For The Emperor CH3
Chapter 3: The Hellish Otherkind (3)
"It's in!"
The flimsy sliding door could not withstand the monster's assault and was instantly shattered to pieces.
Shards of glass and wooden splinters flew everywhere, cutting the skin of those fleeing and piercing the eyes of the unfortunate. Before the fight even began, many of our side were already down.
The monster broke through the door, homing in on the sound and locking onto the skateboarder.
With a push of its limbs, it charged at him, snaking through the air. Its body drew a long curve, frightening a woman who had just managed to draw her gun into firing it prematurely. The shot hit the roof of the subway, blasting off a piece of the metal.
By sheer coincidence, a piece of the metal sheet ricocheted downwards, striking a sandal-wearing man's big toe, causing him so much pain that he jumped on the spot. Caught off guard, he stumbled over a large man rushing to help, and they both fell towards the monster's tail.
The weight of two adult men was enough to momentarily suspend the monster in mid-air, quickly straightening its serpentine body before it slammed face-first into the ground.
Not only were the bystanders stunned, but the monster itself was also dazed.
Only the flight attendant reacted in time, shouting, "Hit it!"
Being an aircrew member used to working at high altitudes, she was accustomed to emergency situations and recovered quickly. She grabbed a backpack and stuffed it into the monster's mouth, then leaped on it, using all her strength to pry at the base of its limbs.
"Hurry!" she screamed until her voice broke.
For a moment, everyone piled on, pressing and holding the monster down in desperation. But its strength was too great, and a dozen adults couldn't keep it restrained.
"Shoot it!" a white-collar worker roared. "Shoot!"
The woman panicked: "But you're all on top of it, how can I shoot? Move away!"
"We can't move, it'll get out! Use a knife, chop it!"
"Are you stupid? Who brings a kitchen knife out with them?"
Li Yundan: ...
Although she couldn't understand a word and the scene was chaotic, it didn't stop her from taking decisive action.
The monster's head was locked, its limbs controlled, and its tail pinned, leaving only its midsection exposed. She didn't hesitate, slicing it in two.
Afterwards, she disappeared into the darkness, stepping over the injured and heading towards the carriage the aberration had occupied.
Gradually, the monster's struggles weakened, and after a burst of effort that threw several people off, it went silent. But the people did not dare to relax, keeping it covered for a long time before finally easing their grip.
The monster finally died, and they collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath.
"Did we... kill the monster?" The joy of surviving the ordeal made someone burst into tears, "We survived! This is wonderful!"
"Don't celebrate too soon."
The large man, holding the monster's severed tail, showed the clean cut on the serpent's waist to everyone: "It wasn't just our doing. Someone dealt it a fatal blow, which is why we were lucky to survive."
The humans were stunned, then looked up.
They saw the cut on the monster's waist was clean, without any bone fragments or flesh, indicating it was sliced with precision. Such knife skills would require at least ten years of practice... The person who made the cut must be a top-tier chef, or how else could it be so smoothly done?
"So, who was it that helped just now?"
No one answered.
In the life-threatening chaos, everyone was too focused on themselves to pay attention to what others were doing. Plus, with the carriage dimly lit and the scene chaotic, even if they noticed Li Yundan taking action, the emotional rollercoaster of relief and joy only left them with a vague memory.
"I remember it was a woman in strange clothes, red, I think... She was holding a knife, she..."
Boom!
The safety glass shattered with a cracking sound, and the boy's skateboard was nearly wrecked, his hands rubbed raw from friction. He also understood that the deaths of the two monsters were strange, but now was not the time to investigate the truth.
"Stop dawdling, climb out! Women and children first!" he urged.
Meanwhile, another thud came from the bottom of the subway, turning everyone's faces pale, and in an instant, they could think of nothing else.
"But, but there are monsters outside too."
"It's better than waiting here to die, at least there's a greater chance of being rescued outside!" The boy threw away his skateboard in frustration. "Damn it, if I had known the subway was this dangerous, I wouldn't have come. Such bad luck, being assigned to the subway station right from the start, isn't this just asking for trouble?"
"This damn rookie match, plotting for wealth at the cost of lives!"
The next monster was about to emerge, leaving no time even for complaints.
They hurriedly climbed out of the subway and ran wildly outside. Meanwhile, the monsters, following the scent of fresh flesh, entered the subway and did not linger, rushing outside as well.
Thus, the bloody night entered the prelude to a massacre.
...
The most dangerous place is often the safest.
Li Yundan hadn't gone far, just to another carriage to stay.
Here, with bodies everywhere and a strong smell of blood, her scent was perfectly masked, giving her enough time to leap out of the killing game, observing the situation as a bystander.
She chose to separate from the crowd.
They fled the metal long cage, while she remained inside the carriage. Taking different paths, they were bait, and she was also bait, perfectly to fish for the different species, to see what choice they would make?
Then, Li Yundan patiently waited for the next different species to crawl out from the ground.
As it entered the carriage whole, she deliberately walked to the middle aisle, exposing herself in the "eyes" of the other.
It should have noticed her, making an attacking stance. Unfortunately, it ultimately gave up on her and headed straight for the window, about to run to a larger hunting ground—
A cold light flashed suddenly, and a straight knife pierced the head of the different species, penetrating it instantly, "clang" nailed to the wall!
The monster twitched a few times, then moved no more.
Ignoring the reward notification of the divine voice, Li Yundan went to pull out the straight knife.
She calmly switched from an overhand to an underhand grip, and the next moment, she fiercely stabbed behind her, rotating the knife handle upon entry, slicing across with the blade to cut off half of the different species' body.
It collapsed behind her, utterly dead.
Li Yundan switched back to an overhand grip, looking out with the light from outside.
She saw one after another different species crawling out from various parts of the metal long cage, slithering outside to hunt the people of the Foreigners.
The station's hall was splattered with fresh blood, scattered with footprints, screams echoing from near to far, until no more could be heard... Inside and out, it seemed like she was the only living person left.
Accompanied by corpses, dancing with death, this feeling was not about fear.
It was just dealing with different species... Cannibalistic beasts, could they be more terrifying than human hearts?
Surviving from a cannibalistic palace, fighting out of the cruel battlefield, the more experiences one has, the deeper the understanding, no ferocious scene could disturb her tranquil heart.
She could even calmly sort out intelligence, making full use of the limited clues.
In Li Yundan's eyes, the so-called prehistoric different species, aside from the two front claws being lethal and strong, were almost full of flaws everywhere.
It was brainless, liked to eat humans, keen on running towards places with more living beings, and would also chase towards louder sounds. The reason for targeting the metal long cage was mostly because it was easy to break defense due to the concentration of people in a small area, and it was very concealed...
Concealed?
Facing a carriage full of corpses, Li Yundan narrowed her eyes.
For some reason, she thought of a ginkgo tree outside the Chaotian Palace. The association was inappropriate, yet it came to her mind.
She remembered the ginkgo tree, which lived for about six hundred years, tall and lush, but hollow in the middle. Birds often brought acorns and chestnuts to store there, to eat during the winter.
The place was quite hidden, proudly situated at the Chaotian Palace, yet seldom attracting attention. Birds thrived there generation after generation, finding acorns, looking for chestnuts, warding off snakes and insects, sharing the ginkgo tree, with clear division of labor, like a small dynasty.
Division of labor...
Li Yundan lowered her eyes.
Moments later, she began to carefully observe the corpses.
Looking at each one, comparing section by section, even though the light was very dim, she saw clearly that there were no gnawing marks on the bodies, only fatal wounds from a single strike.
In other words, these mutants only killed people, not eating them?
Unlikely.
Or did they prefer rotten flesh, planning to leave it for a while before consuming?
With some doubts, Li Yundan walked deeper.
Indeed, many mutants had already left the metal long cage, and she could get more "Geng" by going outside to intercept and kill them.
However, the Emperor's vision was always long-term; she did not care for the easily obtained "Geng," but remembered that "the metal long cage is the origin of the crisis."
To catch a thief, first catch the king; only by eradicating the source can all unnecessary deaths be ended.
Even if the people of the barbarian states were not her subjects, she could ignore their life and death, but she had once promised a grandmaster: if she was fortunate to find meteoric iron, she would wield it for the sake of all living beings.
Some things, someone has to do them. And a treasured sword, if not used for a long time and stored away, will eventually rust.
Suddenly, Li Yundan heard a chewing sound.
It came from a section of the long cage, amplifying in the enclosed space. She held her breath and moved forward, only to see a particularly strange corpse after a few steps.
It was a man, split diagonally in two.
The cut started from the wrist, crossed the chest and arm, very neatly, even a piece of jewelry hanging from his front was destroyed.
It was a piece of bone-white jade, of high quality, emitting a warm light in the darkness. Oddly, although it was a fragile item, it was preserved under the mutant's slash.
The frame was split in two, and the chain was also broken. Li Yundan picked it up from the fragments, feeling its warmth, without a single flaw.
Warm jade? But why was it intact?
Abruptly, the distant chewing sound stopped, and the monster let out a suppressed scream, mixed with inhuman cries of pain. Bubbling and popping, like a shell coming off.
Instinctively, Li Yundan felt that some fierce beast was coming.
...
Akakto, a 24-hour unmanned coffee bookshop.
By the window, a small table for two, piled with books.
"I found the information! In the book 'Rise of the Great City'!" The man with glasses quickly flipped to the target page, reading it word for word, translating the general content.
The girl with a ponytail immediately leaned in, looking together with him.
"At the end of the last century, Akakto was still an uninhabited wasteland. It wasn't until the Weiqiu Company bought it and used it as a testing ground for the power of firearms that a world-renowned mineral deposit was blasted open."
"The scientific name for this is... Energy Stone?"
"It's a kind of bony, warm gemstone mineral. Very hard, it can only be cut with lasers and water jets."
Before they could finish reading the material, they heard cries for help, screams, and the screeching of an emergency brake outside. Not sure if it was an illusion, it seemed like there were also gunshots?
"What happened?" the girl stretched her neck, "I'm going to check."
The guy with glasses grabbed her: "Don't bother! Curiosity killed the cat. I've heard that there are many terrorist attacks abroad, going there could be deadly. Let's find a place to hide and then see."
"Uh... okay."
The two high school students slipped into the storage room and quickly shut the door.
By a second's difference, three bloodstained aliens just happened to pass by the book café.
They lingered for a while, swaying their upper bodies as if sensing the smell in the air. Before long, they slithered on the ground, heading towards the villa area.
Clearly, compared to the book café with its sparse customer flow, the smell of food in the villa area was much stronger.
The flimsy sliding door could not withstand the monster's assault and was instantly shattered to pieces.
Shards of glass and wooden splinters flew everywhere, cutting the skin of those fleeing and piercing the eyes of the unfortunate. Before the fight even began, many of our side were already down.
The monster broke through the door, homing in on the sound and locking onto the skateboarder.
With a push of its limbs, it charged at him, snaking through the air. Its body drew a long curve, frightening a woman who had just managed to draw her gun into firing it prematurely. The shot hit the roof of the subway, blasting off a piece of the metal.
By sheer coincidence, a piece of the metal sheet ricocheted downwards, striking a sandal-wearing man's big toe, causing him so much pain that he jumped on the spot. Caught off guard, he stumbled over a large man rushing to help, and they both fell towards the monster's tail.
The weight of two adult men was enough to momentarily suspend the monster in mid-air, quickly straightening its serpentine body before it slammed face-first into the ground.
Not only were the bystanders stunned, but the monster itself was also dazed.
Only the flight attendant reacted in time, shouting, "Hit it!"
Being an aircrew member used to working at high altitudes, she was accustomed to emergency situations and recovered quickly. She grabbed a backpack and stuffed it into the monster's mouth, then leaped on it, using all her strength to pry at the base of its limbs.
"Hurry!" she screamed until her voice broke.
For a moment, everyone piled on, pressing and holding the monster down in desperation. But its strength was too great, and a dozen adults couldn't keep it restrained.
"Shoot it!" a white-collar worker roared. "Shoot!"
The woman panicked: "But you're all on top of it, how can I shoot? Move away!"
"We can't move, it'll get out! Use a knife, chop it!"
"Are you stupid? Who brings a kitchen knife out with them?"
Li Yundan: ...
Although she couldn't understand a word and the scene was chaotic, it didn't stop her from taking decisive action.
The monster's head was locked, its limbs controlled, and its tail pinned, leaving only its midsection exposed. She didn't hesitate, slicing it in two.
Afterwards, she disappeared into the darkness, stepping over the injured and heading towards the carriage the aberration had occupied.
Gradually, the monster's struggles weakened, and after a burst of effort that threw several people off, it went silent. But the people did not dare to relax, keeping it covered for a long time before finally easing their grip.
The monster finally died, and they collapsed on the ground, gasping for breath.
"Did we... kill the monster?" The joy of surviving the ordeal made someone burst into tears, "We survived! This is wonderful!"
"Don't celebrate too soon."
The large man, holding the monster's severed tail, showed the clean cut on the serpent's waist to everyone: "It wasn't just our doing. Someone dealt it a fatal blow, which is why we were lucky to survive."
The humans were stunned, then looked up.
They saw the cut on the monster's waist was clean, without any bone fragments or flesh, indicating it was sliced with precision. Such knife skills would require at least ten years of practice... The person who made the cut must be a top-tier chef, or how else could it be so smoothly done?
"So, who was it that helped just now?"
No one answered.
In the life-threatening chaos, everyone was too focused on themselves to pay attention to what others were doing. Plus, with the carriage dimly lit and the scene chaotic, even if they noticed Li Yundan taking action, the emotional rollercoaster of relief and joy only left them with a vague memory.
"I remember it was a woman in strange clothes, red, I think... She was holding a knife, she..."
Boom!
The safety glass shattered with a cracking sound, and the boy's skateboard was nearly wrecked, his hands rubbed raw from friction. He also understood that the deaths of the two monsters were strange, but now was not the time to investigate the truth.
"Stop dawdling, climb out! Women and children first!" he urged.
Meanwhile, another thud came from the bottom of the subway, turning everyone's faces pale, and in an instant, they could think of nothing else.
"But, but there are monsters outside too."
"It's better than waiting here to die, at least there's a greater chance of being rescued outside!" The boy threw away his skateboard in frustration. "Damn it, if I had known the subway was this dangerous, I wouldn't have come. Such bad luck, being assigned to the subway station right from the start, isn't this just asking for trouble?"
"This damn rookie match, plotting for wealth at the cost of lives!"
The next monster was about to emerge, leaving no time even for complaints.
They hurriedly climbed out of the subway and ran wildly outside. Meanwhile, the monsters, following the scent of fresh flesh, entered the subway and did not linger, rushing outside as well.
Thus, the bloody night entered the prelude to a massacre.
...
The most dangerous place is often the safest.
Li Yundan hadn't gone far, just to another carriage to stay.
Here, with bodies everywhere and a strong smell of blood, her scent was perfectly masked, giving her enough time to leap out of the killing game, observing the situation as a bystander.
She chose to separate from the crowd.
They fled the metal long cage, while she remained inside the carriage. Taking different paths, they were bait, and she was also bait, perfectly to fish for the different species, to see what choice they would make?
Then, Li Yundan patiently waited for the next different species to crawl out from the ground.
As it entered the carriage whole, she deliberately walked to the middle aisle, exposing herself in the "eyes" of the other.
It should have noticed her, making an attacking stance. Unfortunately, it ultimately gave up on her and headed straight for the window, about to run to a larger hunting ground—
A cold light flashed suddenly, and a straight knife pierced the head of the different species, penetrating it instantly, "clang" nailed to the wall!
The monster twitched a few times, then moved no more.
Ignoring the reward notification of the divine voice, Li Yundan went to pull out the straight knife.
She calmly switched from an overhand to an underhand grip, and the next moment, she fiercely stabbed behind her, rotating the knife handle upon entry, slicing across with the blade to cut off half of the different species' body.
It collapsed behind her, utterly dead.
Li Yundan switched back to an overhand grip, looking out with the light from outside.
She saw one after another different species crawling out from various parts of the metal long cage, slithering outside to hunt the people of the Foreigners.
The station's hall was splattered with fresh blood, scattered with footprints, screams echoing from near to far, until no more could be heard... Inside and out, it seemed like she was the only living person left.
Accompanied by corpses, dancing with death, this feeling was not about fear.
It was just dealing with different species... Cannibalistic beasts, could they be more terrifying than human hearts?
Surviving from a cannibalistic palace, fighting out of the cruel battlefield, the more experiences one has, the deeper the understanding, no ferocious scene could disturb her tranquil heart.
She could even calmly sort out intelligence, making full use of the limited clues.
In Li Yundan's eyes, the so-called prehistoric different species, aside from the two front claws being lethal and strong, were almost full of flaws everywhere.
It was brainless, liked to eat humans, keen on running towards places with more living beings, and would also chase towards louder sounds. The reason for targeting the metal long cage was mostly because it was easy to break defense due to the concentration of people in a small area, and it was very concealed...
Concealed?
Facing a carriage full of corpses, Li Yundan narrowed her eyes.
For some reason, she thought of a ginkgo tree outside the Chaotian Palace. The association was inappropriate, yet it came to her mind.
She remembered the ginkgo tree, which lived for about six hundred years, tall and lush, but hollow in the middle. Birds often brought acorns and chestnuts to store there, to eat during the winter.
The place was quite hidden, proudly situated at the Chaotian Palace, yet seldom attracting attention. Birds thrived there generation after generation, finding acorns, looking for chestnuts, warding off snakes and insects, sharing the ginkgo tree, with clear division of labor, like a small dynasty.
Division of labor...
Li Yundan lowered her eyes.
Moments later, she began to carefully observe the corpses.
Looking at each one, comparing section by section, even though the light was very dim, she saw clearly that there were no gnawing marks on the bodies, only fatal wounds from a single strike.
In other words, these mutants only killed people, not eating them?
Unlikely.
Or did they prefer rotten flesh, planning to leave it for a while before consuming?
With some doubts, Li Yundan walked deeper.
Indeed, many mutants had already left the metal long cage, and she could get more "Geng" by going outside to intercept and kill them.
However, the Emperor's vision was always long-term; she did not care for the easily obtained "Geng," but remembered that "the metal long cage is the origin of the crisis."
To catch a thief, first catch the king; only by eradicating the source can all unnecessary deaths be ended.
Even if the people of the barbarian states were not her subjects, she could ignore their life and death, but she had once promised a grandmaster: if she was fortunate to find meteoric iron, she would wield it for the sake of all living beings.
Some things, someone has to do them. And a treasured sword, if not used for a long time and stored away, will eventually rust.
Suddenly, Li Yundan heard a chewing sound.
It came from a section of the long cage, amplifying in the enclosed space. She held her breath and moved forward, only to see a particularly strange corpse after a few steps.
It was a man, split diagonally in two.
The cut started from the wrist, crossed the chest and arm, very neatly, even a piece of jewelry hanging from his front was destroyed.
It was a piece of bone-white jade, of high quality, emitting a warm light in the darkness. Oddly, although it was a fragile item, it was preserved under the mutant's slash.
The frame was split in two, and the chain was also broken. Li Yundan picked it up from the fragments, feeling its warmth, without a single flaw.
Warm jade? But why was it intact?
Abruptly, the distant chewing sound stopped, and the monster let out a suppressed scream, mixed with inhuman cries of pain. Bubbling and popping, like a shell coming off.
Instinctively, Li Yundan felt that some fierce beast was coming.
...
Akakto, a 24-hour unmanned coffee bookshop.
By the window, a small table for two, piled with books.
"I found the information! In the book 'Rise of the Great City'!" The man with glasses quickly flipped to the target page, reading it word for word, translating the general content.
The girl with a ponytail immediately leaned in, looking together with him.
"At the end of the last century, Akakto was still an uninhabited wasteland. It wasn't until the Weiqiu Company bought it and used it as a testing ground for the power of firearms that a world-renowned mineral deposit was blasted open."
"The scientific name for this is... Energy Stone?"
"It's a kind of bony, warm gemstone mineral. Very hard, it can only be cut with lasers and water jets."
Before they could finish reading the material, they heard cries for help, screams, and the screeching of an emergency brake outside. Not sure if it was an illusion, it seemed like there were also gunshots?
"What happened?" the girl stretched her neck, "I'm going to check."
The guy with glasses grabbed her: "Don't bother! Curiosity killed the cat. I've heard that there are many terrorist attacks abroad, going there could be deadly. Let's find a place to hide and then see."
"Uh... okay."
The two high school students slipped into the storage room and quickly shut the door.
By a second's difference, three bloodstained aliens just happened to pass by the book café.
They lingered for a while, swaying their upper bodies as if sensing the smell in the air. Before long, they slithered on the ground, heading towards the villa area.
Clearly, compared to the book café with its sparse customer flow, the smell of food in the villa area was much stronger.
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Thanks for the chapter! This looks like an interesting series! Wonder if the energy stone (or so I'm supposing it is) that she picked up will have any effects...
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