Chapter 320: Breaking Out of Danger

In his mind, fragmented and blurry images emerged forcibly: stinging white light, spreading yellow mist, a blurry figure holding another person and rushing toward a square... sewage outlet in the corner? The image was extremely unstable, mixed with harsh alarm noise, but carried an irresistible sense of reality.

That sewage outlet... that position...

He suddenly turned his head, looking at the corner of the inner room, that most inconspicuous vent that usually piled up debris. Behind that vent grille, it seemed... vaguely connected to a deeper, more complex pipe system. The surgical scalpel left by Lin Shu was still in his pocket, cold and hard.

"Lin Shu!"

He let out a hoarse shout, ignoring the bursts of sharp pain from his leg wound, and stumbled toward the vent in the inner room.

Inside the biological waste treatment pipe, the darkness was as thick as ink. Lin Yu could only rely on his body's sense of touch and his blurry memory of the hospital's underground structure, holding Xuanyuan Qing and crawling with difficulty in the narrow, slippery, and sticky pipe filled with unknown mucus. Behind him, the smell of poison gas was getting closer.

Suddenly, a "click" sound of mechanical operation rang out inside the pipe wall.

"Warning: Initiating pipe automatic cleaning program. High-temperature steam preparing..."

In the safety compartment, the surviving researcher saw Lin Yu in the pipe through the backup surveillance, his face pale, his fingers operating crazily on the console.

Hiss—!!!

Several nozzles on the pipe wall in front suddenly sprayed scorching white steam! The temperature rose instantly, and the air became hot and distorted.

Lin Yu's pupils contracted, and he immediately protected Xuanyuan Qing tightly under his body, using his own back to forcibly withstand the impact of the steam! His combat suit was instantly soaked, and his skin felt the excruciating pain of being burned by fire; he gritted his teeth, unable to even let out a muffled groan, and could only crawl forward desperately.

The steam had just passed, but the cleaning program had not stopped.

"Strong acid spray initiated..."

A pungent acidic odor wafted over, and several nozzles began to drip highly corrosive liquid, quickly turning into a fine spray!

Lin Yu used his last bit of strength to lunge forward, attempting to escape the spray range. He could hear the "hissing" corrosive sound of the strong acid dripping onto the metal pipes behind him. A few drops touched his combat suit, immediately causing white smoke to rise and emitting a burnt smell.

It's over! Ahead was a nearly ninety-degree corner, with nowhere to hide! The strong acid was about to cover the area!

Just at this critical moment—

Clang!

From the side, a similarly rusted ventilation grille was suddenly knocked open from the outside by brute force!

A familiar figure appeared at the opening, his face covered in dust and sweat, clutching that cold-glinting surgical scalpel in his hand—it was Xu Chen!

"Lin Shu!"

Xu Chen also saw the bedraggled Lin Yu inside the pipe and the strong acid about to fall. He couldn't spare a thought for anything else; enduring the sharp pain from his leg injury, he practically lunged over, stretched out his arm, and grabbed Lin Yu's arm tightly.

"Quick!"

Xu Chen used all his strength to pull backward fiercely. Lin Yu utilized this force, holding Xuanyuan Qing, and just before the strong acid spray covered them, they tumbled out of the foul-smelling waste pipe, crashing heavily onto the cold, rough concrete floor.

The three of them rolled into a heap, kicking up a thick layer of dust. Behind them, the strong acid landed on the inner wall of the pipe, making a teeth-grinding corrosive sound, accompanied by a pungent odor.

This seemed to be a floor mezzanine that had been abandoned for many years. The light was dim, the air filled with heavy dust and a musty smell, with only the faint green light of the emergency exit sign in the distance providing dim illumination. Pipes, abandoned equipment wreckage, and debris were piled everywhere.

Xu Chen gasped for air, the wound on his leg tearing open again due to the violent movement, seeping blood. Lin Yu's back was a bloody mess, his combat suit ruined by the high-temperature steam and strong acid, sticking tightly to his wounds. Every breath pulled at the intense pain. He forced himself to sit up and immediately checked on Xuanyuan Qing in his arms. Her complexion was still deathly pale, but her chest seemed to have a faint, barely perceptible rise and fall. The medicine he had poured into her earlier and the acupuncture technique that stimulated her potential had temporarily kept her last breath.

"Lin Shu... you..." Xu Chen saw the tragic state of Lin Yu's back, his voice trembling.

Lin Yu waved his hand, signaling that he was fine, his gaze scanning this strange, abandoned space sharply. "Temporarily safe... but it won't last long."

In the top-floor monitoring room.

Zhou Minghui watched the signal on the screen finally disappear into the monitoring blind spot of the waste processing pipe, along with the "target lost" information fed back from the A7 laboratory. His refined, scholarly face twisted completely, and he slammed his fist onto the console.

"Trash! A bunch of trash!" He growled, his eyes filled with uncontrollable rage and a trace of imperceptible panic. "Initiate the hospital's highest alert! Seal all exits! Search for them! Even if you have to turn the hospital upside down, find them!"

He paused for a moment, picked up an encrypted communicator, and dialed a number.

"It's me... the target has escaped, along with the YA-001 original container... Yes, Lin Yu did it... the situation is out of control, I need support... the highest level..."

On the abandoned floor, in a dark corner.

Lin Yu tore off a relatively clean part of his own clothes and simply treated the wound on Xu Chen's leg. His own injuries were more severe, but he only roughly applied pressure to stop the bleeding. Xuanyuan Qing was laid flat on a piece of old, relatively clean canvas, her breathing so weak it felt like it could stop at any moment.

The brief respite was like the calm before a storm. The hospital's alarm sounded faintly from above; the entire building seemed to have turned into a steel beast that had awakened, about to launch a ruthless search and capture.

Lin Yu looked up at the only green-lit emergency exit sign in the distance.

The heavy cover plate behind him slammed down, completely sealing off the sweet, fishy scent of the pale yellow toxic mist.

Dead silence, as if the air had been suddenly sucked dry; even the continuous alarm sound in the distance seemed to be isolated in another world.

In the abandoned mezzanine, there was only the choking smell of thick, stirred-up dust, permeating the nearly frozen air, mixed with a scent of aged mold and metal corrosion.

The faint green light of the emergency exit in the distance was like the eye of some monster fish in the deep, dark sea—the only patch of color in this suffocating darkness, yet it was too stingy to illuminate any corner of hope.

Lin Yu laid Xuanyuan Qing gently on a piece of broken canvas that was barely clean. The burning, tearing pain in his back made every breath he took tremble slightly, and his movements were somewhat distorted, but his fingertips were exceptionally steady when they touched the carotid artery on Xuanyuan Qing's neck.

Her pulse was as thin as a thread, almost impossible to feel, like a spider silk that could snap at any moment. The blue-purple patches showing beneath her skin were clearer than when they were in the laboratory, like some ominous ink quietly spreading and diffusing within her body.