Chapter 530
The prevailing darkness robbed Lin Sanjiu of her sight . She couldn't see anything . All she could register was the creaking sound of the door as it swung open .
Pulling herself together, she focused solely on her hearing . She did not want to miss any other sounds that might put her in immediate danger . However, the person inside the cell wasn't an actual human, and there was no sign of human activity at all . The moment a gust of wind grazed her cheek, it was already too late . She quickly turned around to find that "person" had already arrived in front of her .
In the next second, she felt a cold sensation spreading from her wrist, followed by a warm feeling .
A pulse of severe pain shot straight up to her brain, and before she could groan out in pain, her vision blurred . As the pain continued to drill deeper into her body, she found her sight had returned . She opened her eyes, and what met her gaze were three things: a rough cement wall, a riddled straw mat, and a small glass window .
They had been sent back to their cell again .
Lin Sanjiu raised her right arm, gasping in pain . When her gaze fell to her wrist, she froze, unable to say a thing .
Her entire right hand from her wrist through her palm was gone, vanished .
Since she was in her Higher Consciousness form, there was no blood or bone . If one were to see inside the fracture, he would find nothing inside, just like the Higher Consciousness, formless, and colorless .
Lin Sanjiu had suffered many injuries over the years, yet none of them were comparable to the pain she was feeling right now . Losing a portion of her Higher Consciousness felt as if somebody had sliced off a part of her brain or ripped her soul apart . She couldn't do anything other than lay on the ground, writhing and twisting in agony .
She remained on the ground for quite a long while until the pain had tortured her enough and ebbed away . She pulled herself up from the ground and looked ahead to see J7 squirming on the ground helplessly like a flipped turtle . Its two wheels brandished around in the air, trying to flip itself over, but its attempt bore no fruit at all . Just when she wanted to go forward and help it up from the ground, she noticed that its 'tail' was gone .
Understanding instantly dawned on her . It seemed that the "person" in the cell had severed both her hand and J7's tail at the same time . Without physical contact, both of them were thrown back to their cell .
"Are you alright?" Lin Sanjiu picked J7 up and reorientated it with only one hand . It appeared to her that she needed more time than ever to recover the Higher Consciousness she had lost .
"Not so good . "
J7 reconstructed its body by rotating its body parts, leaving one mechanical arm for Lin Sanjiu to hold . Lin Sanjiu let out a bitter smile; then, she pointed to her right wrist, "I have lost my right hand, so I have only one hand left . Do you think you can make your arm longer and coil it around my waist?"
Even so, without her right hand, there were a lot of things she couldn't do . Standing stock-still at the door, her brows creased in concern as she peered into the darkness . After a short introspection, she turned her head and glanced around the cell .
"Take these two straw mats . Roll them into sticks so that we can use them to guide us around in the dark . Just like the white cane a blind man uses . " As Lin Sanjiu spoke, she took a mat from the ground and rolled it into a stick . The mat was pretty thin even though it was rolled into a cane so she could hold it easily with one hand . She swung it around, and though it was a little bit soggy, she found it useful as a tool to guide them through the dark hallway .
"This is so… primitive," J7 judged begrudgingly as it gazed at the mat .
Since J7 originated from a more advanced world where science and technology blossomed, it somehow found Lin Sanjiu's idea intolerable, "If we were not in the Astral Plane, perhaps I can make an infrared detector out from my body . "
But they had no other options left . Holding a roll of straw mat each, they walked carefully and quietly into the dark .
Lin Sanjiu realized that they were exposed because they talked the last time, so she did not dare to speak this time . She would use the straw mat to feel her surroundings first before taking a step . The good thing was that they were both in their Higher Consciousness Form, so they did not have to worry about the susurration of their clothes . They tiptoed in the black void for a long while until Lin Sanjiu's straw mat touched something in front, releasing a slight jarring sound into the air .
Lin Sanjiu's heart skipped a beat at the creaking sound that sliced through the darkness . It turned out that she had bumped into a steel door that was left ajar . The door slid open wider . Before she could get deeper into why the door was left open, the hair on her nape bristled . She pounced forward, narrowly avoiding a gust of wind that whistled past over her head .
A prisoner was wandering around in the hallway!
Lin Sanjiu had not slightest notion of how the prisoner managed to cut off one of her hand, but she knew that it was best not to allow him to touch her body . However, that also meant that she couldn't attack .
In desperation, she yelled at J7, "Shoot him with your gun!"
"That'll produce a lot of sparks," J7 said matter-of-factly, "And when there are sparks…"
"I know!" As they talked, Lin Sanjiu once again narrowly dodged another ambush that scraped past her, inflicting her skin with searing pain . "This will work . You have to believe me!"
The moment the words escaped her lips, she cursed herself inside her heart .
As she had expected, J7 immediately replied from the dark, "Negative . "
Lin Sanjiu chided again inwardly, the feeling of exasperation welled in her breast . It was just she did not have the time to say anything as the prisoner threw another attack at her again . She couldn't understand why the prisoner would target her first rather than going after J7 . Sprawling utterly flat on the ground, Lin Sanjiu found herself without a place to run anymore . She made a desperate attempt and swept her leg over . When her leg connected with the prisoner, an excruciating pain immediately bolted up to her brain .
Although the prisoner wasn't an actual person, he wasn't formless .
Seeing that there was no response from the dark, Lin Sanjiu couldn't help hopping around, dodging the attack while continue to persuade J7, "Our goal is the same: to get out from here! I know how to deal with him, but I need your assistance!"
She didn't know which words she said had convinced the machine to follow her plan . She paused for a moment, and the next thing she heard was a whirring of a machine in the air, followed by J7's voice bereft of any emotion, "Show me where to shoot . "
Lin Sanjiu let out a sigh of relief, and she was almost in tears . She grabbed the rolled-up straw mat and threw it at the prisoner when he leaped at her, "Now!"
A muffled sound was emitted when the straw mat clashed with the prisoner . Taking that as its cue, J7 fired a barrage of bullets at that spot . The prisoner seemingly screamed in pain as the bullet hit him, but Lin Sanjiu couldn't tell if her ears were playing a trick with her or if it was real because she was busy lunging herself at J7 . She hugged it and rolled into the cell the moment it stopped shooting .
A massive number of gunshots ensued as the machine guns shot down the hallway in unison right after they had rolled into the cell, raising sparks and smoke into the air . Motionless, lying prone on the ground behind the door, they waited .
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login