Lin Wenbo and Song Haoran searched the ground, but Gong Lixin and his party had already been led away by the beggar and had gone into the underground pipelines, heading towards the military compound.
July was the start of the summer season, but the underground pipes were cool and comfortable, except for the humidity, the smell of feces, and the decayed zombies.
"Ugh..." He had just climbed down the black lacquered manhole, but Lu Yun immediately covered his mouth and nose before vomiting in a corner. The rest of the crowd, including He Jin, Gong Lixin, and the beggar, frowned and had disgusted expressions.
"Hold this up to your nose. You’ll get used to it after a while." He Jin said with a cold tone, brows deeply furrowed as he took out a roll of gauze from the simple medical kit and poured half a bottle of alcohol on it before handing it to Lu Yun. "It’s not the world it once was, Young Master Lu. It’s best if you get rid of this problem quickly!" [1]
After his words fell, he looked at the face of the usually calm Gong Lixin but there was no trace of uneasiness in his eyes. Lixin was also a young master, but he was not even the littlest bit squeamish, making him the perfect existence in He Jin’s eyes. Even Lixin’s small problem, in his view, was like icing on a cake, it only highlighted the other’s simple and lovely self.
Wu Ming echoed He Jin’s words before taking out a bottle from the backpack and handing it over to Lu Yun. Wang Tao, Gu Nan, and Ma Jun quickly lit up their flashlights and illuminated the area around them.
Lu Yun rushed up to take the bottled water to wash his hand, the alcohol-stained gauze to cover his nose, and finally, took a few deep breaths. The rich smell of ethanol instantly saved him from suffocation.
"Brother He, you’ve got it all wrong. You know you should have taken a few face masks seeing how we were considering about entering the underground pipelines in the first place, so there’s no need for me to be embarrassed!" With his spirit returned, Lu Yun immediately complained now that his nature of being a clean-freak was exposed.
"Stop talking nonsense! Let’s go!" He Jin snorted and impatiently glanced at him. He held Gong Lixin’s little hand and followed the beggar. Everyone immediately started walking. Gu Nan and Ma Jun took the initiative to ask about their past in order to reverse their image in Young Master’s eyes.
After nearly seven hours in the underground pipeline, they were getting closer and closer to the military compound, their journey was much easier than walking on the roads above.
"Brother He, Young Master Gong, at the end of the path behind this door is the military compound." The beggar pointed at the path blocked by an iron door with a thick iron chain and a large lock.
The military compound was controlled by the military forces, whether it was above or underground. The following waterways were also especially equipped with iron gates to prevent petty people from taking the opportunity to sneak into the compound. This door would never be opened except for when the pipes needed repairs.
"The f*ck! It was already this hard to get here and worse, it’s even locked up! Since when did sewers also need gates?! It’s shit!" Lu Yun pulled at the iron door and smashed at it with his steel pipe.
"The military is like this." He Jin looked at the other’s face before turning to observe the iron lock for a while. He pulled out a Swiss army knife from his waist and prepared to lock-pick it.
Gong Lixin saw He Jin holding a knife against the big lock for a while. His expression was focused and serious with a pair of determined eyes so Gong Lixin gave up the idea of breaking the chain. [2]
The knife and iron lock kept grinding against each other, sending out bursts of crisp metal sounds that echoed back and forth in the claustrophobic pipe. Gong Lixin’s ear tips moved lightly and his face suddenly tightened. He quickly told He Jin: "Brother He, there’s a large group of things approaching us and approaching us fast."
The people heard his words and paled. Their eyes looked towards where he was staring. He Jin’s body and arm had augmented in strength and stamina and thus, his movement was also accelerated. However, the lock was not used for a long time and because of the heavy moisture in the sewers, the cylinder lock had long since rusted. Even a key would not be able to open it, let along a small knife.
The closer the unknown object came, the deeper Gong Lixin’s frown became, yet he calmly stated, "Brother He, let it go. [3] Ma Jun, lend me your Tang blade." As soon as the words fell, he took Ma Jun’s Tang knife and headed towards the iron gate’s big lock. He Jin had already tacitly moved aside.
He cut the big lock and iron chain into two halves, like tofu, and used his palm to push open the closed iron gate in front of them. Gong Lixin told the rest: "Quickly, find the exit!"
The crowd had their eyes trained on Young Master Gong again. They were shocked by the strength of the sword and his palm. It was as if they saw a scene straight out of a martial arts movie but in reality, they all had some trouble believing what they were seeing and even forgetting that they needed to escape.
"You don’t want to go? Do you all want to die?" He Jin yelled and pulled Wu Ming and Lu Yun.
"Oh! Oh!" Their senses came back to Earth and they all uttered incoherent words of agreement. They ran into the new pipe path and then ran towards the exit. Although they didn’t hear any noises until now, they believed Young Master Gong’s words.
When Lu Yun and Wang Tao passed the iron gate, they saw a clear and small hand print left on the door. Their eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets and their hearts quietly pushed Young Master Gong on an altar.
As the water rushed through the pipes, they went around several corners before finally finding a way to go above ground.
"They are coming soon, go up." Gong Lixin swung the Tang blade across his chest and urged them on.
Wu Ming pulled Wang Tao and let him go first. Aside from Young Master Gong, Wang Tao was the youngest and should therefore be the first to leave. Time is life and Wang Tao didn’t stop to deny it. He quickly climbed up the ladder and reached for the top covering the manhole.
"Brother He, I can’t open it!" Wang Tao used all his strength but the heavy cover did not budge even as his face turned red.
"You come down, I’ll give it a try." He Jin said in a deep voice. Wang Tao heard his words and immediately jumped off the ladder. As the two men switched positions, they heard a sound coming from the end of the adjacent pipe.
"Ah, it’s a rat!" The beggar exclaimed after hearing the familiar, creepy voice. He had a companion who was bitten by a rat while he was sleeping. The rats in the sewers were a hundred times more ferocious than rats in the residential area and they were more lethal, too.
However, when the source of the sound revealed itself at the mouth of the pipe they were currently in, everyone’s face went white. As the beggar said, it was true that they were rats, but they were mutant rats. They were mottled with some of their limbs slowly decaying, revealing white bones but none of this compared to their lightning-fast movements. Their small, bean-like eyes were changed into a blood-red color, emitting a strange light in the darkness. Their teeth and four claws were also special and a sharp, harsh sound emitted from them whenever they scratched the ground.
The rat group stared at the eight people in front of them, raised their heads, wiggled their noses, and made a "squeak" sound from their mouths. They didn’t attack immediately. They just stared at them, breathing in deeply the smell of fresh flesh and blood coming from the eight people, as if enjoying a delicious meal.
Aside from the fearless Gong Lixin, the rest of the people showed a terrified and desperate expression. A dense group of mutant rats against eight people, it can be said that there was no other choice but to die.
He Jin’s forehead was covered in cold sweat as he kept pushing the iron cover over his head. It was impossible. He gathered a whirlwind in his palm and pushed it towards the gap of the iron cover. The fierce wind blew back as there was no hole to go through. The wind struck the debris blocking the gap around the iron cover and destroyed them one by one. The iron cover finally came loose.
He Jin’s face was filled with joy. He reached out and pushed the lid. "Yes!" He Jin exclaimed as the stubborn manhole cover finally moved aside. A burning beam of light was projected down, lighting up hope in everyone’s eyes.
The rats were stimulated by the light and knew that their food wanted to run away. They didn’t care anymore about smelling their food, instead screeching before launching a group attack.
"You go up, I’ll stay behind." Gong Lixin calmly told them before stepping forward, the Tang blade dancing in his hands with an impenetrable cold light.
The mutant rats moved as fast as lightning but none of them could break past the young man’s sword. The sword in the boy’s hand was like a meat grinder, indiscriminately smashing any living thing trying to move forward so that the people behind him remained unharmed. For a while, there was the sound of sword slashing through the air and when they looked back, they saw the person attacking the mutant rats left and right.
"The f*ck! What is this sword technique? Unique, solitary, and nine swords? Pioneer, evil spirits sword?" Lu Yun forgot his fear and excitedly yelled. In this situation, the mutant rats were obviously not Young Master’s Gong’s opponent! Right now, he really wanted to scream "Master Gong." [4]
"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up!" He Jin yelled, the vein at his temples turning blue and bulging violently. In the past few days, his ability had slowly grown. After the use of the strong whirlwind, he did not feel drained.
"Yes!" Lu Yun quickly agreed and hastily climbed the ladder. Others did not dare delay. He climbed up with two or three people following closely behind and then squatted beside the manhole, looking down at the boy surrounded by Jianguang.
The young man’s swordsmanship was very gorgeous but extremely dangerous. All the mutant rats that had been thrown around were annihilated. Waiting for everyone to go up, the fierce slashing sound finally stopped. Taking the young man as the center and his arm length and sword length as the radius, a very clean circle of land was formed, with the outside being riddled with corpses and the black blood of the mutant rats, their rich smell flowing throughout the tunnel.
"According to my estimation, Young Master Gong is at least 100 years old! Their Gong family is probably a hidden martial arts family!" Lu Yun mysteriously whispered as he looked at Wang Tao. Wang Tao’s heart concurred. Although everyone did not show it on the surface, their heart 100% agreed with Lu Yun’s speculation. To be able to walk beside Young Master Gong, they definitely must have burned a lot of incense in their past lives!
He Jin heard his words and his eyes became dark. The strength of the child was unfathomable. It was an ability. But today, the more he looked, the more it looked like martial arts. However, such a trick with a mysterious light enveloping the sword, he knew that it could only be seen in fabricated martial arts movies. There was no possibility of such a thing in reality. He couldn’t guess the level of the child’s skill right now but He Jin was not bothered by it. Regardless, the child was still the child that he liked and there was no changing that.
Amidst the worshiping of the people present, Young Master Gong did not use any special skills as he slowly climbed up from the ladder through the manhole and stood on a lawn before looking around. Not far from where they stood were a few dead zombies lying on the ground. There was no other living person and even the courtyard was very quiet.
"It’s estimated that the military had already come and taken the survivors away." He Jin said with a frown before reaching out to touch the child’s hair. He softened his voice, "Lixin, do you know the way home from here?"
"Hn, I know from here. Go forward and at the back of this building is already my home!" Gong Lixin seriously looked at his surroundings before his small face finally showed a comfortable smile.
Seeing the child’s happy expression of "Fortunately, this road, I know", He Jin’s lips broke into a smile. He hugged the child’s shoulder and walked in the direction his finger pointed at. Everyone quickly and enthusiastically followed behind. Although the military might have already come, there was a passage in the yard that led directly to the garrison and that passage would never be blocked. Hence, they followed that road and believed that they would soon be rescued.
[1] Translator’s Note: Lu Yun is kind of a clean freak, it’s briefly mentioned beforehand
[2] Wuxian: Lixin is a good boy who lets his man show off when he can
[3] CrazedCookies: Let it go~ Don’t hold back anymore!
Wuxian: I sang this line and it made me angry
[4] Editor’s Note: Gong Shifu
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