Pollution Intensity 5.0

The carriage was a mess. The unconscious passengers lay sprawled everywhere.

Lin Baici heard hurried footsteps and immediately turned around.

Ma Yuan had arrived. His suit was wrinkled and disheveled, and he looked far more bedraggled than the elite Lin Baici had seen in the Waiting Hall.

"Xia Hongyao?"

Ma Yuan blurted out when he saw Xia Hongyao.

"You know me?"

Xia Hongyao flicked her ponytail.

"You should be asking who in the Safety Bureau doesn't know you sisters!"

Ma Yuan instinctively glanced at Xia Hongyao's chest.

He'd never met her in person, but he'd seen photos of Xia Hongyao. Comparing them now, he realized she was even bigger in person.

That had to be over a D cup, right?

Then Ma Yuan turned his gaze to Black Shark III.

The fat man clutched the wound in his side. Blood seeped between his fingers, soaking his clothes.

Compared with his earlier arrogance, this key member of the Lost Coast looked much more dispirited now.

"Very good. I never thought I, Black Shark III, would fall at the hands of two youngsters today!"

Black Shark III gritted his teeth and glared bitterly at Lin Baici, feeling utterly aggrieved.

He'd been very careful when he came in, but he hadn't expected to walk into an ambush all the same.

His opponent was even more meticulous than he'd anticipated.

"Actually, I only did something insignificant. The main plan was all Little Lin's idea!"

Xia Hongyao was an honest person and didn't want to take credit.

"You don't need to tell me. I can see that!"

Black Shark III glared at Lin Baici, his gaze venomous.

He'd thought that the Muscle Buddha in shorts was the Trump Card. In reality, it had been a feint, meant to draw his attention. The real Trump Card was the girl with the ponytail.

How had he reached that conclusion?

Because the ponytailed girl wore her emotions on her sleeve, and with a chest that big, she obviously wasn't the type to use her brain.

Of course,

the most important thing was that Lin Baici had gotten to his feet and exchanged those couple of words with him. He'd been so calm, so commanding, that Black Shark III had instinctively focused his attention on him and remained extra vigilant.

"Hongyao, who's this...?"

Ma Yuan had been sizing up Lin Baici all along. Hearing Xia Hongyao's words, he took the opportunity to ask.

When had the Bureau recruited another impressive newcomer?

But hadn't this year's assessment not even begun yet?

"My friend!"

Xia Hongyao didn't reveal Lin Baici's identity, worried that Ma Yuan might try to recruit him too.

"Did you kill my partner?"

Black Shark III's voice was cold, his eyes full of murderous intent.

"I did!"

Xia Hongyao immediately took the blame.

She was worried that if Black Shark III managed to escape, he might retaliate against Lin Baici, so she volunteered to take responsibility.

"You?"

Black Shark III scoffed in disbelief.

"What? You looking down on me?"

Xia Hongyao was unhappy.

"That stab of yours was fast, accurate, and ruthless, but..."

Black Shark III shook his head. "You can't kill Octopus Ball with knife skills like that!"

Xia Hongyao didn't argue. She recalled how Lin Baici had killed Octopus Ball. It had been a chain of moves, each one flashing with the light of intelligence.

"What's the matter? You dare to kill someone, but you don't dare to admit it?"

Black Shark III sneered.

"Heh. Listen carefully. The killer is Lin Baici of Haijing Institute of Technology!"

Lin Baici straightened his Kasaya.

"Revenge?"

"Like hell I'm scared!"

"Bring it on!"

At Lin Baici's words, Xia Hongyao and Ma Yuan's eyes lit up.

"Now that's badass!"

Ma Yuan gave him a thumbs-up. "Want to join my squad? I can recommend you and vouch for you!"

To join the Nine Provinces Divine Shield Security Agency as a God Hunter, one had to pass round after round of selection. But having a team leader vouch for you made it much easier.

"Hey..."

Xia Hongyao furrowed her brows. You're acting like I'm not even here?

This was the Team Member she'd had her eye on!

Lin Baici glanced at Ma Yuan, thinking that useless guy couldn't even wear down the enemy!

He'd had Xia Hongyao lie in ambush in this carriage instead of going to help for another reason he hadn't told her.

He'd wanted the Dragon Steed Squad to fight Black Shark III. If they won, the two of them could avoid a fight; if they lost, Lin Baici could take advantage of the situation and deal with a badly wounded Black Shark III.

But when this key member of the Lost Coast had arrived, he'd only been lightly wounded. He'd lost very little of his fighting strength.

"Haha, what a big mouth!"

Black Shark III sneered. "You think you've got me beat?"

"Why hasn't he died yet?"

Lin Baici frowned.

He hadn't been shooting the breeze with Black Shark III for fun. He was waiting for him to bleed out.

"Haha! That girl stabbed me hard. An ordinary person would've bled out and gone into shock by now, but I'm a God Hunter!"

Black Shark III sounded proud. "Even without lifting a finger myself, I have three ways to kill you!"

[Kill it, quick!]

The God of Gluttony suddenly spoke.

Ma Yuan and Xia Hongyao had noticed something was wrong without Lin Baici needing to warn them. They threw themselves at Black Shark III without regard for their own safety, but they were too late.

Before the fat man had even finished speaking, he swiftly took out a palm-sized conch and blew hard.

Woooo!

A transparent bubble emerged from the conch and enveloped him.

At the same time, yellow sandstorm winds whipped up before Lin Baici and the others, blotting out the sky and obscuring their vision, as if they'd been swallowed by a sandstorm.

"Rule Pollution?"

Lin Baici immediately summoned the Muscle Buddha. He wanted to light the Torch as well, but the swirling yellow sand stung his eyes, leaving him unable to see anything.

Fortunately, the sudden sandstorm didn't last long. It vanished after six or seven seconds, but the surrounding environment had changed.

"What is this place?"

18D was dumbfounded.

Wasn't I in a high-speed train carriage?

An endless expanse of red clay mud pond stretched around them. 18D's feet sank into it up to his calves. The mud was slick and sticky, making it hard to move.

"Fuck, it's Rule Pollution!"

Ma Yuan cursed furiously.

The thing he'd feared most had happened after all.

"Little Lin!"

Xia Hongyao trudged through the mud pond, one foot sinking deeper than the other, and made her way to Lin Baici.

"Do you know which God's Taboo Object caused this?"

Lin Baici asked.

Aside from the four of them, every passenger on the G1955 Train had been caught in the Rule Pollution.

Some lay unconscious in the red clay mud pond, while others began to wake up and look around in confusion.

Xia Hongyao looked at Ma Yuan.

Ma Yuan took a crumpled slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Xia Hongyao.

God's Taboo Object No.: A-025 (provisional).

Pollution Intensity: 5.0.

God's Taboo Object Characteristics: A clay figure sculpture.

When the Rule Pollution begins, a muddy red clay mud pond will form, and a Clay Figure Monster will appear, forcing those affected to mold clay figures.

Sealing Method: Black Coffin Seal.

Disaster Assessment: High.

Special Precautions: Do not attempt to escape. You will be killed and lose the right to mold clay figures.

"5.0?"

Xia Hongyao drew a sharp breath when she saw the number.

"That serious?"

Lin Baici frowned.

"Very serious!"

Ma Yuan smiled bitterly.

After decades of exploration and study, countries had gained a certain understanding of God Ruins disasters and established a universal disaster assessment standard.

A Pollution Intensity of 5.0 meant that the disaster caused by this God's Taboo Object was equivalent to a Minor God Ruins.

For ordinary people, the chances of survival were pitifully low.

"What is this place?"

"What happened?"

"Why are my clothes all wet? Where's the high-speed train? Where's my luggage?"

The passengers who had woken up were panicking, questioning each other, their eyes full of wariness!

"Apprentices, come over here. The Graduation Assessment is about to begin!"

A dry voice came from the nine o'clock direction, echoing across the red clay mud pond.

Everyone turned and looked into the distance.

"Apprentices? Who?"

18D looked at Lin Baici. "Us?"

"Let's go. We don't have a choice!"

After saying that to Lin Baici, Xia Hongyao clapped her hands sharply to get the passengers' attention. "Everyone, head over there. We've been caught in a God's Taboo Object's Rule Pollution. We might survive if we do what it says!"

The passengers were dumbfounded.

Quite a few had heard of terms like God Ruins and God's Taboo Objects through the internet and other sources. They'd heard they were terrifying, but no one had seen what they were actually like.

Now that they'd suddenly been told they were contaminated, they were terrified.

"Could we die?"

"Who are you?"

"What exactly is Rule Pollution?"

The passengers all looked at Xia Hongyao, waiting for an answer.

"Just head over there. You'll find out soon enough!"

Even if Xia Hongyao had wanted to explain, there wasn't time. Before she could finish, the Rule Pollution would kill them all.

Lin Baici started walking toward the voice.

18D hurried to follow him, pleading in a meek voice.

"Bro, if I offended you earlier, I hope you'll forgive me!"

18D had followed Lin Baici the whole way and witnessed his impressive performance. He knew he'd have a better chance of surviving if he stuck with him, so he took the initiative to ingratiate himself and latch on to him.

The red clay mud pond was like a swamp, terribly difficult to cross.

18D hadn't gone far before his left shoe got stuck in the mud. He couldn't pull it out.

A lot of people ran into the same problem.

Curses rang out all around them.

After walking more than two hundred meters, Lin Baici saw a circular Earth Platform built from red clay, about half the size of a soccer field.

On the platform stood a number of earthen kilns, each over a meter tall and half a meter in diameter, with rounded tops like yurts. They were all built from red clay.

Beside each kiln lay a pile of charcoal and a wooden box about the size of a Trolley Case.

Lin Baici knew what it was. It was called a bellows, a tool used for cooking in the countryside in the old days.

A two-meter-tall Red Earth Clay Figure stood on the Earth Platform, surveying the apprentices.

"Wouldn't it be enough to kill it?"

18D noticed that the Clay Figure looked lifelike.

At first glance, it looked like a real person covered in mud. Even its eyes were lively and intimidating.

But on closer inspection, the whites of its eyes were the color of clay, and as its eyeballs moved, bits of Clay Powder crumbled off.

"Usually, no!"

Ma Yuan answered cautiously.

[Pre-meal warm-up, here we go.]

God of Gluttony teased, [Hope you'll have a good appetite when it's time to eat!]

"How do I get through this round of God's Taboo Game?"

Lin Baici asked inwardly.

"Killing this Clay Figure Monster won't help. Make a clay figure according to its instructions, and you'll pass."

God of Gluttony explained.

"Graduation Assessment, starting now. Follow my lead!"

The Clay Figure Monster announced loudly, then strode into the Mud Pond.