Chapter 156 - 146: Reduced to Ruins
Chapter 156: Chapter 146: Reduced to Ruins
But Tang Mo clearly had no time for her. Clutching Jingjing, she burst through the barrier and stood just beneath the cave entrance.
She was the only one there who knew how to get out. A second later, Tang Mo vanished before Lisa’s eyes.
Lisa mentally noted Tang Mo’s escape route, but she remained still, anxiously watching the way Tang Mo had gone.
Ah Bin and the others emerged quickly after. The cracks in the walls on both sides were widening, and chunks of rock clattered down from the ceiling.
Lisa was overjoyed to see Ah Bin burst through the barrier. She grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the cave entrance.
Lin Shourong and Lin Yu also scrambled for the exit. Within moments, the group had escaped the underground and was back on the surface.
The moment her feet hit the sand, Tang Mo broke into a run.
Whenever Jingjing had transported Crystal Stones before, it had always appeared at the edge of the quicksand. Tang Mo knew she had to get as far away from that area as she could.
During an earthquake, the more open the space, the safer a person was.
Tang Mo sprinted ahead, her feet barely touching the ground, while Ah Bin and the other three scrambled to keep up behind her.
They didn’t know why, but they instinctively wanted to stick with Tang Mo.
It was as if she possessed a calm, magical aura, able to face anything with ease. Being with her gave them an inexplicable sense of security.
But the more they ran, the more they realized the gap between them and Tang Mo was only widening. ’How is she getting even farther away?’
’Isn’t she a Spirit Attribute Superpower User? How can she be this fast?!’
It was no joke. As a member of the rankings, even if agility wasn’t Tang Mo’s primary attribute, it was still far beyond what an ordinary person could match. Her agility attribute value was significantly higher than that of a typical agility attribute superpower user.
Moreover, her spiritual power was currently incredibly high, and her control over it had reached a state of near-perfection.
Channeling her spiritual power into her legs to increase her speed was a trivial matter for her.
Tang Mo didn’t dare to stop. She could clearly feel a powerful energy radiating outwards from the direction of the quicksand. It was a force capable of destroying everything, something she couldn’t possibly hope to contend with.
But after running for a while longer, Tang Mo gradually slowed to a stop.
The wave of energy hadn’t weakened, but Tang Mo realized something: it seemed to be propagating only underground.
Even as she ran, the energy had passed beneath her feet, overtaken her, and continued to spread into the distance.
The ground she stood on was completely unharmed. The destruction was happening in the unseen depths beneath the sand.
"Looks like the earthquake is only affecting what’s underground."
Tang Mo stood panting heavily. Sprinting at full speed was exhausting enough, let alone carrying an extra twenty or thirty pounds in the form of Jingjing.
’This is basically a weighted run.’
’If I’d known removing that pearl would cause an earthquake, I would have left earlier. What was I waiting there for? A pity about all those Crystal Stones underground.’
It pained her to think about all the Crystal Stones she hadn’t had time to dig up.
Seeing Tang Mo’s reaction, Jingjing rolled its eyes to the heavens.
’What a miser, an absolute miser! She already has more than ten Crystal Stone Mountains, yet she’s still hung up on those few white Basic Crystal Stones. So pathetic! What a disgrace!’
"What are you holding?"
Seeing Jingjing roll its eyes at her, Tang Mo gave it a smack.
’You ungrateful little thing. And after I was the one who carried you out of there and ran all this way.’
Only after she’d smacked it did she notice the blooming flower clutched in Jingjing’s paw.
"The Desert Flower? When did you grab this?"
Having witnessed the flower’s entire blooming process, Tang Mo recognized the Desert Flower all too well.
"Woo~ I grabbed it on the way up. It would’ve been a waste otherwise. You like it, don’t you?"
Jingjing held the flower out to Tang Mo with its little paw.
’It wasn’t like *it* cared for such things, but don’t all girls like flowers? That was the only reason it had plucked the flower; it would have been a shame to let it be destroyed in the quicksand.’
"What about the quicksand?"
"Woo~ The earthquake... it probably washed away. It’s all turned into normal sand now."
Jingjing’s explanation was muddled, but Tang Mo understood nonetheless.
’The energy wave must have caused a shift in the earth’s crust. The quicksand particles are finer than regular sand, so they probably just flowed down through the new fissures.’
"Well, I guess you do have a grateful heart."
Tang Mo put the Desert Flower away and stroked Jingjing’s fluffy head.
Seeing Tang Mo stop, the others behind her—all Spirit Attribute Superpower Users except for Lisa—evidently understood the situation as well and came to a halt.
But as the energy wave spread even farther, showing no signs of weakening, the expressions on Lin Shourong and Lin Yu’s faces grew increasingly grim.
Without even pausing to catch their breath, they took off running again in the direction of Sand Town.
Sand Town was built underground.
Tang Mo watched Lin Shourong and Lin Yu’s retreating figures and silently shook her head.
’It’s no use. If even I couldn’t outrun that energy wave, how could the two of them?’
’Besides, what good would it do even if they could?’
After a moment’s thought, Tang Mo also began walking in the direction of Sand Town.
’I have no particular destination right now, and I did live there for a while. Might as well go take a look.’
After stopping, Ah Bin and Lisa muttered to each other for a moment before running back in the direction of the quicksand.
’Looks like they didn’t get the pearl and want to go back for the Desert Flower instead.’
But they were destined to be disappointed this time...
By the time Tang Mo reached the entrance to Sand Town, she saw that it had completely collapsed. Lin Yu had moved the outermost stones, but the passage beyond was still choked with rubble.
It seemed the underground settlement of Sand Town had completely collapsed, reduced to a ruin...
It had all happened so suddenly. Everyone knew in their hearts that it was impossible for anyone in Sand Town to have escaped.
Lin Shourong was kneeling to one side, his face deathly pale, muttering under his breath.
"Just as I thought... just as I thought... It’s really here..."
Meanwhile, Lin Yu was still at the entrance, desperately pulling at the stones. But for every one he moved, another seemed to take its place; the rubble inside was seemingly endless, impossible to clear.
"No... no... Xianxian is still in there! Mom and Dad are still in there! This can’t be happening, it just can’t be!"
Lin Yu chanted the words over and over, as if in a trance. His hands were bleeding, but he didn’t stop his work.
Tang Mo didn’t try to stop him, just stood there quietly.
’At a time like this, they needed an outlet for their emotions. Suppressing them would do more harm than good.’
Tang Mo stood there quietly. She had no family or friends among the people trapped inside. In fact, besides Lin Yu’s family, she hadn’t met anyone else there.
But still, she felt a profound sorrow welling up from the bottom of her heart. It was the innate sympathy one flesh-and-blood human feels for their own kind.