Chapter 297: Luring the Culprit (I)
Translator: Insignia Editor: Svjohn
The magnitude of the earthquake this time was at least seven on the Richter Scale!
A lot of people fell on the floor and were injured after the strong force impacted them and they were clearly panicked except for a few unlucky ones who were now buried under the collapsed walls. The rest of the people were basically safe and sound.
Here in this post-apocalyptic sanctuary, the framework of the building itself was quite strong but the loose sand underneath it was its downfall that led to its collapse during the earthquake. It would most likely only suffer a few cracks if it were not for the weak foundation.
"There is someone underneath this collapsed wall! Please, come and help to dig the rubble!" One person in the crowd screamed. Due to the cruelness and harshness at the end of the world, the whole society was always in a state of war. Thus, people here were more united than before the start of the apocalypse. They were also more disciplined. The people nearby, regardless whether injured or not, came forward to help. Luo Yuan also quickly went to help lift the stones away!
The earthquake had just stopped but there were still aftershocks that could be felt. Rubbles were still falling through the cracks and although everyone could not stand firmly, no one backed off from the aftershock.
Luo Yuan was strong enough to carry a few hundred kilograms of concrete himself, thus with his help, the efficiency was improved several times. It should be noted that the walls of the refuge were much thicker than the normal ones you would see in houses as these were built for defense purposes. It was approximately one meter thick and there was a layer of 10cm thick steel plates in the middle so it could withstand damage even from heavy artillery. The weight of the collapsed wall was far more than 10 tons so even Luo Yuan, who is such a powerful evolutionary human, would be completely crushed and unlikely to survive if he suffered the same fate. When the giant rocks were removed, several corpses that had been deformed were quickly exposed.
"Quickly, she"s still alive!" A man shouted.
The crowd quickly gathered around and cautiously moved the rocks away. She was very fortunate as the collapsed wall had s.p.a.ce in between that was sufficient for her to move around. Thus, she was not injured at all. From her appearance, the girl seemed only 18 years old and looked rather pale. Her lips were clearly trembling and she could not speak a single word. When she was rescued, she kept on bowing to show her appreciation but remained tight-lipped.
After the rescue, Luo Yuan wandered around the second floor of the refuge. He found that there was not only one collapse but in fact three! One of the most serious ones created a pit which had a radius of about 30 - 40 meters. A lot of concrete boulders tightly blocked the whole s.p.a.ce and only a few rays of light could leak through from the slit at the top.
...
Luo Yuan went back to the sewer with a heavy heart and soon realized that the situation in the sewer was even worse. A lot of the pipelines were broken and large amounts of sewage leaked everywhere. Several mutated beasts were scurrying around like headless flies to feast on the sewage. Luo Yuan had to utilize his aura to block these highly toxic mutated beasts from coming near to him.
He returned to his temporary residence and saw that everyone was in a horrid state. Tong Jianliang, the long-bearded silent man, was lying on the floor with a black face and ferocious expression as if a devil had inhabited his body. Luo Yuan did not care much but when he went nearer to check on him, there was no longer any breath coming out of his body. A hint of black blood mixed with saliva dripped from his mouth which exuded a fishy smell. It looked like he was poisoned! Luo Yuan checked his body and found no obvious wounds and no bite marks on his clothes.
"What happened?" Luo Yuan asked with a solemn face.
"We don’t know. He went hunting and when he came back he started to cough. We did not really care about it until he kept on coughing nonstop and suddenly vomited blood. After a while, he fainted and stopped breathing." Xu Zhiqiang said in a m.u.f.fled tone.
The mutated beasts in the sewer were not of high rank and should not be a threat to the evolutionary humans here. No one would ever expect a dead case among these strong people.
"Ahem!" Wen Yujie suddenly coughed a bit.
Everyone’s face changed as they looked at her. Wen Yujie was confused at first but when she thought of the symptoms faced by Tong Jianliang, her face turned serious and she said, "Why… why do you all look at me like this? I did not go out, it is just a little itch in my throat."
Before she completed her sentence, she experienced a few heavy coughs which made it look like she almost coughed her lungs out. The group subconsciously took a few quick steps back and stared at her worriedly.
Wen Yujie coughed until her face was flushed. She tried to speak and said, "I ... I ... How could I…" However, every time she uttered a few words she was interrupted by coughing again. Luo Yuan found that a hint of black gas began to cover her neck. He did not dare to delay and quickly walked over to grab Wen Yujie.
"Luo Yuan, don’t touch me!" Wen Yujie quickly said. Her eyes were all red. She finally realized that she was also infected and might not be alive for long.
"Just shut up. Everyone else please turn away." Luo Yuan said without any facial expression.
Xu Zhiqiang and the others quickly turned around and dared not look or disobey Luo Yuan’s command. The next moment, they heard a tearing sound. Wen Yujie’s s.h.i.+rt was ripped off exposing her quivering b.r.e.a.s.t.s. However, this seductive sight did not distract Luo Yuan’s attention. He took a peek and felt that his scalp was tingling. Her belly was almost filled with black gas and her veins looked like black earthworms slowly wriggling. It looked scary and horrible.
Wen Yujie who was blus.h.i.+ng on her face also looked down. She shuddered at that sight. Her face suddenly became pale. She looked desperate and tried to break free from Luo Yuan to prevent him from being infected too, "Quickly get away from here. I can’t be saved…"
Luo Yuan was stunned to the point where he did not hear anything. His left hand tightly grabbed her smooth shoulders and no matter how she struggled he did not move away. Wen Yujie felt his determination to help her and tears began to roll down her cheek.
Luo Yuan raised his right hand and pressed on her chest with a strong force. He turned his Will into treatment. The black gas that was spreading at a fast speed suddenly stopped flowing and after a few seconds, it started to subside.
Wen Yujie was shocked to the point where she had forgotten to struggle. The warmth from Luo Yuan’s palm on her chest calmed her down and reduced the intolerable itch in her throat. She felt extremely comfortable and could not help but groan loudly. When the fear of death disappeared, she recovered feeling embarra.s.sed. Her face became flushed and even her tender fair chest cast a rosy color. Luo Yuan’s warm hand was like magic that made her whole body weak and she could barely stand.
"Are you done?" When Wen Yujie saw that her whole body became white and delicate again, she asked with trembling voice.
Luo Yuan did not speak. He continued for another 10 seconds before he released his palm.
Wen Yujie quickly turned to get dressed but she realized that her clothes here torn off rather than removed. It was as an emergency so it was justified. She could barely cover her chest with what remained.
"Wear this." Luo Yuan noticed her situation and quickly took off his own coat. This coat was not an equipment but rather a normal one that he obtained a few days ago.
Wen Yujie replied shyly and did not reject. She picked up the coat and carefully put it on. It was kind of comfortable and she enjoyed the warmth and safeness of not having her b.r.e.a.s.t.s exposed. When she had this thought in her mind, her face suddenly blushed again.
Luo Yuan was having a slight headache when he noticed her ambiguous look. The feeling that he deliberately controlled earlier seemed to have warmed up again. Xu Zhiqiang and Xiao Baihong turned around and saw that Wen Yujie had completely recovered. They were shocked. Particularly Xu Zhiqiang as the leader of the evolutionary humans… he was certain that Luo Yuan was an earth-based evolutionary human.
"Since when did earth-based evolutionary humans have the ability to heal?" He asked.
"We cannot stay here anymore. We have to get out now." Luo Yuan’s voice interrupted his musings. "I suspect that this earthquake has broken a huge crack under the sewer and led out a powerful poisonous mutated beast." Everyone thought about it and started to worry. They were in a sewer which was dirty and wet. It was the sort of place that could attract all kinds of poisonous beasts.
The mutated beasts in the sewer were not a big threat because it was relatively clean. However, at the bottom of the sewer, there was filthy water which gathered a lot of poisonous insects and animals. It was never cleaned after the completion of Desert City and thus the mutated beasts were most likely upgraded to a more dangerous level.
Prior to this, the shelter had a thick foundation so it could block most of the large-sized mutated beasts. Only a few small mutated beasts could sneak in through the cracks. However, after this earthquake, that will no longer be the case.
"Where are we going if we don’t stay in the sewer?" Xiao Baihong asked with some concern.
"Go to where you are supposed to go." Luo Yuan hesitated and said. He continued, "The city has now returned to normal and you are all not wanted people anymore. I believe that they will not change their mind."
While he was talking, he suddenly had a thought that struck his mind. Perhaps it was the intuition from his heart. He had always suspected that the real mind controller was not dead yet but rather hiding and waiting for the right time to take revenge.
If he continued to a.n.a.lyze based on this thought, the previous two who were executed by the firing squad might not have been the actual culprits. The man might be the real deal but the lady might be an imposter. For a powerful mind controller, controlling a person to kill themselves was too easy.
Luo Yuan thought to himself that if a public leader could be easily controlled by the mind controller to the point where everyone else did not know anything about it, then this mind controller must be very powerful. Luo Yuan had little confidence that he could be completely immune to his or her powers, however, he was probably just scaring himself. Over the past few days, Luo Yuan had been exposed to the public so he or she had the opportunity to control him. Since it did not happen, it became apparent that the enemy had limitations to deal with him. Now that the enemy had lost so many people in the team, the strength of this mind controller should be on the lower end.
Xu Zhiqiang and the rest were the best evolutionary humans in Desert City. Luo Yuan imagined that if he were the hidden mind controller he would not have let go of these people. Perhaps this was an opportunity to lure the mind controller out in the open.