CH 34

Lan Yu looked up, saw the hole was incredibly large, and was incredibly large and hazy with the distant end of the water. He felt a little uneasy, so he stood up and said, “I want to go with you.”

Lu RanKong pushed him down and said in a commanding tone, “Don’t you move around, okay? You’d just be adding to the mess. Just sit here and wait for me.”

“How am I adding to the mess—”

Lu RanKong interrupted him and said, “I’ll just go check it out alone. You stay here and report, in case there’s an accident or something, one of us has to stay here and keep watch.”

Lan Yu didn’t understand how either of them could report anything if it was just the two of them. So he gave a confused ‘oh’.

When Lu RanKong walked out two steps, he remembered to ask, “What am I guarding?”

Lu RanKong seemed to be frozen, then took off the lamp still hanging around his neck, turned it off, put it in front of him and said solemnly, “Here, you guard the gas lamp. We will definitely need it later when we go out, this is the most precious item.”

Without waiting for Lan Yu to say more, he flew off to the right.

Lan Yu squatted in front of the gray-black metal lamp and asked quietly, “You actually asked me to stay and guard this? Is it going to turn into a butterfly and fly away?”

Since Lu RanKong told him not to move, he also sat there and didn’t move. He wanted to run around alone in this beautiful but strange place, but his heart was still a little afraid. He quietly looked at the lake, watching the fluorescent insects fluttering, and from time to time turned his head to the right, looking for Lu RanKong’s back.

Lu RanKong jumped forward on the jagged rocks at the edge of the lake, his back getting smaller and smaller, sometimes hidden behind those rocks, and Lan Yu stared closely at the place where he disappeared, until the person reappeared in view, then he turned his head back and continued to look at the lake.

It was quiet all around him, so silent that he could hear his own breathing. Only the occasional glowing bug flew past, wings emitting a rapid trembling buzzing sound.

He didn’t know how long it was, but when Lan Yu went to look for Lu RanKong again, he found that he had turned around and was walking back, looking like he hadn’t found an exit.

His heart began to sink. If they couldn’t find a way out on the left side either, the two would have to turn back again. Although Lu RanKong gave him a guarantee that the warden would find a way to get them out, it would be better to find a way out themselves.

He didn’t know if the glowing water was drinkable, but if it was drinkable, that was good. He could fill something up and bring it to the others, and it would last for a few days.

But there was no food, and the lake was full of only strange rocks. Not to mention fruits and flowers, there wasn’t even grass. There might be fish in this lake, and he decided to go down later to see, if there were any, maybe he could catch a few… 

Lan Yu was thinking about this, when his ears suddenly caught a strange sound. It was like the sound of electricity passing through, or someone whispering. He looked around, but there was nothing around him, only Lu RanKong in the distance heading back. He rubbed his ears, suspecting that he had been in too quiet of an environment for too long and was hallucinating. He was withdrawing his gaze, his eyes skimming over the lake, when his movements suddenly stopped.

On the calm as a mirror surface of the lake ripples appeared and a wave of water rushed towards his direction quickly. There was something under the water, and it was swimming towards the shore.

Lan Yu quickly got up and grabbed the lamp in his hand.

——After all, Lu RanKong gave him the task of guarding the lamp.

He didn’t know what was underneath, but the water wave was several meters wide, meaning that even if it was a fish, it had to be a big shark, so he hurriedly took a few steps back, farther away from the lake. The water waves were moving fast, and had almost reached the shore, so his heart became more and more nervous.

He knew that even if it was a big shark, with K’s ability he would be able to get through, but subconsciously still looked for Lu RanKong.

Lu RanKong must have also found the situation here, and used the rocks to do a vertical leap, and began dashing back.

Suddenly there was a loud boom in the lake, shaking Lan Yu’s ears and causing a brief period of deafness. Then, the lake exploded with a several foot high water column, and the huge thing in the water column, wrapped in the water, rushed up into the air.

It was like a fish, but bigger than a shark; the huge black body could be bigger than ten sharks. It was covered with black scales around its body, its wings were like fins, and in the moment of leaping into the air, it opened its mouth to Lan Yu.

Its head was large, its mouth wide open was half a meter, full of long teeth, staggered snow white hideous daggers. It looked like a fish with a bunch of teeth.

Lan Yu was shocked to the point that he forgot to breathe, and all the blood rushed to the top of his head. Immediately after, he saw the strange fish lunging down from the air directly at him.

His mind went blank. He was just standing still and screaming, until the splash of water poured over his face when he woke up and shut up. He threw the steam light in his arms, and in a flash, his whole body exploded with potential, like a cannonball with a fuse lit, and swished out to the right.

Lan Yu leapt over the jagged boulders, running as fast as if he was on the flat ground. The wind whistled in his ears, and in the blink of an eye, he rushed out more than ten meters.

His only instinct at this point was to ask for help, desperately running in the direction of Lu RanKong. After running for a while, he remembered that the fish wouldn’t be able to run once it was on land, right?

He realized this and took a moment to look back. With this glance, he became scared out of his mind.

The strange fish just pounced on the air, but now opened the fins and flew up. The scales under its belly were shining with a black light, its mouth full of sharp teeth was open, like a huge bird, as it followed closely behind him. Lan Yu turned his head and ran faster on his feet, flying over those rocks like a shadow of light.

Lu RanKong, who was running head-on with him, bent down and picked up something on the ground, long and pointed at one end, like a stick. With the stick in his hand, he ran quickly while shouting, “Get down!”

Lan Yu couldn’t see behind him, and when he heard Lu RanKong’s warning, he decided to lunge forward and fell on a boulder.

At the same time, the back of his neck felt a chill, as a wind swept over his body, with a heavy pungent fishy smell. He turned his head sideways and saw that Lu RanKong had come close and was stabbing the strange fish in the abdomen with the pointed stick.

Clang!

The sharp stick hit the abdomen, but the monster fish didn’t stop its momentum and continued to glide forward, the tip of the stick on the black scales scraped with a series of sparks, and there were several bowl-sized scales that were scraped off.

The strange fish felt the pain, and issued a general hissing sound like electricity passing.

Lan Yu saw clearly, Lu RanKong was holding the root of a stalactite. He quickly climbed up and looked on the ground, and found long and short stalactites from the cracks in the boulders, so he picked one up too.

These stalactites had fallen down from the ceiling, their material was unusually hard, and holding it in his hand, it was as heavy as metal, and couldn’t be an ordinary carbonate rock.

The strange fish was stabbed hard by Lu RanKong, and although the blow didn’t penetrate the hard scale armor, the abdomen was always softer, and the thinner scales were broken open and turned over, revealing the flesh with blood under them.

After gliding low for a while, it quickly turned around, hissed angrily, opened its ugly mouth, and charged at Lu RanKong. Lu RanKong had climbed onto a big rock, holding the stalactite with both hands, and his eyes were staring straight ahead.

Lan Yu was standing at his feet, his back pressed against the stone, also holding the stalactite with both hands, staring ahead without daring to breathe. Although the dense mouth full of teeth gave him goosebumps, he understood that now he must calm down.

The strange fish was getting closer and closer, its wide open mouth emitting a disgusting fishy smell. Anger made it lose its mind, ignoring Lan Yu below, and biting straight at Lu RanKong. Lan Yu stared at it, and just as the huge shadow swept overhead, a fishy wind pounded in his face, he raised the stalactite in his hand and stabbed it precisely in the tender abdomen through the broken scales.

Hisssss – the strange fish screamed and tilted its head high.

A fishy, warm blood gushed out, flowing down the stalactite, pouring on Lan Yu’s whole head and face. He held on to the stalactite, gritted his teeth, and pushed it deeper and deeper.

Puff! The sound of tearing flesh and blood came from the abdomen of the strange fish.

It let out an even more piercing hiss, and at the same time, Lu RanKong above stabbed the stalactite in his hand into its wide open mouth, and the tip pierced through its black tongue and stuck along its upper jaw.

“Hiss… Hiss…” The strange fish’s blood gushed like a spring, and the two ugly eyes behind its large mouth burst out of their sockets. The pain in its mouth and abdomen made it go crazy, twisting its body in the air and slapping its heavy fish tail at Lan Yu.

Lan Yu’s hands loosened, and he did a quick backflip, the fish tail hit the boulder he just had his back to, countless debris burst and scattered everywhere.

At this time, Lu RanKong had also risen, impartially landed on the back of the strange fish, hands clutching his mouth behind the neck. The monster fish sensed him, desperately wriggling, while the wound on its abdomen was pouring out blood, gurgling down to the ground.

He began to take off, flying to the highest point and then quickly dropped, trying to throw off the person on his back. Lu RanKong sat firmly on it, as if rooted there.

Lan Yu’s face was covered with the blood of the strange fish, and his eyes were stung so much that he couldn’t open them. He reached out and wiped his hands haphazardly, picked up a stalactite on the ground, waited for the monster fish to dive again, and threw it in that direction, shouting, “Catch!…”

Lu RanKong freed one of his hands to catch the stalactite, turned the tip, and stabbed into the monster fish’s mouth once more, then used two hands to hold up the mouth, sticking it vertically in its mouth.

The monster fish finally cowered, its instinct to survive had risen so it gave up to continue to tangle with the two. It hissed reluctantly, flew above the lake and stuck straight down. Lu RanKong was still riding on its back, and he couldn’t let go and jump, so he held its neck and followed it into the center of the lake.

Lan Yu’s heart was pumping and he shouted, “Lu RanKong!”

Lan Yu was knocked unsteadily by the water and sat down on his buttocks. He hurriedly got up, not bothering to wipe the water off his face and went to look at the lake, shouting Lu RanKong’s name. Once the lake gradually subsided, he didn’t see the man emerge from the water.

He stopped waiting, grabbed a stalactite beside him, ran to the edge of the lake and jumped in, paddled his arms, and swam to where Lu RanKong fell into the water. When he reached almost the same spot, he took a deep breath and dived into the water.

Water overhead, with a refreshing cold, Lan Yu opened his eyes in the water, looking around for Lu RanKong’s figure. But after turning around and around he still couldn’t find him, and even the shadow of the strange fish was gone.

He realized that it wasn’t the lake water that was glowing, but some irregular crystal-like stones scattered at the bottom of the lake, just the size of a fist, but emitting a glowing light that lit up the area. Lan Yu anxiously swam around, still holding the stalactite in his left hand.

Just when he was about to hold his breath and wanted to surface for a change, he was suddenly poked by something on his back.

He was shocked, his body reacted faster than his brain to turn around, raised the stalactite in his hand and stabbed out.

His wrist was instantly pinched. Lu RanKong swam opposite him, his mouth open as he spit out a series of bubbles. Lan Yu hurriedly threw away the stalactite, pointed upward, and swung his legs quickly, floating toward the surface with Lu RanKong close behind him.

With a crash, the water broke open and the two emerged to the surface, breathing in a huge gulp of fresh air.

“I almost… I almost got stabbed to death by you.” Lu RanKong said.

Lan Yu gasped, “Who told you to poke me in the back?”

Lu RanKong said as he swam towards the shore, “How can I talk to you if I don’t poke you? I’m not a fish…”

“Why don’t you just swim in front of me? I’m not blind.” Lan Yu said.

Although his mouth was defiant, seeing Lu RanKong safe and sound, he was secretly rejoicing in his heart. In a moment, the panic and worry had dissipated.

The two soon swam to the edge and landed wetly on the shore.

Lan Yu then remembered the fish and asked, “Where is the flying fish?”

“It ran away…” Lu RanKong replied.

Lan Yu thought about it and said, “It can’t live even if it ran away, it was so badly injured.”

Lu RanKong took off his outside prison clothes and started wringing the water out, saying, “That’s not necessarily true. It’s an interstellar beast, so it’s very resilient and doesn’t die easily.”

“Interstellar beast?” Lan Yu instantly thought of the gelded insects.

Lu RanKong nodded, “It is called Crystal-Eating Beast from the Pule Planet, it usually stays in the place where there are mineral crystals, the more precious the mineral crystals, the more it likes it, but it’s not common anymore.”

“Oh…” Lan Yu looked down and rolled up the corner of his shirt to wring the water out, and asked, “The glowing crystals in the lake should be very precious, right? Look, there are crystal devouring beasts guarding the side, so it must be very uncommon, and it can still glow.”

Lu RanKong stopped moving his hands, was silent for a moment, and said, “That’s a Jialing crystal…”

“Jialing crystal?” Lan Yu felt a little familiar, and after a few seconds of recollection, he remembered, before they left, General Liu Deng had mentioned something about the Jialing crystal to them.

“This is used to operate the Jia beam cannon that had opened the interstellar channel.” Lu RanKong said, “This crystal is very precious, and is originally only produced in Pule Planet, so the quantity is extremely rare. The military ministry was worried about the Lontan people getting it, so they collected all of it and put it in the military treasury. I didn’t expect that there would be some on QuYa Planet, and the quantity is quite large. I estimated that those mineral crystals can be used to fire the Jia beam cannon several hundred times.”

“A few crystals are that powerful?”

“Mn, only a little bit is needed for each launch.”

Lan Yu was sitting down to take off his shoes, and when he heard this, he slowly knitted his brows and showed a deep thoughtful expression.

“Hey, do you—” He turned his head and saw at a glance that Lu RanKong was taking off his pants, half pulling his buttocks out. He yelled out, “What are you doing?!” 

Lu RanKong, startled by the sound, turned around with his pants up and looked around warily, asking repeatedly, “What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean ‘what’s wrong’? Why are you taking off your pants in public?” Lan Yu said angrily.

Lu RanKong sighed in relief and looked at him with downcast eyes, “These pants are wet and uncomfortable on my body, so I can wring them out and dry them. Besides, you are the only one here, where is the public?”

Lan Yu looked up and poured the water out of his shoes and said, “Even if we are alone, you can’t take them off.”

“I’ll just wring out the water, it’s quick.”

“Not even then…”

“I—”

“No…” Lan Yu interrupted.

Lu RanKong just put his pants back on and mumbled, “You’ve got a lot of quirks anyway. When you started crawling behind me, you were staring at my butt, and now I’m taking off my pants and wringing the water, and you’re yelling.”

Lan Yu took his shoes and looked up at him coldly, “Colonel Lu, you were right in front of me, if I didn’t stare ahead, where else could I look?”

“I’m not in front of you right now, so I’ll just take off my pants and you don’t look. You have to turn your head.”

“I was going to tell you something.” Lan Yu said.

Lu RanKong asked, “Then what did you want to tell me?”

After hearing this, Lan Yu stared blankly at the lake and frowned.

Lu RanKong followed his line of sight and found nothing on the lake, reached out and waved his hand in front of him, asking, “What are you staring at? You’re so dumb…”

Lan Yu slapped his hand away and said, “You’re the one who took off your pants in front of me, and once you interrupted, I forgot what I wanted to say.”

“The sight of my ass was that much of a shock to you?” Lu RanKong snickered.

“Don’t be noisy…” Lan Yu said. He thought for a moment, then suddenly exclaimed, “I remember…”

“Hmm?”

Lan Yu got up from the ground and asked solemnly, “Do you think it’s possible that the Lontan pepersonople didn’t find out who we were but there’s another reason why they put etching oil on the roof of the cave and wanted us dead?”

“Not because they found out who we are?” Lu RanKong instantly understood the meaning of his words. He looked at the lake to his right and narrowed his eyes slightly, “You mean, he knows that we both found this cave and is afraid that the fact that this mountain belly has the Jialing crystal is exposed, so he wants to kill us?”

Lan Yu nodded at him.