Chapter 75: What Are You Screaming About?

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Yun asked Malikit with a look of innocent confusion.

A hazy gray aura of death twisted and coiled around him like tentacles.

Merely glancing at him, Malikit felt its nerves being licked by death itself.

Its expression was that of a cursed imp whose toe had been stomped by an orc, as if it were about to scream at any moment.

Malikit stared fixedly at Zhou Yun.

The dark gray aura of death on Zhou Yun slowly faded, but it wasn’t gone—it seemed to have been entirely drawn inward, sealed within his skin and flesh.

It was a blessing from the depths of the warp, chilling to the bone.

In his mind, the angels seemed deeply wary of its origin, muttering only vaguely of “the cursed one,” unwilling to say more.

Malikit instinctively placed a hand on the hilt of its triangular blade, its eyes filled with sharp wariness toward Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun blinked, bewildered.

What’s wrong with this cultist? It looks like seven Nurglings and eight Bloodletters were shoved up its ass.

Faced with Zhou Yun’s confused expression, Malikit could only twitch its lips slightly.

It waved a hand, and the plague zombies surged into the spiral staircase.

Under its control, the plague zombies entered the underground crypt beneath the government building.

After a moment, Malikit shook its head at Zhou Yun.

The plague zombies that had entered first had found nothing.

Only an empty bio-pool, bubbling faintly.

Neither the Tyranid behemoth nor the Gene-Stealer Chieftain was anywhere to be seen.

But Zhou Yun and Malikit both knew the Gene-Stealer Chieftain would never abandon the warp engine.

They must be hiding somewhere in the crypt’s shadows, waiting for Zhou Yun and Malikit to step inside.

Zhou Yun and Malikit exchanged a glance, then slowly descended, shielded by the plague zombies.

The spiral staircase was long; Zhou Yun stood behind Malikit, his mind churning.

He stared at Malikit’s back, wondering when to stab it in the back before it stabbed him first.

The Emperor’s Tarot had foretold “hope in cold darkness.”

In other words, the Emperor himself believed Zhou Yun could defeat the Gene-Stealer Chieftain and the Tyranid behemoth, and destroy the warp engine.

Could Zhou Yun do it?

He actually could.

Even if his current gear wasn’t enough, he still had over three million in savings.

Betting all that, plus buying a few more powerful items, he still had a good chance of killing the Gene-Stealer Chieftain and the Tyranid behemoth.

But what then?

After spending his savings, Zhou Yun wouldn’t be able to rent the Adaptation Lamp to resist Nurglite supernatural viruses.

Without the Gene-Stealers as a common enemy, could Malikit and Zhou Yun still maintain their previous alliance?

Especially regarding “saving Asford,” as mentioned by Mong and Malikit.

Their idea of “saving” was unlikely to be as simple as building a ship to flee Asford.

And what exactly had Mong done? Surely it benefited Malikit too.

But right now, Malikit was still useful to Zhou Yun.

“We’re here,” Malikit growled, snapping Zhou Yun out of his thoughts.

Malikit halted before the crypt entrance.

Zhou Yun stood behind it, glancing into the crypt’s depths.

Massive metal pillars supported the entire crypt; the radium lamps hanging from them had been extinguished.

Only the warp engine behind the bio-pool at the far end still emitted a faint blue glow.

But it only cast a hazy sheen over the crypt, unable to dispel the deep shadows within.

The Tyranid behemoth and the Gene-Stealer Chieftain lurked somewhere in those shadows.

Leaving aside the unknown Tyranid behemoth for now,

the Gene-Stealer Chieftain was a master of ambush in darkness and shadow.

This dim, lightless crypt was clearly a hunting ground it had prepared deliberately.

The plague zombies shuffled their rotting bodies through the crypt, but the two alien monsters remained patient.

Especially the Gene-Stealer Chieftain—cunning, treacherous, and cautious.

It seemed as if neither would show itself unless Zhou Yun and Malikit stepped inside.

Zhou Yun and Malikit were equally cautious; neither dared enter the crypt rashly.

The air was deathly silent.

For a moment, the only movement in the entire crypt was the shambling plague zombies—the atmosphere was so awkward and dull it became unbearable.

“If Horus had half your caution, he might not have nearly died from poisoning in Daiwen.”

The winged figure in the white light couldn’t help but complain.

Zhou Yun remained expressionless, slung the famed blade Dian Guang Wan at his waist, and pulled out a plain, brown gourd.

“If we don’t move, we force them to move first.”

“Pocket Tornado!”

Zhou Yun pulled the stopper from the gourd; gray-black winds gathered into a powerful tornado that howled outward.

He couldn’t find the hidden Gene-Stealer Chieftain or Tyranid behemoth—but he knew exactly where the warp engine was.

The shrieking wind sliced through the air, echoing throughout the crypt.

The hurricane unleashed by the Pocket Tornado roared toward the warp engine at the crypt’s far end.

If the Gene-Stealer Chieftain didn’t want to watch the warp engine destroyed, it had to—

A piercing shriek suddenly erupted from the crypt’s ceiling, sharp and violent.

A giant spider-like shadow crashed down from above, streaked with flashes of pale lightning.

The behemoth’s massive body tore the howling wind of the Pocket Tornado into nothing.

The dissipating hurricane and the dust kicked up by the beast’s fall obscured its form—only faint, flickering pale lightning remained visible.

“All things rot!” Malikit roared, raising its triangular blade high.

The plague zombies’ flesh writhed, swelling slightly, growing stronger.

They surged together into a tide of rotting flesh, rushing toward the Tyranid behemoth hidden in the dust.

Sssssss—

Four blades wrapped in static light pierced the air.

So fast they left hundreds of thousands of afterimages, they effortlessly shredded the oncoming tide of plague zombies into flying chunks of meat.

As the rotting flesh sprayed everywhere, Zhou Yun finally saw the beast’s true face.

It was a bipedal creature, seven or eight meters tall, armored in thick carapace, with four sharp blades and a maw full of fangs.

It was—

“Screaming Killer!” Zhou Yun instantly recognized the Tyranid behemoth.

The largest and most infamous subspecies in the Tyranid Executioner lineage.

It earned the name “Screaming Killer” because of its signature—

A piercing, ear-splitting shriek slammed into them, at a pitch and volume so horrifying Zhou Yun felt his internal organs might shatter.

But this scream was only the prelude.

A bio-plasma of cold blue light gathered in the Screaming Killer’s mouth, like a newly born star.

The searing bio-plasma shot toward Zhou Yun and Malikit—

(End of Chapter)