The ground was covered with the carcasses of Steel Thorn Turtles, and both the Heavy Armor Beasts and Meteoric Iron Swallows had become lifeless metal statues.
The Heavy Armor Beast was too big to take back; it was probably impossible now. The Meteoric Iron Swallow could be taken back, but Lin Shen feared that it carried some kind of toxin, so he did not touch it.
"Had I known this would happen, I should have let the Death Powder take care of the Poison Spike Turtle." Lin Shen had feared that the Death Powder would also be poisoned, so he had not dared to use it.
Now, seeing that it had directly devoured the corpse of the Poison Spike Turtle and not only survived but also evolved, he knew that his concerns had been completely unnecessary.
"Mutated Poison Thorn Turtles are mutated creatures, yet they carry no Fire Seed. Is it because of the location, or do mutated creatures not necessarily carry a Fire Seed?" Lin Shen didn't have time to ponder too much; after collecting as much Base Mutation Fluid from the Steel Thorn Turtles as possible, he proceeded along the coastline.
Beyond the white beach was a forest of alloy plants; unlike near Dark Bird Base, there were no green plants here at all, all the plants were metallic.
Lin Shen dared not rashly enter the alloy forest. With his weak body, if a Base Variant Creature suddenly emerged from the underbrush, he wouldn't even be able to run.
Looking along the coastline, there were large reefs and cliffs in the distance with a clearer view.
Lin Shen wanted to see if he could find a hiding place there; if he could just hold out for seventy-two hours, he would be able to activate the damned teleporter and return.
After walking a few meters, Lin Shen felt that he could not go on, or he would never make it to the reef area in his lifetime and would die of exhaustion.
He called the Supersonic Gunman over, asked him to crouch down, and then Lin Shen lay on his back, letting the Supersonic Gunman carry him.
It wasn't that Lin Shen didn't want to challenge himself, but just walking those few meters had left him drenched in sweat and sore all over.
"What place is this, exactly? Is it the interior of the mysterious Gourd Mountain? If the interior of Gourd Mountain can form its own world, what kind of existence is Gourd Mountain itself? Did my third and fourth brothers come here? Could my missing second brother possibly be here too..." Lin Shen pondered a lot while lying on the Supersonic Gunman's back.
He also knew that the third and fourth brothers might still be alive, but the chances of the second brother still being alive were very slim.
The Supersonic Gunman's speed was clearly affected, but he could still walk briskly without much trouble.
After walking two or three kilometers along the coastline, Lin Shen suddenly saw what looked like a person lying on the beach ahead.
The person lay on the beach, with waves lapping over the body in gentle strokes, but the person remained motionless.
"Could it be a dead body?" Too far away to see clearly, Lin Shen asked the Supersonic Gunman to quicken the pace and head over.
He wondered if the person was from the Qi Family or the Wang Family, but as they got closer, Lin Shen immediately recognized the clothes on the body.
"Wei Wufu? Is he dead?" Lin Shen was slightly startled.
Although he knew Wei Wufu had his own motives for following him, Wei Wufu had stood up to help him in dangerous situations. Seeing him dead here, Lin Shen still felt somewhat saddened.
Upon reaching Wei Wufu, the Supersonic Gunman set Lin Shen down.
Lin Shen asked the Supersonic Gunman to drag Wei Wufu's body out a bit, to where the waves could no longer reach it.
Wei Wufu's clothes were torn in several places, but there appeared to be no wounds on his body. His hair was messy, soaked by the seawater, and clung in strands to his scalp.
Lin Shen reached out to check for breathing and felt the pulse, somewhat surprised to find that the guy was actually still alive, seemingly just unconscious.
This discovery left Lin Shen somewhat conflicted. If Wei Wufu hadn't helped him before, Lin Shen would have immediately had the Supersonic Gunman blow him away with a shot to prevent future trouble.
However, Lin Shen, influenced by his older brothers and sisters, always had a clear sense of gratitude and resentment, making it impossible for him to eliminate someone who had helped him.
Just as Lin Shen was considering how to deal with Wei Wufu, the guy actually woke up.
Upon opening his eyes and seeing Lin Shen, he was momentarily taken aback, but said nothing and tried to push himself up from the sandy ground.
But as soon as he moved, his complexion drastically changed. There seemed to be some problem with his legs; they did not allow him to stand, leaving him to sit up using his upper body alone.
"Are you alright?" Lin Shen asked, looking at his legs.
"My legs won't move," Wei Wufu answered.
Lin Shen fell silent upon hearing this. Legless meant his life was over; for a Mutator, having no legs meant it was impossible to fight against Base Variant Creatures anymore.
"It's just that they won't move, they're not useless," Wei Wufu said, seemingly reading Lin Shen's thoughts, his face expressionless.
Lin Shen felt this was just Wei Wufu's final act of defiance. His legs seemed completely numb, and if they weren't useless, what else could they be?
However, Lin Shen did not want to dwell on this issue and noticed the watch on Wei Wufu's wrist, which was similar to his own. He asked, "After you covered for my escape, what happened? Why was everyone gone when I returned to the canyon, and how did you end up here?"
"Encountered a monster, couldn't beat it, ran, the slow ones died, escaped into the mountains, Dark Bird led the way, found Gourd Mountain, there was a cave on the mountain, entered the cave and ended up here, got a watch on my wrist, fell into the sea, there were Base Variant Creatures in the sea, couldn't beat them, fought desperately, Base Variant Creatures retreated, passed out, woke up, saw you."
Lin Shen was taken aback by Wei Wufu's succinct way of speaking. Normally, people's speech contains a flow of cause and effect, transitions, and embellishments, often filled mostly with useless information.
Wei Wufu, on the other hand, didn't use any superfluous words in his speech, providing only useful information, as if reciting from an outline.
"What kind of monster?" Lin Shen focused on the term Wei Wufu used; he said 'monster,' not Base Variant Creature.
"Don't know, like a person, but not like a person, like a Base Variant Creature, but not like one," Wei Wufu replied.
"That... can you describe what that monster looked like..." Lin Shen felt as if he had both heard and not heard.
Just as Wei Wufu was about to answer, the sound of surging seawater caught their attention. Both men turned their heads to look and their faces instantly changed.
A creature with a body made of blue alloy, eyes that resembled rubies, human-like in form but with fish scales, fins on its back and crown, and gills below its cheeks, emerged from the sea. It was carrying a red metal fork and stared at Lin Shen and Wei Wufu with predatory intensity, advancing step by step towards the sandy beach.
"You go, can't win against mutated alloy creatures," Wei Wufu said.
"No shit, if I could leave, why wouldn't I?" Lin Shen despaired, knowing his physical condition was a significant problem, unable to even run away, he quickly called the Supersonic Gunman to carry him.
But as soon as the Supersonic Gunman moved, it immediately drew the attention of the Base Variant Creature, which didn't care whether the Supersonic Gunman was coming for it or not. Its scaly legs burst with terrifying strength and speed, bridging over a dozen meters in an instant to close in on the Supersonic Gunman, and thrust its fork towards him.
"Are you fucking insane!" Lin Shen nearly cried out in despair.