Chapter 47: Chapter 43: The World Above
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“What do we do now, fight our way out?” Xu Mo asked, out of time to think.
“Follow me.” Ye Qingdie turned and headed toward the direction of the Cultivation Room. Xu Mo was puzzled but followed, with Xiao Qi and the silver-faced man silently trailing behind.
“The factory has a secret no one knows about, not even Lao K. It’s supposed to be a last resort for escape. I’ll show you.” Ye Qingdie stepped into the Cultivation Room and immediately brought down a ladder to remove the metal cover at the extension of the ceiling pipe.
Xu Mo had noticed it during his Cultivation, but he did not give it much thought.
Once the metal cover was removed, there was a passage inside.
“This is…” Xu Mo stared inside, his perception seeping through, deep, into a pitch-black duct.
“Are you curious about what’s up there?” Ye Qingdie said to Xu Mo, “Let me take you to see.”
Ye Qingdie climbed into the duct, using hands and feet to support her body as she moved forward.
“The world above!” Xu Mo felt a tingling shock and followed Ye Qingdie in climbing upwards.
“Xiao Qi, you guys close the secret chamber and guard it.” Ye Qingdie told Xiao Qi.
“Understood, Sister Butterfly.” Xiao Qi nodded.
Xu Mo was puzzled. If it was possible to reach the world above, why not simply leave rather than continue to guard this place?
What is in the world above?
As Ye Qingdie and Xu Mo climbed up the duct, they heard her say, “This passage was discovered by Xiao Qi when he was digging. When we found him, he always wanted to go up, as it was his parents’ wish all along, but they died before fulfilling it. I didn’t stop him, thinking it was just a child’s stubbornness. Xiao Qi dug for years, using machinery to cut through the hard supports, and he really found a channel.”
“So, Sister Butterfly, last time you told me that if we were lucky, we could meet in the world above.” Xu Mo recalled what Ye Qingdie had said when she sent him off, treating this place as a last resort.
“En,” Ye Qingdie nodded, but it would still require luck.
The two climbed upwards, and after a while, they came across a turning pipe, very narrow, not a size Master Batu could fit through.
Ye Qingdie and Xu Mo moved quickly; they had no time to delay.
Finally, faint light pierced the darkness. Above their heads, there seemed to be a tiny crack. Ye Qingdie did not continue upwards but waited for Xu Mo. “Your perception is strong. Check if there’s any movement outside. We can only go out if it’s clear.”
“Okay,” Xu Mo nodded, climbing upward while Ye Qingdie leaned against one side of the duct, her legs braced against the opposite side.
This blocked Xu Mo’s path.
“Sister Butterfly,” Xu Mo whispered, and Ye Qingdie had to spread her legs apart.
Xu Mo wore a strange expression as he climbed through the gap between Ye Qingdie’s legs in an awkwardly intimate manner.
A flush appeared on Ye Qingdie’s face in the darkness.
However, this wasn’t the time to care about such things. Xu Mo reached the place where the light was coming through, his perception spreading outside. He could faintly sense the world beyond and, with his heart pounding, he pushed up the lid above.
The lid was weighted down, and it took considerable effort for Xu Mo to push it aside and let the light in, dazzlingly bright. They both closed their eyes, Xu Mo having not felt natural light for a long time.
But the light seemed hot, hotter than the sunlight of the past.
Shielding his forehead, Xu Mo squinted and slowly adjusted. His perception spread outward, and then he crawled out, followed by Ye Qingdie jumping out as well.
Xu Mo looked down and saw steel ruins blocking the hole.
Not just that, but as far as the eye could see, there were steel ruins.
It was a destroyed city’s ruins, with shattered steel, building debris, and some skeletons everywhere.
Xu Mo stepped forward, walking atop a pile of steel debris, Ye Qingdie following him and quietly standing beside him.
The shock she felt the first time she came here was indescribable, and she assumed Xu Mo felt the same now.
Xu Mo raised his head to the sky as a huge rumbling sound approached.
Giant warships hovered in the sky, patrolling overhead.
A sharp, piercing noise came from afar, and Xu Mo saw a massive creature, a species he had never seen before, resembling sci-fi movie monsters, somewhat like a bat, emitting powerful Energy Waves. It was bigger than any bird species he had ever seen.
A warship opened fire, and a beautiful Energy Beam crossed the sky, piercing the Monster’s body and bringing it down.
Xu Mo’s heart pounded violently; a different world, different species.
The landscape was scarred, and at a glance,
There were ruins and monsters.
And those warships protected a vast Steel City, enveloped by an Energy Shield. Even from afar, the visual impact Xu Mo felt was incredibly strong.
Is that a city?
“Is this the result of a war?” Xu Mo looked at the city ruins. Looking around, his vision only reached one Steel City. Were the other cities far away?
If a war indeed erupted on the surface, the underground would likely have been a shelter in the past.
The main city area, if it had a passage upward, might lead into the interior of that city enveloped in the Energy Shield.
Xu Mo took a deep breath and felt an intense longing.
This was the world he wanted to see.
In the ruins of the distant city, he could vaguely make out some bases.
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When looking up at the sky, one could also see flying devices cutting through the heavens.
Science fiction world!
In the distance, monsters were pouncing towards them at a very high speed.
“Let’s go.”
Xu Mo turned around and, pulling Ye Qingdie, started to run back.
He had Ye Qingdie go down the passage first, while he dragged a pile of steel rubble over and covered his head with it as he descended.
“Not taking this route?” Ye Qingdie asked after entering the pathway.
“It’s a quicker death.” Xu Mo had no confidence, saying, “Only take this route if there’s really no other option.”
“Okay.” Ye Qingdie replied, as she thought the same.
This place was originally the organization’s last desperate escape route.
But now, it was reserved for them, not the organization.
The two returned to the Cultivation Room, with Xiao Qi and Ying present.
“Brother Mo, how do you feel?” Xiao Qi asked with a smile, surprising with his natural optimist’s quick ability to switch moods.
“The Cultivation Room has been destroyed, seal this place off,” Xu Mo commanded, and they understood his intent.
If they were to break out, this escape route couldn’t be discovered, to be saved for future emergencies.
Soon, they destroyed the Cultivation Room, turning it into rubble, with Xiao Qi even using a mecha to wreak havoc. There were no valuables left inside, just ruins, and the passage was blocked off.
“Brother Mo, come here,” Xiao Qi called to Xu Mo after the destruction.
“No need, you pilot the mecha first; we’ll switch when needed,” Xu Mo said.
“Alright.” Xiao Qi nodded, respecting Xu Mo despite being of a similar age.
The team donned their armor, fully equipped.
Ye Qingdie and Ying’s Battle Armor had been modified by Xiao Qi, changing in color and with added lines to avoid being mistaken for Secretary Jin and others’ armor.
Moreover, she had a weapon resembling a rocket launcher on her shoulder, which she had picked up from the debris above and had kept without use.
Upon opening the factory doors, Xu Mo and the others stepped out, with Xiao Qi in the giant Mecha using the Energy Battle Blade to cleave through the walls before crashing out.
Intruders had already entered the area; Xu Mo and Ying accelerated forward, blood splattering everywhere.
An armored figure charged at them; they struck from the left and right, and the opponent’s body was chopped into several pieces.
“Follow me,” Xu Mo said as he expanded his sensory range to cover a one-kilometer radius.
They avoided the main roads and wove through the back alleys of the black market, trying to avoid conflict with the enemy as much as possible.
The black market was vast, and even with the enemy advancing en masse for the massacre, it would take time to cleanse it thoroughly.
At that moment, Xu Mo stopped in his tracks, and the people behind him stopped as well, with Xiao Qi’s mecha movements appearing somewhat comical.
Footsteps approached; Xu Mo’s body suddenly lunged out, his War Saber sweeping through the air and decapitating two heads in an instant.
They continued moving forward.
Near the entrance of the black market, where the most people were, many tried to break through to the outside, but the forces guarding the entrance were the strongest, with two Heavy Mecha firing at those attempting to escape.
From a distance, they could see blood splashing, the scene horrifically gruesome.
Ye Qingdie could hardly bear to watch, even though she had no affection for the black market.
But this was a massacre.
And the organization she belonged to was responsible for it all.
Did it change anything?
Nothing had changed.
The ones who unveiled the secrets of the Valen Factory were all inside the black market, and they would be eliminated as Thugs.
Xu Mo also looked in that direction; although it was a dead end, people still kept charging continuously, knowing that the enemy was intent on purging the black market, and staying there meant certain death.
Outside, there was a hope for life.
Some people charged towards Xu Mo’s group, quickly taken care of by them.
“Retreat,” Xu Mo ordered, starting to move back.
In the squad of four, Xu Mo had unconsciously become the center, his advice followed by the others.
Even Ye Qingdie didn’t see Xu Mo as just a fifteen-year-old boy anymore.
“Where are we heading?” Xiao Qi asked as he followed with his comical stride.
“To the Casino, to see if we can gather some manpower to break through together,” Xu Mo replied. If he wasn’t mistaken, the figure in black Battle Armor guarding the black market entrance would be Qin Zhong.
This meant that Lao K had vanished, and the people who were in the same situation as Ye Qingdie could be allies, increasing their chances of fighting their way out together.