Chapter 402 - Seafood

Chapter 402: Chapter 371 SeafoodThe survivors rushed out of the Tu Family residence, not taking the winding mountain path, but relying on their Qinggong to run directly down the slope, cutting through the obstructing vines and venomous snakes along the way.

After crossing two slopes, they could finally no longer hear the piercing screams.

"Look, there are people over by the port!"

The only one without martial arts skills, Wang Biliu, who had been clinging to Su Konghu, fell to the ground and excitedly pointed towards the distant port.

At the semicircular dock, the largest five-masted sailing ships had already sunk or were half-sunken for some unknown reason.

Only three three-masted ships and a few small boats remained, shadowy figures standing on them as if hurriedly preparing to set sail.

All survivors knew that taking a ship to escape the island was their only chance. They raced desperately down the mountain.

Cao Meng, with horrific wounds on his shoulder and clothes soaked in blood, was exhausted and supported by the only remaining members of the Fanhe Gang as they sprinted along the slope, gradually falling to the back of the group.

Behind them, the relentless howls and footsteps sounded again, growing closer. They could already smell the indescribable fishy, bloody stench in the wind.

The face of the middle-aged gang member on the left changed abruptly, struggling for a moment before flinging away Cao Meng’s arm and escaping alone.

The other gang member almost crashed into a tree with Cao Meng, filled with three parts bewilderment, three parts anger, and three parts despair, shouting loudly.

But the usual drinking and eating brothers didn’t even look back, running straight down the mountain.

Cao Meng leaned against the tree trunk, a rare expression of relief on his pale face, "Don’t worry about me, go save yourself."

"Boss..."

The young gang member with a knife scar on his face gritted his teeth, recalling his life in a mire before meeting Cao Meng, being oppressed by other fish vendors, chased by creditors, and bullied by petty officials.

Then thinking of his father buried in a Feng Shui treasure land, his settled blind old mother, and his son able to attend private school, a decisive look flashed across his face.

Immediately pushing Cao Meng away, he ran along the mountainside, shouting loudly and leading the zombies away.

No time for sadness or hesitation, Cao Meng released the tree trunk and staggered down the mountain. Near the foot, he stumbled and fell forward, rolling like a gourd onto the hard bluestone ground.

In his slanted view, Lu Hu and others who had reached the bottom were not rushing to the dock, but standing still.

Cao Meng stood up again, and as his view corrected, he saw the reason—

All sailors and dock workers remaining on the boats had different colored rugged corals growing on them, their limbs stiff like statues.

The wooden vessels beneath them, including the iron anchors, were also riddled with coral.

The sea surface undulated, reflecting radiant colors under the sunlight, and it was not seawater, but rather billions of sea amphibian frogs.

The overwhelming number of frogs clogged the entire sea surface, even the most advanced treasure ship of this era couldn’t break through, let alone the few ships eroded by coral.

"Hehe, nowhere left to retreat."

The last road became a dead end, and Hua Mountain Swordsman Wu Ge instead laughed.

Others came to the Tu Family’s banquet with different intentions, either for wealth or to make a good connection,

while Wu Ge gambled with a romantic rival, one going to the far North of the Great Ming, and the other to the far South, to see who could bring back a rare gift to impress their little junior sister.

Thinking back now, how arrogant it was,

how, childish.

"This sword is named Guanhai, with a blade of three feet seven inches, weighing seven pounds thirteen ounces."

He flicked the sword with his finger, turning to face the mountain. The howls grew closer.

"Namo Amitabha."

Kuyu Monk took a deep breath, his mind recalling the words of his gifted, deeply spiritual uncle at Xiangguo Temple twenty years ago, considered a hope of the Zen Sect, who fell into madness and despair after a pilgrimage and never came out again.

"All beings dwell on a lone island in the Netherworld Sea, the island named ’Ignorance’. The sea stretches vast and boundless, hiding myriad mysteries. Yet we should not sail far nor delve into its depths. Fear of infringing divine secrets, courting unforeseen calamity..."

Oh uncle, oh uncle, the enigma in riddles must be avoided.

Kuyu Monk bent down to pick up the wooden yoke that had fallen unclaimed on the ground, taking it as a Vajra Pestle, and weighed it in his hand.

Others also knew there was no way back. Lu Hu and the Jinyi Guard pushed carts together to form roadblocks;

Xi Cai, like a magician, took out various Hidden Weapons and Flintlock Handguns;

Cao Meng ignored the stiff expressions and open-mouthed looks of his former "brothers," quietly picked up some grass and wood ash, covering the wounds on his shoulders and legs, and tied them tightly with cloth strips.

Su Konghu fumbled out a gourd from his body, poured out colorful pills from it, and distributed them to everyone.

"This is Life-extending Pills, this is Chao Yuan Ointment, this is Avoiding Evil Pills, this is Power Pill, this is Bone Strengthening Medicine..."

Myriad Miasma Valley specializes in drug-making, and what’s inside the gourd is a special supply, with effects exponentially enhanced.

Consuming a large amount in a short period can be damaging to both body and kidneys, possibly even shortening one’s life, making the head pointed.

But as Wu Ge said, there’s no retreat, only a fight to the end.

The survivors present conscientiously picked up the Elixirs and swallowed them, and Gray Rain, out of curiosity, also took two pills.

The crowd formed a circular formation relying on the carts, quietly waiting in the stenching sea breeze.

Crack, crack.

The sound of branches breaking is endless, stones keep falling, and a black curtain composed of countless bizarre mutant corpses rushes in like a mountain torrent.

There was no grand background music, no probing, just a heavy collision of the two sides.

The barricades made from carts only lasted for a few seconds before being overturned and flattened, crab pincers snapped off embroidered spring knives, Flintlock Guns blasted eyeballs, fists infused with decades of martial arts punched through tortoiseshell.

The scene was extremely chaotic, one of Cao Meng’s eyes was scratched by an unknown fish fin, leaving only his right eye full of blood, guiding his long blade to chop off the heads of mutant corpses one after another.

He came from a humble background, managing to become the leader of the Fanhe Gang and overseeing a few thousand personnel across several docks was due to his keen observation.

From the clothing, this one with jellyfish eyes was an officer who patrolled the maritime paths for the Imperial Censorate, a Great Ming official of the fifth rank,

saw him once at the Inspector’s banquet five years ago—Cao Meng wasn’t qualified to attend, only waited outside to queue up to present his gifts.

He closed in, the blade entered the right flank of the mutant corpse and came out of the left neck.

This one wearing green with an octopus head was a sea guest from Lai State. An old friend, owed him a thousand taels from gambling last time.

He held the blade in reverse, stabbed along the eye socket, and kicked the convulsing body into the sea.

The one wearing gray clothes was...

Cao Meng looked at the familiar young scarred face under the extra shell, muscles on his face twitched, pills turning in his stomach like fire, driving his weary body as he swung the blade at his former brother.

However, the effects provided by the pills ultimately could not surpass physical limitations.

The wound on his shoulder burst open, his hand weakened, the blade stuck crookedly in the shell, unable to advance further. Meanwhile, the giant shrimp pincers came straight for his head, one from the left and one from the right.

At the critical moment, a stone lock grazed past Cao Meng’s cheek, knocking the mutant corpse flying and rolling into the bush.

Kuyu Monk, with muscles tensed all over his body, like a pillar in the currents, blocked many mutant corpses. When the yoke shattered, he switched to logs, when logs shattered, he used stone locks from the roadside.

"Charge out, head east, the east is a cliff high ground, not many mutants..."

Kuyu Monk shouted loudly, glancing at the eastern coastline, the final "body" wasn’t even uttered.

Those coral-transformed sailors and dock workers, unknowingly, had already moved stiffly, enclosing everyone from both sides.

Like a lone boat, about to capsize in the raging waves...

Boom!

Deafening thunder sounded directly along the coastline, several gathered mutants were instantly pulverized by a descending 155mm shell.

The remaining living hadn’t yet reacted, Gray Rain had already stopped fighting, leaning on the Skull Shattering Hammer, sighing in relief.

Boom!

Another explosion tore through the dense forest, blasting away mutants. Amidst the blazing smoke and dust, Li Cheng stepped out slowly, glanced at the scorched crab pincers, shrimp meat, and mussels littering the ground, and looked up, saying, "Eating seafood barbecue without calling me, huh?"