249 Chapter 248: The enemy of my enemy (1/2)
Even though there was a devious scheme cooking up in my head, for now I focused on climbing the tree as quietly and stealthily as I could. Fortunately, my footwork techniques allowed me to jump from branch to branch without causing them to shake or even a leaf to flutter, so the sentries wouldn't spot me even if they were looking in my direction.
Reaching the canopy of the tree, I perched on a particularly thick branch that was nestled behind a dense bush of leaves, and got to work. Adjusting my glasses, I magnified the image and scanned through the base camp belonging to Black Venom Cult.
My lenses projected a 3D holographic image with scrolling reams of data and irrelevant numbers. Honestly, I don't need to know the internal temperature of the base camp, the wind speed, humidity, or whatever. The qi flunctuations piqued a little of my interest, but in the end they were just white noise. If the enemy was stronger, they were stronger. Whether they had 100 units more qi or 50 units more qi made no difference.
On the other hand, my glasses did provide essential data, such as the disposition of forces the enemy had available to them. In addition to the dozen of them we almost encountered back in the outskirts of the Toxic Marshes, there was easily another twenty of them. If I wasn't mistaken, there were about thirty-five members of the Black Venom Cult present in the base camp right now, including the sentries and excluding members who had gone out on patrol or other missions. But those outliers could easily be tracked down later, especially with Tong Xue's skills.
As for the abducted, there were about fifteen of them still alive. Thrice that number had already expired, their corpses ruthlessly abandoned and dumped into a ditch not far from the Black Venom Cult's campsite.
Bastards…
Watching the hut where they held their victims, I checked to see if there were avenues or routes that would lead me straight into them. As I did so, I caught sight of Zi Sha.
He was wailing and gnashing his teeth violently as the Black Venom Cult members in white laboratory or medical coats (making them look like doctors or mad scientists) strapped him down into a gurney, writhing and struggling against his restraints. However, the leather harness held him tightly, the rough fabric biting into his skin and drawing some blood.
Zi Sha refused to give up, however, and continued to thrash about.
”Let me go!” he shouted. ”Let me go!”
The Black Venom Cult member ignored him, and instead took a syringe from nearby. He tapped it to check if the needle was working, and a droplet of yellowish liquid dripped out. Satisfied, he turned back to Zi Sha.
”Hold him down,” he instructed his assistants. They nodded and grabbed hold of Zi Sha's arms and shoulders, forcing him down into the gurney. After tightening the straps so hard that Zi Sha was practically bleeding from chaffing against the rough material, they stepped back. Despite still trying to resist, Zi Sha was no longer able to move. His arms and legs had been bounded to the gurney pretty tightly, his body lashed onto the surface.
Only his head and neck continued to twist and move as he glared at his kidnappers.
”You'll regret this! I'm not alone here! My team will be here soon! They will rescue me and wipe each and every one of you out!”
Fucking bastard. Could you just keep your mouth shut?! You just cost us the element of surprise. Now the enemy knew we were coming, which made the job of rescuing the kidnapped victims and defeating them a million times harder.
This loser was really dragging down anyone who followed him on a mission. Furthermore, he and Jiu Bu Liao were so arrogant and condescending that they told us to get lost and insisted on carrying out the mission on their own, using their own ways. And now when they screwed up and got themselves captured, they expected us to save them?!
Holy heavens…their skin must be meters thick.
Shaking my head, I continued to watch helplessly. There was nothing I could do from this distance. Even if I tried to charge over, they would be done with the injection before I could reach the perimeter, never mind the hut where they were experimenting on him.
As if to prove my point, the main Black Venom Cult member jabbed Zi Sha's arm with the syringe and depressed it.
Zi Sha howled in agony, his eyes bulging. I winced at the shrill scream of pain. It was almost as if he had molten lava flowing through his veins. He shrieked and screamed and jerked about, only to be held down by the restraints. More blood flowed freely as the straps bit eagerly on his skin, nullifying all his attempts and suppressing his flailing.
”Looks like it works,” the first Black Venom Cult member said in satisfaction.
After a moment, Zi Sha fell back motionlessly, his mouth foaming. The mad scientist who injected him nodded to his assistants, and they released him. Dragging Zi Sha's limp body, they threw him into a padded cell and left him there. Then they locked the door and proceeded to a series of monitors that displayed the interior of the cell.
Zi Sha stirred after a few moments, recovering in a surprisingly short amount of time. I was glad to see that he was all right. Perhaps the Black Venom Cult wasn't experimenting with poison on him? Once we get him out, we could get Teacher Yi Liao to check on him, to ensure they didn't inject him with anything funny…
However, his next movements were completely out of expectation. With a roar, Zi Sha clutched his head and curled into a fetal position. Foam bubbled from his mouth and his eyes rolled up in his sockets as he rolled about, groaning in indescribable agony.
Then he suddenly stood up and dashed toward the wall. Before I could say anything, Zi Sha smashed his head into the wall.
His skull cracked and blood gushed out. Still, Zi Sha ignored his injuries and continued hammering his head against the reinforced wall.
”What the fuck?” I murmured in disbelief.
Zi Sha continued to howl in agony – apparently the pain he was suffering surpassed the pain from the injuries he sustained from slamming his head against the wall.
The Black Venom Cultists watched impassively, as if this was perfectly normal, or within their expectations. They did nothing to stop him, only watching in great interest and recording the results of their experiment.
After a hundred or so times of banging his head against the wall, Zi Sha finally expired. His skull literally cracked open, and his brains spilling out with a significant amount of blood, he collapsed motionlessly. My lenses detected the cessation of his life-signs and the abrupt termination of his qi.
Zi Sha had literally committed suicide.
”Shall we mark this as a success then?” the main doctor asked as he turned toward his assistants. The both of them nodded, but I didn't know if it was because they sincerely agreed or because they didn't dare to contradict him.
They disposed of Zi Sha's body in the ditch outside and proceeded to the next victim. This time it was Jiu Bu Liao. She was screaming and shrieking, trying to break free of her captors' grip, but to no avail. Despite having artificial qi, she was inferior to them in strength.
Looked like amount of qi wasn't everything.
”Relax,” the mad scientist told her as he brought another syringe. His assistants strapped her to a chair instead of a gurney, and I was surprised they didn't restrain her as much as they did for Zi Sha. Perhaps they had something else planned?
”W…what do you intend to do?” Jiu Bu Liao stammered.
”This.” the Black Venom Cultist stabbed her with the syringe and injected her with its contents. Unlike Zi Sha, Jiu Bu Liao didn't go into a violent seizure. That explained why they didn't bind her as securely as they did for Zi Sha.
Jiu Bu Liao winced as the needle slid under her skin, drawing a tiny amount of blood, but she otherwise didn't seem to feel any ill effects.
For anything more than a few seconds, anyway.
”Ah…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
To my horror, Jiu Bu Liao's skin began to blacken and then liquefy, bubbling and melting off her bones. Whatever the Black Venom Cultist injected into her, it was definitely a fast-acting, potent poison. There was nothing I could do except see Jiu Bu Liao melt into a puddle before my very eyes, leaving nothing but a smoking skeleton.
”Ugh!”
Gagging, I covered my mouth and tried to swallow my nausea. Unlike me, the Black Venom Cultists didn't seem perturbed by the grisly death. They merely took notes, and the assistants then started to clean up the puddle and dispose of the skeleton.
To my surprise, they didn't even bother with protective gear. Clearly the Black Venom Cultists were immune to their own poisons. To be fair, I probably would want to ensure I was resistant to the dangerous stuff I was playing around with.
”That should be it for today.”
The main Black Venom Cultist clapped his hands in delight before washing up. His assistants also cleaned up after themselves, and they left the laboratory, leaving the imprisoned victims in the adjoining pen. With Zi Sha and Jiu Bu Liao's demise, there were only about a dozen left.
”Damn it…”
My throat was dry as I replayed the memory in my head. I couldn't save Jiu Bu Liao. There was no way Jiu Bu Liao could be saved. Our position from the Black Venom Cult's base camp was too far away. Even with my footwork techniques, it would take me a while to reach their fence. And even then I would need time to sneak in undetected, or risk fighting through the thirty or so cultists before barging into the laboratory where the mad scientist and his assistant resided. And they appeared to have quite the array of weapons at their disposal.
Worse, while I was fighting my way through, they could just take the abductees hostage and thus putting them at danger – which defeated my purpose of rescuing them in the first place.
”The fucker reminds me of Ba Yun,” I muttered angrily, still bearing a grudge against that bastard from the Chinese Parasol Tree Sect. Good thing I had already killed that guy, but it pissed me off to see there existed sadistic people like him, who treated other humans as experimental fodder to toy or play around with.
Sighing, I shook my head and forced myself back to the present. Right now I had to focus on mapping out the enemy's base camp and then formulate a rescue strategy. The prisoners' lives were the priority, then I could begin the gruesome work of exterminating this evil sect.
I recorded the images and drew up a holographic map, double-checked to see if the overlay was as accurate to reality as possible, and then dropped down lightly from the tree. I landed near its gnarled roots without a sound, and snuck back to where Tong Xue, Lian Rou and Yi Ding Si were hiding. Tong Xue glanced up when I joined them.
”How was it?” he asked.
”Bad.” I shook my head wearily. ”Zi Sha committed suicide and we won't be able to save Jiu Bu Liao.”
I filled them in on the disposition of the enemies, displayed a 3d rendering of a map of the base camp, and then played the recordings that my glasses had captured, projecting a holographic video for my three teammates to watch.
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”How did you record this?” Tong Xue asked skeptically as he watched the grisly video, looking a little green. ”Didn't this all take place inside an enclosed house? How were you able to record what was going on inside?”
”A combination of plot convenience and X-ray imaging technology,” I replied.
”Huh? Buut X-ray imaging shouldn't be able to record such images in high detail…”
”Let's just use the 'everything is because of magic' explanation and roll with it, okay?” I dismissed him impatiently. ”That's not important right now. The important thing is finding a way to rescue all the victims and getting them to safety before the Black Venom Cultists realize we're in there. And then exterminating the Black Venom Cult.”
”Can we really pull it off with our numbers? There's thirty-five of them.” Yi Ding Si had paid attention to my briefing, and noted the enemy's strength. He looked at the three of us nervously. ”And they seem to be at a higher level of cultivation, given how they subdued Zi Sha and Jiu Bu Liao so easily.”
”That's why we're going to ask for help.” Rising to my feet, I turned toward the direction of where our stalkers had concealed themselves. ”I hope you don't mind offering your assistance, Miss Song Ting Yu?”
”You know we are here?”
Song Ting Yu stepped out of the forest, a little surprised. Her bodyguards also followed, forming a protective semicircle behind her. They knew me well enough to not suspect me of treachery or any sort of aggression.