Dark Civilization Volume 1 Chapter 16

Book 1 Chapter 16: Grand Lobby of Peril!

The three headed from the door to the elevator in single file.

Inside, Bai Long couldn't help but stare at the three backpacks in his grasp. With a face full of dissatisfaction, he shifted his gaze between the two. It seems Ye Chen and his sister have both unanimously liberated themselves of their backpacks and have designated him as their new carrier. Bai Long wondered if he had inadvertently joined a metaphorical 'pirate ship' where he played the role of slave labourer in the troupe….

With little choice in the matter, he laughed bitterly at his current predicament. Bai Long was convinced that he was coerced by some malignant jinx into agreeing to leave the safety of the hotel with these two maniacs. To hurl himself willingly into such peril was akin to a long-lived fool who ingested a.r.s.enic to hasten his own demise, was he tired of his own longevity or something?

Xiao Yi!

Bai Long cried her name out in his thoughts before breathing out a sigh. The pain and longing that clouded his eyes for an instant, disappeared deep into his heart. Acting as though nothing happened, he casually called out to Ye Chen who stood in front, saying: "What's the hurry? Wouldn't it be better to leave when we've built up our strength further?"

Ye Chen shot back his reply, saying: "I have my own plans."

Bai Long pursed his lips in silence.

15th floor!

12th floor!

7th floor!

As the elevator descended, the three did not engage with any idle chatter. They each held their weapons closely and focused their senses. They were well aware that the bottom floor contained the highest amount of zombies!

It was also quite possible for a formidable mutant beast to appear!

2nd floor!

1st floor!

*Ding!

As the elevator stabilized, a soft 'ding' resounded before the doors gradually opened.

Like a parting set of heavy curtains, the scene behind was slowly revealed to Ye Chen and the others. In front of them was a grand and s.p.a.cious lobby crowned with an exquisitely crafted chandelier and walls decorated with elegant motifs giving a majestic sense of luxury and cla.s.s.

However, within this grand lobby stood numerous zombies, anch.o.r.ed stiffly upon the well-polished floor. Their grotesque forms stood in stark contrast with the lavish surroundings, giving rise to a bizarre sense of horror!

"2,4,6,8,10,……" Ye Chen swept the lobby with a glance and counted 82 zombies altogether! The clothes upon each zombie revealed a little of what each of them were like before they turned. There were security guards, business men, perhaps some tourists judging by their casual clothes and many others. Some of the zombies still had their gla.s.ses on, no doubt individual who suffered from impaired vision during their lives.

"Rrrargh!"

The slight noise made from the elevator alerted every zombie to their arrival. The nearest was a woman zombie, dressed like a hotel staff. Her chest had been torn into and was covered in dried blood. With eyes fiendish from hunger, the woman zombie bared her maw and lunged towards Ye Chen.

"Grrargh!" "Rrrargh!"

The entire horde of zombies filled the lobby with their piercing snarls before scrambling towards the three like a furious tide.

Ye Chen's eyes were cold. Behind him, Ye Zhu began to pale while Bai Long's facial muscles stiffen as though he were suffocating.

"Scram!"

With one step out of the elevator, Ye Chen spun his body around performing a spin kick. As his foot plunged into the woman zombie's stomach, it dispersed an explosive amount of kinetic energy which sent her entire body hurtling backwards and crashing into one of the incoming zombies.

Although Ye Chen had clearly obliterated all of her organs by caving in the woman zombie's abdomen, she continued to prop up her upper body in a furious crawl back in his direction.

Without looking back, Ye Chen swiped Bai Long's watermelon knife and began wielding a weapon in each hand. With an axe in his right hand and a knife in his left, he took on the likeness of a deity of war. Stepping forth, his black hair swayed as he directed his frigid glare towards his incoming prey.

"Bloodwind arts fourth stance!"

"Twin-edge slaughter!"

Ye Chen began flourishing the watermelon knife and fireman's axe in elegant arcs, seemingly like a b.u.t.terfly in dance. Brandishing the two weapons allowed him to maintain a watertight defense. Any zombie that got within three feet would be instantly wounded with dozens of lacerations!

Bloowinds arts had a total of nine stances. Each stance should only be used in a specific instance!

First stance: blindside a.s.sault, used when behind a mutant freak!

Second stance: rising-dragon strike, used when underneath a mutant freak!

Third stance: mirage blade, used when facing a mutant freak directly!

Fourth stance: twin-edge slaughter, a crowd control stance used when surrounded by groups!

The fifth, sixth stance onwards had their own individual uses as well.

Although there were only nine stances in all, they covered all possible contingencies. Take mirage blade of the third stance for example, mirage blade had four levels of usage: mirage ten blades, mirage hundred blades, mirage thousand blades and mirage ten thousand blades!

With Ye Chen current strength, he could only perform mirage ten blades at most. Forcefully performing mirage hundred blades would result in crippling his own hands!

The fourth stance, twin-edge slaughter was not performed during earlier encounters precisely because it places immense physical strain on the hands in order to perform such high speed movements.

At the moment, every zombie in the lobby was converging towards him. With every handful of zombies he mowed down, more would take their ranks. In the blink of an eye, the ground was littered with a mountain of corpses. The stacking corpses began to encroach upon Ye Chen's surroundings, slowly increasing the strain in his movements as they obstructed his range of motion.

"Die!" Without a hint of panic, Ye Chen's glare hardened as he sped up his movements. With his legs taking a wide stance, he spun his body around vigorously. The weapons in his hands swept out, kicking up a furious storm of howling wind.

"Dragon's tempest!"

This was the second level of twin-edge slaughter, similar to mirage hundred blades. The key difference is, a single target stance is more physically demanding while a crowd control stance required an exponentially higher amount of finesse and precision. Dragon's tempest required a higher swing speed than twin-edge slaughter as well as incorporating basic footwork in coordination for increased momentum in order to pull it off.

Although crowd control stances covered a wide area, they don't measure up to single target stances in terms of stopping power. Making the jump from mirage ten blades to mirage hundred blades required an exponential increase in muscle power in order to compensate for the increased swings per interval!

The essence of crowd control stances were finesse as it core and strength as a supplement.

Ye Zhu and Bai Long gawked in utter astonishment as they stood within the elevator. As the billowing winds blew against their faces, their hair flew backwards as the sound of furious howling entered their ears.

Outside the elevator, aside from the snarling zombies was an indistinct figure shrouded in a flurry of gleaming blades. Any zombie that neared was torn to shreds under the shimmering of dancing metal.

Even the piles of corpses that encroached upon Ye Chen were swept into scattering chunks by the relentless tornado of sharpened steel. His surroundings were instantly cleared of obstacles, allowing him to perform any blade arts he desired.

Soon after performing dragon's tempest, Ye Chen could feel a gradually intensifying pain transmitted from his arms. His brows began to crease as he lamented how it has only been ten or so seconds since he kicked himself into high gear. His arms would not last for much longer; it appears that his current body was still lacking the capacity for such a demanding blade art. If he persisted further, it could end up paralyzing his arms. Therefore, he switched back to using twin edge slaughter.

During the battle, Ye Chen snuck a peek at the streets outside. It seems like the streets were swarming with zombies, listlessly shuffling about. This h.e.l.lish scene would chill the hearts of anyone who beheld it.

The only thing worth being thankful for was the fact that there were no mutant beasts amidst the horde of zombies in the lobby. Otherwise Ye Chen would be forced to choose between his own safety and protecting Ye Zhu and Bai Long.

However, this could hardly be surprising as mutant beasts were creatures that evolved into a new lifeform. Their flesh and blood were bright red unlike the festering, rot infested zombies which carried blackish blood.

If you considered zombies to be undead creatures, then mutant beasts were proper living creatures.

That's why zombies would not hesitate to swarm mutant beasts en ma.s.se as they too carried fresh blood which made zombies ravenous. This was the only similarity between unturned humans and mutant beasts, they were both prey in the eyes of zombies!

Translator's Notes:

Bai Long who described himself as a slave labourer, more specifically refers to a coolie. Coolies were unskilled/ uneducated labourers more common in the 19th century that were primarily tasked with physical labour such as carrying luggage.

Once again, Bai Long inwardly mentions the mystery girl Yi'er in his heart, first introduced in chapter 12.

A more literal translation of dragon's tempest is tornado dragon cleave.