Mou Xuan's mycelium exploded into spider-web-like ice crystals on the wall, and he could see clearly in the reflected light that there was no one behind him.
The muffled sound of a metal door closing heavily was heard from deep within the sewage pipe. The electronic ID card stuck to the tip of the mycelium was still dripping asphalt-like liquid, and two red characters "Kaiyang" in official script could be vaguely seen on the card surface.
"The Seventh Star of the Big Dipper." Chen Yao used tactical gloves to wipe away the stains on the card, and green smoke suddenly burned from her fingertips. "This camouflage coating is mixed with at least three kinds of supernatural toxins."
Assistant Liao hurriedly took out the detector, but was blown away by Mou Xuan's mycelium.
The young man bumped into a rusty pipe, his glasses hanging askew on the tip of his nose. He saw Mou Xuan wrapping the identity card with mycelium and immersing it in ice water - the toxins were corroding the reinforced steel.
"This is the clue given by Boss Xiao three hours ago." Mou Xuan shook off the mycelium, and the trembling fingers of the convenience store owner appeared in front of him when he handed over the cigarette box.
The Morse code the man tapped on the cash register keys was mixed with the Cartesian coordinates revealed by the automatic door opening and closing five times.
Chen Yao suddenly reached out and brushed across the collar of his combat uniform. Her fingers, scented with wisteria, hooked away half a piece of peacock blue ash: "The mycelium on the back of your neck has become transparent." Her eyelashes cast a butterfly-like shadow in the halo of the tactical flashlight, "If I use the time anchor too many times, it will backfire, right?"
"Enough." Mou Xuan turned his head to avoid the energy gel she handed over, but the mycelium honestly rolled away the tube of strawberry-flavored supplement.
A cold wind wrapped in snow flakes suddenly blew into the ventilation duct. He looked at the red light of the coordinates jumping on his watch - that was the position of the seventh star of the Big Dipper that Boss Xiao arranged with ice beer cans.
As the modified snowmobile rolled over the icy road, Assistant Liao adjusted the focus of the night vision goggles for the 17th time: "According to the luminous symbols described by Boss Xiao, this should be the one they abandoned three months ago..."
"Bait warehouse." Mou Xuan suddenly turned the steering wheel.
The car body drifted past the suddenly rising steel spike roadblock, and the moment Chen Yao crashed into his arms, the rearview mirror was shattered by a flying crossbow arrow.
Mycelium grew out from the chassis of the car, wrapped in ice and dragged the ambushers into the snowdrift.
When the bulletproof car door froze into an ice coffin in the temperature of minus 40 degrees Celsius, the three finally stood in front of the rusty iron door marked "Seventh Cold Chain Warehouse".
As soon as Mou Xuan's mycelium touched the door lock, the entire wall suddenly appeared with blue Ouroboros patterns - exactly the same as the execution mark seen in the space-time anchoring.
"Retreat to the cordon." Before Shen Yao finished her words, Assistant Liao had already stepped on a glass tube buried in the snow and smashed it.
The moment the purple fog rose, twelve men in black wearing Kaiyang Star armbands hung down from the air vent, loading their modified shotguns at the same time.
Mou Xuan's mycelium weaved into a light net in the thick fog, and each light spot corresponded to the slight tremor of the enemy's gun muzzle.
When the index finger of a minion twitched for 0.01 seconds, the time anchor was activated - he saw three future fragments overlapping in the fog: the enemy on the left would pretend to fire accidentally to cause a melee; the one in the middle was tapping a distress signal with his heel; and the one behind him on the right...
"You hid the electronic brain chip in the molars?" Mou Xuan suddenly used mycelium to pierce the lower jaw of the right minion, and the Big Dipper pattern on the metal piece that was pulled out was melting.
All guns were simultaneously turned towards this companion who had suddenly exposed his weakness, and Chen Yao's electromagnetic jammer had caused six guns to explode.
The moment the thick fog was torn apart by the shock wave, Mou Xuan noticed that the leader of the gang showed a strange sneer.
The man's right hand, which was pierced by hyphae, was crawling on the ground, and his index finger dipped in blood to draw a half-finished Ouroboros - compared to the burning symbol they saw in the sewage pipe, the fangs of the snake head had three more forks.
(Continuation)
Mou Xuan's hyphae suddenly stretched straight in the pool of blood, forcibly pushing open the back molars of Hong's minion that were about to bite.
Chen Yao's tactical dagger accurately picked open the opponent's gums, revealing the melting Beidou chip - the material of which was exactly the same as the electronic card found in the sewage pipe.
"Three minutes." Mou Xuan used hyphae to wrap around the vents on the top of the warehouse. Frost condensed into cones along the metal pipes. "Boss Xiao said that they like to..."
"Start the incineration process when the interrogation subject's heart stops beating." Chen Yao suddenly tore open the minion's tactical vest and pressed two electromagnetic patches on his violently heaving chest.
As the purple electric arc moved across the surface of his skin, Assistant Liao finally discovered that the icicle hanging from the ceiling was pointing right at the back of his neck.
Hong Luoluo laughed with a sound like sandpaper rubbing against each other in his throat: "You think..." He suddenly twitched violently, and the strange arrangement of ice cones in the ventilation vents was reflected in his pupils - that was exactly the Möbius strip that Chen Yao had just drawn in the frost mist with the electromagnetic jammer.
Mou Xuan's watch suddenly beeped.
Mycelium wrapped in ice chips pierced into the ventilation duct, and twelve ice cones fell accurately on the joints of the minions' limbs.
When the seventh ice spike pierced his collarbone, the Ouroboros symbol in the entire warehouse suddenly rotated three degrees clockwise.
"Your distress signal." Mou Xuan crushed the micro transmitter on the heel of the opponent's tactical boots, and the mycelium rolled out half of the bloody access card from the crack. "The warehouse manager of Beidou Third Star, the right leg prosthesis was corroded by acid rain at the North City Gas Station last month."
A crack finally appeared on Hong Luoluo's expression.
Chen Yao took the opportunity to drip energy gel onto his trembling fingertips. The light pink liquid immediately boiled when it encountered the Ouroboros pattern, etching a distribution map of the Big Dipper on the ice surface.
"The password you want..." The minion suddenly coughed up blood clots with ice crystals, and the index finger of his right hand, which was entangled by the hyphae, was strangely bent into a right angle, "In..."
All the lights in the warehouse suddenly exploded.
The moment darkness fell, Mou Xuan pulled Chen Yao into his arms, and the mycelium wrapped around the ice cone fragments formed a light net around his body.
Assistant Liao's scream was cut off by some high-frequency sound waves. When the backup light source came on, a half ice cone was stuck in Hong's temple - it was the one he had prepared to use to sneak attack Assistant Liao.
Chen Yao suddenly reached out to adjust the collar of Mou Xuan's combat uniform, and her fingertips lightly brushed the old wound on his collarbone: "The color of your mycelium has become lighter again." The white mist she exhaled as she spoke condensed into tiny ice crystals, like a handful of broken diamonds scattered in the beam of the tactical flashlight.
Just as Mou Xuan was about to speak, there was a slight tremor from the ice beneath his feet.
The originally frozen bloodstains were rearranged according to a certain pattern, forming a new Ouroboros symbol—the position of the snake's eyes corresponded exactly to the glass tube debris that Assistant Liao had just stepped on.
"Something's wrong." Chen Yao's electromagnetic jammer sent out a sharp alarm. The spectrum image on the display was a disrupted Big Dipper map. "These ices..."
Mou Xuan suddenly used mycelium to roll up Assistant Liao and threw him to the safe zone.
Almost at the same time, a spider-web-like crack appeared in the ice where they had been standing before, and seven or eight steel cones wrapped in ice crystal chains broke out of the ground.
The corpse of Hong Luoluo, which was nailed to the wall by mycelium, suddenly opened his eyes. The melted Beidou chip dripped from his gums, etching the burning word "Kaiyang" on the ice surface.
In the distance, there was a crisp sound of ice breaking, as if someone was approaching at a specific frequency.
As soon as Mou Xuan's hyphae touched the ventilation duct, the Ouroboros on the entire wall suddenly decomposed into tens of thousands of ice crystal particles, which reorganized into the Big Dipper array in the cold wind - the position of the seventh star was pointing to the faint wisteria birthmark on the back of Chen Yao's neck.
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