Chapter 6 — The Eye Worm King
The next morning.
Pale sunlight filtered through the cracked window of the bunker, a thin beam piercing the stale air and brushing across Jiang He's face. Before he could turn over, a heavy hand slapped his shoulder.
"Don't sleep! Get up, quick!"
Lu Wenbiao's voice carried a rare tension.
Jiang He rubbed his eyes. "Is it time for training?"
"Training your head!" Lu Wenbiao scowled. "You might die today!"
The words snapped Jiang He fully awake. His first thought was that Yuan Xie had brought Chen Kai to finish them off.
"What happened?" he asked, sitting up, still groggy.
Lu Wenbiao's expression was grim. "Last night, Sun Zhen and the others held a meeting about today's operation." He exhaled deeply. "Old Ding, that old guy with the Bottom Probing ability, sensed something under the mudflats."
"A big one?"
Lu Wenbiao nodded slowly. "A big one. Based on the readings, it's already B-rank."
Jiang He drew in a sharp breath. "A B-rank Ghoul… that's harder to deal with than a B-rank Source Ability User."
"It should be the ruler of these mudflats," Lu Wenbiao said, voice dropping. "The Eye Worm King."
The words alone carried a chill.
Every region of the Borderlands had its own dominant type of Ghoul, but few ever birthed a King. Among Eye Worms, the highest recorded level had only reached C-rank. A B-rank King was unheard of.
And each time a King appeared, it meant carnage rivers of blood, piles of corpses.
Dozens, even hundreds, would die to feed it.
Jiang He finally understood why Lu Wenbiao had said he might not live past today. It wasn't just him the entire Border Region No. 38 might be doomed.
Seeing Jiang He's silence, Lu Wenbiao forced a grin. "Don't panic too much. We've got Sun Zhen, a B-rank, on our side. If things go well, we might actually kill it. Just stay sharp and don't rush ahead."
The warmth in his tone was unexpected. Jiang He felt something stir in his chest
a rare flicker of human comfort in this grim wasteland.
"I understand," he said softly. "I'll be careful."
"Good. Then get ready. We move soon."
Half an hour later, the blinding sun hung high over the muddy plains.
Outside the bunker, more than a hundred armed figures gathered, their silhouettes sharp against the glare. Sun Zhen stood at the forefront, voice steady and commanding as he addressed them.
In the Border Region, there were only two paths to redemption.
The first was to hunt Ghouls , extract source essence, and surrender it to the Alliance.
The second was to cleanse an entire area eradicate every last Ghoul and dispel the mist thus expanding the Alliance's territory.
Two methods, one purpose: survival through slaughter.
Because the mist never vanished while a single Ghoul remained.
Today, the Eye Worm King had to die.
Sun Zhen's words rolled like thunder across the crowd. His voice carried authority the kind that made men believe they could defy death itself.
By the time he finished, the air was alive with war cries.
"Kill the King!"
"Kill the B-rank!"
Their roars rose and fell like crashing waves. Amid that chaos, Jiang He followed the column forward, stepping once again into the suffocating fog.
At the front was Old Ding, a frail man with silver hair and skin weathered like cracked bark.
He shuffled along, nose close to the ground, sniffing the mud like a hound. His Bottom Probing ability was stretched to its limit feeling the tremors of the creature sleeping far beneath.
After a long march, they halted at the edge of a wide, stagnant pond.
Old Ding lifted his head and gave a single nod.
Sun Zhen drew in a deep breath. His voice rang out clear and sharp:
"Brothers, this is it. The surrounding Eye Worms have been cleared. This one's the last. I'll draw it out you all hit it with everything you've got!"
A deafening cheer answered him.
"This area's huge. Once we clear it, the sentence reduction will be massive at least a hundred years!" Sun Zhen's gaze swept over the crowd. "I'll report credit to the Alliance based on everyone's contributions! Those on the front lines get thirty percent upfront. Whoever kills it gets ten percent exclusive credit! Anyone who lands a fatal blow or gets injured will also be rewarded!
So tell me
what if it's a B-rank?!"
"Kill it!"
"Kill the B-rank!"
"Good!" Sun Zhen raised his arm, a fierce grin twisting his lips. "Take your positions! I'm forcing it out now!"
The hundred-man unit spread out across the pond's perimeter, forming a ring of steel and resolve.
Sun Zhen inhaled deeply. His hands crossed over his chest, eyes glowing with Source energy.
A sphere of white light flared from his palms bright enough to pierce the mist.
Then, with a sharp motion of his finger, an iron rod materialized from the light and shot downward, slamming into the center of the pond.
The sound was muted just a faint thud but the impact rippled through the earth.
Sun Zhen moved again.
Another rod. Then another.
Each one plunged into the mud like divine spears descending from the heavens.
Third. Fourth. Fifth.
By the eighth, the entire pond began to quake.
A low, guttural rumble rolled beneath them deep, resonant, ancient.
The Eye Worm King had awakened.
Jiang He stood at the edge, awestruck by Sun Zhen's technique. "Heavenly Rod, Earthly Branch…" he murmured. "Incredible…"
Lu Wenbiao tugged his sleeve. "Brother, that model you mentioned yesterday — does it apply to this King too?"
"Theoretically, yes," Jiang He replied. "But I haven't seen its size yet"
"Good. Then be ready. We might make a big score today."
Jiang He blinked. "Brother Biao, you're not thinking of"
"What's there to fear?" Lu Wenbiao grinned, eyes gleaming. "The bold get rich. The timid starve."
Jiang He sighed. "You're insane."
The pond began to seethe.
Bubbles surged from below, thick and sulfurous.
Gurgle… Gurgle…
"It's coming out!" someone shouted.
Then
A monstrous limb burst from the depths, flinging waves into the air. The water twisted into a spiraling vortex, and within its heart, a colossal eyeball opened.
It was vast, pale, veined with black tendrils pulsing like roots.
And then — whoosh!
A white beam streaked from above, striking the eyeball dead center.
Sun Zhen's Heavenly Rod descended again, splitting the air like the judgment of gods.
The battle for Border Region No. 38 had begun.
Note —
Resources in the Border Region: The Ark Alliance allocates supplies based on source essence output and territorial expansion, transporting them through teleportation arrays.
Regional Expansion: Each cleared area weakens the mist barrier, allowing human territory to grow inch by inch.