Chapter 86

Pitch-black viscous sewage spread between the pipes, occasionally bubbling up, emitting bursts of stench.

The old boatman used a pole to steer the swaying ferry boat toward the direction of the Underhive.

He had heard recently that there had been quite a lot of trouble in the Underhive.

It was said that mutants had led a group of living corpses to storm the first district occupied by the Cult of the Four-Armed Hua Hua Hua Di Huang.

In the end, both leaders of the mutants died inside, and the leader of the Cult of the Four-Armed Hua Hua Hua Di Huang also died.

The entire Underhive had fallen into chaos.

The mutants were leaderless and had become a complete mess; it was said that many people had died inexplicably.

The believers of the Cult of the Four-Armed Hua Hua Hua Di Huang had quickly gathered together again; it was said that a new leader had appeared among them.

Of course, this had nothing to do with the old boatman.

His duty was only to ferry between the Underhive and the Lower Hive, transporting Lower Hive people to the Underhive, and meeting those who wanted to sneak from the Underhive into the Lower Hive.

There were not many people who knew the roads between the Lower Hive and the Underhive and could safely pass through these complex roads.

Whoever dared to kill the old boatman would have to face the risk of getting lost in the complex pipes.

Hidden in these pipes were various terrifying things accumulated over ten thousand years, extremely dangerous...

The old boatman swayed the boat and slowly drove toward an entrance of the Underhive.

According to the agreement, he would come once a day in the last few days, waiting to pick up two people to leave.

This was entrusted by Old One-Eye of the Lower Hive, and the people to be picked up were the two people he had sent last time.

This made the old boatman feel a bit strange; how long had that pair of man and woman entered the Underhive? Why were they leaving already...

Just as he was thinking, the old boatman saw a figure wearing a hood standing on the sewage riverbank not far away.

That figure was thin and tall, hidden in the shadows between the pipes, as if waiting for the old boatman.

The old boatman put his hand on the automatic pistol under his robe.

This gun was top-notch Upper Hive goods, which he had obtained after a great deal of effort through Old One-Eye's channels.

That thin and tall figure took a step forward, and his body was revealed from behind the pipe.

The old boatman did not hesitate, pulled out the firearm at his waist, and fired a fierce volley.

However, the figure's speed was freakishly fast, and he actually dodged the bullets alive.

In the old boatman's astonished eyes, the figure jumped directly onto the bow of the boat.

The small boat swayed quietly on the sewage river.

The old boatman saw clearly the face under the man's hood.

His face had some strange protrusions, and various strange mechanical constructs were implanted in the eye positions.

His bony hands were not holding a firearm, but instead holding a strange dagger.

This dagger presented a strange dark green color, seemingly wriggling gently like a living thing.

The old boatman raised the automatic rifle in his hand and pulled the trigger again.

However...

The man swung the dagger in his hand at an unimaginable speed, accurately blocking every bullet.

To be precise, it was that wriggling living dagger that bit every bullet...

The bullets fell one by one from the dagger and hit the deck of the boat; the crisp sound was like the radiation raindrops in the hive suburbs.

"Tell me."

The man opened his mouth under the hood, and a low, cold voice came, making the old boatman shudder.

"Tell me, who has come here with you recently?"

"Who introduced them to come?"

The man's voice seemed to come from the darkness in the deepest depths of the Underhive.

But the old boatman keenly sensed that,

Rather than the man speaking, it was more like someone was borrowing the man's mouth to speak.

The old boatman laughed dryly twice, his voice echoing in the empty pipes:

"If I exposed the identity of the passengers, I wouldn't be able to be a boatman for so long."

"If you want to seek revenge, go find another way."

The old boatman retreated to the side of the boat without leaving a trace.

As long as the other side had the slightest intention of making a move, he would jump into the sewage without hesitation and escape along the river into the complex pipe system.

The old boatman had the confidence to shake off this black-clad man of unknown origin by relying on his familiarity with the pipes——————

"Ya roar."

The old boatman heard a low roar of some beast.

He trembled his body and uncontrollably looked toward the top of his head.

A giant beast with four sharp claws, nearly six meters long, and a huge triangular head was lying on top of the pipe, staring at the old boatman.

"Underworld Worm."

The old boatman murmured.

Then, he only felt his brain being forcibly dragged out, and all his memories were displayed before the eyes of this giant beast.

Zhou Yun passed through the cut-off seven-layer railing and walked silently into the pipe where turbid sewage flowed.

He carried Jeanne, who was still sleeping, with one hand.

Her body clearly only had some burns, and the winged figure in the white light also swore that she was fine.

Even in the few times Jeanne woke up in fragments, she also said she had no problem, just needed sleep.

Even when sleeping, Jeanne seemed not to need to eat...

Zhou Yun could only take her with him while hunting Genestealers in the dark, and came to this pipe.

However, in the pipe, there was no shadow of the ferry boat.

"Hasn't he come yet?" Zhou Yun hid in the dark of the pipe, looking at the surroundings and thinking.

"... Pay attention to the right side of the sewage river, beside the gravel there..." The voice of the winged figure in the white light suddenly sounded.

Zhou Yun looked at the position marked by the winged figure in the white light without changing his expression.

His eyes moved slightly, and the superpower hat on his head pointed toward that side.

A corpse was dragged out from the sewage by him...

Zhou Yun gasped slightly; that was the old boatman's corpse.

He was swollen all over, and he didn't know how long he had been soaking in the sewage.

But even so, his eyes were still wide open, full of terror.

"His brain has residual psyker traces; someone searched the memories in his brain with psyker power."

The winged figure in the white light said in a low voice.

Zhou Yun's brows couldn't help but wrinkle.

This old boatman didn't know his identity, but he had a connection with Old One-Eye.

If it was the Genestealer cult... No, it must be the Genestealer cult that searched the old boatman's memories.

They must have already discovered Old One-Eye's existence and followed the clues...

Their goal was clearly only Zhou Yun; they wanted to ask Zhou Yun's identity from Old One-Eye's mouth.

Even if they couldn't ask, they could directly search Old One-Eye's memories with psyker power.

No wonder... no wonder they almost didn't send anyone to squat and wait for Zhou Yun in the Underhive and the pipes.

In these places, they might not be able to deal with Zhou Yun, who was prepared.

The Genestealer Patriarch had already seen Zhou Yun's ability.

It knew that small-scale attacks were no threat to Zhou Yun, and large-scale encirclement could be run away from by Zhou Yun.

Unless it did it itself, it wouldn't be much of a threat to Zhou Yun, and it was extremely cautious and wouldn't take this risk.

They wanted to find Zhou Yun's identity and use endless assassinations to deal with Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun couldn't stay vigilant forever, and he didn't have the energy to deal with assassinations all the time.

Zhou Yun looked at the deep pipe before him.

He had to go back quickly to stop the Genestealers from catching Old One-Eye.

But now there was a very awkward problem in front of Zhou Yun.

That is...

"How the hell do you walk this road?"

Zhou Yun looked at the complex sewage pipes with twitching eyes.

These pipes were the product of the disorderly expansion of the hive city over ten thousand years, chaotic and complex.

Except for a few people—such as the old boatman who had already died—no one knew how to walk these pipes. If Jeanne were awake now, Zhou Yun could borrow Jeanne's precognition ability to find the way.

Zhou Yun had to cast his gaze toward the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket on his stomach.

Sure enough, it still had to rely on items...

Finding Cane? Although this thing was cheap, it could only point out a general direction, and the accuracy was only 70%. With so many corners in the pipes, the success rate of using it twice in a row was only 49%.

Pathfinding Angel? This item could theoretically choose the "correct path," but it had its own views on what the "correct path" was, and it couldn't be taken off after being put on, and it would also beat you...

Zhou Yun constantly searched in the complex product catalog of the Future Department Store.

Suddenly, Zhou Yun saw an item.

"This is it!"

The lights of the Lower Hive had almost gone out, symbolizing that night had arrived.

Now the workers of the hive city were either going to rest or going to work the night shift.

Old One-Eye's Sharp Spear Tavern had also become quiet.

He stood behind the counter, wiping the wine glasses used by the guests today.

Most taverns in the Lower Hive would not wash wine glasses every day; after all, the workers in the Lower Hive didn't care much about these.

But Old One-Eye had come down from the Governor's Palace in the Upper Hive, and even after living in the Lower Hive for so long, some old habits were still retained.

Paying attention to hygiene was meaningful, at least it could prevent the spread of disease.

And when wiping the glasses, Old One-Eye could slightly forget the fear that had been entangled in his heart.

He enjoyed the tranquility when wiping the glasses.

"Old Brother One-Eye, another cup!"

If it weren't for this bastard lying on the counter before him.

Old One-Eye looked at Ragg, who was lying before the counter, with twitching eyes.

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"I heard from Zhou Yun that you weren't thrown to do hard labor by the leader of the Ark Gang?"

Old One-Eye picked up the wine bottle, poured a cup of wine for Ragg, pushed it to him, and asked:

"Did you sneak out?"

"Sigh, you don't know how tiring that hard labor is."

Ragg's face wrinkled into a ball, full of bitterness, and said:

"Moving all kinds of messy steel, I don't know what they are building."

"Ragg, this body of mine can't hold up; I was afraid of dying inside, so I sneaked out."

"Even if you aren't tired to death, you will eventually drink yourself to death."

Old One-Eye glanced at the scarlet wine that Ragg was pouring into his mouth and said:

"Learn from Zhou Yun, drink less usually."

"He calls that drinking less? He can't drink at all; Zhou Yun, brother, his drinking capacity is not good." Ragg shook the wine glass and said.

He grinned: "Don't worry, Old One-Eye, brother, before I drink Amasec wine, I will definitely not die."

Listening to Ragg's words, Old One-Eye shook his head.

Amasec wine is the name for a large category of alcoholic beverages in the Empire. Different worlds have different recipes for Amasec, but without exception, they are all distilled and fermented from locally produced grains and are quite popular in the Astra Militarum.

But for a planet like Ashfold that cannot independently produce food, a bottle of Amasec wine from an agricultural world is a luxury that the Lower Hive guys dare not hope for; Ragg probably won't be able to drink a small cup in his whole life.

Click——————

Just at this moment, the adhesive wooden door of the tavern was suddenly pushed open.

The cold wind from the night blew from outside the door, sweeping into the entire tavern.

The wine glasses on the counter creaked as the cold wind blew past.

Old One-Eye put down the rag and wine glass in his hand and looked at the person who pushed the door and entered.

That person was wearing a black robe, his body was slender, but he had unusually strong muscles.

The face looked like a woman, but there were various strange mechanical implants in the eye positions.

Faintly, one could also see some strange protrusions on her forehead.

"We're closed here." Old One-Eye said in a low voice.

"Is that so? I see there are still customers here."

That woman opened her mouth and said, the voice low as if it came from the most sinister darkness of the hive city.

"This is my grandson." Old One-Eye didn't change his expression, pointed to Ragg, and said: "Eight years old this year."

"Ah?" Ragg pointed to his old-looking ugly face in confusion: "I'm eight years old?"

"This is eight years old?" The woman seemed to have been amused by Old One-Eye: "Uncle Radburn, you are still so good at joking."

Old One-Eye's body stiffened slightly.

Radburn is Old One-Eye's real name; this name, except for the Governor and a few others, had long been unknown to anyone.

No, there was one more person who knew...

"Ragg, you go out." Old One-Eye patted the table and said.

"Ah? My wine hasn't..." Ragg raised the wine glass in his hand and turned to look at the person behind him...

Then Ragg couldn't help but shiver, seemingly feeling that the person standing behind him was very dangerous.

Ragg poured the wine in the cup into his mouth in one gulp, hurriedly walked past the black-clad woman, and slipped out of the tavern.

Just after leaving the tavern door, Ragg looked around and ran toward the direction of the Ark Gang's stronghold...

"Uncle Radburn."

The woman sat opposite Old One-Eye leisurely, holding a biological dagger in one hand and supporting her chin with the other, looking at this tavern with great interest:

"My good brother Augustus gave you this? As a reward for you betraying me and killing my parents?"

"The Tiberius in my memory is not a woman."

Old One-Eye stared fixedly at the woman before him, his hand moving lightly under the counter:

"You should be an ugly and disgusting six-limbed bug, Underworld Worm!"

Old One-Eye had already recognized the identity of the person before him.

The brother of Governor Augustus Flax, Underworld Worm Tiberius Flax.

The Patriarch of the Genestealers... now it was controlling this woman's body.

Listening to Old One-Eye's words, the woman laughed instead of getting angry: "Is this still my cowardly Uncle Radburn?"

"I still remember old feelings; if it weren't for you being afraid back then, I might have died in the Governor's Palace long ago..."

"... Now, tell me, who is the person who went to the Underhive? I will let you continue to open this tavern."

Old One-Eye sighed, looked at the woman's pair of mechanical eyes, his gaze seemingly staring straight at the Genestealer Patriarch behind the woman...

"The Hua Hua Hua Di Huang taught us many things, among which the most precious are two..."

"... The first is loyalty, loyalty to the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang, and also loyalty to friends."

Old One-Eye's hand hidden under the counter lifted suddenly, and a Kantrael-pattern M36 Lasgun was held in his hand:

"The second is hatred! Hatred for aliens!!!"

Four-thousand-word long chapter

(End of chapter)