Chapter 57: Corrosion Code

"Don't listen!" Lin Xue suddenly hurled an ice spear, shattering the cabin. Purple slime splashed onto Zhang Jun's back of the hand, the burning feeling recalling Old Zhao's lab strong acid.

The console suddenly lit up red. Lin Zhen's recording crackled with electromagnetic noise: "Cleaning plan countdown 37 minutes… the power of Ice Soul is the best rust remover…"

Zhang Jun kicked over the smoking power box, and the sparks from the wires reflected the ice crystal patterns crawling up Lin Xue's neck. Her tactical gloves were frosting, "Communication module… southwest corner…"

The ice coffin suddenly burst with blue light. Twenty‑seven cultivation pods thawed simultaneously; as Zhang Jun retreated, he stepped on a pool of slime and nearly slipped. Lin Yuehua's corpse sat up straight, its fingertips stabbing the ice surface to draw a string of binary code.

"Damn! Isn't this last week's base Wi‑Fi password?" Zhang Jun swung his sword to cleave the charging frozen corpse, rotten flesh mixed with ice shards smearing his face. Lin Xue suddenly staggered, lunged to the console, and pressed her blood‑stained palm onto the fingerprint lock.

Amid the shrill alarm, a familiar melody slipped in. Zhang Jun swung a half‑length steel pipe at the speaker: "This damn thing is Zhao Wushuang's funeral march!"

The cryogenic fluid pipe suddenly burst. A purple torrent rose, revealing the console communicator; Lin Xue's flung ice shards precisely froze the control panel. In the sizzle of electricity, a voice suddenly sounded: "Xue'er? Can you hear…"

The frozen corpses suddenly turned as a group. Zhang Jun's sword tip sliced off the third corpse's heavenly spirit cap, revealing familiar chips embedded in their necks—identical to those from last week's convenience‑store raid.

"Continue!" Lin Xue tossed a signal booster still laden with ice shards. As Zhang Jun caught it, he felt hair stand on his back; newly arriving cyborg joints glowed with eerie blue light, leaving afterimages as they moved.

The freezer's iron door was suddenly dented by a collision. Lin Xue coughed up blood‑froth and laughed: "What are we betting this time?" "Bet your dad hid Moutai in the washing machine!" Zhang Jun ripped off his smoking coat, and the purple pattern on the sword hilt began devouring the ice crystals.

Twelve blue flashes erupted from the pile of metal debris. As a new‑type cyborg joint spewed purple steam and charged, Zhang Jun's sword tip barely sliced through the front unit's armor—sparks mixed with engine oil splashed onto his eyelashes, scorching him so he shook his head violently.

"Third wave!" Lin Xue's back slammed into the ice coffin, kicking two frozen corpses away, "The joint hydraulic system's upgraded!"

Before the words finished, the cyborg's chest armor suddenly cracked, and twenty‑seven muzzles simultaneously spewed acid projectiles. Zhang Jun dragged Lin Xue, rolling into the back of the ice coffin; the bullet‑proof glass was instantly corroded into honeycomb holes. He felt the melted fabric of his combat suit's front collar, burning his teeth: "Did Old Zhao feed all the upgrade fees to the dogs?"

Ice crystals suddenly exploded into powder at Lin Xue's fingertips. An entire row of reagent racks was overturned by the shockwave, twelve coolant canisters solidified mid‑air into ice spears. As the cyborg dodged, Zhang Jun's sword tip thrust into the lead unit's heat vent—electric crackling shifted pitch, and the blue light of the exploding energy pod reflected a trident symbol.

"Damn!" Zhang Jun's thumb pad tingled, "This emblem matches Old Dad's lab's—"

Lin Xue suddenly staggered, kneeling as her ice‑crystal armor began cracking from the shoulders. She ripped off her tactical glove; the icy pattern on her palm was voraciously devouring metal fragments. "Southwest corner… signal source…" she began, but the words were swallowed by an explosion.

Two cyborgs suddenly merged into a four‑meter‑tall beast, purple arcs crackling at its joints. Zhang Jun grabbed a half‑length rebar and jammed it into its ankle: "Are you damn Transformers?" The metal instantly melted into molten iron, scorching his tactical boot soles, which began to smoke.

Ice fog suddenly surged from the floor. Lin Xue thrust all ten fingers into the metal floor, veins bulging up her forearm: "Three seconds!" The entire freezer's metal structures began to warp, and twenty‑seven ventilation ducts simultaneously spewed ice shards. The moment the beast was trapped by the rebar cage, Zhang Jun's Heavenly Sword pierced the trident symbol on its chest.

Purple energy liquid gushed like a fountain, and Zhang Jun suddenly froze—within that pool of slime floated a familiar jade pendant fragment, its edge engraved with Zhang Tiangang's personal seal.

"Communicator!" Lin Xue coughed up blood‑froth, smashing open the console; ice crystals raced along the data cables. When the holographic projection flickered on, Zhang Jun caught sight of three more cyborgs reassembling among the wreckage.

Amid the signal static, a knocking sound suddenly emerged. Lin Xue abruptly snapped two ice shards and jammed them into the ear‑mic; the decoded Morse code made both of them turn pale— the distress signal originated from the seventh underground level of the Profound Heaven Building they had blown up three days earlier.

The communicator emitted a harsh static. Zhang Jun had just thrust an ice spear into a cyborg's joint gap when a hoarse male voice crackled through the ear‑mic: "Turn left three meters… behind the washing machine… cough cough!" The ice shard scraped his neck, pinning him to the wall; broken tiles revealed tangled blue‑yellow wires.

"Zhang Shu's people?" Lin Xue kicked aside the charging frozen corpse, her tactical boots crushing the mechanical finger bones, "Voiceprint match error exceeds 36%."

Zhang Jun's sword hilt smashed open the seventh wall tile; a foul stench mixed with engine oil seeped from the hidden compartment. The yellowed "Home Appliance Repair Manual" cover was stuck with a blob of purple gel; he flipped it open, and the reddish script on the title page twisted into a string of coordinates—the spot where Wang Jun had led them to plant the charge last year.

"Damn!" Among the cyborg wreckage, a metal antenna suddenly sprang up; Zhang Jun was jolted, his thumb pad tingling, "This thing is transmitting our location!"

Lin Xue suddenly grabbed his tactical vest and rolled him to the right. The floor that had been solid erupted three steel spikes, sparking as they scraped the bullet‑proof plate. She flung an ice blade that lodged into the ceiling, and after the exploded surveillance probe, a ventilation duct was exposed.

"Bet or not?" Zhang Jun wiped the slime off his eyelid, "There's bound to be Zhao Wushuang's photo inside."

Ice crystals exploded against the pipe's inner wall like a flare. Lin Xue had just leaned half her body in when she froze— a half‑yin-yang pendant was lodged in a gouge on the pipe wall, identical to the one she had picked up in the Profound Heaven Building elevator shaft last week.

The communicator emitted two sizzling beeps. The hoarse voice, mixed with electric hum, said: "The third load‑bearing column… has a gift…"

A distant metal tearing sound suddenly drew near. Zhang Jun thrust his sword backward into a ground fissure, the sword qi blasting three cyborgs away. The lead unit's chest cavity suddenly split, and purple arcs wove a net shield toward him.

"Electromagnetic pulse bomb!" Lin Xue hauled him, diving into the pipe; the blast wave's ripped metal scraped his back. She let out a muffled groan, her left shoulder tactical suit tearing open, droplets of blood spilling and freezing mid‑air into ice beads.

The pipe began to quake violently. Zhang Jun felt the heated jade pendant in his pocket; blue light reflected off the maintenance ladder around the corner—on the steps lay copies of the twenty‑year‑old "Shen City Evening News," its front‑page photo showing the Lin Group's groundbreaking ceremony.

"Welcome home." The hoarse voice suddenly shifted pitch, blending with a familiar hum. Lin Xue suddenly clenched the ice spear—it was the Jiangnan lullaby her mother hummed to lull her to sleep.