Chapter 121: Disaster Doesn’t Reach Family? Whole Family Implicated!
The Chen Family’s perspective continued forward, clearly more cautious after being attacked by two Number 1 demonic creatures.
Li Ye could see the people in the perspective contracting their defense, forming an array as they advanced, with Second Realm martial artists acting as the outer defense, responding to those martial artists that occasionally emerged in the mine cave.
Fan Tie collected the replay and the features Li Ye mentioned, packaged them and sent them to his superior, and also noted the pollution report.
At the same time, he looked at Li Ye, hoping he would say more information.
This kid, after becoming Bureau Chief, seemed even more proficient in information, comparable to a big expert.
Li Ye watched the video until they came out of the mine cave and entered an unfamiliar spacious scene.
As a mine tunnel, this place was too big, like flat ground, just like an underground world.
“It’s right here!”
Fan Tie said: “A proliferated establishment in the Demon Realm, good grief, this area probably covers the entire Tongguan Mountain mine area!”
Li Ye’s attention was on the demonic creatures that appeared in the video.
The previous batch of Disinfection members who entered, only those few Second Realm ones were still holding on, entangled in combat with the demonic creatures, while the rest had all turned into corpses.
A large number of Number 1 demonic creatures appeared in the spacious area, surging toward those few martial artists like madmen, and those Dragon Gate Realm corpses were not only hugged by one, but some by three or four together, forcibly mineralizing him and fusing him with the ground.
And those Number 1 demonic creatures that continued attacking people, some actually directly merged into the ground, then drilled out from other places, pouncing toward a former Deputy Bureau Chief, but after being agilely dodged by the opponent, he struck back with a palm, repelling that demonic creature.
Seeing this, Li Ye said: “Number 1 demonic creatures are not derived from ore, but they have the power to fuse with ore or earth, their body hardness is like ore but their strength is average.”
As he was speaking, he saw a corpse hugged by three or five demonic creatures sink entirely into the ground, and immediately after, another demonic creature drilled out from the ground.
This made Li Ye show a hint of surprise, “And assimilation ability. Old Tie, enlarge the previous replay.”
“What you call it…”
Fan Tie pulled up the previous replay and enlarged the body of the Number 1 demonic creature they saw.
Although somewhat blurry, on that mineralized body, one could still discern traces of clothes if looked at carefully.
“This one is wearing ancient armor, should be the local mine supervisors’ military from that time, fused with the ore, not noticeable without close inspection.”
“This one is from a later era, with remnants of fabric, look at the chest pocket, and these.”
He pointed at several Number 1 demonic creatures among them; although their clothes were fused with ore, the clothing area was quite large.
“These are modern clothes; the quantity of these Number 1 demonic creatures, some appeared later.”
Li Ye said: “Number 1 demonic creatures can assimilate humans, but where does the source of this power come from?”
Then he looked at the several videos still live; besides Number 1 demonic creatures, new demonic creatures appeared there.
It was one much larger than a Coin Moth, an insect with an abdomen like a bug nest.
Its head was irregular silver ore, compound eyes like copper coin holes, mouthparts like abacus beads; when it opened its mouth, the bead string shot out like bullets, striking toward the subsequent Chen Family martial artists.
Some dodged, but others couldn’t and were hit by the bead string.
After being hit, no holes appeared; the person in the perspective was struck, the bead sank into his body, soon that person opened his mouth wide in agony, liquid clearly like melted ore flowed from his seven orifices, covering the person, and in no time, he became a pool of ore solution, pooling on the ground.
But some hit people managed to hold on with their qi and blood without changing.
It seemed related to the number of beads hit, and also the lower the qi and blood level, the worse.
This was also a new one that Li Ye didn’t recognize.
Others began counterattacking; the appearance of incendiary bombs provided lighting around, finally allowing them to see the situation clearly; several Second Realm martial artists quickly circled to the front of the metal flying insect, their attacks landing on the demonic creature, swiftly killing it.
Sabers and swords sliced faster than against Number 1 demonic creatures, guns and staffs piercing holes where they should, denting where they should.
Under the siege of several Second Realm martial artists, ordinary demonic creatures were naturally no match.
But just as the demonic creature died, that bug-nest-like abdomen swelled and burst, flying out a large number of tiny flying insects that grew upon emergence, turning into full-sized flying insects as they flew out.
However, these flying insects no longer had metallic surfaces; instead, they flew to the surroundings, spitting beads to turn the ground and rock into liquid, which their bodies automatically absorbed, becoming metallized.
And some martial artists switched to fire attacks, using incendiary bombs to burn dead those flying insects that hadn’t transformed in time.
At the same time, the video flickered out at this moment.
“Tentatively designate as Number 2 demonic creature, with the ability to melt all substances into metallic liquid, produces more upon death, but without metallization they seem very weak—this kind of demonic creature can be utilized, right?”
“Right.”
Fan Tie nodded: “If controlled well, this demonic creature would be of great use to us.”
“Next batch, you go in.”
Li Ye sent the last Jinze martial artists into the mine cave.
They also equipped themselves properly, armed with weapons, and warily walked into the Demon Realm, through the mine cave, to that vast space.
At this time in the space, the martial artists were fighting chaotically with Number 1 and Number 2 demonic creatures; the demonic creatures were numerous but limited in strength—the lowest Six Dragon Gate were actually a bit stronger than these.
Previously it was because there was no lighting, allowing demonic creatures to exploit gaps; now with incendiary bombs providing light, as long as they weren’t surrounded and resisted the pollution, the demonic creatures weren’t much.
Around eighty martial artists quickly swept through the Demon Realm, actually reducing the number of demonic creatures on the outer perimeter.
The ground no longer spawned Gall Tear Slaves, leftover ore didn’t combine into Ore Mule Silver Fiends, and the areas spawning Grave Dust Ore Demons and Coin Moths also shrank a lot.
With demonic creatures in the Demon Realm killed and pollution contained, the outer pollution would naturally recede.
Clearing the pollution in the Demon Realm was that simple: clear the demonic creatures inside to a certain extent, and the pollution dissipates on its own.
“This extent is enough; have them kill inside until reinforcements arrive.”
Li Ye glanced at the shrinking active range of the polluted area, and casually punched to explode a nearby spawned Gall Tear Slave.
This Demon Realm wasn’t some large area; it was just people dying from pioneering exploration, and now with stepwise unlocked countermeasures, it could be maintained.
“Our way is similar to yours.”
Fan Tie sighed: “Except we use our own people, while you—this is a Ming Dynasty-related Demon Realm, right? You’re just like Chuang Wang, and your surname is Li too.”
Driving others into the Demon Realm to preserve one’s own strength was Chuang Wang’s consistent style during the Ming Dynasty uprising.
“Not right…”
But at this moment, a weak voice sounded nearby.
Chen Hualong, brought by Li Ye, woke up at this moment and said: “If it were just these, I wouldn’t have come out of there.”
“Awake?”
Li Ye glanced at him and said: “You know quite a bit; those Number 1 demonic creatures wearing modern clothes inside were your doing, right?”
“Exchange.”
Chen Hualong said: “I tell you the specific intelligence, you spare my life; I didn’t cause much influence, I still have use. After the Demon Realm’s pollution stabilizes, I can go in to pioneer without demands.”
“So, you kept the Disinfection Bureau from moving; that was your scheme?” Li Ye asked: “You discovered the Demon Realm long ago.”
“Yes.”
Having had an arm torn off by Li Ye, and now here, Chen Hualong had given up struggling.
“The Demon Realm was discovered long ago; I concealed it to find the fiefdom inside. The Chen Family is strong in Jinze City, but without a fiefdom, I can’t truly establish myself. If I die someday, the Chen Family will decline.”
“I admit there was gambling; Demon Realms don’t necessarily have tokens, but reporting directly I wasn’t willing. I thought reporting later if really not found wouldn’t be too late, but I miscalculated… The Demon Realm’s sudden expansion is related to that thing.”
Chen Hualong looked at Li Ye: “Agree to my request, and I’ll tell you; otherwise, the Demon Realm’s pollution will erupt again, and this time it won’t just affect all of Tongguan Mountain—it’ll be bigger!”
“If you don’t agree, anyway I’ll be executed in the reckoning, might as well take others down with me; this time’s scale will kill many! Likely the entire Jinze City will be within the Demon Realm’s range!”
“Change to another exchange condition.”
Li Ye smiled, took the tablet, walked to Chen Hualong, and showed him the multi-perspective videos on the tablet.
“Your death is simple, but what about your family?”
He grabbed Chen Hualong’s head, pressing it close to the video: “You tell the intelligence, and I won’t kill your whole family; this deal should be good, right.”
“You, what did you do?!”
Chen Hualong had thought Li Ye just caught him, but people in the video included some of his family!
“Of course, gathered martial artists for stability maintenance; what else.”
Li Ye shrugged: “Right, your family has some relatives in the city who haven’t reached Six Dragon Gate, so I spared them; now my people are all over Jinze City. One call, start killing from your family-side relatives, then those in the Demon Realm.”
“Reason? Demonic creatures rampant, affecting the city and Demon Realm, some unfortunate deaths.”
“Jinze City Disinfection Bureau Chief feels ashamed, goes deep into Demon Realm and perishes with demonic creatures; as for Ningjiang City Disinfection Bureau, I’m here supporting the military, the rest has nothing to do with me. Worst case, it’s Ningjiang martial artists doing it, won’t trace to me this neighboring city Bureau Chief.”
“As for you Chen Hualong, search of your home finds demonic creatures from polluted area, clues found by enthusiastic civilian martial artists, exposing your crime of allowing Demon Realm expansion.”
Li Ye smiled: “Such a report; see if there’s anything to revise?”
“You can’t do this! That’s my whole family! Calamity doesn’t extend to family!” Chen Hualong roared.
“Disinfection Bureau has no such regulation.”
Li Ye’s voice turned cold: “My master died because of softness, thinking calamity doesn’t extend to family and ended up gone himself. On this, I follow Director Pan: not only extend to family, but implicate the whole family!”
“There’s a change!”
Just as he finished speaking, the video on another tablet in Fan Tie’s hand changed; after intense shaking in the perspective, the defeated demonic creature corpse mixed with surrounding ore gathered, turning into something like a spine-structured body, snake-like in form, but holding an object like a heart in its embrace.
And at this moment, the video fully flickered, no more movement.
“That’s it! Killing too many causes demonic creatures in the Demon Realm to automatically turn into that thing; it’s the source of pollution—as long as it exists, pollution keeps spreading!”
Chen Hualong roared: “Release my family, I’ll help you suppress it!”
Li Ye tossed the tablet, grabbed Chen Hualong’s head, and rushed straight into the mine cave interior.
“Withdraw! Li Ye!”
Fan Tie anxiously widened his eyes: “You can’t go in!”
“You guard outside; I need to see what that thing is.”
Li Ye’s voice grew smaller, finally vanishing in the mine cave.
Pollution source?
Good stuff.
He was already prepared to enter; the demonic creatures inside should let him feast.
And now an even bigger one appeared; swallowing it would let his martial arts progress faster.
One more chapter.
