In the gray sky, a flock of black crows flew through the air. They cawed harshly, and the fog around them twisted.
"Those are the people from Lai Sheng Company," Gu Jun said darkly. "I can recognize them. In my memory, they are dressed like this."
Actually, the shadows were blurred by the fog. They did not look like long coats, but Gu Jun could recognize them.
Xue Ba and the others were ready for battle. Other than Lou Xiaoning, who could not hold a gun, the firepower members aimed their guns at the enemies in all directions. However, the fog was getting thicker and thicker. The shadows of the enemies were hidden behind the giant trees and became invisible.
"I can't see …" Yang Henan, who quickly set up his sniper rifle, gasped. The thermal scope could not see through the eerie giant trees.
Everyone was still catching their breath, but the roars of the beasts became more and more menacing.
Gu Jun saw some of the shadows slowly walk out from the fog. Now they could all see clearly that they were creatures that were either abnormal or wild. They had the body of a wolf, but each of them was the size of a brown bear. Their fur was like black spikes, and their exposed fangs and dripping saliva were chilling.
Before Xue Ba could say something to negotiate, suddenly, the pack of mutated wolves charged at them. They were everywhere, and there was no end to them.
"Firepower unit, open fire!" Xue Ba ordered immediately. His face was filled with determination. "The rest of you, stay here. Do not waste bullets."
Zhou Yi, Gao Mingpeng, and the rest pulled on the triggers. Two members from each of the four directions opened fire. Ta ta ta, the sound of gunfire echoed.
The bullet casings fell on the altar. This was the weapon that humans trusted and relied on the most. Sparks flew continuously, and the recoil caused their muscles to churn. Their already exhausted bodies were stretched taut to the point where they were about to break apart and fall apart into a pile of broken bones.
The beasts did not know fear. Even though the ones at the front were shot to pieces, the ones at the back continued to charge.
The howls of their own kind and the stench of blood only made the mutated wolves even more frenzied. They charged even faster, and there were even more of them, like a raging tide.
"Ah …" Lou Xiaoning groaned anxiously.
Uncle Dan was responsible for keeping an eye on her. This kind of ferocious beast had coarse skin and thick flesh. A shot to the body would not be able to knock it down. It had to be shot in the head.
However, they were very fast, and they were not in good condition. It was impossible for them to get headshots every time. As the leader of the team's firepower, Lou Xiaoning's accuracy had always been the highest. If she was still a normal person, she could only stand at the side and watch. It must be very suffocating.
Lin Mo and the other researchers were in disbelief. From the giant tree to the altar, the ground was covered with the corpses of ferocious beasts.
Aren't they afraid? This really went against nature …
But Gu Jun's question was, were they real?
Xue Ba suspected this as well. He immediately asked his partner, Zhou Yi, to release a mutated wolf into the altar. Then, he shot it in the head. The two of them continued to fire as they walked forward. They used their feet to kick the carcass on the altar. It really was there, and it wasn't an illusion.
However, the swarm of mutated wolves did not slow down, and they had already used up half of their ammo. At this rate, they would soon run out of ammo.
"Prepare to break out!" Xue Ba shouted. Then he asked Gu Jun for his opinion. "Which way should we go?"
"I don't know …" Gu Jun really had no idea. His mind was a mess.
Xue Ba followed his intuition and decided to break out in the opposite direction of the high wall. Lin Mo climbed onto the stretcher and was carried away by Gu Jun and Zhang Huohuo.
Then, as they killed the mutated wolves, they moved out of the altar.
But at that moment, a strange voice came from the fog. It sounded like the people from Lai Sheng Company were chanting in the foreign language. It sounded like a song … It was blurry, but it penetrated everyone's mind. Gu Jun's confusion and dizziness intensified. He mumbled, "This sounds like … a song from this world …"
"The stone path is dark and silent. That is the beginning of life.
In mother's dream, poisonous snakes, worms, and demons appeared.
From morning to night, there was much pain. "
"How is this …" The team walked for about ten steps. This distance was long enough for them to leave the altar, but to their shock, they realized that they were still at the same spot. They seemed to have walked in a circle, but they were clearly heading out.
The bullets could be fired, and the beasts could rush in. It was probably not because of the space but because their minds were affected.
Suddenly, they could not even find the way back to the spiral staircase.
This feeling was similar to knowing that they were dreaming. After a series of actions, they thought they had woken up, but it was just another dream.
At that moment, everyone realized that the team's weakness was also Phecda's weakness.
When faced with the abnormal energy that was being controlled, they did not have the appropriate skills.
"It's the song!" Xue Ba shouted until his veins were popping. He tried to break through the confusion. "Focus and ignore the distracting thoughts. Don't listen to it!"
They did not understand what it meant, but they could feel the confusion in their minds. It was not that easy to ignore it …
Be it because of his high spirituality or his ability to understand the meaning, Gu Jun was the one who paid the most attention to the song. Strange images were already flickering before his eyes.
The ballad became even louder and more bewildering …
"The nightmare grows stronger every day, waiting to break out from the earth.
Every day, mother wonders, is it a young creation or a zombie living in her womb?
Sometimes she thought sadly.
The birth of life is inseparable from pain.
Sometimes she thought quietly.
The birth of life is inseparable from pain. "
"The birth of life is inseparable from pain …" Gu Jun mumbled absentmindedly. Suddenly, the distorted images became clearer.
They were not illusions. They appeared to be the memories that he was born with, and they were awakened before his eyes.
This altar … Gu Jun remembered. This was the place where the foreign people held their coming of age ceremony.
The stone path, the stone chamber, and the spiral staircase that led from Rikers to the altar were all part of the ceremony.
Unlike the human civilization on Earth, who liked to build towers to reach out to the gods, the foreign people believed that Mother Earth (the Goddess of Life) nurtured everything.
To walk the stone path, one had to go deep underground. To enter the stone chamber was to return to the place where the mother gave birth to life. Climbing the spiral staircase was the process of birth. The spiral staircase was not allowed to be walked from the top to the top. Pushing open the altar was also part of the ceremony. It was like a new life being squeezed out.
Even the crumbling of the stone staircase was part of the original design of the building.
Because the mother was in great danger during childbirth, the birth of a new life was also a kind of harm to the mother.
This ballad was sung by groups of young boys and girls who had just reached adulthood as they participated in the ceremony …
"But why do I know all this?" Gu Jun was lost. "Why do I feel like I have personally participated in this ceremony before … Is it because of my childhood experience?"
The roars of the beasts, the gunshots of the members, and the song that permeated the fog blended together to form a strange sound.
Suddenly, a cold and enticing call that even Xue Ba and Uncle Dan could understand came from the middle of it.
"Gu Jun, open your eyes. Look around you, open your eyes!"
This call was like a heavy hammer that slammed into Gu Jun's heart …
At the same time, following this call, the figures in black appeared from the fog around the altar. They came from different directions and walked over together.
A few snipers immediately fired at them, but the bullets only passed through their figures, and there were no screams. Were those just distorted phantoms …?
The wild beasts were still attacking like a tide, but they didn't seem to care about those black-clothed figures. Xue Ba, Zhou Yi, and the rest frowned. The team's automatic rifles had run out of ammo. They had to use guns like Gu Jun's submachine gun, but they were running low on ammo.
"Gu Jun, open your eyes and look around you. Take a good look at yourself."
The figures of men in black walked out of the mist from all directions and approached the altar.
It was then that Xue Ba and the rest realized with shock that all these people had the same face.
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