Chapter 893: The Trickster and the Water Rat
What... what"s happening?
Bohemia stumbled and quickly steadied herself, noticing that the two figures across from her were also grabbing onto the edge of the table in a panicked manner—it was clear they were just as confused. The entire room was buzzing and trembling, and dust and grime that had acc.u.mulated for who knows how long fell from the cracks in the ceiling, making everyone cough and struggle to keep their eyes open.
"What"s going on?" Bohemia covered her mouth and exclaimed.
Her question was almost immediately answered.
A heavy impact struck with a "thud" on the ceiling above, quickly transforming into a loud and resounding sound of shattering—large fragments of bricks and cement rained down, startling the twins into leaping up from their chairs. As the people hurriedly dodged the falling debris, a beam of bright light shot down from the hole in the ceiling. A deep voice and countless footsteps could be heard from above, "Found it! The nest of those two rats is indeed here!"
"It"s the Coalition of Races!" one of the twins, whether left or right, shouted.
Even Bohemia was aware that this pair of twins had always been in the top ten of the Twelve Organizations" target list for "capture dead or alive"—they only occupied one spot.
"Don"t you know everything? How come you didn"t know they were coming to capture us?"
As she shouted, Bohemia raised her hand and threw the silver net toward the ceiling—it suddenly lit up with starlight, covering the large hole and blocking the several figures above from jumping down.
Soon, something heavy struck the silver net, causing it to shake violently, and starlight scattered everywhere. Fortunately, Bohemia gritted her teeth and managed to hold it together.
In the illumination of the lights and silver, the true faces of the twin pair were revealed. No, calling it their true faces wasn"t quite accurate because no one could discern what they truly looked like from the tangle of tangled hair, eyebrows, and beards. Every strand of hair on their heads and faces stuck out as if they were using hair gel, standing straight in the air.
"We certainly don"t know everything... Wait, did we miss some kind of premonition?" At this critical moment, the twins were unexpectedly distracted by Bohemia"s words. They stood still, staring at each other, their furry eyebrows furrowed. "Did we overlook any events, details, or data? It"s impossible. Based on correlation—"
Bohemia was both anxious and furious, wis.h.i.+ng she could grab them by their beards and shake their brains out. She immediately shouted, "If you don"t leave now, I"ll retract the net!"
Of course, she couldn"t retract the net, but she didn"t stop the pursuers for the twins out of kindness. In the Twelve Realms, gathering and a.n.a.lyzing information required permission, and the actions of these two brothers had long exceeded what the Twelve Organizations could tolerate. As their customer, if the people above descended, she would also be implicated—otherwise, she would have retracted the net and run away long ago.
"I got it," one of the twins, wearing a green tattered cloth, snapped out of his daze and declared loudly, "They followed you."
"They followed your mom," Bohemia retorted as the other, clad in a red tattered cloth, hastily swept things into a backpack. "I"m sure I"m not being tracked. Do you think so little of your aunt?"
The green-haired woolly person didn"t say a word. Instead, he pointed at the silver net and then turned to join his brother. It seemed they didn"t want anything in this room to fall into the hands of the Twelve Organizations. They quickly grabbed whatever they could fit into their bags and destroyed anything that couldn"t be taken.
Meanwhile, Bohemia supported the silver net on her own, squinting her eyes as she scanned the area above. Apart from the men who were trying to break through the net around the hole, she couldn"t see anything at first. But then, a familiar flapping sound reached her ears, and she slowly opened her mouth in disbelief.
No way!
She watched as the small grayish-white figure circled around and got closer and closer to the silver net. It became even more dazzling under the silver light, but it seemed to have no effect on the net. Bohemia desperately prayed in her mind countless times, but she couldn"t stop the little white paper crane from gently landing on the silver net. It had no aggressive intent, so the net didn"t react to it.
Please, not at this moment...
"Bohemia," Lin Sanjiu"s voice came clearly from the paper crane, enunciating each word of her name sharply, "Have you arrived? You haven"t been wandering around, have you?"
Those two sentences felt longer to Bohemia than eternity.
Bohemia understood everything now.
She was trapped in a sealed bas.e.m.e.nt, and the paper crane couldn"t come in. It must have been circling above her head all along. Even a fool could see that there were people underground. If the members of the Coalition had already suspected this place, then it was true that she had led them here...
"Bohemia is down there!" suddenly shouted one of the members of the Twelve Organizations, "What a coincidence, let"s catch her too!"
It was all because of Lin Sanjiu, that meddlesome busybody!
"We"re leaving!"
The voices of the two woolly people resounded in unison. Bohemia quickly turned her head and saw that each of them had a huge travel bag on their back. They had retreated to the corner of the room without her noticing, at least several dozen meters away. A door, which didn"t exist before, slowly opened at their feet. She was so furious that she felt an itch in her teeth and immediately shouted, "Take me with you!"
"Ah," the green-clad woolly person hesitated with a mouthful of beard, "That... I"m afraid it"s not..."
"Do you believe that I can immediately reveal your secret pa.s.sage to them?"
"Hurry up!" The green-clad woolly person changed his mind in an instant, "How long can the silver net hold?"
Bohemia quickly rushed over. The silver net was still hanging from the ceiling, sprinkling silver light with every tremor it endured. She pushed the twins aside and kicked the door on the floor forcefully, "You know everything, so a.n.a.lyze it!"
That calm door suddenly opened wider after her forceful kick. Without even looking, Bohemia leaped inside. She could hear the anxious voices of the twins behind her, "Hey!" "Wait a moment," but they quickly followed and jumped down one after another.
Those who could make decisive decisions in critical moments often had a greater chance of surviving; Bohemia understood this better than anyone else. So, even though it pained her to the point of tears, she gritted her teeth and shouted, "Close the door!"
"But the net..."
"If you say one more word, I"ll skin you alive!"
The small door, which was as big as a well cover, quickly closed, completely different from its opening speed. As soon as the door closed, the light disappeared, and the three of them couldn"t see anything in the pitch-black tunnel. Bohemia felt that the tunnel was narrow and low, making it difficult to take proper steps, let alone constantly b.u.mping into the backpacks of the twins beside her. She immediately summoned a few glowing fish and whispered, "You couldn"t even bother to install a light in your own tunnel?"
"It"s too troublesome," one of the twins unabashedly replied.
These two woolly people were really annoying, second only to Lin Sanjiu.
The tunnel seemed to serve only the purpose of emergency escape. It appeared to have been recently dug, with fresh traces of soil everywhere. Leading the way with the glowing fish, Bohemia rushed ahead. After running desperately for a while, the air around them gradually became moist and heavy, sticking to their skin.
The sound of underground water flow echoed distantly from somewhere, persistently. The sound of footsteps on the ground slowly transformed into a "plop, plop" sound, as if one was walking with a bag of water—something felt off.
Bohemia endured and endured, finally coming to a sudden stop. "Where does this tunnel lead to?" she asked.
"Underneath the river," the twins said in unison.
Bohemia almost doubted if she had misheard. "...Huh?"
"Further ahead is an underground river. Once we jump into the water and go downstream, we can enter the Modo River. The Modo River Basin is widespread, with a network of tributaries that crisscross like a dense web. Let us explain the areas it pa.s.ses through and the predetermined safe location for our escape..."