Chapter 72: Bloodline Awakening: Truth and Lies in the Ruins

Outside the hallway, more than half had collapsed, leaving almost no place to stand. They could only climb along twisted rebar and exposed pipes, moving forward as rubble and metal chunks continually rained down from above.

"Lin Zhen?" Lin Xue asked while running amid the jolts.

"He ran." Zhang Jun gritted his teeth, voice full of hatred: "That old bastard, he fled the moment things looked bad!"

Lin Xue seemed to want to ask something, but Zhang Jun just shook his head: "Let's talk after we get out!"

Another earth-shaking tremor.

The hallway ahead collapsed completely, turning into a dark, black abyss.

The two were forced to stop.

"This way!" Lin Xue pointed to a small iron door barely hanging on its frame on the left: "Go through the power room, and we should be able to get around!"

Behind the door was a huge mechanical room, filled with various shut-down equipment and cold pipes; only a few red emergency lights flickered desperately. The air reeked of thick machine oil and the burnt smell of scorched circuits.

As they stepped over the threshold, heavy footsteps and metallic scraping sounds came from behind them—the modified humans.

"They're catching up." Lin Xue glanced back: "There are quite a few of them."

Zhang Jun quickly scanned the surroundings, his gaze locking on several silver canisters about half a person tall in the corner. Those were high-pressure gas storage tanks used to regulate the underground city's air pressure.

"Help me." He pointed at those tanks: "Freeze them!"

Lin Xue instantly understood his meaning. Ice Soul Power surged from her fingertips, cold air spreading, quickly coating the valves and connecting pipes of several storage tanks with a thick layer of white frost.

Zhang Jun raised the Heaven-Man Sword, mustering all his strength, and fiercely chopped at the brittle valve interface of the frozen tanks.

"Clang——!"

A piercing sound of metal breaking!

Compressed gas shot out with a sharp whistle, wildly spraying! The tremendous recoil sent the heavy storage tanks, like runaway cannonballs, screaming toward the doorway!

The few modified humans that had just rushed in couldn't dodge in time and were instantly smashed to pieces, parts and purple liquid splattering everywhere.

"Power room," Lin Xue leaned against the wall, gasping heavily, "we're almost there."

Clone Wang Jun's solemn voice cut into the comms: "The maintenance passage has collapsed; we need to clear it. Moreover, the modified humans have also approached and are gathering."

Zhang Jun and Lin Xue's footsteps halted, they exchanged a glance, an unspoken understanding forming.

"Got it." Zhang Jun growled into the communicator, gripping the Heaven-Man Sword tight: "Prepare to support!"

Lin Xue scanned his body, blood flowing from his wounds: "Can you still fight like this?"

Zhang Jun grinned, tugging at the scab on his face: "I won't die."

The two rushed out of the passage; Clone Wang Jun's mechanical arm transformed into a drill, frantically blasting at the piles of rubble blocking the way.

"The passage is collapsed for twenty meters; clearing it will take at least fifteen minutes." Wang Jun didn't turn back, "But the entire underground city has at most nineteen minutes left before total destruction."

"What about the modified humans?" Zhang Jun glanced around, seeing only chaos.

"They're approaching from three directions; they'll be here in at most three minutes."

Zhang Jun didn't hesitate: "You clear the way, I'll cover the rear."

"No!" Lin Xue blurted: "Your injuries are too severe!"

"No choice." Zhang Jun shook his head: "Even if we both clear, we won't make it in time; someone has to hold them off."

"Then I'll go!" Lin Xue stepped forward: "My Ice Soul Power—"

"Never mind," Zhang Jun interrupted, pointing at the cracks spreading across her armor: "It's almost worn out. You know this place better than I do; help Old Wang get through faster."

Lin Xue wanted to say more, but Zhang Jun had already turned, dragging his injured leg toward the way they came.

"Fifteen minutes." He turned his back to them: "I'll hold them off for fifteen minutes."

Lin Xue watched his staggering yet determined back, her heart feeling as if something had clenched it.

"Zhang Jun!"

She shouted.

His steps stopped, he didn't turn back.

"You damn well better come back!" Lin Xue's voice trembled with a shake she herself didn't notice: "Otherwise I'll throw your broken sword into the trash compactor, you hear me!"

Zhang Jun's shoulders twitched slightly, as if he were laughing.

"Hey, you've grown some guts, daring to threaten me."

He raised the Heaven-Man Sword; the purple dragon pattern flashed once in the darkness, then he strode purposefully around the corner, disappearing into the looming darkness.

Lin Xue stared fixedly at the direction he had vanished, her chest feeling suffocated. She suddenly turned her head, looking at Clone Wang Jun: "Move! Quick!"

Ice Soul Power and the mechanical drill worked together, freezing and shattering the rubble, then removing it; efficiency suddenly surged.

In the distance, the sounds of metal tearing, energy cannon booms, and Zhang Jun's angry roars mixed together, growing denser.

——

Deep in the passage.

Zhang Jun leaned against the cold metal wall, his chest heaving violently. Five or six sparking modified human corpses lay at his feet. His left arm was completely numb, hanging limp as if broken; the wound split open, blood mixed with sweat trickling down, staining a small dark red patch on the ground.

But ahead, more purple light points flickered in the darkness, dense and numerous, like ghost fires in a graveyard, slowly closing in.

Debris from above struck more violently, the ground beneath his feet occasionally shaking violently, as if it would collapse entirely in the next second.

"Damn..." Zhang Jun spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, re-gripping the Heaven-Man Sword tightly. The sword body scorched hot, the purple dragon pattern glowing eerily bright; a restless, chaotic energy surged along his arm into his body. The barcode on the back of his neck burned painfully, a sharp sting shooting straight to his forehead.

"Come on, you scum!" He let out a low roar and charged forward.

The modified humans split into three routes, a typical attrition tactic.

Zhang Jun violently plunged the Heaven-Man Sword into the metal floor beneath his feet!

"Hold them down, you bastard!"

Purple light exploded! The dragon pattern spread instantly across the ground, forming a huge halo. Modified humans stepping into the halo froze in unison, their metal joints emitting an grating "creak" sound.

"Cough..." Zhang Jun grunted, dropping to one knee, his face instantly turning as pale as paper. This move was powerful, but it drained what little strength he had left; the violent energy drawn by the Heaven-Man Sword made his five viscera and six organs churn.

He forced himself to pull the sword out, staggering backward. The modified humans he had immobilized were recovering, while even more enemies had already skirted around the halo's range, lunging in from the sides and rear.

There's no retreat.

Lin Xue and Lao Wang were right behind; that was the only way to survive.

The sword light flared again, dancing wildly in the narrow passage. Zhang Jun's movements visibly slowed; each block numbed his tiger's mouth, each strike tugged at wounds all over his body.

But his sword remained vicious, always aiming for the modified humans' energy core or the neck joint.

Another modified human was run through the chest by him, but the foe's energy cannon grazed his right leg as it died, leaving a scorched hole where skin and flesh instantly carbonized.

"Hiss—" the intense pain made his vision go black, and he nearly collapsed.

The passage filled with more debris, the viscous purple liquid mixing with his blood, making the ground even slicker.

Five minutes felt as long as a century.

More modified humans surged in, seeming endless.