Though Jacob didn’t continue to guide them, anyone with eyes should know where to go.
Because the filth under their feet was not only filled with thick foul blood but also intermittently kicked up human limbs.
This was increasingly reminiscent of Opportunity City, and Chen Ke couldn’t help but miss that toad that only spoke the ancient language of Fei Huang, as after all, it was his first Transcendent blood.
The trio tacitly fell silent. The guards were within a stone’s throw, and under the sweep of Spiritual Vision, the nearest one was just over ten meters away, right around the corner.
Chen Ke pulled out a dagger and cautiously approached the wall, while Xu Jing stayed behind him.
In theory, Xu Jing’s Spiritual Power should be much stronger than Chen Ke’s, but she seemed to prefer not to take action, just as she said she didn’t want to directly interfere with objective reality.
Jacob, now breaking his previous silence without needing a prompt, knew the three had entered the underground perimeter of the academy, and even if he wanted to play some tricks, now was not the time.
Chen Ke hadn’t acted yet when he saw Jacob pull a throwing knife from his waistband, striding through the water around the corner.
There were two muffled noises, and a guard in a blue uniform holding a crossbow was kicked into the filthy water by him and lay face down without moving.
The string of the crossbow in the guard’s hand loosened in the filthy water, and a bolt whizzed toward Jacob. It seemed like it would pierce through him, but with a graceful sidestep, Jacob dodged the arrow.
"That was close! I guess I should be more careful next time..." Jacob picked up the crossbow from the water to inspect it.
"It seems we’ve already gone deep underground in the academy. You should have warned us sooner," Chen Ke retracted his dagger and said.
"Sorry, I didn’t know they would be guarding here. It was very safe the last time I came," Jacob shook his head, taking the quiver from the guard’s body.
"So, is this route no longer safe?" Xu Jing asked.
"It’s possible I made too much noise the last time I was here, or perhaps they just realized the sewers needed guarding too, who knows? But now that we’re here, we don’t have any other choice," Jacob readied another bolt and looked at Chen Ke and Xu Jing.
"If we kill them, no one will know we’ve infiltrated," Chen Ke pulled out his revolver.
"You’d better not use that gun. In the sewers, one shot and the sound travels too fast," Jacob cautioned.
"Then you take the lead," Chen Ke said.
Jacob did not refuse, leading the way with the hand crossbow.
With guards on this path, there were now oil lamps on the walls, and the red filth underfoot became thick, probably because of the high blood content making it coagulate.
Chen Ke felt his toes as if wrapped in putty, thinking about the human limbs beneath the surface and speculating that grainy soft substance must be a sediment of human fat, blood, and feces.
Soon their overhead space opened up increasingly and the trio moved into a brand new conduit.
Jacob shot several guards along the way with the crossbow, while Chen Ke and Xu Jing were responsible for dragging their bodies to the sides and disposing of them properly.
At another vast collection center for waste water, they saw a humanoid creature suspended by iron chains at the center.
The creature had six pairs of arms, all bound by chains, with its back brutally skinned, like an open umbrella.
Looking at the creature made one uncomfortable because looking at its head, one would find that a third of his face was occupied by a pair of insect-like compound eyes.
Its six pairs of hands were also extremely bizarre; apart from the normal pair with shoulders, the other five pairs of arms were inserted on the waist and abdomen, where the eight abdominal muscles formed the root of the five pairs of arms.
Its legs were recurved, with thighs that were still human in shape, while the lower legs were chitinized, feeling strong and powerful, and also coated with many black spines.
It had long hair that hung down in front of its body, the skinned part of its back revealed black, keratin-like subcutaneous muscles, with blood red skin covering its entire body.
Its black back skin was slick, and a few hooks with ropes pulled it open, fixing it into the posture of a wing.
Calling it human-shaped was not exactly fitting, as it more closely resembled a hybrid of human and insect, and judging by the proportions of its limbs, the creature would stand over three meters tall if it arose.
In Chen Ke’s vision, an information box appeared over this creature, revealing it as a Transcendent individual in mid-transformation, its status... asleep.
"It’s asleep," whispered Chen Ke, glancing at Xu Jing.
Xu Jing nodded, her expression showing no surprise. As a Foundation agent, she had seen it all.
Whatever method she used, Xu Jing was also aware that this thing wasn’t dead, just sleeping.
This creature was a Transcendent level monster, at least as formidable as that toad. It seemed the sewers were indeed a playground for Transcendent mutants.
In the year 1859, such a sight was overwhelmingly shocking for the ordinary person.
However, Jacob was just as composed as Chen Ke and the others, even though his face also showed surprise, Chen Ke was certain the thing that surprised him definitely wasn’t the monster.
Perhaps what astonished Jacob even more was why Chen Ke and Xu Jing could remain calm upon seeing it.
At the same time, Chen Ke noticed that Jacob seemed to be deliberately maintaining a short distance from them.
"Jacob, when you came here before, did you see this thing?" Chen Ke asked.
"You’d better get ready," Jacob said with a smile.
Chen Ke understood what Jacob’s words implied; he knew the other party had intentionally led them here.
"You’d better know what you’re doing," Xu Jing said with a smile.
"Of course, I know; I’ve always known," Jacob replied coldly.