Chapter 177: Bloody  

Countless shadows were seen heading towards them under the water.

The copper scent of blood circulated the river attracting various beasts. It was from the lizard; whose scales were yet to grow in many parts of its body as its wounds had yet to heal fully. It could not withstand these sharp-toothed fishes’ attacks.

Luo Yuan had not thought of how to relieve the situation. The giant lizard was already growling from the pain it suffered, and on top of that, it is a land creature’s instinct to be fearful of water, so it increased its speed without hesitation. Getting to the other side of the river was its goal.

Its sheer size divided the river into two halves like a small hill, causing some ten-meter-tall splashes. Luo Yuan’s heart jumped as he quickly ordered it to stop. But how could it have obeyed though? With its mind already paralyzed with fear as it rushed towards the other side of the river!

Everything was happening too fast to process- a ferocious wave was already coming their way before they could even react. The color noticeably drained from their faces.

“Careful!” Luo Yuan could only get a word out of his mouth before he too was swallowed by the wave. In the nick of time, Luo Yuan could only manage to grab a soldier who was about to be washed away and Chong Chuqiang who was near him. After the wave had subsided, he was dumbfounded to find half the group already wiped off the lizard’s back.

His team was alright, thanks to their physique with each of them having reached 12 points. They sat in the center, so they were safer compared to the others. They even managed to protect the other two children. As for the group of recovering soldiers though, most of them were washed off the lizard by now.

“Zhou Yicheng!!! Has anyone seen Zhou Yicheng!?” Luo Yuan quickly asked when he could no longer see the man.

“He has been swept away too.” Huang Jiahui said with a pale face.

“What?” Luo Yuan quickly looked towards the river. He could see a few soldiers swimming over with all their might, but Zhou Yicheng was nowhere to be seen. The lizard did not slow down though, which made Luo Yuan kick it with all his might out of anger! When it dawned on the lizard that it had made a mistake, the creature stopped.

Luo Yuan was frantic! Not only was Zhou Yicheng key to completing his mission, but he was also the only point of contact between him and the secret military base. Failing the mission would at most cost him some EXP and slow down his level up progress, but without Zhou Yicheng, he would never be able to find the base even if he turned Hucheng City inside out!

It was not that he did not ask about the location before, it’s just that Zhou Yicheng had his lips sealed. Therefore, if Zhou Yicheng perished, so would his hope of entering the reconstruction area. Now that the sea level was rising even further, waves of beasts would be coming in his direction since the mutated beasts would migrate to higher land. By then, even if he survived, everyone else might not.

Since his parents passed away, he lost contact with most of his relatives. Huang Jiahui and Wang Shishi were his only family now, and he would be devastated to lose any of them. If he could leave and go back to a normal society, he would rather live poorly than to live his life as if every day was his last. Therefore, he must find Zhou Yicheng.

“Da-da-da!!!”

A rifle’s firing woke Luo Yuan up from his thoughts. “Faster! Swim faster!” a few soldiers shouted in panic as they opened fire towards the water. Seven to eight meters in front of them was a soldier swimming forward with all his might. Something was tailing him, and it felt like the shadow of death. Suddenly, he stopped swimming and looked at everyone hopelessly. Analyzing quickly, he then changed direction and began to swim away from them, not wanting to bring danger to his comrades.

Before he managed to swim even half a meter later, blood gushed out from beneath; staining the murky river red. The blood seemed to have triggered something in the river as the water nearby stirred in turbulence. Fresh blood squirted out from the soldier’s mouth and a mutated fish leaped out of the water and bit his shoulder. The half-meter long fish with a big head had a mouthful of sharp teeth, crushing the fallen soldier’s shoulder with just one bite. Then, with its developed fins, it clung onto the soldier’s arm and began chewing into his chest! Blood spurted everywhere!

As the fishes gathered around the victim, another soldier nearby was attacked too. Bullets fired endlessly as Huang Jiahui and Huo Dong tried to help. Still, nothing could save the soldier. Wang Shishi even tried using her flying shuttle to rescue them, but she almost lost control over the shuttle when it got into the water, putting a stop to her attempts.

The soldiers died cruel deaths one by one. The group watched the bloody scene in horror but the remaining soldiers were calm. Other than a despaired look, no one had much reaction to the gory scene. Perhaps they had been through enough to be numbed by it.

More than ten seconds passed as Luo Yuan stared at the river thinking of its danger. Nothing good could come out of it if he dragged this on so he said, “You guys look out for each other, I’m going to find him.”

Then, without so much of a glance at Huang Jiahui and the rest of the crew, he dove into the water with the Zhanmadao in between his teeth. His eyes were useless in the dirty water so he could only rely on his senses to feel his surroundings. He reached the bottom of the river in an instant with his speed. The water weeds were dense, dancing along with the ebb and flow of the current, flowing towards his legs as he stood up.

With a wave of the Zhanmadao, he chopped the weeds off quickly. They looked like they were still alive though, wriggling before flowing away with the current. Looking at the strange water weeds, Luo Yuan suddenly had a sliver of hope. He figured that Zhou Yicheng was probably entangled in these weeds instead of having been swept away by the currents. However, he realized there was a downside to saving him underwater; his speed, while he was using his Zhanmadao, was less than a third of his usual speed and his abilities were also weakened seven-fold.

Therefore, he did not want to stay long in the river so he swam around to find his target as quickly as he could. There were plenty of creatures in the water, most of them traveling in schools. Some fierce carnivorous fishes swam towards him once he was in sight. Without thinking, he allowed his aura to permeate the water. It was as if a tuning fork was placed under the water, producing a high-frequency vibration.

Fishes around fled instinctively as if struck by lightning. A frown was visible between Luo Yuan’s brows as his aura was immensely weaker underwater. These were low-level fishes, and they should have died from his aura alone if this happened on land. Furthermore, the area of effect was reduced to about five to six meters, just like his senses.

He would be in an extremely dangerous position if there were blue or dark blue level beasts nearby. He could only pray that he would not come across any of them until he gets out of the water. He searched around carefully using his senses and suddenly felt a vaguely human form urging him to swim over.

It was indeed Zhou Yicheng but he was already wrapped in layers of water weeds. He was hardly moving as his body was tightly constrained. If the military map had not been floating beside him, he would not even be sure certain it was Zhou Yicheng as even his head was tangled in the water weeds.

Luo Yuan’s arrival seemed to spur the water weeds to head in his direction, not knowing what awaited them. A few flashes of his blade later and all the water weeds were cleared. Luo Yuan could not assess Zhou Yicheng’s condition though. Perhaps he fainted from the many attacks or loss of breath. Not wanting to waste any time, he grabbed the man and swam towards the surface without pulling the weeds off him.

What greeted him when he arrived at the surface made him gasp in shock. The spilled blood had now attracted larger beasts to the vicinity. Water tracks ran through the river’s surface at a fast speed. The surface of the water now looked like a boiling pot of porridge.

Were it not for the lizard’s continuous growls and large size; the mutated fishes would have jumped on them by now. As for Lao Huang, it was already on the other side of the river having fled in fear long ago.

Luo Yuan quickly swam towards the lizard. Huang Jiahui, who saw him, was happily surprised. But her positive emotion was short-lived and she soon shouted, “Careful!”