119: The Crisis: The Collapse of the Pyramid

After Mutou shielded Li Yun and jumped down, Zigui threw two grenades at the swarming, vicious insects in the room, blew a kiss, and shouted, "Bye-bye!" before leaping into the conduit. A moment later, a deafening explosion rocked the room. Even Mutou and the others, who had already reached the bottom, felt a wave of intense heat wash over them; the insects were completely wiped out.

However, a greater danger awaited them at the bottom of the conduit. No sooner had they landed than a massive shadow lunged at them. The mercenaries’ submachine guns roared, forcing the shadow back, though it swatted the bullets aside with its arms as if they were mere pebbles.

When the shadow came into view, Mutou gasped, "The Scorpion King!"

The creature was a monster over two people tall, half-human and half-beast. Its upper body was humanoid, but its eyes were pitch black, devoid of pupils, and its hands had mutated into massive, razor-sharp claws. Its lower body was that of a scorpion, complete with a dark, barbed tail that shimmered with a lethal, bluish hue. It moved with terrifying speed on four legs, quick as the wind.

Most frightening of all was that the Scorpion King’s claws were harder than refined steel; the mercenaries’ bullets merely ricocheted off them, leaving not even a scratch.

"Wait... Professor Qin, isn't this your student? How did he become like this?" Li Yun asked, shocked.

The others were baffled. They knew the Professor had brought three students; one had been killed and incinerated by the insects, and the other two were standing right here. How could this monster be the Professor's student?

Facing their questioning gazes, Professor Qin turned deathly pale. "This is the student I said was swept away by the storm. I never imagined he had turned into a monster!"

As they spoke, the beast roared repeatedly, charging toward them. Only the mercenaries' gunfire kept it at bay. Looking closer, Mutou and the others noticed a large pool of blood on the ground; a mercenary had been torn in two and discarded in the corner, clearly dead.

Lu Daoxuan remarked coldly, "This is a bio-beast that has successfully evolved into a Scorpion King."

While the group stood trembling, the surviving male student beside Professor Qin suddenly burst into tears, falling to his knees. "Senior brother! Every debt has its creditor. I know you died unjustly, but I didn't kill you! If you want revenge, go after the Professor! Please, let me go!"

The group was stunned. Professor Qin barked angrily, "What nonsense are you spouting?"

Driven by fear, the student cast aside all respect for his mentor. "Professor, don't think I don't know! It was you and Li Yan who killed him. Li Yan was his girlfriend. That night, he caught you and Li Yan in the act and fought you. Then... then you claimed he was swept away by the storm. It was you who killed him, wasn't it?"

Disdain filled the eyes of those present. The female student, Li Yan, collapsed to the ground, sobbing and covering her face. Exposed and humiliated, Professor Qin flew into a rage. "You lie! Your senior brother was already dead! He was strangled on the boat, and I threw him into the sea..."

He stopped, realizing he had revealed too much, and clamped his mouth shut. But the truth was out. The only mystery remaining was how the student thrown into the sea had become this Scorpion King.

"Roar! Roar! Roar!" As if confirming the student’s words, the Scorpion King fixed its pitch-black eyes on Professor Qin. It suddenly surged forward, breaking through the mercenaries' defensive line, snatched up Professor Qin and Li Yan, and retreated to a corner. It hovered over them, scrutinizing them as if deciding how to torture them.

The four remaining mercenaries, seeing the Scorpion King’s focus was elsewhere, urged Solas to move. "Run!" They retreated toward another passage to protect him.

But before they could reach the entrance, another tall, dark shadow emerged, its massive claws held high, its scorpion lower body moving rapidly, forcing the group into the center of the room.

The mutated student, now the Scorpion King, held the Professor aloft. Ignoring his pleas, the monster tightened its steel-like claws, tearing him in two amidst his shrill screams. As if unsatisfied, it hacked the body into pieces, spraying blood all over the kneeling Li Yan, who fainted from the horror.

Without a glance, the Scorpion King stepped on her, crushing her instantly.

It then turned its head toward the group now trapped by the second Scorpion King. Mutou gestured to Gu Feng and the others, signaling it was time to intervene, or they would all perish.

Lu Daoxuan stopped them. "There is another creature..."

Before he could finish, a whistling sound cut through the air. A streak of light flew from the end of the passage, pinning the Scorpion King to the wall.

It was a spear.

"The Spear of Judgment!" Mutou recognized it immediately as the type Li Yun had given him.

Heavy footsteps echoed as a beast, shaped like a lion, charged from the end of the passage. It reared up, ripped the golden spear from the wall, and thrust it through the Scorpion King's skull. As it died, the Scorpion King lashed out with its barbed tail, but the lion-beast was clad in heavy armor, and the stinger merely sparked against the plating.

The lion-beast roared, pinned the Scorpion King's tail, and sliced it off with the spear, hanging it at its waist like a trophy.

It all happened in a flash. The lightning-fast Scorpion King had been helpless before the lion-beast. As the beast turned, the group saw it clearly: a lion’s body and head, entirely encased in iron armor, reminiscent of a Predator. Its upright gait and use of weaponry suggested it was an intelligent species.

The pyramid was coated in layers of dust. Mutou noticed the lion-beast’s footprints matched those he had seen earlier in the passage; it had clearly arrived before them.

He glanced at Lu Daoxuan, about to share his discovery, when Lu said, "This is one of the Anubis Chamber of Commerce's best-selling bio-war beasts. Judging by the tracks, there’s more than one."

"Ah!" Mutou exclaimed. "Are there other intelligent beings commanding them?"

Lu Daoxuan nodded silently.

Having finished off the Scorpion King, the lion-beast looked at the group, dismissed them as a threat, and turned toward the other Scorpion King that had slaughtered the Professor.

Perhaps the lion-beast was a natural predator, for the Scorpion King let out a hiss of retreat upon seeing it.

Just as the lion-beast raised its spear to charge, the ground shook violently. A massive whip-like shadow lashed out, slamming the beast against the wall and knocking the Spear of Judgment from its grasp.

Seeing the spear fall, the Scorpion King roared and lunged forward to fight. Everyone realized then that the Scorpion King didn't fear the lion-beast—it feared the Spear of Judgment.

The lion-beast held its own in hand-to-hand combat, but the room began to tremble, and stones rained from the ceiling.

Solas turned pale. "No! Is the place collapsing? Or is an undersea volcano erupting?"

As he spoke, a two-foot-tall figure scurried out from the passage. It had a green face and head, bulging eyes, and a flat mouth—much like a frog—but its body was humanoid. It chattered incessantly as it ran, its language unintelligible.

The group was stunned. Discovering a pyramid at the bottom of the sea was enough, but now they had seen a movie-monster Scorpion King, a mysterious lion-beast, and a two-foot-tall extraterrestrial. If they survived to report this, it would shock the world. Behind the green creature, two more lion-beasts sprinted past, ignoring the fighting, fleeing as if their lives depended on it.

Although Solas couldn't understand the green creature, Mutou could, thanks to the Universal Language Pill he had ingested. The creature was screaming, "This time I've really messed up! What kind of hellish trial ground is this to have such a terrifying boss? This is going to be the death of me!"

As Mutou and the others stared in disbelief, the green creature turned back, shouting, "Run! Run! The big boss is coming out, the whole place is going to collapse!" A machine resembling a floating turret extended from its shoulder, locked onto the Scorpion King with a red triangular beam, and fired. With a few "beep" sounds, the machine blasted the Scorpion King into shreds. It then commanded the lion-beast to cut off the tail and fled.

Solas and the remaining mercenaries were dumbfounded. They couldn't understand the words, but the creature’s panic was clear. The exit was an hour away; the pyramid would collapse long before they reached it. Even if they made it out, the collapse of the pyramid might trigger a total structural failure of the entire sea-floor complex. Trapped ten thousand meters underwater, they felt their hope vanish and slumped to the ground.

At that moment, another massive whip-like shadow lashed out. This time, they saw it clearly—it was a colossal scorpion tail. The ground buckled, and it seemed a giant beast was about to burst forth from the earth...