“Bang, bang, bang—”
A dense burst of gunfire rang out, and the ten soldiers behind David were shot dead.
“Old Mai, your marksmanship’s not bad. Even more accurate than mine.”
“You should be that accurate when dealing with traitors.”
The reek of blood spread through the area. Zhuang Fan had already grown used to such scenes, and felt little stir within him.
He sized up the waterproof pod. It looked a little like an oversized sleeping bag, with steel plates supporting the outermost layer.
Zhuang Fan asked in puzzlement, “There’s only one escape device. What about you?”
David pointed at the diving masks and oxygen tanks. “Boss, we’ll use these.”
Zhuang Fan shook his head decisively. “My body’s tough enough. I don’t need it. Leave this waterproof pod for Lanshan.”
Xu Lanshan glanced at Zhuang Fan. “Master Xu, I’ve decided to stay.”
“Hm? Why?”
David was even more blunt. “Sister Shan, you’re not young anymore. Are you defecting too?”
Xu Lanshan shot him a cold look. “Xu Tiansheng won’t kill me. If I stay at headquarters, I can still be of some use.”
Max fell silent and looked toward Zhuang Fan.
Zhuang Fan carefully recalled the relationship between Xu Tiansheng and Xu Lanshan, and confirmed that what she said was true.
“You’re certain?”
“Master Xu, I’m certain.”
“Then just defect outright. Protect yourself.”
“Understood.”
Zhuang Fan looked at Xu Lanshan, David, and Max. After a moment of silence, he said from the bottom of his heart, “Thank you all for putting up with me all these years.”
These words were spoken by Zhuang Fan on Xu Renyi’s behalf.
David grinned, while a trace of emotion flickered in Max’s eyes. “It’s what we should do.”
Afterward, David took out five or six meteorites and stuck them inside the waterproof fabric, carefully instructing him,
“Boss, the underground river never sees the light of day, and the concentration of uncanny fog is very high. You must be extremely careful.”
Zhuang Fan successfully activated a memory. This kind of meteorite that could dispel fog was called radiant crystal, and it mainly came from the moon.
“I know. We’ll regroup after we get out.”
Then everyone pushed the waterproof pod into the underground river together.
Max looked deeply at Xu Lanshan. “Take care. We’ll meet again someday.”
“Protect Master Xu.”
Max nodded. Then he put on his mask and also dived into the underground river, securing himself to the waterproof pod.
Zhuang Fan felt somewhat moved. This truly was a loyal general. Unfortunately, he only acknowledged Xu Renyi. Old Xu really had a blessed life.
Afterward, David and the soldiers also put on oxygen tanks and masks, then jumped into the underground river together. Like a string of gourds, they were connected to one another with ropes.
Once the main group had left, Xu Lanshan put the bottom cover back in place and made a little effort to conceal it, doing her best to delay them.
She picked up a pistol, took a deep breath, and fired three shots in succession at her own shoulder, left foot, and side.
“Bang, bang, bang—”
They were nonlethal wounds and did not bleed much, but the pain was heart-piercing. She endured the nauseating dizziness, threw away the pistol, and lay down on the ground.
With injuries like these, as long as she cooperated and gave a statement, the company’s investigation team would not make things too difficult for her. Naturally, they would not resort to memory-search methods either.
She had originally intended to play dead first, but in the end, the pain became too much. She fainted outright.
Five minutes later, the alloy doors of the energy center were successfully breached. The wheel gears turned, letting out a low, rumbling boom.
Xu Wangdao was the first to charge in. He swept his gaze around the area. Aside from a pile of corpses lying there, there was no one else.
“Search!”
“Commander, she’s still alive.”
Xu Wangdao glanced over and waved his hand. “Excessive blood loss. Carry her back for emergency treatment.”
The soldiers conducted a brief search and found nothing.
“Impossible. We searched everywhere outside. This is the only place left. Open all the generator covers!”
Xu Wangdao observed for a while and finally noticed something strange. The hydroelectric generator sets seemed far too quiet.
Soon, the search team discovered the pried-open bottom cover.
Xu Wangdao looked at the pitch-black river water, his expression turning slightly cold. “An underground river. They really went all out.”
“Notify all legions immediately. Search the nearby rivers and lakes. Don’t let go of a single place with water!”
Xu Wangdao looked at the soldiers present and continued giving orders. “You put on masks and all jump down there to chase them.”
The underground river had a radius of about two meters. At its narrowest point, only one person could pass through, and it was extremely steep, filled with jagged rocks.
At first, Max clung tightly to the waterproof pod and refused to let go.
But under the heavy swirl of black fog, many people began to suffer auditory and visual hallucinations, dizziness, and disorientation. More and more started falling behind.
Even more fatal was the fact that the underground river had many forks. It was not a single channel leading straight to the end. Only then did Max realize the severity of the problem.
Thinking back to David’s words, what he had said at the time was that he had thrown down a bundle of signal markers and later found only one. In fact, that had already explained the problem; it was just that none of them had noticed then.
“Boom—”
The group was soon scattered by the current, truly parting ways. David was filled with despair. “Looks like we can’t be fellow travelers anymore!”
Max only heard him babbling and did not know what he meant. He reached out with one hand, trying to grab David and pull him over first.
Just then, another watershed appeared. Before Max could react, David let out several howls and vanished into another fork.
By the latter half of the journey, only Max and Zhuang Fan were left.
Under the continuous impacts, the waterproof pod David had made by hand could not withstand the pressure at all and disintegrated halfway.
Zhuang Fan struggled out of it. His skull ached from all the collisions, and he had swallowed several mouthfuls of water. If not for his excellent constitution, he would have died halfway through.
He threw the radiant crystals inside to Max. He himself did not need the things.
“Hold on.”
Max wanted to take off his own mask and give it to Zhuang Fan, but in the end, he himself fell down a steep waterfall-like cliff and was completely separated from Zhuang Fan.
What the hell kind of underground river is this?
Zhuang Fan was also in despair. He had choked down many mouthfuls of water and could no longer tell direction at all. He could only protect his head first.
After about five or six minutes, his entire body was washed out of a cavern waterfall and plunged into a lake.
“Cough, cough.”
Zhuang Fan used the last of his strength and finally crawled onto the gravel shore, then lay there motionless.
Only after quite a while, when the pain in his body receded and his internal organs felt as if they had returned to place, did he slowly stand up.
First, he took off his dripping-wet outer clothes. After wringing them dry, he put them back on.
He looked around and saw no one.
After waiting patiently in place for seven or eight minutes, Max and the others still had not come over. He guessed that this time they had truly been scattered by the current.
I hope they can escape.
Just then, the search team in the distance gradually drew closer, their lights already sweeping over.
Damn it. I’m about to be discovered.
Zhuang Fan did not hesitate in the slightest. He immediately left the river channel, randomly found a small path, and fled madly.
It was deep night. The shadows of the trees rustled, sounding like countless raindrops falling, especially noisy.
Zhuang Fan ran with his head down for a while, then suddenly shuddered. Why did this sound feel so strangely familiar?
He looked up and saw rings of black insects shaped like springs dropping from the branches, all rushing toward him.
One of them sprang up and latched directly onto Zhuang Fan’s calf. Its body swelled instantly.
Dryland leech? No, this is a real spring leech.
Before Zhuang Fan had time to digest the old man’s memories, he pulled out his dagger and severed the spring leech’s head from its body. A large amount of blood splattered out.
More spring leeches pounced over, densely packed in a vast mass. Zhuang Fan’s scalp went numb. Not daring to linger even half a second longer, he quickly passed through this bizarre forest.
But when he stepped onto a large boulder, he realized something was wrong, because the “boulder” was actually soft and collapsing.
The rock layer suddenly split apart, revealing a hideous, bloody maw that almost swallowed him whole.
What the hell are all these things?
Only after Zhuang Fan ran far away did he see clearly that it was a giant frog shaped very much like a rock.
[Rock Frog. Slow-moving, with a calcified body surface, as hard as stone. Skilled at hiding itself.]
Almost at the same time, a dozen or so plump brown-black rats crawled over from the side. Their tails were long and narrow, and their teeth and claws looked even more sinister under the moonlight as they secretly watched Zhuang Fan.
[Poison Rat. Possesses extremely strong reproductive ability. Generally weighs several hundred kilograms. Strong at digging. Its skin is poisonous. The meat quality is decent.]
Before Zhuang Fan could figure out what was going on, another ink-black, thin and elongated ghostly figure disguised as a tree suddenly launched an attack. It extended more than a dozen branch-like tentacles and pierced through all the poison rats.
“Hiss, hiss—”
Zhuang Fan was startled. He hurriedly swung his blade and cut off a section of branch that was lunging toward him, then quickly flashed backward.
The old man’s memories were parsed:
[Slender Ghost. A variant of tree demon. Appears at night. Irrational and frenzied. Cannot be tamed. Extremely aggressive. Dangerous.]
One poison rat after another was hoisted up. As the branches split, they slowly tore the rats’ bodies apart, then stirred their internal organs. Blood dripped down along the rats’ tails, making the scene extremely bloody.
One poison rat panicked and tried to flee, only to be bitten by a huge fish head that sprang out of the earth. Then the plump fish body dragged its prey bit by bit back into the mud, silently and without a trace.
[Lungfish Monster. Likes to bury itself in the soil and hibernate for several months, then ambush prey when it passes by. Large mouth, sharp teeth. Meat is tough, poisonous, and not tasty.]
After reading Xu Renyi’s memories, Zhuang Fan was very firm in his decision: he would never eat that thing in this lifetime.
In just seven or eight minutes, he had witnessed all manner of crazed behavior from wild creatures. The level of bloodiness was shocking to behold.
Behind him, the pursuers had already followed Zhuang Fan’s tracks and begun a carpet search. One drone after another also activated thermal imaging.
The modified hover vehicles flew slowly through the air, because the uncanny fog was thickest at night, while the radiant crystals dispelled fog rather slowly. This severely limited the troops’ speed of advance.
This also bought Zhuang Fan an excellent window of time to escape.
Just then, a muffled sound came from across the entire land, accompanied by a faint tremor.
Zhuang Fan, running at the very front, was naturally the first to feel it.
An earthquake? It doesn’t seem like it.
When he struggled out of the forest, the shaking of the ground became even stronger. He reached a small slope and looked ahead. His pupils trembled along with the earth, and he froze in place.
By the cold, eerie moonlight, everywhere within his field of vision—whether towering mountains or low-lying shallows, ruined walls and rubble or forested hills—was packed full of walking corpses.
Their black-gray rotting skin formed one continuous mass, densely crowded and overwhelming, enough even to blot out the night sky.
So the things flying in midair were a flock of highly decomposed corpse birds, sweeping over like a sandstorm.
In the distance, the vulture-men and eagle-men let out several strange cries and frantically spread their wings to flee, not daring to linger for even a moment.
Zhuang Fan was almost certain that this corpse tide had been alarmed by the gunfire and flamethrowers behind him. The two sides were about to face a brutal battle.
Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and ran.