Stronger with More Jobs

Chapter 581 - 267: Symphony of Flesh and Blood (Part 2)

Fifty nautical miles northeast of the Ice Fortress.

The temporary camp remained noisy, but the atmosphere had subtly shifted.

The energy lights flickered tenaciously in the wind and snow, casting an intermittent glow on faces mixed with anticipation, anxiety, and greed.

A few technicians dressed in Deep Blue Heavy Industries standard cold-weather gear.

Seemed to be maintaining those engineering vehicles, but their peripheral gaze was firmly fixed on the entrance of the glacier fissure.

Time passed second by second, each second felt like being tortured in a boiling oil pan.

"Old Li, something’s wrong."

A young technician leaned close to the middle-aged man wearing thick goggles beside him, speaking in a hushed tone.

"According to the plan, the people inside and those lured fish should have exploded out by now! It’s almost ten minutes, why is it as silent as a grave down there?"

Old Li didn’t respond, his frostbitten fingers unconsciously tapped on the cold instrument casing, making a soft tapping sound.

The gaze behind the goggles was fixed on the entrance.

The noise around had become background noise.

Those remaining in the camp to provide backup were still quietly discussing the earth-shattering opportunities that might appear in the "relics," complaining about not being able to go down this time.

The people from Deep Blue Heavy Industries felt their hearts sink into an ice pit.

According to the plan, as soon as Fang Qingyu made a move.

All the Tier Two Grandmasters hired by Deep Blue Heavy Industries would leave immediately, just like that, after all, no matter how real the fake relics might seem, there was nothing inside.

But now...

"Wait another thirty seconds."

Old Li’s voice was dry, like sandpaper rubbing on iron, "After thirty seconds, if there’s no movement, Xiao Zhang, Xiao Ma, you two go down and check, only up to a hundred meters inside the entrance. If you find anything unusual, retreat immediately, remember, anything!"

The two technicians named, also the elite guards of Deep Blue Heavy Industries, exchanged glances, seeing the seriousness in each other’s eyes.

They took a deep breath of the cold air mixed with the smell of oil and ice shards, and nodded silently.

Their hands already rested on the weapons at their waists.

Time flowed in silence, each second felt elongated.

The clueless noise in the camp became even more jarring.

Finally, thirty seconds were up.

Xiao Zhang and Xiao Ma didn’t hesitate at all, like arrows leaving the string, their figures flickered and they darted away from the cover of the engineering vehicles, rushing towards the entrance of the glacier fissure.

Movements swift, immediately attracting numerous gazes from the edge of the camp.

"Hey! The Deep Blue people are moving!"

"There must be something good down there, and they can’t hold back anymore."

"Damn, let’s follow them and see! Maybe we’ll get lucky."

Several quick-reacting mercenaries and loners’ eyes flickered, also subconsciously moving towards the entrance.

Xiao Zhang and Xiao Ma had no time for other concerns, their entire attention focused on the darkness ahead.

The closer they got, the more intense the faintly nauseating sweet smell mixed with the scent of rusty iron became in the air.

The two stopped less than ten meters from the entrance.

Left and right, backs against the cold, bone-chilling ice wall, cautiously poked their heads out, looked deep into the fissure.

No expected chaos, no sounds of fighting, no explosions of energy.

Only a mass... a viscous, writhing blood-red wall that emitted a dark red glow.

That thing clung tightly to the inner side of the entrance, like a huge, disgusting biological membrane, still slightly pulsing.

Deep within the membrane, countless thick, dark red blood vessels could be faintly seen intertwining and spreading like living vines.

The deep passage they had seen before had already been completely blocked and covered by this layer of flesh.

"What... what the hell is this thing?!"

Xiao Zhang’s voice was filled with disbelief and horror, his teeth chattering uncontrollably.

Xiao Ma’s face was as pale as paper, his Adam’s apple bobbing violently, but he could make no sound.

The scene before them, beyond comprehension, left his mind blank.

This was definitely not part of the plan.

Just as the two were stunned by this terrifying sight...

Roooooar——!!!

The rock-solid icefield beneath them emitted an extremely dull groan without warning.

As if an ancient beast deep underground had been awakened, frantically twisting its body.

Violent tremors swept across the entire camp like a tsunami.

The tents fell askew, the flames in the fire pit jumped and extinguished frantically, the energy lights emitted a strained "zzzzz" sound, half of them instantly dimmed.

The parked snow helicopters were tossed from the ground like toys and smashed heavily back down.

"Is it an earthquake?!"

"Is the icefield collapsing? Run!"

"Hold steady! Hold steady!"

Terror-stricken screams, curses, and the sound of objects colliding and toppling instantly replaced all noise.

The crowd scattered like a disturbed ant colony, in chaos.

Xiao Zhang and Xiao Ma were knocked to the ground by the sudden tremor, looking up in horror.

To see the massive glacier fissure ahead being ripped apart as if by an invisible giant hand!

Tch.la.la——!!!

In the terrifying sound of leather forcefully tearing, the ice walls on both sides of the fissure shattered and collapsed like fragile eggshells.

In their place was a vastness of despair-inducing dark red flesh.

An unimaginably huge meatball was being forced out from the depths of the fissure, like a hatched giant egg.

The diameter of that meatball must be over fifty meters!

The surface was covered with a constantly writhing, oozing membrane of viscous dark red ichor, numerous thick dark red blood vessels knotted and bulging like living snakes, pulsating without cease.

It appeared so suddenly, so tremendously, with a kind of unreasonable biological presence.

Forcing Xiao Zhang and Xiao Ma mercilessly to the sides.