Both teams immediately became alert and looked around warily.

Everywhere he looked, there were tall, lush green plants, and the weeds under the trees had grown to almost waist height.

An overly intense green not only lacks a sense of vitality, but instead resembles a dark, murky green wave that threatens to engulf people.

But the sound was just a feint from a great distance, and then there was no follow-up. The K3 team members held their weapons and waited for several minutes, surrounded by an eerie silence.

Only two unlucky black beetles hurriedly passed by, only to be trampled to death by the tense Dongyang.

*Pfft*

The sound of the black beetle exploding was like the key to opening Pandora's box, instantly igniting the tense atmosphere.

"Damn it, it made one sound and then went silent. How are we supposed to find it?" the tallest middle-aged man in the K3 team cursed angrily.

People instinctively feel depressed and fearful in completely unfamiliar environments. Coupled with the recent brain-eating bee incident, everyone's nerves are like taut rubber bands.

It's already stretched to its limit; it will snap at the slightest external force.

"Sister Dongmei, where's Xiao Meng?" Su Zheng asked Ma Dongmei, his forehead covered in a fine layer of sweat, about the whereabouts of the girl from the Jin family.

"She said she had a stomachache and was looking for a place to relieve herself nearby. She's been there for about seven or eight minutes."

Ma Dongmei was also under immense pressure, and couldn't help but light a cigarette and take a deep drag.

"A lazy donkey on a millstone poops and pees a lot; even at a time like this, it dares to be alone! Women are such a damn hassle!"

The middle-aged man cursed angrily and wiped the sweat from his neck.

He joined K3 as a passerby some time ago. He was given important responsibilities by Su Zheng because he had a fourth-level ability. He wasn't very familiar with Xiao Meng.

"It's not a personal matter, why are you bringing up women's problems? Don't you need to pee or poop?" Ma Dongmei's temper flared up instantly. "From now on, don't look for a place to go to the toilet. If you dare to take your pants off, I'll seal them up with cement right now!"

Even people with superpowers are human; they need to eat, drink, and relieve themselves just like everyone else. A young girl with diarrhea can't very well take off her pants in front of a bunch of grown men.

Since there were woods nearby, Xiao Meng and Ma Dongmei discussed finding a place nearby to resolve the issue quickly, so that if there were any problems, they could just let everyone know and get help.

"Xiao Meng!"

Without thinking, the bespectacled young man raised his hands to his mouth, making a megaphone shape. He had just shouted at the waist-high weeds when Ma Dongmei grabbed him by the neck.

"Are you crazy?!"

Ma Dongmei's face turned pale. "What do you think this place is? How dare you shout so loudly? Aren't you afraid of attracting other things in the woods?"

"I...I was too anxious, my head was spinning..."

The bespectacled guy then realized he had almost gotten himself into serious trouble.

Everyone's psychological resilience is different, and under prolonged high pressure, many people will behave in ways that are completely different from their usual behavior.

"Split into two teams to search for people. If you encounter danger, fire a signal flare immediately. Do not linger in the fight."

At the critical moment, Su Zheng spoke up to calm everyone down and took out several signal flares to distribute to Lu Sheng and the others.

While separating now is not a wise move, the signal flare might also attract the attention of other things.

But time was of the essence, so we had to choose the lesser of two evils.

The longer it took, the slimmer the hope of finding the survivors became. The two teams dared not delay and immediately split up to search in two different directions.

Originally, Xu Yi and Xiao Yu were leading the way with two machetes, but Xu Meng hopped over and took the machetes, spinning them in both hands and transforming into a human lawnmower, quickly clearing a path wide enough for two people.

"Young people are so physically fit..." Zhang Xin exclaimed sincerely as he rode on Zhang Xiaojuan's shoulders.

Just five meters away, Xu Meng, the lawnmower operator, suddenly stopped and squatted down, urgently gesturing to Lu Sheng and the others.

The group of people's hearts sank immediately.

Sure enough, when the group arrived, they found Xiao Meng's body.

The body was still in the position where the trousers were dragging down to the knees, but there was only a pool of thick blood on the ground and no other dirt.

It was clear that Xiao Meng was attacked as soon as he took off his pants.

"She's not breathing." Xu Han reached out and checked.

Lu Sheng gave a wink, and Sun Tiantian immediately understood and released a signal flare.

The corpse lay headfirst in a pool of blood, its lower body half-hidden by tangled weeds.

Xu Meng used a machete to cut away all the weeds nearby, finally revealing the full appearance of the corpse to everyone.

"A penetrating wound, fatal in an instant." Xu Yi carefully examined the wound, then looked up and said calmly.

A circular wound, as thick as a wrist, ran from Xiao Meng's buttocks all the way down his back, penetrating directly into his internal organs.

"The child didn't utter a sound; it must have been a sneak attack."

Just then, K3's team arrived, and Su Zheng, his face pale, dragged Xiao Meng's body out of the pool of blood.

“Xiao Meng had just taken her pants off, meaning she had just left us when she was attacked.” Lu Song said with a serious expression.

However, at a distance of only five meters, such a living person was killed silently, without them even noticing.

A sense of unease hung over everyone present like a dark cloud.

“This wound looks like the one on the middle-aged woman in the school restroom. Could it also have been caused by a mutated centipede attack?” Sun Tiantian boldly guessed.

It was in the public toilet on the fourth floor that the mutated centipede rushed out of the toilet bowl and pierced through the body of a middle-aged woman.

“It’s different. The edges of this wound are very clean, which is obviously not caused by insect mouthparts. It’s more like a cut from a sharp instrument.”

Lu Sheng put on rubber gloves and briefly examined the wound on Xiao Meng's buttocks.

"Did someone deliver a fatal blow to Xiao Meng from behind with a sharp weapon?" Han Rui blurted out instinctively.

Zhang Xiaojuan looked Han Rui up and down with an expression as if she were an idiot. "Friend, this wound goes straight up from the buttocks, and Xiao Meng is still squatting."

"According to your guess, it must be a swordsman who is 20 centimeters tall, wielding a meter-long broadsword and slashing upwards with a 'whoosh' sound."

Han Rui: "..."

While everyone was examining Xiao Meng's body, Xu Yi and Lu Sheng went to look at the pool of blood.

The large bloodstains had been absorbed by the nearby weeds, leaving only a dark red patch on the ground.

At the center of the red mark, there are obvious signs of soil loosening.

"It's possible that something from underground attacked Xiao Meng."

Xu Yi adjusted his glasses, took out a military shovel, and tried digging a few times.

After a few shovel strokes, the shovel head felt a solid resistance.

"Is the bottom solid?"

Lu Sheng was slightly surprised, and also took out a shovel and started digging with Xu Yi.

Working together as a man and a woman makes the work easier, and the two quickly dug a hole half a meter in diameter in the ground.

"Why is it all pipes and metal down here?" Zhang Xiaojuan rushed over after hearing the noise, staring in astonishment at the scene inside the cave.