Era of Magic and Martial Arts

Chapter 446 - 430: Voices Drifting In, Sudden Upheaval

Inside the underground passageway resembling a colossal maze, the flashlight’s beam cast mottled shadows on the damp walls, and the air was filled with a disturbing stench of decay.

Feng Ju’s mechanical prosthetic scraped against the wall, emitting an irritating friction sound, scratching off a patch of slippery moss.

Feng Ju clenched his iron-black hand, staring at the three diverging paths ahead, his brow deeply furrowed.

Thick liquid seeped from the left wall, a putrid smell wafting in the middle, while the right was eerily silent.

Each path looked like the open mouth of a monster, but where the monster had chased his daughter to, he was completely at a loss.

His proud experience in hunting criminals and the multifunctional mechanical arm seemed useless now, unable to offer any help.

"Dali, take your men to the right, Pile Head, you take your men to the left, and the others follow me. Report on the intercom at all times."

Feng Ju made a quick decision, scattering his brothers below.

Then, two minutes later, another similar crossroads appeared before Feng Ju.

He wasn’t unaware that continuously dispersing manpower in the eerie underground sewers was an extremely dangerous and foolish tactic, but his heart was with his daughter, and he couldn’t care about much else.

Soon, only Dong Ping was left beside him, and the pipe in front of him remained as intricate as a spider web, seemingly endless.

"Damn it, where on earth is Yuhuai?"

Feng Ju was burning with anxiety, his fist slamming hard against the pipe wall.

"Captain Feng, over here!"

Dong Ping suddenly called softly, with a hint of excitement in his voice. His finger pointed to the ground, where a series of dismembered rat carcasses floated with the sewage.

The carcasses were soaked by the sewage into a pale white, with strands of fur still hanging from the edges, not completely decomposed, clearly shattered by some immense force.

Hope flickered in Feng Ju’s eyes, and he hurried against the flow of the sewage.

In the distance, a sharp and distorted woman’s voice faintly echoed from deep within the pipes, somewhat blurred and unclear, but discernible as a woman’s hysterical shriek, or perhaps, a despairing wail?

"Is it Yuhuai?"

Feng Ju’s heart leapt into his throat, and he accelerated abruptly, rushing towards the direction of the voice.

In front of Feng Ju, three reporters from Light Prism TV Station stealthily descended through a certain manhole.

Ren Xuan held a palm-sized device in his hand, resembling a navigational radar, displaying—Pd124 distance southwest 174m.

Pd124 was the factory number of the heroic journalist predecessor who had met an untimely death.

Though it perished, the residual light (chip) within it still guided the newcomers forward.

"Over there, almost there."

Ren Xuan identified the direction, wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, and looked around in the sinister sewer.

"Keep your steps light, the monster is just ahead."

Tang An, hefting a camera, bent slightly at the waist, his slightly chubby round face covered in large beads of sweat.

He panted heavily, his voice lowered:

"If we manage to return alive this time, the station will definitely promote us and give us a raise. If I save up for two years, I should be able to afford a wife."

The two whispered as they moved forward cautiously, attempting to alleviate their inner fears with words.

Deng Jiajia walked silently at the front.

Suddenly, a sharp and distorted woman’s scream came from afar.

The three reporters, being closer to the source, heard it more clearly.

They strained their ears, trying to capture more information.

In the scream, they seemed to hear keywords like "senior sister," "mentor," and "capture alive," but these words were like scattered puzzle pieces, unable to form a complete picture.

"What does it mean?" Ren Xuan asked, puzzled.

"Who’s talking to whom?" Tang An was equally confused.

Deng Jiajia’s eyes showed contemplation.

Although the keywords couldn’t link up into complete information, their journalist instincts almost simultaneously detected something unusual.

Considering the monster chases in the sewers....

"Exclusive news!!!"

With a glint in her eye, Deng Jiajia shouldered the camera and dashed forward swiftly.

.....

The female doctor hysterically roared at the monster, as it, with a head clad in pajamas, looked down at her, murderous intent flickering in its scarlet eyes.

Being one of the main figures in the laboratory, the female doctor was aware of a part of the mentor’s entire plan.

She knew that the mentor targeting Feng Yuhuai was not for fun, but to find the man hidden behind Feng Yuhuai and reclaim the Black Core that had been seized.

The female doctor’s gaze swept over the monster’s grotesque face, suddenly noticing the murderous intent in its eyes, her heart chilled, yet she shouted more angrily:

"Senior Sister, how can you still be so impulsive and foolish in this ghastly form? Do you truly want to be taken back by the mentor and fed to No. 37?"

The word "mentor" seemed to carry some magic, causing the monster to shudder slightly, its scarlet eyes flickering continuously.

It bared its teeth and growled deeply, but its tail slowly retracted, reluctantly setting Feng Yuhuai down from mid-air.

The headless companion crashed to the ground, making a dull thud.

Feng Yuhuai fell down, heavily landing on the monster’s corpse, letting out a weak moan.

The female doctor adjusted her medical goggles, quickly kneeling down, reaching into her white coat pocket to retrieve a syringe glimmering with a black light, within which squirmed metallic particles like living creatures.

If someone knowledgeable were present, they would recognize those metallic particles forming lines resembling the eerie patterns on the Big Black Core’s surface.

"This is the mentor’s latest developed Dystrophic Inducer, capable of reviving the dead. Compared to the model injected into the Senior Sisters before, the new version has fewer side effects and doesn’t impair memory or brain function."

As the female doctor took out the syringe, all six living monsters, except for the blind one, made reflexive movements, stepping back as if they saw something disgusting.

The female doctor, seeing her Senior Sisters’ fearful reaction, curled her lips into a vengeful, contemptuous smile.

Without further hesitation, she raised the needle, aiming it decisively at Feng Yuhuai’s neck.

Slash—

The severed pale arm spun rapidly in the air, with blood droplets splattering like dark red garnets, as the surrounding monsters evaded it as if avoiding a plague.

The arm drew a graceful parabola in the air before plunging into the sewage sludge, with half its wrist exposed, tightly holding the syringe with its five fingers.

The murky water rippled, and a bloodstained red line swiftly lifted from the water, carrying a string of sticky mud, shooting back....into Feng Yuhuai’s shattered chest.

The female doctor hadn’t even felt the pain, her gaze still lingered on Feng Yuhuai’s neck.

A moment later, as if waking from a dream, her stiff gaze lowered, seeing a gaping wound crawling with red threads, writhing, rolling, winding...