PD -Chapter 102 Jungle Inside the Building

I exchanged a glance with Liu Xiaopeng and followed Fan Bin’s lead, walking toward the dark mass of overgrown shrubs.

Li Zi, who had been trailing behind us, looked a little hesitant. He stood rooted in place for a moment, unsure whether he should step into that eerie, abandoned demolition site with us.

“Are you coming or not?” I turned back and called out to him.

“I… I’m coming!” Li Zi gritted his teeth and quickly ran to catch up with Liu Xiaopeng and me.

Although Fan Bin was young, he was surprisingly bold. Holding a flashlight, he plunged straight into a broken hole in the wall, pushing aside the shrubs that were even taller than him, leading us deeper without looking back.

Before long, we had entered the interior of this abandoned residential complex. I felt that the weeds and bushes here were growing far too wildly.

I couldn’t help but feel puzzled. Even though this place had been abandoned for years with no visitors, and the ground had crumbled to expose bare soil…

It had originally been covered in concrete. Even the underlying soil shouldn’t be as fertile as wild countryside land. So logically speaking, even if weeds grew here, they shouldn’t have become this lush.

We passed a few pillars and reached what should have been the largest open area of the building—likely the main lobby.

But now, it had become a paradise for plants.

Not only was the ground covered in thick vegetation, but vines had already climbed up the pillars and spread across the ceiling, weaving a green canopy overhead. Wherever our flashlight shone, everything was green.

In an instant, I had the illusion of being inside a primitive jungle.

Fan Bin swept his flashlight around for a moment, and finally the beam landed on a tree as thick as a man’s thigh and stopped.

Yes—there was actually a tree growing inside this concrete building, and it was lush and tall.

“That’s the place,” Fan Bin said, then led us under the tree.

In the flashlight beam, we saw a pit beneath the tree. The soil inside the pit was black.

“This… this is Hunan. How can there be black soil like in the Northeast?” Li Zi suddenly exclaimed in shock.

He was right. For some reason, the soil here was extremely fertile, on the level of northeastern black earth. We could even smell the moisture and the rich earthy fragrance coming from it.

Something inside the hole beneath the tree seemed disturbed by the flashlight. The black soil inside began to tremble.

Immediately after, we saw countless dense things crawling out of the hole, writhing and moving around the entrance.

“Are those earthworms or snakes…? They’re huge!” Liu Xiaopeng exclaimed.

I squinted and looked closely at the writhing creatures. From their appearance, they were not snakes—they really were earthworms. But I had never seen earthworms as thick as a child’s arm.

These enormous earthworms circled the hole, slowly crawling and writhing. Their movements were sluggish, but the motion itself was deeply unsettling.

I narrowed my eyes and looked into the hole. I immediately took the flashlight from Fan Bin and shone it deeper inside.

“There seems to be something in there.”

But the opening was too small, and we couldn’t see what was inside clearly. After a moment’s hesitation, I walked under the tree, picked up a branch, and slowly poked it into the hole, lifting something out.

“Damn it!” Li Zi cursed the moment he saw it. “That’s disgusting!”

The thing I lifted with the branch fell out of the hole and landed on the pile of earthworms at the entrance… then rolled down to my feet.

I looked down—and saw a blackened skull.

But its size seemed off. It didn’t look like an adult’s skull.

Just as I was about to bend down and examine it closely, the sluggish earthworms suddenly began to stir violently.

The giant earthworms arched their bodies like snakes sensing an intruder, trembling violently. Even the surrounding vegetation began to shake along with them, producing rustling sounds.

And then, as if receiving a signal, all the plants in the entire space began moving.

From the large tree in front of us to the tiny weeds just sprouting at our feet—all of them began trembling in a fixed, synchronized rhythm, producing a unified rustling sound.

At the same time, the earthworms suddenly lunged toward us like snakes.

My heart tightened. I immediately grabbed the skull and shouted, “Run!”

The others already sensed danger and ran without hesitation.

I turned back and saw the earthworms had already reached my feet. But unlike snakes, they had no fangs or venom…

So they used their thick bodies as weapons, coiling around my legs, trying to restrain me.

I cursed under my breath and stomped down hard, crushing the front half of one earthworm. But it didn’t slow down at all—it dragged its flattened body up my leg again.

I kicked it off, stomped again, and only then did it finally collapse motionless.

But when I looked back, I saw countless earthworms had already gathered behind me, relentlessly chasing us.

“Faster!” I shouted to urge the others.

At that moment, Li Zi’s scream came from the front.

I shone my flashlight forward—and saw Li Zi floating in the air, hanging upside down. A vine like a green snake had wrapped tightly around his leg.

“Big brother! Save me!” Li Zi shouted desperately from midair.

Above him, on the ceiling of this abandoned building, countless green vines began to writhe down like serpents, extending toward us like tentacles.

I gritted my teeth, formed a sword seal with my fingers, and condensed spiritual energy into a fire talisman, shooting it toward the vine holding Li Zi.

With a bang, the vine snapped, and Li Zi fell to the ground.

“Get out—now!” I shouted, helping him up as we rushed back toward the hole we had entered from.

But the wall was already covered in vines.

“They’re trying to seal the exit!” Liu Xiaopeng pointed at the remaining gap—now only the size of a fist—and shouted in alarm.

I shone my flashlight back.

The earthworm army had already reached our feet, while the vines from the ceiling were about to descend over our heads.

This time, they were all aiming for our necks—seemingly intent on hanging us, the intruders, right here on the spot.