"Kid, let's see how long you can hold on!" The hunched old man wore an ink-green mask, revealing only a pair of cold eyes. He stared closely at the workbench, his fingers resting on the crossbow, ready to shoot Dudian who might fight back at the last moment.
Suddenly—
Swish!
A black shadow suddenly flew out from behind the workbench.
The hunched old man instinctively pressed his finger, and with a click, the crossbow bolt was ejected. The short arrow flew out rapidly but didn't hit the black shadow. Instead, it was nailed to the wooden cabinet behind.
At this time, the black shadow landed at the hunched old man's feet. It turned out to be the bottle of realgar powder.
His face changed, and he quickly looked up. He saw Dudian suddenly jump up from the ground, but instead of rushing towards him around the workbench, he turned and jumped onto the counter on the side. He grabbed the bottles and jars on it with both hands. He knocked over several bottles and jars, which fell to the ground and broke, spilling powder all over the ground.
The hunched old man was furious when he saw this. These were all the experimental materials he had painstakingly collected and carefully ground. They were just knocked over like this. He gritted his teeth, quickly loaded another crossbow bolt, and aimed at Dudian.
However, in the short time it took him to reload the crossbow bolt, Dudian had already shrunk back under the workbench again.
"Damn kid!!" The hunched old man was so angry that his eyes almost burst into flames. But several failed attempts made him feel a bit wary of Dudian, and he didn't rush forward with the crossbow in a fit of anger. It was hard to believe, but he had indeed felt a threat from this child.
"I want to see how long you can hold on!" The hunched old man looked at the green mist that filled the secret room and didn't disperse, his gaze as cold as frost.
"I got it!" Dudian held a large glass bottle, which was half full of sulfur powder. At this time, he felt that the oxygen in his lungs was getting less and less, and the feeling of suffocation was getting stronger. His face turned 铁青 (livid). He quickly looked around, searching for a flintstone to start a fire. However, although the hunched old man's things were scattered, there was no flintstone nearby.
"No fire! There's no fire!"
Dudian felt a bit desperate in his heart. He had finally come up with a way, but there was no fire. Suddenly, he saw the shadow on the ceiling, which was cast by the oil lamp. In an instant, he opened his eyes wide and looked in the direction of the oil lamp.
It was right beside the hunched old man's table.
The oil lamp was obviously used for his work lighting, and it wasn't far away.
The despair in Dudian's heart immediately vanished. At this time, he felt that his chest was about to explode. He quickly took off his undershirt, tied a knot in the hem, and then poured the sulfur from the large glass bottle into the collar. Immediately, the undershirt was filled with sulfur powder. He gritted his teeth. This was a crucial moment of life and death. With a low growl in his heart, he threw the undershirt out.
Swish!
The hunched old man saw a large black shadow flying towards him. Instinctively, he pulled the trigger again. The crossbow bolt shot out instantly and hit the corner of the undershirt. The sharp crossbow bolt penetrated it instantly and was nailed to the wooden cabinet behind. But the undershirt, which was bulging like a ball, fell towards the hunched old man. His face changed. Worried that there was a trick, he quickly raised his hand to block it. With a bang, the undershirt was knocked aside by his arm and just landed on the table beside him.
With a bang, the oil lamp was knocked over, and the wick burned with the spilled oil. The oil flowed onto the undershirt and immediately caught fire.
Dudian had already looked up when he heard the crossbow bolt being nailed to the wooden cabinet. He knew that the hunched old man wouldn't be able to load the second crossbow bolt so quickly. He happened to see the undershirt on fire. His face changed, and he quickly lay down.
Bang!!
A thunderous explosion suddenly sounded. Several pieces of the wooden board on the top of the secret room collapsed, and a large amount of sand and dust poured down.
Dudian felt that the workbench in front of him was lifted up by a huge force and hit him. The corner hit his rib, and the pain made tears flow out. He almost fainted.
At this time, he could no longer hold his breath. Although he was trying his best to control it, he still inhaled a breath of air, which was full of a fishy smell and the smell of sulfur. The fishy smell was the same as the strange smell of the green mist he had smelled before. Suddenly, his head spun, and his limbs became weak.
At this time, the cold wind blew in from the collapsed place on the ceiling, blowing out the sulfur and the green mist in the air. Dudian slumped on the ground, tightened his chest, and slowly inhaled the air bit by bit. The previous explosion of sulfur had also dispersed a lot of the green mist in the secret room. Now, with the sulfur dust flying out, the smell was much lighter. He inhaled bit by bit close to the ground and didn't smell the fishy smell anymore.
After a while, Dudian felt that he could barely move. He immediately slowly got up. The secret room had been blown up, and no one knew when it would completely collapse. He didn't want to be buried alive by the sand and dust!
The previous explosion had blown out all the oil lamps in the secret room. Now, the secret room was like a deep pit in the desert, pitch black inside.
Dudian gritted his teeth slightly. By the faint starlight, he groped in the direction of the hunched old man. Along the way, his feet bumped into fallen wooden cabinets and tables. Relying on the distance and terrain he remembered before, he quickly groped to the position where the hunched old man was. The first thing he touched was the overturned table. He groped along the table and immediately touched a wet and sticky thing. He touched it carefully and his face immediately turned ugly.
There was actually a hard object in the wet and sticky thing, like a bone.
Although it was dark, he seemed to see the terrifying appearance of the hunched old man lying there, blown to pieces. He felt a chill all over. He didn't expect the power of the sulfur explosion to be so terrifying. It should be known that this sulfur hadn't been made into black powder yet. The reason why it exploded when heated was entirely due to the principle of "dust explosion".
"I killed someone..." Dudian's heart trembled slightly. This was a human life! Although he had seen so much destruction, poverty, and distorted laws in this world, killing someone with his own hands was something he had never even dared to think about. For a moment, he felt that in the surrounding darkness, there seemed to be the other person's ghost, staring at him coldly from behind where he couldn't see.
He shivered slightly, gritted his teeth, and thought to himself, "I was just defending myself. It's not my fault. I was just defending myself. I didn't commit a crime..." Thinking of this, he suddenly clenched his fists. His heart was filled with sadness. The laws he had followed had long since disappeared from this world. Even if he had committed a crime, who could convict him?
He smiled bitterly. In this dark pit, in a place where the starlight couldn't reach, he suddenly felt so lonely, as if he had been forgotten by the whole world. This desolate loneliness gradually made his trembling body relax. Instead of being so afraid, he felt a faint indifference. He silently looked at the darkness where the hunched old man's body was. After a long time, he slowly moved his body, not to leave but to bend down and grope on the ground.
He was looking for that crossbow!