Chapter 201
Chapter 201
Zhang Lang munched through every last edamame bean in Feng Meiyu’s basket like a horse chomping fodder.
By the time he finished, his body had recovered considerably.
With him back in action, Qin Ying no longer needed to take point when they entered the tunnel.
Zhang Lang stretched, then prodded several places on his body.
The spots that had been charred black by lightning barely hurt anymore.
He glanced at Qin Ying again, then crawled into the tunnel he had dug through the wall of the refuge alcove.
Yin Minmin was about to follow when Qin Ying signaled her with a look. Qin Ying then said to Zhao Jixian and Feng Meiyu, “You two go first. We’ll bring up the rear and keep you safe.”
She was still using the same line about protecting them. Zhao Jixian and Feng Meiyu noticed nothing amiss. Looking grateful, they followed Zhang Lang into the tunnel.
Only then did Qin Ying let Yin Minmin go ahead.
Qin Ying went last.
Zhang Lang was an armadillo, after all. Once he underwent Monstrous Beast Transformation, his digging skills were exceptional.
The refuge alcove’s thick concrete wall might as well have been tofu beneath his right claw.
Qin Ying ran a hand over the rock wall of the tunnel and found it covered in overlapping, scale-like marks, as though carved out with a miner’s shovel.
So Yin Minmin’s made-up story hadn’t been entirely implausible. If Zhang Lang ever took up tomb raiding, he would be a master at digging entrance tunnels.
The tunnel rose at a gentle incline.
In the darkness, there was no telling how long they had been crawling when the Thunderbird perched on Qin Ying’s shoulder suddenly grew agitated.
It hopped around to face the darkness behind her.
Cold sweat broke out across Qin Ying’s skin.
She could sense something following them.
It wasn’t one of the Human-Faced Flesh Mass creatures. They had sprayed Xuncao Flower Water at the entrance before crawling inside, so there was no way any Human-Faced Flesh Mass could follow them.
Then what was trailing them through the dark?
After thinking it over, Qin Ying could only come up with the thing that had yanked Zhao Jixian earlier.
As if summoned by the thought, a foul odor soon drifted through the tunnel.
Mixed in with the smell of blood was another all-too-familiar stench: the stale, unwashed reek of Black Seven, that damned Fatty who never bathed.
The stench was so obvious that even Zhao Jixian and the others up ahead noticed it.
Zhang Lang’s voice came from the front. “Q-Qin Ying? Are you all right?”
Even when he called her name, his voice trembled.
“I’m fine!” Qin Ying forced herself to remain calm as a thin layer of silver metal silently spread over the right hand she was using to climb.
Even if there was trouble, they couldn’t stop now. All she could do was grit her teeth and keep going.
“Sister Ying.” Yin Minmin sounded anxious and worried.
“Keep climbing,” Qin Ying said.
Without needing to discuss it, all five of them picked up their pace.
But the thing following them sped up as well.
The blended stench drew closer and closer.
Unable to hold back any longer, the Thunderbird on Qin Ying’s shoulder plunged into the darkness.
The tunnel was far too cramped, robbing the Thunderbird of its usual agility. Worried, Qin Ying called after it, “Be careful.”
The moment she finished speaking, the crackle and sizzle of an electrical discharge came from behind her.
The tunnel Zhang Lang had dug was spacious enough for Qin Ying to barely brace herself in a one-legged crouch.
She turned around with difficulty and immediately caught the smell of burning cloth and charred flesh.
The smoke was choking. Everyone in the tunnel began to cough.
With a rustle of wings, the Thunderbird flew back out of the darkness and landed on Qin Ying’s shoulder, proudly nuzzling her earlobe.
Qin Ying, who had covered her mouth and nose with her elbow, breathed a sigh of relief.
Yin Minmin didn’t look back. Even if she had, she wouldn’t have been able to see what had happened in the darkness. Still worried, she asked again, “Sister Ying, are you okay?”
Qin Ying gave a muffled acknowledgment. With the charred odor constantly billowing upward, she had no desire to speak.
She simply lowered her head and kept climbing.
This stretch of tunnel wasn’t particularly long.
The only problem was Fatty down below, charred black by the electricity. The scorched smoke rose like fumes from a meat smoker, leaving Qin Ying reeking from head to toe.
Even with nerves as strong as hers, Qin Ying couldn’t stop gagging.
After crawling for about ten minutes, she heard Feng Meiyu exclaim happily from up ahead, “We’re through!”
Qin Ying breathed a sigh of relief as well. She was about to press on and crawl out for a breath of fresh air when something like a pair of iron pincers suddenly clamped around her ankle.
Caught off guard, Qin Ying was dragged backward a short distance.
Even through her pants, she could feel the greasy, half-melted flesh of the palm gripping her ankle.
Her heart hammered in the darkness, but she reacted quickly.
She kicked back into the darkness with her free foot.
Her sole connected with something soft but hard underneath.
Qin Ying nearly twisted her ankle.
Yet whatever was holding her in the darkness was completely unaffected.
Instead, its two hands began working in turns, dragging her down by the legs.
Its strength was like that of a predator hauling off its prey.
Qin Ying hurriedly braced herself against the rock wall, but Zhang Lang had done too good a job digging the tunnel. The fish-scale striations on the walls were too slick to offer any purchase.
She slid down another stretch, and the smell of charred meat grew stronger.
Both her legs were now caught.
Just as she was about to throw caution to the wind, let herself slide down, and fight the thing head-on, Di Shang, which had remained motionless until now, suddenly stirred.
Qin Ying shifted her right hand as it slipped against the rock wall. Most of Di Shang converged in her palm, transforming into a short blade the length of her forearm.
She twisted around and slashed behind her.
There was no dazzling play of light or shadow. She only felt the blade cut through something in the darkness.
It met no resistance at all, gliding through as smoothly as a hot knife through butter.
The hands that had been gripping their way up her calves abruptly loosened.
Qin Ying kicked twice more and knocked one of them loose.
The other, however, remained clamped around her ankle like some gruesome dangling charm, refusing to fall off.
Qin Ying looked back again, judged its position, and brought the silver blade in her right hand down.
It was pitch-black, and she was afraid of chopping into her own foot. This was her real body, not the Soul-Container Puppet in the World in the Box.
Therefore, she kept her swing conservative.
Just like that, she crawled upward with the grisly ornament still hanging from her ankle.
A sliver of light filtered down through the opening. The moment her hand caught the edge, Yin Minmin and Zhang Lang hauled her out together.
Reeking of smoke and grease, Qin Ying dropped onto the cold concrete floor.
The flame of the kerosene lamp they had brought flickered unsteadily.
Only then did she turn and see the severed hand hanging from her ankle.
It was charred black all over and had been sliced cleanly through the middle of the forearm. Its thick fingers, red flesh showing beneath the blackened skin, were curled tightly around Qin Ying’s ankle.
It looked as though it meant to drag her down to hell.
Zhang Lang stepped forward and used his mutated hand to pry it off.
His grip was like a hydraulic clamp. He forcibly snapped every finger on the severed hand before Qin Ying was finally freed.
Holding the severed hand, Zhang Lang saw that even the exposed bone at the cut was perfectly smooth. His free hand, hanging at his side, twitched involuntarily.
Not daring to look at Qin Ying, he was about to toss the hand onto the floor when the thing suddenly twitched twice.
Startled, Zhang Lang flung it back into the tunnel.
Afraid it would continue following them and cause more trouble, he clawed around the opening. His sharp talons dug loose enough broken brick and stone to block the tunnel.
Only after all that did the group finally relax.
Qin Ying looked around and found that they were in a long, narrow concrete passage.
It was clearly a modern construction, and long-dead mining lamps still hung on the walls.
Yin Minmin pointed ahead. “Director Wu and the others are at the very end.”
“We can follow the markers to reach them.”
Looking in the direction she indicated, Qin Ying spotted a conspicuous marker spray-painted on the wall in fluorescent green.