Chapter 772 – The World Is Dangerous

The Medical University itself was well landscaped, and in the nearly year that had passed since the Cataclysm broke out, mutated wild grass had opportunistically grown quite a bit.

But even so, Ling Mo and his group couldn’t stay in the green belt forever.

Mu Chen complained that the path was gone, but he was actually referring to a sudden clearing ahead. From their direction, they could clearly see a statue and not far away, a building, but the “path” ahead had vanished. About ten meters away, dense grasses grew thickly, their sharp blades looking painful even from just a glance.

Ling Mo and the others were chatting happily in front, but only Mu Chen seemed to notice this detail.

“Don’t freak out.”

Xia Na stepped forward, giving a swift flick and then a downward press with her Scythe, parting the grasses ahead and forcibly creating a path.

“So it was camouflaged…” Mu Chen said a bit awkwardly.

“That’s right, there’s a square up ahead. After passing through it and walking through more grass, we’ll reach the outermost fence. There really isn’t another path, so this is the only way,” Xia Na explained.

“Then let’s hurry, we’ll need to find the entrance after crossing over.” Ling Mo nodded.

To confuse pursuers and cover their tracks, Ye Lian and the others had deliberately camouflaged the paths they had created on the outer layer of the green belt.

For example, the place they had entered was in a very inconspicuous corner, purposely leaving a large patch of untouched wild grass. But after that, the group had continuously traveled within the green belt, circling for quite a while before reaching this breaking point.

The wild grass was quickly parted, and they soon reached the edge of the square.

Peering through the gaps, they could clearly see the entire square.

The square wasn’t very large; in the middle, there was a fountain filled with dirty water, surrounded by a few desolate flowerbeds. A rusted bench had a few human bones and blood-stained strips of cloth hanging crookedly. As the night wind blew, the old streetlight poles emitted creaking sounds.

Not far away, the door of a European-style building was wide open. Dark windows appeared to have shadows moving behind them, but upon closer inspection, they were just rotting curtains swaying gently…

The entire Square connected to two lanes, completely cutting through the green belt.

From the surroundings, it appeared that Ling Mo and his group had navigated to a rather remote area of the Medical University, remote in comparison to the Niepan headquarters.

“The parts utilized by Niepan are probably just those with experimental equipment, right?” Ling Mo asked.

Old Lan nodded and said, “I haven’t been to this side before either…”

No matter how grim the scene looked, it didn’t faze Ling Mo’s group.

Even Old Lan and Lan Lan, who had been “holed up” for a long time, showed only curiosity in their eyes, with barely any fear.

“What’s there to be afraid of about dead bones? I just find the bloody scene gross…” Lan Lan retorted immediately, seeing Ling Mo glance back at her as if worried.

“Really?”

Xia Na also turned to look at Lan Lan, a slight smile on her lips. She said calmly, “You find it gross because you only see the blood, but not the burst of vitality at the moment someone dies…”

“Who would notice such a burst?” Lan Lan shivered instinctively.

Mu Chen glanced sympathetically at Lan Lan; this girl was quite rebellious, but compared to Xia Na, she still had a long way to go…

“Let’s move.”

Ling Mo stood still for a moment, sensing the area, then spoke.

With the last layer of wild grass parted, the group quickly darted out.

Ye Lian took the lead, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and saying softly, “Follow… follow me.”

It was rare for her to speak up, and her voice immediately drew everyone’s attention.

Beneath the moonlight, her tall and slender figure, eyes as dark as deep pools, and the aura she emanated, mysterious and otherworldly…

Even Ling Mo couldn’t help but be momentarily stunned, thinking that it might be hard for ordinary people to imagine that something as deadly as a virus could also create such an extreme form of beauty…

Old Lan gave Ling Mo a pitiful pat on the shoulder from behind and said, “I suddenly understand why the inquisition existed-they believed in burning the heretics. In a way, that represents my feelings right now…”

“As a researcher, why do you remember all these irrelevant things so clearly?” Ling Mo said speechlessly.

“You have to understand a father’s desire to understand his daughter…” Old Lan sighed softly.

“I’d advise you to give up on that.” Ling Mo said offhandedly, but a strange glint flickered in his eyes.

“F Team…”

As they passed by the fountain, everyone couldn’t help but glance at the pool of black, stagnant water.

The completely still water, with grotesquely shaped weeds growing from the bottom… Ling Mo couldn’t shake the feeling that something seemed to be moving under the surface.

“There can’t actually be anything alive in there…” Ling Mo was thinking, and out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly saw Lan Lan curiously leaning over to peer inside.

She was almost pressed up against the fountain’s edge, her upper body leaning forward, her head completely exposed above the water.

“Hey!” Ling Mo had just shouted when he heard a splashing sound from the water. A dark shadow then shot out from the pool.

The shadow moved incredibly fast. By the time everyone turned around at the commotion, it was already close to Lan Lan’s head.

In the brief moment of confusion, Ling Mo didn’t clearly see what it was, but he did catch a glint of cold light on its head.

“It has teeth!”

“Slash!”

Xia Na’s Scythe suddenly struck out from the side, and just as Lan Lan was about to be attacked, she eerily stepped back two paces, standing still in a state of shock.

She touched her face and then her waist, her face pale as she looked at Ling Mo.

“Don’t be curious about everything you see. The outside world is very dangerous.” Ling Mo’s expression was also a bit grim. When Lan Lan displayed curiosity earlier, he hadn’t anticipated such a risk. What shocked him the most was the Dark Shadow-not only was its psychic light cluster very small, but it also hid in the water, which is why he hadn’t detected it before.

When Xia Na struck out, Ling Mo timely added a psychic strangulation attack. The Dark Shadow lost control, allowing the Scythe to pierce through it.

However, when Xia Na pulled back her Scythe, the Dark Shadow was still writhing on the blade.

“What is this?”

Ye Lian curiously leaned in, sweeping a blade of grass she had plucked over the Dark Shadow.

A drop of viscous blood appeared on the grass blade, and everyone wrinkled their noses simultaneously.

“What a pungent smell!”

Only Ling Mo’s mind was preoccupied with a different thought: “Why does it smell like it just sprayed cologne…”

“It contains a high concentration of virus.” Old Lan quickly regained his composure and said.

“But what is it exactly?” Ling Mo also moved closer to get a better look and suddenly realized that this ink-black creature seemed somewhat familiar…

“Isn’t this a koi fish!”

“How does a koi fish mutate?” Mu Chen was skeptical.

After careful observation, Old Lan nodded and said, “It’s a koi fish. It might have been about a foot long before the mutation.”

“But theoretically, that size should…” Mu Chen started to argue, but Ling Mo recalled the mutated rats he had seen back in Cuihu City.

How big are typical rats? They already showed initial mutation traits, let alone a fish this size?

After mutating, the koi fish had gained considerable strength, and its wriggling motions were vastly different from ordinary fish.

As it struggled violently, it slightly opened its mouth, revealing some sharp, thin teeth, resembling a round, toothed mouthpiece at a glance.

“There must have been corpses in here before.” Ling Mo analyzed.

When he mentioned “before,” both Mu Chen and Lan Lan’s expressions darkened. Looking at the mutated koi fish again, their eyes were filled with nothing but terror.

“The coverage of the virus infection is getting wider and wider…” Old Lan sighed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you all safe…”

Before Ling Mo could finish, Old Lan interrupted, “This is fantastic! I knew I should have come out! There are just so many things out here to research…”

As he spoke, he excitedly rubbed his hands together, his eyes even sparkling a bit.

Then he suddenly snapped back to reality and looked at Ling Mo expectantly, “Can we take this koi fish with us?”

“Let’s kill it first and then we’ll see…”

This brief exchange made Ling Mo’s expression change suddenly.

He quickly turned his head towards a lane: “Someone’s coming.”

“How did they track us here?” Mu Chen immediately tensed up and urged, “Should we hide?”

“There’s no time.” Ling Mo glanced at the green belt on the other side, silently calculating the distance.

Backtrack? That would be even more dangerous…

Once the situation at the headquarters stabilized, more and more people would be dispatched to search for them.

“So what do we do?” Lan Lan asked.

Ling Mo looked at the sunglasses man that Mu Chen was holding, and suddenly said, “Perfect timing, we can temporarily deal with at least one worry.”

Even if they escaped from the Medical University today, they would undoubtedly face relentless pursuit from Niepan.

Niepan had a large number of superhumans, so tracking Ling Mo and his group wouldn’t be too difficult.

But Ling Mo had a lot to do, and being constantly harassed would be a huge problem.

“Although we can’t make them give up the chase completely, we can at least buy ourselves some time.” Ling Mo said with a smile.

The sunglasses man, under Ling Mo’s gaze, struggled fiercely and started to whimper again…