After everyone entered the third basement level, Lu Ning closed the large iron door behind him, and the entire space fell into silence.

As soon as the iron gate closed, Eileen immediately laid Afaf flat on the ground.

At this moment, Afaf's face was ashen, and her breath was extremely weak.

There was also a withered tendril on her chest, which went right through the location of her heart.

This is because Afaf's ability is to enhance her physical body, making her extremely powerful.

Otherwise, with her heart damaged, she would probably have died on the spot.

Even so, after a long period of travel and without timely assistance, Afaf had reached her limit.

Lin Menglan and Eileen knelt on either side of Afaf, both looking distressed.

Despite his pain and exhaustion, Nan Yu approached Afaf.

His expression was solemn as he spoke, "Afaf, do you have any last words? I will do my best to help you fulfill them."

Afaf gave a strained smile and said, "If... it's possible... take my ashes back... as for the rest... I don't think the Federation will mistreat... my family."

Nan Yu nodded slightly with a serious expression and said, "I will do my best to bring your ashes back."

Afaf smiled again and slowly closed her eyes.

As the scent of Afaf dissipated, the atmosphere became very quiet.

Nan Yu broke the silence, saying, "Focus on recovering; we don't have much time. Since the entire base city is in this state, it means that the monster underground probably doesn't want us to leave. We need to break out as soon as possible and notify headquarters."

Eileen slumped down beside Afaf's body and said, "Dennis and the others stayed outside; perhaps they've already notified headquarters?"

Lin Menglan's eyes lit up, revealing a look of expectation.

Nan Yu said with a serious expression, "Don't be too optimistic... Besides, they are probably being besieged by flesh monsters right now, and we still need to find them."

Lin Menglan nodded: "Yes! Let's find them first and make sure they haven't notified headquarters!"

Lu Ning didn't participate in their discussion. Instead, he looked at Ke Qing and asked, "Do you need me to help you absorb the mental pollution now?"

Ke Qing had witnessed Lu Ning absorbing the mental pollution from that eighth-level expert before, and understood that Lu Ning indeed had this ability.

However, she glanced at the fleshy growths that kept popping up on Lu Ning and, enduring the pain of the mutation, asked, "Are you alright now?"

Lu Ning glanced at the flesh growth and offered that part of his flesh as a sacrifice to the Crimson Sword, and his body returned to normal.

"That's not a problem."

"Oh well."

Lu Ning nodded, then reached out and placed his hand on Ke Qing's chest.

Ke Qing was taken aback, her expression somewhat awkward and uneasy, but soon a ferocious and painful look appeared on her face.

A wisp of white mist was pulled out by Lu Ning and pressed against his chest.

As the white mist was continuously absorbed, Lu Ning could see the fleshy mass twisting and being pulled out.

Suddenly, an angry and piercing shriek rang in Lu Ning's ears.

As the shriek sounded, Lu Ning's body seemed to swell, with pieces of flesh and tissue rapidly growing and proliferating.

In the span of a single breath, Lu Ning's body almost transformed into an indescribable, twisted mass of flesh.

This unexpected turn of events caused Ke Qing and Nan Yu, who were resting, to widen their eyes in shock.

Nan Yu looked at the body Lu Ning had transformed into with some nervousness: "Holy crap?! What the hell is going on?!"

Lu Ning had not encountered this kind of change when he absorbed the mental pollution from that eighth-tier monster.

I never expected it to turn out like this!

The others also looked on in disbelief.

Inside Lu Ning's body, an indescribable mass of flesh and blood was rampaging through his body.

The illusory mass of flesh seemed to possess consciousness, attempting to completely destroy Lu Ning's body.

Lu Ning clearly felt a force flowing continuously into the phantom of the fleshy mass along with the white mist.

Lu Ning couldn't see the source of this power, but he vaguely guessed that it might come from the monster underground.

Lu Ning immediately understood that since the monster could control all the flesh seeds, it should also be able to control all the flesh contamination.

Lu Ning's act of absorbing the contaminated flesh and blood probably made the monster think it could turn the tables and infect Lu Ning with the disease as well.

However, Lu Ning felt no emotional fluctuation.

The phantom of the blood and flesh mass rushed towards Lu Ning's spiritual power, attempting to devour it.

However, the next moment, Lu Ning's mental energy began to actively attack the illusory figure, gradually enveloping it.

The moment they made contact, the phantom of the fleshy mass sensed something was wrong.

A sharp roar echoed in Lu Ning's mind.

Lu Ning's mind went blank for a moment.

He vaguely heard a series of strange, overlapping sounds, like chewing and devouring, coming from the phantom: "It's you..."

Lu Ning was somewhat puzzled.

Is it me?

Before he could think any further, he felt the connection between the phantom of the flesh and blood mass inside his body and the far distance was severed.

As the connection was severed, the phantom of the fleshy mass ceased to grow stronger.

Even so, for Lu Ning, this source of mental pollution was still quite powerful.

It is even more powerful than the source of pollution from the fallen angels that Lu Ning absorbed before.

Lu Ning is already very skilled at absorbing pollution sources.

He controlled his own spiritual power to refine and digest it, while sacrificing his excess flesh and blood.

Perhaps because of the sacrifice of a large amount of flesh and blood containing spiritual pollution, Lu Ning clearly felt the crimson sword in his hand emitting a pleasant hum.

He even faintly heard the Crimson Sword make a "hiccup" sound.

Lu Ning guessed that this might be his imagination.

However, after absorbing the flesh and blood contaminated by this spiritual pollution, the Crimson Sword seemed to be even more powerful than before.

Perhaps it's because the spiritual pollution contained within these flesh and blood originates from the source of flesh and blood.

The source of flesh and blood—this is the divine name for the indescribable mass of flesh and blood.

Lu Ning obtained this information from that unknown connection.

The evil god worshipped by the Scarlet Cult is probably this source of flesh and blood.

The flesh and blood containing the divine power of the source of flesh and blood should be a great tonic for the Crimson Sword.

However, perhaps because there was too little flesh and blood, it was still a bit lacking compared to the many seventh and eighth-tier flesh and blood monsters that Lu Ning had absorbed before.

After sacrificing the excess flesh and blood, Lu Ning returned to his original form.

Seeing that Nan Yu and the others were looking at him warily, he asked, somewhat puzzled, "What's wrong?"

There was a moment of silence, then Eileen asked with some doubt, "...Are you alright? You seemed to have completely deteriorated just now?"

Lu Ning calmly replied, "That? It's nothing. I've had this experience several times before."

Everyone: (O_o)??

Nan Yu was a little confused: "...Several times what? Several times experiencing complete lesions?!"

Lu Ning nodded: "More or less."

A moment of silence fell.

Lin Menglan's lips twitched slightly: "...Captain Lu, are you sure you're not some kind of monster?"