NOVGO.NET Chapter 346: The Golden Fruit 57.
Chapter 346: The Golden Fruit 57.
The vines were pulsing.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Like a heartbeat.
Yan Cijin placed her hand on the door but did not open it.
"The fruit is very close."
Bai Li nodded.
"Yes."
They opened the door.
The twelfth floor was almost completely dark.
The moment they stepped inside, every light came on.
Not electrical lights.
Golden flowers.
Hundreds of them.
They lined the walls and ceilings.
The entire floor glowed.
At the center stood a ruined fountain.
Something was sitting inside it.
A zombie.
It was motionless.
Much larger than the earlier ones.
Its body was wrapped in thick dark tissue, with glowing lines running beneath the surface.
It was sitting cross-legged.
Its eyes were closed.
Yan Cijin lowered her voice.
"Is it asleep?"
"No."
The zombie opened its eyes.
A pressure swept across the room.
Yan Cijin’s expression became serious.
"Level two?"
Bai Li nodded.
"High level."
The zombie stood.
It did not roar.
It simply walked toward them.
Bai Li attacked first.
The two collided.
The impact sent a shockwave through the entire floor.
Yan Cijin moved around the side.
The zombie blocked her attack.
It was faster than it looked.
Bai Li struck again.
The zombie blocked.
Again.
Blocked.
Again.
Blocked.
Yan Cijin noticed the pattern.
"It is learning."
Bai Li nodded.
"Then change the rhythm."
Yan Cijin moved immediately.
She stopped attacking directly and began forcing the zombie to turn.
Bai Li changed the angle of every strike.
For several seconds, neither attacked the same place twice.
The zombie struggled to adapt.
Its defenses began opening.
Yan Cijin landed the first serious hit.
Bai Li followed.
The zombie stepped backward.
Then it smiled.
A golden pulse exploded from its body.
Both women were thrown across the floor.
Yan Cijin slammed into a pillar.
Bai Li landed on one knee.
The zombie raised both hands.
Golden light gathered around them.
Bai Li’s expression changed.
"Move."
Yan Cijin jumped.
A beam of golden energy crossed the room.
It cut through the pillar where Yan Cijin had been standing.
The concrete melted.
Yan Cijin stared.
"That was close."
Bai Li stood.
"Yes."
"Very close."
"Stop talking."
"Fine."
They attacked again.
This time they were not testing it.
They were ending the fight.
Bai Li moved straight through the center.
Yan Cijin moved behind.
The zombie followed Bai Li.
Exactly as she expected.
At the last moment she vanished sideways.
Yan Cijin struck the back of its knee.
The zombie dropped.
Bai Li’s attack hit its chest.
The golden light around it collapsed.
Yan Cijin struck again.
The zombie fell.
Bai Li finished it.
Silence returned.
Yan Cijin looked at the corpse.
"That one would have killed most people."
Bai Li looked toward the stairs.
"Most people are not us."
Yan Cijin smiled.
"There is the arrogance again."
They continued upward.
The thirteenth floor was different.
The doors were open.
The floor was covered in black water.
Not deep.
Only ankle-high.
But the moment Yan Cijin stepped into it, she stopped.
"Do not move."
Bai Li looked down.
The water was alive.
Tiny golden lights moved beneath the surface.
Thousands of them.
Something was swimming.
Bai Li stepped backward.
"Back to the stairs."
The water exploded.
Dozens of small monsters jumped out.
They had long bodies and sharp mouths.
Yan Cijin struck the nearest.
Bai Li cleared the left side.
The creatures attacked in waves.
Some crawled across walls.
Some came from the ceiling.
Others launched directly from the water.
The fight lasted several minutes.
When it finally ended, the water was no longer black.
The golden lights had vanished.
Yan Cijin stood breathing hard.
Bai Li looked at her.
"You hurt?"
"No."
"Sure?"
Yan Cijin looked at Bai Li.
"Yes."
Bai Li nodded.
They kept going.
The higher they climbed, the fewer creatures attacked them at once.
Instead, individual monsters became more dangerous.
One could turn invisible.
Another could move through walls.
A third released a freezing mist that covered half the stairwell.
Bai Li and Yan Cijin adapted each time.
They never stayed in one place for long.
They used every environment to their advantage.
When the invisible monster attacked, Yan Cijin listened for its breathing.
When the wall crawler tried to ambush Bai Li, she broke the wall around it instead.
When the freezing creature filled the corridor with mist, Bai Li used a burst of power that cleared the entire passage.
The monsters were powerful.
But the two women were stronger.
By the time they reached the fifteenth floor, both had collected enough cores to fill several storage spaces.
The building was beginning to tremble constantly.
Not because of their fighting.
Because of what was above.
The fruit’s influence was becoming overwhelming.
The golden pulses were closer together now.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Sometimes the entire floor would flash gold for a fraction of a second.
Every time it happened, the monsters became more agitated.
They could feel the fruit ripening.
They could smell it.
They were waiting.
Some of them had probably been waiting for days.
Maybe weeks.
Maybe longer.
Yan Cijin looked at the dark stairwell leading upward.
"They are all gathered near the roof."
Bai Li nodded.
"Yes."
"How many?"
"Enough."
Yan Cijin laughed quietly.
"I knew you would say that."
They climbed.
The sixteenth floor was almost completely destroyed.
There were open holes in the ceiling and floor.
Several rooms had collapsed into one another.
Monster nests covered the remaining spaces.
Bai Li and Yan Cijin moved slowly.
They had learned to expect attacks from anywhere.
A hand emerged from a broken wall.
Yan Cijin destroyed it.
A huge insect dropped from above.
Bai Li killed it.
A group of small level two creatures rushed from beneath the floor.
Together they ended the attack in seconds.
But something unusual happened after the fight.
The remaining monsters did not attack.
They ran.
They fled upward.
Yan Cijin watched them disappear.
"That is the first time I have seen monsters retreat from us."
Bai Li looked toward the stairs.
.
.
.
TO BE CONTINUED.