Chapter 43 Fungal Remains Frenzy 4: Using One's Life to Set a Trap.
They actually fired a shot!
Deng Erhuai's scalp tingled with rage. He raised his gun, pointed it at the approaching man, and roared, "Shan Peng! What do you mean by this?"
Even Ji Chengying, the newest member, could tell that the newcomer was up to no good, and the others were already preparing for battle.
Lu Yunxiao frowned deeply, "Aren't your two guilds supposed to be partners?"
Deng Erhuai's face was frighteningly grim. She thought of some terrible possibility, her eyes cold as she watched the convoy approach, and she said in a low voice, "Take Ji Chengying and leave quickly!"
Lu Yunxiao lowered his head and thought for a moment, then turned around and handed Guan Junren something, "This prop can withstand one non-fatal attack, but the side effect is that you will be lame for half an hour. You take Xiaoying and go first."
Guan Junren was taken aback. Did they think he was too weak and would die easily, so they wanted him to escape first?
This is how it should be. He knows all too well that in this deadly world, weakness is the original sin, and it is all too common for the strong to not value the lives of the weak. This is actually the first time he has received kindness from the strong, allowing him to take the weaker people and run away first.
This is clearly a good deed worthy of his gratitude! He should have just admitted his weakness and led his men in a pathetic retreat, just like before, trying to survive. In this kind of world, all you have to do is stay alive!
But a strong sense of resentment suddenly welled up in his heart.
The contempt and mockery on the boy's handsome face that morning pierced his heart like needles. He couldn't deny his own weakness, but he couldn't just abandon his companions and run away!
Do the weak have no self-respect? He can't!
So he simply turned around and shoved the prop into the bewildered Ji Chengying's hands, saying, "You're a newbie, you don't know any way to save your life, take this and run!"
Deng Erhuai and Lu Yunxiao both glanced at him.
Ji Chengying was terrified. She instinctively took the hairy tortoise shell, trembling all over. Looking up at everyone's solemn faces, she stammered, "I...I...I promise I won't cause any trouble, please don't send me away?"
All three turned to look at her, and Deng Erhuai said sternly, "You might die!"
"So what if I die! I've never experienced death, but abandoning my teammates and deserting in a game will get me in trouble!" Ji Chengying cried, crying miserably, with snot and tears streaming down her face, but she didn't back down an inch.
Deng Erhuai said helplessly, "You won't go on 'Gossip Girl'."
Ji Chengying just cried and wouldn't leave.
The others had no choice, so Guan Junren pulled her a few steps away, saying, "At least hide. And this really isn't a game. You watch from the side, and if you get scared, just run away."
Ji Chengying finally made a move. She hid behind the building and watched the convoy come up. Shan Peng and the others met unexpectedly.
"What do you mean by this?" Deng Erhuai asked coldly. "Are you trying to disregard our cooperative relationship by shooting at me?"
With a large number of indigenous people present, their conversations couldn't delve into anything too explicit, but both sides understood what they were saying.
Dan Peng smiled: "As long as you all die here, how will the people outside know what actually happened?"
Deng Erhuai's eyes sharpened. "Are you crazy? What good will killing us do you? Even if I were a woman, when we have an open cooperative relationship, you can't keep my body for yourself if you kill me!"
“A corpse? No, no, no, I don’t want that. I just want…” Shan Peng glanced at the other natives and swallowed the rest of his words. “You and I have different destinations. In order to prevent us from fighting each other and hurting our harmony, I have no choice but to kill you in advance. As for you,” he looked at Lu Yunxiao and Guan Junren beside him and gave an apologetic smile, “you can only accept your bad luck.”
The three of them looked extremely grim.
Before Nanmenjue came out, due to the cooperation between the two parties, Deng Erhuai and Shan Peng exchanged mission targets. Shan Peng was from the quarantine center, while Deng Erhuai was a new ally. At that time, Shan Peng said that the missions would depend on each other's abilities. I didn't expect that they would kill each other to silence him now!
Guan Junren's eyes were red. Even though he tried his best to think of people as the worst, there were always people who were worse than him, so bad that they exceeded his imagination and yet were so self-righteous.
"I'm lucky to have run into my brothers who came looking for me." Shan Peng chuckled, patting the front of the car beneath him, a ruthless glint in his eyes. "How can this not be a godsend? I might as well take care of you all here, that damned pastor, and Nanmen Jue, saving me a lot of trouble."
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a church. It's probably not appropriate to shout and fight in front of the Virgin Mary."
Everyone looked over and saw Zhang Jinghe standing in front of the open door, staring at them with a deep gaze.
"Yes, and this old bastard too." Shan Peng grinned maliciously, his eyes clearly filled with ill intent.
He arrogantly raised his gun, pointing it at Deng Erhuai, then at Guan Junren, and then at Zhang Jinghe.
"Are you trying to stop me, Father?"
"Guests are always welcome, and Our Lady welcomes all guests with good intentions." The priest, with a gun pointed at him, remained expressionless, standing with his hands behind his back and his eyes shining brightly. "But if you harbor evil intentions, the church does not welcome you."
Dan Peng's lips twitched, and he let out a heart-wrenching laugh, completely shattering his initial facade of gentleness and refinement.
"You ungrateful old fool, how can you say such naive things? You want to stop me? How? With your worthless life? I'll turn you into tomato sauce!" he laughed. "This is the apocalypse, the apocalypse! Do you have a gun? You dare to be so arrogant without a gun? How many lives do you have?"
Deng Erhuai gritted his teeth and uttered, "Madman."
Dan Peng's smile vanished suddenly. His eyes turned ferocious, and he moved with lightning speed, instantly shifting the gun from Zhang Jinghe to Deng Erhuai. They were now very close, and the gun was pointed precisely at Deng Erhuai's chest.
Deng Erhuai's expression changed, but she didn't panic. She had prepared the prop and was about to use it when a strange feeling came over her, and she froze on the spot.
She's got the feel for using the props, but she hasn't used the ones in her hand yet. Could it be—
Everyone looked up abruptly. A figure was crouching on the city wall in the courtyard, watching them. He was backlit, so they couldn't see his expression, only his outline gleaming.
"Nanmen Jue?" Shan Peng exclaimed, "You're still here?!"
Deng Erhuai glanced at him. This two-faced coward, was he afraid of Nanmen Jue, which was why he deliberately chose to come up on the second day? Did he think Nanmen Jue had already left?
She let out a cold laugh.
Realizing his lapse in composure, Shan Peng, though outwardly fierce, said weakly, "Perfect, they're all here, saving me the trouble of searching everywhere."
He had made the boast, but he didn't dare to move or fire again. Everyone was now watching Nanmen Jue.
Meanwhile, Nanmen Jue, who was the center of attention, was inwardly frustrated.
Why couldn't I hold back and make a move? Deng Erhuai is a purple-named person. If she were to be killed so easily with a gun, wouldn't that be disrespecting her?
How can she justify her actions now that she's made this move? Her previous attitude has certainly raised suspicions and created a lot of unnecessary trouble.
...In the end, it's all the fault of this guy surnamed Shan.
If he hadn't come back to cause trouble, how could there have been so much trouble?
Nanmen Jue was in a foul mood, his tone icy, "Didn't I say that if anyone kills someone in front of me again, they shouldn't blame me for not warning them?"
Silence.
She spoke casually, but the imposing manner she exuded was immense. Dan Peng cautiously shut his mouth, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
Nanmen Jue jumped off the city wall, eliciting quiet gasps of surprise—the city wall was at least three or four meters high, and she jumped down so easily, which was quite astonishing to ordinary people.
She strolled closer, stood with her gun pointed at her, and walked up to Shan Peng. Her gaze swept lightly over his sweat-drenched face before turning to the fully armed convoy behind him.
"What's going on? Are the quarantine team now targeting ordinary citizens instead of parasites?"
Upon hearing this, some of the indigenous soldiers looked at each other uneasily.
Nanmen Jue stared at Shan Peng, and after a moment of silence, Shan Peng slowly revealed a sinister smile.
“Where are the ordinary people?” he said. “The Cathedral of the White Whale’s Beak has fallen; all that’s left here are—parasites!”
"Do it! Kill them all!"
Nanmen Jue sighed; she really disliked killing.
The next second, she grabbed the gun from Shan Peng's hand, smiled at him as he looked up in astonishment, and slammed her forehead forward, knocking him backward with a loud thud.
At the same time, he used the momentum to jump, and with a sideways flying kick, he kicked all the other soldiers in the truck bed off.
The battle began, and gunfire erupted everywhere. Nanmen Jue kept her eyes fixed on Shan Peng; this guy was the root of all evil, and she had no intention of letting him live any longer.
She was a gold-named individual, while Shan Peng was a purple-named individual. Nanmen Jue's combat strength had indeed increased considerably, but Shan Peng was experienced and had the backing of a large guild with deep resources. The items in his hands actually blocked several of Nanmen Jue's killing moves.
Nanmen Jue felt an electric shock-like sensation, shook his slightly numb hand, and laughed, "That's interesting."
Before her, Shan Peng's clothes were disheveled, blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, and his eyes revealed undisguised fear as he looked at Nanmen Jue.
"This thing can even stun orange-named players..." he murmured, "You, you...you're a gold-named player?!"
He finally realized this, but it was too late.
"Correct answer, no extra points, but I'll reward you with a whole corpse."
In his last moments, he saw Nanmen Jue's magnified face. Her eyes were curved, her smile gentle. Then she crushed the prop he was using to protect his neck and snapped his neck.
This person is usually sharp and sarcastic, someone you can only admire from afar but never approach, yet when he's killing someone, his smile is surprisingly gentle... is that right?
Dan Peng himself did not expect that the sentence would flash through his mind before he lost consciousness.
Seeing Shan Peng fall at his feet, Nanmen Jue stopped smiling, looked down at him for a while, and then turned and walked towards the church.
He ran faster than a rabbit just now, and she chased after him, running quite a distance before almost entering the mycelium-covered, overgrown area.
Nanmen Jue glanced at the blood-red mycelium not far away. Once she got entangled in this thing, she couldn't guarantee that she would be safe.
Back at the church, the battle was nearing its end. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and blood. Nanmen Jue grabbed the wrist of a soldier who was still firing and gently snapped it. The soldier let out a painful howl, which drew the attention of the others.
As Nanmen Jue approached expressionlessly, the people who were still fighting couldn't help but stop. Deng Erhuai turned her head and kicked the opponent who had just grabbed her neck over with force. Guan Junren, covered in blood, got up from the ground.
Lu Yunxiao injured his arm, but it didn't seem to be a big problem. Most of the men that Shan Peng brought were lost, with only a small number barely clinging to life.
In a post-apocalyptic world without special abilities like superpowers, the power of reincarnators is still quite prominent.
However, the power of firearms should not be underestimated. Even if Nanmen Jue has reached a very high level, she cannot use firearms to resist bullets. If she is hit, she will still die.
Dan Peng brought quite a few people. If it weren't for Zi Ming here, things would have been much more complicated. But it was precisely because of Zi Ming that Nanmen Jue felt safe enough to pursue Dan Peng.
Deng Erhuai watched her approach, his eyebrows twitching slightly. "Shan Peng is dead?"
Nanmen Jue said, "You want to fight against me for him?"
"Don't disgust me." Deng Erhuai made a vomiting face. "That kind of scourge, even if you don't kill him, I will do it myself."
"No thanks, I'm a red name, it doesn't matter if I kill one more or one less." Nanmen Jue felt that her gaze was a bit strange. Thinking of the blunder she made earlier when she couldn't help but attack, she sighed inwardly and turned her face away from her.
However, she refused to look, and Deng Erhuai was unwilling to give up easily.
"Why did you help me just now?" she asked directly.
Nanmen Jue pretended not to hear, looking at the people lying all over the ground, and thought that he should ask Zhang Jinghe how to handle this matter. After all, they had fallen at someone's doorstep, and there were still a few soldiers who were still alive...
Just then, a sharp shout broke the silence.
"Help! The priest has been shot!"
Nanmen Jue was startled and ran towards the city wall. Deng Erhuai hesitated for a moment, then exchanged a glance with the other two and followed.
The one who exclaimed was Ji Chengying, who had been obediently hiding to the side the whole time, trembling as she watched the battle.
Last night, three senior reincarnators instilled some things about the space into her mind. All three said that the reincarnation world was a fabrication of the main god, and that the people here were not real. However, she kept thinking about what Nanmen Jue had said the day before.
"They are all real."
The elders all said that Nanmen Jue was a wanted criminal. To be wanted by the main god himself, he must have committed extremely cruel crimes. But she just inexplicably felt that such a person would not lie.
If he could kill people whenever he wanted, would he need to fabricate such a lie? Would it be more satisfying to kill them if he were lying to himself that they were real?
Today, she had personally witnessed the battle. Was all this blood, all this painful screams, fake? She couldn't convince her own mind. As she trembled, she saw the priest who had given them food and drink, and whom she had a very good impression of, get shot. She immediately screamed.
A gust of wind swept by, and Nanmen Jue came to stand before her. Ji Chengying stared blankly as she squatted down with a solemn expression and reached out to touch Zhang Jinghe's carotid artery.
The heartbeat is weak, indicating excessive blood loss.
Looking at the bullet hole in Zhang Jinghe's chest, Nanmen Jue did not hesitate to take out the best hemostatic tool he had, the side effect of which was vomiting 100 milliliters of blood.
A very ironic prop.
When an item is transferred for use, the owner can transfer the side effects to the user. Nanmen Jue didn't transfer it; instead, he slapped the blue-and-red rune onto the priest's chest and asked grimly, "Who did this?"
Ji Chengying was stunned for a few seconds before realizing that she was being asked a question. She shook her head with tears in her eyes, "I don't know, the bullets were too mixed up, I didn't see who fired the shot."
The other three also rushed over. They were all taken aback when they saw Nanmen Jue using the tools on the aboriginal people, but seeing Nanmen Jue's expression, no one dared to speak.
The bleeding gradually stopped, and Nanmen Jue felt a slight sense of relief. He lowered his head and leaned close to the priest's face. "Father? Zhang Jinghe?"
Zhang Jinghe twitched as if in a spasm, and then slowly opened his eyes.
"Zhang Jinghe!" Nanmen Jue exclaimed with joy, "Hold on, I'll find a way to save you!"
Upon hearing this, everyone else glanced at her with mixed feelings, but she had no time to pay attention.
A weak hand gently grasped Nanmen Jue's hand. Nanmen Jue was startled, and she saw something ominous in Zhang Jinghe's eyes.
She had seen dead people, including Zhang Chuxi and others in reality, and in the almost realistic illusion simulated in the training ground. Every dying person had such eyes.
Zhang Jinghe held the Nanmen Jue and shook his head slightly. His eyes moved, and everyone looked in the direction he was looking and saw a little girl peeking out from behind the city wall, staring blankly at them.
Zhang Jinghe raised his blood-covered hand and waved to the girl. The girl hesitated and walked over. Ji Chengying made way for her, and she squatted down.
"Dad," she called softly.
Zhang Jinghe's face broke into that gentle smile again. He took the little girl's hand with his other hand and slowly intertwined it with Nanmen Jue's hand.
Nanmen Jue's gaze was obscure, but he did not pull his hand away.
“You can’t do this. You’re acting like an unpleasant old fox,” she said. “Trying to threaten me with my life to get me to accept your entrustment of my child won’t work on me. I’m still young. You should stand up and continue being a father yourself.”
Zhang Jinghe smiled at her, finally mustering the strength to speak, "No need to waste your energy, I... cough cough, I was already about to die anyway."
Nanmen Jue stared at him in astonishment, then suddenly understood.
No wonder he was so fearless; it turns out he already knew he was sick. This time, he did it on purpose, gambling on Nanmen Jue's kindness!
Zhang Jinghe slowly looked at the girl, "Zhizhi, do you remember what Daddy told you...?"
"Don't rely on anyone. Everyone dies, and you're no exception." The girl lowered her head blankly. "Me neither."
“Death is not frightening; it is the destiny of everyone. So Zhizhi, don't grieve for anyone's death. I am simply going to the embrace of the Virgin Mary.” The priest's grip on their hands weakened. He then looked at Nanmen Jue. “Nanmen, I'm not asking you… to take care of her. I just want to ask you to help me get her to Ningde Town, okay? My old friend, Jiang Yansi, lives there. He will… take care of Zhizhi…”
Nanmen Jue glanced at Zhang Zhi, who was still in a daze, and then closed his eyes tightly.
"I'll agree since you treated me to egg pancakes," she said, which surprised everyone else.
"Good, good..." Zhang Jinghe smiled, his face stained with blood, and sighed with great satisfaction.
"Is there anything else you want to say?" Nanmen Jue looked down at him. She could tell that he had resolved his biggest worry and was no longer holding on to his feelings.
Zhang Jinghe forced his eyes open, stared intently at Nanmen Jue, and then looked at the other reincarnators behind her.
His throat bobbed, and he spat out several mouthfuls of blood, as if he were engaged in a fierce struggle.
Until he could no longer hold on, his eyes began to glaze over, and he let out a deep sigh, "Nanmen, I believe in you."
Nanmen Jue realized that he might be about to reveal some important information, and his expression hardened.
Zhang Jinghe suddenly raised his hand, and with his life hanging by a thread, he grabbed her collar. His voice was hoarse with excitement as he said, word by word, "I am Father Ryder."
"What?"
All the reincarnators' expressions changed drastically, and they looked at Zhang Jinghe with great shock.
He denied it so many times, and the name was completely different, but it turned out that he was Father Ryd, whom they had been searching for!
This was beyond Nanmen Jue's expectations. Her pupils trembled as she looked at the little girl on the other side, who seemed completely unaware of what had happened.
In other words, Zhang Zhi is the center of this mission storm, the daughter that all the reincarnators are searching for!
"I...cough cough, I don't know why you're looking for me, but I'm about to die now, and there's nothing you can do about it, cough cough cough."
Nanmen Jue slowly lowered his head, looking at Zhang Jinghe who was smiling weakly, and swallowed the turmoil in his throat.
He knew nothing, thinking he was dead and that no conspiracy could be carried out. Little did he know that these people had nothing to do with him. He was about to die, and his innocent little daughter, whom he cherished so much, was exposed to the eyes of the ravenous reincarnators.
Without turning around, she could feel the burning gaze of the people behind her.
"Nanmen, promise me, never take Zhizhi to any of the three major bases." The hand gripping Nanmen Jue's collar tightened even more. Zhang Jinghe slightly raised his upper body, straining until the veins bulged, spitting out mouthfuls of blood. He stared intently at Nanmen Jue, hoarsely uttering, "Promise me! Don't take her to the quarantine facility, don't take her to the Furnace, and definitely don't take her to the New Alliance. Please... promise me!"
Nanmen Jue grasped his hand, staring intently into his bulging eyes. His usual gentleness and kindness were gone. The dying priest, like a desperate trapped beast, clung tightly to the only person who could possibly save him from his cage, violently and humbly pleading for a promise.
“I promise you,” she said.
As the last breath that held him alive dissipated, the priest's eyes softened again. He smiled slightly, and the hand that had been holding Nanmenjue lost its strength.
"Zhizhi...Zhizhi," he whispered, "you must live well...."
Zhang Jinghe, or rather Father Leid, has died.
A clear caw came from the sky. The others looked up and saw a familiar-looking crow circling the sky a few times before landing on Nanmen Jue's shoulder.
Nanmenjue still had his head down, gazing at the deceased priest.
Deng Erhuai moved slightly, "South..."
Before she could even cry out, Nanmen Jue clutched his chest and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Everyone was shocked. Was Nanmen Jue injured just now? Or was it a side effect of the prop?
Nanmen Jue didn't say anything. She used the tiger's mouth and the back of her right hand to wipe away the blood from her lips. Then she raised her head. There was still a bright red stain on her lips, which was smeared on her fair skin, like smeared lipstick.
Her gaze swept past the reincarnators and landed on the dazed soldiers behind her.
"Take your men and get out."
The soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment. Nanmen Jue pulled out a gun from somewhere and shot the first soldier in the arm. The soldier cried out and hurriedly ran back to the vehicle, clutching his arm.
Once one was defeated, another followed. The already demoralized soldiers scattered and fled in disarray, jumping onto vehicles and escaping.
Nanmen Jue then looked at the other reincarnators.
The silence lasted for a moment, then Deng Erhuai tentatively asked, "Nanmen Jue, which base do you need to take her to?"
They are all reincarnators. No matter how special Nanmen Jue is, he still came in with a mission.
“I didn’t mean to compete with you; I can’t win against you,” Deng Erhuai said again. “I just want to know where this child will be sent.”
She didn't take Zhang Jinghe's words seriously. Who would take a promise to an NPC seriously? So everyone naturally assumed that Nanmen Jue would take Zhang Zhi to her mission destination.
Ji Chengying shifted uncomfortably, sensing that Nanmen Jue's thoughts were probably different from theirs.
Are you deaf?
With the priest's blood on his hands, Nanmen Jue pulled up the little girl who was still squatting next to her father and held her close.
“I promised the child’s father that I would take her to Ningde Town. Didn’t you hear me? If you didn’t hear me, I’ll repeat it again: I will take the child to Ningde Town.”
Her gaze slowly swept across the entire room, carrying a palpable sense of authority.
"You heard everything this time?"
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