Chapter 547: Do The Same Thing
Wild Wolf thought about it seriously for a while before he shook his head. “I don’t think so. Is this tattoo important?”
“No, I was just asking.” Meng Chao waved his hand in dismissal. “Forget it. I’m leaving!”
He turned around and went into the manhole.
Once he climbed down a ladder that was more than ten meters long, he stepped in a puddle of water that reached his knees.
The water was sticky and smelly. It was like rotten ink.
The further he went, the narrower the tunnel became. There were many places where he had to bend his back, and his nose had to practically touch the surface of the water before he could force his way through.
Fortunately, A’Ji and Su Mulian were already used to living in a heavily polluted environment, so they were now basically immune to poison.
And as a Heaven Realm superhuman, Meng Chao was not easily affected by miasma, either.
They quietly walked ten meters, then sensed water dripping on their heads. They had probably come under the river of trash.
If they listened carefully, they could hear weak gunshots on both sides of the river.
A metal fence suddenly appeared ahead of them. A’Ji reached out to shake it, and it seemed to be really st.u.r.dy.
Meng Chao had A’Ji curl up by the side while he went forward. He grabbed two of the bars and started rattling them at high speed.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A gap that looked like half a meter square had long since been left behind on the metal fence. However, since it was no in use for a long time, it became covered in rust again.
Meng Chao pulled the bars to the side, and the gap was immediately widened. He lifted A’Ji and Su Mulian so that they could go through the gap. After that, he also went through like an agile panther.
They covered dozens of meters and took a few twists and turns. Then, the ground started going up. The tunnel also became dry.
They swept aside numerous spider webs and finally reached the end of the tunnel. A manhole appeared above their heads. It was sealed shut by a cover.
The ladder leading to the manhole cover was covered in rust. Meng Chao was not sure whether it was st.u.r.dy enough to bear all their weight, so he climbed up first to test the durability of the ladder and check the situation outside the manhole.
Banging sounds came from the river not too far away, signalling that the fight was going on fiercely. The armed forces from the gangs had their attention fixed on the other side of the river, so they did not notice the alley where the manhole was.
To completely lock down Leprosy Village, all the buildings around the village were taken over, and their residents were sent to other places. Even if the gangs filled up many rooms with ammunition, there were plenty of empty rooms that the residents had vacated. Hence, Meng Chao did not hear any sounds of breathing or heartbeats. Neither did he sense any normal people’s temperature.
Meng Chao quietly lifted the manhole cover and pulled A’Ji and Su Mulian up.
Before the armed patrol guards from the gangs could hurry over, he gently shut the manhole cover and swept a pile of garbage from the side over to cover the traces that the three of them had climbed out. Then, he brought the two of them into an empty building not far away.
Meng Chao jumped lightly and stuck himself to the ceiling and pressed his ear against it. He listened attentively for a while before he said to the duo, “There’s no one on the second floor. We’ll go up and take a look.”
They found a window facing the river in a room on the second floor.
Meng Chao opened the window a little and squinted. Circles of bright light appeared around his pupils, allowing him to gain vision as if he was a high-power telescope. He started observing the situation.
From his position, he could clearly see that within a short half a day, the armed forces had already dug a large number of trenches and secret tunnels along the bank of the river. They used rapid drying reinforced concrete to build barricades and bunkers. They also set up well-s.p.a.ced firing points using the buildings around them.
They had even brought all sorts of lethal weapons like rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft artillery, motorized armor, and spider-shaped intelligent fighting vehicles with monster brains installed in them.
Trained armed forces were everywhere. At first glance, they appeared murderous, but once Meng Chao observed them carefully, he could tell that they were incredibly tense and would suffer a mental breakdown at any moment and go insane.
“Even if there really are monsters in Leprosy Village, aren’t these guys… behaving a little too extreme?”
Meng Chao saw squads of armed forces pushing large mortars and artillery sh.e.l.ls to the frontlines, and he could not help but gasp in amazement.
Honestly, if he looked at the scene in front of him without the memories from his previous life and knew immediately that this was the Vortex’s scheme, it would be difficult for him to not share the same suspicions as Wild Wolf and the other villagers. He would also believe that the outside world was willing to pay any price to completely destroy the monsters lurking in Leprosy Village.
And Leprosy Village was that “price”!
“Are they really going to destroy Leprosy Village?” A’Ji popped his head out from behind Meng Chao. His face was stark pale, and he said with fear and despair, “Big Brother Chao, what should we do? Are we going to Saber Jin Wanhao just like that? Judging by the situation in front of us, it doesn’t seem like Jin Wanhao will listen to our explanation!”
“Thanks for the reminder. Of course we won’t go and search for him just like that.” Meng Chao cast a deep glance at A’Ji and said gravely, “Looks like the abnormal beast is ahead of us and has done something to the gangs, but that’s to be expected. When you want to sow discord, you have to do it on both sides. That’s the only way you can force your targets to kill each other.
“So, our immediate task is to understand what the abnormal beast has done or said to the gangs. Why do they look so panicked and like they’re facing a great enemy?”
A’Ji scratched his head and asked, “But how are we going to figure out the abnormal beast’s scheme?”
“It’s simple. We’ll just ask someone.”
Meng Chao brought out the items from his military-grade backpack and spread them all over the floor.
Under A’Ji and Ms. Mulian’s puzzled gazes, he began working.
He first squashed a can of earthworm meat and used natural glue to stick it to the pelt of a Demonic Halberd Pig.
Then, he spread monster blood mixed with glue on it, which made it a sticky and foul-smelling substance.
After that, he used a harvesting blade to carefully make the pelt and meat on it look even more messed up.
Once he was done, he opened his cloak and stuck the b.l.o.o.d.y pelt on the left side of his abdomen.
At first glance, it would look like there was a terrifying wound on the left side of his abdomen. It shuddered when he breathed, and it looked like his organs were about to be exposed at any second.
Then, he used his harvesting blade, a file, and reinforced concrete he took from the floor itself to cut a few wounds on his face and hand.
Even though they were superficial wounds, he looked terrifying.
Finally, he brought out 50g of black zircon powder and 25g of the sh.e.l.l powder from Purple Star Beetles. He opened a bullet, poured out the gunpowder inside it, mixed the three types of powder on his palm, opened his mouth, and swallowed it.
A’Ji’s skin crawled when he saw this. He whispered, “Big Brother Chao, can you actually eat that?”
“Of course you can’t.” Meng Chao grimaced. “This thing is poisonous. If you eat it, your face will turn pale, your nerves will go numb, your heartbeat will become erratic, and your spirit energy magnetic field will become chaotic!”
While he spoke, he actually started sweating bullets. His hands and feet trembled, and even his lips turned so dry that not a single hint of blood could be seen on them. It looked like he was heavily injured and had lost so much blood that he was about to keel over and die.
It was only then that A’Ji and Ms. Mulian figured out how Meng Chao managed to trick Bai Shan into thinking that he was about to die. This was what he had done.
“Wait for me here. Don’t make a sound. A’Ji, try to recall the terrain around this place and the highest spot possible as well as an underground path for us to retreat through safely.”
Meng Chao wrinkled his nose to identify the vague smell of p.i.s.s in the air.
As a Heaven Realm superhuman who had trained for a long time in the wild, when he injected spirit energy into his nose and nasal mucosa, his sense of smell would become so strong that he could identify the scents of more than ten h.e.l.l Beasts’ excrement at the same time.
He snuck out of the window like a huge chameleon.
Meng Chao trailed after the faint smell of urine in the air and soon found an open-air toilet, which had been hastily set up for the time being.
Just as he expected, the armed gang members had only paid attention to swiftly digging trenches and building barricades. They did not have the time to set up a proper toilet nor run to the toilets in nearby buildings, so they could only allocate a region to serve as a toilet so the gang members could quickly take care of their business.
Meng Chao lurked in the dark and waited patiently.
Although Wild Wolf only gave him twelve hours, patience was a hunter’s best friend. He would not take any unnecessary risks to race against time.
He spared two armed gang members who came over to urinate because they looked like n.o.bodies that would not know anything.
He also spared an entire squad because there were seven people in it.
Even though he was certain that he could subjugate them in one second, if seven people disappeared at once, it would cause too much of a ruckus.
He waited for a total of ten minutes before a suitable candidate finally arrived.
This person was alone.
He had a valuable-looking saber that had a high-grade crystal embedded in it at his waist.
Judging by his steady footsteps and breathing as well as the spirit energy that surrounded him, he was a superhuman who was at least at Spirit Tattoo Realm.
In the lair, a Spirit Tattoo Realm superhuman was already a small leader of a gang.
Besides, there had not been anyone else who came to the toilet over this period of time. The nearest armed gang member was dozens of meters away, so his sight was blocked by the buildings.
Hence, when this leader whistled and peed, a sharp blade as thin as a cicada’s wing was placed against his throat.
The leader’s pupils shrank swiftly.
The sound of peeing came to a swift stop.
“D-Don’t be nervous… Relax. Con-cough-continue.”
Meng Chao appeared behind the man like a ghost and whispered into his ear.
The leader’s eyeb.a.l.l.s moved swiftly, as if he was thinking whether he should counterattack or scream.
The sharp blade against his neck kept trembling. Not only did it cut into his skin, the icy killing intent kept seeping into his nerves and bones. It could behead him at any moment.
Meng Chao said, “S-Sorry, bro. I-cough cough cough-I don’t want to hurt anyone. “But… I’m heavily wounded. I can’t hold a saber and can’t control my strength. Don’t blame me… if I cut your throat by accident, okay?”
The leader really wanted to gulp, but his Adam’s apple was frozen by Meng Chao’s killing intent and his saliva felt like icy barbed wire. He could not swallow it.