Chapter 131: Endless Armaments (Revision)

On the other side, Luo Jinyou had been bored for so long that he was about to start stacking little houses and playing Monopoly in the small space he had created.

Suddenly, he looked up toward the ceiling, and the ground trembled, indicating that someone else had arrived nearby.

The footsteps on the ground were steady and slow; they seemed to belong to members of the Assault Team.

On the surface, Chen Mo Zhi and Meng Kexin were carefully searching the area, but their gait was leisurely, more like a stroll.

Chen Mo Zhi's complexion remained somewhat pale; the battle with Shen Zexi had been exhausting, yet those gloomy eyes suddenly hardened when they noticed something.

"Something's off..."

He muttered softly, crouched, and brushed his fingers over a clump of wilted ferns.

"The soil moisture and light in this area should theoretically favor mosses and shade‑loving grasses, yet these ferns... are growing far too 'normal,' as if their environment had been forcibly altered."

In short, vegetation that should thrive in dark corners has been moved into a sunlit spot, appearing somewhat wilted.

Meng Kexin quietly followed him, her violet eyes flickering, and an invisible mental perception spread outward like rippling water.

Sensing no presence nearby, she had only recently begun studying her Aberrant Arts; at most, the ability could be used for surprise attacks, to reap the benefits of the virtually indefensible mental defenses.

"She's still too weak..."

Meng Kexin lowered her head slightly, her neat bangs shielding her dim, indistinct eyes.

Thus, to survive here, she would become even more unscrupulous.

Chen Mo Zhi scanned the surroundings; an ordinary person would notice nothing unusual, yet the plants were narrating their tragic histories to him.

A bully had forced them to relocate, leaving their spirits wilted, like homeless children.

He crouched, and dark‑green poisonous mist seeped slowly from his palm, infiltrating the ground like living tendrils; the mist was highly sensitive to living beings and could detect subtle energy currents.

The mist followed the plants' roots, spreading downward and corroding the surrounding soil.

"Not good."

The energy fluctuations from the ground and the strange sounds of the corroded soil made Luo Jinyou's complexion change abruptly.

Chen Mo Zhi's toxic energy seeped downward rapidly; although Luo Jinyou had reinforced the wall with his own energy, preventing the toxin from entering, the price was that their hideout was fully exposed.

"Found them."

Chen Mo Zhi squinted; the dark‑green toxic vapor, like living tentacles, grew more corrosive and began attempting to eat through Luo Jinyou's reinforced wall.

"They've found us!"

Luo Jinyou let out a low shout, too hurried to think, and slammed his hands against the surrounding earthen walls.

Chen Mo Zhi's poison was virtually omnipresent; staying hidden in this sealed space would only cause the two of them to be poisoned to death.

"Ying Duo! They've discovered us; how much longer do you need?"

Luo Jinyou asked urgently, unable to power the sound‑dampening device, his hands pressed against the earthen wall, ready to remove the camouflage at any moment.

Ying Duo's movements showed no pause, not even lifting their head, and they clearly reported a number.

"Three minutes."

Three minutes!

Although they had rested for a while, Luo Jinyou still had no clear idea when facing Chen Mo Zhi.

Seeing black spots of toxin corrosion appear on the rock wall, Luo Jinyou gritted his teeth, a flash of resolve in his eyes, and thrust his hands forcefully to both sides.

"Rumble..."

The ground trembled slightly, and the heavy layer of earth above slid aside like a curtain, preventing the structure from collapsing due to the toxic mist's full corrosion.

Sunlight surged in suddenly, illuminating the interior and fully exposing the underground workshop.

At the first sign of ground tremor, Chen Mo Zhi grabbed Meng Kexin and stepped back a few paces, standing at the edge of the pit, looking down from above.

With a single glance, they could clearly see the device in the lower space surrounded by Ying Guang Lu energy, Ying Duo still bent over it, and Luo Jinyou watching them like a formidable foe.

"That's... the target device?!" Chen Mo Zhi's pupils dilated, looking at Ying Duo's device in disbelief.

"How could that be? How long has it been?"

"Even if they started manufacturing elsewhere at the beginning of the competition, it couldn't be finished this quickly!"

Meng Kexin reacted even faster; almost the instant she saw the device, she pulled a specially made signal flare from her pocket and fired it without hesitation.

"Whoosh—Bang!"

A dazzling red light sphere shot upward with a sharp whistling sound, exploding in the sky to form a conspicuous red halo visible even in daylight.

"Stop them! We can't let them finish!"

Meng Kexin let out a low shout, violet sparks flashing in her eyes, and launched a mental attack to try to disrupt Ying Duo's actions.

But her attack was like a stone sinking in the sea; Ying Duo's movements were unaffected, their hand interlaced with Ying Guang Lu, casting an afterimage.

Chen Mo Zhi, ignoring their own injuries, summoned dark‑green poisonous mist again; though much thinner, it still bore lethal threat, like a selective‑biting python lunging at the two.

"Ying Duo!"

Luo Jinyou shouted anxiously while fully activating his earth‑type Aberrant Arts; a massive earthen wall rose instantly at the opening, attempting to block the toxic mist.

Chen Mo Zhi couldn't breach his defense that quickly; previously, they had located them thanks to the tangled underground plant roots.

"Hmm."

Ying Duo gave a soft reply, their hand movements never stopping; with an empty left hand they flicked beside them, like a sleight of hand, producing seven or eight oddly shaped trinkets.

Some were spherical, some tubular; he tossed them casually, and they clanged and rolled to Luo Jinyou's feet.

"While the defense is open, throw them out."

Luo Jinyou glanced at the scattered 'armaments,' his eyes flickering, yet he knew they were key to buying time.

He multitasked, keeping the earthen wall up against the corrosive mist while removing the wall corroded by Chen Mo Zhi; through the small opening created by the corrosion, he tossed the bomb toward the general direction of Chen Mo Zhi and Meng Kexin outside.

"Boom! Boom!"

The explosion rang at the edge of the upper pit; although it didn't hit the prepared Chen Mo Zhi and Meng Kexin, the shockwave and flying debris disrupted their attack rhythm, forcing them to retreat briefly.

Chen Mo Zhi instinctively shielded Meng Kexin behind them; they hadn't experienced Ying Duo's prior bombardment, and although Qi Hengyu had mentioned it, they believed the explosives in Ying Duo's hands were almost depleted.

Who could have thought they still had so many bombs in their hands?

Meng Kexin saw the mental attack was useless against Ying Duo, so she immediately switched the target to Luo Jinyou.