Chapter 229 - 213: The Three of Us

Chapter 229: Chapter 213: The Three of Us

Icy, violent raindrops instantly slammed against the vehicle’s ash-covered chassis, kicking up a thick spray of mud.

SCREECH—!

On the slick road, eight enormous off-road tires locked up hard.

The heavy chassis drifted forward with inertia, pulling several zombies that were wandering just outside the cage under its wheels, their faces a mask of dazed confusion.

Accompanied by the sickening crunch of shattering bone, they were instantly ground into a bloody pulp.

As the vehicle broke through the outermost charred husk, countless blackened, severed tentacle fragments flew through the air. They mixed with the torrential rain and mud, pelting down like a solid curtain.

The fresh air—a mix of earthy petrichor, the distinct smell of ozone after a lightning strike, and the cold wind—instantly filled Lin Fan’s lungs. ℯ

’The taste of freedom.’

"Lin Fan! Get on!"

The cabin door’s hydraulics must have been fried by the lightning. Ye Qingniao poked her head out from an armored panel next to the rooftop turret—one that could be opened from the inside—and yelled to Lin Fan, who had just emerged.

The exit the armored vehicle had created faced southeast. Looking back, Lin Fan saw that the exterior of the massive cage that had imprisoned him was now a completely charred mass. Washed by the rain, it looked like a great burial mound coated in asphalt.

Protruding from its surface were things that looked like human arms or limbs, gruesome and deathly still.

"Coming..."

Lin Fan walked to the armored vehicle, put a hand on the side, and climbed up, stopping beside the head with [377/700] floating above it.

This emergency hatch was designed as a redundant exit for extreme situations like the vehicle overturning. It was tiny; a grown man would have to suck in his shoulders to barely squeeze through.

For the delicate, gentle Ye Qingniao of the past, it would have been no problem. But now, her shoulders were wider than Lin Fan’s, her muscles as hard as stone.

Her head was stuck in the small hatch, hair plastered to her face by the rain, revealing only a pair of large eyes. She looked ridiculously like a "muscle bonsai" planted in a steel flowerpot.

"You’re letting the rain in. Go back down..."

Amused, Lin Fan extended his bare foot, feigning a stomp on her head.

CLANG!

Ye Qingniao pulled her head back. The armored panel slammed shut, nearly clipping Lin Fan’s toes.

A moment later, a square hatch at the rear of the vehicle flipped open. Ye Qingniao scrambled up the ladder to stand beside Lin Fan on the storm-battered roof.

She shot Lin Fan a glare, then began striking the spine of the longsword he had given her against the edge of the armored plating, making a CLANG CLANG CLANG racket.

"Come on out! Come kill us!"

She tilted her head back and yelled at the "great burial mound," but her voice held no anger. Her gaze was terrifyingly calm, yet her posture radiated pure hatred.

Lin Fan could tell. Now that "Jiang Jing" was truly and utterly gone, she was paradoxically taking it hard.

"What’s with the tough act? Those should be my lines..."

Lin Fan couldn’t help but chuckle. He offered her a word of comfort before bending down and picking up a charred black object from between the turret’s guardrails. It was the head that had been caught in the lightning’s aftershock.

The remains were completely carbonized by the strike, making them as light as a piece of foam.

Lin Fan rubbed it between his palms.

CRACK.

The black, carbonized shell crumbled. The rain immediately washed it away as black slurry.

In the end, six translucent, faintly glowing crystals lay quietly in his palm. Raindrops fell upon them, refracting a mesmerizing halo of light.

[Regeneration Crystal]

[Energy Level: Not Fully Crystallized—Damaged (Remaining Energy: 723, 522, 1125, 688, 756, 832)]

[Quality: Common (Incomplete Structure, Unable to Fuse)]

[Equippable]

[Regeneration: Equipping this can restore Life Value. During recovery, the crystal’s own energy is consumed. (Recovery speed is based on the crystal’s energy level.)]

’Equip.’

With a thought, Lin Fan equipped one. He watched as the crystal’s Energy Value began converting into his Life Value at a rate of one point per second.

He wasn’t seriously injured, though, so he couldn’t tell if the physical regeneration was as absurdly powerful as "Jiang Jing’s."

"Good stuff... an Immortal Pill," Lin Fan remarked, having sensed the crystals’ properties.

"What are you muttering about?"

Ye Qingniao was tapping the vehicle’s deck and scanning the area. Even her blind, scarred eye swiveled in unison with her good one, as if she were hoping something would emerge so she could get a few more swings in.

’Looks like even though she’s not a fan of her "new skin," she’s more than happy to accept the power that comes with it.’

Lin Fan was secretly amused as he watched Ye Qingniao try to bait the monster out with her taunts.

"You really want it to come out?"

He gestured extravagantly, drawing a huge circle in the air with his hands.

"It has two tentacles *thiiiis* long. One whip from them could send this whole armored vehicle flying..."

Speaking of which, the vehicle’s headlights had broken the moment they burst out. Only two dim, yellow clearance lights remained stubbornly lit.

The world just beyond the lights was pitch black. Aside from the occasional flash of lightning, Lin Fan couldn’t see a thing.

"It’s just letting us go like that?"

Ye Qingniao stood motionless in the downpour, rain sluicing over her ridiculously sculpted muscles.

A blue light flickered in her pupils as she scanned the distance, but she apparently saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"What else did you expect?"

At a thought from Lin Fan, the burnt, deformed spear reappeared in his hand. A blue light flashed, and it instantly reformed to its original state.