Super Soldier in the City-Chapter 2074 - 2137: Stone Tablet
Xu Shanshan’s face turned pale, and Li Yifei signaled for her to stay in place, but Xu Shanshan shook her head, held Li Yifei’s hand, and followed him onto the beach. The beach was littered not only with human corpses but also with scorpion monster carcasses. The entire scene was a mess, covered with footprints, blood, body parts, and signs of destruction. This was a basketball-sized beach, bordered by a lake on one side and surrounded by raised areas several meters high on the other three sides, forming a depression. So it was hard for those people to escape, being hunted and trapped here by scorpion monsters that appeared out of nowhere.
Li Yifei noticed that some of the dead bodies were hollowed out, no doubt eaten by the surviving scorpion monsters.
There wasn’t a single living person, at least not at the scene. Of course, Li Yifei didn’t know if some people had escaped or if everyone perished here.
Xu Shanshan found a backpack, handed it to Li Yifei, and after opening it, they discovered that aside from food, there was also a map. It was a slate-like map, with the engraving on it no longer clearly visible.
But it was clear that the center of the slate marked something like an island, surrounded by the sea. Turning the slate over, Li Yifei saw that the back also had lines drawn, resembling a map.
"Is it a map of the island?" Xu Shanshan’s finger traced the lines, but Li Yifei frowned and shook his head, saying, "Not necessarily. Try to find our current location. At least, I don’t see any lake markers here!"
"It’s not right. This circle seems to represent a lake, doesn’t it?" Xu Shanshan pointed to a small circle at the edge of the map.
"No way..." Li Yifei was slightly stunned. If that does represent a lake, it would mean the island is much larger than he imagined—tens or even hundreds of times larger. And the place they spent two days reaching might only be a tenth of the way in, or even less.
Li Yifei measured the distance from the lake to the center of the island, shaking his head in disbelief. But if this slate map was real, then it was very possible.
"Let’s not worry about it for now. Carry the slate and we’ll continue forward. If we encounter other landmarks, we might be able to confirm the authenticity of this slate." Li Yifei said, taking off his backpack and replacing it with the one Xu Shanshan found, packing their supplies inside. He also gathered some food from those people, but he didn’t bother taking any firearms. In fact, he was tempted to throw away the ones he had, as the bullets, despite their power, were clearly inadequate for dealing with the monsters here.
What truly could inflict damage was the sword in his hand.
"Honey, we..." Xu Shanshan was bending over to pick up a pair of gloves from a female’s backpack, just as she raised her head and her expression changed. Far away on the sand dune, several black heads suddenly emerged, with huge claws on either side. Seeing this, Xu Shanshan immediately realized what they were.
Noticing Xu Shanshan’s change in expression, Li Yifei turned around and saw those creatures too.
They appeared not only on one side but also on the other two sides—several, a dozen, even dozens.
They were surrounded by these scorpion monsters while collecting supplies.
"Zing!" Li Yifei drew his sword, and Xu Shanshan did the same. Infused with True Qi, a white sword energy and a blue sword energy followed. Last night they only saw those scorpion monsters but didn’t engage them, so they weren’t sure about their capabilities. Trapped in the encirclement now, Li Yifei didn’t choose to run immediately.
In fact, it wasn’t possible to escape right now; they had to fight their way out of the encirclement. With two swords drawn, Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan retreated a little. Staying at their previous position would mean enemies on three sides, even a complete encirclement. It was safer to retreat towards the water.
The scorpion monsters slowly closed in, tightening the encirclement, and the constant rustling made the hair on the back of their necks stand up. These multi-legged creatures were unnervingly quick.
"Be careful. If it doesn’t work, fall back. They’re fast, but they can’t outrun us." Li Yifei advised.
Xu Shanshan nodded, saying, "You too."
Testing whether their swords could cut through the tough shells of these creatures, Li Yifei swung his sword at the nearest scorpion monster. The long sword struck the monster’s massive pincers, producing a metallic clanging sound, as if sparks could fly out at any moment. Clearly, the creature’s shell was extremely hard, making direct hacking ineffective.
But Li Yifei hadn’t intended to hack randomly. Since these things resembled scorpions, they must have similar weaknesses. Li Yifei noticed that the sides of the scorpion monsters’ bodies had some areas without the hard shell. Spinning around, he dashed forward a couple of steps, dodged the attack from the scorpion’s pincers, and thrust back with his sword. The long sword, imbued with a white Sword Aura, pierced deeply into the unprotected spot.
Got it! Li Yifei heard the scorpion monster beside him let out a violent shriek, its powerful pincers swung towards him, but he was already out of reach.
Over on Xu Shanshan’s side, she also took action. Thanks to her prior experience with the horned giant lizard, she located the scorpion monsters’ weaknesses. Her agile movements were swift and nimble, and the Blue Glow in her hand flickered continuously, killing a scorpion monster in a few strokes. The Sword Aura exploded inside the scorpion, quickly destroying its internal organs, taking its heart along.
Taking a glance at Xu Shanshan, Li Yifei shouted encouragement, and without slowing down, he swiftly finished off another one.
Dealing with the scorpion monsters wasn’t too difficult; as long as you were fast enough, your sword was sharp, and you were strong, it wasn’t hard to handle them. The problem was that there were so many of them. Looking around, there seemed to be hundreds, possibly even more. After Li Yifei killed a few, he saw more swarming toward him and decided to leave. These things weren’t like monsters in a game that drop loot when killed; there was nothing to gain from slaying them.
Being surrounded is still dangerous, so Li Yifei called Xu Shanshan to prepare to leave. Xu Shanshan responded, and Li Yifei led the way. Though these creatures were strong, Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan were agile.
Perhaps those people last night were caught in a similar situation – even if they were skilled, they ended up being killed.
Similarly, for Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan, being surrounded was dangerous. With Li Yifei breaking through the encirclement, Xu Shanshan followed closely behind. They quickly broke through the scorpion monsters’ perimeter, leaping onto a nearby high ground. Turning back, Li Yifei shouted, "Are you okay?"
"I’m fine, let’s run and shake them off first!" Xu Shanshan said, turning back and swinging her sword. The Blue Glow erupted, slicing the pursuing scorpion monsters. Unfortunately, the strike didn’t hit any vital points, only temporarily slowing them down.
After more than ten minutes, the two managed to run a few kilometers, finally shaking off these persistent creatures. Apart from some areas on their flanks, the rest of the creatures’ defenses were high.
The two stood on a gentle hillside, the scorpion monsters long gone. Along the way, they even saw the scorpion monsters’ lair—a rugged area full of holes, from which countless scorpion monsters emerged to join the chase as they ran by.
Fortunately, they were fast enough, never stopping, eventually escaping from there.
"Phew, I’m glad we got out of there. If we had been trapped inside, I’m afraid we wouldn’t have made it out." Xu Shanshan wiped the sweat from her forehead. Such prolonged use of movement techniques to escape was physically and True Qi demanding. Seeing the sweat on Li Yifei’s forehead, Xu Shanshan walked over and used her clothing to wipe it for him.
Li Yifei took a deep breath, chuckled, and said, "Smells good."
"You rascal!" Xu Shanshan rolled her eyes at him and sat down on the ground to meditate and recover. At least, this high ground seemed safe for now; they were out of the scorpion monsters’ territory.
"You recover first. I feel okay, so I’ll study the surroundings!" Li Yifei took out a stone tablet, while observing the terrain around them.
This island was too vast. If they followed their earlier research plan, it might take three or four days to reach their destination.
An hour later, Xu Shanshan awoke from her meditation, and it was Li Yifei’s turn to recover.
So for another hour, the two of them recovered almost completely. Li Yifei pointed in the direction of the lake and said, "I saw on the stone tablet there’s a path. I think we can take that route instead of going by the lake. As it seems, the lakeside is very dangerous. If that water monster emerges, we won’t be able to handle it."
Actually, it’s not that they couldn’t handle it, just that it would be too troublesome. The two needed to speed up their journey and reduce unnecessary consumption. Encountering that water monster would definitely be a hassle.
"Alright, I’ll listen to you," Xu Shanshan nodded.
They took out some food, ate, and set off again.
After walking a distance, Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan stopped simultaneously because they heard roars coming from the lakeside. It seemed the water monster was out again, though it was unclear what it was fighting against.
"It’s none of our business. Let’s keep going," Li Yifei said.
Xu Shanshan nodded, then heard Li Yifei ask, "If you feel tired, let me know. Though we need to hurry, we can’t wear you out."
"I understand." Xu Shanshan pressed her lips together. Her presence indeed brought some influence on Li Yifei. If it were just Li Yifei himself, they might have already reached a spot not far from the island’s center by now. However, they hadn’t even covered half the distance, not even one-third, if the map on the stone tablet was accurate.
It was also clear to both of them that this newly discovered island was vast. It was far larger than the few-square-kilometer small island they initially imagined. If it were that small, they could have already walked around it several times.
But such a large island would take up a significant area, making it impossible to go undiscovered for so many years. Even if the island had some way of being hidden, in actual navigation, it should have been encountered long ago.
