"I don't care about any logic," Zhou Xuan said in a low voice, "I only know that no one can force those two girls!"
Seeing Zhou Xuan's gloomy face and the stun gun pointed at him, Li Jinlong felt a little apprehensive. However, being a seasoned veteran, he quickly changed his mind and immediately spread his hands to the others, saying, "Everyone, tell me, do you think we should divide the water and food?"
At this moment, even the higher-ups in the Blue camp remained silent. It wasn't that they wanted to help Li Jinlong's group, but under these circumstances, with so many people staring at the food and water in the two girls' hands, a commotion could easily break out.
Fu Ying stepped out from behind Zhou Xuan and said coldly, "If it were me, I would fight you to the death rather than compromise with you. But for my boyfriend's sake, I'll give you half. We'll keep the other half. Whether we can get out of this hellhole alive is up to fate!" After saying that, she threw the compressed biscuits and water in her hand over.
Volume 1, Chapter 110: Survival
Li Jinlong took the biscuits, looked at everyone, and then divided them among Fu Kan, Chi Jizi, Wang Dagui, Wang Qiang, Lan Gaofeng, Li Yong, and Fang Jianjun. Each person received a portion of the biscuits. They also took empty bottles and poured a sip of water for each person. The two injured people, Wang Sheng and his nephew Li Quan, did not receive any. In his words, "You are injured, so just lie down. Don't exert yourself. The food should be enough for them to eat and drink so that they have the strength to find a way out."
The two elderly professors were completely ignored!
In the current environment and situation, it's not about knowledge, it's about fists and strength.
Although Zhou Xuan's forces weren't particularly strong, he possessed a powerful stun gun, which was quite intimidating. Furthermore, the reason Li Jinlong and his group gave Zhou Xuan face was mainly because the higher-ups seemed to treat him and Wei Haihong differently, showing them considerable protection. Regardless, Li Jinlong still didn't dare directly confront the higher-ups.
He still knew that the three high-ranking Blue officers were armed, and shooting him would be a trivial matter.
Fearing they would come and snatch the food and water again, Wei Xiaoqing quickly took out the food and distributed it. She handed the water to Wei Haihong, saying, "Uncle, you and Zhou Xuan have some. You two have to work hard, and it's taking a lot of energy."
Wei Haihong pushed her hand back and said, "I'm not thirsty, you guys drink."
He said he wasn't thirsty, but Zhou Xuan could see that his lips were chapped!
Fu Ying refused, and Zhou Xuan got impatient. He took the cookies, divided them into four portions, and handed one to each person, saying, "Are you all passing them around like this so that others will come and snatch them? Eat!" He then stuffed them into his mouth.
In fact, everyone understood that Zhou Xuan was right. If they left these things behind, they would go hungry and it would only arouse others' desire to fight over them. Seeing that Zhou Xuan was angry, they all silently ate the biscuits and shared the water. By this time, all the food and water had been eaten and drunk clean.
Then the senior management collected all the high-powered lights together, a total of fifteen. Fortunately, none of them were lost, as they were all in their hands.
The Blue High-Rank officials turned off twelve of the high-powered lights, but still divided the people into three groups. Each group had one high-powered light, with the rest kept as backups. Otherwise, when the power ran out, they wouldn't be able to see anything. Without light, even if they weren't dead, they would just have to wait to die!
Although there are twelve luminous pearls among the treasures, those pearls need a light source to emit light. Once the light is used up, the pearls will have no ability to emit light at all.
The twelve people split into three groups and searched carefully again. Several more hours passed, and all twelve returned to their resting place dejectedly, still unable to find another exit.
This time, everyone was exhausted, thirsty, and hungry, with no food or water left. To conserve electricity, all the bright lights were turned off when we rested or slept. And to be on the safe side, we slept in a circle.
Zhou Xuan and Wei Haihong squeezed Fu Ying and Wei Xiaoqing in the middle, one in front and one behind. Wei Xiaoqing was close to Fu Ying, while Fu Ying was nestled tightly in Zhou Xuan's arms.
Before falling asleep, Zhou Xuan silently practiced his ice energy, circulating it throughout his body. He practiced his skills while also keeping an eye on his surroundings. Although it was pitch black, with no light at all, among the fourteen people, only his mind was clear. Wherever the ice energy passed, a range of about ten meters around him appeared in his mind.
As the ice energy recovered, it also restored his physical strength. Zhou Xuan secretly channeled the ice energy into Fu Ying, Wei Xiaoqing, and Wei Haihong, subtly restoring their strength. However, none of the three noticed, as they were all asleep, utterly exhausted.
Even if they weren't asleep, they wouldn't have noticed. Zhou Xuan was simply using the icy energy to stimulate and restore their strength. Aside from feeling very comfortable, they didn't experience anything else.
Although they were all exhausted, most of them woke up after sleeping for less than six hours. The desperate situation they faced made them restless, and they couldn't help but get up and search everywhere again.
Zhou Xuan used his ice energy to search the entire Great Stone Palace. Except for the very top, which was out of reach, he had searched almost everywhere else, but there was no exit.
Unfortunately, as time went on, some slept, and those who were searching no longer needed to be divided into groups or urged to go; they could go whenever they wanted. This went on for at least two days, and all fourteen people were starving. Although Zhou Xuan and his three companions had his ice energy to replenish their strength, they were only slightly better off than the others, able to recover some physical strength. But ice energy was not real food; no matter how they prepared it, it couldn't be eaten or drunk.
Even while sleeping, Zhou Xuan remained alert. By the fourth day—of course, this is only in terms of time, but it felt like much longer because of the money shortage—it seemed like an even longer period of time.
Zhou Xuan heard a slight noise in the darkness. He immediately used his icy energy to probe the area, and in his mind, he saw Li Jinlong and his uncle-nephew Wang Dagui secretly getting up and moving towards...
Zhou Xuan found it strange. All the treasures in the large stone coffin had been divided up, so what were they doing secretly running there? Did they still have some treasures hidden away? That seemed unlikely. What use were treasures at this point? Even if he were given all the treasures, they wouldn't save their lives.
Only now did the treasures cease to occupy their thoughts, and only then did they no longer seem important to them. If someone had food or drink, they would gladly trade it for it, like a person nearly dying in the desert suddenly finding water; they would give anything in exchange. Zhou Xuan's icy aura couldn't detect that far. The large stone coffin was now more than ten meters away, and by then, Zhou Xuan's icy aura could no longer detect it from that distance.
Zhou Xuan gently released Fu Ying's hand, wanting to sneak a peek at what the two of them were doing, but with just the slightest movement, Fu Ying woke up. Zhou Xuan then whispered very softly in Fu Ying's ear, "Yingying, Li Jinlong and the others have sneaked over to the big stone coffin. They haven't turned on the light. I'm going to go see what they're doing. Don't move, just stay here."
Fu Ying held his hand tightly, quietly sat up, then nestled in his arms and whispered in his ear, "I'll go with you!"
Zhou Xuan was helpless, but thinking it was nothing, he quietly led her over. Of course, this was only Fu Ying's feeling, but Zhou Xuan saw it clearly. When they were only five or six meters away from the large stone coffin, Zhou Xuan saw Li Jinlong and Wang Dagui cutting the flesh off the policeman's corpse with knives and then eating it.
This scene stunned Zhou Xuan for a moment, then he felt a chill run down his spine. He immediately pulled Fu Ying and quietly slipped back. After they lay down, Fu Ying quietly asked him, "What are they doing?"
Zhou Xuan also whispered, "I don't know, maybe it's convenient." It's best not to tell her about eating corpses and human flesh.
Fu Ying noticed that Zhou Xuan's heartbeat was irregular, and guessed that something was wrong with him. He seemed very frightened, but since he wouldn't say anything, Fu Ying had no choice but to stop worrying.
About ten minutes later, Zhou Xuan noticed that Li Jinlong and Wang Dagui had sneaked back, and that they were carrying some thin strips of meat, which they secretly slipped to Li Quan.
Li Quan was so hungry he was practically half dead, so he didn't care what kind of meat it was; he just took it and stuffed it into his mouth.
Zhou Xuan quickly hugged Fu Ying to keep her from hearing, but in his mind he saw Wang Sheng next to him turn on a bright light and shine it on Li Quan.
Zhou Xuan could clearly see that Li Quan, Li Jinlong, and Wang Dagui all had bloodstains around their mouths, looking like zombies, which was extremely terrifying.
Wang Qiang was stunned for a moment, then realized what they were doing. He stood there for a while, then turned off the light and sat for a while before finally sneaking over too. Next, Zhou Xuan saw Li Yong, Fang Jianjun, Yang Guang, and Qin Zeng sneak over as well. Although the light was off, the rustling sounds were loud, and later the chewing sounds were also very loud. They even ate without restraint.
Zhou Xuan couldn't describe his feelings, but he also couldn't speak up to stop it. In such an environment, in order to survive to the very end, people would do things no different from beasts, except that he still had a final bottom line in his heart.
Zhou Xuan himself didn't want to cross that line. Even if it meant death, he wouldn't do such a thing. Similarly, let alone Wei Haihong and the Lan executives not hearing it. The two of them were just holding on to their last bit of resistance, trying their best to resist the temptation of food.
After eating, Li Jinlong suddenly turned on a bright light. He then walked to the spot with the stone chamber below, looked at everyone, and said in a deep voice, "I've decided to go back the way we came. Perhaps those corpse worms have run away elsewhere because they have nothing to eat. This is the only way we have, and it's our only way to survive. Does anyone want to come with us?"
Although I was afraid of the ferocity of the corpse worms, I was even more afraid of slowly waiting to die in this great stone palace!
Zhou Xuan remained silent. Since he didn't speak, neither did Fu Ying, Wei Xiaoqing, or Wei Haihong.
Also preparing to go out were Wang Dagui and Wang Qiang, two old men, both injured and sharing the same thoughts as them. Even Li Yong and Fang Jianjun had the idea of giving it a shot.
Li Jinlong took a few deep breaths, then bent down and pried open the stone slab.
Everyone else turned on their spotlights to shine on him and prepared shovels and other tools.