Chapter 831 - 696: Unstoppable?!!_2

Chapter 831: Chapter 696: Unstoppable?!!_2

Song Kuangyi pondered for a moment and then reassured his mother with a gentle smile:

"Mother, please don’t worry. I have remembered the issue. I promise you, if my brother’s disappearance truly relates to the Sheepskin Scroll, then everyone in Lower City District 9 connected to it won’t survive."

Upon hearing this, Madam Song-Cao smiled with relief and then clapped her hands:

"Lvnu, you will accompany him on this trip and ensure Kuangyi’s safety on my behalf."

Before she finished speaking, Song Kuangyi didn’t even see the person’s movements, he only felt a subtle breeze carrying the scent of vegetation brush gently past him.

A tall and slender figure, like a ghost, silently appeared half a step behind him, courteously bowing with a respectful posture.

Even though Song Kuangyi clearly knew in his heart that this woman was his mother’s loyal maid, devoted beyond doubt, with no possibility of harming him in the slightest.

Yet a crisis instinct from his Martial Artist senses involuntarily surged through him, and the hair on his back stood on end at this moment.

"Seventh Grade? Extraordinary and Non-human!"

Suppressing the thrill in his heart, Song Kuangyi slowly turned around, his face returning to a gentle and noble smile, his gaze met a pair of deep and exotic green eyes, like the finest jade.

Bringing a Seventh Grade to Lower City District 9, if not invincible, would surely smooth the path, right?!!

....

To travel from Upper City to Lower City, one needs to use the "Celestial Ladder".

The Celestial Ladder consists of enormous silver-white bullet-shaped containers running along a cylindrical pipeline connecting to the base of Upper City.

When not in use, this pipeline retracts into the complex structure of Upper City’s base, blending into the exposed surface.

It only opens up like a mechanical flower when needed, extending to the ground at a designated docking point.

But after the "Sky Tilting Incident", although many specific details were strictly sealed by the Upper City Council, the apparent results couldn’t be hidden from keen observers.

Upper City’s precise control center system suffered extensive damage, and near a third of the core floating power and energy providing arrays at Upper City’s base was severely damaged or completely destroyed.

It’s no exaggeration to say, if not for Upper City laying a secret backup energy system at its establishment and promptly activating it after the incident, barely substituting part of the functionalities.

Then it wouldn’t only be certain areas experiencing dysfunction, at least one-fifth of Upper City’s structure would collapse for losing adequate lift.

Like a mountain severed at its roots, crashing down, creating new sinkholes on Lower City’s surface.

That would be a true "Sky Tilt".

Fortunately, or rather regrettably, Destiny did not succeed!

Even so, the situation remains far from optimistic.

The so-called backup energy system is ultimately an outdated setup from three hundred years ago when Upper City was built; its technology long surpassed, struggling with a wheezing hum, can’t last much longer.

Hence, the Upper City Council, while mobilizing all deployable forces, working tirelessly to repair the damaged core energy devices;

They also had to shut down a vast number of non-essential, high-energy-consuming architectural functions to alleviate the system’s burden and ensure Upper City’s stability.

By the way, collecting an air tax from Lower City is partly for this reason—Upper City needs to lighten its load, and air also has "weight" and can’t be given to Lower City for free.

Of course, there are other factors involved, not to discuss them now.

And the Celestial Ladder connecting Upper and Lower Cities is among the shut-down functional buildings.

Thus, now those from Upper City wishing to enter Lower City can’t use the Celestial Ladder route, they have only one other choice—taking the "Escalator".

Similar to a mall’s safety corridor, but also hundreds of times larger, winding layer after layer downwards.

It’s akin to a zigzag path clinging to a towering pillar, wide enough for large vehicles to pass side by side, yet while on it, one feels the fierce high-altitude wind and the vibrating hum from the city’s floating system operation beneath.

Even with this, Destiny didn’t let it be.

Upon retreating, they casually detonated it, blowing apart key segments, leaving gaping holes like grotesque beast fangs, with countless hanging steel bars or wires.

Admittedly, for individuals, especially skilled Martial Artists, these fractures aren’t insurmountable barriers.

With nimble prowess, they can leap and dart among the remaining structures, undertaking a dangerous and thrilling ’jumping game’, making their way down.

Yet, for large family convoys carrying substantial supplies and equipment, this route is unfeasible.

Not only can vehicles not "jump", crucially it’s beneath the dignity of the noble dignitaries to crawl and leap like monkeys among the fractured passages.

Thus, Song Family’s convoy is currently stalled at Upper City’s exit platform, persistently urging the engineers to reconnect the fractured "Escalator" passage.

It’s estimated this will take two to three more days.

However, Song Kuangyi is not idly waiting.

He dispatched his mentor with select loyal Martial Artists ahead of him.

These people travel lightly and simply, having started the hazardous "jumping game" journey, preparing to infiltrate Zone 9 first, marking the path for the upcoming larger group to gather intelligence and assess the situation.

And those who departed earlier and acted quicker than the elder and his men were, naturally, personnel secretly dispatched by the main branch of Song Family.

Lower City District 9, in some remote filthy alley reeking of must and decay.

A rusted circular manhole cover was nudged open with a narrow gap by a hand so skinny it seemed just skin and bones.

Soon, a ghostly silhouette, weightless, like a flat animal that can twist its skeleton at will, silently slipped through the gap, landing in the underground channel.

This was also an elder, shrunken and hunched down more severely than the previously seen Xiaojiu, as if he was continuously bearing an immense invisible weight, bending his spine into a deadly curve.

His skin was also a terrifying wax yellow, stiff like museum-preserved ancient leather, with only his eyes sunken deeply into their sockets, glinting icy, sharp gleams in the dim light.

He stepped into ankle-deep filthy water, eerily the foul, odorous water seemed to avoid his footsteps on its own, water surfaces parted naturally before him, keeping his shoes and pants exceptionally dry, free of stains.

The elder walked while retrieving a dimly metallic positioning device from his chest.

His shriveled fingers gently adjusted some knobs on the side, tuning a special frequency.

Soon the tiny indicator light at the top of the device began emitting a faint red glow, flickering, like an eye hidden in darkness, blinking, inspecting its surroundings.

The elder held the device, beginning to follow Xiaojiu’s previous path, step by step venturing into the deeper darkness of the pipeline.

The red light fluctuated in strength, guiding a clear direction for him.

After advancing about several dozen meters, almost exactly where Xiaojiu had stopped and hid items before, the elder precisely stopped.

The red light on the device stabilized, no longer flickering.

The elder stowed the device and slowly extended his right hand.

That hand appeared withered like the branches of an old tree, skin tight to bone, yet the nails were unusually long and sharp, gleaming with an alloy-like metallic sheen.

As his fingertip touched the wall, the crack on the wall instantly melted like wax liquid, flowing outwards, revealing a fist-sized hole.

Soon, a dust-covered and dirty corpse eyeball rolled out from the hole, falling into his already waiting palm.

What followed was a dim-colored, slightly damaged along the edges Sheepskin Scroll.