AITAMITB Chapter 144

No one had expected it to come to this point. Just as the exit was in sight, an unexpected situation arose.

The only consolation was that the greatly flattened dark spirit, using its own body, managed to support a crack of less than three centimeters. It happened to be just wide enough to allow fingers to reach in. Hill, Ye Ying, and Sucha, all members of the team except for Arthur, who was carrying Zhao Xiaokui on his back, rushed forward at the first moment.

Meanwhile, the numbers in front of Zhao Xiaokui had dwindled to single digits.

“Come out, come out—”

She knew that her teammates had run back again, not daring to think about how Loisette had designed Zhao Xiaokui. She could only shout loudly in her heart, hoping that they could hear her voice. In reality, she only emitted a very weak sound, and only Arthur, who was closest to her, could vaguely hear some noise.

In the darkness, the woman seemed to see the desperate soul of the golden mermaid.

She chuckled lightly, pressing her finger down, and the huge stone door slammed down.

“No—”

Arthur, carrying Zhao Xiaokui on his back, felt a sudden heaviness on him. A tremendous force pushed him away, pressing him straight to the ground, making him unable to catch his breath.

Zhao Xiaokui opened her eyes, and the golden fishtail hung in the air. The surrounding space twisted and meandered like ripples in water. Her dark golden eyes were cold and ethereal, staring fixedly in the direction of the laboratory, reaching out her hand.

Boom—

A massive explosion resounded.

Park Huiya, who was right behind Arthur, turned to look.

The red sparks illuminated the dim sky, accompanied by a colossal water column. Right above the water column were Lin Bai and a group of researchers who hadn’t managed to escape in time.

At the critical moment, Zhao Xiaokui broke free from the evil god’s restraint on her, forcefully manipulating the underground water deep beneath. She directly burst open the entire laboratory base, timing it tightly so that it coincided with the countdown reaching zero in her eyes, precisely at the moment the entire laboratory exploded.

Zhao Xiaokui’s state lasted for less than three seconds.

Almost as the water column soared into the sky, she suddenly landed, awkwardly falling to the ground. Even the two closest people didn’t have time to support her, and only Arthur reluctantly served as a makeshift cushion.

Exhausted, Zhao Xiaokui couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief.

She wasn’t someone who liked to speculate about others with the worst outcomes in mind.

Moreover, from start to finish, Loisette, compared to those traditionally defined evil gods, had behaved quite gently. Though there was a slight touch of neuroticism, this extraordinary trait actually reassured people to some extent.

It was like dealing with a lunatic: if they acted perfectly normal, it might creep you out, but if they were genuinely crazy, you’d find it reasonable.

Although Zhao Xiaokui had the worst suspicions in her mind, she was unwilling to think it would come to that point.

After all, didn’t she agree to Loisette’s proposal?

But now, it seemed that an evil god was an evil god—alien in nature, their hearts inherently different. This saying wasn’t baseless. Such beings, transcending ordinary levels of life, spoke words that were simply not worthy of trust.

Perhaps to them, humans were nothing more than ants. Even someone like Zhao Xiaokui, who might be worth a second glance, was just a slightly larger ant. What was there to care about?

The explosion almost resounded through the heavens. Wisely, everyone did not linger in this place. Although many were seriously injured, with some even falling to the ground and breaking their legs as the water column disappeared, and others unfortunate enough to be impaled by shattered steel bars, those who survived were at least better off than doing nothing.

The remaining individuals supported each other, walking out from the ruins. Among the team, Sucha had the lightest injuries, but it was still far from good. Closing his eyes, he sensed the flow of air and quickly determined a direction to leave. He said, “Large numbers of dark spirits and foul creatures are coming. Let’s go this way; it’s the safest.”

After nearly ten hours of fleeing, the sky had completely darkened and was gradually brightening again. Sucha stopped, and from Hill’s hands, he took a lotus-shaped Buddhist lamp, dropping a drop of his blood into it to serve as lamp oil, and lit it. The light enveloped everyone. “We’re temporarily safe. We can take a rest now.”

With these words, people on the ground suddenly fell in disarray.

Most of the researchers who ran out of the laboratory were not extraordinary. After the increase in extraordinary energy, their physical qualities had only slightly improved compared to before. However, after running for several hours consecutively, it far exceeded their limits. They relied solely on the will to survive, holding on desperately during their escape.

Now, with a chance to rest, they instantly collapsed on the ground. Every cell in their bodies screamed exhaustion. They couldn’t utter a single word, left with only rapid gasps. Even the pain all over their bodies went unnoticed because hunger and fatigue had already crushed everything.

The team didn’t pay much attention to these ordinary people. Rescuing them was already going above and beyond. Several people gathered together, supporting Zhao Xiaokui to sit beside a tree. Hill opened a tube of nutrient solution from the spatial storage, and Park Huiya cradled Zhao Xiaokui’s chin, pouring the solution into her mouth.

“How is the captain now?”

“I can sense that within the captain’s body, there are two forces in conflict,” Sucha said with a furrowed brow after checking Zhao Xiaokui’s pulse. “I can’t say when the captain will wake up. Her situation is very peculiar. Somewhat like being tainted by evil energy, contaminated but different from ordinary pollution.”

The statement sounded almost uninformative.

Hill rolled his eyes at him. “Just tell us when the captain will wake up.”

“I don’t know…”

Just as Sucha finished speaking, Zhao Xiaokui opened her eyes.

She looked at the dim forest and the people gathered around her. Her gaze swept over each one, realizing Lin Bai was not among them. A sense of shock hit her, and she hastily asked, “Where’s Lin Bai?”

“He’s with the ordinary people, explaining things to them. If you want him, I’ll call him over right away, Captain,” Park Huiya replied.

“No need, no need.” Knowing that Lin Bai was still alive, Zhao Xiaokui breathed a sigh of relief.

They returned to the base to save her, and if something had truly happened to Lin Bai because of this, she feared she would never forgive herself.

Park Huiya asked her, “Captain, how is your current physical condition?”

Zhao Xiaokui lowered her head, looking at her fishtail. She moved her tail, calmly saying, “Not bad.”

With that, she attempted to manipulate the power to transform her fishtail into legs.

To be honest, this process wasn’t easy. As Sucha mentioned, two different forces intertwined within her. One force crazily destroyed her body, while the other consistently repaired it. The delicate balance maintained by these two forces ensured her current stability.

However, Zhao Xiaokui couldn’t sustain the fishtail for operational tasks. As soon as she took a deep breath, she forcibly transformed it back, a process that made her feel as if her fishtail were being cut open with a sharp knife, causing excruciating pain that made her bones tremble.

Arthur and the others noticed something off with Zhao Xiaokui, but no one spoke. Instead, they silently turned their heads, avoiding the sight of her current distress. Just by witnessing the scene of rescuing Zhao Xiaokui, they could guess how much suffering she had endured inside.

Their captain appeared delicate but was, in fact, the most resilient among them. She surely wouldn’t want to reveal her vulnerable side to the team.

Drops of sweat fell, and just when Zhao Xiaokui doubted if her legs had transformed, and her fishtail was about to be split open, a faint glow suddenly flashed on the fishtail. It then transformed into two slender legs.

She sighed in relief, patting Hill on the shoulder, saying, “Give me a pair of pants.”

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