A few seconds later, after a turn, the passage was already in sight.

"Quick, quick, quick, faster!" Chen Shouyi whispered urgently, as he could already hear the sound of chaotic and noisy footsteps coming from all directions.

Chen Shouyi swiftly shot three arrows in succession, killing several giant scythe insects near the passage.

With a few steps, he was already standing on the pile of rubble under the spatial passage, holding his war bow on guard.

The distance to the spatial passage was just over two meters, but less than three meters high. Even in a world with three times the gravity, he could barely jump over.

At this moment, scattered giant scythe insects had already begun appearing from various passages.

Chen Shouyi quickly shot arrows, his hands almost turning into a blur, while saying, "Quickly, you go first!"

All the martial artists flashed a hint of gratitude on their faces, said nothing, and seized the opportunity to climb up quickly along the dangling ropes.

These people were not ordinary; their physical fitness was more than three or four times that of normal people; each was an elite among elites. In less than a second, only Chen Shouyi was left in the passage.

The emerging giant scythe insects were becoming more and more numerous. Chen Shouyi retracted his war bow and leaped fiercely towards the spatial passage.

Just as he jumped, a premonition of danger emerged in his heart, and he instinctively glanced.

Just one glance and he felt his scalp tighten, a strong sense of crisis surging in his heart.

It was a mysterious giant scythe insect emitting an uncertain luminescence. It appeared like a majestic king, surrounded by several slightly smaller silver giant scythe insects, emerging grandly from one of the massive passages, looking particularly striking in the dark cavern.

In that instant, a sharp screech seemed to pierce directly into his soul, Chen Shouyi's mind buzzed, his vision darkened, nearly fainting. In this moment of crisis, Chen Shouyi steeled himself, biting hard on the tip of his tongue.

The intense pain on the tongue barely pulled his consciousness back to clarity.

After a shift in space, he found himself already out of the other world. Quickly using the irregularities of the pit wall, he moved his hands and feet, and in the blink of an eye, he was standing on the ground.

Feeling a sense of relief, his body swayed involuntarily, and Xiao Changming immediately supported him: "Brother Chen, are you alright?"

Chen Shouyi felt a bit dizzy, seeing double, but this clearly wasn't the time to address that: "Let's get out of here first, there's a more terrifying giant scythe insect inside that could come through the passage at any moment!"

Everyone's faces turned drastically at the revelation, their previously relaxed expressions from the mission's completion vanished without a trace.

The silver giant scythe insects were already terrifying, yet now they found out there was an even stronger presence. Besides, with the area heavily fortified with firepower, the vicinity of the passage was undoubtedly the focal point of defense; if a swarm of giant scythe insects emerged, the situation would deteriorate, and the military might open fire.

"Move quickly!" Xiao Changming urged, lifting Chen Shouyi and swiftly running forward.

After running just tens of meters, the familiar screech of the giant scythe insect echoed from behind, and the nearby machine guns began to roar, causing Chen Shouyi's heart to tighten.

Feeling the dizziness in his mind greatly subsided, he immediately broke free from Xiao Changming's arm and ran on his own.

With the help of his wind control ability, he could now, at full speed, run a hundred meters in less than two seconds, within just a few steps reaching the very front.

Bullets rained down densely from all directions; ahead, soldiers kept gesturing for everyone to lie down, but no one dared stop. Each person was sprinting for their life.

A second later, the whistling of artillery shells finally sounded.

A deafening explosion erupted behind him, the ground gently shaking, Chen Shouyi almost feeling the rushing heat and wind at his back.

Although the power of gunpowder weapons decreased significantly after the mutation, it was only relative.

Now artillery explosives were a mix of Hexogen and TNT, a power several times that of black powder from World War I. Even if the power decreased, it far exceeded artillery from WWI, and could easily tear through flesh.

As for why firearms' power was diminished so much, that involved the amount of propellant.

Since the human race entered the information age, there was a pursuit of beyond-visual-range, high precision, intelligent, and high destructive capability, while the requirement for individual weapons focused on reliability, safety, economy, specialization, and achieving maximum efficiency within effective range.

Except for specialized arms like sniper rifles, most firearms no longer pursued longer ranges, but no one expected this sudden mutation to turn most firearms into mere sticks.

...

Seconds later, after running past the innermost artillery positions, he continued to run less than ten more seconds, having already exited the encirclement.

He glanced back, feeling completely at ease. In the not-so-distant field, covered in gunfire, flames soared into the sky, and countless giant scythe insect remains, tossed by the surging heat waves, fell like rain.

By then, the others had also arrived, each one present and accounted for.

Except for one military martial artist seemingly grazed by a shrapnel on his cheek, leaving a bloody mark, the rest were unscathed.

At this moment, a middle-aged man with a major general's insignia quickly approached from a distance.

"Commander, good to see you!" Xiao Changming and several military martial artists immediately saluted.

The military district commander glanced at the battle situation, seeing the situation still under control, then relaxed, retracting his gaze: "Colonel Xiao, welcome back safely. Won't you introduce me?"

"Haha, Commander, my mistake. This is General Sun from our Hedong City garrison, and this is the lead martial artist from the city government, Qin Liuyuan!" Xiao Changming said with a smile, his tone rather casual, indicating a good relationship.

"General Sun, nice to meet you!" Qin Liuyuan extended his hand to shake with Major General Sun.

"And this is the city government's martial artist, Chen Shouyi!" Xiao Changming continued introductions, whispering in his ear: "Brother Chen here is quite strong, I suspect he may have martial artist-level strength.

Xiao Changming did not lower his voice intentionally, so everyone nearby heard it clearly, causing many martial artists to have their hearts surge with waves, expressions of disbelief on their faces.

Chen Shouyi was also a bit surprised. What level was a martial artist?

Above the martial elite?

Major General Sun's eyes lit up upon hearing this, taking a good look before immediately extending both hands: "Brother Chen, hello, truly talented and promising."

"General Sun, nice to meet you! Overpraise!" Chen Shouyi dared not be neglectful, quickly extending both hands as well. After all, this was the commander of the garrison in Hedong City, holding the military power for the entire city, not someone to offend lightly.

"Interested in a career with the military?" Major General Sun offered enticingly.

While the military didn't think much of unregulated martial artists, martial elites were entirely different.

The military was quite tolerant of such figures, willing to accommodate them even if they did nothing but be honored, serving a crucial role in critical times, not to mention that he possibly had the power of a martial artist.

Chen Shouyi was momentarily stunned; he was doing well as a security advisor, free and easy, not wanting to join the military.

Just as he was about to gently refuse, a commotion arose from afar!

Looking over quickly, he saw the mysterious giant scythe insect glimpsed earlier, fiercely charging out of the flames, screeching shrilly as it darted towards them, with its wings reduced to a few bone spurs.

It no longer had the flickering anomaly that previously enveloped it, now severely injured, bleeding profusely, its forelimb blown off, and one of the six running legs broken. Yet its speed was still exceedingly fast, like a golden lightning bolt, crossing over a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

"Commander, be careful, fall back!" Xiao Changming urged in a low voice.

"This is a battlefield!" General Sun said solemnly, maintaining a calm demeanor. As the military district commander, fleeing publicly on a battlefield would reflect poorly on his political awareness.

This terrifying creature seemed quite frantic at the moment, with no mind to attack nearby soldiers, dragging something assumed to be its viscera, recklessly bolting in a straight line desperately towards them.

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