four, the remaining Sentry Dogs were soon all dealt with, and silence finally returned to the plaza, leaving only the ground covered with monster corpses and traces of battle.

Professor Chen carefully stepped out from behind the stone pillar where he had been hiding under the protection of two armed personnel. Looking at the mess before him, he felt a lingering fear, but seeing Wei Ziqing unharmed, he showed a look of concern.

"Xiao Wei! Where did you go just now? Why did you come out from over there?" the professor asked, pointing toward the corridor Wei Ziqing had come from.

Wei Ziqing put away his bone sword and pointed toward the inconspicuous hole he had crawled out of: "I came up from below. I fell into a pit and ended up finding an old path that leads here. Oh right, down there... there seems to be a very special place, like a main burial chamber with coffins, and inside there are quite a few... uh, very shiny stones."

Upon hearing this, the professor's eyes immediately lit up: "Main burial chamber?! Really? Where is it? Quick, take me to see!" He instantly threw the danger from just now to the back of his mind, his instincts as an archaeologist overriding everything else.

"It's just down in that hole. Crawl down, and after reaching the bottom, walk a bit further through a waterway," Wei Ziqing said, preparing to lead the way.

"Great! Xiao Wu, Xiao Liu, bring the tools, we're going down!" The professor excitedly called his students and then said to the two armed personnel, "I'll have to trouble you two comrades to come along as well; the situation below is unknown, and we need protection."

The two armed personnel nodded, checked their weapons and ammunition, and indicated they were ready to depart at any time.

Seeing this, Wei Ziqing also followed: "I'll go down again too; I'm familiar with the way."

On the other side, Lu Jianchuan, Shen Mingyuan, and Cynthia gathered around the heavily injured Prometheus youth. The youth lay in a shallow pit, his breathing weak, blood seeping from under the damaged semi-covered armor on his body, having clearly lost consciousness completely.

Cynthia knelt down, using her gloved hand to check the youth's carotid artery and vital signs, then looked up, the coldness in her deep blue eyes not yet faded: "He's still alive, but heavily injured. This counts as... a live capture, I suppose."

Lu Jianchuan stood to the side, his silver armor glinting coldly in the faint light. He glanced at the unconscious youth and said in a heavy voice, "Yeah. Take him back. Regardless, it's at least a lead."

[A certain GUPA base, Briefing Room]

In the slightly empty briefing room, the atmosphere was completely different from the intensity in the ruins, carrying the exhaustion and solemnity characteristic of the post-battle period.

The Prometheus youth had been handed over to the specialized medical and interrogation departments—where there were experts proficient in biological control, psychoanalysis, and even breaking memory protection, along with complete medical maintenance equipment.

Although Lu Jianchuan was a police officer by profession, interrogation was not his specialty; GUPA had its own more professional and reassuring procedures. Golden Bone personally oversaw the handover.

At this moment, Golden Bone was standing in front of Cynthia. This high-ranking GUPA official's expression remained inscrutable, but his tone carried a hint of certain affirmation: "Well done, Cynthia. The target is alive; that is the crucial first step."

Cynthia's deep blue eyes looked directly at Golden Bone. Her previous agitation had settled into a cold determination, but the tense line of her shoulders showed she had not fully relaxed.

"I need to know the progress, any progress."

Her voice was very low, "About everything... he might know."

Golden Bone nodded slightly, his voice steady and carrying a convincing power:

"I understand. The professional team has already stepped in; they will use all 'gentle' and effective methods.

As soon as there are leads related to your parents or the internal cleanup, as long as permissions allow, you will be the first to know. Be patient; for now, leave it to the process."

Cynthia was silent for a moment, then nodded firmly, said nothing more, and turned to leave the briefing room.

On the other side, Lu Jianchuan and Shen Mingyuan leaned against the wall, holding energy-supplementing drinks in their hands.

Both had already deactivated their transformations and returned to their civilian clothes.

"That one in ancient clothing... the 'Immortal'." Lu Jianchuan took a gulp of his drink, his brow furrowed, "Letting him escape is a big problem. Those methods... they're simply unheard of."

Shen Mingyuan nodded, his eyes behind his lenses analyzing calmly:

"The key lies in distinguishing his abilities. Those Centipedes—their attack patterns, regeneration methods, especially at the end when they sucked the Sentry Dog's flesh and blood to repair themselves... they are more like characteristics possessed by the Centipedes themselves as symbionts or Parasites. They can be seen as a type of living external organ controlled by him."

He paused and continued:

"But the situation Wei Ziqing encountered later was different. That Sentry Dog that mutated and was forced to evolve after being injected with blood... that was more like a forced interference and assimilation acting on the target organism's own genetic material or cellular level.

I believe this is the true core ability that the 'Immortal' himself evolved."

Lu Jianchuan was lost in thought, his fingertips lightly tapping the can, as he murmured in a low voice, "Forced assimilation, injecting something of oneself, changing the other's life form... It sounds a bit like some extremely distorted..."

He looked up at Shen Mingyuan: "'The Immortal caresses my head, I knot my hair and receive long life.'"}],