Chapter 391: The Lingering Will

One after another the dead surrounded Lu Xin.

Their faces turned deathly pale, their eyes cold and frenzied.

Although they were already dead, as their emotions surged, Lu Xin saw changes happening within them. He witnessed pale, transparent souls struggling, emerging from their bodies like cicadas shedding their shells.

These souls mirrored their injured appearances exactly.

But within those chilling gazes a certain hatred burned relentlessly like wildfire.

Simultaneously their bodies began to mutate bit by bit.

Their eye sockets deepened, limbs grew thin and long, drifting lightly in the surrounding wind, trembling slowly…

…

“So, they turn into Mental Monsters after being told they’re dead?”

Lu Xin knew what he needed to do. He didn’t let emotions cloud his judgment, instead observing and recording the changes in these individuals. At the same time he slowly summarized and pieced together the logic in his mind:

“And they develop intense hatred and aggression towards the person who reveals their death.”

“The psychic power of these Mental Monsters isn’t high individually, maybe around two or three hundred each…”

“No, wait… they don’t seem to be separate entities…”

Lu Xin suddenly turned his head to look at Mom.

“A Mental Monster filled with hatred, agony, and… lingering attachment…”

“What is this, some kind of petri dish?”

…

Lu Xin’s expression tightened slightly as he looked up.

These Mental Monsters, or rather the pale mental entities emerging from the decaying corpses, each warped the air around them. As these distortions collided and merged, they clearly formed a much stronger force field.

This caused their psychic power levels to seemingly stack, creating a noticeable pressure on him.

Lu Xin understood what was happening.

Smaller pollution sources of the same type were constantly merging, becoming one large pollution source.

“So, this is the ultimate goal of the ‘living dead’ incident?”

“No, it’s not that simple…”

Lu Xin carefully sensed their changes, a sudden alertness rising within him. He felt he had missed something.

The Mental Monsters crawling out of these living dead bodies represented another type of pollution. This pollution was triggered by a person’s strongest emotions then merged to become a mental monster.

But this only accounted for the second type of change in the living dead pollution incident. It still didn’t explain how the ‘living dead’ themselves were created by pollution. There had to be another reason he hadn’t discovered.

Lu Xin took a deep breath, forcing himself to stay calm, and looked up.

As the mental entities of the surrounding living dead intertwined, the resulting Mental Monster formed. Its mental radiation distorted the air, spreading outwards like waves, generating a kind of vibration.

Lu Xin’s pupils suddenly constricted. He sensed two layers of vibration.

Besides the vibrations from these Mental Monsters, another energy field was resonating with it.

He suddenly had a strange feeling. These Mental Monsters were just fish, but surrounding him was an entire ocean.

“Huh?”

From behind him Sister’s little head peeked out, watching the surrounding Mental Monsters with a peculiar gaze.

Within the darkness beside Lu Xin, it felt as if another gaze had opened its eyes.

They were all drawn to something.

…

“Is this its method of pollution?”

Lu Xin felt a slight surprise and turned to look at Mom.

She was standing aside, holding her delicate small satchel, observing the surrounding blood threads and nodding gently.

“Something like this… truly is… quite rare…”

Listening to her tone, there seemed to be a hint of nostalgia and contemplation.

The pollution method was found.

Although it was a method Lu Xin had never encountered before.

…

“Hoo…”

Lu Xin took a deep breath. The objective was achieved, so naturally it was time to clean up the pollution.

The pale mental entities crawling from the bodies of the dead around them had now intertwined and merged, forming a bizarre monster, like a fusion of countless people. Half of the mental entities remained in their original bodies while the other half merged together.

On a visage that seemed like countless faces stacked together, dozens of eyes blinked rapidly and simultaneously.

Each eye held complex emotions – resentment, unwillingness, pain, regret. These varied emotions spliced together, creating a kind of chemical reaction, intensely influencing and colliding with each other. It was clear they were accumulating a power, a power causing their collective psychic level to grow continuously.

…At least a Level 2 Mental Monster.

Silently taking the gun from the black bag, Lu Xin lowered his head slightly.

Cleaning up this monster wouldn’t be difficult for Lu Xin.

But making this decision stirred somewhat complex feelings within him.

Still, the job had to be done, Lu Xin thought silently, preparing to raise his gun.

“Bang bang…”

Just then, gunfire suddenly erupted behind Lu Xin.

Lu Xin was stunned. He turned his head to look but didn’t move.

These dead people were all carrying guns, so it was normal for them to use firearms against him. But what surprised Lu Xin was that the bullets weren’t aimed at him. Instead they came from one Soldier’s hands, firing towards the others.

“Zzzzt…”

Bullets crackling with blue electric arcs flew to the right, instantly taking down several decaying corpses.

The person firing these bullets clearly couldn’t see the Mental Monster, so he was aiming at the corpses. However, when the electric arc bullets hit those corpses, they also clearly affected the mental entities emerging from them. From Lu Xin’s perspective not only did those corpses that seemed poised to lunge at him suddenly collapse, but their mental entities were also instantly mostly annihilated.

“Mental pollution detected! Eliminate immediately!”

The Squad Leader of the advance team, with only one eye left on his face, roared in a low voice giving the order to the team members beside him.

Lu Xin’s expression became complicated, an indescribable emotion churning within his heart.

…

“Bang bang bang…”

A battle instantly unfolded around Lu Xin.

Pale mental entities scrambled across the scene, rushing towards Lu Xin with silent screams.

Bullets crackling with blue electric arcs crisscrossed the air, striking corpse after corpse.

The battle wasn’t strictly between two sides. Among the advance team on the left, some also roared and charged at Lu Xin.

Among the Observation Post personnel on the right, some also stood frozen.

Throughout the entire battle Lu Xin did not intervene.

Only when those few Investigation Team members on the left, who were steadfastly carrying out the cleanup mission – or rather, the already deceased Investigation Team members – encountered danger, did the shadow beneath his feet stir, devouring a mental entity that lunged at them.

Then, as a few mental entities on the other side tried to escape, he signaled Sister that she could pursue them.

The battle began abruptly and ended just as quickly.

Lu Xin turned his head, looking towards the few soldiers still standing nearby, holding their guns.

Faint blue smoke still curled from the muzzles of their guns.

Their faces, already appearing deathly pale and muscles stiff, looked resolute at this moment, but their eyes were red.

Confirming there were no more living corpses around preparing to attack Lu Xin, the Captain raised his hand, ordering the team members beside him to cease fire. Then he walked forward a few clumsy steps and called out in a low voice: “Mr. Lone Soldier.”

Lu Xin looked up at him and asked softly, “Why did you do that?”

The one-eyed Captain replied in a low voice, “This is what we came out here to do.”

“Eliminate pollution sources.”

“Since that’s the case, how could we allow ourselves to become pollution sources?”

…

An already dead man, clutching a gun, looked at him with his single remaining eye and earnestly delivered this answer.

The scene itself might have been absurd, but Lu Xin suddenly felt struck by a strange emotion.

He didn’t know how to respond. After a moment of silence, he stood up.

He said to the one-eyed Captain, “Thank you.”

The Captain seemed slightly moved, apparently wanting to say something but unable to.

Including the person beside him.

They still held their guns, blood still flowing from the wounds on their bodies.

Lu Xin could see a faint whiteness appearing above their heads too.

It was a sign that their mental entities were about to separate from their bodies.

From their somewhat stiff expressions, two chaotic emotions could be discerned.

One was determination, as firm as the hands holding their guns.

But the other was an unavoidable look of bewilderment and agony spreading across their faces.

“How could they manage this?”

Watching the pained expressions on these men, Lu Xin seemed able to feel their struggle.

He spoke softly, but he was asking Mom.

Mom was also quietly watching these few remaining soldiers, a look of contemplation on her face. She said softly:

“Because their willpower is stronger than the others, and their time within the pollution field was shorter.”

“Pollution field?”

Lu Xin caught the term and asked softly.

He remembered learning about this during his special pollution training.

When assessing the threat of a pollution source, its method of pollution is a crucial factor.

Pollution spreads in various ways.

Low-polluting types include contact-type pollution and invasive pollution.

Highly infectious types include induction-type pollution, where just a glance or hearing a sound can cause contamination.

But beyond these, there are even more terrifying methods of pollution.

For example, a field.

The pollution forms a field, invisibly radiating and covering an area.

Just by being within this mental force field, one might be polluted without even realizing it.

This pollution method is strongly related to the magnitude of psychic power.

“We are all currently within this pollution field.”

Mom explained softly: “You could say we’ve also been polluted, but thankfully our resistance is a bit stronger. They are the same. The people at the Observation Post were in this pollution for longer, so they were more deeply affected. This armed squad was polluted for a shorter time. Plus, although this field exists, I don’t sense its will…”

“So, their own willpower can still play a small role…”

“Of course, no matter how you put it…”

A look of approval seemed to appear on her face: “These young men created a small miracle…”

Following Mom’s gaze, Lu Xin looked at them too.

At this moment their bodies were trembling, their limbs seeming to grow weak, and their bodies slowly collapsed. Lu Xin could feel their struggle, and at the same time, see pale mental entities slowly crawling out from within them.

Like the mutated people from before, they were undergoing the same process.

However, their stronger resistance stretched out this process, which also meant enduring more pain.

Mom sighed softly, looking somewhat resigned to Lu Xin’s implied request, and gently walked forward.

She took the scissors from her satchel and gently snipped the air above their heads.

It seemed like something was temporarily severed. Lu Xin saw the struggles of those few armed soldiers lessen considerably.

“Go do your job.”

Mom looked at Lu Xin and said softly.

Lu Xin let out a deep breath, nodded, and strode forward.

Everyone should do their own part!