Chapter 451

Feng Ju stood in place, the shield blocking his front already bent and deformed from the rat swarm's collisions, emitting a "creak creak" sound.

He gritted his teeth, his mechanical arm pressing dead against the metal plate, his ears filled with the rats' frantic shrieks and dense impact sounds.

After a while, the pressure on the shield suddenly lessened, lessened, and lessened again...

"Heh heh——"

Feng Ju let out a burst of post-survival laughter from his throat, the sound carrying a hint of relief yet twisted enough to make one's heart tremble.

"A bunch of stinking rats, get out of the way ah ah ah!"

He suddenly let out a low roar as if venting, his shoe sole fiercely stomping flat several rats that squeezed out from the gaps, then forcefully flung the shield to the side.

Pa——

The rats clinging to the shield were shaken off in large patches; those not shaken off crashed into the pipe wall along with the shield, instantly squeezed into meat paste, juices flowing.

Feng Ju glanced at the gradually receding rat tide; although the ground was still covered in a layer of rats and he still had to guard against their sneak attacks lest they gnaw off his "balls," the remaining quantity was no longer enough to eat him.

After all, his mechanical arm wasn't vegetarian either.

Feng Ju pushed the shield forward, crushing another patch of rats to death; the uncrushed rats "squeak squeak squeak" shrieked in disorder as they dodged away.

Rats, this kind of creature, actually share a certain commonality with humans — both are the same in bullying the weak and fearing the strong.

When they gather in massive numbers, they dare put giants on the menu; but when their numbers plummet, they tremble and skirt around the giant's feet, afraid of being stomped into meat pulp by the big foot falling from the sky.

Feng Ju shook his shoulders, his neck sore and swollen as if about to fracture; the mechanical arm's high temperature scorched the nearby skin, the skin on his neck already peeled off a layer, revealing red swollen flesh.

He panted heavily in big mouthfuls, and after relaxing he scratched his itchy crotch, then his gaze slowly swept toward the diagonal well shaft.

The well shaft was empty, Dong Ping's shadow could no longer be seen.

In the sewage, some black plastic fragments were tightly wound with moss.

Feng Ju frowned, walked over with heavy steps, slowly squatted down, and reached out to pick up those fragments one by one.

He examined them carefully for two seconds, then recognized them — they were walkie-talkie fragments.

"Should be that strike of mine just now knocked him down, the walkie-talkie shattered and accidentally fell out of his pocket." Feng Ju mused inwardly.

He stood up, casually tossed the walkie-talkie fragments back into the sewage; the fragments splashed tiny ripples, quickly disappearing into the turbidity.

Then, he stared into the depths of the pipe again, his gaze pausing for two seconds, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes, muttering to himself:

"That guy Dong Ping, probably couldn't outrun that surging rat tide. Maybe by now he's already been gnawed clean by rats.

If it weren't for saving Yu Huai, I wouldn't have... sigh, Dong Ping is a father after all; once he's dead, he'll probably understand me."

Feng Ju still had some feelings for Dong Ping.

His blood was warm, not a truly cold-blooded monster; he stood in place, head lowered, silently mourning Dong Ping for a full three seconds.

Only then did he turn and stride toward another pipe.

A sudden urgent shout came from the pipe depths — a woman's voice, sounding both startled and fearful, hoarse to the point of nearly breaking.

Feng Ju's heart violently clenched, as if seized by an invisible hand.

The blood-connected sensing between father and daughter let him instantly recognize that the voice seemed to be precisely Feng Yuhuai's.

"Yu Huai, nothing will happen, just hold on a little more, Daddy's coming right away..."

Feng Ju's lips trembled, he murmured low, as if soothing himself, yet also as if encouraging his daughter ahead.

His steps unconsciously quickened, almost running in the pipe.

However, his speed could no longer increase — visibility inside the pipe was extremely low, the sewage wet and slippery, plus the rats overtaking him from ahead made it hard to find footing.

Suddenly, Feng Ju's foot slipped violently, his whole body crashing heavily onto the ground.

Two slightly slower rats happened to be flattened under his chest; filthy blood instantly splattered onto his face, carrying a pungent stench of blood.

A serious rear-end collision!

"Peh!"

Feng Ju anxiously spat out the filthy blood in his mouth, quickly climbed up from the ground, but his propped-up right arm stiffened for a moment.

About forty to fifty meters ahead, a faint glimmer of light vaguely appeared.

Feng Ju's pupils sharply contracted, he subconsciously stretched his neck, narrowed his eyes and looked forward.

Soon, he confirmed that light did not come from Feng Yuhuai, but from three sneaky figures.

Feng Ju strained to narrow his eyes, identifying them in the blurry light; only after confirming they were three human shapes and not monsters did he climb up from the ground again and continue running toward that light.

"Two men one woman, what they're carrying on their shoulders looks like a camera... are they reporters from some TV station?"

Feng Ju immediately switched to Divine Detective mode, rapidly inferring in his heart:

"Running into the sewers to film monsters? TV reporters nowadays go all out for ratings like this? They might have filmed Yu Huai?"

Ren Xuan and Tang An had already shoved the camera "in the face" focused on Zuo Bai, the frame filled with the latter's cold figure swinging the bone snake, a powerful scientific aura assaulting the senses.

Meanwhile, Feng Yuhuai was fleeing desperately, like a female rat that lost its mate, emitting twisted strange cries from her mouth.

Anyone with eyes could see, her being caught again was only a matter of time.

Like lab white mice, forever unable to escape the scientist's palm — this is an unchangeable fate.

Therefore, Ren Xuan and Tang An basically didn't give Feng Yuhuai much screen time.

Absolutely not out of stinginess, but on this sewer "stage," Feng Yuhuai's "star status" had dropped too fast; now her status was only a hair above "Beautiful Spider," simply not qualified to occupy the center of the frame.

"Wait, did you guys hear some strange sound? Sounds like rat cries?" Ren Xuan suddenly spoke up.

Tang An answered without hesitation: "Having rats in the sewer is normal."

Ren Xuan however frowned, turned his head and glanced behind.

The next second, his neck instantly froze, as if frozen solid, his voice beginning to tremble:

"But what if it's not one or two, but lots and lots...?"

Tang An at this moment also heard the movement behind; that sound grew clearer and clearer, noisier and noisier, closer and closer.

He slowly turned his head, his peripheral vision first catching the flickering green internet signal light on Deng Jia Jia's camera, his heart leaping with joy, about to speak: "The internet has signal, we can connect back to the live..."

Before the words were finished, a rat that had climbed from the pipe wall leaped through the air and crashed straight into his mouth, forcibly stuffing the remaining half-sentence back down his throat.

Not a metaphor, but literally, in the physical sense, stuffed back down the throat.

Tang An didn't just have his voice stuffed back down his throat; he felt as if his heart had been plugged up too, his vision went black and he dazed, nearly fainting.

He froze for a split second, then in terror grabbed the rat's long tail and yanked hard outward, while his throat let out a strange gurgling sound.

"The Internet has a signal?"

Deng Jia Jia, fully focused, immediately received her companion's reminder, and a strong look of joy appeared on her face.

Her body reacted faster than her brain, almost a conditioned reflex — her fingers flew over the equipment, successfully connecting to the Guangliang Television Station's channel signal, switching back to live broadcast mode.....

(End of Chapter)