Chapter 226: Mutation (24)
In such a narrow space, Bai Yinnian’s performance was restricted. His wings couldn’t expand to their normal size; they could only press against the edges of the corridor. He pulled Xiao Ji protectively in front of him. Countless feather spines stood erect on one of his wings, bursting forth with raging flames.
Those monsters surging forward wave upon wave were instantly enveloped in flames, struggling together in a mass.
But the fire extinguishing system inside the research institute also burst open at this moment. The water doused the fire, saving the low-level pollutants in the back that had not yet been implicated.
Bai Yinnian cursed his bad luck under his breath.
Water and fire were incompatible. He feared this kind of situation the most: fire extinguishing systems in buildings, and torrential rainstorms out in the wild.
With the flames hindered, his wings would also become heavy.
He hastily retracted his wings, and without another word, hoisted Xiao Ji onto his shoulder and began sprinting wildly all the way.
Their escape route was the exact path they had taken to get here.
As they ran, Bai Yinnian saw a petite dark shadow appear in front of him.
He was just about to launch an attack, but as if suddenly remembering something, he hastily stayed his hand.
Sure enough, that petite figure was also running towards Bai Yinnian.
Just as Bai Yinnian wanted to open his mouth to curse—asking why it didn’t stay home properly and what it was doing sneaking out—the head of a monster that had almost lunged right behind Bai Yinnian, vainly attempting to swallow both him and Xiao Ji in one bite, exploded with a bang.
Immediately following that, the heads of countless monsters behind Bai Yinnian seemed to explode one after another in the dark water mist. The moment Bai Yinnian looked back, what he saw was this extremely bizarre “fireworks” show.
He slowed his footsteps. Looking at Xiao Cui’s blood-red pupils, he closed his mouth.
Xiao Ji felt nauseous from being painfully jolted by Bai Yinnian’s shoulder all the way. He was just about to open his mouth to ask Bai Yinnian to let him down when, the next second, the ground beneath the three of them caved in.
As they fell, Xiao Ji’s waist was bound by countless tentacles, forcefully separating him from Bai Yinnian.
Bai Yinnian’s heart skipped a beat in alarm. He grabbed Xiao Cui in one swift motion. Before he had time to unfurl his wings, it felt as though he had been swallowed into the stomach of something. His vision instantly went black…
Xiao Ji’s entire body was enveloped in a soft, fleshy substance. He did not attempt to struggle.
According to the description of the original world line’s trajectory, this was Qi Xu’s lair.
Qi Xu’s ambition was immense. He looked down on the Shenyi members who had “evolved” through drug injections, but he would absolutely not lightly harm products of “natural evolution” like Bai Yinnian and Xiao Ji.
His first step would inevitably be to incite rebellion, wanting to make Bai Yinnian and Xiao Ji work for him.
To achieve his grand, illusory ambitions.
And right now was also the perfect opportunity to wipe out Qi Xu and these “naturally evolved” high-level pollutants in one fell swoop.
Wrapped in that strange substance, Xiao Ji’s five senses were blinded. By the time that bizarre sensation of being enveloped disappeared, he had already appeared in a gloomy cave.
Less than two meters in front of him was an iron mesh net. Below the iron mesh was a deep pit somewhat similar to the cages in the sanctuary.
Xiao Ji stood up and patted the dirt off his body. After a click sounded, the iron mesh in front of him split from the middle and retracted into the stone walls.
And inside that deep pit, there currently lay several people wrapped in pupae. Looking at the number, they should be the missing team members from Shenyi.
“You are very hard to invite. I sent Qian Zheng to invite you, originally thinking that since you were old acquaintances after all, you would give some face. I didn’t expect you to be so merciless when you struck. Left with no choice, I could only resort to this inferior strategy.”
A gentle male voice rang out from not far away.
Xiao Ji turned his head and saw a handsome man dressed in a long white gown.
And behind him, there currently followed seven people—four men and three women.
Xiao Ji did not respond to this, only asking a single question: “Where are my people?”
Qi Xu knew Xiao Ji was asking about Bai Yinnian and Xiao Cui.
Speaking of this, his eyelids twitched violently.
He had never thought about incorporating Bai Yinnian, because Bai Yinnian was originally a man of the military. The possibility of making him betray the military was not great.
And it was precisely because he knew Bai Yinnian was a tough character to deal with that he was even more eager to incorporate Xiao Ji.
But he didn’t expect that Bai Yinnian and that little brat injected with drugs would be so difficult to handle.
Five minutes ago, after Bai Yinnian and Xiao Ji were separated, the man had gone crazy.
That strange creature, which could both conceal itself and devour, was also one of Qi Xu’s people.
Its ability was relatively special; it lacked major offensive power, but it could shield the five senses of anyone enveloped within it.
Bai Yinnian was enveloped within it—unable to see, hear, or smell—yet that pair of wings ruthlessly burst out from his body.
With no oxygen, the flames couldn’t ignite. However, the sharp spines on Bai Yinnian’s wings acted like a meat grinder, twisting madly inside the creature’s body.
Qi Xu’s original plan had been to bring Bai Yinnian here as well.
But Bai Yinnian had directly smashed the lower half of his companion’s body into meat paste halfway there.
Left with no choice, his companion could only release Bai Yinnian and Xiao Cui, bringing only Xiao Ji back.
Qi Xu was silent for a long moment before opening his mouth:
“I don’t know.”
Who knew that Xiao Ji would instantly become displeased upon hearing these words. Almost in the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of a man behind Qi Xu, gripping that man’s throat with one hand:
“I want to see my people.”
Unfortunately, Xiao Ji didn’t even wait for Qi Xu’s response. The next second, the temperature inside the cave soared abruptly. A ball of fire smashed through the crushed stones and charged in, cursing loudly:
“Which son of a b*tch bastard dared to kidnap my person!”
His loud roar gave Xiao Ji a start. With a sudden burst of force in his hand, he froze the man in his grasp into an ice pop.
Upon seeing this, Xiao Cui, who was being dangled in Bai Yinnian’s arms, had a conditioned reflex. His eyes turned red, and the next second, the ice pop in Xiao Ji’s hand shattered into a pile of powder.
Qi Xu’s expression changed. “Stop.”
When Bai Yinnian saw the completely unharmed Xiao Ji, the fury that had already surged to the top of his head finally eased down.
The flames that had been burning madly on his wings also weakened accordingly, returning to normal.
With an ugly expression on his face, he took large strides towards Xiao Ji.
However, Qi Xu suddenly raised his hand, placing his palm face-down over the pit, and warned Bai Yinnian:
“Stop right there, or I will kill them.”
Only then did Bai Yinnian see the several wrapped pupae in the pit.
He narrowed his eyes. “Are you threatening me?”
Qi Xu had anticipated that incorporating Xiao Ji wouldn’t necessarily go smoothly because Xiao Ji was too aloof in his observations.
Later, with the addition of Bai Yinnian, the two seemed to have a good relationship, which added to the difficulty of this matter.
Thus, he wanted to secretly kidnap Xiao Ji to get things done.
As a result, he failed again.
Now this was just great. Xiao Ji hadn’t even expressed anything yet, and all the obstacles were entirely attributed to Bai Yinnian.
Like wild fists beating down an old master, Qi Xu looked at Xiao Ji:
“I invited you here without any malice. Can you talk to him?”
Xiao Ji never did useless work.
He and Qi Xu were destined not to stand on the same battlefront. There was no need to waste time for nothing.
Therefore, he made a prompt decision and said to Bai Yinnian:
“Kill them. Leave no one alive.”
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