Chapter 714 - 386: Qiong Pass (2)

A man covered in fish scales, with bright red gills on his face that pulsed open and shut, was frantically shaking the bars of his cage, but the cage didn’t budge an inch.

He grew more and more agitated until he retched, and a torrent of black, fish roe-like matter poured from his mouth.

"Oh, a new member has arrived. Go on, keep arresting us. Go right ahead. The Mutants will only grow faster and more numerous. You sane Cultivators are all doomed, sooner or later. One day, we’ll trample you underfoot and watch as you turn into Mutants yourselves, hahahahaha!"

An eerie, androgynous voice echoed from the darkness, its laughter sharp and piercing.

But the Cultivators escorting Yang An inside were completely unmoved, as if they hadn’t heard a thing.

"Take him to Ward A, Cell 7. Given his danger level, Cell 7 is a perfect fit."

"Isn’t that a bit much? The cells numbered 10 and under in Ward A are for the most dangerous Mutants. This guy hasn’t killed that many people; he doesn’t warrant Cell 7. Cell 13 is vacant right now, why don’t we put him there? We’ll need Cell 7 soon enough, when we catch someone who’s actually dangerous."

Someone made the suggestion, and the others agreed. In the end, Yang An was locked up in Ward A, Cell 13.

The cell door slammed shut with a BANG.

The Cultivator standing outside the cell chuckled.

"Give it about five days, and we’ll have ourselves a powerful new Contaminant. We’ll come back in five days to collect his corpse."

The group quickly departed from the cell block.

Yang An stood quietly in the cage of Contaminant Seventy-Three, observing everything in this so-called Ward A.

It was much quieter here than it had been at the entrance to the cell block, but he could clearly hear the breathing of others around him. Many of the inmates locked in Ward A were hiding in the darkness, completely silent.

The entire cell block was filled with a nauseating stench, like a mixture of sweat and something rotting. The smell was incredibly pungent.

"Hey, buddy. You got a light?"

A moment later, a voice suddenly came from the adjacent cell, reaching Yang An’s ears.

Yang An made sure the voice was calling to him before turning his head.

In the dim light, he saw the man in the next cell over—Ward A, Cell 12. He was an old man in ragged clothes, wearing glasses and covered in bloody wounds. Despite his injuries, he had a lecherous-looking face and was smiling at Yang An.

A smile formed on Yang An’s face beneath his mask.

"What do you need a light for?"

"To light a smoke, of course."

The old man looked at Yang An as if he were an idiot, then pulled something out of his hand. It was the highly decomposed corpse of a rat, which was emitting a thick, foul stench.

He lifted the rat’s corpse to his mouth and nose, took a deep whiff, and an expression of pure bliss spread across his face.

"You get it, right? Top-shelf stuff. A real rarity!

You give me a light, and I’ll let you have a drag."

Yang An didn’t understand, but he respected the man’s ways and gave a nod.

"I have one. But you have to answer a question for me first."

"You really do? What’s the question?"

Hearing that Yang An had a light, the old man grew excited and immediately scrambled to his feet.

"What time is it? And how long until dawn?"

Yang An was very concerned about this question. ’I’ll leave this place at dawn.’

"Time? I wouldn’t know. But there’s someone who does."

The old man thought for a moment before his gaze shifted to a cell on a higher level.

"Hey, Broken Clock! What time is it?"

Yang An’s gaze followed the old man’s, up to Ward A, Cell 11, where a strange man was imprisoned.

The man was short, a dwarf, with a rather ugly face. He was missing an arm; the shoulder was wrapped in cloth, but pus was already seeping through the fabric.

On the floor in front of him, a set of hand bones, crawling with maggots, were arranged in the shape of a round clock face. With his remaining hand, the strange man was adjusting the longest finger bone.

Hearing the old man’s question, the strange man known as Bad Seed slowly raised his head, then glanced back down at the bones on the floor.

"Six hours until the arrival of Qiong Pass."

"Hear that? He said it’s one in the morning. Now, hurry up and give me the light."

’Which one of your ears heard him say it’s one in the morning?’

Yang An looked at the man. ’He’s clearly a madman,’ he thought. ’But that strange man, Bad Seed... there seemed to be a hidden meaning in his words.’

"What does ’Qiong Pass’ mean?"

He looked at Broken Clock, speaking directly past the old man in the cell between them.

But unfortunately, Broken Clock ignored him.

Seeing this, the old man once again looked at Yang An as if he were a complete idiot.

"You’re a Mutant, same as us, and you don’t even know about Qiong Pass?

Qiong Pass is when the mutant power erupts. After dawn, we’ll be strong enough to get out of here. When Qiong Pass arrives, those Cultivators have to suppress the power in their bodies. Otherwise, they’ll end up just like us—insane Mutants.

We’ve been waiting for this day for a long, long time. Soon, it’ll be the end for those Cultivators!"

The more the old man spoke, the more excited he became. The flesh on his lecherous face quivered as he laughed.

"Now give me the light! If you dare go back on your word, I’ll kill you."

The old man was still smiling, but his expression suddenly shifted, his gaze turning vicious as he stared at Yang An. He couldn’t wait another second to take a drag from the "smoke" in his hand.

’If this world on the 6th Floor had anything in common with the Origin Realm,’ Yang An mused, ’it was probably that these guys were just as crazy as the Cultivators back home.’