She felt a vague sense of relief, as if she were melted by the light from the fragments.

Xie Xuan closed her eyes uncontrollably, smiled, and opened her arms to meet her fate.

"Xie Xuan!"

What Xie Xuan received was a hard slap on the forehead.

Xie Xuan opened her eyes, her mind still a mess. Sometimes she saw the moon, sometimes fragments falling towards her.

She touched her forehead. The person who hit her didn't hold back at all. She could still feel the pain from a light press. And she didn't know if her symbiotic spores were too disdainful to treat such a small wound, so they just left a red mark on her forehead.

"What's wrong?" Xie Xuan sat up and saw that Chongming, who had just slapped her, was about to slap Xiao Yao in return, so Xiao Yao sat up in time.

"Rescue request," Zhongming said, "The team on Route 18 is in trouble."

Xie Xuan jumped out of bed and walked a few steps to the front of the car. Bai Ze was constantly playing: "Route 18 has sent a distress signal. Teams on routes 17 and 19 are requested to provide timely rescue."

Bai Ze's voice was not low, but Xie Xuan was just haunted by a strange dream and did not hear it at all.

After Xiao Yao woke up, Ding Qiaoyun and Yang Jiayue also woke up.

Yang Jiayue was still in bed, her supernatural powers had been reactivated, and a small sand table appeared on Noah Technology's projector again.

The positions of some orange and red dots on the sand tray have changed slightly from their positions before they fell asleep, but the changes are not too big.

The time is now half past midnight and they have only been stationed there for two and a half hours.

Route 18 had sent out a rescue signal just a few minutes ago, but Team 17 responded faster than them. On the shared location map, the dot on Route 17 had already begun to move straight towards Route 18.

They are not far away from District 6 now. According to the plan, they will arrive at the first sampling point until tomorrow noon. Now the distance between the two teams is only half an hour's drive.

"Do you want to go?" Chongming asked Xie Xuan.

If Team 17 could solve the problem, they would waste dozens of kilometers of energy if they rushed over.

While Xie Xuan was weighing the pros and cons, Ji Lan's voice suddenly came through the channel, "Xie Xuan, could you please come over as well?"

There was no need to weigh the pros and cons now. "I understand. Now go over there."

Chongming modified the route of the RV, and Ding Qiaoyun also consciously added the dispelling effect of the word spirit to the RV.

Everyone put on their protective suits again and gathered around the screen in front of the car. On the screen, the dot representing Team 17 was moving steadily towards the position of Team 18.

However, Team 18, which sent out the distress signal, completely lost contact, and the dot on the map remained motionless.

Team 17's communication came through. Their leader, a man with a rather rough voice, said, "We can handle it. You don't need to waste energy making another trip."

Xie Xuan said, "At our current rate of progress, you will reach our destination five minutes earlier than us. If you judge the situation can be easily resolved, please send us a signal immediately and we will stop moving forward. Is that okay?"

The leader of Team 17 said, "Okay."

However, as they got closer to Team 18's base, Xie Xuan and the others felt the situation was becoming increasingly pessimistic.

It's not just because the spore concentration outside the car shown on the panel has reached 45%, but also because in the dark forest, more and more single dark red hyphae appear in the areas illuminated by the headlights.

These myceliums still look very fresh, unlike other myceliums that have shown signs of drying up due to lack of water.

Team 17 was about to arrive at Team 18's temporary base, but Xie Xuan said, "Xiao Yao, get ready for battle."

"Understood." Xiao Yao learned from the last lesson and took out a pistol and a dagger from the weapon box and hung them on his body.

"Team 19, we've arrived at Team 18's temporary base..." the voice on the communication channel was a little deep. "The situation is not optimistic. Please continue as planned. We will provide rescue services first."

"Got it." After Xie Xuan said that, the other party ended the call.

In the limited area illuminated by the car lights, the dark red mycelium became increasingly dense. After such mycelium was also hanging on the front windshield of the RV, Xie Xuan and the others realized that it was not mycelium at all.

Before Xie Xuan traveled here, one time when she was on a mission, her roommate went to a nearby ditch and fished out a bucket of river clams, intending to raise them for two days and then roast them for food.

Because the bathroom was shared, Xie Xuan happened to see countless tiny parasites pouring out of the water when her roommate was changing the water in the river clams. They quickly attached themselves to the porcelain wall of the pool and twisted their bodies.

These are leeches that live inside river clams.

Of course, the last bucket of clams was not eaten, but the pool of densely packed wriggling leeches left a deep impression on Xie Xuan, and that was why she recognized these dark red things at the first time.

"It's a leech."

Xie Xuan and Chongming said in unison.

The slender dark red leeches were attached to the windshield and were constantly twisting their bodies, giving Ding Qiaoyun and Yang Jiayue goosebumps.

"What is this?" Ding Qiaoyun asked.

Living in a wall that is almost isolated from terrain such as lakes and pools, it is very normal for Ding Qiaoyun not to know what this is.

"It's a parasite that lives in the bodies of freshwater organisms and sucks their blood," said Xie Xuan.

As they were talking, more and more leeches landed on the RV.

Just when Xiao Yao was about to speak, he suddenly heard a strange sound, as if something was gnawing on metal and glass.

Xiao Yao moved closer to the glass, and among the dense dark red lines, he could see that the teeth that the leeches had used to attach themselves to the glass were trying to bite the glass.

"These leeches are biting the car. We have to find a way to get them off."

Ding Qiaoyun immediately said, "I said: Get out of here."

The supernatural power took effect immediately. The leeches that were originally biting the glass and the roof immediately loosened their teeth and fell off, but there were still a steady stream of leeches hitting the windshield due to inertia.

While Ding Qiaoyun was fighting these leeches, they finally arrived at the temporary base of Team 18.

Team 18 had apparently also chosen a relatively open area in the forest to camp, but not far from their base, there was a natural small pool formed in a low-lying area.

The rainy season has just ended and the water here has not completely dried up.