Chapter 710 - 385: Contaminant

Getting into the borrowed car, Yang An took a moment to get used to the feel of it. He had never driven in his previous life, but for the man he was now, driving wasn’t difficult.

With a roar of its engine, the car tore through the silent night and sped off.

Yang An drove in the direction he had memorized upon entering the 6th Floor. He drove straight down the current street; the further he went, the deeper he would be in the corresponding location within the Land of Shattered Armor.

On the nearly empty streets, his speed quickly climbed over eighty miles per hour. It was far less taxing than traveling on foot in the Land of Shattered Armor, and he didn’t have to worry about any traffic Rules.

The city was huge, and the sound of the car echoed loudly.

He couldn’t take off his mask, as he didn’t know what the consequences would be. This meant he couldn’t disguise himself as an ordinary person, and the mask itself would attract unwanted attention.

Yang An even considered looking for a high-speed rail or intercity train, which would be far faster than driving.

The journey was uneventful. An hour later, Yang An reached the edge of the city. He stopped just short of the exit and killed the headlights.

In the distance, he saw figures milling about the checkpoint on the road out of the city.

Under the bright streetlights, he was surprised to see numerous people in camouflage uniforms, carrying firearms and patrolling the area.

The moment he saw them, Yang An knew driving out of the city was impossible.

The world of the 6th Floor was strange. It had Cultivators and Mutants—beings analogous to Cultivators and Demon Fiends. He wasn’t sure if ordinary people knew about this, but the authorities certainly did.

These people at the checkpoint were most likely government agents. If Yang An tried to pass through as he was, he would certainly be stopped.

’Looks like this is as far as I can go.’

Yang An got out of the car without hesitation. The sound seemed to alert the checkpoint, and a spotlight beam shot out, landing on him.

Even from hundreds of meters away, Yang An heard the sound of guns being chambered. One by one, dark muzzles in the distance were already trained on him.

A voice boomed from a loudspeaker, carrying clearly to Yang An’s ears in the silent night.

"Don’t move!"

But the words had barely faded when Yang An activated his mask. The world before him dissolved in a flash of fire, and in an instant, he returned from the 6th Floor to the Land of Shattered Armor.

A desolate wasteland—the Land of Shattered Armor—filled his vision. But at the same instant, Yang An sensed a sudden, immense danger.

His gaze shot upward. A colossal black shadow was plummeting from the sky toward his position, its massive form casting everything within a thousand-meter radius into darkness.

The aura and pressure it gave off were even stronger than the giant centipede he had encountered before. Yang An’s expression changed instantly. He felt as if he had been locked on to.

With no time to think, after being back in the Land of Shattered Armor for less than two seconds, Yang An activated his mask again and returned to the 6th Floor.

Facing a group of men with guns on the 6th Floor was a better option than fighting such a powerful, unknown monster.

The sense of danger vanished instantly. But upon returning to the 6th Floor, Yang An found himself in the exact same spot. Now, however, several jeeps packed with armed men were speeding toward him.

Yang An’s sudden disappearance and reappearance had, without a doubt, captured their full attention. Now, a multitude of red dots converged on his body.

However, Yang An’s gaze suddenly shot toward the sky. Out of the pitch-black night, a shadow was falling here as well. In that same instant, it crashed down onto one of the jeeps.

With a thunderous CRASH, the speeding jeep flipped onto its side, scraping across the ground in a shower of sparks. The men inside were thrown out, and their agonized cries filled the air.

This sudden development immediately diverted the attention of the armed men at the checkpoint. They all swung their guns toward the attacking shadow.

In a flicker of intersecting light and shadow, Yang An saw the shadow’s true form. It was a monkey, its body covered in shaggy fur and its face hideous. Its two arms, however, were its most peculiar feature—they looked as if they were covered in glass beads.

The men at the checkpoint didn’t hesitate for a second and immediately opened fire.

Muzzles flashed, spitting fire into the dark. The monster monkey was incredibly fast, dodging the dense barrage of bullets. But then, unexpectedly, it charged in Yang An’s direction.

’Could this monkey be the monster from the Land of Shattered Armor?’

Yang An had every reason to suspect it was. Countless strands of White Feather instantly erupted from his waist. The moment the monkey charged, he unleashed a flurry of attacks.

’If this thing really is the monster from the Land of Shattered Armor,’ he reasoned, ’then based on past experience, killing it here before I return might prevent that earlier encounter from ever happening.’

The monkey clearly hadn’t expected Yang An’s attack to be so devastating. It was too late to dodge; it could only raise its two strange arms to block.

The strands of White Feather struck the monkey relentlessly, riddling its body with holes in an instant. Blood gushed from the wounds.

Yang An immediately drew the Red Feather Blade from the small of his back and shot toward the monkey, becoming a blur of motion.

Seeing this, the armed men nearby shifted their attention back to Yang An.

But just as Yang An charged, the bead-like nodules on the hands of the monkey—which had been riddled with holes—shattered with a series of sharp CRACKS, instantly erupting in a thick cloud of white smoke.