If you don't want treatment, get out! This doctor has a terrible temper.

Chapter 151 The Sleeping "King of the Sewers"

The old town of Changxiang City is like a pot of broth that has been simmering for decades.

On the surface, it's a maze of cobblestone alleys, residential buildings adorned with "national flags," and noodle shops that have been open for decades, wafting the aroma of lard, and noisy mahjong parlors.

It is full of the lively atmosphere of everyday life, but it is also a den of filth and grime.

Renxin Pharmacy is located in the very center of this maze, like a nail firmly nailed to the navel of this city.

Wang Minyu held the sewer system diagram he had taken from the "S" organization's database in his hand, his brows furrowed so deeply they could trap a fly.

The blueprints had long since yellowed, but the bright red mark looked like a drop of fresh blood, right fifty meters underground in the pharmacy, its redness glaringly obvious.

"The mother... is about to awaken," he murmured to himself, his fingers unconsciously stroking the red dot.

This reminded him of a prompt the system had given him a long time ago regarding the "living dead" Old Man Wu—"The mother is incubating."

At the time, he thought it was just an ordinary zombie virus instance, but he never expected it to be a complex trap.

Could it be that Old Wu wasn't infected by any virus, but rather "radiated" by some kind of energy field emitted by this so-called "mother body," which turned him into that living dead? If so, then the radiation radius of this thing is terrifyingly large.

"Boss, what are you looking at? A treasure map? Is it the place where Zhang Xianzhong sank his treasure?"

The sputtering engine stopped, and Zhao Shihao jumped off his bright pink hand tractor.

Today he was wearing a bright yellow tight-fitting vest, which, combined with his pink car, made him the most eye-catching sight on the old streets of Changxiang City.

After delivering today's groceries, this guy refused to leave again.

"More or less, but what we might dig up isn't gold or silver treasure, it might be a giant zombie." Wang Minyu put away the blueprints, pointed to the ground, and said, "This location is right next to our pharmacy, isn't it?"

"Yeah, we're right here." Zhao Shihao glanced at the blueprints, scratched his gray-streaked hair, and said, "What's down there? A septic tank? Boss, you want to clean up the latrines? I'm an expert at that. As long as the money's right, converting a tractor into a septic tank truck is a piece of cake."

"It's much more stimulating than a septic tank; it might make you give up eating for the rest of your life."

Wang Minyu ignored his nonsense and got up to walk to the backyard.

The large vat in the backyard that used to ferment stinky tofu has been transformed by Pierre's obsessive-compulsive disorder into a small Japanese-style dry landscape pond, where several koi carp he smuggled from Old Cai are swimming around peacefully.

Wang Minyu walked around the fishpond and into a dark corner of the yard, hidden by weeds. There, lay an inconspicuous manhole cover.

This manhole cover is very old; the cast iron surface is covered with dark red rust, and the crevices are filled with slippery moss. It looks like no one has touched it for decades.

This is one of the abandoned air-raid shelter entrances in the old town, which was later converted into a sewer access point, and is also the darkest entrance to the city's most shady artery.

"Guan Shan," Wang Minyu called out.

Guan Shan, who was practicing bench press with a stone millstone weighing several hundred kilograms in the corner, put down the barbell expressionlessly, causing the ground to tremble. He dusted off his hands and walked over like a moving mountain.

"Lift this up," Wang Minyu pointed to the manhole cover.

Without saying a word, Guan Shan squatted down and took a deep breath.

Without using any tools, he simply stretched out his large, fan-like hands and gripped the rusty edge of the manhole cover.

"rise!"

With a sickening metallic scraping sound, the cast iron manhole cover, weighing hundreds of kilograms and already rusted to the ground, was actually "pulled" off the ground by him!

With a loud crash, the manhole cover was carelessly tossed aside, smashing several blue bricks.

Instantly, a visible plume of black gas gushed out from the wellhead.

That taste... was amazing.

It was a mixture of the musty smell that had been fermenting for decades, the rotten steam unique to sewers, and a strange, fishy-sweet smell, like overripe, rotten fruit.

"vomit--"

Zhao Shihao, who had just approached, gagged and tears streamed down his face. "Holy crap! Boss, how many tons of durians are buried down here? This smell is intoxicating!"

Li Siyuan and Zhao Na also pinched their noses, looking at each other with a mixture of disgust and curiosity, but they didn't dare to get too close.

"Master, down there... could there really be some kind of monster? This smells like a biological weapon leak." Zhao Na shrank back in fear.

"I don't know if there are monsters, but there are definitely 'treasures'." Wang Minyu took a military-grade high-powered flashlight from Su Qing and shone it down into the well.

The beam of light pierced the darkness like a sharp sword, but it could only illuminate a small part of this bottomless abyss.

Below is a vertical, rusty iron ladder that stretches into the unknown depths of the earth, like the throat leading to hell.

"Su Qing, you stay up there and use the drone for remote monitoring and signal support. If anything seems amiss, blow up the entrance." Wang Minyu began assigning tasks, his tone as calm as if he were arranging a trip to the market. "Pierre, prepare some high-concentration alcohol and a few bottles of liquid nitrogen, just in case we need to 'barbecue' something. Li Siyuan, Zhao Na, you two are in charge of logistics and... collecting the bodies."

"Huh? Whose corpse are you collecting?" The two were startled, their faces turning pale.

"Of course, it's just in case we unfortunately die, you guys have to sweep up our ashes." Wang Minyu patted their shoulders with a half-smile, then turned to the other two, "Guan Shan, Zhao Shihao, you two, come down with me."

Upon hearing something exciting, Zhao Shihao, despite being overwhelmed by the fumes, instantly brightened his mischievous eyes: "Alright! Boss, this is perfect material for an adventure! Is there Wi-Fi downstairs? Can I start a live stream? I've already thought of a title—'Deep into the City's Secret Realm, in Search of the Legendary Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'!"

"If you want your fans to watch you get eaten like a snack by a monster, I don't mind." Wang Minyu tossed him a specially made biohazard suit. "Put it on and stop talking nonsense."

The three men were fully armed, wearing gas masks, and looked like a suicide squad about to deal with Chernobyl nuclear waste.

The three of them slowly descended into the underground via the iron ladder.

With each meter it descended, the surrounding temperature dropped a fraction, but the strange, sweet-smelling smell grew stronger, as if it were pickling the very lungs.

The air became extremely humid and viscous; you could even feel tiny water droplets condensing on the lenses of the gas mask.

After descending about fifty meters, my feet finally touched the ground—or rather, a thick layer of silt.

This is a huge, concrete-filled underground space, as spacious as an abandoned subway platform.

But there were no signs on the walls anymore, only a network of pipes, like the exposed veins of a giant beast, extending into the unknown darkness, occasionally emitting the gurgling sound of liquid flowing.

"This is the old sewer system of Changxiang City." Wang Minyu turned on his headlamp, the bright light sweeping across the surroundings. "It was built decades ago, and later a new sewage system was built in the new urban area, so this place was abandoned. I never expected it to become a haven for some things."

"Boss, look at that! It's disgusting..." Zhao Shih-hao's voice trembled as he pointed to the wall on one side.

Following his finger, one could see that the originally gray concrete wall was now covered with a thick, translucent, flesh-colored slime.

The mucus was still wriggling slightly, as if it were breathing.

On top of the slime, some strangely shaped fungi emitting a faint blue light grew, swaying gently with the movement of the air.

"This is... the 'mother's' fungal carpet." Wang Minyu's expression became more solemn than ever before.

This is no longer within the scope of biology; it's an ecological invasion.

He instantly activated the [Aura Observation Technique].

From the system's perspective, the world has changed.

The entire underground space was shrouded in a pale red, malevolent energy field.

These energies, like blood in a vein, are all converging and flowing in the same direction.

"Let's go, follow the flow of blood."

The three of them walked forward along the wide main pipe, their steps uneven.

The stagnant water underfoot was ankle-deep; it was black and stagnant, and it reeked of a foul stench.

Occasionally, mutated salamanders with multiple legs or mice with only one eye would swim quickly across the water, splashing water everywhere.

After walking for about ten minutes, the view suddenly opened up ahead.

This is an even larger circular space, with a dome reaching twenty meters high, resembling an underground temple or a giant reservoir.

When they saw what was in the center of the pool, even Wang Minyu, who was well-informed and had seen the entire system, couldn't help but gasp and feel a chill run down his spine.

There was no blue-faced, fanged monster in the center of the pool.

There was only one...person?

That's a woman.

She wore a pure white long dress, seemingly untouched by any filth in the world, the hem of which swayed gently.

She was barefoot, her feet as white as jade, and she defied gravity, hovering half a meter above the pool of black water.

Her eyes were closed, her face was serene and beautiful, and her skin was so white that you could even see the blue veins under her skin, like a sleeping beauty waiting for a prince to kiss her awake.

If you ignore the surrounding environment, this is absolutely a beautiful picture.

But as you look down, the horrific reality shatters any sense of beauty.

Her thick, black hair, like seaweed, fell loosely, soaking in the churning black water beneath her.

The ends of those hairs didn't end there; instead, they extended infinitely like tree roots, piercing into the water, into the walls, and becoming tightly connected with the disgusting fungal carpet of the entire underground space!

She is the "mother".

Or rather, the entire sewer system, these kilometers of fungal carpet, are all extensions of her body.

[Warning! Warning! Ultimate life form detected!]

[Target Name: Seed of Gaia (Sleeping Form)]

Codename: Zero

[Attribute: Unknown]

[Danger Level: ??? (System cannot parse; host advised to flee immediately!)]

For the first time, a series of bright red question marks appeared on the system panel, and it even gave the humane suggestion of "running away".

"Is...is this a fairy?" Zhao Shihao stared wide-eyed, his mouth agape beneath his gas mask. "Could this be the legendary Snail Fairy? Or a mermaid from the sewers?"

"A fairy?" Wang Minyu sneered, his eyes icy. "Have you ever seen a fairy who survives by absorbing the filth, excrement, and negative energy of an entire city?"

He pointed to the pool of water beneath the woman.

That wasn't water, but rather a chaotic sea formed by the combined sewage from the millions of people in Changxiang City, industrial wastewater, and all sorts of abandoned negative emotional energy.

And this woman is the "Queen" born from this chaotic sea.

"She's still not awake." Wang Minyu lowered his voice, his palms sweating. "She's waiting for an opportunity. Once she awakens, the entire city of Changxiang will become her 'womb,' used to nurture that so-called 'god.'"

Just then, something unexpected happened.

As if in response to Wang Minyu's words, the woman's tightly closed eyelids trembled almost imperceptibly.

"Buzz—!"

An invisible yet incredibly powerful mental pressure erupted from her center, spreading outwards in all directions!

The air in the entire space seemed to be sucked out instantly, turning it into a solid iron plate.

"Ah!" Zhao Shihao and Guan Shan screamed, feeling as if a red-hot steel needle had been pierced into their brains. Their vision went black, and they almost collapsed to their knees in the sewage.

Only Wang Minyu, relying on his powerful mental strength and the system's passive defense, bit his tongue and barely managed to stay upright.

Under the horrified gazes of the three, the woman, the "number zero," slowly... opened her eyes.

Those were eyes...without whites, without pupils.

There was only pure, abyssal darkness, as if it could absorb all light and soul.

Her gaze wasn't focused, but it accurately locked onto Wang Minyu.

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, revealing a smile that was both innocent and extremely wicked.

Without opening his mouth, a clear, viscous, and resonant sound rang out deep within Wang Minyu's mind, completely ignoring his eardrums.

"You...smell...very nice."