The three blasts from the beam weapon were able to get rid of Tian Lie!
Tian Lie’s body dissolved into a big pool of silvery liquid, which appeared to be seeping into the ground and wall.
There was no expression of joy on Chen Xiaolian’s face. He quickly kept the beam weapon, which was now emitting black smoke – the beam weapon was now completely scrapped.
It was as Fujino Masayoshi had said, it was a mere imitation with incompatible materials. After using it, the high amount of energy will overload the weapon, burning its components.
Chen Xiaolian quickly ran back and saw a construction truck moving slowly toward his position.
Nagase Komi was seated in the driver seat of the construction truck. Under her control, the construction truck swerved about unsteadily. On its way to Chen Xiaolian’s position, it knocked into a metal stand.
Thankfully, the speed of the construction truck was not too fast.
Fujino Masayoshi fell out from the back of the construction truck and a gash appeared on his forehead. Blood trickled down from the wound.
“Guild Leader! Look what I found!”
There was a boastful expression on Nagase Komi’s face.
Inspecting the contents, Chen Xiaolian saw that Nagase Komi’s harvest was indeed considerable.
Behind the construction truck was a small-scale submersible vehicle – to be more accurate, it could be considered as a small-scale submarine.
An electric propeller was installed upon the exterior surface of the submersible vehicle.
Additionally, there were also four sets of diving equipment and four small-scale oxygen tanks.
The diving equipment there were all picked by Fujino Masayoshi. After inspecting, he had picked the ones that were intact and the oxygen tanks were all full.
Chen Xiaolian regarded the submersible vehicle.
The submersible vehicle was a miniature submarine the size of a small car. Furthermore, the available space inside was limited and it was barely able to fit in all four of them.
Chen Xiaolian put on the diving suit for Roddy. After that, the three of them, Chen Xiaolian, Nagase Komi and Fujino Masayoshi all put on their respective diving suits.
“We still have eighteen minutes!”
Chen Xiaolian checked the remaining time. After all of them have entered the miniature submarine, Chen Xiaolian stood outside the door, looking up at the ceiling. He produced the remote control for the explosives, took a deep breath and pressed the button!
Boom!
A loud explosion echoed out as a result! Following the sound, a series of explosions resounded from above their heads.
The ceiling area above the platform lift exploded and flames burst out, causing the entire warehouse to shake a few times.
Next, a series of metal twisting and breaking sounds rang out. Huge portions of the warehouse ceiling collapsed down onto the ground.
Chen Xiaolian’s group had moved the submersible vehicle to the corner of the warehouse, thus avoiding the collapsing ceiling fragments. However, the subsequent earthquake like tremors led to no small amount of instruments and metal stands falling down. As such, the danger of being struck still existed.
A loud explosion echoed throughout the warehouse. Following the loud explosion, a ceiling fragment with a diameter of about five meters collapsed down!
After the fragment fell, a huge amount of water surged inside! It was as though a huge waterfall had been opened up inside the warehouse.
“It is starting!”
Chen Xiaolian shouted and ran into the miniature submarine before locking the hatch and airlock.
Vast quantities of seawater poured into the warehouse and it was not long before the water level within the warehouse began to rise.
The rate at which the water poured in was extremely fast. Chen Xiaolian sat inside the submersible vehicle as he anxiously watched over the rising water level. Then, he checked the time left before the base self-destructs…
“Sixteen more minutes to go!”
“But… but, there may not be enough time for the water to fill the warehouse,” A bitter expression was plastered on Fujino Masayoshi’s face.
“What?” Chen Xiaolian frowned.
“I said, we do not have enough time!” Fujino Masayoshi’s face turned pale. “I have made the calculations for it! Considering the current size of the hole on the ceiling, the speed at which the water is entering and the volume of this warehouse… with this current rate of speed, in order to fill up this warehouse so that we could dive out, we will need at least twenty more minutes!”
Chen Xiaolian’s expression sank.
However, they only have sixteen minutes of time left in the countdown!
Once the base self-destructs…
“Damn it!”
Chen Xiaolian looked around anxiously. Then, his eyes suddenly lit up.
There was another beam weapon by Roddy’s side!
This beam weapon was the one they had seized from Fujino Masayoshi. Fujino Masayoshi had already fired once with it. Then, Chen Xiaolian had also used it against the giant toad, firing one more time with it.
That meant this beam weapon could still be fired once more!
Chen Xiaolian quickly picked up the beam weapon from Roddy’s side. He then moved to open the hatch and climb out.
The water level was still rising and the miniature submarine has started to float up.
Chen Xiaolian climbed onto the submersible vehicle and activated the beam weapon. Chen Xiaolian patiently waited for the weapon to charge up while he gazed at the area on the ceiling where water was flooding inside…
“There is only one opportunity here… son of a bitch! I need to shoot accurately! I need to make the hole bigger!”
Chen Xiaolian took a deep breath…
Next, a translucent beam of light fired out from the beam weapon, striking squarely at the edge of the hole! Chen Xiaolian then shouted out as he lightly twisted his wrist.
The beam of light became a sharp blade, carving out a nearly three square meter semi-circular hole at the edge of the original one.
Most importantly, this blast from the beam weapon appeared to have struck a key structure…
Another loud boom reverberated out and another fragment of the ceiling collapsed down! This time, the fragment that collapsed downward was double the size of the earlier fragment! The waters flooding into the warehouse increased significantly!
Chen Xiaolian was greatly overjoyed and he hung the beam weapon on his back before turning around to climb back into the submersible vehicle. Then, he closed the hatch.
“It is done! Whether or not we make it will now depend on Heaven’s will!” Chen Xiaolian clenched his teeth.
The rate at which the water level was rising has clearly increased significantly!
In less than five minutes, the water level appeared to have risen by almost fifteen meters.
Fujino Masayoshi was the only one among them who knew how to operate the submersible vehicle. He quickly activated the diving mode for the submersible vehicle, causing the sealed capsule beneath the submersible vehicle to fill with water. The submersible vehicle began to sink down.
Soon, the submersible vehicle had submerged underwater!
As Chen Xiaolian was anxiously looking at the flood hole on the ceiling of the warehouse through the transparent part of the submersible vehicle, he suddenly heard Nagase Komi’s scream. “What is that?”
Chen Xiaolian turned his head to look in the direction that Nagase Komi was looking. What he saw made him surprised.
Chen Xiaolian saw something twenty meters underwater to the left, in the direction of the entrance to this warehouse. It was a silvery mass moving about disorderly. It was not long before a human body shape appeared from the silvery mass.
Its two hands appeared to have transformed into tentacles, splitting out another eight tentacles from each hand. Those tentacles moved about madly underwater!
Whenever the tentacles made contact with the nearby metal stands, they would capture the metal stands and quickly pull the stands back to its silvery body. Then, the silvery mass will converge onto the metal stand, dissolving it within its body!
The head part of the silvery mass wiggled for a moment and facial contours appeared on the head. Eyes appeared on the eye part of the face. Upon the pair of eyes, a faint light was flashing out.
“It is Tian Lie!” Chen Xiaolian spat out fiercely. “He really does have an immortal body!”
Chen Xiaolian turned his head to look at Fujino Masayoshi. “Hurry up and leave! Get ready to move up!”
After the water level had reached the ceiling of the warehouse, the rate at which the water gushed down slowed.
At that moment, the warehouse was like a filled water bottle!
“Move, move, move! Hurry up and move!” Chen Xiaolian hastily urged Fujino Masayoshi onward as Fujino Masayoshi went about controlling the submersible vehicle to move up.
The electric propellers were turned on and the submersible vehicle moved like a stealthy underwater torpedo. Then the submersible vehicle slowly moved up to the ceiling.
At that moment, Chen Xiaolian saw that Tian Lie’s body had already recovered by about 70% to 80%.
The silvery body appeared to be moving sluggishly due to it being underwater. However, Chen Xiaolian could clearly feel that Tian Lie’s gaze was aimed at him!
Although the water was becoming more turbid, the feeling of being stared at only became clearer for Chen Xiaolian!
Tian Lie slowly stepped forward, moving underwater as he moved in the direction of the submersible vehicle.
“Hurry up!”
Chen Xiaolian shouted out loudly and Fujino Masayoshi turned the speed of the propeller to the maximum!
The submersible vehicle sped up immediately and it rushed upward at a ninety-degree angle.
Tian Lie followed right behind them. His movement speed was originally sluggish and slow. However, his movements gradually became keener and his speed also increased as a result.
The hole in the ceiling was about six meters wide and the submersible vehicle quickly shuttled out from the warehouse and into the upper layer.
The upper layer was a huge transportation platform module. At the top area, there was a channel with a diameter of around six meters.
Fujino Masayoshi need not be given any orders from Chen Xiaolian and he steered the submersible vehicle straight forward! Soon, they entered the channel. Fujino Masayoshi turned on the submersible vehicle’s lights and the submersible vehicle kept moving forward.
“Are we no longer in danger?” Cold sweat trickled down from Nagase Komi’s forehead and tears could be seen within her eyes.
“Not yet,” Chen Xiaolian looked at the time nervously. “There are six more minutes to go. But this channel is 4 km long… Bloody Hell! I fear we do not have enough time to escape from here!”
“Even if the self-destruct mechanism begins to detonate the base, it should take some time before it reaches this channel, right? As of now, we can only pray to God,” Fujino Masayoshi displayed a distressed expression.
“You still believe in God?” Chen Xiaolian sneered.
“Are you really going to be picky at a time like this?” Fujino Masayoshi cried out as he checked the controls, ensuring that the propellers were spinning at maximum speed. Then, Fujino Masayoshi nervously steered the submersible vehicle forward.
“Behind us! Something is catching up to us!”
Chen Xiaolian turned to look at the back.
The underwater channel was originally dark and the only source of illumination came from the lights installed onto the submersible vehicle. With the illumination from the submersible vehicle’s lights, Chen Xiaolian could vaguely make out a figure making its way forward through the channel behind them. The figure’s speed was neither too fast nor too slow. At the very least, it was enough so that the submersible vehicle could not shake off the figure.
“It is Tian Lie!” Chen Xiaolian cursed out. “That son of a bitch just keeps coming back!”
“There is no way to increase the speed. This is already the fastest speed possible,” Fujino Masayoshi cried out.
“This will not do!” Chen Xiaolian exhaled, his face contorted. “Once he catches up to us, we will certainly die! With his abilities, getting rid of this submersible vehicle is just a piece of cake! We need to figure a way to hold him back!”
Chen Xiaolian quickly checked the weapons that he brought along.
Beam weapon… it is a very good weapon. Unfortunately, it could no longer be used.
Suddenly, Chen Xiaolian caught sight of a tactical vest lying within a corner of the submersible vehicle – hanging upon the tactical vest was a considerable number of hand grenades.
“I will go slow him down!” Chen Xiaolian gritted his teeth.