Chapter 14

The consumption of his energy was reaching its limit . It even almost exhausted his strength to lie supine on the pipe .

Willpower was his last support . Thankfully, he managed to win some time to catch his breath for a moment .

He panted heavily after realizing that they were still some distance from the last danger spot, so his breaths could not be sensed just yet .

Quark saw everything with his own eyes . He was so shocked that he was barely able to keep his mouth shut .

Was there a better hunter than this youngster here? The scarier thing was his battle emotional quotient and meticulous planning, which was almost at a revolting level .

‘Although he has the ability to sense danger… If this youngster could grow, would he…?’ Quark denied the possibility . No matter how talented one was, failing to cross the ‘natural chasm’ in the end would still…

Quark inaudibly sighed, all sorts of complicated emotions racing in his mind .

However, Tang Ling would never know Quark’s thoughts . He was concerned about the last danger spot, but his over-exhausted brain forbade him from thinking .

The rest time would not be luxurious because no matter how insensitive the black-horned purple-striped snakes were, they would still discover the dead bodies of their kind .

“Will they be angry?” Such a thought arose in his numb brain, but as a matter of fact, it was hard to believe that a cold-blooded animal like a snake had emotions .

Tang Ling felt his opinion was ridiculous, but after slightly recovering his stamina, he still carefully backed away to where his grandmother and the others were .

“We’ve got one last gamble left . ” Tang Ling spilled the outcome to the excited Quark .

“Are you saying that after you killed that many snakes, you still haven’t cleaned them up?” Quark was not overly concerned . If there was one last blind obstacle in the advancing path, it did not seem like a problem to him either .

“Six, I just killed six of them . ” Tang Ling signed the number with his fingers, then he continued, “I said before that there are seven troublesome spots . The most dangerous one is very near to that exit you pointed at, less than 30 meters away .

“How dangerous is it? Is it the big guy?” Quark still sounded casual . He even had the thought of jumping off the metal pipe and dashing towards the exit .

In that particular moment, a dozen thoughts flashed through Tang Ling’s mind, but in the end, he still pulled Quark back .

“I think you misunderstood me . That spot is where I felt the extremely pressuring danger that I can’t defeat . ”

Quark got up right away with a stunned expression as some terrifying memories started to come afloat in his mind .

‘Is it that bastard? That huge black-horned snake . No, I shouldn’t call it a black-horned snake . It should be…’

For a moment there, Quark had the wild thought of leaping down from the metal pipe and running, not forward to the exit but back to the entrance . He would rather face the zombies than that thing!

Tang Ling noticed the change of expression on Quark, but he kept quiet for a second before he said, “We are around 120 meters away from the exit here . My senses tell me that the snake has a 40-meter sensing range, nothing more than that . ”

When he said those words, Tang Ling looked calm and his tone was absent of agitation .

It undoubtedly calmed Quark a little since Tang Ling’s previous performances had left a strong impression . Even though deep in his heart, he felt the youngster could never cross the last obstacle, he still intuitively believed that he should trust this youngster .

Therefore, Quark licked his dry lips and asked, “What does it mean then?”

“40 meters of sensing range doesn’t completely cover the exit . I’ve calculated its location and it’ll only sense our presence when we are 17 meters near the exit . Based on the reaction time and speed of the black-horned snake, it’ll take roughly 2 seconds for it to approach us and attack us…”

As Tang Ling rambled on, Quark vehemently waved his hand, interrupting Tang Ling, “You shouldn’t calculate that bastard’s performance based on a common black-horned snake’s . If you know…”

With that being said, Quark shut his mouth in silence . So what if he revealed some facts that the people of the settlement would never know? It would only send everyone deeper into despair .

However, Tang Ling’s expression didn’t change as he said almost inaudibly, “I based it off the danger level that I sensed to calculate that snake’s rough capabilities . As a matter of fact, if you have this kind of intuitive senses, you’d be used to calculating this way . Although it’s not precise, the differences shouldn’t result in a fatal outcome . ”

Quark was mindblown . Were this youngster’s sensing capabilities this terrifying? Did he underestimate the youngster?

He indeed underestimated the youngster, but compared to those who crossed the ‘natural chasm’, Tang Ling’s abilities seemed a bit lackluster .

Quark thought of sighing, but his eyes revealed a tad of gratitude toward Tang Ling instead .

Struggling in this era, Quark had become a calculative man a long time ago, but he knew Tang Ling was pulling his favor . Under such a situation where information could not match up to the facts, Tang Ling did not use him as bait to lure away the danger .

Tang Ling did not care about the gratitude from Quark . He simply continued, “This is the outcome . You should know that we have 2 seconds to run 17 meters .

“This isn’t the hardest . The more difficult thing is that we still have to pause, grab the ladder and climb up . The climbing process isn’t going to be safe either because there’re a total of 7 steps and 11 meters away from the exit on the surface .

“No matter how powerful the snake is, I am certain that it can’t climb a ladder, but I am certain that when it attacks, its jumping height is surely going to surpass 11 meters . ” Tang Ling even had the mood to share the information with a dash of humor .

“It’s f*cking impossible to speed out then! . ” Quark fell into despair again . Normal human beings would take around 7 to 8 seconds to cover a hundred meters .

17 meters within two seconds was not the most difficult mission, but no matter how fast they climbed up the ladder, it would still at least take 5 to 6 seconds, would it not?

Quark had no Precise Instinct, but he knew the time left for them to dash out was in the negative .

“So, I’ll go buy some time . In exchange, you have to be responsible for my grandmother and sister’s safety . I want them to go out before you,” Tang Ling negotiated calmly without any sense of threat .

To be honest, no threats were needed . Quark also knew if he did not comply, the youngster might have other ways to prevent him from escaping .

Teeth clenched, he nodded in agreement .

“And I need that thing you called explosives . ” In such a life and death situation, Tang Ling thought Quark would not be stingy .

Out of his expectations, Quark denied Tang Ling . “No, these things aren’t that easy to control! Even if you have your instinct of some kind, you aren’t familiar with it, hence it’s impossible for you to perfectly use it . Moreover, given the current circumstances, you can only ignite it to use it effectively and these snakes are sensitive towards light . Are you trying to attract more problems?”

“You have a way . ” Tang Ling’s eyes stared straight at Quark .

Quark caught Tang Ling’s gaze and went silent for a second . He then put the weird-looking item into his clothes, and carefully performed an action .

After Tang Ling heard a crash, Quark then put the item into his hands .