Chapter 131: Escape!
Li Nuowei and Drake turned back and desperately fled, but Drake, who had just escaped Mermaid Disease, seemed somewhat exhausted. Drake’s spirit couldn’t concentrate enough, and his limited strength had been depleted by more than half after that earlier forceful leap.
Li Nuowei pulled Drake and rushed into the hidden path, stumbling with his footsteps.
The Green Light Gemstone that Drake had taken in his hand had actually influenced him as well. The treasures he touched, which carried the curse of the Sea God of Anhai, had already begun to erode his body. In other words, from the moment he closely touched the treasures in that stone chamber, he had contracted “acute” Mermaid Disease. The energy of the Green Light Gemstone was naturally both curing and harming him.
At this moment, Li Nuowei could empathize with Drake’s earlier pain.
The Muddy Swamp pursued the two relentlessly, with countless wails from vengeful spirits on its body. It rushed wildly through the narrow path like a surging flood, wanting to devour the two in front of it and turn them into nutrients for its body.
Earlier, Drake had obstructed the Muddy Swamp, and the wall at the end of the hidden passage had already been broken through by Li Nuowei. This time, the two didn’t need to spend effort on the broken wall; they leaped directly down into the stone chamber full of gold, silver, and jewels, landing in an innumerable “jungle” of goldware.
For the Muddy Swamp, the mountain of treasures piled up in the stone chamber was fatal poison. Its pursuit stopped at the end of the hidden passage, venting its frustrated anger through the roars of the countless vengeful spirits on its body.
Drake and Li Nuowei fell into the “mountain of gold.” The treasures on the pile gradually calmed down after a bout of turmoil.
After a moment of stillness, Drake’s hand holding the Green Light Gemstone broke out from under the pile of jewels. The two men, covered in wounds, pulled each other out from the treasure pile that had buried their bodies.
Li Nuowei felt an itch on his chest. He scratched casually at his chest, and large patches of sharp scales scraped his hand. At the same time, bluish-black scales were falling off his chest.
The scales falling off caused wounds to appear, and bright red blood quickly stained his clothes.
His chest burned with pain, waves of agony unrelenting, but Li Nuowei didn’t mind. This level of pain was nothing to him now. He simply took off his shirt to avoid the wounds sticking to his clothes due to the blood.
“Are you really okay like this?” Drake saw Li Nuowei’s front covered in bloody flesh and felt pain just looking at it.
“I’m fine.” Li Nuowei shook his arms. “Let’s get going.”
With that, as if he had known all along, he rummaged randomly on the ground and picked up a silver steel sword inlaid with multicolored gemstones. It showed no signs of corrosion from time, which was unbelievable. It was about four feet long, a bit heavy, but still a weapon. Moreover, as one of the cursed treasures of the Sea God of Anhai, it could be considered “enchanted.”
Drake was stunned at the sight. He rummaged through the treasure pile in front of him but found pitifully few weapons and equipment. The only thing he found that could be used for combat was a small dagger at most twenty centimeters long.
“Better than nothing.” Li Nuowei comforted him. “And don’t underestimate it. You don’t even have…”
“Hm?” Drake keenly realized what Li Nuowei meant and glared at him, his tone unfriendly. “What the hell are you trying to say?”
Drake felt somewhat frustrated deep down. How did this Li Nuowei still have the mood to talk about such irrelevant things, and why did he know about it?
A ghastly smile squeezed onto Li Nuowei’s pale face. “Heh heh heh, let’s go. I know there’s another way out of here.”
He dragged the sword ahead, leading Drake into a hole in a corner of the stone chamber. They would next crawl back to the spiral staircase through this hole.
……
In the darkness, gunshots rang out continuously. Explosive flashes flickered one after another in the dark underground air-raid shelter, and the rumbling echoed repeatedly between the underground chambers, sounding like thunder.
Yu Lianyun ran through the underground chamber holding a pistol. With the help of night vision goggles, she could see the merman creatures stealthily scurrying in the darkness. Their exaggerated and pervert-like running postures, with claws bared, filled her with dread. She could only try her best to avoid direct confrontations, circling around them.
But there were too many mermen, too many for her to avoid combat entirely. She could only fight back while opening a gap in their ranks for an escape route, fleeing all the while.
Yu Lianyun ran with some regret and helplessness. She had underestimated the size of this underground air-raid shelter. She didn’t know how long she had been running without seeing the far boundary of the space or an escape route.
“Hm?” Just as her stamina was starting to falter, she finally spotted a strange building in the underground air-raid shelter amid the prolonged chase with the mermen—a house specially constructed. Its entrance had an iron door, but it was tightly closed at the moment.
Yu Lianyun had finally found a place to possibly hide and rest temporarily. Without hesitation, she rushed over. She first tried a flying kick to break open the door, but the result was only numbness in her foot sole, while the door merely dented inward, opening a tiny gap.
“Damn, who barred the inside with a steel pipe?” Yu Lianyun was shocked and angry. Soon, her delicate eyebrows raised as she thought, “It couldn’t be Drake and that guy called Li Nuowei, could it? These two didn’t even think I’d find this place?”
Hui Ke… Hui Ke…
The mermen’s cries drifted clearly from afar again. Yu Lianyun knew her time was running out. She gritted her teeth and looked at the Blessing Incarnation beside her. “Yao Zhenzhen, help me out. Open the door.”
Yao Zhenzhen couldn’t make any sound. Her lifeless eyes stared at her, then her hair suddenly shot out. The tip that shot forward was sharp like a slender spear point, stabbing without warning into the delicate skin of Yu Lianyun’s neck.
Yu Lianyun was startled and retreated a few steps in panic, clutching her neck. She only felt piercing coldness from the stabbed spot. “What did you do?”
This was the first time in years of coexisting with the Blessing Incarnation that she had been treated this way. Of course, it was also the first time she had actively sought its help. She just hadn’t expected that seeking help would result in an “attack.”
Urgh—
Yao Zhenzhen didn’t speak. Her floating hair swung like a flailing arm hammer toward the iron door at her side. The steel pipe jammed on the inner door handle was sliced in two from the deformed middle, and the iron door thus opened.
Yu Lianyun, feeling no other discomfort for the moment, didn’t pay it much mind. She pushed open the door and entered the house, then found a long stick-like object to jam the door handle. The mermen outside pounded madly on the door but couldn’t immediately push open the sturdy, heavy iron door.
“How is this air-raid shelter designed? Why is there still a house here?” Yu Lianyun felt a bit relieved inwardly. She looked at her surroundings and couldn’t help but wonder.
She explored the house for a while and soon discovered another secret passage leading underground. The entrance to the secret passage even had two pairs of shoe prints that hadn’t evaporated, still damp with moisture.
“They’re down here, right?” Yu Lianyun guessed that Drake and Li Nuowei were below at this moment, and the horrific truth buried by history was also at the end of this deep, dark place.
