The monsters behind several of those doors had just slammed open the door panels when they were engulfed by the oncoming flames. Their piercing shrieks lasted for only half a second before vanishing completely.
Once the flames burned out, the corridor was actually much cleaner.
Aside from the blackened walls, cracked floor tiles, and the heavy smell of burning in the air, at least those sickening pustules, flesh, and slime were nowhere to be seen.
Cen Yao withdrew her hand with satisfaction.
“Much better.”
Standing behind her, Xie Zhouxing smelled the pungent burning odor in the air, and the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
Her destructive power was truly terrifying.
He could even hear that the fireball just now had definitely blown up far more than ten monsters.
With an explosion like that, the laboratory would probably need a complete renovation.
That was assuming there was anyone left in this damn place to do it.
Xie Zhouxing raised his hands and clapped twice.
“Impressive.”
“This young master declares that from this moment on, Lady Witch is the only absolute ruler I recognize during the day.”
Cen Yao raised an eyebrow. “And at night?”
Xie Zhouxing lifted his chin.
“At night, it's naturally this young master's home turf.”
“The night is under my control.”
Looking at his arrogant and matter-of-fact attitude, Cen Yao said with a smile, “Then keep it up.”
Hearing her laugh, Xie Zhouxing's earlobes secretly grew a little warm.
He cleared his throat.
“Let's go.”
“Before this young master gets hungry, let's hurry up and find your teammates.”
Cen Yao led Xie Zhouxing around the laboratory and found a map of the facility.
The routes on the map were very clear, and it showed Cen Yao that the laboratory was ridiculously massive, divided internally into several sectors.
There was the Experiment Area, Observation Area, Incubation Area, Treatment Area, and an area marked as the “Core Research Area.”
Cen Yao quickly located the direction of the exit.
“This way.”
She continued forward with Xie Zhouxing.
With the map and Xie Zhouxing's ridiculously sharp hearing, the two of them moved much faster toward the exit.
However, the further they walked, the more horrifying the things Cen Yao saw became.
The doors to various laboratories stood wide open.
In some of the incubation pods, monsters that hadn't had the chance to escape were still floating in the liquid.
They came in all shapes and sizes: a two-headed infant, a feathered bird with a human face, and even a creature sliced into several pieces that was still twitching in the incubation fluid.
Some of the laboratories were piled high with archives.
The documents were filled with incomprehensible writing and serial numbers.
But the photographs scattered among them made Cen Yao feel extremely uncomfortable.
Most of the test subjects in the photos had originally been human.
There were the elderly, children, and terrified young people wearing ordinary clothes.
They were strapped to operating tables, their bodies bristling with needles and tubes.
Their bodies had been cut open, stitched up, and modified, ultimately turning into grotesque lumps of flesh that bore absolutely no resemblance to their original forms.
The smile on Cen Yao's face slowly faded.
She didn't stop, but every time she passed a laboratory, she would casually use her flames to incinerate both the incubation pods and the experimental records inside.
Flames danced at her fingertips, evaporating the incubation fluid holding the monsters and causing the glass pods to shatter one after another in the intense heat.
Wherever Cen Yao walked, the darkness was dispelled by her flames.
Monsters roared in the blazing fire.
The fully mutated test subjects locked in iron cages also tried to break out, but they ultimately dissolved into handfuls of ash amidst the flames.
Her movements grew increasingly fluid and practiced. Wind blades sliced through lunging monsters, and walls of fire blocked the mutants surging from the sides.
Frost spread rapidly across the floor, freezing the lightning-fast, four-legged monsters in their tracks.
Immediately after, small fireballs rained down, burning them to cinders.
A monster covered in eyeballs lunged down from the ceiling.
Without even looking up, the shadow at Cen Yao's side suddenly elongated, morphing into a black spike that pierced straight up through the monster's body, pinning it to the ceiling.
The monster shrieked as it struggled.
Cen Yao raised her hand, and flames surged, quickly reducing it to a charred lump.
Listening to the constant stream of explosions, slicing wind, and shrieking monsters around him, Xie Zhouxing gradually went from his initial awe to completely slacking off.
He didn't even need to listen to navigate.
As long as he kept close to Cen Yao's heels, all danger would vanish before it could even get near him.
How was this running a dungeon?
This was practically like following a big boss on a tour of their territory.
Xie Zhouxing followed behind leisurely.
Whenever Cen Yao needed to make a turn, he could easily keep up by tracking her footsteps.
When they encountered collapsed walls or obstacles blocking their path, Cen Yao would casually cast a Levitation Spell to move them aside.
He didn't even have to take a wide stride.
Xie Zhouxing felt that this was the easiest dungeon he had ever run since entering the Horror Game.
In past dungeons, he had to rely on his hearing during the day to assess his surroundings and use hand-to-hand combat to protect himself, with the night being his only true home turf.
But this time, he didn't have to do a single thing during the day.
He even had someone to heal his injuries; she was truly a magnificent carry.
Finally, the icon representing the exit on the map was right before them.
Cen Yao pushed open the final heavy iron door.
The outside wind rushed in. Unlike the decayed, rancid air inside the laboratory, the wind outside, though dusty, felt exceptionally dry.
Xie Zhouxing took a deep breath.
“We're finally out.”
Xie Zhouxing stepped out of the laboratory doors, stood on the open ground, and raised his arms to stretch.
He had a tall, slender build. Although the hospital gown was somewhat loose on him, it did nothing to diminish his strikingly handsome and flamboyant air.
His golden curls caught the warm hues of the setting sun. Tilting his head back, a brilliant smile spread across his face.
“You've worked hard, Lady Witch.”
He spoke with more sincerity than usual, and there was even a rare hint of embarrassment in his voice.
Cen Yao glanced at him sideways.
Xie Zhouxing's earlobes were tinged with a faint pink.
Clearly, he also knew he had been carried a bit too hard along the way.
Cen Yao didn't call him out on it, merely curving her eyes in amusement.
“It's good that you know I worked hard.”
“Remember to repay me in the future.”
Xie Zhouxing immediately straightened his back.
“No problem.”
“If you ever need anything in the future, just ask. If I can help, I'll do it even if it costs me my life.”
Cen Yao smiled but said nothing.
She turned her head and looked back at the massive, eerie laboratory behind them.
The building's exterior walls were peeling and cracked, most of the windows were shattered, and the interior was pitch black.
Yet even after stepping outside, she could still smell that nauseating stench of blood.
How much evil was hidden inside? How many people had been turned into mindless monsters that knew only to feast on flesh?
The smile in Cen Yao's eyes slowly faded away.
She raised her hand, and flames ignited at her fingertips once more.
This time, it wasn't just a tiny spark.
It was a sky-covering inferno.
Crimson-gold flames surged from her palm like a fire dragon soaring into the sky.
The fire dragon coiled and swept over the laboratory, its searing light turning the twilight sky a brilliant crimson.
In the next second, the flames swooped down.
“Boom!”
Rate on N.U.
