fantasy novels Chapter 4157: Troubled times
Chapter 4157: Troubled times
Chapter 4157: Troubled times
A massive, violent, invisible shockwave, like a giant hand crushing down from the sky, crashed down with a piercing shriek that tore through the air.
The milk dragon reacted the fastest, curling into a tight golden ball just before the shockwave hit it, but the immense force still struck it like a hammer, sending it flying.
The golden sphere traced a parabola through the air; had it not struck a broken wall of a dilapidated building midway, it would likely have been flung dozens of meters away.
"Boom-"
With a muffled thud, the milk dragon crashed heavily to the ground.
Its body trembled slightly on the ground twice, and then remained still.
The wine glass reacted a little too slowly; when the blast hit, she didn't even have time to raise her hand to shield herself before being thrown through the air like a kite with a broken string. Fortunately, she was thrown towards a window of a building on one side.
The wooden window frame shattered instantly upon impact, and the wine glass, along with the person and the broken wood, crashed into the room, landing heavily on an old bed covered with a faded velvet blanket.
The fluffy blanket absorbed most of the impact, leaving the wine glass feeling as if it had fallen apart. The porcelain glass slammed against the bed with a dull thud, but thankfully... it didn't crack.
However, most of the wine in the first glass was spilled.
As for Na, one of the three.
Since separating from Mud Lord, she clung to Milk Dragon like a boneless, soft snake. Therefore, when Milk Dragon was knocked away, she fell to the ground along with it.
However, the exact extent of Na and Nailong's injuries is currently unknown to Jiubei. Things happened too fast; one second they were dodging, and the next they were scattered and separated.
"Huh...huh..."
The wine glass lay on the tattered old bed, panting heavily, trying to increase its breathing to alleviate the pain and stiffness in its body.
But the Truga woman's body was too fragile. Even though the blanket had absorbed most of the impact, she still felt as if her bones had been disassembled and reassembled, and every breath brought a dull pain.
She could faintly hear the roaring of voices and the sound of bricks breaking outside the window, but she didn't even have the strength to turn her head to look. She could only stare at the spiderweb-like cracks on the ceiling and feel time passing by little by little.
I don't know how much time passed, but when my fingertips could finally curl up with difficulty, the wine glass finally recovered.
She slowly sat up, supporting herself on the mattress. The cup trembled slightly from the effort. Just as she was about to lean out through the broken window to look for Nailong and Na, a low, childish voice suddenly came from behind her:
"Watch out, don't look out!"
Who?
The wine glass suddenly turned around and saw a little boy squatting outside the dilapidated door of the room.
He was about eleven or twelve years old, wearing patched old clothes, and was anxiously waving his hand at her, signaling her to lower her head quickly.
"You are..." The wine glass began to ask something, but before she could finish, the boy made a "shh" gesture, silencing her.
The little boy saw the wine glass and looked at it with a questioning expression. He crouched down and quietly went into the room.
The wine glass initially wanted to stop him, but looking at the other person's small and thin body, it ultimately said nothing and let him approach.
When the little boy came to the side of the wine glass, he bit his lip, glanced out the window, and lowered his voice even further: "Outside... there are people in red robes outside. As soon as they see people, they release flesh and blood monsters to devour them!"
"Sister Anna... was just..."
As the little boy spoke, tears welled up in his eyes.
"Red-clad men? Flesh and blood monsters?" Wine Glass immediately thought of the Blood Faction's style.
Are the Bloodstained Faction members outside?
What about Nailong and Na...?
A sudden "boom" echoed in the wine glass's mind, as if a tremendous misfortune was looming over it.
She glanced at the little boy with tears in his eyes, and finally decided to sneak a peek outside... at least to make sure what he was saying was true.
This time, the wine glass was handled with extra care.
Her gaze swept across the room, and she picked up a sharp-edged shard of glass from the floor, placed it on the windowsill, and slowly adjusted the angle so that it perfectly reflected the view outside.
The glass paused abruptly when large patches of glaring crimson appeared on the glass, along with bizarre clumps of severed limbs and flesh writhing on the street.
The little boy is telling the truth!
With each wriggling movement of those clumps of flesh, a viscous fluid would splatter out, quickly devouring any remaining limbs on the ground in its wake. Clearly, this was the Blood Mother of the Blood Sect.
It seems that the Blood Faction had the upper hand in the red-blue duel just now.
Given the Blood Faction's modus operandi, now that their whereabouts have been completely exposed, they might as well stop hiding and unleash the Blood Mother to wreak havoc.
This is both a provocation against the God-Slaying Division and an attempt to expand the search area.
Such blatant destruction is enough to force out any "suspicious individuals" hiding in the shadows.
Her fingers, gripping the shards of glass, tightened slightly, but she didn't pull them back. Instead, she continued to adjust the angle, trying to find Nailong and Na.
However, at that moment, another accident occurred.
Although the shards of glass reflected the outside world, they also reflected the moonlight.
The fleeting light, though faint, still startled the Bloodlust Faction followers below.
"There's someone up there!" the man in red robes shouted, pointing at the dilapidated building.
The next second, a large number of footsteps rushed towards the small building.
"Oh no, we've been discovered!" The little boy noticed what was happening outside. He didn't care about his tears and grief anymore and grabbed his wine glass, running outside.
The wine glass was simply flung away from the little boy's hand.
The little boy was stunned for a moment, thinking he was being rejected. But the next second he saw the wine glass grab him with one arm and run away quickly.
“I’m faster than you, I’ll take you away.” Although he was still in pain, Wine Glass knew that now was not the time to dawdle; they had to escape the Bloodlust cultists’ capture.
"Do you know any hiding places around here?" The wine glass darted wildly out of the dilapidated corridor as it asked the boy in its arms in a hurried tone.
The little boy grunted in agreement, knowing this wasn't the time for idle chatter, and quickly said, "Turn left in the corridor ahead!"
The wine glass quickened its pace, and under his guidance, it turned sharply to the left.
"The third door opens, go through!"
After passing through the third dusty empty room, another corridor appeared before me, deep and long on both sides, with crisscrossing doors on the walls, like the branching paths of a maze.
The wine glass swayed for a moment.
The building she fell into had such a complex internal structure?
"Go straight to the right!"
The little boy's voice reached their ears, and at the same time, chaotic footsteps echoed in the corridor outside, clearly indicating that the Bloodstained Sect members had caught up.
The wine glass dared not stop, continuing its rapid flow.
Right! Left! Through the corridor! Through the room!
The complex structure gave the wine glass a glimmer of hope for escape. However, the Bloodstained Faction seemed to have a way of tracking them, and the footsteps behind them were close by, which made the wine glass somewhat irritable.
She wasn't worried about being arrested... anyway, if she died, they could just replace her.
She was worried that the little boy who had initially shown her kindness would be implicated and killed because of her.
"I guess I've also caught Mud Lord's 'saintly disease'... If only it were a dungeon." If it were a dungeon, she wouldn't care whether these people lived or died.
She gritted her teeth, her chest already feeling cold and uncomfortable, but she continued to run while holding the little boy.
"No, they might have brought dogs. Our scent has been completely locked onto." The little boy's slightly anxious voice reached Wine Glass's ears.
Wine Glass had also guessed this, because it was impossible to shake off the Bloodstained Faction.
The man gritted his teeth and made a decision: "Are there any basements around here?"
The little boy paused, then seemed to realize something: "That's right, we can go down the sewer! The sewer can wash away our scent. Sister is so clever!"
Wine glass: "???"
She mentioned the basement just because she remembered that Kaiya had mentioned before that the reason her residences were all in basements was because they were close to the Yungang defense line. In case of danger, she could attract law enforcement teams by triggering the defense line, thus increasing her chances of survival.
Although he might be arrested and sentenced by law enforcement later, at least his life wouldn't be in danger.
Therefore, what the wine glass was thinking of was going to the basement to trigger the Yungang defense line.
If she gets caught, at worst, it triggers the "alert mechanism" and she exits the windowed instance. As long as he doesn't die because of her, it's fine.
"Is there a sewer?" Wine Glass asked hastily. If they could avoid getting caught and alerting the law enforcement team, that would be the best outcome.
"Yes!" The little boy nodded and quickly pointed the wine glass to a new path.
About two minutes later, they came to a dead end, which contained only an empty room with a basement and no windows.
All hope lies in this basement.
If they cannot escape, their only fate will be to be swallowed up by Mother Earth.
Fortunately, the little boy's directions were correct; there was indeed a drain in the basement that could lead down into the sewer.
“An old craftsman used to live here. He was always hammering and tinkering in the house, and the waste was piled up higher than a person. He found it too troublesome to transport it out every day, so he drilled a hole himself to connect to the sewer and pushed the waste directly down, saving him the trouble of running back and forth.”
"But now we're the ones who benefit!"
No sooner had the little boy finished speaking than footsteps could be heard coming from upstairs, clearly indicating that the Bloodstained Sect had caught up with them.
"Oh no, we have to jump right now!"
The moment the leak was opened, an incredibly strong stench wafted out, accompanied by the sound of rushing water.
The little boy seemed hesitant when he smelled the aroma, but hearing footsteps coming from upstairs, he pinched his nose and jumped down.
The wine glass looked utterly hopeless; the stench emanating from it gave her the illusion that she was standing in a septic tank.
Do we really have to jump?
How about a direct death penalty?
"Jump! Ugh... Sister! Hurry!" At this moment, a little boy's voice came from below, accompanied by gurgling water sounds, as if he had swallowed some foul water while speaking.
Hearing the gurgling sound below, the wine glass sighed helplessly and glanced back at the direction of the stairwell.
Several men in red robes have appeared.
The wine glass, with its eyes closed, was turned upside down and jumped...
A pungent stench quickly enveloped them, accompanied by gushing sewage, which swept her and the little boy away into the unknown distance.
At the same time, the Bloodstained Sect followers who had been pursuing them also arrived near the breach.
When they smelled the stench below and saw the unidentifiable color of the sewage, they took a few steps back.
"Want to chase?"
The group looked at each other, but none of them wanted to jump.
"Well, let's just forget about it. They're just two ordinary blood food anyway."
"Yes, yes, these blood animals can be caught anywhere outside, there's no need to make ourselves look so disheveled... let them go."
"I second that. Besides, I heard from the boss that we captured two rare races up there this time. Even if we don't capture the key targets, sacrificing them will be enough to atone for our sins. There's no need to capture some ordinary blood food."
After some back and forth, they silently left the leak.
The wine glass was unaware of this, because she was almost fainting from the stench...
The little boy, on the other hand, didn't seem to be affected much. He even grabbed the wine glass and swam forward with her.
Sensing the rising, stench, the wine glass sighed helplessly to the heavens: "See? I can't do my livestream anymore..."
This statement was clearly directed at the viewers of the live stream.
"Sister, what did you say?"
"I didn't say anything... I said I was dying..."
"Don't worry, we'll be at the climbing ladder soon, then we can leave... Don't fall asleep, sister..."
Although the little boy kept encouraging her, the wine glass felt she was about to pass out. Just before losing consciousness, she left a message: "...If I don't die, remember to pour wine into my first glass..."
The next second, she fainted.
……
Heart Space, Live Streaming Area.
Angell read through the part about the wine glass falling unconscious in one go.
Although she was unconscious, the live stream was not cut off, only the audio was no longer played.
After she fell into a coma, the little boy did not give up on her, but tried his best to pull her along... During the movement, the climbing ladder was already visible.
The little boy could have reached out and grabbed her, but because he held the wine glass with both hands to prevent her from sinking, he could only miss her time and time again.
I don't know how long they've been adrift.
They only stopped when a barrier appeared.
After they had been soaking in sewage for an hour or two, a homeless man came down the ladder, found them, and rescued them.
Although we couldn't hear the homeless man's voice, we could still read what he was saying by reading his lip movements.
He set up the interception net specifically to intercept the garbage in the upper city and extract gold from it. Unexpectedly, it saved them both.
The homeless man didn't make things difficult for them; he even took them to his base to rest—a small platform hidden on the side of the sewer.
They spent the next ten hours inside this small platform.
The wine glass remained unconscious, while the little boy tended to it.
until now.
"That's the situation..." the water clone said with some helplessness. "While you were out exploring the Sandbox Wonderland, Mud Lord and Kaeya went to Vampire Town, and there's no information about them yet; Milk Dragon and Na are missing, but they've most likely been captured by the Blood Faction; and as for Wine Glass... you saw it too, it jumped into the sewers and was knocked unconscious by the stench, and it's still there now."
Angell remained silent for a long time before finally managing to utter, "What a series of calamities."
"There's nothing we can do. They're not accepted by the world's will, so it's normal for them to be plagued by misfortune." The water clone paused. "However, there is some good news now."
Angell looked over.
The water clone shrugged: "At least none of the four of them were kicked out of the instance."
In other words, although they are separated now, at least no one has died yet.