228: Final sacrifice

Chapter 228: The Final Sacrifice. "Anatomy isn't working..."

Chen Mo, holding a long blade dripping with black oil, looked at the ones besieging Ninth Master. "Then let's use physics."

He took two quick steps and threw the blade in his hand with all his might, like a javelin.

Whoosh—

The blade turned into a streak of silver light, directly impaling a Guardian who was raising his sword to take off Ninth Master's head.

The massive kinetic energy sent its body flying backward, pinning it firmly to the metal wall behind.

"Thanks!" Ninth Master broke out in a cold sweat and slumped to the ground. "I almost went to see my ancestors."

Seeing this, the remaining Guardians showed no fear or hesitation.

They actually abandoned their siege, retreated rapidly, and gathered together.

"Trying to run?"

Chen Mo was about to give chase when he realized they weren't running.

The remaining seven Guardians formed a circle, pointing all their blades toward the center.

Then, the leading officer whom Chen Mo had kicked away earlier stood up shakily and walked into the center of the circle.

He pulled something from his chest.

It was a black metal sphere covered in eerie runes.

"Oh no!"

Su Qingxue's face changed drastically. "That's a 'Sympathetic Detonation Core' from the Old Era! They're going to self-destruct!"

"Are they crazy?!" Ninth Master cursed. "These people won't even quit when they're dead?"

A stiff smile appeared on the officer's face.

He had no tongue.

But he made a sound.

It was the sound of airflow squeezed out of his chest cavity, sounding like a leaky bellows:

"For... the King..."

"King my ass."

Chen Mo had already rushed forward.

But he was too late to stop it.

The officer's finger had already pressed the switch on the metal sphere.

A red light suddenly flared.

Boom!

A violent explosion instantly consumed that small area.

It wasn't ordinary explosives, but some kind of high-energy electromagnetic pulse mixed with incendiary agents.

The shockwave, mixed with blue flames, swept outward.

Chen Mo only had time to turn around and tank the blast with his back.

He felt as if he had been hit in the back by a tank.

His entire body was thrown over a dozen meters away, slamming hard into a pile of discarded metal racks.

Dust filled the air.

The burnt stench grew even more intense.

"Chen Mo!" Su Qingxue rushed out from behind cover. "Are you dead?"

Clatter.

The debris moved.

Chen Mo pushed aside the steel beam weighing him down and stood up shakily.

The skin on his back was completely scorched, revealing the dark red muscle fibers beneath; one could even see his spine writhing.

But he felt no pain.

Or rather, this pain was like a mosquito bite compared to the soul-tearing agitation in his mind.

"I'm alright."

Chen Mo spat out the black ash in his mouth and glanced at the center of the explosion.

The eight Guardians were gone.

Only severed limbs and glowing red metal fragments remained on the ground.

"Ruthless." Ninth Master walked over, patting his chest. "They don't even spare their own. What kind of grudge is this?"

"They weren't trying to kill us."

Chen Mo looked at the blast site.

That position was exactly the only path leading into the interior of the Inverted Pyramid.

The explosion had collapsed that section of the walkway, leaving only a lone load-bearing beam suspended over the abyss.

"They were trying to cut off the path," Chen Mo said.

"So what do we do? Walk the tightrope?" Ninth Master glanced down into the bottomless depths. "If we fall, we won't even hear a splash."

"There's no other way."

Chen Mo was the first to jump onto the steel beam, which was only a palm's width.

The beam swayed slightly in the wind, making a creaking sound.

He walked steadily.

As if he were taking a stroll on flat ground.

Su Qingxue bit her lip and followed.

Ninth Master sighed and slung his useless gun over his back. "I've crossed more bridges in my life than you've walked roads. Think I'd be afraid of this?"

The three of them carefully crossed the abyss.

The further in they went, the heavier the chill became.

Finally, they reached the core platform of the Inverted Pyramid.

The space here was vast, surrounded by hundreds of massive display screens; though most were dark, a few flickered with a faint green light.

In the center of the platform sat a special device.

It was a crystal coffin.

Or rather, a life-support pod.

But it was different from the ones outside.

It was connected to countless tubes of varying thickness, pulsating like blood vessels, pumping liquids of various colors inside.

And lying inside was the woman in the white qipao Chen Mo had seen earlier.

He couldn't see clearly from a distance before, but now that he was close, the sense of familiarity almost burst through Chen Mo's skull.

"This woman..."

Ninth Master leaned in to look and suddenly gasped, "Holy shit! This... isn't this that person?"

"Who?" Chen Mo asked.

"A big star from decades ago! Called... Ruan-something?" Ninth Master scratched his head. "I saw her in an old newspaper! She was a top-tier celebrity during the Republic of China era! They say she disappeared later!"

"Ruan Qiushui."

Su Qingxue looked at the nameplate beside the life-support pod. "Codename: Zero."

"Zero?"

Chen Mo frowned.

He was 001.

If this was Zero, was it the prototype?

Just then, Chen Mo suddenly felt the heart in his chest throb violently.

It wasn't a physiological beat.

It was a resonance.

Like two magnets attracting each other.

A fragment of a memory that didn't belong to him suddenly rushed into his mind.

In the scene, it was a rainy night.

The woman in the white qipao stood in the rain, holding an oil-paper umbrella.

And opposite her stood a young man.

That man had a face exactly like Wang Daoming's, only decades younger.

"Are you leaving?" the woman asked.

"I'm going to change the world."

Young Wang Daoming's eyes flashed with a fanatical light. "When I find the secret to eternal life, I'll come back for you. Then, we can be together forever."

"Even if you turn into a monster?"

"Even if I turn into a devil."

The image shattered.

Chen Mo snapped back to his senses, gasping for air.

"What's wrong?" Su Qingxue supported him.

"I saw it..." Chen Mo pointed at the crystal coffin. "Wang Daoming didn't do this for some bullshit human evolution. He did all of this just to resurrect this woman."

"This plot is too cliché, isn't it?" Ninth Master curled his lip. "Toppling an empire for a beauty? Creating all these zombies just for a romance?"

"No."

Chen Mo stared at the woman's tightly closed eyes. "If it's just resurrection, why put her in the 'Zero' position? This entire underground base is powering her."

He reached out, wanting to touch the crystal coffin.

Beep—

The moment his fingertip touched the glass, the entire platform turned blood-red.

[Warning: Unauthorized contact detected]

[Awakening procedure forced to start]

[Countdown: 10, 9, 8...]

The liquid in the crystal coffin began to boil.

The white-qipao woman's finger twitched slightly.

At the same time, all the screens around the platform lit up.

On every screen, a face appeared.

It was Wang Daoming's aged and crazed face.

"I told you, don't touch my things."

Wang Daoming on the screen was laughing, a hideous laugh. "Chen Mo, you've delivered my 'package' back, and I'm very grateful. In return, I'll let you witness a miracle."

"What are you going to do?" Chen Mo asked.

"I've waited in this tomb for fifty years."

Wang Daoming's voice came through the speakers, so loud it made eardrums ache. "I was missing the final key. And you just delivered it into my hands yourself."

Chen Mo froze.

The key?

That heart?

Rumble—

A loud noise suddenly came from overhead.

It was the outlet of the transport pipe from earlier.

The heart Chen Mo had stuffed in hadn't been destroyed.

It seemed to have reached a specific location.

A stream of black energy poured down from the pipe above the crystal coffin, injecting directly into it.

"No—"

Chen Mo wanted to smash the coffin.

But an invisible force repelled him.

The lid of the crystal coffin slid open slowly.

The woman who had slept for half a century slowly sat up.

She opened her eyes.

There were no pupils in those eyes.

Only two clusters of burning white flames.

She looked at Chen Mo, her lips moving slightly, letting out a voice that made everyone's skin crawl:

"Hungry."

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