198: Chapter 198 Walking on Crocodiles

The outline of the mechanical ship hull emerged through the white powder.

Thirty-five meters of distance would normally be just a single swing.

But in the Rust-Mist Iron Marsh, the powder saturated in the air was forcibly locking up the Dark Weaver.

A fine, hard crust was forming on the surface of the Nano-wire.

The retraction of the main wire erupted with a harsh, grinding sound.

Lin Ye had just swung ten meters when the blue light on his bracer flashed repeatedly.

Zhao Mengmeng gripped her shoulder straps tightly.

"Is it jammed?"

"Not yet."

"Every time you say 'not yet,' it never ends well."

The mud marsh below surged.

The swarm of Iron Mud Lurking Crocodiles had caught up.

Their swimming speed in the iron mud far exceeded that of the two swinging in mid-air.

The white powder obscured the view from both above and below, but it could not block the vibrations.

Lin Ye's swinging movement pulled on the wreckage, sending vibrations straight to the bottom of the mud.

To the blind crocodile swarm, this left them completely exposed in the air.

The lead Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile broke through the mud surface.

Its giant jaws opened, snapping directly toward the taut main wire in mid-air.

Lin Ye violently shook his right arm.

The main wire shifted by half a foot, narrowly scraping past the giant maw.

The Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile's mouth full of iron teeth bit hard into a nearby rotting steel cable.

The steel cable shattered instantly.

The support structure in front of the mechanical ship hull suddenly tilted.

"The landing point is gone!"

On Lin Ye's retina, the faint green light at the edge of the ship hull was being swallowed by several rapidly approaching red lines.

Three Iron Mud Lurking Crocodiles had arrived at the spot ahead of time.

That landing spot was ruined.

He didn't stop moving.

He swung his right arm again.

The secondary wire accurately bit into a vertical, weathered thin iron plate on the right side of the ship hull.

"Shift right."

Zhao Mengmeng's belt tightened, and she was yanked sideways through the air.

The two grazed past the outer edge of the ship hull.

The three giant maws below lunged and missed, colliding heavily with each other.

Iron mud mixed with black blood sprayed three zhang high.

Zhao Mengmeng cursed loudly while in mid-air.

"If you were half a beat slower, I would be in a crocodile's stomach!"

Lin Ye stared intently ahead.

"They don't charge for meals."

"Shut up! Save water!"

The white powder was getting thicker.

All Zhao Mengmeng could see in front of her was the blurry outline of Lin Ye's back and shoulders.

The cracks on her lips deepened.

Her throat was filled with the churning taste of blood.

The Purified Body Crystal Core could suppress pollution, but it couldn't create water out of thin air.

The rust powder was frantically sucking away their body's moisture.

The knuckles on Lin Ye's left hand split open from dryness.

As soon as beads of blood appeared, they were sucked into dark spots by the powder.

There were no more landing spots ahead.

During the second retraction of the main wire, the speed was forcibly slowed by a second due to the hard crust.

Lin Ye looked up.

Deep within the powder mist ahead was a vast area of even larger wreckage.

To get there, they had to pass through the center of the crocodile swarm below.

The main wire was cooling down.

The secondary wire's load capacity was hitting bottom.

The aerial route was cut off.

Zhao Mengmeng's body began to fall.

"Are we landing?"

Lin Ye's voice was hoarse.

"Landing on the mud surface."

"What?!"

"Step in the gaps."

Zhao Mengmeng's face turned pale.

"It's a crocodile den down there!"

"So don't step on the crocodiles."

In the center of the mud marsh below, the crocodile swarm was rolling frantically, fighting over a wounded companion.

The lead Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile pinned down a tail-less crocodile.

Several others were biting tightly onto its abdominal armor.

Amidst the churning iron mud, a very short gap was revealed.

Lin Ye opened his Left Eye wide.

Deadly red flooded his retina.

Dozens of giant crocodiles were biting and tearing at each other.

Giant maws, scales, tail hammers, and mud flows were changing rapidly.

In the endless stream of red data, a very thin green line appeared.

It wasn't a static path.

It was a fleeting gap created by the spatial misalignment as the crocodile swarm fought and squeezed together.

Survival time: ten seconds.

The corner of Lin Ye's eye split open.

Blood slid down, immediately turning into a dried dark stain.

He retracted the main wire.

The two fell in a straight line.

In the Great Xia Live Stream, viewers could only see the screen plummet, heading straight for the churning, deadly iron mud.

The massive amount of comments cut off, leaving the entire screen completely clean.

Zhao Mengmeng was dragged behind Lin Ye by the Nano-wire, her eardrums filled with the roaring sound of the churning mud.

She could already see the black flesh hanging from the iron teeth half a meter below.

Lin Ye's cold shout exploded.

"Close your eyes! Step in my footprints, don't miss a single step!"

Zhao Mengmeng squeezed her eyes shut tightly.

The tension around her waist snapped taut.

Bang!

Lin Ye's boots slammed down.

They didn't land in the iron mud.

The soles of his boots landed exactly on the edge of the carapace that had been squeezed upward while two Iron Mud Lurking Crocodiles were fighting.

The Dark Weaver roared briefly, perfectly absorbing the force of the fall.

The next step landed on a broken gear.

The third step landed on a piece of floating animal bone.

Zhao Mengmeng was dragged by the tether, her footsteps following entirely on instinct.

A muffled thud of giant jaws closing came from the left.

A foul wind scraped across her mask.

Lin Ye tilted his head half an inch.

The iron teeth scraped past his jaw, snapping at empty air.

That Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile bit into the upper jaw of another, tearing off a large chunk of black flesh attached to thick skin.

Iron mud erupted.

Lin Ye lowered his body, pressing forward, and dragged Zhao Mengmeng with him as they slid along the ground.

A giant, barb-covered tail swept horizontally right over their backpacks.

The tail hammer smashed into the crocodile swarm, instantly knocking over three Iron Mud Lurking Crocodiles.

Mud splattered onto the outer layer of Zhao Mengmeng's backpack, emitting pungent white smoke.

"My bag is going to rot!"

"Mine didn't."

"You're quite proud of that!"

Lin Ye stopped speaking, pushing his pace to the limit.

Within his Left Eye's vision, the green line jumped wildly and irregularly.

A safe spot one second would, the next instant, have giant jaws capable of crushing steel emerging from it.

Every step was taken on the edge of the death line.

He used the white powder to obscure perception, perfectly hiding the vibrations of his own footsteps within the chaotic turbulence of the crocodile swarm's fight.

A blind Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile lunged from the side.

Lin Ye reversed his horizontal saber.

The back of the blade slammed hard into the depression on the side of the crocodile's snout.

He pushed off with the force.

The Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile's lunge direction deviated by half a foot.

Lin Ye dragged Zhao Mengmeng and forcibly squeezed through the blind spot of its lower jaw.

The giant maw closed.

The blind Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile bit directly through the neck armor of its pursuing companion.

The two behemoths rolled in the mud marsh in a life-or-death struggle, creating a three-meter-high wave of iron mud.

The Great Xia Live Stream was silent for a full five seconds.

The next instant, the screen was flooded with comments.

[He even calculated which direction the crocodile would bite!]

[Using crocodiles as stepping stones, penetrating the meat grinder in ten seconds!]

[Other countries are still hiding from the crocodiles, while Brother Eye has already learned how to use crocodiles to kill crocodiles!]

In the center of the mud marsh.

A thick piece of crocodile tail broke through the mud.

Lin Ye's vision caught the red light flicking upward.

He backhanded Zhao Mengmeng forward, twisting his own body to press down to the limit.

The crocodile tail scraped across his back.

His already torn armor ripped away a patch of flesh.

The burns on Lin Ye's back split open again.

Fresh blood gushed out, only to be sucked into charred black blood spots by the rust powder in the blink of an eye.

Zhao Mengmeng's eyelids twitched wildly, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Stop using your back to take the hits!"

"Then you should get lower."

"You lunatic!"

"Save water."

The exit was right before their eyes.

The faint green line ahead, however, was completely sealed off by a massive, deep red area.

The lead Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile stopped biting its companion.

Its massive body blocked the exit of the wreckage.

It didn't open its mouth, instead using its physical body to block the final passage.

The ten-second countdown finished.

The green line was severed.

Only the semi-solidified iron mud remained beneath their feet.

Beneath the mud surface, a heavily wounded, gutted Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile was rolling, its broken rib stumps glowing with a fleeting green light.

Lin Ye violently shook his right arm.

The Dark Weaver released all its Nano-wire.

The wire accurately pinned down the broken cartilage stump that had flipped above the mud surface.

Forcibly retract the winch!

Stimulated by the intense pain, the massive body of the heavily wounded Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile instinctively flipped upward.

This strange force forcibly pushed the blocking lead Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile aside by half a body length.

Lin Ye dragged Zhao Mengmeng and stepped directly onto its bloody, mangled abdominal cavity to launch themselves into the air.

Zhao Mengmeng's boot soles sank into the warm, soft flesh, and her stomach convulsed.

"What did we step on again?!"

"A stepping stone."

"Doesn't this stepping stone bite?"

"It was just bitten."

The crocodile swarm below immediately scattered.

Lin Ye threw the main wire while in mid-air, wrapping it around a towering black steel pillar in the wreckage area.

The white powder crust jammed the slide rail.

The main wire's burst stalled for half a second.

The bracer's steel cable cut directly into the flesh of Lin Ye's right arm.

The gears finally locked together tightly.

The traction force exploded!

The two glided out, grazing over the top of the leader's giant maw.

Snap!

The giant jaws closed violently beneath their soles.

Most of the soles of Zhao Mengmeng's boots were sheared off.

The two used their momentum to roll and land on the hard ground behind the black steel pillar.

The dry, cracked black iron ore bed had no more mud marsh.

Zhao Mengmeng turned back quickly.

Behind them, white powder surged.

The Iron Mud Lurking Crocodile swarm fell into a chaotic brawl, fighting over their heavily wounded companion.

Iron mud and broken bones flew everywhere, and they had no strength left to pursue.

Lin Ye knelt halfway on the black iron ore bed.

The Dark Weaver on his right arm was emitting high-temperature white smoke.

He drew his horizontal saber.

He scraped away the pale, hard powder jammed in the crevices of the winch, inch by inch.

Zhao Mengmeng collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

Her throat was so dry that blood was seeping out.

"That part just now, ten seconds?"

"Just about."

"During the time I had my eyes closed, it felt like a lifetime."

"That means you lived a full life."

Zhao Mengmeng looked down at her nearly bald boot soles.

"If I trust you a few more times, my soles will be worn flat."

Lin Ye reached for the side pocket of his backpack.

He pulled out two small pieces of exotic beast meat as dry as hard stone.

He casually tossed one to Zhao Mengmeng.

"Press it under your tongue, don't swallow."

The meat fat mixed with salt grains melted, forcibly sustaining her parched throat.

Lin Ye swallowed the blood in his own mouth.

He reached back and unzipped his backpack.

dark gold dragon bone nail, present.

dormant valley seed, present.

frost-patterned stone box fragment, present.

Magnetic storm mine construction diagram, undamaged.

After finishing this check, he tightened the straps again.

Zhao Mengmeng watched him check everything the whole time.

This time, she didn't say a single word of nonsense.

On the ten-second death line, anyone whose reaction was half a beat slow would be a corpse.

The black iron ore layer extended forward.

The powder mist gradually thinned.

The muddy, fishy smell faded away.

It was followed by a pungent smell of rust.

A vibration began to come from under their feet.

Bang.

Bang.

The impact was extremely regular, with the interval between each landing being perfectly consistent.

The roar of giant pistons scouring metal pierced through the dust, slamming heavily against their eardrums.

Zhao Mengmeng stood up, leaning on a broken stick.

"There's something big ahead."

Lin Ye opened a slit in his Left Eye.

Deep in the rust powder, a towering black shadow that connected heaven and earth stood majestically.

It cut across the entire iron marsh.

The black shadow did not move.

The chaotic red death lines surrounding it were abruptly cut off here.

Lin Ye closed his eyes, hiding the blood-red light.

"Let's go."

Zhao Mengmeng wiped the blood scab from the corner of her mouth.

"Are you sure this is called 'going,' and not 'suicide'?"

The powder mist dissipated with the wind.

A corner of the massive black shadow quietly revealed its true form.