Chapter 40 Fog Area

Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Fog Area

Chen Feng coughed a few times and wiped the rainwater from his face. "The stench of blood is too strong here. It’s not a good place to talk. Follow me."

He staggered upright and swayed as he walked toward a hotel building just outside the Fog Area.

"Let’s go," Lu Yunping said, jutting his chin at Han Ning.

The building was leaning precariously, one side of its wall covered in spiderweb-like cracks, but the main structure was still mostly intact.

The three men and the lizard waded through the murky, stagnant water. They scaled the hotel’s slippery exterior ledges, vaulted through a shattered window into the second-floor corridor, and made their way up to a guest room on the fourth floor.

"Snow Cake, go keep watch at the door," Han Ning instructed in a low voice, patting Snow Cake’s wet head.

ROAR! Snow Cake didn’t follow them inside. Instead, it obediently lay down by the doorway, its eyes vigilantly scanning the surroundings.

Inside the room, Chen Feng slumped into a cushioned chair, panting heavily. He rummaged through his backpack, pulling out bandages and a small bottle of disinfectant. Gritting his teeth, he began tending to his oozing wounds.

Han Ning stood at the door, his gaze sweeping across the room. Only after confirming there was no danger did he step inside.

An Awakened possessed a physique far superior to an ordinary person. Furthermore, Han Ning hadn’t manipulated the Wooden Thorns to pierce deeper into Chen Feng’s body. So, despite being drenched in blood, Chen Feng had mostly sustained superficial flesh wounds. It wasn’t too serious.

Catching his breath, Chen Feng looked at Han Ning, who was leaning against the doorframe. His expression was complex. "That thing you encountered just now... we call it a Mirage Insect."

"A Mirage Insect?" Han Ning raised an eyebrow.

"Right." Chen Feng nodded, his voice low. "In this Fog Area, the most troublesome things are these pests that specifically target the human brain.

"They’re like parasites. They love to burrow into corpses—especially the recently deceased ones where the brains haven’t completely rotted yet. They suck on the decaying brain matter and use the dead person’s residual memories to unleash a Spiritual Shock potent enough to drive anyone mad."

He pointed at his own temple. "We Awakened might have stronger bodies, but on a spiritual level... we aren’t much different from ordinary people.

"Unless someone is an Awakened who specifically enhances their Spirit or has special protective abilities, going in there is basically serving themselves up on a silver platter.

"This is my first time seeing an Awakened like you, who can not only shatter illusions but also possesses such impressive combat power."

Recalling the lingering, agonizing screams echoing in his mind just moments ago, Han Ning asked with lingering trepidation, "So Bailu Port is inside?"

"We aren’t sure yet.

"We’ve tried entering the Fog Area from every direction, but we’ve never reached the actual Bailu Port.

"However, we suspect that Bailu Port is located right in the core of this Fog Area."

Chen Feng’s tone turned solemn. "This Fog Area is like a giant maze. The deeper you go, the more terrifying the monsters become.

"Right now, the furthest we’ve pushed into the white fog is a little over five hundred meters. Anyone who went further never came back alive.

"As for the berthing area of Bailu Port, whether the ships are still there, or what the exact situation is... we simply don’t know."

"You’ve only gone five hundred meters deep?" Han Ning’s brows furrowed deeply.

"What did you expect?" Hearing Han Ning’s slightly skeptical tone, Lu Yunping couldn’t help but interject. "The Mirage Insect is just the weakest monster in the Fog Area. On top of that, the omnipresent white fog naturally carries hallucinogenic effects. The deeper you walk, the thicker the fog gets, and it becomes incredibly easy to lose your way inside."

Han Ning fell silent for a moment before continuing his questioning. "Since Bailu Port is so dangerous, why are you dead set on this place? Doesn’t Bailu City have other ports and shipyards? Like Donggang or Nansha Port?"

"Do you think those other places are safe?" Chen Feng scoffed. "Judging from the intelligence we’ve gathered recently, along with the information pieced together from refugees fleeing other areas, there is a clear distribution pattern for the monsters in the city."

"Let’s hear it." Han Ning’s interest was piqued.

"The closer you get to the city outskirts—meaning the wasteland areas—the stronger and more diverse the monsters generally are. Conversely, in the city center, near densely populated areas, the monsters are relatively weaker."

Seeing Han Ning’s puzzled expression, he explained, "We suspect it might be related to the erosion of the so-called Black Tide. The area where Bailu City descended was likely situated on a landmass. The rainfall caused by the Black Tide is easily absorbed by the soil, making the land an inherently less dangerous zone.

"But as time passed, stagnant water gradually accumulated on the land. Compounded by the surging flow of various rivers, lakes, and seas flooding the earth, even the land gradually became exceptionally dangerous.

"And naturally, the monsters spreading from the surrounding wastelands must pass through the city’s outskirts to enter the interior.

"Actually, these are secondary reasons. The most important reason is... the Fog Area isn’t so dangerously desperate. It acts as a double-edged sword. While it brings us immense danger, it can also help us grow."

Han Ning’s heart stirred as he immediately thought of his own faintly increased Mental Power.

A glint of profound clarity flashed through Chen Feng’s eyes. "Hunting these monsters and absorbing the scattered Energy they leave behind after death can make us stronger. You already know this.

"What you might not have noticed is that hunting monsters in different regions seems to yield different ’enhancement focuses’!"

He pointed at his own head. "Killing Mirage Insects in this Fog Area and absorbing their Energy is exceptionally effective for resisting Spiritual Shock and enhancing sensory acuity, in addition to strengthening the body.

"In the very beginning, we couldn’t even venture a hundred meters inside. Now, elites like us can operate for a period of time in the two to three hundred meter range, or even up to four hundred meters.

"What does this prove? It proves that this Fog Area is essentially a giant proving ground!

"The Energy characteristics of the monsters inside are perfectly suited to temper our weakest spiritual aspects.

"Only by growing stronger here will we have the qualifications to explore deeper, including Bailu Port.

"According to news from refugees from other areas, Donggang is currently occupied by a type of water snake that possesses Water Control. Their speed is absurdly fast, and their attack range is massive. Many people were smashed into minced meat before they could even react.

"Nansha Port is even more sinister. The water there is filled with oozes that secrete potent acid. Ships dissolve the moment they enter the water, and humans rot away from a single touch.

"In contrast, while the Fog Area is bizarre and treacherous, at least the mortality rate isn’t as high."

All these ports were uniformly infested with formidable monsters. The monsters flooded in from the outskirts, and facilities like ports and shipyards were fundamentally situated along the city’s fringes.

"Rather than running around like headless chickens and risking massive, unknown dangers to brave potentially more terrifying areas, why not pool our strength and deeply explore this place we already have a preliminary understanding of?" Chen Feng asked rhetorically.

Lu Yunping coughed lightly and chimed in. "Ahem... just to add a bit of context. Talk is cheap, but from the moment we crossed over to this place until now, over fifty percent of the Awakened who explored Bailu Port and other regions have been killed in action..."