New Novel
Chapter 13: Becoming Food

Chapter 13: Chapter 13: Becoming Food

"Captain, I can still..."

The weak voice didn’t get to finish the sentence before the team member passed out.

Lu Jingyu’s eyes reddened as he saw his teammate fighting to the very last moment before fainting, unwilling to give up.

He had to protect his team. They had followed him into this instance, and they would follow him back out.

A murderous heat filled Lu Jingyu’s eyes. He carefully placed the unconscious team member on the ground.

"Leave the rest to me. Please, watch them for me."

After saying this to Xu Qingsui, Lu Jingyu slowly walked toward the turtle’s heads.

Perhaps it didn’t see the humans as a threat, as the giant turtle waved its massive heads with increasing vigor, as if declaring victory.

Lu Jingyu advanced slowly. Then, when he was just a few meters away, his figure vanished, streaking forward like a bolt of lightning.

This was the only human still standing, the one who had held out for so long against overwhelming odds.

The giant turtle’s competitive instincts seemed to be triggered; it whipped several of its necks at Lu Jingyu in a sweeping attack.

Lu Jingyu ignored the turtle’s attack. As the necks swept toward him, he used their momentum to vault from one to the next, dodging them all in succession.

’So its shell is what it relies on? Fine. I’ll target the heads. I refuse to believe it can survive if I cut them off.’

As Lu Jingyu charged, veins and black markings bulged on his skin.

Only one thought remained in his mind: kill the giant turtle.

But just as he dodged the last sweeping neck, Lu Jingyu subconsciously stopped in his tracks.

’Something’s wrong!’

WHOOSH!

A foul-smelling gust shot past Lu Jingyu’s side. He instinctively followed it with his eyes, which then widened in shock.

’I know what’s wrong!’

There were six giant heads in total, but he had just dodged five.

The sixth was roaring as it lunged for Xu Qingsui.

A cold sweat instantly drenched Lu Jingyu. He couldn’t quite recall who the woman on the verge of being swallowed was.

But a voice from deep within screamed at him: he could not let anything happen to her.

CRACK!

The protective suit on Lu Jingyu’s body showed faint signs of rupturing.

Tendrils of immense power seeped out from the cracks in his suit.

He pushed off with the balls of his feet, his body instantly shooting forward.

Seeing the turtle’s massive jaws hovering over Xu Qingsui’s head, he punched out violently, unleashing a tangible wave of force.

Seeing the giant turtle charging at her, Xu Qingsui prepared to dodge.

But the turtle was too large; its open mouth covered a space several meters wide.

Even if she abandoned the team members Lu Jingyu had asked her to watch over, escape wouldn’t be easy.

But her tenacious nature wouldn’t let her back down. She had to try.

’If I succeed, I live. If I fail... well, that’s that.’

Xu Qingsui gathered power in the soles of her feet, about to launch herself away.

A surging wave of power rushed toward her.

She froze for a split second, and in that instant, the massive turtle’s jaws snapped down.

At the same moment, the blast of force struck the turtle’s head.

After a violent shake, Xu Qingsui felt her body lose control, and she began to slide down a slope.

Lu Jingyu watched helplessly as Xu Qingsui was swallowed by the turtle.

He had seen it clearly. The turtle’s bite had been slightly off-target; it hadn’t actually swallowed Xu Qingsui, merely catching her on the edge of its mouth.

But when his own attack struck the turtle’s head, he had, by a cruel twist of fate, knocked her right into its maw.

The realization that he himself had just sent Xu Qingsui straight into the turtle’s mouth made Lu Jingyu’s hair stand on end.

The black markings, which had previously stayed off his face, instantly spread across both his cheeks.

His energy erupted outwards, and Lu Jingyu shot directly toward the giant turtle’s head.

The other heads swept in again, attempting to block his path.

But this time, Lu Jingyu didn’t dodge. He crossed his twin daggers before his chest, their blades radiating the same aura as the power now pouring from his body.

The moment the daggers touched the turtle’s neck, Lu Jingyu’s motion hitched for a split second before he began to use them like cleavers, hacking inch by inch into the turtle’s neck.

Feeling the pain, the turtle thrashed its injured neck, trying to dislodge the daggers.

But the daggers seemed welded between the turtle and Lu Jingyu, holding firm.

Lu Jingyu even used the violent motion to drive the daggers in deeper.

The blood gushing from the turtle’s neck mirrored the crimson in Lu Jingyu’s eyes, spurring him on to drive the daggers all the way through.

THUD!

A turtle head fell to the ground with a tremendous noise.

The other turtle heads were all stunned, their eyes filled with confusion.

But when they sensed Lu Jingyu’s rage, which had not diminished but had instead grown even stronger, they quickly snapped out of it.

Not daring to confront the crazed man any longer, the remaining five heads instantly retracted into the turtle’s shell.

With the heads gone, Lu Jingyu’s gaze fell to the shell beneath his feet.

’You think you’re safe hiding in your shell?’

’So what if it’s tough? I’ll shatter it today, no matter what it takes!’

Lu Jingyu brought his hands together, gripping the two daggers as one.

He raised the unified daggers high, channeling all his strength into them before plunging them down with all his might.

"HRAAAGH!"

With a low roar, the daggers slammed into the shell, erupting in a shower of sparks.

The force of the impact tore open the webbing between his thumbs and forefingers, and blood began to pour out.

He tightened the cloth wrappings on the daggers’ hilts and repeated the motion.

With each of Lu Jingyu’s strikes, hairline cracks began to appear on the tough shell.

He was long past noticing such details, his body moving on pure instinct.

Meanwhile, Xu Qingsui’s body slid down a long chute. She couldn’t see where she was, but the sour stench of fermenting food gave her a grim understanding of her predicament.

’I’ve been eaten? Am I in the giant turtle’s stomach?’

’No, not yet. This is more like a water slide... with the stomach as the final destination?’

The thought made Xu Qingsui’s own stomach churn with nausea.

’If I can’t get out of here... does that mean I’m going to end up as its crap?’

She couldn’t accept that. It was a fate worse than death.

Her revulsion grew, and with the rising stench of digestive acids, a new thought made her freeze.

’Turtles have stomach acid, don’t they? Does that mean I’m about to be dissolved?’

In her past life, she had seen what strong acid did to zombies. Even those pain-numb creatures couldn’t endure it, and would shriek and struggle. The thought of that happening to her was terrifying.

A cold dread washed over Xu Qingsui. She tried to brace her arms against the walls of the gullet, hoping to slow her descent.

But the inner walls were coated in some kind of slick mucus, offering no purchase.

Cursing internally, she soon reached the place she dreaded most.

Just as she thought it was all over, the ground beneath her gave way and she plunged downwards.

She closed her eyes, resigned to her fate. But a breath later, she felt herself land on a flat surface.

’What’s going on? Is this the end of the line?’

’For such a huge turtle, its stomach is this small?’