Apocalypse: I Build A Doomsday Train-Chapter 191 - 186: Lantern Flower

It was 4:20 PM, and Lin Xian raced through the streets of the small town on his motorcycle, heading towards the large chemical plant. The towering distillation towers and many silver storage tanks entered their view.

The vehicle crunched over miscellaneous debris, driving through the collapsed gate of the chemical plant and into an open area. Looking around, many areas within the chemical plant were flooded with sewage, and some places had strange-colored water flowing on the ground, emitting a pungent odor in the air.

Shu Qin and Building also arrived in their jeep from another side and drove through the chemical plant’s gate.

"Captain Lin."

Shu Qin pulled out a crudely drawn map, addressing Lin Xian, "We checked the area where those abnormal bodies retreated last night, and then combed through several major roads in and out of this town. We are fairly certain it covers a circular area encompassing the whole Rain Town, and if our calculations are correct, this chemical plant is the central area."

Lin Xian nodded upon hearing this and looked back at the huge distillation tower: "Then it must be here."

Whirr~

On the other side, KIKI had already set up the drone, flying it up directly and letting the drone begin its surveillance of the chemical plant.

In the footage, the entire chemical plant appeared desolate. KIKI, watching the screen, commented, "I don’t see any people; it seems quite normal."

"It can’t be normal."

Lin Xian raised his hand, a light flickering, and created a small telescope, handing it to Shu Qin: "Shu Qin, find a high point to keep watch."

"Okay."

Shu Qin nodded, took it from Lin Xian, and strapped her Remington M96 on her back. With a swift movement, she stepped onto a nearby cement pillar and jumped onto the chemical plant’s raw material pipeline, then quickly climbed up to a high tower.

"Building, guard the gate and the road."

"Got it, Brother Xian." Building took out the Gatling and headed towards the gate.

After all arrangements were made, Lin Xian took out two anti-toxic masks, threw one to KIKI, and after putting them on, they headed towards the largest chemical workshop.

"Hey, Lin Xian, did you manage to scan that TRP Power Armor from that guy earlier?"

KIKI quickly followed, and whenever she encountered strange liquid on the ground, she drifted lightly, staying behind Lin Xian.

"I wish, but I can’t just say, ’Bro, don’t move, let me touch you’, right?"

"Pfft~"

KIKI didn’t expect Lin Xian to suddenly say that, and immediately couldn’t help laughing: "Giggle~ you’re silly, why didn’t you just take him by surprise? Or let me knock him out?"

Lin Xian was speechless; regardless, that Ding Qing and the other had just helped them, and even if they might have ulterior motives, he couldn’t just attack them without reason, especially since the Power Armor was complex and not easy to scan quickly.

"Be careful, don’t get distracted."

Lin Xian didn’t want to chat with KIKI, and was highly focused, observing surroundings at all times.

"By the way, why didn’t you call that fire-starting dummy here in this situation?" KIKI said.

"We’re just here to scout. If something feels off, we leave immediately. There might be more than one vehicle team in this town, plus Fake People and abnormal bodies; it’s better to have a superpower user stay."

"Eh~ really, I thought you were worried about your Teacher Chen~" KIKI seemed to be in no urgent mood, teasing with a smile.

Lin Xian didn’t expect this girl to be in the mood for teasing under these circumstances, with a hint of amusement, he replied: "What, are you jealous?"

"Hmph~ jealous of your big head ghost."

The two turned left and right underneath many large pipes, finally arriving at the highest distillation tower.

A workshop iron door labeled ’No. 1 Initiator Workshop’ appeared in their sight.

The iron door was half-open at the moment, with howling cold wind continuously blowing out, carrying a constant echo of emptiness.

"Let’s go in and check it out, retreat immediately if something’s off." Lin Xian’s heart tightened, he took the rifle off his back, raised his hand to create a small steel shield, and walked directly inside.

Swoosh~

In an instant, a sound of extremely empty airflow came rushing towards him. As soon as he entered, he saw in the high space a huge metal mixing kettle, and in the air there was a large yellow-painted cantilever crane, while below was a sunken workshop with rows of towering silver large storage tanks. Looking around, many tanks had already toppled, a large amount of colorless liquid almost submerged 1/3 of the tanks, and the whole workshop on the basement floor looked like a black swimming pool, bottomless.

Although the liquids looked colorless, Lin Xian did not think they were pure water.

He walked over to a nearby tank and looked, immediately frowning: "My goodness, 70% tert-butyl peroxide..."

KIKI asked upon hearing this: "You recognize this?"

"I learned it in high school chemistry." Lin Xian’s gaze turned to the giant metal mixing kettle, his expression becoming more serious: "That above should be for mixing alkali solution."

"What does that mean, is it very dangerous?"

Lin Xian looked at KIKI floating in the air: "The tert-butyl peroxide should not have leaked. That stuff is flammable and explosive, and vibration and friction can also cause explosions. If all the tanks had this, then the chemical plant would have been gone long ago. I guess it’s accumulated rainwater or something else. But if the alkali mixing kettle above falls and hits the storage tanks, we could wipe out everything within a kilometer."

Hiss~

KIKI’s face suddenly changed greatly, anxiously looking at the giant metal mixing kettle: "Oh my god, that’s terrifying."

Just as Lin Xian was contemplating retreat, he suddenly discovered behind that mixing kettle and the tanks, a faint orange light flickering. He immediately set off, running along the metal pathway towards it, and KIKI seeing Lin Xian’s action, flew to follow him.

With the change in viewpoint, that orange object gradually revealed the tip of the iceberg.

The more they ran, the more solemn their expressions became because what appeared in their line of sight was a strangely tall plant, several meters tall.

It was a plant growing out of the lower chemical liquid pool, with a thick dark green stem standing tall and then bending over topped with a flower-like lantern flower, a couple of meters in diameter. Inside, the pistil looked like a bunch of red fleshy buds emitting a faint red light, and the lantern flower’s bud leaves were orange with fine dense patterns.

This giant plant growing in a chemical solution seemed incredibly eerie amidst the metal tanks in the chemical plant.

"Wow, such a big flower?" KIKI saw this scene and immediately widened her eyes, could not help but say: "Is this like our Hell Black Chrysanthemum, a Blood Calamity Disaster Plant?"

Lin Xian’s first reaction was the same as KIKI’s, he took a breath and said: "I was thinking the same thing, but..."

His gaze was fixed on the flower in front of them, the red-orange light giving off an extremely eerie feeling, chilling to the bone.

And such a thing appearing before them indeed felt abrupt.

"But what?"

"It looks like a plant, but also not quite like a plant." freewebnoveℓ.com

Neither Lin Xian nor KIKI knew if it was their illusion, but at that moment both felt that the red-orange light seemed to be flickering, and the lantern flower also slowly undulating up and down.

KIKI’s face turned pale, staring dumbly at this scene, muttered softly: "Could this flower be..."

"Breathing?"

As soon as these words came out, Lin Xian felt goosebumps all over; he had the same feeling.

At that moment, a crisp sound came from his backpack. Lin Xian’s heart tightened, guessing what it might be, he immediately unzipped the bag and quickly created a metal clamp then threw out the two glass tubes.

Crash~

The glass tubes shattered into pieces and two white parasites fell to the ground, motionless, seeming already dead.

"What’s up?"

"There’s something odd about this!" Lin Xian’s expression darkened, suddenly getting a bad feeling.

Indeed, under the red light of the lantern flower, those two white parasites seemed to suddenly come to life, extending their hooks sharply and diving into the deep chemical pool.