After contacting the teachers and students stationed in the dormitory area, the four of them packed their bags and continued heading further north.

They hurried along the mud-caked asphalt road, now overgrown with grass. The School of Engineering’s massive gymnasium and open-air athletic field slowly came into view.

Further down the road was the north gate, leading off campus.

"Teacher Lü, should we explore the athletic field and the gym? Or should we head straight into the wild?" Han Ning asked as they stood at a fork in the road.

"We’ll do a quick sweep with the drones. If there isn’t too much danger, we’ll contact command, report the situation, and continue exploring. Our main objective is to find remnants of civilization, not to clear out Soul Beasts."

Lü Xiuning took a small drone from his back, expertly assembled its parts, and launched it. He piloted it into the air above the adjacent athletic field and began filming.

Luo Chen also took out a drone, flying it through a broken window in the gymnasium to investigate the situation inside.

A few minutes later, both drones returned. Neither had been attacked and destroyed by Soul Beasts.

They inserted the two memory cards into two separate phones. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The drone’s aerial footage appeared on the phone screens.

Inside the gymnasium, a thick layer of silt had accumulated. Since the doors to the exits were all shut tight, the floodwater inside hadn’t completely drained, leaving behind a soupy, stagnant mess.

Only some Demon Eye Frogs, which hopped constantly through the piles of silt and stagnant water, along with a large number of leeches and various unidentifiable common insects, could be seen hopping and burrowing through the muck.

The open-air athletic field looked much like the road they had just taken. It was overgrown with lush grass and dotted with a few Silver Lotus Wood trees. A small number of Iron-toothed Snakes, Demon Eye Frogs, and black Monster Rats moved through the grass, carefully avoiding their natural predators.

Only two six- to seven-meter-long Iron-toothed Snakes spotted the drone. They raised their heads, staring fixedly in its direction and letting out constant, warning hisses.

If the drone hadn’t been out of their attack range, they would have knocked it out of the sky long ago.

A food chain existed among the Soul Beasts, too. Iron-toothed Snakes over five meters long enjoyed snacking on smaller Demon Eye Frogs.

After carefully watching the footage, Lü Xiuning quickly packed up his equipment and said:

"Two Iron-toothed Snakes... With our school’s current strength, we don’t need to get involved. Someone else’s Silver Lotus Wood can deal with them easily. Let’s go, forward."

Everyone’s strength had grown by now. As long as they proceeded with caution and used the drones to scout ahead, they could avoid even a giant, eight-meter-long Brain-Eating Spider if they couldn’t defeat it.

The open-air athletic field wasn’t far from the north gate—only about 100 meters away.

The four of them were extremely fast on their feet. In less than a minute, they reached the north gate.

A sliding gate, entangled with green vines, blocked the path ahead.

Looking past the gate, they saw a rolling, muddy swamp ahead, with a faint white mist drifting over it.

Han Ning gazed toward the horizon, his dark pupils constricting slightly before dilating.

In an instant, it was as if the noise had been filtered out of his vision with Photoshop; the mist that had been shrouding the distance suddenly became nearly invisible.

His gaze pierced the mist, and far in the distance, a continuous black mountain range came into view.

"It’s not just a swamp! There are mountains up ahead! A mountain range!" Han Ning’s pupils dilated, and he couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise.

"A mountain range?!" The other three widened their eyes, but all they could see was the white mist blanketing the swamp.

"How far away is it, roughly?" Lü Xiuning asked.

"I’m not sure. At least ten or twenty kilometers, maybe even several dozen?"

As the saying goes, mountains are farther than they appear, so Han Ning couldn’t be certain.

Lü Xiuning muttered to himself:

’Several dozen kilometers... At our pace, we could be there in a few hours, provided there aren’t any dangerous Soul Beasts in the swamp.’

"Let’s take it one step at a time. If we run into danger, we’ll retreat. But now that we’ve found a geographical feature that isn’t a swamp, we have to go. Whether it’s to look for remnants of civilization or just to establish a landmark, we have to get over there."

...

HISS HISS HISS~ CROAK CROAK CROAK~

The slick, wet swamp was a paradise for amphibians.

Within the vast white mist, several dark figures tirelessly made their way through the swamp, crossing between its countless pools of water.

HISS—

Han Ning stopped and looked toward a dark mud pit to his left.

Not far ahead, he could faintly hear a sound like steam hissing from a pressure cooker.

’Probably a snake-type Soul Beast...’

He stood still, listening carefully before taking a few steps forward.

Peering past some scattered reeds, he vaguely saw a pair of eerie green eyes emerge from the mud pit they needed to cross.

It was a brown python, its body as thick as a child’s thigh. It had a large, gray-furred rat in its jaws and was swallowing it bit by bit.

The brown python suddenly spotted Yin Yi floating in mid-air. It immediately dropped the rat, let out a hiss, and greedily slithered out of the mud, charging toward Yin Yi.

"It’s a snake-type Soul Beast I’ve never seen before. Not that big... but it’s aggressive. Egg Pancake, you’re up."

Han Ning sized it up and confirmed it was a soft target, then patted the head of Egg Pancake beside him.

"CHIRP!"

Having received the command, Egg Pancake tensed its body. Explosive power surged through its limbs as it shot forward like a brown shadow.

The slithering brown python only belatedly turned its head as Egg Pancake closed in.

SWIPE!

A cold glint flashed.

A pair of sharp claws viciously struck the brown python’s head.

The great python’s eerie green eyes suddenly took on a dazed look. It shook its head a few times, then collapsed limply to the ground.

Although this brown python was large, its physical durability was only slightly greater than an Iron-toothed Snake’s.

Seeing it fall, Egg Pancake hammered the brown python’s head a few more times, THUD THUD, until it was smashed to a pulp.

Then, it reared up on its hind legs, lifted the python’s thick body, shook it, and slammed it back into the mud.

It then lowered its head to sniff the python’s body, extended its claws, and swiped hard at the snake’s belly.

Egg Pancake dug out a snake gallbladder that reeked of a foul, bloody stench.

The gallbladder was light green, but its surface shimmered with a faint brown luster.

Egg Pancake opened its mouth, tossed the gallbladder in, and began to chew happily.

"CHIRP!"

’Delicious!’

"Whoa, Egg Pancake’s hunting Talent is incredible! How did it know the python’s gallbladder was in its belly?" Lin Tianhe said, his eyes wide with envy.

"It must be an instinct etched deep in its genes. After all, Egg Pancake is a type of Soul Beast native to swamps."

"Chirp..."

The brown python seemed to be an Earth Type Soul Beast, and Egg Pancake ate with great delight. After finishing the gallbladder, it dug out some snake meat to share with the little Guardian before patting its belly in satisfaction.

...

After that small interlude, the group pressed onward.

With Yin Yi for protection, some of the stronger and more perceptive Soul Beasts didn’t even dare to approach them.

Only a few weak, brainless Soul Beasts that didn’t know any better launched attacks, but they were all easily slain.

「A few hours later...」

The four travelers stopped in their tracks.

Two hundred meters away stood a dense forest of giant purple mushrooms, each at least several dozen meters tall, with enormous, umbrella-like caps.