Chapter 472: Captain Zhou, Healer of the Wounded

Facing the combined assault of the two Saint Lords, the Compassionate Tear Spore Mother had almost no room to retaliate. If not for its massive body, countless roots, and pervasive spore threads, it likely would have been instantly killed.

Su Mu narrowed his eyes. 'Is this the strength of a Saint Lord? Wielding divine power with a Saint Grade body.'

He ran a silent calculation and realized that without using his nightmare power, he would probably find it very difficult to defeat a Saint Lord.

His Giant Demon body, strengthened countless times, was certainly strong enough, but only a God could fight a God. Faced with power that transcended the mortal dimension, even the strongest physical body was useless.

A mortal was ultimately just a mortal.

Su Mu ignored the battle between the Saint Lords and shifted his gaze to the others. With a blur of motion, he appeared beside a team member entangled in roots.

The Netherbone Fan in his hand flashed with a cold light. Swish!

The roots wrapping the man instantly snapped into countless pieces and fell to the ground.

The man cast a grateful look at Su Mu. Just as he was about to voice his thanks, however, his expression drastically changed. He desperately clutched his throat with both hands, his mouth stretching wide in an uncontrollable gasp.

Inside his throat, strands of white spore threads were spreading. His eyes gradually turned white—not from a change in color, but from actual spore threads creeping across his eyeballs, threatening to completely cover them!

He must have accidentally inhaled the spores when he was attacked moments ago.

Seeing this, Su Mu clamped a hand firmly onto the man's shoulder. Crackle!

Deep blue lightning surged from his palm into the man's body. As the electricity invaded him, the white spore threads charred black and flaked away.

The man scrambled up from the ground, still badly shaken, and frantically brushed the charred remains off his clothes.

"Th-Thank you!"

Su Mu nodded and immediately darted to the next spot to help the others.

Lightning naturally suppressed the spore threads. This was precisely how Zhou Qiong had managed to make it out of the forest alive earlier.

Although Su Mu didn't actually possess lightning abilities, he could deceive the Law, allowing himself to wield it.

Crackle, crackle...

The sound of lightning continuously rang out across the battlefield. Like a doctor healing the wounded and rescuing the dying, he repeatedly saved the team members from the brink of death.

"Thank you, Captain Zhou!"

"Captain Zhou truly lives up to being a veteran God Hunter!"

"Words cannot express our gratitude, Captain Zhou. We will definitely repay this favor in the future!"

The intense fighting meant everyone had inevitably inhaled some spores; Su Mu's lightning freed them from that lingering worry.

"Don't mention it. We're braving the Divine Ruins together. It's only right that we look out for each other."

Su Mu smiled warmly. 'I'm helping you now, but it'll be your turn to help me later.'

After all, lightning wasn't the only thing he had just injected into their bodies.

"C-Captain Zhou, I..." Yan Ming walked over, clutching his abdomen with an awful expression, looking as if he wanted to speak but couldn't quite force the words out.

He had inhaled spores as well, though thanks to his Saint Grade strength, he had managed to temporarily suppress them.

In truth, if given enough time, he could have completely purged the spores from his body on his own. But in the Divine Ruins, there was no time to catch a breath.

Left with no choice, he had to come to Su Mu for help. Yet, bound by his pride, he found it difficult to open his mouth.

Suddenly, a hand dropped onto Yan Ming's shoulder.

Yan Ming paused. Looking up, he found Su Mu smiling at him with the gentle demeanor of a modest gentleman.

"Bear with it."

"Mhm..."

Crackle!

A burst of electricity flashed, and the spores inside Yan Ming's body were completely eradicated.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, but in the end, nothing came out. He simply cupped his hands in thanks and walked away.

"Captain, are you alright?" Chu Ying, who had been following behind Su Mu the entire time, asked in surprise.

"Were you affected by a God's aura? You don't seem like the type to help people selflessly."

Su Mu pushed up his Tinted Glasses. "You misunderstand me deeply. In fact, I've always been eager to help others. Besides, this wasn't selfless at all. By helping them, they are also helping me."

Chu Ying was utterly baffled, but Su Mu didn't bother explaining further. He simply turned around and went back to helping the others.

Meanwhile, the battle deep within the forest finally reached its conclusion. Under the combined assault of the two Saint Lords, the Compassionate Tear Spore Mother let out a harrowing wail. The three female faces atop its fleshy tumor shattered completely.

Its massive body crashed heavily to the ground, devoid of life.

The two Saint Lords, on the other hand, were completely unscathed. They looked perfectly composed, clearly not having even used their full strength.

The Lord of Dawn cast a surprised glance at Su Mu. He had naturally noticed Su Mu's life-saving actions just now, but he never expected this insatiably greedy 'Captain Zhou' to actually harbor such a selfless side.

To willingly deplete his own power just to heal others... after all, in the Divine Ruins, excessive power consumption was essentially slow suicide.

"Captain Zhou, you have my thanks," he said, cupping his hands.

"Don't mention it."

"How should we proceed next?"

Su Mu shrugged. "My previous exploration ended right here, so I'm not entirely sure about the road ahead. However, the closer we get to the core of the Divine Ruins, the stronger the divine abominations will become. In my opinion, our heading wasn't wrong. We just need to keep moving forward."

Seeing that Su Mu didn't know the way forward, the smile on the Lord of Dawn's face slowly faded. Ignoring Su Mu, he issued orders to the rest of the group, having them clear the path ahead while he and the Lord of Primal Desolation brought up the rear.

A day later, the group finally made their way out of the forest. During this time, they encountered quite a few divine abominations and lost some personnel. However, with the two Saint Lords holding the fort, their journey was perilous but ultimately manageable.

"The aura of a God! It's just ahead!" A hint of joy appeared on the Lord of Primal Desolation's rugged face. With a leap, he vaulted up the mountain peak blocking their path. But as he looked down, the joy on his face instantly froze.

"What is it?" The Lord of Dawn appeared silently beside the Lord of Primal Desolation. Following his gaze, his expression tightened.

Below the mountain stood a sprawling palace. It looked like a monster forcefully squeezed out from the Abyss of Nightmare—a grotesque amalgamation of flesh, machinery, and plants that assaulted the human senses.

Half of the palace's outer walls were constructed from bronze-colored machinery, while the other half consisted of squirming, deformed flesh. In the crevices between the machinery and the flesh, countless bizarre plants grew wildly, shifting like living creatures.

The auras of the Merciful Holy Mother of Myriad Blossoms and the Fallen Sin Maitreya constantly radiated from the palace. The two were thoroughly intertwined, completely indistinguishable from one another.

"This is trouble," the Lord of Dawn said solemnly.

"The thing this Saint Lord feared most has come to pass. The two Divine Corpses have actually fused together." The Lord of Primal Desolation's face looked just as grim. His metallic fists clenched tightly, letting out a series of sharp cracking sounds.

At this moment, the rest of the group also scaled the peak. The eerie and grotesque palace slammed into their nerves like a physical blow.

Su Mu narrowed his eyes, a barely perceptible crystalline blue light flickering in his gaze.

'Fused together, huh?'

The Fallen Sin Maitreya controlled machinery and flesh, while the Merciful Holy Mother of Myriad Blossoms governed proliferation and plants. Looking at it now, the Authorities of the two Gods must have shared underlying similarities that complemented each other. That was why the Holy Mother had parasitized Maitreya, beginning to proliferate and grow.