Otherworldly Desert Dust

He carried the uncle back into the invisible war car.

Inside the sealed environment of the war car, this City Abyss Light Guardian's spirit finally normalized a bit. After repeated confirmations, he suddenly realized that he might just be the luckiest person on this planet—trapped in the biggest corpse tide, yet miraculously encountering a "passing by" Gold Seeker!

"Thank you, I'm extremely grateful to you all!"

"My companions and I detected the corpse tide heading towards our Litu City early on, and we sounded the alarm to the highest command. But the tide moved too quickly, and our entire city was torn to shreds, all of our city's people..."

The thought of the entire city falling and all its inhabitants devoured by the corpse people plunged the Abyss Light Guardian back into agony and self-blame.

"Can we say this thousand-mile corpse tide is made up of one city after another like this?" Wu Hen spoke up.

The uncle fell silent, his tears finally flowing.

This world is too crazy, too terrifying. Even taking shelter behind massive city walls can't ward off epic disasters. Humanity is all too insignificant.

"Cheer up, our mission here is to eliminate the Corpse Queen," Taiya said with full vigor and confidence.

The uncle, dazed, lifted his head and through the war car's windows, he saw an endless sea of corpses. He found it hard to believe that actual humans could navigate through this hellish furnace and even claim to be able to kill the Corpse Queen.

"What... what can I do then?" the uncle asked softly.

"You don't need to do anything, just give me the Abyss Light Essence," Wu Hen said.

"Sure, hand it over to him, he's a trustworthy person. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself—I'm Tai Ya, the temple concubine from Lan Guang Temple. You must have heard of me," Taiya said with a nod.

"You are Taiya??" The uncle seemed surprised, his gaze once more settling on her. He scrutinized her carefully until he noticed the faintly visible light gauze on Taiya's body. He suddenly became excited, "It's wonderful, so wonderful that these precious essences of the Abyss Light didn't fall into the hands of those Corpse Kings."

Without another thought, the uncle willingly handed over the protected Abyss Light Essence.

This particular Abyss Light Essence was small in size and couldn't compare to that of Oasis City, but a large amount of pure Yuan You was needed to enhance perception, preparing for the advancement of his Fifth Rank Spiritual Vision.

This unexpected gain made Wu Hen's mood even more delightful.

Without hesitation, he absorbed the essence, the Yuan You energy melting within his Spiritual Sense, slowly penetrating his retinal nerves.

"How does it feel?" Guo Hong immediately asked with curiosity.

After Dai Jing helped Wu Hen absorb the Abyss Light Essence from Oasis City, Wu Hen seemed to have developed a Savior's constitution. Abyss Light Essence that others couldn't touch or use became his greatest supplement.

The Life Pearl brought physical evolution, while the Abyss Light Essence brought an evolution of perception, exactly what Wu Hen was lacking at the moment.

"Pretty good, the energy of the Abyss Light isn't full, but it has changed my other perceptions... How should I describe it to you? It's like the experience bar has increased by a third!" Wu Hen said.

With two more similarly acquired City Abyss Light Essences, his vision could also advance further.

"That's still very good, for you. Our invisible war car has been upgraded. Shall we ride the wind and waves, locking onto the next Corpse King?" Guo Hong seemed to have tasted the thrill of rapidly cutting through the corpse tide and couldn't wait to proceed.

"Alright, let's set off!" Wu Hen nodded.

...

Galloping atop the waves of corpses.

The invisible war car evolved metallic parts resembling fish fins, which emitted electric light blades during travel, sharply slicing through the corpulent corpse people.

Beneath the war car, there were liquid suction cups. The uncle, Fei Yi, operated these suction cups, collecting tons of Mutant Condensed Liquid into the rear compartment of the car, continuously extracting even higher-grade Mutant Condensed Liquid.

Fei Yi never imagined that after his one in a billion chance of survival, he would start a factory-line career. The high-temperature Mutant Condensed Liquid, with its biochemical scent, made the air in the rear compartment particularly turbid. Sometimes he had to open the windows to breathe in the fresh stench of corpses outside.

"I've already extracted a canister of Eighth Rank Mutant Condensed Liquid," uncle Fei Yi worked diligently to repay the life-saving grace, bearing the labor without complaints.

"I don't really need it, you guys can use it," Wu Hen said.

"Then I won't be polite," Guo Hong took the canister of Mutant Condensed Liquid, pouring it directly into his ancestral sniper rifle.

His sniper rifle had also been transformed into a semi-living thing. As the Mutant Condensed Liquid was poured over it, the rifle was like a greedy python, devouring voraciously.

With the complete injection of the Eighth Rank Mutant Condensed Liquid, the Fiery Red Python Sniper became closer to biological, its metallic paint noble and magnificent, like dragon python scales, occasionally emitting a mysterious breath from the barrel like a python's maw.

"My Arm Guard is also starting to biologize, will it be that if we evolve these equipment and weapons to the Tenth Rank, they will become Artifact Spirits?" Wu Hen suddenly began to ponder.

Wu Hen was quite familiar with Artifact Spirits; Demon Blade Concubine and Little Bronze both qualified as Artifact Spirits, possessing a certain level of self-consciousness and akin to living creatures, they could consume food and grow.

Thus, witnessing the process where these technological metals mutated into higher levels, resembling living organisms, Wu Hen couldn't help but draw associations.

"Although I don't know what you mean by Artifact Spirits, I've seen Tenth Rank mutated weapons. They were war machines that could transform into Black Winged Dragons, capable of locking onto targets and hunting on their own," said Fei Yi at this moment.

Mentioning the Winged Dragon made Wu Hen think of the mutated ancient dinosaurs on the nineteenth floor of the exhibition hall.

Memory Metal didn't seem to be formed naturally but rather appeared to be some sort of black technology that surpassed the level of our homeland.

"How do I feel that this Memory Metal is imitating Artifact Spirits... Artificial Artifact Spirits," Wu Hen stroked his chin in thought.

Mutant Condensed Liquid, Memory Metal, Illusion Cells… they all shared one characteristic: they were imitating some sort of high-dimensional materials found in Otherworldly Dust.

But all technologies start from imitation, and the majority of life forms that evolve to the level of Cosmic Supreme also begin by imitating. If during the process of imitation, they find their own unique path, they might very well create Divine Miracles similar to Life Pearls, Artifact Spirits, or Abyss Light.

Therefore, Wu Hen also realized that even firearms could evolve into the ultimate form of Artifact Spirits, just like some soul-bearing cold weapons.

Coming back to the point, even at his weakest, Little Yi could transform into various weapons he had assimilated, including the Artifact Spirits of various forms of firearms.

This made Wu Hen begin to question Little Yi: Could these be leftovers from your play?

Little Yi ignored Wu Hen, giving him nothing but a proud look that suggested, "Figure it out for yourself."

In any case, Wu Hen now had a rough understanding of the powers present here.

Mutated weapons are artificially made firearm Artifact Spirits.

And only by raising a mutated weapon to Tenth Rank does it barely begin to exhibit the traits of a true Artifact Spirit; it is somewhat inferior, but should it break through the Tenth Rank and evolve to a higher level, it's uncertain, as natural Artifact Spirits are naturally formed, and although humans favor natural things, artificial objects may not necessarily be inferior to natural ones.

Wu Hen's Thunder Arm Guard was already beginning to exhibit the essence of a Thunderstorm Wolf, particularly after absorbing the Mutant Condensed Liquid from the High-voltage Electric Corpse King, with bursts of animalistic aroma occasionally emanating from the Arm Guard. When he threw a casual punch, one could see Thunder Magnetic Energy leap out, pouncing towards the enemy like a king of thunderous wolves, not to mention when Wu Hen activated the laser claws on his gloves, he transformed into a cybernetic Wolverine deity, his body enveloped by a purple thunderous Little Universe, exuding an overwhelmingly formidable and wild aura.

"Not good, a red steel Corpse Tide has appeared ahead!!" Suddenly, Lu Xian let out a shocked cry, alerting the occupants of the vehicle.

"There's a Corpse King nearby as well." Naturally, Wu Hen also heard the sounds.

There was a steel Corpse King, now hiding amidst the steel corpse wave in front.

"They must be the workers from the red steel factory, who after being engulfed by the Corpse Tide, absorbed the metallic particles of the entire steel factory, turning into steel Corpse People. Our weapons might struggle to kill them," said Uncle Fei Yi, who was evidently very familiar with this land, explaining the origins of this red Corpse Tide.

"Temporarily turn off the harvester mode, let's sneak past quietly, and first find the Corpse King. As for these thick-skinned steel corpses, don't bother with them, they consume too much of our ammunition and energy," said Wu Hen.

It looked like they had encountered a tough challenge.

This Corpse Tide was difficult to take down; they had thick health bars and high defense. Even the War Car's fins and blades were close to being damaged when driving over them, making the efficiency too low, unless there was a way to upgrade the War Car's harvesting weapons…

"Do we need to get out of the car?" asked Tai Ya.

Tai Ya was very proactive and had already taken out her white silk, intending to cover her eyes with it.

"No rush. The Corpse King's Perception here isn't that strong; it hasn't detected our presence yet. Head in the direction of nine o'clock, switch to stealth mode," Wu Hen told Guo Hong.

Guo Hong nodded, turning off all the engines, retracting all the War Car Weapons, and even the Mutant Condensed Liquid extraction assembly line was put on hold.

"Let me join in the fight this time. If it's a Corpse King that's absorbed smelting metals, even Tai Ya will have difficulty overcoming it. I'll need my Corrosive Armor-Piercing Bullets," said Guo Hong.

The Python Sniper had just evolved to Eighth Rank, and it was a good opportunity for Guo Hong to test its power.

"Alright, it's up to you to deal with the Corpse King this time, we'll all stay inside the vehicle," Wu Hen said.

There was no need to face a tough challenge head-on; the Corpse King was the most valuable, so letting Guo Hong set up his sniper on top of the vehicle to take down the Corpse King from a distance would suffice.

Guo Hong put on the Invisibility Cloak and climbed to the top of the vehicle.

Wu Hen activated his Listening Sense, beginning to search through the vast number of corpses for the Corpse King.

Huge factory flotsam stretched across the entire Corpse Tide's flat surface, with steel beams visible everywhere, giant smokestacks, rolling furnaces, and iron sheets frothing like foam...

"Clang!!!!"

Suddenly, a bell-like sound rhythm reached Wu Hen's ears and then he saw a mass of Red Corpses pouring into a building that resembled a communal dining hall!