The night had passed.

The blue-black hue on the horizon hadn’t yet been fully replaced by the morning light. Zhang Haiyang felt someone nudge him. Fighting off his drowsiness, he opened his eyes and saw it was Jiang Le. He sat up quickly and whispered, “Brother Jiang, what’s wrong?”

Jiang Le led Zhang Haiyang into the hot pot restaurant. Under the table and chairs of one of the booths, there was a pile of food—mostly instant meals, along with some energy drinks and numerous bottles of water—enough to feed their group for ten days to a fortnight.

“Take these supplies and make a plan,” Jiang Le said. “Distribute some each day to everyone. Sitting here doing nothing isn’t a solution. I’m going to see if I can find a way out of this.”

Zhang Haiyang had intended to dissuade him, but seeing Jiang Le’s calm expression and knowing that Jiang Le was far more resourceful than he was, he nodded despite his many concerns. “Alright, I understand. Brother Jiang, please be careful.”

Jiang Le opened the cultivation dish, releasing the blood vines. He reached in, plucked two vines, and placed them on the table. The vines then snapped into numerous segments, each writhing slowly across the surface—a sight that sent a chill down Zhang Haiyang’s spine.

Jiang Le picked up a vine segment and lifted Zhang Haiyang’s wrist. The segment seemed to have a mind of its own as it wrapped itself around Zhang Haiyang’s wrist. Like a bracelet, it closed its ends together, slowly transforming from a soft texture into something as hard as metal, then came to a complete standstill.

Zhang Haiyang held his hand stiffly, afraid to move. Jiang Le said, “Once they wake up, place a segment on each of their wrists—including Tangyuan. If you encounter any danger you can’t handle, it will protect you.”

Even after being completely severed from its parent plant, the vine segment can continue to carry out the last command it received before the disconnection, right up until its death.

While there were many mutated plants and animals in Xizhou City, this particular area lacked high-level mutants. The aura of a Level 3 blood vine exerted a certain deterrent effect on them, ensuring the safety of these people.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Haiyang finally felt at ease. He also realized that although Jiang Le didn’t seem particularly warm or approachable, he was actually kind-hearted and considerate of others, and he felt deeply moved.

After briefly briefing Zhang Haiyang on the situation, Jiang Le didn’t linger any longer and left the mall in the early morning light.

Zhang Haiyang watched Jiang Le and the little wolf walk away, then looked down at the terrifying tide of corpses below, silently hoping in his heart that everything would go smoothly for Jiang Le.

Jiang Le stood atop a crooked streetlamp, having reached the spot he had surveyed the night before. Xiao Lang was on the other side of the street, staring down at the rotting flesh below, his aqua-blue eyes filled with revulsion.

Dozens of vines shot out from the blood vine’s cultivation dish, instantly piercing the heads of a ring of zombies in the center of the road. With pinpoint accuracy, they extracted their nucleus crystals. Those dozens of zombies, like toys whose batteries had run out, lost all vitality, swaying only as they were jostled by the instinctive shoving of the other zombies.

The blood vine struck more than a dozen times, killing every zombie in the central cluster. Yet the corpses still cluttered the space.

Xiao Lang lost patience. The fur all over his body began to glow golden in the sunlight. He opened his mouth and spewed searing flames, reducing the pile of corpses to ashes in a matter of moments, leaving only a scattering of nucleus crystals on the ground.

Although the gap was quickly filled by the zombies surging from behind, it was enough for Jiang Le to see that right at the center of the zombie cluster was a manhole cover.

Sure enough, there was something underground.

Having confirmed this, Jiang Le had a target for his next move. He signaled Xiao Lang to continue spewing fire, burning through an area even larger than before. The moment the flames died down—while the ground was still scorching hot—Jiang Le leaped down, lifted the manhole cover, and jumped in without hesitation. Xiao Lang immediately shrank his form and darted after Jiang Le into the depths of the well.

Just as the manhole cover clanged shut above his head, countless ghastly zombie faces lunged toward him.

A zombie with a faint glimmer of consciousness tried to mimic Jiang Le’s actions by lifting the manhole cover to follow him down, but the countless mindless zombies surging forward behind it quickly pinned it beneath them, forming a small pile of flesh stacked right where it stood.

Xizhou City is located in a region with abundant rainfall and has experienced several floods in the past, so the city’s sewer pipes were built wider than in many other places.

Jiang Le descended along the pipe for several dozen meters before his feet finally touched solid ground. Inside the pipe, there was not a single ray of light—only utter darkness. Aside from the faint trickling of water, the sound of squeaking rats could be heard, growing louder as they approached. The sound of frantic footsteps was rushing toward Jiang Le.

Jiang Le twisted his wrist, and a sharp machete materialized in his hand. Relying on his senses to judge the source of the sounds, he was able to gauge the size of the space around him, even without any visibility.

The machete slashed viciously through something in the darkness. The squeaking instantly turned into a more piercing scream, which only ceased as Jiang Le drove the blade downward with renewed force, sinking it deeper into flesh and blood.

The flashlight illuminated the semicircular pipe. Jiang Le looked down at the creature he had just slain—a Level 2 mutated rat the size of a medium-sized dog, reeking of the same musty stench as the sewer pipes.

Jiang Le extracted its nucleus crystal—an irregular, grayish-black object about the size of a soybean.

Jiang Le calmly stowed the nucleus crystal into his spatial pocket. He took a step forward but then stopped again. The little wolf behind him poked its head out from Jiang Le’s side, looking ahead with him. Even the blood vine sensed something, releasing countless vines from its growing dish to coil around Jiang Le’s sides.

Directly ahead of them, within the beam of Jiang Le’s flashlight, countless Level 2 Mutant Rats were piled up in the center of the pipe. Their eyes, illuminated by the light, glowed blood-red as they silently stared at the intruder.

Their bodies nearly blocked the entire duct, exuding a chilling, ghostly aura.

A squeaking sound came from behind Jiang Le as well. He turned to see that the duct behind him was also crammed with countless Level 2 Mutant Rats.

Having gone long without fresh meat, even the presence of mutated beasts and vines clearly superior in rank failed to deter them. Every tiny red eye was filled with greed, yet the deaths of their fellow rats held them back from immediate action; instead, they watched Jiang Le’s every move.

Something was definitely off here. Under normal circumstances, unless they were mutated creatures controlled by a host organism like the locusts, such a mass gathering was rare.

Jiang Le kicked the corpse of the mutated rat he’d just split in two forward, sending it to land at the base of the rat wall. Smelling the flesh of their own kind, a swarm of mutated rats immediately rushed forward, disregarding all caution, to devour it.

They had no qualms about the flesh of their own kind, driven solely by the desire to devour and evolve. Yet, the fact that so many of them coexisted here—all having reached Level 2—could only mean one thing: there was an energy here capable of driving their evolution—a massive energy.

The scent of their own kind’s flesh ignited the mutated rats’ ravenous appetite. Unable to contain their urge to rush toward Jiang Le any longer, they began hunting within the dark pipes, heedless of life or death.

The surging tide of speed and numbers created a mountain-like force within the confined space.

Jiang Le gripped his mountain-cleaving knife tightly, ducking to avoid the attacking rats while simultaneously slashing another one with the blade. A web woven from blood vines behind him blocked several rats.

A rat’s head was caught between the vines; as the vines tightened, its eyeballs burst, and brain matter spilled out. The young wolf roared as he leaped and darted along the pipe wall, the mutated rats he passed along the way turning to blood under his paws.

Jiang Le’s footsteps echoed as his figure darted through the pipe, veering left then right, moving so fast it seemed like teleportation. He weaved through the disorganized ranks of the mutated rats, rat heads flying between the blades.

Every time they killed a group of mutated rats, another wave would quickly surge forward. As Jiang Le advanced, the pipes became littered with rat corpses strewn haphazardly in every direction.

Splattering blood dripped onto Jiang Le’s body and head, slowly pooling and congealing into a thick layer of blood.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but when not a single spot on Jiang Le’s body remained clean, the seemingly endless squeaking within the pipes finally ceased. Jiang Le paused his movements, gasping for breath. The mountain-cleaving knife propped against the ground was already dulled, and his stamina was nearly exhausted.

Yet at the end of the tunnel, illuminated by the flickering light of his nearly drained flashlight, a massive Level 4 mutant rat—over two meters long—slowly emerged.

It stared at the blood-soaked Jiang Le, its gaze filled with a determination to win.

The blood vine struck first, firing dozens of vines at the giant mutant rat, binding its entire body. Yet the vines failed to restrain the beast for even two seconds; it immediately tore them apart, and the vines snapped into pieces, scattering across the floor.

At the same moment, the giant rat let out a piercing screech—a sound so penetrating it reverberated from the other side of the pipe. Jiang Le’s senses were still active, and the instantaneous sonic shock left his mind blank for several seconds; a massive wave of dizziness caused everything around him to spin.

Xiao Lang and the blood vine were also caught in the sonic attack, temporarily losing the ability to fight back.

Jiang Le had intended to lead them back to the farm space first, but he stumbled a step, and his fingertips slipped uncontrollably from the sprout mark on his wrist. At the same moment, the giant rat charged toward Jiang Le with such force that the pipes seemed to tremble, as if it were about to crush the world. One of its claws slammed down on Jiang Le’s arm, snapping his forearm bone clean in two.

Its sharp, razor-like teeth sank into Jiang Le’s head. At this critical moment, through his blurred vision, Jiang Le saw something equally massive rushing forward to intercept the giant rat. The two collided with a deafening crash and tremor, halting the giant rat’s attack mid-bite.

The battle between the beasts was brutal, primal, and bloody, with the low growls of the wolf and the screeches of the giant rat echoing through the passageway. The giant rat continued to unleash sonic attacks, repeatedly disrupting the young wolf’s offensive and gradually gaining the upper hand. After a flurry of movement, it pinned the mutated wolf beneath it.

Just as the rat’s head was about to deliver a decisive, fatal bite, a vine knot—which had broken off earlier and lay on the ground, seemingly dead beyond all hope—suddenly sprang up and pierced the giant rat’s eye, simultaneously spewing a torrent of blackish-green putrid fluid.

The giant rat’s movements were halted. In excruciating pain and fury, it twisted its head to shake off the vine, but at that very moment, Jiang Le—having regained his mobility—leapt into the air and delivered a series of savage kicks to the giant rat’s head. The force was so great that it violently knocked the creature off the young wolf, buying the young wolf some much-needed breathing room.

Unable to sustain its sonic assault, the mutated giant rat now had one eye severely injured. It could only glare at Jiang Le with its remaining blood-red eye, charging at him once more with a determination to fight to the death.

Ignoring his broken hand, Jiang Le’s gaze swept over the deep lacerations on the little wolf’s body, his eyes burning with a fury as intense as the giant rat’s. The two locked eyes and launched their attacks at breakneck speed.