I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords-Chapter 45 - 0. On the Brink of Death Green_1
Chapter 45: 045. On the Brink of Death Green_1
Chapter 45: 045. On the Brink of Death Green_1
“Hey, are you alright?”
Lu Ban’s heart skipped a beat when he saw the fresh green on Hunter’s hand.
Hunter looked at Lu Ban blankly, seemingly unaware of what had happened.
At that moment, the two had just emerged from the maze constructed of wild grass and approached the bus.
The wildgrass, previously flattened by the bus’s tires, was now standing erect again, attempting to envelop the vehicle.
Stone and Mary had returned to the inside of the bus, only opening the doors and waiting for Lu Ban and “Hunter.”
The two got on one after the other, closing the bus door tightly behind them.
“Damn it.”
Hunter looked at his left hand.
That hand no longer resembled that of a human.
Bones, blood vessels, muscles were all gone.
Only the hard wood remained, along with the lush grass and twisting vines.
His arm was gradually transforming into a plant.
In the blink of an eye, Hunter’s entire left hand had turned to wood and was rapidly spreading toward his shoulder.
“Cut it off, quickly cut it off!”
Hunter shouted in a panic.
Compared to becoming a tree completely, losing an arm seemed a more acceptable outcome.
Lu Ban did not hesitate, immediately picking up the knife they had used for processing rat meat and chopping down on Hunter’s upper arm.
“!!!”
The knife penetrated the flesh, reaching the bone joint where the shoulder and upper arm connected but struggled to go further.
Hunter’s face turned an ashen gray as he bit down hard on a piece of cloth torn from his clothes, emitting only a soft whine from his throat.
Lu Ban pulled the knife out and grabbed the crowbar, smashing down hard before the plant-like, bark-like structure could spread any further.
Without any need for aiming, the crowbar’s hook found its mark in Hunter’s wound, its sharp end shattering the joint and causing Hunter’s left hand to go completely limp.
Lu Ban continued to work with the knife and quickly severed Hunter’s arm.
Thud—
The arm, now hardened into wood, fell to the ground; even the little flesh that remained began to pale and the blood that spilled quickly dried up, turning into green grass.
Lu Ban now knew how this meadow had formed.
It seemed likely that any living being that stayed here for a while would be eroded by the green plants, infected, and eventually turned into a part of the meadow.
And those creatures, some of them, would be kept as bait, attracting other prey; the meadow was like a skilled hunter, quietly waiting for prey to come to it.
These wild grasses, the soil, even the air, were all part of the hunt.
This was why there was no sound at all in this meadow.
“We need to leave as soon as possible.”
Lu Ban said, moving to the driver’s seat to check the condition of the vehicle.
Before he could check if the engine would still start, Lu Ban noticed that young green shoots were beginning to sprout from the shattered glass next to the driver’s seat.
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“Even lifeless machinery can be infected by this meadow…”
Lu Ban truly realized the seriousness of the situation.
He pressed down with one foot, and the engine roared to life.
Lu Ban placed both hands on the steering wheel, prepared to break free from the meadow’s grasp.
A persistent itch crept up his arm, and Lu Ban scratched at it but could not find relief.
He looked over and was shocked to find that something was growing in the place where his veins should have been.
That thing was like a slender worm, wriggling and burrowing between the blood vessels and muscles.
Through the skin, it was possible to clearly see that the green entity was attempting to break through the skin’s barrier and emerge. Lu Ban felt an unbearable itch, desiring to scratch, to open his own flesh and dig out whatever was inside.
As he stepped on the accelerator, he looked back and saw that the bleeding from Hunter’s shoulder, where an arm had been torn off, had stopped.
But no one had helped him stop the bleeding.
“Damn it!”
Hunter glanced at his shoulder.
The cross-section of the wound was covered by vibrant green plants, the lively grasses and herbs clinging to Hunter’s shoulder, creating a bizarre image.
He could see on his chest, his stomach, something bulging and then sinking in. Hunter lifted his shirt, and his muscular abdomen looked like it was being disturbed by countless worms inside, with lines of green, unidentified matter bulging out, even spreading to his neck and face.
“Dammit, dammit, dammit.”
Hunter’s right hand scratched at his neck, his face, trying to alleviate the uncontrollable itching. But although his nails left behind crimson streaks of blood, they brought him no relief.
He kept scratching, his nails stained with blood and froth, skin festering, but the bulging worm-like entities always hid deeper beneath the surface.
The bus’s wheels, coated with green grass and nearly deflated, finally began to turn.
The bus surged forward as he kicked up dirt with its moving wheels. Lu Ban gripped the steering wheel, turning in the direction the bus was rolling towards.
“…”
Lu Ban glanced back again.
Stone and Mary were at a loss, with those “worms” beginning to appear on their bodies as well. Hunter, the worst affected, started convulsing all over.
The protrusions on his face seemed to have finally found a way out. Hunter’s eyes clouded over, and a green color spread from the bottom of his eyes.
Pfft—
With a muted sound, a sprout emerged from the bottom of Hunter’s eyes.
Then, a bit of fresh blood seeped from his nostrils, followed by another sprout emerging.
From his eyes, nose, mouth, near his ears, more sprouts finally found an outlet, the disarray of bulges beneath the skin crawling towards these areas until they burst forth.
Pfft—
Hearing the sound, Lu Ban turned his head to see Hunter motionless, his opened shirt revealing several wild plants that had grown from his belly, as if it were the perfect soil.
“Throw him out,”
Lu Ban shouted to Stone and Mary.
With their symptoms not as severe, they exchanged a glance upon hearing Lu Ban’s words. It took them a moment to steel their hearts before finally opening the bus door.
Outside, the wild grass suddenly seemed to come to life, shaking and growing wildly, with plants in front of the bus already taller than its roof.
The two threw Hunter’s body, now like a potted plant, out of the bus. In an instant, the shaking wildgrass engulfed the body, no longer visible.
Lu Ban felt the restless vegetation inside his body calm down for a moment.
“These plants, they aren’t just the parts we can see… the air here, too, is part of it,”
Lu Ban roughly guessed why they had transformed into this state, why simply being injured had caused Hunter to degenerate so severely.
In the air of this grassland, seeds had already spread far and wide. Once the air was breathed in, those seeds could enter the body and grow demonically, and injured people who blended with blood more quickly would also grow faster into monsters capable of taking life.
Even Lu Ban suspected that the land was a mimicry by the plants; the entire region existed solely for hunting.
On this grassland, the plants are the true dominators.
“We’re almost there.”
Lu Ban said, seeing the road outside the high beams. His heart, suspended in tension, finally settled.
Just then, a white hand with sharp claws reached out from the shattered front windshield.
*
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