Super Soldier in the City-Chapter 1191 - 1237: Entering a Perilous Place

The ancient architecture actually had mechanisms in it, and whoever crafted these mechanisms was definitely a master hand. Even without knowing how many years had passed, the mechanisms inside were still effective. As soon as Xu Shanshan and her group entered, they were met with a barrage of dense crossbow bolts.

If it weren’t for Xu Shanshan’s quick reaction, I’m afraid all ten people would have been wiped out on the spot. Even so, two people were still injured.

Continuing further inside only led to dangers lurking at every turn, overwhelming any defense. At this time, any electronic device was useless; only the powerful Innate Vital Energy like Xu Shanshan’s was able to respond.

Although it was so dangerous, no one backed down. The more dangerous it was, the more it proved the immense value of the treasures here. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many formidable traps.

Finally, they reached the deepest part where there was a vast hall. Under the flashlight’s illumination, everyone’s eyes dazzled at once because the hall was filled with a massive cache of jewels; it was a huge treasure trove.

No one here had ever seen so many treasures; it seemed that just taking a single piece at random could be worth over a hundred thousand. With so much at stake, they might be worth billions.

Working as mercenaries was for the money, and seeing so many valuables, which heart wouldn’t be swayed? The two employers were ecstatic, dancing with joy. Everyone got so excited they forgot about the danger and rushed over.

Xu Shanshan was stunned by these jewels too. What girl wouldn’t like them? Xu Shanshan was no exception, so her brain temporarily froze. By the time she came around, the others had already dashed over.

Xu Shanshan was alarmed and urgently called for them to come back, but it was already too late. The entire ground suddenly collapsed, plunging everyone and the jewels downward.

Xu Shanshan rotated her True Qi, ferociously stomped on the falling ground beneath her, and desperately lunged towards the entrance.

She managed to do so, but to no avail; the entrance was already sealed by a huge rock. When exactly the rock had sealed the entrance without a sound was a marvel of mechanism sophistication—it was truly ingenious.

Moreover, the rock was seamlessly joined with the entire wall, leaving no place for Xu Shanshan to gain a foothold. Even though she lunged forward, there was nowhere to brace herself, and she plummeted downward in an instant.

After many days of trials, Xu Shanshan was still able to keep her cool. Before falling further, she fiercely kicked against the walls, accelerating herself to catch up with the falling original ground level.

Then, she stepped repeatedly on the falling pieces of the ground to dissipate her own momentum.

Following that, she occasionally kicked at a few scattered rocks nearby. Even though these rocks were still falling, due to the resistance, they were at a distance from the normal falling ground level.

Since Xu Shanshan had not heard the sound of rocks hitting the ground yet, she did not know how deep the place was. With the inertia of free fall, the speed was only going to increase. If she didn’t think of a method, she would crash to the ground with those rocks and shatter to pieces.

She had to make a ladder for herself so that she could use the stones to create a ladder and dissipate her own momentum.

But doing so required a considerable expenditure of True Qi. With her current strength, Xu Shanshan could easily toss stones weighing several hundred pounds. But with this inertia, even a stone weighing a few pounds would feel as heavy as a thousand catties.

Yet, for the sake of survival, Xu Shanshan continued to grit her teeth and persevere.

"Thump, thump, thump" the loud sound of the massive rocks hitting the ground rang out, and Xu Shanshan instantly gritted her teeth, gathering all of her True Qi and soaring upward, then repeatedly kicking at the falling stones above. Having stepped on the last stone, Xu Shanshan finally dissipated the massive inertia of the fall and lightly landed on the ground.

The moment Xu Shanshan’s feet touched the ground, her body went limp, and she couldn’t stand up anymore. She had nearly exhausted all the True Qi in her body, not even having the strength to stand.

After resting briefly, Xu Shanshan dared not slacken for a second, immediately rotating her True Qi to recover. She was completely unaware of the underground situation, and now she had to ensure her strength to face the unknown dangers.

Xu Shanshan’s decision was indeed correct. In no time, she heard rustling sounds as if something was crawling on the ground, followed by noises like those made by insects, causing a tingling fear in Xu Shanshan’s heart, making her hair stand on end.

Even if a woman is strong, her instinctive fear of insects is still there.

However, she now lacked any lighting; the flashlight had gotten lost during the fall, and she didn’t know where it dropped.

She sprang to her feet, looking around only to see many points of light moving on the ground, some of which were quite close to her. Thanks to those tiny points of light, Xu Shanshan finally saw clearly what these things were.

They turned out to be palm-sized beetles that looked a bit like scorpions, with two pincers, but without the long stinging tail scorpions have. Their bodies emitted a phosphorescent glow, which is why she could see them.

Seeing these creatures, Xu Shanshan felt her scalp tingle even more. And then quickly, she became even more terrified; these insects had found the bodies of others who had fallen and swarmed over to start feasting, and there were some bugs now converging towards her.

Xu Shanshan quickly glanced around with the help of the insects’ phosphorescent light and saw that this place was a vast space, to be exact, a huge cavern, so large it was beyond description, and she could not see the walls at all.

Xu Shanshan took a deep breath. To survive, she would have to fight against these terrifying insects. She quickly bent down, grabbed a handful of pebbles from the ground, and with a swing of her arm, she threw one, hitting an insect right in the body.

With immense strength, Xu Shanshan’s thrown stone pierced through the insect, which struggled for a few moments, made several squeaking sounds, and then lay motionless.

This slightly steadied her heart; at the very least, these insects were not difficult to kill.

Swinging her arms, Xu Shanshan started to kill the bugs, and quickly, she had killed hundreds of them surrounding her.

Whoosh, a streak of blue light flew out of Xu Shanshan’s hand—it was actually a sapphire. Those jewels had also fallen here, and Xu Shanshan had grabbed one unintentionally.

"I can’t believe I’m using a valuable gemstone to kill insects; this is way too extravagant,"

Xu Shanshan shook her head and couldn’t help but wryly smile to herself. Right now, she didn’t even know if she could get out of here; even the most precious gemstones meant nothing to her.

Killing bugs this way seemed to finally make them realize that Xu Shanshan was not to be trifled with, or perhaps those bugs that tried to eat Xu Shanshan were all killed by her, and the rest were full. In any case, there were no more live insects approaching her vicinity.

After a while, the phosphorescence in the cavern disappeared, and the insects were nowhere to be seen.

Without the insects, Xu Shanshan didn’t feel any relief. Although the bugs had been horrifying, at least they provided some light, allowing Xu Shanshan to see things. But now, she was engulfed in pitch-black darkness, unable to see her hand in front of her face, a kind of darkness that intensified the terror in one’s heart.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Shanshan tried to calm herself. She knew very well that no one else was alive here except for her; she must rely on her own efforts to survive, only then could there be a hope of escaping to safety.

After a while, Xu Shanshan took her backpack from her back to her chest. Although she had lost her flashlight, there were some electronic devices here, like her mobile phone. It had been turned off and unused for a while, so its battery should still be full. She took it out, turned it on, and finally, the light dispelled her fear of the dark.

But the phone had no signal at all. She took out other electronic devices on her, and similarly, none could send out a signal. It was unknown where this place was that could block radio waves.

Without the ability to send out information, Xu Shanshan was utterly isolated.

However, the light from the phone was too limited, so Xu Shanshan had to rely on memory to move to the left, where the body of a teammate should be. Now she had to check it out; her resolve had been steeled substantially over time. Despite knowing that it would be a horrifying scene, she had to take advantage of everything that could be of use to her.

Upon reaching the body, under the illumination of the phone, Xu Shanshan almost vomited; only a skeletal frame was left of her teammate. The bugs had eaten clean the clothing and backpack, even the bone marrow from any broken bones.

Suppressing the nausea, Xu Shanshan still searched through the items scattered beside the skeleton. However, edible items from the bag had been consumed by the insects, other electronic devices were shattered, and apart from a knife and some bullets, there was nothing else useful.

Xu Shanshan moved on to another set of skeletal remains, where usable items were also scarce. But after searching all the remains, she still managed to find quite a few valuable things.

When two of her teammates had fallen, they must have landed face down, so thanks to the body’s cushioning, many items in the backpacks had survived, including two mobile phones, a lighter, two Micro Assault Rifles, two torches, and some other electronic devices.

With these items, Xu Shanshan felt slightly comforted, as she should be able to survive here for a short while, at least.

But just then, Xu Shanshan suddenly heard a dull thudding of footsteps, as if something very heavy was walking towards her, and her heart immediately tightened.