Mogansha considered Fang Senyan’s words, found them quite reasonable, and nodded before continuing forward.

It wasn't entirely his fault; Fang Senyan, being thick-skinned and tough, dared to charge through swarms of bugs repeatedly, but Mogansha dared not be careless, thus prioritizing caution in every step.

They had barely walked fifty meters when Mogansha reached the sand beside them, spotting a distinct patch of soaked brown.

He brushed the sand aside to check the depth of the brown patch, then shrugged: “Another one dead.

The body must have been eaten—may God bless his soul.” Fang Senyan nodded and kept walking.

Along the way, Mogansha could always pinpoint where the fleeing squad had suffered casualties; clearly, these members had volunteered to stay behind to snipe at the pursuing bugs, only to be eventually torn apart and consumed by the fearless tide of insects.

After another kilometer or so, the area ahead opened up, and on the vast expanse of Gobi desert before them, a deep chasm appeared, its ends completely invisible! This gorge was at least a hundred meters wide, appearing dark, gloomy, and terrifying, filled with jagged rocks, though moss or Suosuo plants might grow where the sunlight couldn't reach.

Mogansha stared at the rift with worry: “The Zerg have incredibly sensitive noses.

If those who fled think they can shake them off using complex terrain, they are gravely mistaken.” Fang Senyan suddenly frowned: “What’s that smell? It smells like rotting meat?” Mogansha sniffed as well: “It’s coming from the rift.

Strange, Zerg don't usually waste food!” Fang Senyan strode toward the chasm.

The sky was already bright, and when he reached the edge of the rift, he couldn't help but cover his nose, but his pupils contracted instantly.

At the bottom of the gorge, three or four kilometers away, a massacre of horrific proportions was unfolding! However, the victims weren't human, but at least several hundred Zerg! Their corpses had likely been piled there for a full twenty-four hours, and thus were naturally beginning to decompose under the desert heat, rotting even faster now that the sun was up.

Shock registered in Mogansha’s eyes too.

He suddenly pointed downward at a Hydralisk whose head had been violently torn off, exclaiming: “Oh, my God! The ones ambushing this Zerg force were another group of Zerg! Human weaponry could never inflict wounds like that!” Ignoring the foul, putrid stench of decay, Fang Senyan’s mind began to reconstruct the scene from two and a half days ago: the blood-soaked, battered warriors, fleeing in desperation, discovered the Great Rift and charged down without hesitation, with the greedy, frenzied Zerg in pursuit.

At that moment, another hostile Zerg group targeted them, launching a cunning surprise attack from the rear.

They first eliminated the relatively slow Hydralisks lagging behind, then encircled and annihilated the Zerg army composed solely of Zerglings… In that instant, Fang Senyan was reminded of the location where they encountered the low-tier legendary creature, ‘Scorching Maw’—that, too, had featured a battlefield where Zerg fought each other! It seemed the Zerg, like humans, were divided into factions, though human conflicts could potentially be resolved through negotiation, while Zerg disputes were settled only by acid, claws, and biting.

“A, can you still track the escape route of that group of survivors?” Fang Senyan suddenly asked.

Mogansha hesitated slightly.

“Shouldn’t be a problem.” He then donned his helmet to block the stench and peered down from the edge of the Great Rift.

Clearly, the drop from the rim to the bottom was nearly twenty to thirty meters high; jumping without any cushioning would result in instant death, long before the Zerg could claim them.

After just one glance, Mogansha spotted the gentle slope the survivors had used to escape.

They had even blasted apart a few heavy stones that could have served as impact buffers, causing most of the pursuing Zerg to simply leap down, their tracks scattering below.

At this point, the pursuit formation of that Zerg swarm was completely broken.

The two men walked past the stench-ridden battlefield, where they also discovered the dark-colored Zerg among the corpses, though their casualties were light—they were clearly the ambushers.

Then they found the location where the survivors had halted to fight.

It was a narrow section within the Great Rift, a position that was inherently defensible and difficult to assault.

Zerg troops would struggle to deploy their numbers here, whereas humans could exploit their ranged advantage to concentrate fire coverage on the bottleneck.

Mogansha examined the scorch marks on a nearby rock alongside a Zerg corpse: “They must have had an Incendiary Trooper too.

Look, my current position is excellent.

If an Incendiary Trooper were hiding behind that rock, the Hydralisk’s spray couldn’t hit him; they’d have to swing around that corner, but in doing so, the Hydralisk would be subject to heavy suppressive fire from the front.” They continued forward and reached this makeshift defensive line.

It was littered with needles (stim-pack injectors), shell casings, blood-stained bandages, and even opened military ration tins.

It looked quite chaotic.

But this spot was a dead end! Rocks that had tumbled from above had completely cut off their retreat! Fang Senyan and Mogansha exchanged looks, a flicker of relief in their eyes! Because in this temporary position, there was very little blood evidence, and no scattered armor pieces! What did this mean? It meant the survivors had made it out alive! The situation at the time was obvious enough to figure out: since the ranged units, the Hydralisks, of the pursuing force were almost entirely wiped out by the ambushing Zerg, the survivors, relying mainly on the powerful performance of the flamethrower trooper, only had to deal with the Zerglings and thus managed to escape.

Next, the survivors had to face the ambushing Zerg.

By now, Mogansha had found some corpses of those dark Zerg—these creatures had sharp, black barbs growing from their bodies and dark scales.

They seemed to belong to the same clan as the dark Zerg they had spotted on the earlier battlefield, though their opponents were different.

For some unknown reason, this group of dark Zerg had not killed the survivors—or at least, not immediately.

Otherwise, even if there were no bodies in this temporary camp, the splashes of blood would have been unmistakable.

“What is this?” Fang Senyan suddenly pointed to a patch of pale green stain on a nearby rock.

The sun hadn't fully risen, and the rift was still quite dark, making this stain faintly luminescent, easily noticeable.

Mogansha observed cautiously for a moment, then asked Fang Senyan for a strand of hair to dip in it (since he was bald and had none to spare).

After confirming there was no poison, he tentatively touched it.

As he pulled his finger back, a long, viscous, pale green thread stretched out.

“It looks quite sticky?” Fang Senyan frowned, then noticed several more of these pale green spots glittering faintly on the surrounding rocks.

Their existing intelligence files contained no information about this substance.

Mogansha then easily traced the direction in which the black Zerg had retreated, but he voiced a concern: Zerg Overminds had a disgusting precedent of consuming human brains to acquire memories.

If these black Zerg shared that tendency, the survivors would be better off being eaten alive on the spot.

Fortunately, Fang Senyan and Mogansha had found other clues along their path—like sporadically scattered Camel brand cigarette butts—indicating that the survivors were not only alive but perhaps even treated with a degree of leniency.

The Zerg were clearly not a species adept at concealing their desires and intentions, so even Mogansha, who usually held a pessimistic view, had to concede that the chances of these survivors being alive were quite high.

After navigating through the great canyon for a full two hours, the two men ascended to the surface via a narrow ramp.

Had it not been for Mogansha’s exceptional tracking skills, they would have certainly lost the trail.

As soon as they stepped onto the Gobi floor, Fang Senyan suddenly felt an indescribable, bizarre sensation coming from behind him.

He immediately dove forward and spun around, adopting a defensive stance! In the sky about fifty meters behind him, a strange-looking creature was floating.

From a distance, it resembled a grotesque pear.

It had brown skin, four long legs, and two tentacle-like appendages similar to a spider’s stinger.

Broad membranes connected the spaces between its four long legs; as the legs contracted and moved, the connected membranes could rapidly generate thrust like a bellows, allowing the creature to float effortlessly in the air.

The moment Fang Senyan spotted the creature, he saw faint green fluorescence flow through its four long legs, rapidly converging onto its two antennae.

It then blasted a plume of glowing green viscous fluid toward the two men.

Undoubtedly, this fluid was no friendly welcome.

Both Fang Senyan and Mogansha simultaneously dodged, springing out in different directions.

The fluid’s velocity wasn't extreme, so both were confident they could avoid it.

But then, both men’s eyes widened: the mass of green fluid split in the air—two became four, four became eight… Thin, green, viscous threads even connected the fragments during the division.

By the time it reached directly overhead, it had formed a massive, pale green, fluorescent spiderweb! It descended, shrouding them completely!