Naming Technique of the Night

Chapter 798: 481. Price

In a dark and sinister cave, the stalagmites, shaped only through aeons, took on the appearance they held today.

With features like clawing fangs, it seemed as if demons hid within the mountain, struggling to break free from the cave walls.

The massive creature underwater gradually surfaced, inch by inch climbing up the riverbank, stretching six meters in length.

It was only then that Qing Chen finally saw clearly that it was a top predator living underground, a Tyrant Salamander.

The salamander’s eyes seemed to have degenerated, its blurry and muddy pupils stared at Qing Chen.

Qing Chen stood before it, feeling exceptionally insignificant, as if targeted by a demon straight from hell.

The oppressive malevolence was something he had rarely encountered in his life.

Jindai Yunhe approached the Tyrant Salamander, but the fierce beast in the water did not show any sign of aggression, merely staying motionless, as if it had already become a pet of this A-Class powerhouse.

The Tyrant Salamander was draped in metal chains, like a saddle.

With the Tyrant Salamander’s protection, no other creature in the water would attack them.

Jindai Yunhe patted the rough skin of the Tyrant Salamander, black as rock, then turned to Qing Chen with a smile and said, “This is 700 meters underground, where even the life detection devices of the Aerial Fortress can’t find you. Even if powerful figures come to rescue you, with hundreds of forks and entrances along the way, it would take a thousand people three days and nights to find this place without spending hours in exploration.”

Jindai Yunhe continued, “By the time they find this place, I’ll have already taken you through an exit hundreds of kilometers away. It’s amusing to think about it, so many important figures trying to save you, only to find nothing in the end.”

Qing Chen calmly looked at Jindai Yunhe, “It’s hard on you to have prepared so thoroughly. I feel that the Jindai Consortium’s vision is too small, exposing so much just for one person like me.”

Jindai Yunhe shook his head, “I also thought you weren’t worth it. But after so many people came to rescue you and you showed potential that couldn’t be taken over, I felt you were worth all these resources.”

With that, Jindai Yunhe came over to fit Qing Chen with diving gear.

Qing Chen took a step back.

Jindai Yunhe smiled and said, “Resistance is useless. Even if you don’t cooperate, I’ll drag you into the water. Then, you’ll be the one suffering when you can’t breathe underwater.”

Qing Chen calmly said, “Would a dead me still hold any value?”

“Of course,” Jindai Yunhe said, “I would take your corpse back to Jindai and open up your skull to see why no one can take you over.”

Qing Chen said, “Maybe their level is too low. Why don’t we go back and try? Maybe you could take me over.”

Jindai Yunhe smiled and shook his head, “Do you think I’m a fool? Hurry up. Maybe you don’t know, but while the whole world is looking for you, Qing Hua and Yang Xuyang have already been secretly captured by us and will soon be transported to the north. If you don’t want to implicate them, just come with me obediently.”

Qing Chen paused for a moment, then stopped moving.

Because Qing Chen’s hands were still shackled with finger locks and wrist chains, Jindai Yunhe only strapped the oxygen tank on him.

Within the Federation, there aren’t many places that require underwater operations, so the diving equipment isn’t much more advanced than that of the Outer World.

This oxygen tank could last at most two hours.

This meant that Jindai Yunhe was confident he could traverse a hundred kilometers using the Tyrant Salamander in less than two hours.

Now, those trying to rescue Qing Chen would truly lose track of him.

The wilderness was vast; those searching to rescue him needed to first determine the search area, then carry out the rescue.

At normal human swimming speeds, one could cover roughly 1 to 3 kilometers per hour, but with the current of the Underground River, perhaps it could reach 20 kilometers per hour.

Who would have thought that they could traverse a hundred-kilometer diameter in just two hours?

If the estimate was wrong, then the search area would be incorrect too.

After Jindai Yunhe donned his diving gear, he looked at Qing Chen teasingly, “Inspector Qing Chen seems still calm, ready to become a prisoner under the Jindai Consortium?”

“Too much nonsense,” Qing Chen calmly said, “You are using talk to cover up the tension inside you. In fact, when you realized how terrifying the people coming to rescue me were, you weren’t sure whether someone would be waiting for you at the end of this Underground River, so you got scared.”

Jindai Yunhe smiled and shook his head as he climbed onto the back of the Tyrant Salamander, securing himself with an alloy chain.

He tugged at the rope connected to Qing Chen’s wrist, letting the Tyrant Salamander crawl back into the Underground River.

The Underground River was bitterly cold. The Tyrant Salamander shuttled through the river at a swift pace, its huge tail flapping like a propeller stirring the undercurrent.

Qing Chen was thus suspended behind it, advancing with the Tyrant Salamander.

He closed his eyes, feeling himself being tossed in the icy, dark current, like a doll adrift.

A dead end.

A hopeless situation.

The complexity of the Underground River was even greater than that of the cave. Even if Qing Chen could remember the way he came by memory, the swift current would be enough to prevent him from returning the same way.

Swimming against the current for a few meters per minute would exhaust all his strength.

So, if he wanted to survive, he would have to stop struggling and let Jindai Yunhe take him to the next exit.

Then live imprisoned within the military secret base of the Jindai Consortium for the rest of his life.

It seemed… there was no better option.

But what if Qing Chen hadn’t intended to survive from the moment he entered the water?

A Knight, even on a path of no return, must die with dignity.

Those who humiliate a Knight must pay with their lives.

“Everything has a price.”

Qing Chen calculated the time under the water and then opened his eyes, only the faint light from Jindai Yunhe’s flashlight ahead.

The blood vessels in his arms suddenly glinted with a silver light as billions of nanorobots within the young man’s body, having absorbed enough bioenergy, then converged toward his wrist.

They permeated from the gaps in the skin cells, covering the bracelet and finger locks like mercury.

They surged into the keyholes of the bracelet and finger locks.

The little ones hardened, pushing the mechanisms inside the locks.

With two faint clicks underwater, the finger locks and bracelet unlocked in unison.

This was the effect of the invasive nanorobots, and also long-awaited freedom.

Qing Chen grabbed the rope Jindai Yunhe used to tug him, pulling himself closer bit by bit.

In the dark waters, Jindai Yunhe’s ‘Sixth Sense’ was also weakened, failing to detect Qing Chen’s approach immediately along the rope.

When Jindai Yunhe turned around upon sensing something amiss, he saw Qing Chen already within a meter of him!

Below the water, the young man’s smile was brilliant as he pulled a hairpin between his fingers from behind Jindai Yunhe’s oxygen tank.

With a clank!

The black oxygen tank was amazingly scored by a strand of hair, emitting a metallic ring, and a large gash appeared on the tank, through which compressed air burst out furiously.

In that moment, Jindai Yunhe finally understood how this young man had killed before, realizing even the fragile strand of hair could become the deadliest weapon in his hands!

Jindai Yunhe didn’t know Qing Chen was a Knight.

Nor did he know that a Knight, even in their last breath, could use their hair as a weapon!

Jindai Yunhe, with a fierce expression, grabbed Qing Chen’s oxygen tank strap intending to pull it off for his own use.

As for whether Qing Chen had an oxygen tank or could survive, he did not care.

But Jindai Yunhe realized, within the light of the glow stick, Qing Chen was still laughing.

That radiant smile made him feel uneasy.

The next moment he discovered, Qing Chen had already sliced open his own oxygen tank before slicing open his!

The young man intended to die together with him!

Yet even then, Qing Chen wasn’t reassured, pulling out another strand of his hair, trying to strike on the disarrayed Jindai Yunhe using Knight Vital Energy targeted at his face.

But A-Class was ultimately A-Class, Jindai Yunhe evaded to the left, the ‘Autumn Leaf Knife’ formed from the strand of hair merely pierced the A-Class expert’s left arm, not even piercing through.

At that moment, Qing Chen had already released the rope, letting himself drift in the dark currents of the Underground River, separating from both the tyrant salamander and Jindai Yunhe, growing further apart.

It seemed Qing Chen was compelled to follow into the water unwillingly.

However, Qing Chen had already planned what to do before entering the water.

At this 700 meters underground, even if Yan Yan arrived, she would not be able to sense his field, neither his master Uncle Li Dong, Li Changqing, nor Shadow could save him.

Even if he could breathe underwater, he wouldn’t find an escape before running out of Knight Vital Energy.

After killing Jindai Yunhe, neither the tyrant salamander nor the ferocious underwater fish would spare him.

But it didn’t matter.

He could die here with Jindai Yunhe!

Perhaps in other places, ten Qing Chens wouldn’t be a match for one Jindai Yunhe.

But this place was different.

The mighty power of nature was enough to kill anyone.

Thank the world, for both taking away and giving.

If Jindai Yunhe thought death could intimidate Qing Chen into submission, he was too naive.

Knights never lacked the courage to face death!

Their path was always accompanied by life and death!

So Qing Chen had timed it, choosing to act 30 minutes after he and Jindai Yunhe entered the water.

The reason he waited 30 minutes was because in such circumstances, if Jindai Yunhe lost his oxygen, even if he returned immediately, he could not survive underwater for half an hour.

This A-Class powerhouse was destined to drown in this Underground River!

By this point, Jindai Yunhe was frantic. He couldn’t believe that he, a proud A-Class expert, would have his life endangered by a minor C-Class during his proudest moment!

Nor did he expect that this insignificant figure in his eyes would have the courage to exchange life for life.

Just then, the tyrant salamander opened its huge mouth, spitting out a black bag containing the artificial gills that Jindai Yunhe had hidden in advance, a technology brought over to the Outer World by the Time Traveler, which he never thought would actually come in handy.

He compelled the tyrant salamander to return along the same path to capture Qing Chen.

Even if it meant bringing back a corpse, he had to take this young man back!

However, when Jindai Yunhe returned, he was stunned to see that rather than drifting with the current, the young man was clinging to the rock wall at the top of the underground river as if climbing a mountain, painstakingly ‘ascending’ against the current step by step.

In this deadly situation, the opponent still hadn’t given up on a thread of survival.

…

Another chapter at 11 PM