Chapter 615: Guess Who He Was
The young man said he was going to leave everything to them, and he meant it.
Lin Sanjiu wondered why the young man could leave his back to somebody he barely knew without any hesitation. He seemed to be unperturbed by the whistling wind above as he merely darted a glance at it and looked away in the next second before continuing to swim forward at full speed.
The water that splashed high into the air then crashed down and lashed the people below painfully like a gigantic whip. Lin Sanjiu was almost flung into the stream by the young man when he suddenly sped up. Everywhere was dripping with water, and it was so wet that she kept sliding down. In desperation, she coiled her arm around the young man"s neck.
"Hold on tight, fatty!" Turning her head to yell at the fatty, Lin Sanjiu gritted her teeth, twisted her body, and threw herself back onto the young man"s back.
Due to her impetuous action, the young man let out a violent fit of coughs as he choked on a mouthful of water. But she paid him no mind. The diver coming from the air was closing in fast.
Lin Sanjiu tilted her head and looked skyward as she began to circulate her Higher Consciousness around her body. However, before she could do anything, the figure in the air yelled, "It"s you!"
"He knows me?"
Stunned, just as Lin Sanjiu wanted to take a better look at the person, the young man picked up his speed once more. He skidded along the surface of the water, creating two liquid walls that flanked his sides as he slipped away from the diver by a whisker. Missing his mark, the diver plunged directly into the stream below.
Nevertheless, the crisis had not lifted yet. The water behind them suddenly shot upward, and the diver emerged from the dense spray of water in the air. Riding on top of the waves, the diver went after them as he yelled furiously, "Give me back my Criminal Suit!"
Lin Sanjiu was startled by the diver"s words. She subconsciously tightened her grip on the young man"s shoulders, earning herself a grunt.
"What"s wrong? Do you know him?" the young man asked exasperatedly.
"No! I don"t know him!" Lin Sanjiu replied with a shout. Some water found the chance to rush into her mouth. She had grabbed the Criminal Suspect Suit from the man who was h.e.l.l-bent on coming to the Olympics, but according to the time rule, no posthuman could stay in an apocalyptic world for more than 14 months. The man should have been transferred away long ago, so why was he still here?
Lin Sanjiu spun her body around. Just as she was about to stand up, the diver behind them hurled a light sphere into the air as he shouted, "Stop them!"
The light ball scintillated as it whistled through the air and plopped into the water in front of them. The team was dumbfounded, and their hearts raced into their throats. Before they could regain their composure, the river before their eyes exploded, discharging a ma.s.sive amount of water into the air. The sudden tidal surge almost caught the young man, as he had been traveling at his top speed, but fortunately, his reaction was swift. The second he sensed something was wrong, he made a quick decision by kicking the water, turning his device to the highest speed, and retreating backward.
Be that as it may, the wave continued to grow larger and larger like a humongous tsunami on its destructive voyage to ravage everything in its path. Behind them, the diver was charging straight towards them. Right now, they were like feathers floating on a choppy sea, thoroughly drenched and powerlessly weak. It would not even be too far-fetched to say that a single wave was all it would take to throw them all into the receptacle of the blackish water beneath them.
When the wall of water reached as high as the pillars, gravity kicked in. The water that weighed millions of tons crashed onto the river, giving rise to yet another destructive tidal surge that swept and devoured all the contenders in the blink of an eye.
Lin Sanjiu had once again unintentionally enc.u.mbered the other contenders.
Not all the water returned to the river at the same time. Since there was so much water in the air, some of it needed more time before slamming into the river. The young man reached the pillar, and when he was about to charge forward again, he saw something and stopped.
Piqued by her curiosity, Lin Sanjiu raised her head and looked ahead as well. Then, she froze.
A row of froth was bobbing in front of them, forming into a barrier of sorts. It looked like humans that each had a head and four limbs. They did not fall into the water but instead stood on the surface of the river with their hands held together. It was as if they were attempting to barricade them in.
"What the h.e.l.l are those things?" Lin Sanjiu muttered.
If the diver was the man who had run amok in the Meat Elysium to kill the Consular Officer, then Lin Sanjiu reckoned this would be a tough fight. She knew that the only person who could defeat this man in terms of Special Items was Puppeteer.
She immediately killed the thought, as she knew now was not the right time to wallow in something like that. She turned her head around, and her heart skipped a beat at what she saw. The diver was closing in fast, and he was now only a stone"s throw away from her. It occurred to her that he did not fear the consequence of falling into the water, and she soon found out the reason. There was a cable strapped around the man"s midriff which connected him to the pillar. Whenever he dropped into the water below, all he needed to do was reel in the cable.
"What are you waiting for? Hit him!" The young man was getting more and more impatient. "Didn"t you say you"re pretty confident in your power?"
Lin Sanjiu was as anxious as the young man. She wanted to attack the diver as well, but she was not given the freedom to do so right now.
Every time the young man performed a backstroke, half of Lin Sanjiu"s body would be immersed under the water, leaving only her head bobbing up and down along with the storm-tossed river. There was no foothold in the water for her to maintain her balance and coupled with her fear of getting swept away by the waves, Lin Sanjiu could not do anything but wrap her arms tightly around the young man"s shoulders. As such, she could not unleash her full power efficiently.
On the other hand, the fatty took cover inside the young man"s hair, trying to make as little noise as possible.
The diver was fast. Before the team could formulate any plans, he had already reached their side. He whistled, and the row of froth men dove into the water. Although the road in front seemed to be clear of danger, none of them were relieved.
This was because all of them had a hunch that the froth was coming for them, and water moving within water was fundamentally different from a human traveling in the water.
"Don"t move!" Lin Sanjiu warned the young man. She knew there was no way they could get out of this if she did not bring all her skills into play. She set her jaw tight, threw all her doubts and fear to the back of her mind, and unleashed her Higher Consciousness at its highest output. It enveloped the young man in a bubble-like s.h.i.+eld and separated him from the incoming waves.
"This is amazing!" exclaimed the young man excitedly. He was now floating on top of the water after being enveloped by Lin Sanjiu"s Higher Consciousness. "Keep it up!"
Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh. The Higher Consciousness was a kind of mystical power that could not be explained by the rules of physics. It was formless and colorless but powerful and required a lot of concentration to control. To obtain a drop of Higher Consciousness, one had to go through a h.e.l.l of a lot of training. Therefore, it was considered a waste to squander her hard-won Higher Consciousness as a protective barrier like this.
"I can"t keep it up for long." After she said that, she turned her head around to intercept the diver.
Her memory of the diver"s appearance was a bit foggy since it had been a long time since their last encounter. Although she knew who he was, she yelled out loud, "Hey, who the h.e.l.l are you?"
"Don"t you remember me?" the man replied in an angry voice. His face was livid with rage. He pulled the cable and stopped not far away from them, prompting her to look up. Amidst the fog and clouds, there was a cable, which was so fine that it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye yet st.u.r.dy enough to hold an adult human"s weight, connected to the top of the pillar.
Retracting her gaze, she then looked meticulously at the man.
This was the first time Lin Sanjiu had a clear view of the man"s appearance after getting through two apocalyptic worlds. The man was a type of species that Lin Sanjiu had never seen in her life before. He had a pair of big round eyes, thin eyebrows and eyelashes, a big nose, and a bald head.
"You took my things and pushed me into the dimensional rift. Does that help spark your memories?" The man revealed a sinister grin. Then, his face scrunched up as he shouted, "Come over here!"
Although he was facing them, Lin Sanjiu had a hunch that he was not talking to her.
Furrowing her brows, just when Lin Sanjiu realized that the man was giving orders to the row of froth men, it was already too late. The river behind her spurted upward and crashed into the barrier made from her Higher Consciousness. The row of froth men still maintained their humanoid figures, and as if bestowed with life, they zoomed past the barrier and hit the pillar with a resounding smack.
The pillar was smooth, and it was impossible for even a posthuman to climb on it, but it was not the case for the froth.
The froth men lost their shapes the moment they hit the pillar, turning back into ordinary water stains. As they slid down the pillar, they regained their humanoid forms and lunged at the team.
"What the f*ck is that?!" the young man yelled, desperation thick in his voice. Just when the froth reached in front of them, Lin Sanjiu took out her Tornado Whip and dispersed them by conjuring a tornado. However, before they could relax, the man scoffed and whistled once more.
The young man, who had just turned his head around, sighed when he saw the thing in front of them.
The froth had once again appeared on top of the river not far away. This time, their numbers had doubled, and they trapped Lin Sanjiu and her team in a circle.
"There"s no way you can escape from them if you are in the water," the man declared as he turned around to look at Time. Then, he harrumphed. "I have to hurry—"
Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly stumbled forward and slid towards Lin Sanjiu. A surprised expression dawned on his face as he soon realized what was pulling him. "This is… This is [All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix]!"
"Since I got this from him, wouldn"t it be a waste if I didn"t use it?"
Without wasting a second, Lin Sanjiu activated A Twinkle In The Sky with her right hand underwater. She was waiting for an opportunity to send the man flying into the sky again when he was within her reach.
Nevertheless, Lin Sanjiu did not expect that instead of fighting against the suction force of All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix, the man went along with it. He glided across the top of the river and went straight for them at tremendous speed.
The hair on Lin Sanjiu"s back bristled as understanding instantly dawned upon her. "He must have something up his sleeve!"
Their distance was pretty close, to begin with. The moment she launched All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix, the man"s shadow soon loomed over her. Even though Lin Sanjiu shut off the Special Item immediately, she was still a tad too late.
"The froth!" the fatty shouted, fear thick in his voice. "They are coming!"
Lin Sanjiu did not have time to say anything before the man was already lunging at her.