The pustules on the goddess of pestilence burst one by one, and thick venom spurted from each pustules.

However, the venom transformed into deformed and ugly little people, like models of zombies. They were divided into two teams, and they collided, brutally killing each other.

"This is the version of the 'zombie crisis' in Peach Blossom Town. It's a hundred times more tragic than the zombie crisis in Dragon City."

The goddess of pestilence continued, "The vengeful spirits rushed toward the leader and the experts under him like a tide.

"The leaders and experts who used to be high and mighty, arrogant, and even sage-like, had lost most of their psionic powers, strength, and resources to the monsters. They could no longer resist the attacks of the spirits.

"They gritted their teeth and crushed the spirits with the last bit of their strength. They destroyed the spirits to the point that even the spores of the Blood Flower and the zombie virus could not be regenerated.

"However, their wounds were inevitably infected by the cold blood that spurted out of the undead. As a result, they were infected with dozens of new zombie viruses and other weird things.

"Under the combined effect of violent psionic power and the new zombie virus, the leader and the experts led by him also mutated.

"Their skin festered, their limbs twisted, and their flesh, as well as blood, were gradually swallowed by overlapping tumors. Their appearance became as ugly as their soul.

"Their brains were also seriously corroded, with the last bit of their humanity destroyed.

"From that day on, there wasn't a single human being in Peach Blossom Town.

"Between the broken walls, there were only human-shaped shells filled with mycelium, viruses, hatred, and desires. Together with the undead creatures that had been transformed from monsters, they lingered, wandered, fought, broke apart, and rebirthed eternally.

"Peach Blossom's civilization perished.

"It wasn't until then that I gradually recovered the ability to control the etherealized plants and spirit beasts through the neural network.

"However, I was too late. I could not save half of the human beings in Peach Blossom Town and the glory of the civilization.

"The only thing I could do was find all the human corpses and integrate them into my main body so that they would not be corroded by the monsters, the Blood Flower's spores, and the zombie viruses.

"Some of the corpses were nourished by the underground spirit veins. Their brain tissues were crystal-like. Miraculously, some of their emotions and memories were still preserved, just like incomplete souls.

"I treasured them. I repaired their crystal brain fragments with fungi and algae. Then, I treated them like 'computational units' that formed a large-scale computational system together.

"On one hand, I made up for the deficiency of a primary neural network, and on the other, I used them to build a super-large-scale illusion—a fairytale-like paradise, where all the violent, sad, anxious, hurt, ambitious, and hateful undead could be comforted forever.

"Heh, this is the story of Peach Blossom Town.

"A story full of regret, ugliness, and darkness. I didn't want to tell it to anyone at first.

"But... you forced me to.

"The tragedy that happened in Peach Blossom Town deeply stimulated me and made me make up my mind to completely break away from Earth's civilization and evolve a new one.

"I've already missed the chance to save Peach Blossom Town. I will never miss the chance to save Dragon City, which is a hundred times bigger than Peach Blossom Town.

"I will never watch Dragon City turn into Peach Blossom Town. I will never watch the tens of millions of people in Dragon City turn into the souls, ghosts, and zombies of Peach Blossom Town!

"No matter how many misunderstandings and enmities I have to bear, no matter how terrible the price I have to pay, I will spare no effort to attack the evil order that governs Dragon City. I will reform Dragon City in my own way and crush the apocalypse!

"If you insist on standing in my way, open your eyes and watch the end of Peach Blossom Town. You will personally taste the pain of the town's people!"

The goddess of pestilence's shrieks turned into a bugle call for the undead to attack.

The phosphorescence around the stitched monsters and the zombies instantly flourished, while the stench of decay became even more intense. They were like iron walls, slapping the eyes and noses of the exploration team members hard.

Just as the stimulated humans could not open their eyes and could not breathe, the undead pounced on them like a black tide.

Tutututututu!

Even though they all belonged to a dozen different exploratory teams...

The well-trained elite scouts and veteran hunters quickly formed a solid battle formation, shooting short, precise lines of fire in all directions.

Many elite scouts were sharpshooters fed by tens of thousands of bullets.

Some of them had awakened extraordinary powers such as super vision, trajectory adjustment, weakness detection, and spiritual lock-on.

For the most important exploration mission, the bullets that they had deployed were all embedded with high-level crystals and carved with delicate runes. They were also injected with spirit energy, armor-piercing bullets, incendiary bullets, freezing bullets, explosive bullets, as well as shock bullets that could trigger destructive rune arrays.

Almost every special bullet drilled into the hollow eye sockets of the undying creatures and exploded brutally deep inside their skulls, even their spines.

The explosions of every bullet either froze the undying creatures into ice cubes, turned them into burning fireballs, or was shot from the tank's main gun at close range, blowing the undead's body cavities into pieces.

The ferocious power of the bullets was on a completely different level from the "scraping" effect of ordinary bullets on the undead creatures.

Just like that, the exploration team of only a few hundred people miraculously blocked the attacks from the tide of undead creatures.

Unfortunately, miracles were often shorter than fireworks.

As more and more undead creatures were shattered by the humans' muzzles, the fatal flaw of the humans' lack of ammunition and heavy firepower was gradually exposed.

All the explorers, including Meng Chao and Lu Siya, had lost their heavy weapons when they had fallen into the sinkhole.

They had also lost moving armories such as the Bread Crabs and Peregrine Falcons.

They only possessed individual weapons and a small amount of ammunition on hand.

No matter how they saved bullets and shot accurately, the few magazines and grenades were quickly consumed.

Their dense firepower quickly became sparse.

The humans had no choice but to retreat step by step and shrink their defensive circle.

Yet, there were densely packed undead creatures in all directions.

They were like bubbles rising from the jungle and swamps.

Other than the fact that they were about to run out of ammunition, the goddess of pestilence's words were also reminiscent of a real plague that enveloped everyone's hearts.

Humans were very strange creatures.

Compared with beauty, they seemed more willing to believe in ugliness.

In the original paradise that the other party had created, which was perfect and carefree, many of the exploration team members like Meng Chao and Lu Siya had vaguely sensed that something was wrong. They had seen through the flaws and woken up.

However, "Peach Blossom Town's real ending", which the other party was describing now, seemed more real because of its ugliness.

"Could Dragon City really follow in Peach Blossom Town's footsteps and embark on the road of destruction?"

"Will we... and our descendants also become ugly, pitiful, and deformed zombies like the people of Peach Blossom Town?"

Such confusion and fear seeped into the minds of the exploration team members like poison.

Some of the exploration team members, in particular, discovered that many of the charging spirits at the front with swollen and festering faces, were the people who had been singing and dancing without any worries under the colorful Tree of Wisdom.

The most beautiful thing had instantly festered into the ugliest simulation, causing the mental defenses of most exploration team members to begin unraveling.

Not to mention, as the firepower gradually thinned out and the undead creatures got closer, the pus that splattered when they exploded could easily splash onto human bodies.

In the real world, the trekking and exploration deep into the Hidden Mist Domain had left all the members of the exploration team covered in wounds.

Even if they forcefully circulated their psionic power and accelerated their healing, there was no guarantee that they would not have wounds that were invisible to the naked eye but were easily penetrable by bacteria, viruses, and spores.

Therefore, while they gritted their teeth and fought the undead creatures, they also had to divert part of their attention and psionic power to stimulate their immune system as well as raise their defense level. They had to eliminate or expel all the germs that invaded their bodies.

There was a very common name for the process of the human body stimulating the immune system to overwork—fever.

Soon, most of the exploration team members had a high fever of more than 40 degrees.

With the high fever, their combat ability was greatly weakened. Their defense line was in danger at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"This is not the way to go on!"

Meng Chao continuously blew up the heads of dozens of undead creatures along with their spines.

He ensured that they would not be able to form new bodies for a long period of time.

The magazine in his hand had also been used up.

He keenly realized that he seemed to have fallen into the Tree of Wisdom's rhythm—the monster mastermind. He was fighting according to the other party's wishes.

"We can't kill all the undead creatures. We shouldn't tangle with them. We should directly attack the Tree of Wisdom's main body!"

Meng Chao reacted in an instant and shouted at the top of his lungs.

Unfortunately, most of the exploration team members had ferocious expressions on their faces. Their eyes were dull as if they had fallen into a nightmare, or they were being invaded and controlled by a mysterious force. They were only focused on fighting and were unable to hear his warning at all.

Only Lu Siya shivered, as though she had just woken up from a nightmare. She looked like she had realized something.

"Sister Ya, let's attack together. We can stop the attack of the undead creatures after we get rid of the spirit tree!"

Meng Chao aimed at the Tree of Wisdom and pulled the trigger. However, he heard a "click," and there was no response from the muzzle of the gun.

He cursed in his heart and simply threw the gun that had been emptied of its bullets at the Tree of Wisdom.

Then, he took out the Golden Tooth Blood Soul Saber at his waist.

Amidst the furious roars, the spirit energy hidden deep inside his veins erupted like a volcano, raising his entire spine.

Thick veins of spirit energy flowed along his spine and wrapped around his torso and four limbs like raging dragons.

His torso and four limbs expanded in an instant. Complicated and exquisite spirit tattoos emerged from the depths of his skin, making him look like he was wearing an indestructible nine dragons battle robe that was as thin as a cicada's wings!