Although the old man was also a high-level 'Lampbearer' in the circle, like his black-robed 'Lampbearer' companion, it was his first time coming to this 'T33' world, and his first time witnessing the Propagation Hegemon's flesh puppets.
Even though he had heard from 'Glorious Light' and 'Greedy Wolf' about how terrifying the Propagation Hegemon's flesh puppets were, as a martial artist, he believed more in his own fists. So upon encountering the flesh puppet, he didn't choose to flee immediately but went up to meet it.
The result was naturally a big loss.
His indestructible fist force, hitting the Propagation Hegemon's flesh puppet, not only failed to completely penetrate the flesh puppet but instead injured himself from the shock.
Just one encounter, and he understood the terror of the flesh puppet, and also understood why 'Glorious Light' and 'Greedy Wolf' tirelessly warned him to avoid engaging with flesh puppets as much as possible.
Swish swish swish...
At this time, sharp whistling sounds of breaking wind came from behind.
The old man and the black-robed 'Lampbearer' turned back simultaneously, discovering with horror that ferocious flying insects rushed out from the flesh puppet's back one after another, pouncing towards them.
"So fast!"
Both felt a chill in their hearts simultaneously.
Glancing at each other, they said in unison: "Split up!"
Soon the two split left and right, and the swarm of flying insects chasing them also split into two groups quickly, still pursuing relentlessly.
A long time later.
The old man, missing an arm, crawled out from a fissure in the ground.
He first observed the surroundings, confirming the swarm of flying insects had left, before starting to treat his wounds.
In the fierce battle just now, at the cost of losing an arm, he barely managed to hide in the fissure, relying on the underground river to dangerously avoid the swarm of flying insects.
However, due to the critical situation just now, he had no time to treat the wound at all, only able to perform simple hemostasis treatment on the wound.
Now that the flying insects had left, he finally treated the wound.
"Hiss..."
Checking the wound once, even the old man accustomed to life and death couldn't help sucking in a breath of cold air.
He not only lost an arm, even half of his shoulder was involved. Moreover, the wound was infected by the flying insects' mucus, growing strangely shaped mushrooms one after another.
Fortunately, for this operation, he carried quite a lot of equipment, even bringing two medical robots, so the wound was treated quickly.
"Sigh, wonder how that guy is doing!"
The old man sighed.
He knew it was precisely his recklessness that led the black-robed 'Lampbearer' accompanying him into crisis.
According to the locator's instructions, after some trudging, the old man finally found the black-robed 'Lampbearer's locator in a forest.
There was a large area of battle traces near the locator, indicating fierce combat had taken place here. However, judging from the bloodstains and severed limbs on the ground, the black-robed 'Lampbearer's situation was somewhat grim.
Following the bloodstains, the old man finally found a broken lamp in a pit, the 'Embers' inside already completely consumed.
"Sigh!"
The old man let out a long sigh again.
He knew with the other party's strength, it was hard to shake off the swarm of flying insects. He just never expected the other party to actually die here directly.
One must know if a 'Lampbearer' was bent on escaping, they could consume 'Embers' to forcibly open a spatial rift. So the other party must have suffered a fatal blow, received extremely severe injuries, to the point of not even having the spare strength to open a spatial rift.
Putting away the broken lamp in the pit, the old man gritted his teeth: "Damn Hegemon!"
On Shinji's side.
A small blue flower swaying in the wind attracted his attention. He walked over, squatting down slowly: "Eh, what a beautiful little flower!"
Vision pulled back.
On the grassland where Shinji was, seven or eight hill-like huge flesh puppets lay scattered.
However, without exception, all these flesh puppets had their intestines pierced and bellies rotten, lying dead on the ground.
And Shinji's civilian technology sphere 'Little Yuan' was busy directing small collectors one by one, collecting various organs and cell tissues from these flesh puppets, as well as flying insect remains scattered everywhere.
Undoubtedly, Shinji also encountered this kind of flesh puppet.
He tried various ninjutsu, finding the effect wasn't great, then directly used 'Truth-Seeking Balls' to solve all these flesh puppets and flying insects.
Flesh and blood bodies, after all, are just flesh and blood bodies!
After getting up, Shinji snapped his fingers, summoning 'Little Yuan' over, instructing: "Collect this little flower for me too!"
"Yes!"
Little Yuan responded immediately, and mobilized a collector over.
The reason Shinji noticed this small blue flower was because he found that previously whether flesh puppets or swarms of flying insects, they all seemed to dislike this flower somewhat.
Ordinary people encountering the Propagation Hegemon's flesh puppets probably wouldn't have the leisure to notice these details. But Shinji possessing super strong insight precisely noticed this point, that's why he instructed 'Little Yuan' to collect this small blue flower.
Subsequently, Shinji found a clean patch of grass, sat down, enjoying the wind while waiting for 'Little Yuan' to complete all collection tasks.
In a short while, 'Little Yuan' completed the collection tasks, returning to Shinji's side.
Because it involved the Propagation Hegemon, Shinji had to use the power of the 'Lamp' to perform a comprehensive pollution removal for 'Little Yuan', because he found even on the collectors which were machines, strangely shaped limbs grew out.
"Is this the Propagation Hegemon's ability, even machines can be polluted..."
Shinji murmured inwardly.
In front of the Propagation Hegemon, let alone ordinary animals and plants, I'm afraid even stones, metals, these traditionally inanimate objects could grow and develop, or even become pregnant.
After dealing with these, Shinji delayed no more, rushing directly towards the mission coordinate location.
A journey of 400 kilometers, and in a world polluted by the Propagation Hegemon, might be an arduous task for ordinary people, but for Shinji, there wasn't much difference from an outing.
Safely arriving at the canyon marked by the mission, Shinji activated the information sphere according to mission requirements.
However, he didn't evacuate 'T33' immediately but retreated to a distance, preparing to observe what exactly the information sphere 'Glorious Light' asked him to activate was.
Just then, 'Little Yuan' following beside him suddenly prompted: "Master, Miss 'Glorious Light' sent you a message."
Shinji opened it to look, finding the message 'Glorious Light' sent was asking to rush to a location to rendezvous with her after completing the mission.
On a high cliff.
'Glorious Light' Alice stared fixedly into the distance, expression incredibly solemn.
Swish...
Just then, 'Mad Wolf' Hengo, who had replaced a prosthetic body, flew from afar, landing beside Alice, asking: "What happened, why summon us?"
Alice pointed to the distance: "New changes appeared again, I don't know if the Propagation Hegemon sensed something!"
Following the direction of 'Glorious Light' Alice's finger, Hengo looked over, immediately expression freezing.
In his vision, at the extremely distant horizon, a towering giant tree almost connecting heaven and earth stood erect...