Chapter 364 ·Hatred
Chapter 364: Hatred
Little Pink Mushroom's crystal-clear pink body, coupled with its constant "ying ying" cries, made it appear rather adorable.
However, Zhou Ming simply turned a blind eye to its attempts to claim credit.
Not a single bit of its monthly "rent" would be waived just because it had helped this time.
The only thing that truly surprised him was that Little Pink Mushroom possessed an exceptionally obvious suppressive effect against supernatural existences.
However, once Zhou Ming recalled Little Pink Mushroom's origins, his surprise quickly disappeared.
Whether it was its potential to become a Guardian Spirit or even a Demigod, or its innate ability to control illusion itself, neither was something ordinary creatures could compare to.
Seeing Xiaolin Base reappear upon the land, Zhou Ming ignored the still-grumbling Little Pink Mushroom, which continued making "ying ying" sounds to express its dissatisfaction, and directly flew toward the base using his innate force field.
Within the Alliance, Xiaolin Base was classified as a small base.
Its primary functions were gathering various resources, producing supplies, and monitoring the movements of Ferocious Beasts in the wilderness.
After entering Xiaolin Base, Zhou Ming found that most of the buildings were factories.
Among them, timber processing plants were the most numerous.
Their primary industries revolved around manufacturing paper products and furniture. In his previous life, such a place would have been considered a large industrial park.
Besides the factories of every size, another sight that greeted Zhou Ming was the piles of corpses scattered everywhere.
Under the moonlight, it was easy to see that most of the corpses had already decayed, with many having undergone varying degrees of mutation.
Their faces were frozen in expressions of agonized distortion.
As a result, even though Little Pink Mushroom had forced the dense mist to retreat, an extremely dense negative aura still permeated the entire base.
If it was not dealt with promptly, this place would sooner or later become a paradise for undead creatures, and might even threaten Tiemu Base dozens of kilometers away.
However, since Alliance Headquarters was already aware of what had happened here, Zhou Ming did not dwell on the matter.
Someone would naturally deal with the aftermath.
Within only a few breaths, Zhou Ming arrived before a dormitory building used to house the workers.
Around the building, corpses whose arms had mutated into axes surrounded the dormitory like loyal guards, sealing it off so completely that not even water could pass through.
Among them, Zhou Ming also discovered more than a dozen existences whose strength approached the Transcendent Rank.
Some rode Beast Companions that had already died, while others wore grayish-black Phantasmal Beast Armor.
Judging by the situation, they were either members of the investigation team that had previously entered or the Professional Beast Tamers stationed at Xiaolin Base.
Under the corruption of the supernatural phenomenon, although they had already mutated into monster-like beings, every one of them had reached the limits of the Professional Rank.
The moment Zhou Ming arrived, the corrupted corpses surged toward him like a tidal wave.
For a moment, all kinds of negative energy churned together before finally condensing into writhing black tentacles that resembled seaweed drifting in the depths of the ocean.
"When the tide of the era descends, those without the means to preserve their lives can only become dust in history."
Watching an entire base transformed into the monsters before him, even someone as indifferent as Zhou Ming could not help but let out a sigh.
However, he would never show mercy to his enemies.
As he raised his right hand, venom nurtured by the Gallbladder of Extreme Poison flowed forth before condensing into a sinister purple flower.
A weakened version of the Withering Flower spell took shape within his palm.
As the petals began to wither and fall, terrifying toxins blossomed before Zhou Ming like rippling waves.
The monstrous corpses surging toward him instantly seemed to have weathered tens of millions of years.
Grains of yellow sand began drifting from their bodies.
While Zhou Ming was clearing away these insignificant enemies, the dense mist gathered around the dormitory building showed no reaction whatsoever.
It was as though it had already accepted its inevitable death.
As yellow sand covered the streets, Zhou Ming landed on the ground with Little Pink Mushroom.
At that moment, the dense mist at the dormitory entrance began to churn before finally opening into a passage.
"It has intelligence?"
After briefly contemplating the change before him, Zhou Ming ultimately chose to enter directly.
If the other party truly possessed a hidden trump card, it would have used it long before he entered Xiaolin Base.
There was no reason to wait until now.
The lights inside the dormitory building had long since gone out.
The dim corridor was filled with gloomy mist, giving one the feeling of stepping into a horror movie.
As Zhou Ming walked in, the deathly silence of the corridor was broken by the sound of his footsteps.
Little Pink Mushroom also stopped making its usual "ying ying" sounds.
Standing upon Zhou Ming's shoulder, it vigilantly looked around.
Its two adorable little illusory hands were tightly clasped together, as though prepared at any moment for an ambush emerging from the dense mist.
"I never imagined that the renowned Lord Zhou Ming himself would come."
At the end of the passage opened by the dense mist, accompanied by a sound like dry wood scraping together, a translucent figure slowly appeared, its voice drifting into Zhou Ming's ears.
Zhou Ming did not answer immediately.
Instead, he silently observed the illusory figure before him.
The other party was clearly in a spirit form.
Its translucent body looked as though it could vanish from this world at any moment.
Yet the negative aura surrounding it proved that it was far from as fragile as it appeared.
Simply by standing there, the surrounding walls and floor were already being eroded by a strange power and were beginning to undergo unknown transformations.
"You know me?"
This was Zhou Ming's first encounter with an intelligent spirit entity, so he found it rather interesting and did not attack immediately.
"Of course I know you."
"My greatest pleasure used to be buying every book introducing the Alliance's Transcendent experts."
"Looking at the various Transcendent Lords so highly praised by their authors, I repeatedly asked myself—why wasn't I among them? Why was I destined to be nothing more than the lowliest lumberjack?"
There was confusion.
But even more than that, there was self-mockery.
As its emotions fluctuated, the blood-red light within its eyes flickered continuously.
Bright one moment.
Dim the next.
It looked as though it could descend into madness at any moment, while an overwhelming resentment gradually began to take shape.
"So after obtaining some kind of ritual or special artifact, you created this disaster?"
After hearing what it had to say, Zhou Ming calmly questioned it further.
"What? Has Lord Zhou Ming suddenly become compassionate?"
"The lofty attitude of people like you makes me sick."
"Why could you become a Beast Tamer?"
"Why could you become a famous Transcendent expert?"
"And why could I only become a lumberjack who could be bullied by anyone?"
As the spirit entity continued questioning him, the surrounding space gradually became distorted.
Strange scenes appeared within the dense mist, while murmurs filled with hatred echoed beside Zhou Ming's ears.
"Because you're worthless."
"All you ever do is chase some illusory notion of fairness."
"Even if you were given an opportunity, you wouldn't know how to seize it."
"I'm not worthless!"
"I was just unlucky. I wasn't born into a wealthy family."
"I'm not! I'm not..."
The instant it heard the word "worthless," the ordinary-looking spirit entity immediately became incomparably frenzied.
Its eyes instantly erupted with an intense blood-red radiance.
As its reason disappeared, the spirit entity's consciousness was completely consumed by hatred.
The surrounding dense mist was instantly dyed crimson, surging toward Zhou Ming like a boundless sea of blood.