Chapter 12 - The Tip of The Iceberg

The one-on-one idea was indeed pretty cool. However, Shu Jun was currently having a mutated monster’s leg in his mouth, lying face down and being dragged backwards by a liquid pillar on his ankle. The scene looked more like an old shepherd dragging a wolf that tried to steal his sheeps.

In his heart, Shu Jun felt so dejected. If his stomach was full and his weapon was still at hands, he wouldn’t fall to such a low point.

The current situation only allowed him to be distracted for half a second. As his wind blade cut off the liquid pillar in a flash, Shu Jun rolled on the spot and spit out the monster’s leg in his mouth to his right hand. The leg still carried some body warmth, its hair rough and bristling, and its heavy weight helped Shu Jun get back to his fighting mood.

Having its liquid pillar chopped off, the Erosion Marsh let out a soft howl. The liquid pillars around the edge of the marsh twisted together and lashed towards Shu Jun like a whip. Shu Jun swung the monster’s leg like a sword and neatly dodged the attack, but eventually, one pillar managed to deal a blow to him. His clothes were instantly ripped open, but only a faint red mark remained on his skin.

His state at this moment was nothing like the past. Right now, he neither carried any weapon nor wore any heavy, obstructive mechanical armour. The erosive substance that used to be threatening to him was now useless, so the Erosion Marsh in front of him was nothing more special than other mutated monsters.

Rather, compared to those monsters with sharp claws and feral teeth, this Erosion Marsh even seemed less dangerous.

There was only one problem. Normally, combatants would only kill the mutated monsters controlled by the Erosion Marsh, while the marsh itself could only be dispelled by the purifier. No one knew how to kill this thing — The Erosion Marsh in front of him wasn’t too big, only about 20 square meters in size. It wasn’t much different from other marshes.

Such a slimy opponent was simply annoying.

As Shu Jun used the monster’s leg to scatter several liquid pillars, the marsh continued to make an unpleasant hissing noise. The flesh on the monster’s leg melted and started dripping down, and eventually, even its bone was eroded till it turned mushy and broke upon touch. Shu Jun threw away the wreck in distress, leaned against the ground with both hands and made a beautiful spin mid air, neatly avoiding the marsh’s attack.

The situation was becoming a bit awkward. The Erosion Marsh couldn’t catch him, but he couldn’t catch it either. There would be no problem to continue doing this for three days and three nights —  with the condition that he didn’t get hungry.

His stomach was making a  deafening growl, and his legs and feet were getting weaker. Shu Jun sighed and glanced behind him.

They had been fighting here for more than ten minutes. It would be great if Zhu Yanchen took the opportunity to run away.

He didn’t know that Zhu Yanchen was still staying within his field of vision, with Lao Wei tied up with a metal rope like a dumpling and lying at Zhu Yanchen’s feet. Looking at the distance, Zhu Yanchen hadn’t retreated far at all.

“Find its brain.” Seeing Shu Jun turning his head, Zhu Yanchen said loudly. “When it attacked you just now, there was a certain spot on its body where the erosive substance didn’t move at all. Search at its southwest direction!”

“This thing has a brain?!” Shu Jun’s response came with a little panic.

“Theoretically, it has a nerve-like core composed of a special erosive substance.” This was a long sentence that costed Zhu Yanchen a lot of effort to shout out. Shu Jun’s ears listened to the words, but his brain, which was in a fighting state, couldn’t understand.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing!” He yelled back.

“It’s from my personal research.” Zhu Yanchen’s tone got a little more sincere: “Now is not the best time to explain, let’s talk about it after you win —” 

Did this guy seriously consider explaining right here, right now?

Previously, he knew that A Yan had a serious personality, but he didn’t expect the real person to be this serious. Shu Jun couldn’t help but raise the corner of his mouth. He bounced and landed on the roof near the marsh, trying to find the spot that Zhu Yanchen talked about.

It was really difficult to find such a spot in the middle of the battle. He had to concentrate and observe carefully to find any distinct point in the boiling surface of the marsh. Zhu Yanchen was able to roughly judge from a long distance, but it seemed that the marshal wasn’t entirely familiar with Erosion Marsh.

As the sole of his shoes was slowly eaten up by the Erosion Marsh, Shu Jun pulled out a waterproof plastic board on the roof and threw it straight at the marsh, then he jumped along with the board. A plastic board’s erosion rate was relatively slow, so he could buy himself some time.

Under the weight of a grown man, the plastic board began to sink into the marsh while Shu Jun finished adjusting his stance — The plastic board then sank further and Shu Jun’s hand penetrated into a spot that he thought seemed abnormal.

He stretched his hand and grabbed at the liquid…

Indeed, there seemed to be something.

He was pretty sure that he caught something other than the slimy erosive substance and felt its stringy texture, like an animal’s soft tendons.

The moment he touched it, that thing immediately recoiled and moved back. At this point, he could clearly sense the Erosion Marsh’s fear, as though it was a wild animal suddenly caught in a hunting trap. Its whole body started to shrink.

Shu Jun had never seen an Erosion Marsh shrink. The Erosion Marsh in his hands no longer carried the texture of a marsh, rather, it felt closer to cement. He found it difficult to pull out his hand now. The marsh continued shrinking, its original area of 20 square meters reducing to 10, and it didn’t seem to stop any time soon.

Being suppressed by Shu Jun, the marsh’s fighting desire had now turned into a panicking killing intent. Shu Jun believed that if he could pull his hand out, the marsh wouldn’t try to trouble him anymore. But there was a prerequisite to withdrawing his hand — He had exhausted all his strength, and in fact, his power was getting more difficult to control, not to mention that his arm was being eroded more severely and causing him excruciating pain.

Catching a glimpse of Zhu Yanchen seemingly wanting to step forward, Shu Jun quickly let out his a long sigh: “I’m okay, don’t come over!”

Even if Zhu Yanchen might have many tricks up his sleeve, it remained a fact that his arm had been injured. If he came close to the Erosion Marsh at a time like this, his wound would only worsen — So now wasn’t yet the time that Shu Jun needed help.

Being stuck at the very last step amid a battle was really the most agonising experience. The monitoring device on his wrist vibrated and Shu Jun felt as though he was seeing stars: “If you really know what fear is, why don’t you just go away?” 

No one knew if it was because of the hunger, but Shu Jun felt waves of pain crashing his head. Regardless of whether the Erosion Marsh could understand him or not, he directly said: “…Let go of my hand.”

The Erosion Marsh continued to bite him as though it was in a trance, squeezing his hand tightly like a clamshell.

His wind-type skills could chop off things but were not very useful for digging up things. Shu Jun couldn’t pull himself out using the wind. Seeing that there was no way to escape, Shu Jun now decided to listen to his instincts and simply push his hand deeper.

You are scared, aren’t you? Then let me make you even more scared.

The Erosion Marsh’s scream might have reached its peak volume, for Shu Jun felt as if his ears were bleeding. He scratched the extremely sticky liquid, finally sending the Erosion Marsh back to its senses. It recklessly splitting itself into countless liquid pillars, fiercely trying to stab Shu Jun.

Shu Jun had been paying attention to the form of this Erosion Marsh — Its component, the erosive substance, of course couldn’t just appear out of thin air. If the creature used more substance to form those liquid pillars, the sticky body surrounding his hand would definitely become thinner. As long as he caught the right opportunity, breaking free shouldn’t be a problem.

His guess was correct. The moment the liquid pillars arose, his hand instantly felt a little looser.

But he didn’t leave immediately.

As he pulled out his hand and was about to flee, an instinctive anger exploded from inside. Out of his control, both of his feet stuck to the only remaining part of the plastic board, disagreeing to leave with him. At the same time, his lower arm that had been dripping erosive substance turned completely into a dull shade of black. The black colour naturally blended into his upper arm, making it look as though Shu Jun was born with his arms looking this way.

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The monitoring bracelet that Zhu Yanchen gave him emitted a puff of smoke and finally stopped vibrating.

Shu Jun had no idea how his expression looked like right now. That anger was still swirling in his heart. His experience urged him to run away, but his instincts resisted the thought.

The liquid pillars from the Erosion Marsh stopped mid air, and the creature’s emotion felt like it was interrupted for a moment, as if frightened to the core. 

Is the marsh in my own body showing off its aura? Shu Jun subconsciously fiddled with a liquid pillar with his hands. This time, his hands didn’t pass through the erosive substance. He simply clutched it.

Then he tore it apart, as easily as tearing a loaf of bread.

The Erosion Marsh at his feet completely went hysteric. It abruptly withdrew all its liquid pillars and shrank further into a large soft ball, looking like a tiny creature that had been scared stiff. Shu Jun decisively took his revenge and gave the marsh several deep scratches before letting it escape.

Unfortunately, he didn’t catch its brain.

The Erosion Marsh ran away, leaving behind only a grey and black patch on the ground. At this point, the black shade on his arms didn’t disappear and his hunger surged up. Before Shu Jun could even say hello to Zhu Yanchen, he quickly rushed into the room where he had fought with Lao Wei. He kicked away the layers of monster corpses on the ground, grabbed a part that looked relatively similar to normal meat and directly gnawed on it.

…Unsurprisingly, it tasted bad.

But somehow, he had a fear that he would starve to death the next moment, so he simply continued biting on it. As the monster’s meat entered his stomach, it merely felt like a stone thrown into the lake. He ate an equivalent of a cow leg’s weight but only felt his stomach three-quarter full.

“The relationship between different Erosion Marshes is like that of a pack of wolves.” Unbeknownst to him, Zhu Yanchen had returned to the door. He leaned on the door frame, his injured arm wrapped in layers of bandage: “Of course, they aren’t as smart as wolves. It’s just that they are similar in terms of hierarchy.”

He glanced at the broken monitoring device on Shu Jun’s wrist and sighed: “Now I can be sure that you did absorb the giant Erosion Marsh that you encountered back in your championship battle. That marsh is undoubtedly an Alpha, and the one just now isn’t even considered an adult.”

“It sounds like I bullied a kid.” Shu Jun swallowed the meat and opened his mouth: “I still think it’s a bit of a joke. Can one person absorb such a big marsh?”

“More than 99.9% of Erosion Marsh is water. If it’s willing to abandon its water component and integrate with your body, theoretically, yes, it can be done.”

…What was that Erosion Marsh even thinking? If the marsh only wanted to grow two legs, it was too risky a plan. Shu Jun stared dumbly into space as he took another bite of meat.

He not only integrated with an Erosion Marsh, but also blended with a super concentrated type of erosive substance. The instinctive anger he felt just now might be due to the marsh inside him feeling shameful of itself — as an Alpha wolf, he was beaten up by a kid and even wanted to escape.

“You have such an excellent object for observation right by your side, so why do you especially want to visit this kiddy marsh?” Shu Jun wiped the blood and flesh remnants on his mouth and added: “A Yan?”

Zhu Yanchen’s mood seemed to lighten up slightly: “Your situation is too special. The resonance between your body and the erosive substance is very high, which convinces the Erosion Marsh that mixing with you gives it a greater chance of survival. In simplest terms, the marsh has no brain and it wants a ready-made one — Even if it isn’t its own brain, it doesn’t matter.”

Shu Jun frowned, no longer in any mood to joke. Combining this with what happened just now, he could vaguely come up with a guess.

“That kiddy marsh is trying to collect information… So does it also want to perfect its own brain?” These marshes were not unchanging; they were trying to evolve.

“Uhm.”

“Then the one at the corpse disposal site…”

“I raised it from scratch. It hasn’t come into contact with other Erosion Marshes. It doesn’t recognise any hierarchy and only knows how to eat.” Zhu Yanchen shook his head: “That’s how it is. It’s actually a good thing that you’re experiencing it yourself. A pure theory isn’t convincing enough. Now throw the broken monitoring device over, I’ll repair it. You can continue to recuperate your body.”

Shu Jun looked at his pitch black hands. He looked at Zhu Yanchen again, then turned his eyes back to his opaque black claws. As if sensing his thoughts, the black colour thoughtfully faded away. Shu Jun breathed a sigh of relief, stood up and handed the monitoring device to Zhu Yanchen.

“Let me see your injury.” Pulling short their distance, Shu Jun took the chance to make this request: “I’m more familiar than you in this aspect.”

“I’ve dealt with it.”

“The marshal has never been out of the city. Have you been injured by a mutated monster before? I don’t believe it.”

“……” Seeing that he couldn’t shake off Shu Jun’s persistence, Zhu Yanchen sighed and stretched out his arm.

The wound revealed a grey shade due to the erosive contaminant, and it indeed had been dealt with pretty well. Shu Jun was quite surprised — Marshal Zhu was a strategist who never had to fight on the battlefield, but he seemed very used to treating wounds.

Shu Jun looked at it carefully: “The stitches are a bit rough, I’ll help you fix it later.”

“Uhm.”

“Oh, there’s another thing, your handcuffs…” Shu Jun shook the handcuff left on his wrist. This thing hadn’t been damaged much, which showed that it must have been treated with anti-erosion coating. It was broken just now probably because Shu Jun was temporarily out of control, not to mention that the erosive substance in his body was too concentrated.

Zhu Yanchen seemed a bit lost on what to do next.

It’s understandable, Shu Jun thought. Now his questions were being answered one by one, but new questions followed right behind. Based on what Zhu Yanchen said, Shu Jun definitely shouldn’t kill his ‘private caretaker’ immediately for the sake of his own life. But his condition was slowly stabilising, and one day, Zhu Yanchen would no longer be needed.

If he went berserk once more, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to kill indiscriminately. As a leader, Zhu Yanchen should take advantage of his unstable condition and simply deal with him quickly, rather than try to save him.

In the end, why is this person having so much trust in me?

Shu Jun shook his head, and a long moment later, he seemed to have made up his mind.

He picked up the long chain connected to his handcuff, then grabbed the chain on Zhu Yanchen’s wrist. He tied the two chains into a dead knot.

“I haven’t learnt to readily control the power of the marsh inside me. You know, I can’t summon it again for the time being.” He said.

“You want me to stay put for three days, then three days it is. I’ve eaten my share now, let’s go… Hey wait, I’ll take another leg.”

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