Xu Yun and the others were shaken to the core.

Shen Cong, in truth, was shaken too—in hindsight. By his own reckoning, the Hell Plant Armor could withstand ten Mushroom Cannon hits. His earlier maneuvering had already spent two hits' worth.

That left eight it could still take, which was why he'd dared to give Bruce Li three blades.

But the craven, life-clinging Bruce Li had strapped a heap of spore powder to his body, and in his dying moment he'd cut loose his ultimate move—detonating the whole enormous load of spore powder on himself. Add to that Xu Yun's blade and one more Mushroom Cannon, and the intense Activity light-wave, savagely corroding Activity, had come within a hair of dropping the Hell Plant Armor into a near-death state.

But even short of near-death, it had only one hit's worth of tolerance left.

Very dangerous. He'd nearly capsized the boat.

After the battle he'd need to reflect hard, tally up the gains and losses.

For now, everything was back on track. Whoever needed killing still needed killing, and the Hell Plant Armor could reabsorb a hit's worth every five minutes—he could afford the expenditure.

What Shen Cong didn't know was that the cleanup work to come would throw up yet another twist.

Having watched the huge Mushroom Cannon explosion produce, as its net effect, a Shen Cong "without a hair out of place"—not only was Xu Yun dumbstruck, the twenty-odd Bug Warriors that remained were all dumbstruck too.

Against evolved persons—no Activity, no bodily advantage—their single greatest reliance was the Mushroom weapons, and now the Mushroom weapons weren't working.

It was like being struck by five thunderbolts at once!

The psychological plunge in that instant turned heaven and earth upside down.

And when they next saw Shen Cong, hale and vigorous again, cut down another Bug Warrior, Xu Yun said not a word—only shot Shen Cong a long, hard glare, then bolted into the depths of the forest without looking back.

The dignified Grand President of the Bug Warrior Republic.

The five-core Bug Warrior.

Ran.

Shen Cong, mid-slaughter of the…