As he drew closer, a pungent, nauseating stench of blood assaulted his nostrils. Ning Yu forced himself to endure the discomfort and carefully observed his surroundings. Soon, he discovered some strange marks on the crimson earth.
The marks looked like those left by some creature struggling, but they were larger than any known creature, and their shapes were bizarre, twisted, and filled with pain and despair.
Ning Yu's heart pounded. He seemed to have grasped a clue, but he wasn't sure. He took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and carefully observed the traces, trying to piece together the truth.
Suddenly, he noticed a piece of torn cloth at the end of those marks. He was very familiar with the color and material of the cloth; it was a fragment of a member of the old forces' uniform!
"Could it be..." Ning Yu's pupils suddenly contracted as a terrifying fact gradually became clear before his eyes. He murmured to himself, "They are being... absorbed?"
His gaze fell on the huge black symbol again. This time, he saw not mystery and the unknown, but deep fear and chill.
"We must...stop it..." Ning Yu used his last bit of strength to squeeze out these words. Then, his body could no longer hold on, his vision went black, and he fainted...
The appearance of the fragments of the old forces' uniforms was like a bolt of lightning, illuminating the long-held doubts in Ning Yu's mind and instantly amplifying the unease in his heart. The twisted, struggling traces, the vanished members of the old forces, and the greedy, devouring sensation of this power… everything pointed to a terrifying truth: this mysterious power was absorbing the life force of the old forces' members to strengthen itself!
"Damn it! If left unchecked, it will grow even stronger, and then probably no one will be able to stop it!" Ning Yu gritted his teeth, struggling to get up. The excruciating pain made his vision blur, but his sense of responsibility and crisis drove him to overcome his physical limits time and time again.
He can't fall! His teammates are waiting for him outside, and the entire community is counting on him! If he falls, who will protect them? Who will stop this disaster?
Ning Yu gripped the rock face, inching forward step by step with great difficulty. Each step felt like a thousand-pound weight pressing down on him, but he gritted his teeth and persevered. He had to find a way to break free; he had to stop this force before it became irreversible!
"There must be a way... there must be..." Ning Yu's mind raced, trying to find any potentially effective solutions from his past experience and the system. However, faced with this unknown power, all the knowledge and skills he possessed seemed pale and powerless.
Just then, his gaze was suddenly drawn to a flash of light on the ground ahead. He endured the excruciating pain, slowly squatted down, and brushed away the dust covering it with his hand, revealing a rusty metal plaque.
The metal plaque was small, only about the size of a thumb, and engraved with strange symbols. Ning Yu recognized it at a glance; it wasn't written in any known language, but rather… the same symbols as those on the black plaque!
"Could it be..." Ning Yu's heart skipped a beat, and a strong premonition surged into his mind. He carefully picked up the metal plate, turned it over, and found several equally strange symbols engraved on it.
The difference this time was that Ning Yu seemed to be able to sense a faint but familiar power fluctuation within these symbols...
“This power is…” Ning Yu’s pupils contracted slightly, as if he had grasped a crucial clue, yet he wasn’t sure. He murmured to himself, “Could it be…”
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