V2C24

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The very earth they stood on shook in the blazing fire. Gu Fengyi held onto a short tree with one hand and a stumbling Liu Qingqing with the other, keeping her tight and close.

The tower-like beehive slowly collapsed. The majestic, magnificent, inhuman marvel was ripped down the middle; fire spread across all directions like it was trying to swallow down the endless darkness inside it.

The two stood in the rainforest for a long time, watching the unstoppable flames.

They could already see the light of dawn in the distant east, bringing tears to their eyes.

“It’ll be daybreak soon,” Liu Qingqing said quietly and clutched Gu Fengyi’s slender, strong waist from behind.

She pressed her face against the back of her neck. It felt warm, a living person’s kind of warm, and carried with it a familiar scent. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting herself grow infatuated and drunk off the smell.

The fire seemed to want to burn everything, destroying glory with sin. In that bright light, it was like they were the last two left in the world, standing among brilliant ruins.

Was this the end? An end with only the two of them?

She was satisfied.

“Qingqing, we should leave. The army ants are fighting with the bees right now- let’s go to Moon Lake. The water will be cold; don’t push yourself too much.” Gu Fengyi’s voice broke through her morbid intoxication.

Liu Qingqing raised her hand and showed a gentle and tame smile. “Mhm. With you here, I’m not afraid.”

&&&

Dan Liang hugged Xia Huan’s former first-aid kit. After Chen Lu had been overtaken by the moth, the reward had been passed down onto him, and thanks to it, the wound on his shoulder from Lin Jue’s spear had stopped posing an issue. At the moment, he was sitting on a tree branch, a thick layer of bandages wrapped around it. The distant fire lit up the night sky and he watched the beehive collapse in the blaze with enthusiastic interest, a smile on his face.

Collapsing rules, a dangerous environment, everyone with evil intentions and the smallest push ready to lead them into exploding with hatred…

The flower of deceit took root and bloomed easily in this soil.

From tonight’s game, he had seen a new existence, vastly differently from his previous one.

He wanted to see more betrayals, to witness hypocritical humanity writhe more in this devil’s land. All souls weak and merciful, despicable, greedy, and resentful; all to be destroyed.

Dan Liang laughed lowly, hard enough to rip the wound on his shoulder. He grinned, inhaling, and couldn’t help but be filled with joy.

Beautiful; that hollow, murderous void made every cell of him tremble and surge.

Compared to Lu Ren’s pure, natural evil, he preferred to see mortals fall.

&&&

One icy hand grabbing the rope, the other holding his spear, Lin Jue leaped down, the rough rope flying across his palm, burning it.

The impact when he landed sent shivers up both of his legs, but countless bees swarmed at him without a care for his condition. The spear flicked upwards, sweeping across and immediately slicing off a bee’s head- then another, and another.

He could do better.

The numbing sensation in his legs ceased. Lin Jue took a deep break and sprinted towards the platform where Xia Huan was.

Xia Huan got up, her hand on her neck, a shrill shriek coming from her mouth. The bees which were trying to escape fell into hesitant turmoil, the instinct to flee from the smoke warring against the instinct to follow the queen’s orders.

Taking his chance, Lu Ren approached the platform. Black blood oozed out from Xia Huan’s turbid eyes, almost covering her entire face.

“Lu Ren, be cautious, the queen is about to come out!” Song Hanzhang reminded him in a loud voice.

A crazed smile plastered itself on Lu Ren’s face. He completely ignored the bees plunging at him from all corners and single-mindedly waved away the ones in his way to the queen. Stings landed onto his back one after another but he ignored them, rushing towards the platform like a gust of wind.

Apart from the queen, nothing else could enter his eyes!

On top of the platform, Xia Huan suddenly let out a shrill shriek, blood pouring out of her orifices. Suddenly, a wet, slicked hole was punched through her right cheek, a segmented leg reaching out from it, then another from her opposite cheek. The weak limbs of an insect had somehow penetrated the hard bones of a human1. Xia Huan opened her mouth wide and a fist-sized bee head poked out from within, still dripping with blood.

The scene was bloody and cruel. Lin Jue lowered his head and focused on killing the bees while working his way towards Song Hanzhang. Song Hanzhang’s knife was used so well that he hadn’t been stung by the bees at all between outbursts.

The smell of smoke was strong in the air and Lin Jue coughed several times, his face red from trying to hold his breath, but it was like Lu Ren wasn’t affected at all. He jumped onto the platform, using the corpses of the worker bees as stairs, and ran straight for the queen.

The newly born queen bee waved its blood-soaked wings, unable to fly up at that moment. The bees rushed madly towards the platform, trying to protect their queen.

The Tang dao swished upwards in a stunning arc of light, almost mesmerising Lin Jue.

A faultless, deadly strike!

The queen bee was slashed at the waist, then trampled underfoot.

The swarm suddenly froze all in one moment. In that instant of silence, Lin Jue gazed at Lu Ren, high up on the platform.

He had been covered in blood, insect juice splattered all over his body and face. He was smiling, a smile that could be seen even through the mask- something of vicious beauty.

The swarm of bees scattered back into the tunnels like a low tide. The smell of smoke was almost too much to breathe in. Lin Jue coughed violently, turbid gas filling his lungs, taking over the oxygen he needed to breathe.

The hive started shaking violently like an earthquake was occurring and they couldn’t keep standing any longer.

Lu Ren fell straight down from the platform head first. He was heavily wounded and the venom from the countless stings on him had spread throughout his body. He was a dead man.

Vibrations; constant vibrations. In between heaven and earth’s shaking, Lin Jue crawled towards Song Hanzhang with the last of his strength. Countless wrangled bee corpses laid around him; every shift forwards was a struggle, like he was crawling through hell.

The confined space overhead cracked open in the tremors. Song Hanzhang lay on the ground, exhausted, and quietly watched the overhead sky.

Smoke, fire, dawn.

In the pale blue sky, dawn was coming. It was still far away, but no longer out of reach. He had traveled through the darkness and now could finally see a sliver of hope.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Lin Jue struggling to crawl towards him and suddenly relaxed in relief.

The smoke around them was no longer as strong as it followed through the cracked roof, dispersing into the open air. Lin Jue took off his mask, took a few deep breaths, and stumbled towards Song Hanzhang.

“Xuezhang, are you alright?” Lin Jue ripped off his mask as well and pushed at him anxiously.

Song Hanzhang gave him a barely perceptible smile. “I’m fine.”

Lin Jue was a little dazed; he couldn’t but smile at the feeling of celebration after surviving a disaster.

“Do you still have strength?” Song Hanzhang asked him.

Lin Jue nodded vigorously.

“Drag Lu Ren over. With his physique, he’s most likely still breathing,” Song Hanzhang climbed up and said.

Lin Jue obediently went to find Lu Ren. His eyes were shut tightly, a blissful smile on his face as if he didn’t feel the pain from the stings and the poison. His hand still clutched his weapon, the veins bulging.

Lin Jue saw him as an eyesore and didn’t carry him, but rather dragged him by his feet towards Song Hanzhang. Song Hanzhang couldn’t bear watching such a method which would only circulate the poison faster and helped him carry Lu Ren. The two left the open cave and headed towards the queen cell with its golden pond.

It was empty there as well, with only Chen Lu’s body next to that shallow pool.

Lin Jue threw Lu Ren into the pond and collapsed by it, panting. Song Hanzhang looked around before finally settling his attention on Chen Lu.

Lin Jue watched as Song Hanzhang flipped Chen Lu’s corpse over. Her face was bloody but there was no wound on any other part of her. He soon lost interest and turned his attention to the pond.

“Just what is this liquid?” Lin Jue cupped up some of it and drank it. Its sweet scent was almost choking, but it recovered his depleted stamina.

Song Hanzhang drank as well and looked at him with a strange expression. “Do you really want to know?”

Lin Jue stopped. “It’s…”

“Queen bees are fed royal jelly from birth to stimulate the development of their female genitals,” Song Hanzhang said.

“Oh, royal jelly. I was scared for a second,” Lin Jue sighed in relief.

“This is definitely not normal royal jelly.” Song Hanzhang’s eyes seemed to be smiling. “From the eating habits of these bees… you can guess what it is, right?”

The sweetness in his mouth grew more intense and Lin Jue felt as if his stomach was churning. He covered his mouth and crouched to the side, not forgetting to complain, slurring, “Lu Ren definitely knew! He even pushed my head into the water to drink it!”

From the shallow pond came Lu Ren’s coarse laugh. Completely healed, he strode out from the pond, snickered at Chen Lu’s body, then said to Song Hanzhang, “You should be more careful.”

Saying that, the Tang dao in his right hand striked down, piercing through her skull.

“How’s your recovery?”

Lu Ren wiped off the liquid at the corner of his mouth with his thumb and smiled eerily. “Just about right.”

Song Hanzhang glanced at him sideways and looked down to his watch. “Another fifteen minutes.”

The final moment had arrived.

From the faintly-lit sky above came an approaching buzz and in the dark depths of the tunnels, they could see the faint outline of raging ants. The three of them stood in the queen’s cell back to back.

All around them, above them, and below, there were enemies; everywhere, endless, like the end of the world.

Just before dawn, the earth was shrouded in the deepest darkness. Giant mutated army ants waved enormous claws and snapped towards them; a black cloud of bees plunged down from overhead. The air grew dense from a terrifying pressure.

Lin Jue gripped the polearm in his hands tightly, the metallic texture a faith, or a belief to him.

They would survive!

Definitely!

***

1The… The what. I’m not sure what the author intended here, but the cheeks don’t have bones in them- they’re soft pouches of flesh.

***

Luci: Ahahaha accidentally translated the wrong chapter…. Ahahahaha I’m so smart guys….

Vera, shooting awake exactly 24 hours too late: What day is it. (I’m so sorry guys, I completely lost track of the time…)

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