Chapter 099 [Finally, It’s Here]
Outside Kaitan City, at the foot of a leeward hill of yellow earth.
More than a dozen modified off-road vehicles and heavy trucks lay huddled in a ring, motionless on the morning-lit ground.
Now and then, music or shouted orders drifted out from one vehicle or another, only to draw curses from the rest.
Sheltered by the earthen slope, the vehicles were well concealed; passersby and traffic on the outer roads, even ferocious beasts and giant insects, had failed to notice them.
The quiet was broken only when a thin young man in a cap sprang from one of the vehicles and ran cheering madly through the center of the convoy.
“Captain, Captain, they’re here, they’re here! They’re finally here!”
With excitement in his voice, the skinny youth dashed to the front of a large truck and pounded on the door.
Creak.
The door opened inward with an unpleasant sound, and with it came a hand as broad as a palm fan, reaching out from the cab and smacking the young man on the head.
“Idiotic bastard. Don’t you know how to report to me on the radio?”
A gruff voice rang out. A fierce-looking middle-aged bald man leaned out from the truck, glared, and cursed at the skinny youth. “If something’s happened, say it. If you’ve got crap, get it out!”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
The skinny youth scratched his head and grinned sheepishly. “I was too excited, so I forgot to use the radio for a moment. Captain, the person you’ve been waiting for has arrived. I just caught it on the drone. A vehicle is coming this way, and it’s headed for Kaitan City!”
Bang!
The bald middle-aged man shoved the seat back hard and leaped down from the truck. With eyes bright with excitement, he suppressed his wild joy and asked, “You looked carefully? There’s really a vehicle heading for Kaitan City? Not just passing by? Or going toward the swamp behind it?”
“Sure, definitely, absolutely!”
The skinny youth nodded quickly and said earnestly, “There’s only one route in that direction, and that’s into Kaitan City. It isn’t going anywhere else!”
“Good, excellent!”
Hearing this, the bald man broke into a broad grin and laughed aloud. “Excellent, ha ha ha! I’ve waited three days, and at last I’ve caught the one I was waiting for!”
Heh heh heh... Seeing this, the skinny youth echoed him with a foolish grin.
Then something occurred to him, and his smile faded. Frowning, he said, “Captain, it’s true they’re going into Kaitan City, but we can’t be sure whether their purpose is really to gather baleful energy.”
“That doesn’t matter!”
The bald middle-aged man waved a hand and smiled coldly. “Whether they came to Kaitan City for baleful energy or not, once they enter the ruins, they’ll be clearing the way for us for free! What I’m worried about now is whether they’re strong enough!”
“If they’re only average, then they probably won’t clear much of a path. And our goal of getting back in there won’t be realized.”
“Well...” The skinny youth hesitated. “They shouldn’t be weak, because there’s only one vehicle. If they weren’t strong, would a few people drive one car out here? Wouldn’t that be courting death?”
“Fair enough.”
The bald middle-aged man nodded thoughtfully. “That’s true. Without strength, anyone who runs out here is just seeking death. Go back and keep watch. While the drone is tailing them, park as discreetly as possible. Don’t let them spot you!”
“Understood!”
...
Rumble, rumble, rumble...
Outside the quiet of Kaitan City, on wild ground strewn with gravel and overrun by weeds, Tang Mubai slowed the off-road vehicle and edged little by little toward the old, ancient district.
More than two centuries had passed, and the once-collapsed city ruins had long since become a basin covered in green vegetation.
The car had traveled less than a hundred meters before it could go no farther.
Tang Mubai had no choice but to stop, take up his weapon, and walk into the city on foot.
When he stepped out of the cabin, what met his eyes was a ground covered in vines and all manner of low plants, lush and green.
Now and then, small animals darted swiftly beneath the greenery.
The bones left from those years were long gone, and the baleful energy in the air had nearly dried up as well.
Tang Mubai stood atop a high platform, surveying the surroundings and sensing for the presence of baleful energy.
A moment later, his eyes lit up, and he took his weapon and sped off toward the northern side of the city.
He had entered from the south, while the baleful energy he had found was in the north.
It meant crossing the entire old ruin before reaching his destination.
In order to save time, Tang Mubai pushed his speed to the limit, using light-footed movement to skim above the low vegetation.
But he had barely drifted fifty meters when—
Whoosh!
Whoosh, whoosh!
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
One after another, thick black shadows suddenly sprang up from the green-covered ground and attacked Tang Mubai.
They were as fast as lightning, and the pungent stench of blood, mixed with a sour reek, sealed off the space around him.
“What is that?”
Tang Mubai raised an eyebrow and swung the C-rank alloy saber in his hand. It spun around him, unleashing streaks of fierce blade energy that cut and shredded the air currents.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
The sound of sharp blades tearing flesh rang out without pause.
In less than three seconds, the more than ten black shadows surrounding Tang Mubai were all slaughtered, severed into several pieces, black blood spraying and splashing across the ground.
[Life force +19]
[Life force +23]
[Life force +21]
[Life force +17]
...
A string of recovery prompts flashed rapidly through his mind.
Tang Mubai came to a stop atop a rock, swept his gaze over the insect corpses scattered all around, and frowned slightly.
“These are... blood-sucking tongue worms?”
Blood-sucking tongue worms, not blood-sucking serpent worms.
The name came from the fact that the giant insects looked very much like human tongues.
Their bodies were a pale red, three to five meters long. The fleshy nodules on their surfaces were very fine, much like those on a tongue, but between the nodules were dense pores and suction cups, and within the suction cups were spines resembling a mosquito’s proboscis. Once stung, the victim would go numb before being drained of blood.
Tang Mubai had seen illustrations and read descriptions of blood-sucking tongue worms before.
By rights, such giant insects should have lived in places with large numbers of animals, ferocious beasts, dinosaurs, or even other insects.
A ruined city like Kaitan City could never provide enough flesh for blood-sucking tongue worms to hunt.
And yet they were here, which was somewhat strange.
“Could there be another prolific species inside this ruin? Like feral rats?”
Tang Mubai guessed.
In a city, only the breeding ability of rats would be enough to allow blood-sucking tongue worms to appear in such numbers.
With that in mind, Tang Mubai heightened his senses to the maximum and remained vigilant as he pressed forward.
The result was the same as before. Before he had traveled fifty meters, he was once again met by a swarm of blood-sucking tongue worms.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Pfft~ Pfft~ Pfft~
Blade light flashed, and blade energy raged.
One blood-sucking tongue worm after another charged forward in waves, only to be cut into several pieces in midair as if throwing themselves to their deaths. Blood sprayed everywhere as their bodies fell to the ground.
Tang Mubai moved forward at speed while harvesting life force.
[Life force +16]
[Life force +19]
[Life force +22]
[Life force +18]
[Life force +20]
...