Chapter 217
Chapter 217
Waves of scorching vapor rose from the ground.
Formalin, years-old stagnant water, the stench of charred corpses…
All the odors mingled into a nauseating reek that caught in the throat.
Qin Ying covered her nose and coughed twice.
She had been worried that the Thunderbird was too small to deliver a strong enough electric shock.
Now she realized she had underestimated the little one.
Purple lightning rained down everywhere, weaving a spectacular web through the dark room.
Qin Ying used Di Shang to secure herself to the railing so she wouldn’t lose her balance and fall into the pool.
Then she settled comfortably atop the dry stone railing and calmly watched the water below.
The pool water conducted electricity. Chen Heng’s iron chains conducted electricity too.
The River God in the pool was shocked so badly that its eyes rolled back, one shrill scream after another bursting from its mouth.
When the current became too much to bear, it retched involuntarily, vomiting up chunks of corpses wrapped in scraps of red cloth.
Zhang Yuqin’s head, its hair in disarray, bobbed in the murky water.
At the thought that one wrong move could have left her and Yin Minmin in the same state, Qin Ying felt little sympathy.
She stared intently at the swollen, sac-like tail attached to the River God’s lower body.
Then she frowned deeply.
She called to the Thunderbird darting through the darkness in a shroud of lightning, “Turn up the power. Shock its tail.”
The Thunderbird chirped twice, and the bolts raining down grew even denser.
Qin Ying barely had time to glance at the countless deformed corpses that had broken free from the Specimen Bottle before they were electrocuted into charcoal.
The River God in the pool fared even worse. Not a scrap of intact flesh remained on its body as it floated in the water like scorched rice crust boiled to mush.
Its bloated tail floated to the surface like a round dumpling, just as thoroughly charred.
Only after a long while, when every deformed wandering corpse in the darkness had collapsed, did the Thunderbird fly back to Qin Ying’s shoulder.
Even to the naked eye, the little creature’s feathers looked noticeably duller. It had stopped chirping its little songs as well.
Qin Ying’s heart ached at the sight, and she couldn’t resist stroking it with her left hand.
“Once we’re back, how about I take you to the park?”
The Thunderbird had seen parks on television and knew what they were. Its little eyes instantly lit up, and it nestled against Qin Ying’s neck, chirping affectionately.
A faint smile touched Qin Ying’s lips. Then she turned her attention to the River God floating in the pool, its fate uncertain.
With a slight movement of her right hand, Di Shang, which had secured her to the railing like a pair of handcuffs, transformed back into a bracelet.
She tossed the detonator she had brought inside onto the River God’s body.
That thing had to die, completely and utterly.
The entire laboratory had to be destroyed too. Otherwise, Qin Ying would have no way to explain where all that lightning had come from.
She stepped into the standing water and headed for the exit.
When she reached the door, she told the Thunderbird, “Shock that detonator. Be careful not to hurt yourself.”
The Thunderbird knew what a detonator was. It had watched Tom and Jerry.
It flew into the darkness.
Qin Ying tightened her backpack straps and sprinted outside.
The River God had let it slip that it had deliberately hidden this laboratory to prevent anyone from finding it.
If the River God was dead, the looping space it had created might no longer remain intact.
There was no telling what would happen to the laboratory.
Qin Ying had no desire to be inexplicably crushed to death between the mountain’s rocks.
She raced between the bookshelves, putting her long legs to good use.
It didn’t take long for her to reach the passage she had entered through.
When she returned to the iron prison chamber flanked by galleries on both sides, Qin Ying was prepared to fight her way through the moldy, rotting corpses.
But only one corpse blocked her path. Covered from head to toe in green fuzz and patches of mold, it had apparently reanimated in one of the cells.
It stood in the middle of the path, but before Qin Ying could even approach, it toppled sideways like a drunken man.
Then it visibly decomposed, melting into a puddle of sludge.
Qin Ying knew this was probably because the River God was dead.
Still, this corpse water was utterly disgusting.
With the Migu Flower hanging at her waist, she splashed through the pools of dubious composition and charged into the darkness.
When she reached the narrow staircase they had come down, Qin Ying shouted, “Do it! Hurry back!”
As she called out, the Thunderbird’s mark lit up on her palm.
Two clear chirps came from the mark.
Then came a deafening burst of crackling.
Almost immediately afterward, an earth-shaking boom thundered through the structure.
Qin Ying knew she didn’t have to worry about the Thunderbird’s speed.
She raced up the stairs for her life.
She was more than halfway up when one explosion after another erupted below.
On its way back, the Thunderbird had conveniently set off every blasting cap in the study.
Dirt rained down throughout the stairwell. Amid the mountain-splitting din, massive cracks tore open one after another.
Qin Ying’s ears rang so badly they hurt like hell.
Ignoring everything else, she sprinted upward.
Light and shadowy figures appeared at the exit ahead, and someone seemed to be shouting.
But Qin Ying could barely hear a thing.
When the massive shock wave struck, Qin Ying and the Thunderbird flying up behind her barely made it to the opening in the green clay seal.
Clods of dirt battered her until she was covered in dust. Just as she nearly lost her footing, two hands reached out.
One was Zhang Lang’s mutated hand. The other was covered in black scales.
The two hands grabbed Qin Ying by the arms and hauled her out of the opening like someone yanking clothes from a washing machine.
Zhang Lang immediately stepped in front of it, blocking the entrance with his scale-armored back.
A muffled impact sounded. Zhang Lang’s face twisted for an instant.
Twin streams of blood gushed from his nostrils.
Qin Ying choked on the smell of gunpowder and coughed several times. There wasn’t a single part of her body that didn’t hurt.
Yin Minmin was saying something to her, but her ears were ringing too loudly to make it out.
After catching her breath, she checked that the Thunderbird had returned safely, then shouted, “Let’s go! This place might collapse!”
Unable to hear herself, she was practically yelling at the top of her lungs.
Everyone’s expression changed.
Qin Ying glanced around. Zhao Jixian, Feng Meiyu, and the others who had been there before she went down were all present. The person who had just grabbed her other arm was the badly injured Willow Immortal.
His regenerative ability seemed impressive. He could already stand again after such a short time.
Qin Ying had no time to dwell on it. She shouted again, “Move!”
The next second, someone hoisted her up and began evacuating toward the exit.
Zhao Jixian and Feng Meiyu had no idea what had happened, but they ran after them.
The group froze when they reached the corridor.
The scene before them had changed.
Fatty Wu and the hamster-faced Zong Li were still lying where they had been.
This place should have been a complex maze of concrete passageways, but now a concrete staircase led upward from the end of the corridor. The labyrinthine fortifications, with maze nested inside maze, had vanished.
Before they could recover from their surprise, the entire structure began shaking violently. Huge cracks spread across the walls.
His face drenched in blood, Zhang Lang slung Fatty Wu over one shoulder and Zong Li over the other. “You go first.”
The Willow Immortal whose name they still didn’t know was spurting blood from wounds all over his body, but he stubbornly hoisted Qin Ying over his shoulder. The spikes protruding from his shoulder dug into her stomach, nearly making her vomit all over him.
Yin Minmin, Zhao Jixian, and Feng Meiyu followed close behind.
They raced down the dust-filled corridor and up a long flight of stone steps. At the top stood an iron door so badly rusted it was almost unrecognizable.
The Willow Immortal carrying Qin Ying kicked it open. Outside, it was pitch-black.
Thick fog blanketed the surroundings.
Shadowy figures seemed to be moving within it.
Dizzy and disoriented, Qin Ying managed only one sentence.
“Run into the mountains.”