Chapter 247 Jungle Battle Against Monsters
Ten kilometers west of the Jianghuai defense line, deep in the Yellow River zone.
This place was once a burgeoning industrial park, but now it is completely covered by the wildly growing tropical vegetation resulting from the mutation of the Amazon rainforest. Towering, mutated ancient trees completely block out the sky, and thick, python-like vines entwine between abandoned factories and twisted steel structures. The air is filled with the smell of damp earth and a dizzying, exotic fragrance.
This is due to the excessively high concentration of spiritual energy in the air, which has led to the over-evolution of plants and the resulting spiritual poison. Without a specially formulated air filtration system from the Academy of Sciences, ordinary mortals would die from festering sores within half an hour of staying here.
Old Ding led his hunting team silently through this steel jungle filled with the aura of death.
After being brutally baptized by the essence and inner core of the second-tier Mad Lion King, Old Ding, though still appearing old, moved with an extremely eerie lightness. His upgraded third-generation alloy mechanical arm, originally painted silver-white, had been deliberately coated with black and green camouflage, and the hydraulic bearings, lubricated by the Academy of Sciences' latest repair fluid, were almost completely silent.
Under the constant flow of pulsating dark red energy, his pseudo-spiritual root, while not undergoing a qualitative change in its life level, was forcibly expanded several times in capacity. At this moment, he no longer relied solely on mechanical senses; a primal perception, akin to that of a wild beast, spread through his mind, allowing him to vaguely sense the subtle life pulses within a hundred-meter radius.
"Uncle Ding, about 500 meters ahead, in what used to be the psionic material warehouse area, the psionic energy fluctuations are abnormally chaotic." Little Stone crouched down behind Old Ding, his second-generation exoskeleton connected to an electronic warfare module recently issued by the guild. He held a tactical tablet with complex data flashing constantly in his hands, his brows furrowed.
"There are several strong life force pressures moving around, but this frequency band... is a bit strange. It's like it's intentionally mimicking the communication frequency of our hunters' exoskeletons, trying to interfere with our radar scans."
Old Ding suddenly stopped and gripped the handle of the high-frequency oscillating knife tightly with his right hand.
"Imitating our frequency band? These beasts have evolved their intelligence faster than we expected." Old Ding lowered his voice, his eyes no longer filled with fear, but with the excitement of a hunter seeing high-value prey. "If they were just mindless mutated wild beasts, they would have already charged out and fought us hand-to-hand. The fact that they know how to play electronic warfare means there's a big shot directing things here."
He turned to look at the newly recruited hunters behind him. Although these hunters had also been implanted with pseudo-spiritual roots and wore exoskeletons, due to the lack of subsequent nourishment from essence blood and demon cores, they still appeared pale and panicked in such a high-concentration spiritual poison environment, even with a filtering system.
"Everyone spread out! Use the terrain, don't clump together." Old Ding calmly gave the order. "Throw out those new full-band psionic jammers the guild just issued. Since they want to play electronic warfare, let's completely disrupt this astral magnetic field!"
The new hunters immediately understood and tore off several grenade-like devices from their tactical slings, throwing them precisely into the surrounding ruins and blind spots.
hum! ! !
A piercingly loud crackling sound of spiritual energy surged through the jungle. The jammer unleashed chaotic and disordered fluctuations of spiritual energy, instantly shattering the balance of spiritual energy within a 500-meter radius. Little Stone's tactical tablet instantly turned into static, and the strange frequencies attempting to mimic human communication in the distance vanished without a trace.
As the interference from electronic signals spread, the predators hiding in the shadows finally revealed their true colors.
Roar!Roar!Roar!
A series of mournful roars erupted from the direction of the abandoned warehouse ahead. Immediately afterward, several tall and burly figures leaped out from behind the dense vegetation, forming a wedge-shaped tactical formation as they surrounded Old Ding's team.
Those were seven or eight enormous mutated apes. They were originally common macaques in this area, but under the catalysis of the resurgence of spiritual energy and the high-level demon king, their bodies underwent a deformed yet powerful mutation. They walked upright, their muscles as taut as steel, covered with a layer of hard, grayish-brown keratin.
But what truly sent chills down the hunters' spines was that the spines and joints of these mutated apes were crudely inlaid with remnants of second-generation exoskeletons seized from human defenses!
Although the metal components were twisted and deformed, and even still bore traces of their former owners' blood and bone marrow, they were cleverly connected to their body structures by being melted by the beasts' powerful demonic fire.
Even the largest ape king was wielding a heavy tungsten armor-piercing rod that he had stolen from somewhere!
"These beasts... they not only learned to cooperate, but they even know how to collect and reverse-engineer our equipment to enhance themselves?" Little Stone's eyes widened.
"What's there to be afraid of! Those without brains are called beasts, those with brains are called raw materials!"
Old Ding roared, and the pseudo-spiritual root at his spine suddenly erupted with a dazzling dark red divine light. After the deep fusion of second-tier essence blood and inner core, the spiritual power he could now draw upon far exceeded that of before, and his mechanical arm emitted a sharp power overload beep.
Instead of backing down, Lao Ding activated the newly issued armor from the guild to its maximum power, and launched himself into the air like a black meteor as he faced the leading ape king wielding a club.
when!
The high-frequency vibrating blade and the tungsten armor-piercing rod collided violently in mid-air. The violent psionic shock and the sound of alloy colliding echoed through the jungle, and a visible shockwave instantly tore apart the surrounding mutated vines.
Old Ding felt an overwhelming force surging up from the hilt of the knife.
With a bang, Old Ding was sent flying like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into a thick cement pillar, breaking the steel bars inch by inch.
"Uncle Ding!" Little Stone's eyes widened in fury as he turned the machine gun and began firing wildly.
But the second-tier ape king was extremely intelligent. It arched its back and used the human black steel fragments embedded in its spine and shoulders to withstand the armor-piercing bullets. Amidst a series of blinding sparks, it roared and charged at Old Ding on the ground again, its heavy armor-piercing club slamming down with a whistling sound that tore through the air.
There's no way to dodge it. Regular attacks simply can't break through this beast's defense! What a beast, much more exciting than the ones we've encountered before.
Old Ding clenched his back teeth tightly, his mouth filled with the taste of blood. A mad, ruthless glint flashed in his eyes, and at that moment, he forcibly released all the safety restrictions on the pseudo-spiritual root in his spine.
"Break it for me!!!"
He squeezed out the violent spiritual energy from the second-tier Mad Lion King's inner core that he had just absorbed yesterday without reservation. Dark red divine light instantly enveloped his entire body, and cracks appeared at the metal interface of his pseudo-spiritual root, oozing out glaring blood.
At that moment, Old Ding's eyes turned into dark gold vertical pupils, and a beast-like roar escaped his throat. Instead of retreating, he advanced, and just as the armor-piercing rod was about to smash his head, the mechanical arm shot out at an almost obliterated speed, firmly catching the rod!
creak—crack!
The mechanical arm's gears shattered in large sections, and even Lao Ding's own right shoulder blade made a cracking sound as if it had dislocated. But he managed to withstand this fatal blow.
"Stone, take the newbies to hold off those first-tier beasts! I'll personally skin this second-tier one alive!"
Taking advantage of the half-second stalemate gained through this desperate struggle, Lao Ding lunged forward like a mad lion. The output power of the high-frequency oscillating knife was pushed to the critical point where it could explode at any moment, and the blade turned a deathly dark blue due to the ultra-high frequency vibration.
A look of horror flashed in the Ape King's eyes. It tried to defend itself, but Old Ding, in his overclocked berserk state, was simply too fast.
Old Ding completely ignored the heavy armor on the Ape King's body; his beast-like intuition locked onto the less than three-centimeter gap between the two alloy plates on the Ape King's abdomen.
After a period of testing.
"die!"
Old Ding roared, and the vibrating blade ruthlessly stabbed into the gap. Using the immense force of the Ape King's struggle, Old Ding gripped the hilt tightly with both hands and pulled it upwards with a mighty jerk!
Stab it--!
A piercingly sharp sound of flesh tearing rang out. This strike not only sliced open the ape king's belly but also shattered the raging core of its demonic power.
The scalding demon blood sprayed out like a high-pressure water jet, turning Old Ding into a blood-soaked mess. The Ape King let out a final, desperate cry before its massive body collapsed with a crash.
The moment it collapsed, Old Ding didn't dodge. His pseudo-spiritual root, which had been forcibly stretched and was full of cracks, was now like a bottomless pit out of control. Stimulated by the essence blood of the Mad Lion within his body, Old Ding, like a true bloodthirsty demon, inhaled the ape king's blood aura permeating the air, allowing the scalding second-tier demon blood to forcefully seep into his body through the pores of his skin.
"Kill!" Old Ding raised his head and let out a roar that was hard to tell whether it was from a human or a wild beast.
Two completely different second-tier demonic powers began their most primal and savage collision within his body.
On the other side of the ruins, Little Stone listened to Old Ding's roar, and his previously flustered eyes instantly hardened. He pulled the bolt of the heavy psionic machine gun in his hand, and his exoskeleton, which had also been nurtured by essence blood and was still a second-generation weapon but had been stained a faint dark red, burst forth with a ruthlessness unique to Yellow Zone hunters.
"If the medicine works, our lives will be longer. As long as we're alive, even mortals have a chance to carve out a path to immortality in this yellow zone!" Old Ding's words from the trading center echoed in his mind.
"Everyone! Blow these bastards' joints hard! Let them see who the most unreasonable hunter in this wasteland is!"
Gunfire, roars of beasts, and the grating sound of twisting metal intertwine in this industrial jungle filled with spiritual poison and war, creating an extremely cruel yet resilient evolutionary rhapsody.