This Spiritual Energy is Lethal!
Chapter 413: Source of the Blood Mist

Chapter 413: Chapter 413: Source of the Blood Mist

"...Were you even listening just now?" Xu Jing noticed Chen Ke’s distraction, her eyebrows raised teasingly.

"Of course, I was listening, you mean to say, there might be a god down there?" Chen Ke asked.

Xu Jing didn’t give a definitive answer, but her expression suggested that there was something significant hidden below.

"Does your foundation know of any gods that release red mist?" Chen Ke asked once more.

"I don’t know, I can’t remember all the foundation’s archives, and... you’re the only one who can see the mist. If the source is indeed inside, why not go down and see for yourself?" Xu Jing said.

"I don’t want to face something unknown without preparation, especially since it might be a god... and while you can easily come back to life, I’m not as lucky as you are," Chen Ke said.

"Sometimes, you need to take a risk to achieve your goal. If I had known you were this cautious, I wouldn’t have mentioned those things to you earlier..." Xu Jing seemed somewhat regretful.

"Hmm... Let me make this clear, Xu Jing. We’ll go down there, take a quick look from afar, and if that thing really is a god... we’ll call off the operation," Chen Ke said.

Xu Jing hesitated, not wanting her trip to be in vain. Their mission was to hunt down another Chen Ke, yet here they were, entangled with the Divine Descent Sect after coming to this academy’s underground.

Either situation was of great importance to the foundation.

However, Xu Jing also knew that if there truly was a god down there, she would have to agree with Chen Ke and call off the mission.

"I agree," Xu Jing finally said, resigned.

"Surprising, you actually let me persuade you?" Chen Ke was somewhat astonished by Xu Jing’s decisiveness.

"After all, gods can’t be killed. If there really is a god below, I will hand over this reality to the foundation’s control department," Xu Jing said.

"Gods, unkillable?" Chen Ke asked.

"At least we haven’t found any effective means, not even with the stone in your heart," Xu Jing said.

A feeling of agreement suddenly emerged, the stone within Chen Ke’s heart affirming Xu Jing’s words.

"Let’s see if our luck is really that bad," Chen Ke said as he loaded a new magazine into his Type 67 pistol and then pushed open the thick wooden door.

Beyond the door was a cylindrical abyss that vertically descended, with several dozen small kerosene lamps on ringed walkways, twinkling like stars in the darkness.

Chen Ke heard guards running downwards, their footsteps creaking on the wooden stairs. He activated his Spiritual Vision and swept below, finding spaces resembling sickrooms beneath this cylindrical gallery.

On the railing in the corridor, Xu Jing found a rope tied with a hook that stretched downwards; it seemed someone had slid down there.

Chen Ke and Xu Jing descended the stairs. The rooms along these walkways were empty; Chen Ke opened several doors and found they all contained experimental equipment.

Xu Jing didn’t comment on these items, she was searching for something else. Since earlier, Xu Jing’s demeanor and attitude had changed.

No longer composed and confident, she was visibly anxious. Chen Ke felt Xu Jing was either too dedicated or worried about something she hadn’t spoken of.

After all, in 1859, the Divine Descent Sect was still a nascent organization. Discovering its precursor and eradicating it should be simple, so why the worry?

The red fog grew denser, and for Chen Ke, this was a sort of interruption, because he was quite annoyed to have his vision blocked by layer upon layer of red fog floating in midair, seemingly for no reason.

Moreover, it seemed that not only Xu Jing, but even the guards of this era were unable to see the red fog.

There must be something strange about it... Chen Ke was actually a bit excited, wanting to see what the source of this red fog really was.

During their descent, Chen Ke and Xu Jing encountered some sporadic resistance, but Chen Ke didn’t need to take action; Xu Jing handled it herself, firing her bizarre handgun that shot spiritual bullets visibly carrying various attributes.

As the bullet left the chamber and erupted with a red muzzle flash, the round, dragging a blue trail of lightning, flew towards its target. No matter where it hit, the target would be incapacitated by high-voltage electricity, and then, amidst trembling screams, it would catch fire and finally melt into a pile of green liquid, emitting a foul smell.

This bullet was much more advanced than those of the Administration Bureau of Opportunity City, appearing more like a type of sorcery that could be fired.

Having a tough "sister" by his side who didn’t need him to act, Chen Ke felt as relaxed as if he were taking a walk, and now, he had time to examine the souls he had just acquired...

Earlier, in the sewer, Chen Ke had burnt 67 half-insect-half-human monsters to death with the ashes of An Helei, obtaining 67 pain-stricken souls, each providing an extra 50 hours of life span.

Fifty times sixty-seven... Chen Ke did the math with his fingers, finding that these souls could provide him an astonishing total of 3,350 hours of additional life span!

That would roughly let him live over 139 days, just over half a year. But Chen Ke hadn’t crushed them yet. At the moment, he had just over 30 hours of life span left, not yet to the point of needing to use them.

Considering that the magical gun in his heart devoured 90% of his lifespan every time he fired it, and it consumed more and more, if he were to top up his lifespan to 139 days now, when he confronted another Chen Ke and fired the gun, he would find himself back to square one...

Chen Ke shook his head. He had to always keep souls on hand for self-defense, being meticulous in using them whether to open doors or extend his lifespan, especially after obtaining this magical gun.

The sensible arrangement would be to carefully replenish his life and elevate its limit after every use of the magical gun. Of course, this also somewhat slowed Chen Ke’s pace of increasing his own strength.

After all, 3,000 hours worth of soul energy in the gun and 30 hours were not the same.

"RUA!" Another guard was shot down by Xu Jing, lying stiffened on the ground from electric shock, then turned into a blackened human husk. Then, green and yellow toxic liquid oozed out of the body, resulting in a puddle of human mud.

"This gun of yours really isn’t eco-friendly... Too smelly!" Chen Ke shook his head.

"It’s very effective. I don’t want to trouble myself over the smell," Xu Jing said.

They reached the lowest floor of the circular corridor, where several passages opened up in the gray stone walls. The hospital structure seen through their spiritual vision was this place.

Chen Ke and Xu Jing glanced around with spiritual vision. The previous disturbance had caused the guards above to retreat downward en masse, and they were now running deeper into the passages.

This place was much larger than it appeared; who knew how deep these people had dug below...

"Red fog... Down here, I can’t make out where it’s coming from anymore... The whole space is filled with it," Chen Ke scratched his head, the pungent bloody smell making him cough.

"Then we’ll check the rooms one by one," Xu Jing suggested.

"Hmm... cough, cough... Let’s do that," Chen Ke said.

He looked around. The rooms in the hallway were like hospital rooms, with people lying inside, silent and still, which reminded him of a scene from the hospital basement in 2006.

Chen Ke casually pushed open a door. Inside, only a small kerosene lamp provided light, pitch-black otherwise, and within the range of orange-yellow light, only a few pale feet could be seen sticking out from under a blanket.