Chapter 128: Main Text Chapter 130 Faded

Main Text Chapter 130 Faded

I knew Pangzi's background like the back of my hand; I knew he was an excellent swimmer, but seeing him fall into the water now, I couldn't help but worry for Pangzi. Those strange floating corpses were like dumplings boiling in a pot, tumbling nonstop. As soon as Pangzi fell into the water, he was immediately wrapped by countless female corpses, and in the blink of an eye I could no longer see where he was. I wanted to jump into the water to save him, but the frantic, screaming, struggling monster blocked my path. In my haste I couldn't break free, so I could only shout his name into the water.

The monster with its eyes gouged out wildly swung its huge body, heavily sweeping across the Gourd Cave rock walls, shattering many stones. The dull echoes reverberated nonstop in the dome, and the red mist seeping from the gaps in its carapace increased, though its color seemed less bright red than at the start, having faded somewhat.

I thought the change in the red mist's color was merely due to the shifting light and shadow in the cave, so I paid it no mind; I only wanted to quickly get past this big worm's obstruction so I could go into the water and fish Pangzi out. However, the giant worm's body was too large; after several charges I had to retreat each time, nearly being crushed into mincemeat by its heavy armor.

Shirley Yang spotted a weakness on one side, picked up Pangzi's backpack that had fallen to the ground, climbed onto the highest rock, and while taking explosives from her pack, she shouted at me: 'The color of these mists is getting lighter; it can barely hold on.' After saying that, she threw her Type 64 pistol toward me.

I looked up and saw Shirley Yang's move, heard her words, and immediately understood her meaning. I snatched the Type 64 pistol from the air, gripped it, and shouted to Shirley Yang: 'I'll lure it away first; when you have the explosives ready, give me a signal—don't take too long, Pangzi is still in the water, I don't know if he's alive or dead.'

I raised the Type 64 pistol, aimed at the giant worm's head, and fired several shots. Although the gun's range was sufficient, its stopping power against this huge reptile was negligible—I couldn't even tell if the bullets hit the target. To buy Shirley Yang time to prepare the explosives, I had to do my best to lure the enraged, heavily wounded giant worm away.

Although the giant worm's single eye was blind, it had lived all its life in the lightless underground world; the only light source in this 'Gourd Cave' was the cold blue glow emitted by the underwater corpses, so its eyes had severely degenerated, replaced by heightened touch. I kept striking nearby rocks with my entrenching shovel, producing a 'dong-dong-dang' sound; these strong vibrations indeed stimulated the monster, causing it to thrash its huge body and chase after me.

Seeing the tactic work, I dared not confront it head‑on, instead running over places where rocks were densely piled. The worm's head kept striking the rock face, growing more enraged; its endless brute force was like a heavy bulldozer, smashing the cave's stones to fragments. I no longer had any room to glance back, so I sprang forward with all my strength, launching a life‑or‑death desperate chase with it.

Even at the limit of human strength, I could not outrun this monster that was like a train. I felt the time I'd spent luring it wasn't short—actually only a dozen or so seconds. In the midst of my busyness I shouted to Shirley Yang: 'Chief of Staff Yang, why haven't you detonated the explosives yet? Are you doing this on purpose to make me look bad?'

All I heard was Shirley Yang, perched on the highest rock in the Gourd Cave, shouting at me: 'Just a little more—find a way to hold it off for another ten seconds.'

I knew Shirley Yang was surely fighting every second, but I could barely hold on for ten seconds—even three seconds felt impossible. A fierce wind blasted from behind; I felt an intense heat wave and the thickening red mist nearby. I knew the monster was now less than a meter from my body.

Now there was no time to count seconds; ahead loomed a massive stone, leaving no way out. In my panic I had no choice but to hurl myself into the underground water beside me. As I entered, my shoulder struck a floating corpse; it was a close call that it didn't break my bone, and the pain made me gulp several mouthfuls of cold, foul‑smelling river water. I still wondered, how could this corpse be harder than stone?

But suddenly I felt a chill in my heart, as if struck by an electric current; instantly I was overwhelmed by utter despondency and panic, and a strange emotion welled up inside me. I suddenly recalled that I had experienced this particular feeling before—not just during the earlier cave crossing, but more than once; it felt familiar, a loathsome sensation.

I felt a strong sensation in my heart; my limbs went numb. Still in the water, I hadn't even begun to wonder what was happening when countless 'dead drifts' in the water swept me into the depths. The dark, cold bottom also emitted a ghastly blue light. This time I was very close to the naked female corpses—almost face‑to‑face. I strained my eyes open underwater, trying to examine the corpses closely for any clue that might help me escape, but the thousands of female corpses swaying made my vision blur.

The water surface was completely covered by countless female corpses; trying to swim up and break through was nearly impossible. Even the strongest swimmer could survive at most two minutes underwater, and without a miracle would surely drown in the cold depths.

Because everything happened so fast, I was utterly unprepared—I hadn't held my breath in advance, and after striking that stiff female corpse I gulped several mouthfuls of foul water. The moment I sank below, I already felt my chest constrict, my lungs about to burst, and I could no longer hold my breath. Suddenly a hand grabbed me from behind.

I immediately thought of the old tale of water ghosts pulling legs, assuming the female corpse in the deep water had come alive and reached out to grab me as a substitute, making my hair stand on end. But I felt only that the hand had seized my shoulder and turned my body around. The person pulling me from behind was Pangzi, who had fallen in a minute and a half before me. He too was trapped underwater, unable to escape; thanks to his good swimming and large lung capacity he had held his breath for about a minute and a half, and now he was at the end of his tether, about to bubble up.

Pangzi and I, upon meeting eyes underwater, felt a sudden tremor; the giant monster heard my splash and, without hesitation, thrust its head into the water, pursuing us relentlessly. With tremendous force it instantly scattered the floating corpses that had been sealing the surface.

Pangzi and I, with no escape, saw the worm's head plunge into the water and immediately grabbed its carapace. The huge monster instantly sensed this, lifted its body from the bottom, and began a violent shaking, trying to throw us off.

As soon as my body left the water, the eerie resentment vanished completely. I threw my mouth open and drew several deep breaths of air, using the worm's writhing to leap onto the rocks at the surface. Seeing Pangzi still clinging tightly to the dragon‑scale bronze armor on the worm's body, I felt a bit more reassured and shouted to Shirley Yang: 'What are you waiting for?!'

At the same time I shouted, Shirley Yang had already assembled several charges with fuses, lit one, and hurled it from high above toward the giant worm's head, shouting for Pangzi to get clear. Seeing the explosives coming his way, Pangzi had no hesitation; he spotted a relatively flat patch of ground and immediately rolled onto it.

At the junction of the worm's head and body were many large plates of dragon‑scale armor, plus fragments of the golden mask that covered its head. Shirley Yang had originally calculated the timing for the blast, aiming at the head; it exploded immediately, after which she continued with chain‑detonating explosives.

I never expected the result: the eyeless giant worm sensed a sudden parabolic airflow in mid‑air, accompanied by intense heat. The creature had gone hysterical; regardless of what it was, it turned its head and swallowed the explosives whole.

We only heard a soft 'pop' in mid‑air; the blast was barely audible, like a balloon popping. Yellow fluid, accompanied by large clouds of red mist and countless tiny meat fragments, scattered like a heavenly rain. The worm's body shuddered a few times, then crashed heavily to the ground; the impact of its dragon‑scale demonic armor against the stone rang painfully in our ears.

Red mist continued to seep from its body in streams, but the color grew paler, gradually dissipating into the air. Through the exposed spots of its demonic dragon‑scale armor, one could see the worm's inner carapace, now turned black—nothing like the fiery scarlet we had seen at first.

We figured it was surely dead this time. We gathered our scattered gear, crept forward with our guns raised, and saw that the worm's head had almost been blown apart into a trumpet‑flower shape; pink flesh flipped back and forth, still twitching.

It seems that even if the centipede‑like worm isn't dead, it poses no further threat; the explosive trauma has temporarily halted its ability to produce the thick red mist. Though that mist isn't lethal, it hardens the worm's shell and grants it tremendous strength—what the hell kind of monster is this?

Shirley Yang said: 'It might be an extinct insect species that only existed in prehistoric times, capable of reaching such size; for now we can't be certain, let's take another look.'

We walked along the worm's body backward, trying to gauge its total length; just the sheer amount of copper needed for its full dragon‑scale bronze armor was astonishing. To our surprise, at the far end of the Gourd Cave stone wall we found that the worm had no tail—or rather, its tail had become petrified and fused with the cave's red rock, making it impossible to tell where the creature ended and the stone began.

I asked Shirley Yang: 'Have you ever seen a worm like this?'

Shirley Yang shook her head: 'I haven't seen one, but judging from the petrified ancient forest here and the semi‑transparent red laminated strata in the Gourd Cave, this must be a multicellular bottom‑dwelling arthropod with a chitinous exoskeleton that existed only in the Triassic period.'