Chapter 56: Confrontation
Almost at a face-to-face distance, the tricolor halo extended countless hair-thin rays of light that plunged deeply into Lu Yunping's brain tissue, pulsing slightly with his breath.
Lu Yunping raised his pale face and, seeing that it was Han Ning, a trace of joy flashed across his expression.
"Han... Brother Han..."
"Your strength... is no less than... the vice president's... This time... This rescue... completely depends on you... I beg you... you must... save the president and the others..."
The writhing colorful light inside his skull became slightly more active.
Han Ning nodded expressionlessly and said calmly, "Rest assured."
His relationship with Lin Qianqian was passable; he wasn't cold-hearted enough to refuse to save her outright.
Of course, the most crucial point was that with so many people entering, should they truly encounter any danger, he only needed to run faster than the majority of them.
Better the daoist priest dies than the fellow practitioners.
***
With the efforts of several Awakened individuals possessing healing abilities, the external injuries of Lu Yunping and the others were simply treated, their bleeding stopped, and they consumed some high-calorie food to restore their physical strength.
Even Chen Feng regained consciousness from his coma.
Their condition improved significantly, allowing them at least to move about.
"Let's go! We can't delay any longer!" Lu Yunping struggled to his feet, wearing an expression of burning anxiety.
"Let's move!"
Led by the few returning individuals, a rescue team composed of more than twenty Awakened plunged headfirst into the boundless curtain of rain outside the door.
"Old Xu, during my absence, you and Yinyin stay in your room, and don't go anywhere. Don't open the door no matter who knocks, understood?"
Before leaving, Han Ning spoke to Xu Ming with a solemn tone.
He had already changed into a clean set of old clothes, and carried a spare set of clothes and trousers in his backpack.
Seeing Han Ning's grave expression, Xu Ming understood the severity of the situation and nodded seriously.
"Understood."
Having given his instructions, Han Ning took Yu Na and Xuebing and followed behind.
Upon entering the northern entrance of the fog zone, Han Ning once again activated the Gold-Melting Eyes.
Hum!
In his field of vision, the thick white fog was parted by an invisible force, and visibility instantly increased to over a hundred meters ahead.
The monsters hidden in the mist and water became clearly visible to him, and the hallucinogenic effect of the fog had no impact on him whatsoever.
Guided by Lu Yunping and the others, the crowd stepped heavily, treading unevenly as they rapidly approached the core area.
The further inward they went, the denser the fog became.
The accumulated water gradually rose from their thighs to their chests.
After penetrating approximately a kilometer or more—
The area ahead became exceptionally open.
An irregular body of water about a hundred meters in diameter, surrounded by half-submerged shipping containers and various buildings, appeared before everyone's eyes.
"This is the place..." Lu Yunping stopped, pointing to a protruding concrete pier in the middle of the water.
"Where exactly are President Wu and the others? Why don't I see them?"
The burly man in the camouflage vest didn't care about any concrete piers and eagerly pursued the question.
This fellow clearly looked like a die-hard loyalist to President Wu.
The remaining Awakened also gathered around, looking anxiously at Lu Yunping.
Suddenly.
The anxious and solemn expression on Lu Yunping's face abruptly froze.
The corners of his mouth split upward in an extremely bizarre arc, stretching all the way to his earlobes, revealing ghastly white teeth.
"Heh, heh, heh..."
Simultaneously, the other four companions beside him also raised their heads, wearing similarly twisted and eerie smiles as they stared unblinkingly at the surrounding Awakened.
"What game are you playing?" The burly man and the others felt their hair stand on end from being stared at, subconsciously retreating a few steps.
What answered them was a deafening explosion that violently erupted from the surrounding water surface!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Turbine-shell crabs, giant leeches with slimy surfaces, jellyfish the size of half a man with illusory human faces flickering on their bodies, and bizarre sea snails no larger than a human head flying through the air like meteorites.
Monsters of varying sizes and shapes broke through the turbid water and brazenly revealed themselves.
From the direction of the berth area, deep within the thick, impenetrable fog, a bizarre entity radiating an enchanting blue, purple, and red tricolor halo drifted silently closer.
Wherever it passed, even the rolling white fog seemed to be swallowed by it, leaving behind a vacuum trajectory.
A terrifying oppressive force, like a tsunami, swept across the entire body of water.
"Damn it, it's a trap!"
"They're controlled! They've been controlled by that freakish thing!"
The Awakened who finally realized what was happening reacted at last.
The scene instantly descended into utter chaos.
Some attempted to attack Lu Yunping and the others who were close at hand, only to be easily deflected.
Others fled backward in panic, only to be swept midway across the waist by a rapidly charging turbine-shell crab, their blood and viscera spraying out amidst screams.
The aura of chaos, bloodshed, and death permeated the entire area.
Only Han Ning stood where he was, standing unmoving.
His gaze locked onto the drifting tricolor halo, golden flames swirling deep within his pupils as if trying to pierce through that bizarre core.
"Yu Na," he tilted his head slightly, "get behind me, be careful."
Yu Na, who had originally been deeply shaken and nervous because of the people around her, looked at Han Ning's calm profile and heard that serene tone that suggested everything was under control, feeling an inexplicable sense of security.
"Okay!"
Without hesitation, she flashed behind Han Ning, the azure spiritual barrier blazing with brilliant light to encircle the two of them and the lizard.
The next moment.
Amidst the terrified gazes of Yu Na and several other Awakened who had not been attacked immediately,
Han Ning moved.
"Woo..."
A suffocating, deep whimpering sound, akin to the awakening of an ancient ferocious beast, emanated from deep within his body.
Rip...
The old clothes on his body were completely torn apart by suddenly expanding, knotted muscles, turning into fluttering scraps of fabric.
Beneath his skin, dark golden fur grew wildly like a living entity, covering his neck, chest, and arms.
His bones emitted a tooth-aching crackle, and his physique expanded and grew taller at a visible rate.
His cheekbones protruded forward, and ghastly white fangs pierced his lips, forming a majestic tiger's muzzle.
On his forehead, the Gold-Melting Tiger symbol suddenly lit up like a burning crown.
His thick lower limbs trod into the muddy bottom of the water, and his huge tiger paws tore through the thick fog.
A tiger's tail, covered in dark golden rings and burning with a small cluster of scorching golden flames at the tip, swayed slowly behind him.
In merely two or three breaths' time,
A terrifying entity standing two and a half meters tall, half-human and half-tiger, its entire body covered in short dark golden fur, radiating overwhelming ferocious might and boundless power, replaced Han Ning's original position and stood upright amidst the storm of blood and rain.
Dark golden vertical pupils swept across the chaotic battlefield, scorching and distorting the surrounding rolling mist until it evaporated!
"Srustle?"
Several turbine-shell crabs frantically attacking the Awakened froze in their actions simultaneously, as if sensing the terrifying coercion from the apex of the food chain. The rotation of their auger-like giant claws involuntarily slowed down quite a bit.
The drifting tricolor light cluster also paused slightly.
It seemed to have sensed a threat.
The light cluster flickered violently a few times, and an invisible ripple swept horizontally from afar.
Han Ning looked at the incoming invisible ripple flying toward him at high speed.
His mouth opened slightly, and a deep, sonorous tiger roar brewed in the depths of his throat:
"ROAR!!"