Chapter 1203: The Wriggling Overlord of the Bitter Flesh Murky Forest

"Your Majesty...""Get out."

On the desolate street, Ying Fu's brows were furrowed as his gaze continuously swept across his surroundings, as if searching for something.

Behind him, Fu Kun was panting and sweating as he chased after him. The towering, 1.9-meter-tall man was visibly flustered, like a quail.

"Your Majesty, it's my fault for handling things poorly... Please, give me another chance, and I promise to bring the father and daughter back to you unharmed!"

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty!!"Seeing that Ying Fu had no intention of waiting for him, Fu Kun grew even more terrified.

Ying Fu had just risked his life to save himself during the nuclear blast and was planning a full retreat. But due to Fu Kun's negligence, Ying Fu had to personally return to this chaotic vortex to search for the whereabouts of the father and daughter. The more Fu Kun thought about it, the angrier he became, wishing he could slap himself twice on the spot.

However, Fu Kun also hadn't expected Ying Fu to value the father and daughter so much. Not only had he spent a large sum to acquire a useless shop, but he was also willing to brave the nuclear radiation and return to Wushan Town to find them.

Of course, Ying Fu was no ordinary man; protected by the aura of a mortal emperor, no corrupting influence could even approach him.

Fu Kun continued to plead with Ying Fu for another chance. Just then, a sudden wave of nausea swept over him. He stumbled to a halt, bent over, and retched.

The nuclear blast had just ended, and the air was filled with various harmful substances. While Ying Fu could withstand them, Fu Kun was merely mortal flesh and blood; prolonged exposure had begun to affect his body.

Ying Fu, who was walking ahead, stopped and spoke coldly:

"Useless, you can't help with anything here... Get out of Wushan now! When I need you, I will summon you."

Fu Kun's face was pale, but he slowly straightened his chest, his expression more sincere than ever. "Your Majesty... Although I am not as brave or far-sighted as you, Prime Minister Han and the others are not by your side right now. Someone needs to look after you... In critical moments, I can still be of some use."

Ying Fu fell silent.

He looked at Fu Kun's incredibly resolute eyes and, in the end, did not tell him to leave again. Instead, he slowly turned and continued deeper into the ruins.

"You... take care of yourself."

Seeing this, Fu Kun unhesitatingly followed him.

Ying Fu, relying on his memory, navigated through the debris-strewn streets and finally stopped before a ruined street.

It was a dilapidated storefront facing the street. The shop's name on the facade and the surrounding windows were gone. The tables and chairs that had once been outside had vanished without a trace, leaving only load-bearing pillars and a few walls barely standing. Just the night before, Ying Fu had sat there, awkwardly eating crayfish and drinking beer, chatting with the girl.

Ying Fu walked around inside the shop, finding no signs of human death. At least Jiangjiang hadn't died here. Most likely, she had taken refuge in a nearby shelter.

"Could they have survived the nuclear strike?" Ying Fu suddenly asked.

Fu Kun paused, realizing Ying Fu didn't understand the structure of shelters or the principles of a nuclear strike. He immediately began to explain, providing a reasonably accurate overview, though not as detailed as Lu Xun might have given.

"So, even if they survived the blast, they would still die if they stayed here too long?"

"If they didn't get into a Class A shelter... yes."

"Where are the shelters?"

"We might have to search for them; it's unclear which one they're in."

It became clear that Ying Fu truly needed a modern person to assist him. Although Fu Kun's phone couldn't connect to the internet, he used his memory of shopping malls and residential areas, which he had occasionally seen during activities in the past two days, to deduce the locations of the nearest shelters. Coupled with occasional signs along the way, finding them shouldn't be too difficult.

As Fu Kun led the way, searching quickly, Ying Fu suddenly frowned and reached out, placing a hand on Fu Kun's shoulder.

"What is it, Your Majesty?" Fu Kun turned back, puzzled.

Black-framed glasses rested on Ying Fu's nose. His gaze, behind the lenses, was sharp, like a sword's gleam piercing through everything.

"...Trouble has arrived."

In the sky above a distant street, small fissures seemed to come alive, slowly wriggling and merging. At first, they were only fist-sized, but as they converged, they gradually expanded to human size. There were dozens of such openings throughout the Wushan ruins.

A grey mist diffused from these openings, like a domain, dyeing the small areas around them in shades of black, white, and grey. The entire town of Wushan seemed like a malfunctioning machine, with color and monochrome coexisting.

Simultaneously, eerie, finger-like roots and lung-like, pulsing fleshy leaves extended from within these openings.

Fu Kun had never witnessed such a sight. His eyes wide, he instinctively took half a step back.

"Your... Your Majesty, what are these monsters??"

Ying Fu's eyes narrowed slightly.

"The writhing overlords of the Bitter Flesh Mire, the 'Flower-Plucking Buddhas' that hunt light."

Chen Ling looked at the wildly gushing fleshy roots, and immediately recalled all the knowledge about disaster territories he had learned from the Fusion Sect... If he wasn't mistaken, these openings now connected to the domain of the Turbid Disaster, one of the world-ending calamities.

And it had to be a disaster territory he had no prior experience with...

Teacher Ye said, what were the characteristics of this type of disaster again?

Chen Ling struggled to recall, but he had learned so much recently that he couldn't immediately grasp it. The next moment, a thick, tentacle-like root shot out from an opening behind him, whipping fiercely towards the back of his head!

Chen Ling reacted incredibly fast. The blade of his boning knife flashed out almost the instant the root touched him, and a section of the root fell to the ground.

Chen Ling looked down to see the severed root section bouncing continuously on the ground like a deformed wrist made of flesh, making "pat-pat" sounds, closely resembling a grey, fleshy fish.

"That's disgusting."

Chen Ling muttered to himself and swiftly darted away. From the two nearby openings, dense networks of roots pursued him. As these roots continuously extended, hundreds of tiny branches began to spread in all directions!

These scattered openings throughout Wushan were like gradually expanding neurons, and the branches and roots extending from them were like neural terminals constantly reaching outwards. When two neurons established a connection, they began to expand even faster into their surroundings. These branches and roots intertwined, quickly forming a dense, overwhelming web that covered everything.

In front of these wildly growing plants, even with Chen Ling's disaster-mutated power, he appeared thin and frail. A red cloud tore through several root blockades in succession, but what awaited him was an even more impenetrable encirclement!