74: Chapter 74 Pale Seed: I may not be human, but you're a real dog.

The ruins in the night had already become the territory of monsters.

Dragged bloodstains were everywhere on the streets.

Beside a scrapped car, two Pale Species were tearing apart the corpse of one of their own.

Further away, dense clusters of red dots pulsed in the vision of Lin Ye's left eye.

He only looked for less than two seconds before turning it off.

There were too many of them.

Mental energy could not be wasted.

Lin Ye arrived at the center of an intersection.

The broken windows of the surrounding buildings gaped like black holes.

He took out a handbell he had scavenged from the warehouse.

"Ding-a-ling!"

The crisp ringing directly tore through the dead silence.

One second.

Two seconds.

The entire ruins erupted.

"Roar!"

Countless roars came frantically from all directions.

From inside buildings, under cars, behind collapsed walls, and out of underground entrances, Pale Species charged out like mad.

One.

Ten.

Fifty.

Even more grayish-white figures surged from the end of the street like a tide.

Crimson eyeballs were all locked onto Lin Ye in the center of the intersection.

Lin Ye turned and ran.

Behind him, hundreds of Pale Species formed a grayish-white tide of monsters.

They used all four limbs, knocking away abandoned barricades and trampling the severed limbs of their own kind.

The entire street was shaking as if the earth were moving and the mountains were swaying.

Lin Ye didn't look back at all.

He raised his right arm, and the Wind-Chasing Claw shot out, hooking onto exposed rebar on the third floor of a roadside building.

As the cable retracted, he leaped into the air, narrowly avoiding a bus ahead.

The moment he landed, he stepped onto a scrapped car to his left.

A Medium Pale-Type behind him missed its pounce and crashed directly into the bus wreckage.

Lin Ye shot out his grappling claw, his body swinging past a broken second-story window along the wall.

A Pale Species jumped up, its claw tips almost grazing the soles of his boots.

Just barely.

It really was just by a hair.

Lin Ye landed in the next street and continued his wild sprint.

At the warehouse entrance.

Zhao Mengmeng stood guard by the rolling shutter door, cold sweat dripping from her forehead.

She heard the booming sounds getting closer and closer outside, her hand already pressed against the first wire.

The next second, Lin Ye rocketed out from the darkness.

"Pull!"

Lin Ye rushed inside, his angry shout exploding like a thunderclap.

Zhao Mengmeng didn't hesitate for a moment, gritting her teeth and pulling with all her might!

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The first set of pots and pans collided frantically.

The monster tide, which had just lost sight of Lin Ye, was immediately drawn by the sound.

The leading Pale Species crashed into the rolling shutter door.

"Bang!"

The second one.

The third one.

Over a dozen slammed into it together.

The rolling shutter door was severely deformed on the spot.

Lin Ye and Zhao Mengmeng turned and sprinted for their lives into the interior.

"Second set!"

Zhao Mengmeng pulled hard.

The second set of scrap pots and iron buckets clattered loudly at the same time.

"Clang! Clang!"

As the monster swarm rushed into the warehouse, Lin Ye and Zhao Mengmeng's scents were cut off by shelves and walls.

After a brief pause, they were immediately forcibly lured away by the louder metallic sounds.

Swaths of Pale Species knocked over shelves and charged toward the stairs leading to the first basement level.

The ones at the very front were running too fast and tumbled out of control down the stairs.

The monsters behind them continued to charge down, trampling over their bodies.

Zhao Mengmeng asked while panting as she ran, "Will they follow the wrong path?"

"They won't."

Lin Ye glanced back coldly.

"The sound is loud enough and the path is narrow enough; their tiny brains don't support complex choices."

"Third set!"

Zhao Mengmeng rushed to the entrance of the main underground passage and yanked hard.

Another burst of extremely ear-piercing clanging exploded ahead.

The monster tide surged violently into the first basement level.

The entire underground passage was shaking violently.

Wall plaster fell in flakes, and thick dust rose from the cracks in the ceiling.

Zhao Mengmeng couldn't help but curse in her anxiety, "What if this place collapses!"

Lin Ye's left eye snapped open, scanning several load-bearing areas.

The red lines representing hazards brightened, but they hadn't reached the breaking point yet.

"It'll hold."

"Those two words sound terrifying coming from you!"

"Then I'll change them!"

Lin Ye didn't stop. "Run faster!"

Zhao Mengmeng almost lost it and started swearing.

The two of them rushed through the main underground passage.

The last set of noise traps was right at the entrance of the giant storage room.

Lin Ye grabbed Zhao Mengmeng's back collar and dragged her to the side.

"Don't stand in the doorway!"

Zhao Mengmeng rolled behind the wall, grabbed the last wire, and pulled with all her strength.

Above the storage room entrance, dozens of pots, bowls, and cans all clattered at once.

"Clang clang clang clang!"

The sound was amplified several times inside the storage room, becoming deafening.

Hundreds of Pale Species followed one another, rushing into the storage room like a flood.

The front row stepped into the flour layer, their limbs pawing frantically, kicking up a vast cloud of white powder.

The back row squeezed against the front row.

Medium monsters violently knocked over shelves.

Paint buckets tipped over.

Lubricating oil flowed freely.

Bags of unsealed flour were trampled and exploded by the monsters, the white mist rising higher and higher, even blocking their vision.

Zhao Mengmeng hid behind the side wall, only poking half her head out for a look before immediately shrinking back in fright.

"Brother Lin! It's so white inside I can't even see the monsters anymore!"

"Perfect."

Lin Ye grabbed her and sprinted up the side ladder toward the hole in the upper floor.

This path led to the collapsed corner of the storage room ceiling.

From there, they could overlook the area below, yet they were separated from the blast center by a solid concrete partition.

In the storage room, the Pale Species roared and lunged, their bodies churning up the dust.

Compressed gas cylinders were knocked and rolled everywhere.

Several monsters bit into hairspray cans, which hissed and sprayed out white mist.

Another Medium Pale-Type directly knocked over the central pile of gas cylinders.

"Bang!"

The cylinders collided violently and rolled in all directions.

Zhao Mengmeng's throat felt dry as she watched.

"Light it now?"

"Wait a bit longer!"

Lin Ye stared at the dust concentration below.

He couldn't do it too early.

If it was too early, not enough of the swarm would be inside, and the power wouldn't be enough to wipe them out.

It couldn't be too late either.

If it was too late, the swarm might break through the side door, or a collapse might happen prematurely.

Lin Ye pulled out a specially made wooden arrow from his lower back.

Rags were tightly wrapped around the arrowhead, soaked in highly flammable lubricant.

He took out a flint and struck it quickly.

Sparks landed on the rags, and a bright cluster of flames shot up.

Zhao Mengmeng stood beside him.

"Brother Lin, we run as soon as you shoot, right?"

"Right."

Lin Ye decisively pressed the burning wooden arrow into the crossbow.

"When I shout 'run', you run for your life. Absolutely do not look back!"

"Got it!"

The swarm below was getting more and more crowded, a dense mass of writhing heads.

The dust and white mist were already churning violently up to the edge of the hole.

Lin Ye leveled the crossbow, aiming at the densest cluster of compressed gas cylinders in the center of the storage room.

...

Great Xia Disaster Prevention Administration.

Director Wei Tiejun stood straight before the large screen, the veins on the back of his hands bulging.

Lu Chen stared at the screen, speaking very rapidly.

"Flour, confined space, compressed cans, paint, lubricant."

Zhou Jianping's expression suddenly changed.

"A dust explosion!"

Lu Chen nodded.

"If the concentration is high enough, the area below will instantly become a human furnace!"

Director Wei Tiejun's voice was hoarse.

"He's too close!"

Lu Chen did not argue.

Because he was indeed too close.

...

Lin Ye's finger tightened as he pulled the trigger.

"Whoosh!"

The burning wooden arrow shot into the center of the white mist like a meteor.

The next second.

The entire world was swallowed by towering flames.

"BOOM!"

The interior of the giant storage room exploded!

The high-concentration flour dust was ignited by the open flame, and the violent fire spread rapidly along the powder in the air.

The compressed gas cylinders were triggered into a chain of sympathetic detonations.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The entire underground warehouse shook violently, as if an intensity 8 earthquake had been triggered!

Metal shelves were overturned by the shockwave.

Paint buckets burst, lubricant splashed everywhere, and flames swept along the ground.

A terrifying pillar of fire tens of meters high erupted from the collapsed corner!

From deep underground came the collective wails of the Pale Species.

Their grayish-white skin was scorched by the high temperatures, and their joints shattered inch by inch in the explosion.

At the same moment he pulled the trigger, Lin Ye grabbed Zhao Mengmeng's waist and turned to run for his life.

"Run!"

The first wave of intense heat surged terrifyingly from behind.

"Boom!"

The wall behind them cracked extensively under the force of the powerful shockwave.

Debris pelted their backs.

Zhao Mengmeng let out a pained groan.

A second wave of serial explosions followed closely behind.

Flames swept wildly into the passage entrance, but were mostly blocked by the corner.

Lin Ye dragged Zhao Mengmeng and rolled into a power distribution room.

He kicked back hard, knocking down an iron door panel to serve as a shield in front of them.

"Bang bang bang!"

Explosion fragments pelted the iron door panel frantically, the sound so dense it made one's scalp tingle.

Scalding hot air poured in through the gaps in the door panel.

Zhao Mengmeng felt like her hair was about to be singed by the high temperature.

"Brother Lin!"

"Stay alive!"

Lin Ye pressed against the iron door panel, a bloody gash opened on his forehead by a sharp piece of debris.

At the same time, the light screen before his right eye began to scroll frantically.