Anyone with a modicum of guts would jump up and fight back after taking such a heavy punch to the face.

But Xiao Xu was like a silent gourd, lying on the ground without saying a word.

"There really is something fishy going on." Zhang Xiaojuan's eyes widened, and her right index finger twitched slightly.

The colorful little clay figures suddenly stopped moving, then held hands and hugged each other tightly.

The shape and edges of the small clay figure began to blur, and finally quickly merged into a ball, combining at an astonishing speed into a colorful clay figure taller than a person.

Everyone: "..."

Han Rui turned her face away awkwardly, "Your skills are so silly..."

"What do you know? This is called being down-to-earth and unpretentious." Zhang Xiaojuan rolled her eyes at her.

The combined colorful clay figure had a robust and muscular outline. It rushed to Xiao Xu in two quick steps and swung its fist, smashing it hard into Xiao Xu's deformed head.

Each punch landed precisely on Xiao Xu's face, the solid brute force sending him flying a great distance.

Xiao Xu staggered to his feet, his face blank as he tried to fight back, but was quickly knocked to the ground by the mud figure.

"How dare you hit someone like that!"

"Are you bullying our Lingfeng Base?!"

"I've disliked you white-haired guy for a long time."

Upon seeing this, the people from Lingfeng Base immediately rushed forward in righteous indignation, and several of them even drew their weapons, ready to fight.

Zhang Xiaojuan nonchalantly raised her chin, "Are you blind? Do you think a living person can take such a beating?"

The colorful clay figure didn't stop, it rushed forward again and pinned Xiao Xu to the ground, its two round, chubby little fists raining down on him like a dense storm.

Within seconds, Xiao Xu, who was lying on the ground, had a completely disfigured face, with all his facial features displaced.

Finally, the last punch landed, and Xiao Xu's head, like an overripe pumpkin, cracked open softly.

"Captain! This bastard cracked Xiao Xu's head open!" someone in the Lingfeng base team screamed in terror.

After a few seconds of commotion, the scene was enveloped in a strange and eerie atmosphere.

Xiao Xu's body lay sprawled on the ground in a spread-eagle position, his head, which had been split into four pieces, limply scattered.

There wasn't a drop of blood on the ground. Xiao Xu's facial skin had no fat layer or skull, only clumps of white mycelium.

The colorful clay figure stood up from the ground, stomped hard on Xiao Xu's rotten head twice to make sure he couldn't move, and then ran towards Zhang Xiaojuan.

As it ran, it split into seven or eight little clay figures of different colors.

The little clay figures ran up to Xiao Yu, plopped down on the ground, stretched out their round hands and feet, and tilted their heads slightly upward.

Xiao Yu was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood and summoned water to wash the little mud figures' hands and feet. "These things are just like you, they're practically saying 'wash me'."

"I'm just washing my hands frequently to maintain good hygiene," Zhang Xiaojuan chuckled, hooking her arm around Xiao Yu's neck.

“Water is useless against fungi.” Xu Yi took out a bottle of lotion, bent his knees slightly, and poured the lotion onto the outstretched hands of the little mud figures. “Fungi are very resilient, so we need to use ketoconazole to kill them completely.”

After carefully washing the hands and feet of the little mud figures, Xu Yi took out a bottle of ketoconazole ear drops and carefully disinfected the ears and other areas that are prone to fungal infection.

The people at Lingfeng Base gathered around Xiao Xu's body in horror, all focusing their gaze on the face of Base Commander Zhao Weigang.

They didn't notice at all when Xiao Xu was switched. No one even realized that Xiao Xu had left the group.

"Young man, where did you say you saw him?" Zhao Weigang asked the bespectacled young man with a serious expression.

The bespectacled guy scratched his head. "It was just a few dozen meters to the right and behind. I saw him leaning against a tree, like he was relieving himself."

Zhao Weigang whispered a few words to the people behind him, and immediately a five-person team rushed over in the direction the bespectacled guy was pointing.

A few minutes later, the five-person team returned with serious expressions, carrying only a small piece of rag the size of a palm.

"It's almost completely rotten; this is the only piece of cloth that's still intact." The squad leader handed the rag to Zhao Weigang.

The remaining dozen or so bases all stepped back a few steps, keeping their distance from Lingfeng Base, and gave the central area to Zhao Weigang and the others.

It's so unlucky, nobody wants to get involved with it.

Zhao Mujia stared at the squad leader's hands, her expression slightly angry. "Knowing it's a fungus, why aren't you wearing gloves?"

The man paused for a moment, then subconsciously clenched his fists. "I was in such a rush... I forgot..."

The surrounding crowd was abuzz with discussion, their gazes toward the Lingfeng Base filled with scrutiny and wariness.

They didn't even notice a fake fungal person infiltrating their team, so who knows how many more like that are in the Lingfeng base?

Sun Tiantian stood on tiptoe, watching Zhao Mujia pick up a twig and poke at Xiao Xu's head. "Could it be like the fungal zombie we encountered in Qinhuai City before?"

Lu Sheng shook his head. "Fungal zombies also have crystal cores, but this imposter doesn't have one in its head."

"Was it simply a fungal infection? But why would it produce an identical person, and why didn't anyone around notice?" Xiao Yu was completely bewildered.

A group of people from Lingfeng Base spent a long time examining Xiao Xu's corpse but made no progress. However, a sense of panic quickly spread among the crowd.

The mutated fungus is far more terrifying than the zombies outside.

At least zombies are noticeable, and even if they die, they know why. But if you're infected by a mutated fungus, you'll unknowingly become a pile of rotting flesh—just thinking about it is disgusting.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!