Chapter 46: A Beauty in Each Arm

The scene returned to silence.
Only the monotonous sound of raindrops pattering against the water's surface remained, accompanied by the heavy, suppressed breathing of the few individuals echoing through the dense fog.

Swish~
A blue-and-white ball of light, far larger and much more condensed than the one obtained after slaying the mirage worm, drifted out from where the vortex-armored crab had sunk.

It split in mid-air into three streams—one large and two small—which respectively plunged into the bodies of Han Ning, Lin Qianqian, and Yu Na.

[Druid growth progress +60] (Current Lv4, 92/600)
[Mental power +0.1] (Mental power: 0.85)
[Marsh alligator-lizard growth progress +15] (Current 27/200)
[Vine technique (Advanced) proficiency +8] (Current 18/500)

Han Ning slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, retracting his spiritual energy, and the surviving vines dissolved into tiny green specks of light.

Lin Qianqian lowered the compound bow in her hand, raised her head, and let her gaze drift past the gradually calming, turbid water's surface to land on Han Ning. The corners of her lips curved slightly upward:
"Well done."

She splashed through the standing water over to Han Ning, extended her right hand, and gently rested her palm upon his shoulder.
Her fair fingertips glowed with a soft, restrained white light.

Hum...
A warm and peaceful wave of energy instantly surged through Han Ning's clothes and skin into his body.
The spiritual energy Han Ning had depleted during the battle quickly recovered.

Although the battle just now had been rather intense—and coupled with absorbing the energy of the vortex-armored crab—he hadn't consumed a massive amount of spiritual power. With Lin Qianqian's assistance, he was fully restored.

"How do you feel?"
"Much better, thank you." Feeling the brimming spiritual energy within his body, Han Ning thanked Lin Qianqian.

Lin Qianqian withdrew her hand, the white light at her fingertips fading away, and smiled: "Just doing my part."
"Let's rest for a moment."
With that, she turned and walked toward Yu Na.

While Lin Qianqian was helping Yu Na recover her energy, Han Ning walked briskly over to Bingkuai.

The "little guy" was lying flat in the turbid water, lowering its body as it licked the injuries scraped by the vortex-armored crab with its tongue, emitting low whimpers from its throat.

"Don't move." Han Ning squatted down, his palm glowing with a vibrant, emerald-green light that covered Bingkuai's gruesome wounds.

[Rejuvenation technique (Intermediate) proficiency +1, current 39/200]

As the green light seeped in, the rolled-back flesh at the edges of the wounds stopped bleeding at a speed visible to the naked eye, and tiny granulation tissue began to wriggle and grow.

Bingkuai contentedly squinted its eyes, the whimpers in its throat transforming into satisfied purrs as it rubbed its cool head against Han Ning's wrist.

[Marsh alligator-lizard growth progress +1, current 28/200]

At this moment, Lin Qianqian had already finished helping Yu Na recover.
She walked over to the massive carcass of the vortex-armored crab and drew a gleaming short blade from her waist.
She detached the pair of hard, gigantic pincers from their joints.

Next, she sliced open the relatively soft abdominal joint area, cutting off several large chunks of snow-white, delicate, well-textured crab meat, carefully wrapped them in waterproof cloth, and placed them into a sealed bag.

"Here."
Lin Qianqian handed the heavy bag to Han Ning with a gentle tone:
"You were the main combat force, so these spoils rightfully belong to you. It's enough for us to absorb the energy."

"Alright, many thanks." Han Ning did not decline, taking the bag and putting it into his backpack.
As for whether to share it with Lin Qianqian and the others, he planned to discuss it after they returned.

After a brief moment of rest, Lin Qianqian glanced at the surrounding fog and pointed deeper into the foggy zone: "Our condition is relatively well-maintained; we can continue moving forward. Stay alert."

The team set off once more, trudging deeper into the thick fog.
The further inward they went, the heavier the fog seemed to become, pressing down oppressively on everyone as visibility dropped further to less than five meters.
The standing water beneath their feet seemed deeper and colder, every step carrying a viscous resistance.

Along the way, they encountered a few more attacks by mirage worms.
After that vortex-armored crab died, these creatures had emerged from who-knows-where.
Hiding within the carcasses of decaying organisms, these creatures continuously emitted irritating illusions.

However, under the protection of Yu Na's early-warning mental barrier, combined with Han Ning's precise sniper-like vines and Lin Qianqian's timely replenishment of spiritual energy, these isolated mirage worms were resolved relatively easily.

[Druid growth progress +15] (Current Lv4, 107/600)
[Mental power +0.13] (Mental power: 0.98)
[Marsh alligator-lizard growth progress +7] (Current 35/200)

When they had penetrated nearly three hundred and fifty meters deep into the foggy zone, the density of the surrounding fog reached a peak.
Light was thoroughly swallowed up; even with a flashlight, the beam of light could only illuminate a tiny patch of the area directly in front of them before being instantly devoured by the thick fog.

"Stop!" Yu Na, who had been maintaining silent vigilance, suddenly let out a low cry, her voice carrying an imperceptible tremor.
She halted her footsteps, looking to the right, as the deep-blue glow of her mental barrier violently fluctuated around her.

"What is it?" Lin Qianqian immediately raised her compound bow, the arrow pointing toward the direction Yu Na was warning them about.
"At the three o'clock direction, there are three huge life forms approaching. They're vortex-armored crabs!"
"Three?!" Lin Qianqian's expression changed drastically.

A single vortex-armored crab had forced them to pull out all the stops just to barely take it down; for three to appear simultaneously was absolute catastrophe.

"Fall back!" Han Ning's reaction was more direct than Lin Qianqian's.
The three of them did not hesitate, instantly turning around and sprinting madly toward the exit.

Almost the next second after they left their original spot—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three water cannons, each exceeding 10 centimeters in diameter, tore through the dense fog and slammed into the exact spot where they had been standing a moment ago.

Turbid waves mixed with shattered masonry and silt splashed high into the sky.
The powerful impact even briefly pushed away the water in that area, exposing the cracked ground underneath.

A suffocating sense of oppression rushed toward them like a tsunami.
"Move fast! Don't look back!" Lin Qianqian's voice carried an unprecedented urgency.

During the escape, Han Ning pushed his mental power to the absolute limit, and the "radar map" constructed in his mind by Bingkuai's perception became clearer than ever before.
He precisely skirted around obstacles ahead, choosing the route with the least resistance and pushing his speed to the maximum limit.

The other two girls lacked a "radar map," so their evasion speed was somewhat slower.
Seeing this, Han Ning whipped out two vines, wrapped them around their waists, and brought them along as he moved forward.

While running wildly, Yu Na concentrated on perceiving the movements of the pursuers behind them to provide early warnings for Han Ning.
"Turn left! Avoid that crossbeam!" Yu Na suddenly shrieked.

Han Ning did not hesitate in the slightest, pulling the vines to draw the two girls close to him, wrapping his arms around their shoulders from both sides as he ducked downward.
The three of them grazed past a huge concrete crossbeam half-submerged in the water by a hair's breadth.

Almost simultaneously, a thick, high-pressure jet of water grazed past their right side, slamming violently into the crossbeam and shattering it into flying debris.

It was a brush with death time and again.
Driven by such a desperate flight, the distance of over three hundred meters that had taken nearly half an hour to penetrate upon arrival was left behind them in less than five minutes.

When the thick, impenetrable fog around them began to thin out and the gray, dim daylight in the distance faintly leaked through, the taut nerves of the three finally relaxed a fraction.
The heart-palminating screeches and water-breaking sounds behind them also gradually receded until they vanished entirely.

Splash!
Dragging Lin Qianqian and Yu Na, Han Ning finally rushed out from the edge of that suffocating thick fog.
The cold torrential rain lashed down upon them once more, yet this familiar sound felt extraordinarily sweet at this moment.

Standing in the turbid standing water, the three panted heavily, rain mixed with sweat streaming down their cheeks.
Looking back, that rolling mass of thick white fog resembled a dormant beast, still quietly swallowing everything behind it, as if the breathtaking pursuit from just moments ago had merely been an illusion.