Chapter 156 It Really Looks Great

"Cough..."

Ji Linmo reacted with lightning speed, storing a breath of air in his lungs just as the cage plunged into the water.

However, the other three were not so fortunate.

A second before the cage dropped, Qin Feng had still been trying to speak, and as a result, he choked directly.

Yet his eyes, which always carried a smiling trace, flickered with a momentary astonishment. Then, continuous streams of bubbles escaped from his mouth underwater, as if he were truly drowning.

Not good, Qin Feng wouldn't be able to hold on for long!

Ji Linmo looked toward Lin Bufei and Liu Xiao. Both of them wore expressions of utter terror, struggling in the water, completely at a loss as to what was happening.

"Cough, cough..."

Seeing Liu Xiaoxiao's agonized expression, Lin Bufei swam hurriedly to the top, trying to shake the iron bars of the cage, but it merely wasted the last breath of oxygen trapped in his mouth.

At that moment, the terror of asphyxiation and drowning was etched onto everyone's faces.

What kind of game was this?

Could it be that they were just supposed to soak people in water for an hour and see who survived in the end?

Impossible! Such a game made no sense whatsoever; generally speaking, inescapable death traps never appeared in instances.

Ji Linmo's brain raced furiously. At that moment, a memory flashed back into his mind—the scene of Wu Suowei selecting his slender female teammate earlier.

——Wait, this game was called the Water Dungeon Balance?

In an instant, Ji Linmo's heart turned to ashes.

They had fallen for a trap!

From the very moment they stepped into the iron cages, this game had been a dead end.

Now, their two teams were placed on the opposite ends of a scale—that is, inside the iron cages.

When one side became too heavy, the heavier side would instantly plummet beneath the water's surface.

Yet due to the pressure, wanting to return to the surface meant shedding enough weight!

They had been thoroughly and completely screwed!

Ji Linmo looked at the others, watching their increasing agony underwater, noticing that even the frequency of their desperate flailing was diminishing. He clenched his teeth.

Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

A flying knife flashed through Ji Linmo's hand. As the man swung his right hand, a crimson hue diffused through the water.

An arm was thrown out of the water.

The water-dragon iron cage slowly began to ascend a fraction.

"Cough... Ji..."

Qin Feng struggled over to Ji Linmo's side, took the flying knife with his hand, and looked up at the man.

At that moment, the man understood.

As more and more severed things were thrown out, the iron cage finally rose back up, bit by bit.

In the end, they became the thoroughly lighter side of the balance!

The massive iron cage finally tilted, hoisting them up and bringing them into contact with the air once more.

Liu Xiaoxiao panted heavily. When she saw Lin Bufei lying on the iron plate with a pale complexion, she panicked and hurriedly began performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

At last, Lin Bufei woke up with a faint gasp, but the next second, his eyes widened in horror.

——Inside the blood-drenched iron cage leaned two flesh-and-blood human stumps.

"Cough, Old Ji... Qin,"

Lin Bufei frantically pulled gauze from his item inventory, hastily wrapping it around the two of them.

Yet the massive, smooth severed surfaces soaked the gauze through almost instantly.

"Heh, hehehe, you're tricking me, how can this be... This is a B-rank item of mine, it can stop bleeding instantly!"

Lin Bufei was in a complete panic, flustered as he tried to wrap more layers around them, striving to make his movements gentler, but it only made his hands tremble even more.

Everything was gone! Everything was gone!

No hands, no feet, and massive blood loss—what were they supposed to do now?!

"Calm down, Lin Bufei..."

Ji Linmo spoke faintly. At this moment, he unexpectedly felt as weak as an ordinary mortal.

Qin Feng also leaned powerlessly against Ji Linmo's side. He looked at the pale-faced man, a red light flickering briefly within his eyes.

Yet the next second, that red light flashing in the darkness was abruptly pinched out, like a blown-out oil lamp.

"Something's wrong... Mr. Ji, we can't revert to our true forms here. Just like ordinary humans, if we stay here any longer, we'll truly die..."

——The ancient and terrifying shadow of death enveloped everyone.

"Mr. Ji?"

Noticing that the man was not responding to him, Qin Feng gasped for breath, trying to shift his body so as not to press against Ji Linmo's bleeding wounds.

Yet such a movement only caused more blood to rapidly gush from their knife-severed stumps, dripping continuously down the iron cage.

Screech—

The iron cage groaned once more, beginning its descent.

Not good, Wu Suowei's side had made their move as well!

To survive, they must have sacrificed the minority to save the majority, starting to sever their own limbs or bleed themselves out!

"Quick, take off your clothes to lighten the weight..."

Ji Linmo struggled for a moment, then fell back powerlessly.

He was already beginning to feel dizzy, black spots flashing constantly across his vision. Experiencing such a vivid and helpless brush with death was something that hadn't happened to him in four years...

Fumbling in a panic, Lin Bufei stripped off his own clothes and helped Ji Linmo remove his trench coat as well.

"Cough, wait a minute, Mr. Ji~ Actually, I think you look really great in this trench coat... You haven't taken a look yet, have you? Want to look in a mirror?"

Even battered to this extent, Qin Feng still managed a soft smile at the man, his tone gentle.

"Alright... How? Do you have... a mirror?"

Under normal circumstances, the man would surely have refused.

Yet facing genuine death, Ji Linmo suddenly grew exceptionally calm and exhausted, much like a lost traveler who had finally found his destination.

Never before had he gazed so earnestly at the youth, listening so carefully to the youth's gentle words.

"Mr. Ji... the mirror is right here."

The youth suddenly smiled. With great effort, he turned and slowly pressed his own forehead against the man's forehead.

"Look... my eyes."

At that moment, Ji Linmo saw his own reflection in the youth's clear eyes.

"They're very pretty..."

The man finished softly and smiled as well, two shallow dimples appearing on his cheeks.

It was a rare, genuine smile, as if he were praising not the coat, but the youth himself.

Yet the next second, looking at the blood-soaked youth, the corners of Ji Linmo's eyes slowly grew damp.

In truth, his nearly drained body could no longer produce any other fluids.

"I'm sorry... Qin Feng, I—"

"Shh~ It's alright, Mr. Ji. I know what you want to say. It was never your fault..."

The youth's voice was exceedingly soft, resembling a gentle murmur.

Clack!

The iron cage descended further, seeming on the verge of plunging back into the water at any moment.

At that instant, Liu Xiaoxiao glanced at Lin Bufei, lowered her head, and offered a faint, bitter smile.

"No... no..."

Driven mad, Lin Bufei snatched the butcher knife right out of Liu Xiaoxiao's hands.

"Let me do it, huh? Let me do it, I beg you, stop pushing me. Besides, I brought this disaster upon us anyway... Although I cherish my life, my worthless life wasn't worth much to begin with, right?"

With that, Lin Bufei shoved the most precious item from his inventory onto Ji Linmo, and then dropped abruptly to his knees.