Chapter 155: Youmu Strikes
"Are you okay?" Haruto asked, his gaze a little strange as he watched Ye Tian's face cycle through various shades of pale and flushed red.
"How could anything be wrong?" Ye Tian forced a calm facade, waving a hand dismissively as he tried to maintain his deep image. "A trivial height like this is nothing to me, the Number One Player."
He attempted to rise to his feet with a dashing flair, but the moment he took a step, a searing pain shot from his ankle, up through his knee, and straight into his brain. He nearly face-planted right then and there. He stumbled forward a couple of steps, barely managing to catch his balance, only to look up and meet the deeply complicated gazes of everyone present.
Kaguya simply raised an eyebrow.
Youmu turned her head away, pretending she hadn't seen a thing, and even Yotsuya Miko silently averted her eyes.
Ye Tian was speechless.
He coughed twice, desperately trying to salvage some face. "Well... perhaps, maybe, I did sustain a slight injury. It's not a major problem. My secretary has medicine."
With that, he silently found a corner to sit down in before adding, "Let's just wait for them to come down. I need to strategically preserve my strength for a bit."
Haruto nodded, his expression unreadable. "Mm. A strategic bone fracture."
Ye Tian stiffened. He shot a dark look at Haruto but could only pretend he hadn't heard, leaning against the wall with a look of utter despair.
"The Boundary of Injured and Uninjured—"
As Haruto's voice fell, Ye Tian felt the sharp, throbbing pain in his leg recede at a visible rate. Before long, he couldn't feel any pain at all. He stood up in surprise, testing his weight on the foot, and found that his injury had already healed completely.
"I didn't expect you to be a healer, Brother Haruto." Ye Tian cast him a grateful look. It was best to be healed quickly; if his subordinates saw him in such a pathetic state, his dignity as their boss would be utterly destroyed.
However, in the next second, Haruto's quiet muttering caused his expression to freeze solid once more.
"Oh? So it really could be healed. I thought it might fail."
Ye Tian's face twitched. "..."
So he was just a guinea pig?
He silently sat back down in his original spot.
Haruto also stopped moving, deciding it was best to wait for the other members of Ascending God to arrive before proceeding. They had plenty of time, and besides, someone had to do the menial work of clearing out the trash mobs.
In less than ten minutes, the first figure appeared at the bottom of the ladder, followed by a second and a third, until the entire team had arrived.
"Are you all right?" the Secretary asked with concern the moment her feet touched the ground.
Ye Tian's expression flickered for a moment before he quickly smoothed it over, waving his hand with practiced nonchalance. "What are you talking about? With my strength, how could I possibly be injured?"
The Secretary looked half-skeptical. She knew her boss's capabilities all too well. While climbing down, she had run the calculations again; the probability of him jumping from that height without any incident was practically zero.
"Let's go. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go home," Ye Tian said, crudely changing the subject as he took the lead and walked to the very front.
Seeing that he didn't seem to be in any real trouble, the Secretary didn't press the matter. The group proceeded down the passage.
The light grew increasingly dim, but since everyone had brought flashlights, they could still make out the path ahead. The metal walls on all sides were now covered in a layer of slimy, blood-red membrane that pulsed faintly, as if it were alive. From time to time, they could see gnarled, rope-like veins through which a sickly, translucent fluid flowed.
Suddenly, a clear, dripping sound echoed from the ceiling in the distance.
Drip. Drip.
Every flashlight beam instantly snapped toward the source of the sound. In the converging light, a figure flashed past.
It had a roughly humanoid outline, but its limbs and joints were bent backward at grotesquely distorted angles, like a giant man trying to scuttle like a spider. With a sickening whoosh, it vanished into a ventilation duct opening.
A spider monster?
Long-lost memories flooded Haruto's mind. He was suddenly reminded of countless horror games; the scene before him was a perfect replica.
Haruto and Kaguya decisively hid themselves in the middle of the team. In enclosed spaces like this, jump scares were the most common threat, with things liable to pop out at you at any moment. With their current strength and trump cards, they were unlikely to face any real danger, but it was a matter of principle. It was like how you could easily kill a giant cockroach with a slipper, but you'd still flinch in fear when it flapped its wings and flew right at your face with a menacing buzz.
Looking at Ye Tian charging ahead at the very front of the formation, the two of them felt they had made the absolute right choice in forming an alliance. Not only did they have someone to clear the mobs, but they even had a volunteer to scout the path.
The fleshy membrane on the surrounding walls grew thicker, and the number of veins carrying the transparent liquid increased. Before long, they came across clusters of insect eggs.
These were no ordinary eggs. Each one was about the size of a human fist, piled high on both sides of the corridor. Through their translucent shells, one could even see the densely packed forms of giant mosquitoes writhing within.
"Don't touch these eggs," Ye Tian warned in a low voice, carefully squeezing past a particularly plump one.
The others nodded in succession. They knew that even their boss would find it difficult to protect them all if they were swarmed by such a massive number of insects.
Yotsuya Miko couldn't help the sweat forming on her palms. She stared intently at the slimy ground beneath her feet, terrified she might accidentally slip.
Haruto and Kaguya, on the other hand, weren't particularly afraid. Dangers you could see were nothing to be feared.
Just as they were about to pass through the area, a team member at the very back of the group accidentally kicked an inconspicuous small egg.
With a soft crack, the egg split open.
A mosquito crawled out. It looked no different from a regular mosquito, but its proboscis was exceptionally long. It straightened out in an instant, extending to the length of an adult's arm as it stabbed directly toward the back of the man's neck.
Ye Tian started to move to save him, but it was too late.
Swish—
A flash of sword light streaked past. Youmu had acted, slicing the mosquito clean in two just before the long needle could pierce flesh. The rescued team member's face went pale with fright, and he repeatedly mouthed his thanks to her.
However, the damage was done.
The crushed mosquito carcass emitted a special pheromone. Immediately, fine cracks appeared on the surface of the two nearest insect eggs.
Crack... crack...
The fissures spread rapidly, like a plague. In an instant, the eggs throughout the entire cavern began to vibrate. More and more cracks spiderwebbed across their shells, and the faint sound of wings beating could be heard from within.
"Run!" Ye Tian bellowed, no longer caring about maintaining stealth.
But it was too late.
The first egg burst completely open, then the second, the third... Hundreds, then thousands of mosquitoes surged out like water from a bursting dam. A piercing, deafening buzz instantly exploded in the narrow corridor.
"Youmu," Haruto called out calmly.
Youmu didn't answer, but she responded with action. She gripped the hilt of her sword and closed her eyes.
Just as the swarm was about to descend, their needle-like proboscises aimed for the necks of several team members, Youmu moved.
There was no devastating commotion, only the sound of a faint, long breath being released.
Her eyes remained closed, as if the cacophony of the outside world had nothing to do with her. But her right hand drew the Hakurouken at a speed that defied visual capture.
Ziiiiing—!
It wasn't the sound of the swarm's wings, but the clear, chilling ring of a blade cutting through the air as it was unsheathed.
In the next instant, a perfectly straight seam appeared in the middle of every single mosquito in the air, a line that gradually widened—
Clatter... clatter... clatter...
It was the sound of solid objects falling to the ground.
Countless mosquitoes, each bisected with surgical precision, rained down from the air, pattering against the metal floor like a sudden, grotesque downpour.
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