No one could—except for the anomaly Jiang Ye.
Bai Chen Zhu stayed vigilant when he felt a weight in his arms—Jiang Ye had shoved the backpack over.
“Hold this for me.” Jiang Ye said hoarsely. He drew a stick from his waist, shook it expertly, and a light sword extended with a sharp, searing blade that could slice flesh and cauterize it.
Kula stared at the Alien Race weapon. In Jiang Ye’s hands, it swung so fluidly, as if it were made for humans.
It should not be like this. Composure faded from Kula’s face. It drew a light sword from behind as well, pointing the tip at Jiang Ye. “You’re too bold. You can’t be left alive.”
Both sides were at a standoff. In an instant, a wind whipped past Bai Chen Zhu. Jiang Ye’s and Kula’s blades clashed, and someone yanked his wrist hard, pulling him toward the door.
Tang Zhao led him along the wall to run out, his voice suppressed in his throat. “We go first.”
Jiang Ye had said beforehand he would cover the rear. Tang Zhao had blind trust in Jiang Ye. Since Jiang Ye said so, he took Bai Chen Zhu and ran.
The crisp clash of light swords rang out. Kula ignored the two little ants fleeing. In its eyes, dealing with the one before it first, then killing the other two, would take just minutes.
But it soon realized the consequences of its repeated arrogance.
A cool breeze gently brushed its mind. In that instant, Kula clearly sensed the connection between its mind and body severed like a knife cut. It could see, but its body would not move, unable to react!
It watched helplessly as Jiang Ye flashed in front of it and kicked it into the wall. The light sword precisely slashed its right arm, nearly severing it.
Was it those two just now? Kula struggled to pull its limbs from the wall. Its narrow vertical pupils turned, gritting its teeth as it looked toward the door—empty, nothing there.
“Where are you looking?” Jiang Ye pressed step by step. Kula had no choice but to focus on the threat before it.
After a few exchanges, Jiang Ye had several burns, but Kula was no better. It had thought it could end it quickly, but its light sword was knocked flying. The immense force split its palm, and the already injured right arm worsened.
It clutched its right arm as blue blood slowly dripped, horrified.
First, the inexplicable mental power attack, then this formidable human before it.
It had only learned of ability users today, but that was just little ants becoming big ants. How could one ant warrant attention?
When the mutated ant silently crawled into the nest and bit the elephant to death, Kula felt a chill run down its back. Its antennae on its head stood up straight, and its wings cautiously spread slightly. A sense of crisis welled up in its heart, and killing intent immediately surfaced. It twisted its wrist and got serious. “You deserve to die.”
Jiang Ye did not answer. He gave his opponent no chance to catch a breath. Sword shadows struck like thunder, slashing down one after another with lightning speed. Kula barely dodged past the blade’s edge. Its left hand drew the particle gun from its waist and aimed it at Jiang Ye’s back in a backhand shot.
“Bang—” Jiang Ye spun around and kicked the particle gun high into the air with one foot. The misaimed bullet pierced his right shoulder, but the blood was concealed by his dark clothes. The two locked eyes, and without a word, they both scrambled for the falling gun in the midst of their fight.
—
Tang Zhao ran too fast, dragging Bai Chen Zhu along like a kite.
The human, freed from his restraints, used every ounce of strength to escape the base. Messy traces and chaotic noises spread from underground all the way to the surface, drawing the attention of the guards on the upper levels of the base.
Bai Chen Zhu, dodging while firing a few shots from the particle gun, looked up. He could already vaguely see figures from the upper levels spreading their wings and flying down—members of the alien race. Unless something unexpected happened, they would all rush to aid their superior.
“Wait!” Bai Chen Zhu’s mind raced. He could not let them head down so quickly—Jiang Ye would be surrounded!
Tang Zhao only managed to let out a puzzled sound before his whole body jolted. Something intangible and invisible passed through his body, rippling outward like water waves and forcefully invading him. It severed the connection between his consciousness and his body.
His face went blank, as if someone had hit the pause button on time, leaving him stunned.
Not just him—the alien race, even more sensitive to mental power, noticed something was off. Eyes of various colors turned toward the source of the mental power. Especially the male insects; they began searching for the origin of that powerful mental power.
Who? Who was it?
But there was no one. The doorway stood empty, with only a hook-like trace of mental power extending outward—a very conspicuous mark.
A male insect had been hijacked! That was their instinctive guess. So the descending alien race split up, with only some heading toward the Negative First Floor.
Bai Chen Zhu casually wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. In that instant, his burst of mental power controlled everyone and everything non-human present. He seized the chance to pull Tang Zhao away and deliberately left a trace leading outward to draw the alien race.
Vehicles of all kinds piled up outside the base. He found a usable car, shoved the man inside, and climbed in after him.
When Tang Zhao came back to his senses, he was already in the car with Bai Chen Zhu. “Bro, you’ve used it several times in a row—are you still okay?”
“Don’t worry, I’m still clear-headed.”
Whether it was his driving skills or the car itself, Bai Chen Zhu found the vehicle awkward to handle. The four wheels seemed to go in their own directions. He put in a huge effort to control it and could not help regretting: He should have asked Jiang Ye to teach him a few more days.
The alien race, now reacting, followed the trace he had left. Bai Chen Zhu, head throbbing with pain, tossed his backpack into Tang Zhao’s lap and slammed down on the accelerator. “Assemble it now.”
Tang Zhao had not yet recovered. He slapped his own face to stay alert. “What?”
“Assemble that darn communicator orb right now!” For the first time, Bai Chen Zhu sounded so anxious as he kept glancing at the rearview mirror.
Tang Zhao glanced at the rearview mirror and paled at the sight of the dense swarm behind them.
Without another word, he quickly dumped out the fragments and assembled the thing that had tormented them for so long amid the shaking car in just a few moves.
Two rings of different sizes intersected and orbited a small sphere, gradually emitting a fluorescent glow. That glow pulsed like a human heartbeat, flickering on and off.
Both scientific and eerie.
“Jiang Ye said as long as it runs, it’ll work.” Tang Zhao checked left and right to confirm he had not assembled it wrong.
The communicator orb floating before him spun on its own, glowing faintly. Just to be safe, Tang Zhao quickly stuffed it back into his backpack after inspecting it.
Bai Chen Zhu’s breathing grew heavier. Behind their car, an army of bugs chased densely packed. Of course, besides them, some humans had seized the chance to grab cars and flee, following in their wake.
By coincidence, they ended up as the lead car in the escape, staging a chase through the woods.
Once the alien race caught on, high-energy cannon shells rained down, blasting pit after pit in the forest. The fleeing convoy immediately scattered.
In an instant, Bai Chen Zhu found they were pulling farther and farther from the others, while the alien race pursued relentlessly.
Billowing dust and smoke rose as the car swerved left and right to dodge shells and trees. Bai Chen Zhu gripped the steering wheel with effort. Tang Zhao was flung about, clutching the seatbelt and yelling.
Another shell landed ahead, blasting a deep pit. The car could not dodge in time and its tires sank into the pit, unable to move.
Tang Zhao looked back and shouted, “They’ve got us targeted!”
Out of so many cars and escapees, they were the ones being pursued relentlessly.
Bai Chen Zhu floored the accelerator. The car roared like a wounded tiger, desperate to climb out of the pit, but it was futile—the wheels just spun in place.
The distance between them and the alien race shrank closer and closer.
If they did not go now, they would be caught.
“Get out—run!” Tang Zhao called to Bai Chen Zhu, pushed open the door, clutched his backpack, and jumped out, planning to abandon the broken vehicle.
Bai Chen Zhu also gave up on the car. His left hand pressed on the door as he prepared to get out.
But in the next moment, the car—which had been unable to escape the pit even with the accelerator floored—shot forward like an arrow off the string. It crashed through a few small trees and barreled ahead. Bai Chen Zhu nearly got flung out by the force, slamming into the driver’s seat, dizzy and disoriented.
The accelerator sank uncontrollably, and the brakes had no response.
“Bro! Bro! I haven’t—” Tang Zhao reached toward the car’s rear, dumbfounded. Seeing the pursuers closing in, he covered his mouth and quickly darted into the denser trees and underbrush.
Damn car! Damn car!
It had started with the accelerator failing, and now the brakes were gone. Bai Chen Zhu laughed in frustration and slammed the steering wheel hard. Damn alien race—always picking up useless junk.
The sound of water grew louder and louder.
That watery sound he had once heard on the Negative First Floor.
Beyond the lush green woods, light poured down. Vast expanses of shimmering water light appeared with crashing waves, dazzling the eyes.
It was a waterfall estimated to be nearly a hundred meters wide and dozens of meters high, with raging torrents. The alien race had chosen to build their base near the water source, and now he had stumbled right to the waterfall by accident.
Bai Chen Zhu’s face turned grim. With his last hope, he yanked the steering wheel and stomped the brakes.
The out-of-control car plunged into the river, pushed forward by the current. It was soon about to tumble down the waterfall. Bai Chen Zhu’s hand pressed on the door, his heart pounding at its peak. The water flow pushed against the door as if opposing him. He could not push it open—he was trapped inside.
In the dim half-light of dusk, the battered black car was swept over the waterfall. It flipped several times in the air before crashing into the river below amid a massive splash.
