Chapter 898: Contact

Chapter 898: Contact

Deep within the dim, subterranean channels of the Karez, Qing Wanglai reached up to catch the dust drifting down from the ceiling, shaken loose by the tremors.

The instability of the structure left everyone present feeling deeply uneasy.

Qing Wanglai turned to Li Huowang, who was hysterically slamming his head against the wall, and urged, "Li Huowang, you had better stop. We have no idea when this Karez was built; if you cause a collapse in this tunnel, we will all be buried alive here."

Li Huowang froze, suddenly standing as still as a statue. It was not Qing Wanglai’s words that halted him, but the finger Zhao Shuangdian held pressed against her lips.

"Shh, shh." Zhao Shuangdian’s hush caused all other sounds to gradually fade away.

She seemed to have discovered something, and when Li Huowang became certain that what she found was not a product of his own hallucinations, his heart began to race.

Seeing Zhao Shuangdian crouch down silently, Ba Nanxu immediately lunged into her arms, dropping to his knees to use his back and hips as a steady mount for her rifle.

Zhao Shuangdian stared intently into the pitch-black tunnel ahead for a long moment. Then, she pulled the trigger. With a sharp crack, blood began to seep out from the darkness in the distance.

"I wasn't wrong? Could it be that what happened before wasn't entirely a hallucination?"

As this thought struck him, Li Huowang was overcome with ecstasy and charged forward. The gunfire behind him did not slow his pace; instead, it only made him faster.

When Li Huowang emerged from the darkness again, he was dragging a terrified black man by his arms. "Can you see him? Can you all see him now? Tell me, is this man a hallucination or not!"

When everyone nodded to confirm they could see him, Li Huowang laughed wildly, raised his military knife, and plunged it into the man’s throat.

"It’s real! It wasn't all fake! A part of it is truly real!"

Just as he pulled the blade, trailing a piece of trachea, from the man's neck, a massive force slammed into his back, sending him flying.

The impact was so violent that it launched Li Huowang into the air. Looking at the jagged, uneven rocks on the ground, he knew that if he landed directly, the injuries would be severe.

Having finally found his enemies, he did not want to be incapacitated so soon. With every ounce of his strength, he struggled to twist his body so the corpse would land beneath him.

With a heavy thud, Li Huowang hit the ground, the face of the corpse beneath him smeared entirely into the uneven rock.

Gasping for air, Li Huowang stood up and returned to his companions. Under their watchful eyes, a group of people emerged one by one from the darkness ahead.

They were all human, mostly black men, armed with various firearms. Many were wounded, clearly the result of the recent skirmish.

Leading them was a massive, burly man who glared at the corpse of his comrade on the ground with a flicker of suppressed rage.

He did not lash out, however. Instead, he furrowed his brows and stared at Li Huowang, asking, "Nafurahi kukuon'a?"

Qing Wanglai stepped forward, blocking Li Huowang, and said with a smile, "Jumbonagomvimaridhawa'o."

Hearing Qing Wanglai speak, the giant’s expression softened slightly. He stepped forward and continued to inquire, "Rafikm, falme wetu. Dai, mungu wetuna."

But in the next instant, Qing Wanglai raised his hand and shot the man in the head. Before the others could react, he had easily dispatched their leader.

"Nye!" A roar of fury erupted. Seeing their rage and the dark muzzles of their guns,

Qing Wanglai did not hesitate to turn and hide behind Li Huowang, pressing his hands against Li Huowang’s back to shove him forward.

"Get lost!" Li Huowang kicked backward, using the momentum to lunge forward with his knife.

The sharp blade bit deep into flesh. Feeling the vibration of the steel, Li Huowang twisted his wrist, sliding the blade into a joint, and with a sickening crunch, the enemy’s arm was severed.

Seeing the anti-material sniper rifle aimed at him, Li Huowang roared and drove his twin blades into the man in front of him, using the screaming soldier as a shield as he pushed toward the others.

Gunfire erupted. Li Huowang’s shield was shredded, but he had already dropped into a half-crouch, narrowly avoiding the volley.

Tightening his grip on his weapon, he hurled his military knife toward the shooter, the blade striking home.

But it wasn't over. Li Huowang knew that the rifle could not fall into other hands; his body armor could not withstand such a weapon.

Just as he was about to charge forward to carve a path for the others, a dark object rolled to his feet.

"A grenade?!" Li Huowang lifted his right foot and kicked the object away.

It had barely traveled a short distance when a violent explosion rocked the earth, shaking the surroundings to their core.

Being the closest, Li Huowang bore the brunt of the blast; had it not been for his equipment, he would have been obliterated.

Even so, when the dust finally settled, Li Huowang was buried under rubble, with only one hand visible.

In the darkness, he felt someone pat his hand, signaling him to remain calm.

A short while later, the black glass of his helmet was illuminated again as he was dug out.

Watching the others scramble to clear the rocks from his body, Li Huowang felt, for the first time, that they were truly his companions.

"Are you okay? Can you hear me? Li Huowang, how many fingers am I holding up?" With his head ringing, Li Huowang saw Wu Qi’s face hovering before him.

He turned his head to look at the tunnel, finding it had collapsed, the passage choked with stone, and the enemies long gone.

At that moment, the buzzing in his head subsided slightly, and Qing Wanglai’s voice reached his ears.

"They did it on purpose. They wanted to seal the path; they don't want us getting close."

Qing Wanglai pulled a compass from his pocket, shook it briefly, and continued, "But it’s fine. This trick can only delay us for a while. The Karez is very long, with well-shafts every so often. As long as we follow this heading, we can find another entrance."

"Right. No time to lose, let's keep moving. Judging by their reaction, we’ve found the right place."

As the two were about to leave, Li Huowang, still sitting on the ground, reached out and grabbed Qing Wanglai’s ankle. "Sanqing! I’ve been wanting to ask you something for a long time. Why do you speak their language? Are you very familiar with them?"