Since the three camps had chosen to ambush the members of the Red Fruit Camp during the raid on the second monster nest, They were not going to attack the third monster nest.
Li Ban accordingly picked up his pace. After all, such an abundant opportunity to harvest waste elements would be hard to come by in the future.
It was not long before the sounds of battle below died down.
Three long blasts echoed from the ground—the signal to retreat and conclude the operation.
Only then did Li Ban exit the building with Zhu Yao, his craving still unsated.
Given their rich haul, he simply teleported straight to the roof with her.
But once on the roof, he did not immediately head down.
"What is it?" Zhu Yao asked.
"I am a little concerned about the people from the Blue Sea Camp." Li Ban walked toward the opposite side of the building. "Because of the Cliffside Camp's ambush, Shu Yu's group will definitely treat us as enemies too. But there was always a chance the two of us would refuse to fight and just let her leave. The three camps must have prepared a backup plan for that."
"That is my guess. After getting injured earlier in the battle, they retreated quickly, making sure to conserve their strength."
As they spoke, Li Ban reached the edge of the roof.
"But they never showed up from the start. They did not even step out onto the exterior of the building opposite us."
Zhu Yao stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Li Ban, looking across the gap. "Could a powerful monster have appeared inside that building? One they could not handle?"
"I will go take a look. Wait here for a moment."
"Alright. If there is trouble, fall back immediately," Zhu Yao urged, before adding, "Or call for me."
Li Ban flashed over to the roof of the building where the Blue Sea Camp duo should have appeared.
There were absolutely no signs of anyone having set foot there.
He picked a broken window at random and slipped inside.
Not knowing which route they might have taken to the roof, finding anyone inside a massive, horizontally toppled skyscraper was no easy task.
Li Ban planned to do a quick sweep. If he found nothing, he would head back immediately.
They were from the Blue Sea Camp, after all; it was not his responsibility to track them down.
But the moment Li Ban moved down through an outer room into the adjacent unit, he spotted the missing Blue Sea Camp members.
The instant he saw the two of them, he abruptly backed out of the room, directly teleporting straight back to the roof of the building.
Zhu Yao had not even looked away; she was still staring at the spot where Li Ban had just been standing.
She blinked.
It was as if Li Ban had not even gone down.
Li Ban turned, saw Zhu Yao still holding her previous posture, and flashed over to her.
"Those two are dead."
Since they had not shown up, Zhu Yao had already considered this possibility. "Killed by a monster?"
Those two were fairly skilled. Any monster capable of killing them so easily was definitely not simple.
Had Li Ban come back to get her so they could deal with it together?
Just as that possibility crossed Zhu Yao's mind, Li Ban shook his head.
"No, or rather, I cannot say for sure."
Li Ban frowned in deep thought.
"They look like rotting peaches. Their bodies are covered in white fuzz."
"White... white fuzz?" Zhu Yao recoiled in horror, then suddenly remembered something.
"Is it a very fine, dense layer of white fuzz spread all over the walls?"
Li Ban led Zhu Yao back the way they had come. On the way, he asked, "You have seen that white fuzz too? Where?"
Li Ban then remembered that Zhu Yao had also explored the Building Graveyard. Perhaps she had seen the white fuzz deep inside somewhere, but had cautiously avoided touching it.
But Zhu Yao's next words once again caught him completely off guard.
"On the edge of the Northern Continent, near the Mist Zone," Zhu Yao said softly. "I saw white fuzz on the ruined, collapsed buildings. It was crawling all over one side of the walls. But since it was so close to the Mist Zone, I merely observed it for a bit without touching it."
"It is a good thing you did not touch it. The last time I saw that white fuzz was next door to a monster nest in the Building Graveyard. My instincts told me it was not simple, so I avoided direct contact. I did not expect that the very next time I saw it, I would witness its lethal power."
Li Ban thought for a moment, trying to find the right words to describe the two corpses.
"I suspect those two either accidentally touched the white fuzz or saw it and did not realize the danger. Their faces were frozen in pure terror and shock. They clearly had no idea such a horrifying threat was coming."
Zhu Yao also had not expected such fine, quiet white fuzz to possess such terrifying power.
"Thank goodness I did not approach it recklessly when I saw it."
"It is not like a normal monster. For one thing, I cannot imagine where that white fuzz could possibly hide a brain."
As Li Ban spoke, he wondered how the white fuzz would attack him if he ever had to fight it—and how he would even fight back.
The best method would probably be fire.
But there was no fire in the Recycling Station.
Neither the Rending Technique nor the Terror Spell would be very effective against something as fine and tiny as the white fuzz.
"Could it be..." Zhu Yao pondered, "that there is something hiding inside the walls, and the fuzz is just the tips of its roots?"
Li Ban shook his head. "I scraped a little off with my dagger. It is just white fuzz resting on the surface. There is no root system underneath."
"You actually dared to touch it?" Zhu Yao shot him a disapproving look.
"Touching it with an inanimate object did not trigger any extra reaction. But when I tried to get within half a foot of it, I sensed danger."
Zhu Yao nodded. "Then we should stay as far away from it as possible. I wonder how it killed the men from the Blue Sea Camp?"
"By instantly covering their bodies with white fuzz?" Li Ban guessed, picturing the scene he had witnessed. "If it was a fatal attack, their brains must have been completely infested with it too. After all, for the people in the Recycling Station, the brain is the only fatal weak point."
He let his thoughts run wild.
"If their brains were full of white fuzz, would their insides—the blood vessels, organs, and muscles—be full of it too? If someone sliced them in half, would they be like a chopped-up doll, with all their white stuffing drifting out?"
Li Ban did not regret failing to use the Rending Technique to rip open the two corpses for a closer look.
Who knew if that would have triggered a counterattack from the white fuzz?
And even if it did not attack him, having all that white fuzz drifting out into the air... that did not sound like a good thing either.
Thanks to Li Ban using Shrinking Ground to an Inch to travel, the two of them—despite leaving much later—did not fall far behind and soon regrouped with the main force.
Lu Shi, who was leading the team, visibly sighed in relief when he saw Li Ban and Zhu Yao appear.
Only a few high-ranking members knew about this operation, and the ones responsible for striking first were their core subordinates.
Even if the other troublemakers found out, they had no choice but to cooperate unconditionally due to their respective positions and identities.
But Li Ban and Zhu Yao were the ones Lu Shi had been most worried about.
Although he was confident the pair would not side with the Red Fruit Camp—and were more likely to just turn a blind eye—they had still arranged for the Blue Sea Camp members to intercept them.
Unexpectedly, the Blue Sea Camp members never showed up near the canopy.
Fortunately, after Shu Yu had initiated the attack, Li Ban had finished her off with a single counterstrike.
'Li Ban is even stronger than Gu Sa and I thought. But it is fine—he will leave the Cliffside Camp eventually.'
While the Cliffside Camp needed strong fighters, they did not need one they could not control.
The only pity was that Zhu Yao would definitely leave with Li Ban.
They had been just a hair's breadth away from completely taming the former Priest.
Lu Shi shook his head, keeping his thoughts to himself as he offered no comment on their late return.
However, the leader of the Blue Sea Camp stepped forward to meet them.
"Vice-Captain Li, did you see our men?"
They had learned Li Ban's surname and position when the tasks were assigned before the operation.
Li Ban naturally recognized them. "I saw them. They are dead."
Before the people of the Blue Sea Camp could transition from shock to anger, Li Ban continued, "There was an anomaly in the building they chose. Both of them died inside. Their bodies were covered in short white fuzz, like peaches."
As Li Ban finished speaking rapidly, he watched the half-formed anger on the man's face instantly revert to astonishment, while the existing astonishment twisted into outright terror.
Terror?
The people of the Blue Sea Camp knew about the white fuzz too.
He quickly glanced at Lu Shi. The latter did not look terrified, but his expression was incredibly grave.
'As expected, there was no way the three camps were completely ignorant about the white fuzz.'
Li Ban walked up to Lu Shi. "Do you know what that is?"
Lu Shi lowered his voice. "We will talk about this when we get back."
Li Ban raised an eyebrow. "Including the part where you suddenly ambushed the Red Fruit Camp?"
Though the three camps had not exactly betrayed Li Ban, he still wanted to figure out why they had suddenly formed an alliance.
He had no intention of becoming the next Shu Yu.
Lu Shi nodded.
With their true objective achieved, the three camps naturally had no reason to attack the third monster nest. They collected their dead and packed up all the supplies they could carry—including the waste elements that had fallen from the sky.
Only the Blue Sea Camp left a few people behind, presumably to search for their two missing members and verify if Li Ban was telling the truth.
On the way back, Li Ban rode in the same vehicle as the handpicked members of his squad.
Their vehicle had suffered no casualties.
But in reality, the Cliffside Camp had also lost nearly ten lives during this premeditated betrayal.
The other vehicles were reorganized, freeing up two Tricycles to haul the corpses and extra supplies.
The operation had gone smoothly, but death was never a pleasant thing.
Xie Xiaowu and Liu Yi, who were usually the most talkative, kept their heads down in silence.
And in her silence, Xie Xiaowu would steal glances at Li Ban from time to time.
Chu Ke, covered in wounds due to a frantic fighting style, leaned against Ming Kai and rested with closed eyes.
Ming Kai was still staring blankly off into the distance, lost in thought.
They arrived back at the Cliffside Camp, while Lu Shi left with the members of the Underwoods Camp.
Upon returning, Li Ban was immediately escorted by a guard to the camp leader's office.
Inside the exquisitely decorated office, Gu Sa was already standing in front of his desk. He gestured to the sofa. "Please, sit. I assume you have many questions. As an apology, I will tell you everything I know. When Lu Shi returns, the camp will also provide you with additional compensation."
Li Ban certainly wanted to figure everything out, but he started with the question he cared about most.
"What is that white fuzz?"
Gu Sa paused, momentarily stunned. Since he had not met with Lu Shi yet, he naturally had no idea that Li Ban had encountered the white fuzz or that the two from the Blue Sea Camp had been killed by it.
But he did know of its existence.
His face darkened as he spoke in a low voice. "That is the corruption of the world."
"It is not just people being deleted. The very land beneath our feet is being erased, too."
While Li Ban pondered this in surprise, Gu Sa walked behind his desk and retrieved a piece of paper, folded three times, from a locked cabinet below.
He carefully unfolded the yellowing, frayed paper and smoothed it flat across the desk.
Li Ban stepped forward and looked down at it.
It appeared to be a map of the world.
It was marked with pencil lines, and near the pencil markings, he spotted the location markers for the Cliffside Camp and the other two camps.
"This is a partial map of the Recycling Station. We are not even sure if the Recycling Station only consists of the Northern and Southern Continents. We do not even know if their borders match this map. All we know for certain is that the northwestern corner where we currently reside has already been partially swallowed by the mist."
Gu Sa pointed out the pencil line closest to the Cliffside Camp.
Then he pointed to another line further out on the periphery.
"Fifty years ago, the edge of the mist was here. But one day, vast quantities of short white fuzz spread out from within it—so fine that you would not even notice it unless you were looking closely. Within a year of that white fuzz appearing, the mist began encroaching on the continent again. The encroached areas became completely inaccessible. Anyone who went inside vanished. Not a single person has ever returned, and we have not even been able to recover their remains."
"The mist?" Li Ban furrowed his brow. Why did this sound so similar to the mist across the River of Helplessness in the Nine Provinces of the Wizard World?
It was said that Priests could enter the mist across the River of Helplessness, which made the mist in the Recycling Station seem far more dangerous.
"Have you asked Zhu Yao about this?"
Gu Sa knew Li Ban was implying that as a Priest, Zhu Yao might know much more than an ordinary person.
But he just smiled and shook his head. "I know what you are thinking. But there is no need to ask Zhu Yao. Back in the Wizard World, I was a Star Glow Priest of the Mist Realm Faction."
"You are a Priest?"
"Yes. You cannot tell at all, can you?" Gu Sa crossed his arms. "I have just been in the Recycling Station for too long. I have already abandoned many of the things I used to hold on to."
"Including the search for a way out, and the power struggles in the Continental Center."
"My only desire now is to live peacefully in this ridiculous world. Just live until the day we are completely formatted."
Li Ban was not entirely convinced, and he did not hesitate to voice his doubts.
"If you just want peace, then why ally with the other camps against the people from the Red Fruit Camp?"
"Precisely because of the mist." Gu Sa spread his hands. "I am ashamed to admit it, but even as a Priest of the Mist Realm Faction, I have no idea if this mist is the same as the mist in the Wizard World. I once tried sending people through it to see if they could find a way back to the Wizard World. But everyone who tried vanished without a trace. Even the steel cables we tied around them disappeared deep into the mist. When we pulled them back, all that remained were snapped ends crawling with white fuzz."
"Now that the white fuzz has appeared in the Building Graveyard, the mist is about to expand once again. Although there is still some habitable land left on this side of the White Strait, we can foresee a future where it can no longer support our survival. So, we must prepare in advance."
"Within the next three years, we will relocate across the White Strait. And before we move, we need to secure territory and resources."