Chapter 21: The Severely Wounded Tentacle Monster

Chu Yunsheng did not hesitate for long. He immediately put away his bow and crossbow and switched to his pistol.

His numerous experiences of narrowly escaping death had taught him that no matter how dangerous or terrifying the situation, even if the sky were to fall, he must not panic. Once he panicked, everything would be over!

Now, this thing was blocking his path, and he had no choice but to fight to the death. No matter what kind of monster it was, to survive, he had to fight with all his might!

The bow and crossbow were not very effective against such long, slender things. Not only was it hard to hit them, but even if he did, the long, thick tentacles might not freeze completely.

The pistol might not hit either, but the advantage was that the fire elemental bullets could burn everything. He hoped they could hold off the tentacles for a while.

Without waiting for the strange thing to make the first move, Chu Yunsheng immediately fired. He did not think this thing had any friendly intentions.

The tentacle, with its fleshy growths and eyes, skillfully dodged Chu Yunsheng's flying bullets, rapidly twisting and retreating. At the same time, three tentacles, as thick as adult thighs, extended from the darkness on both sides of the passage, rotating and surrounding him.

Chu Yunsheng had no good options. He consumed a quantity of elemental energy, firing in all directions, trying to ignite the elemental fire to burn back the tentacles.

Faced with Chu Yunsheng's powerful fire elemental bullets, two of the three tentacles immediately separated, waving their bodies in a suicidal manner to block Chu Yunsheng's bullets. Even though Chu Yunsheng could smell the intense burning, they still fearlessly blocked all the bullets for the third tentacle!

The tentacles were very flexible, especially the one that was protected and tasked with attacking. It moved like a nimble water snake and quickly wrapped around Chu Yunsheng's body.

Relying on the defense of the Six Jia Elemental Talisman and the expansion of the elemental energy within his body, Chu Yunsheng managed to break free several times, only to be wrapped up again.

When the fourth and fifth tentacles appeared, Chu Yunsheng almost despaired. His entire body was tightly wrapped, and he had run out of bullets, making it impossible to change the magazine with his hands bound.

The soft tentacles estimated that Chu Yunsheng had no more resistance and dragged him into the air toward the inpatient department.

Chu Yunsheng suppressed his inner panic and quickly searched for a way to escape.

The inpatient department of the community hospital was only four stories high but very wide. As soon as Chu Yunsheng was dragged in, he noticed that the third floor had been completely opened up. The walls were covered in sticky liquid, binding the entire building together, emitting a faint green light, like a moss-covered cave.

On the walls, naked women were hung densely, leaving Chu Yunsheng's mouth agape in shock. Some of them still had remnants of patient and nurse uniforms.

Chu Yunsheng finally remembered the unease he felt in the hall. It was because the hospital was too clean! Clean to the point where there were no corpses!

The red-armored insects only ate human brains, leaving other parts untouched! So there should have been many empty skulls, but there were none!

Chu Yunsheng drew a sharp breath. It turned out that the corpses were all here, but they didn't seem to be completely dead!

Suddenly, he saw a thin, finger-sized, nearly transparent tube inserted into the back of a girl's head, lifting her up. She walked past him, just like the naked woman he had seen before, with a hollow gaze.

It turned out she was being controlled by this thing. No wonder the naked woman walked so lightly, like a ghost, and the strange cry he heard after shooting the arrow was from this monster.

At this moment, Chu Yunsheng was more surprised than frightened! What kind of monster was this?

In the center of the building, a pool of bubbling slime had formed. Inside, the flesh was mangled, and occasionally, a human corpse, wrapped in a transparent membrane, would surface, curled up and melting like a cocoon.

Each cocoon was connected to the central, five-meter-tall, slime-covered, tree-like cylindrical monster, or to smaller cylindrical monsters around it.

The largest cylindrical monster was at least three to four meters in diameter, covered in strange tube-like structures and thick tentacles. The tentacles that had wrapped Chu Yunsheng came from this largest one.

All the monster's tubes and tentacles were very busy. Chu Yunsheng realized as he was dragged closer that the women hanging on the walls had tubes inserted into their lower bodies, filled with disgusting liquid. Some women's bellies were swollen, while others had large holes, with many palm-sized cylindrical monsters emerging, quickly devouring the women's bodies with their mouth-like tentacles.

It was reproducing! Massively reproducing! Chu Yunsheng's eyes widened in shock!

He guessed that the melting slime pool below was the nutrient solution for these monsters.

What the hell is this thing!

Chu Yunsheng was terrified and struggled, but he could not stop being pulled into the slime pool. A tentacle as thick as a human thigh appeared before him, its tip splitting open, forming a large mouth that swallowed Chu Yunsheng from the top of his head. As it swallowed, the tentacle's walls expanded, eventually enveloping Chu Yunsheng entirely, forming a human-shaped cocoon.

The inner walls of the tentacle oozed a large amount of slime, tightly wrapping around Chu Yunsheng. He could clearly feel the Six Jia Elemental Talisman's energy surging through his body, protecting him, including his night vision goggles, but the inability to breathe brought him to the brink of suffocation.

With a "pop," the cocoon-shaped Chu Yunsheng, wrapped in slime, was spat out by the tentacle and fell into the slime pool. Immediately, a thin tube descended from above, but it was gently deflected by Chu Yunsheng's elemental energy!

Chu Yunsheng, whose face had turned red from holding his breath, immediately realized his chance to escape!

Under the protection of the Six Jia Elemental Talisman, the melting liquid could not cause significant harm, except for the inability to breathe. Even his clothes and pistol were safe within the talisman's energy barrier.

Now, he could draw his long sword and break out of the slime cocoon, but he knew he wouldn't get far. The tentacles would quickly grab him again.

His only option was to approach the largest, presumably the mother monster, and severely wound it, then find an opportunity to escape!

This chance came as his cocoon was gently pushed by the thin tube, floating on the slime pool and slowly approaching the bottom of the mother monster.

Human cocoons, melted into remnants, floated past him continuously!

Chu Yunsheng held his breath with all his might, fortunately, his First Yuan Heaven realm allowed him to barely hold on!

He secretly changed the magazine with his hands, but he had few bullets left, less than thirty.

Then, he slowly replenished his elemental energy with the Energy Absorption Talisman, not daring to do it at a normal speed, for fear of being discovered by the monster, which would ruin his plan.

Closer, a little closer!

Until he was completely against the bottom of the mother monster, it seemed not to have noticed his abnormality.

One, two, three!

Chu Yunsheng focused his mind. It was now or never!

He had six units of elemental energy in his body. He fired three shots in quick succession, each shot consuming one unit of energy!

The cocoon wall instantly broke open, and the bullets, carrying fierce elemental fire, shot toward the mother monster.

At the same time, Chu Yunsheng took a deep breath, almost suffocating from holding it for so long!

The monster's surface had an energy shield, which Chu Yunsheng had guessed. Even the red-armored insects had one, so this more terrifying monster certainly did too!

"Whoosh!... Ugh!..." The monster was enraged by the sudden attack! Countless tentacles wildly wrapped around, pointing directly at Chu Yunsheng.

The bullets spiraled violently against the monster's defensive layer, the elemental fire burning fiercely. As the defensive layer around it weakened, Chu Yunsheng, taking advantage of the moment before the tentacles attacked, pressed the gun against the weakest point of the defensive layer and fired two more shots, each consuming one unit of energy.

The fire elemental bullets that penetrated the mother monster's body collided violently with the energy-filled flesh inside, causing a fierce explosion. The monster's slimy flesh was torn open by the explosive force generated by the elemental energy, sending debris flying.

"Ugh!... Huh!..." The monster screamed as its body sank into the melting slime pool. Chu Yunsheng estimated that he had succeeded, at least wounding it. Now it was time to escape!

A piece of the monster's internal slime flew out of the torn opening, landing on his head and dangling over his night vision goggles. Chu Yunsheng immediately felt that the elemental energy in this small piece of slime was more powerful than several insects combined!

At this critical moment, Chu Yunsheng dared not hesitate. The sinking monster had already mobilized at least ten tentacles to heavily surround him, and many small monsters were climbing up the large tentacles, their mouth-like tentacles opening and roaring.

Chu Yunsheng, without further ado, took out the previously almost forgotten Fire Separation Talisman.

This third-stage offensive elemental talisman, with his current First Yuan Heaven realm, could only unleash about 20% of its power, which was very wasteful, but he had no choice but to use this talisman to save his life!

Facing the swarm of tentacles and small monsters, Chu Yunsheng quickly activated the Fire Separation Talisman with his elemental energy.

The character symbolizing "Fire Separation" shot out from the talisman, and a vast amount of elemental energy rapidly gathered around it. As it grew, it suddenly split, and the elemental fire immediately rained down like a firestorm!