In just a few minutes, the commotion inside the prison grew quieter and quieter.
More and more people fled, until almost no one was left in the yard.
If ten percent of the people ran, those who remained still had a chance to fight. But once fifty percent retreated, the rest had no reason to hold their ground.
No one would throw their life away blindly when there was no hope in sight.
It was like a farce: scattered figures fled outside, as though demons were hunting them from behind.
Thanks to that, Li Xingkong even had a chance to recover a little more mana.
He had not escaped completely unscathed. Even though his protective spells had blocked most of the bullets, the gunfire had been so intense that, in his current condition, he could not cover everything.
But with the help of Spiritual Qi, even when he suffered small wounds or was grazed by fragments from stray bullets, it could promptly mobilize his body's internal healing structures and cells to give each wound targeted first aid.
Stopping the bleeding, bandaging, relieving the pain-it took care of everything at once. The pain and decline in bodily functions caused by injury could all be temporarily blocked out.
It made him look like a game character: even after taking several bullets, he acted as if nothing had happened.
But he still could not deal with serious injuries. If he took a direct hit that passed straight through him, or if a bullet tumbled inside his body and destroyed extensive bodily structures, even he could not heal an injury like that in a short time.
The whole prison had fallen silent, as though everyone was gone.
Aside from equipment scattered across the ground and dust and smoke still hanging in many places, there was not a single moving person in sight.
It was as though the place really had been abandoned.
Li Xingkong took a few more breaths, then climbed down from the wall into the yard.
He remained on guard. The mutiny had not changed his mindset.
The person he had come to see had yet to appear.
There was no other activity in the building at the center of the prison, either. Inside, it was deathly silent. The main doors the men had just come through still stood open, like a giant maw waiting to devour someone.
Li Xingkong walked slowly, every step extremely cautious.
He was on the other side's turf. Who knew what he would find with his next step?
The door was already open, so there was no need for him to find a window to climb through.
The other side already knew he was here, so looking for another way in was pointless now. Presumably, every entrance was the same.
Li Xingkong held two handfuls of water bullets, ready to fire at any moment. The Explosive Reactive Armor on his hands had also begun recharging, and light occasionally flowed across the armor's mana-formed structure as it charged, as though it could be activated at any moment.
He walked through the main doors. Contrary to his expectations, there was no one inside.
There was not even an automatic firing point. Nothing was aimed at him or trained on him.
Nor was there any malice he could sense.
Inside the main building was a spacious open area, and in its center stood a strange, hastily constructed box.
The box was like a model room in a modern building, except that every side but the one facing the main doors was a wall.
Inside the box, a person had been left there all alone. Li Xingkong recognized him at a glance: it was Mike.
A bright red hood had been pulled over his head, and he had been tied to a battered chair with his arms behind his back, left alone in the middle of the box.
No one could be seen watching him, either. When he heard the noise at the entrance, he began to struggle.
Unfortunately, it was no use. His mouth was gagged tightly, and he could hardly make a sound.
Li Xingkong naturally intended to save him, but the setup was so obvious that it was clearly a trap. If he simply walked up to it, he would fall straight into the other side's scheme.
So he stopped several meters away and looked around.
"Sss, are you afraid?"
A speaker in the corner crackled to life, carrying Luke Morgan's voice. It seemed he really was here, watching closely from somewhere without showing himself.
"It doesn't matter. See? Your old friend is right there. All you have to do is walk over, and you can save him."
Li Xingkong was no fool. The more the enemy wanted him to do something, the less he could afford to do it.
Naturally, he did not move. As he looked around, he pinpointed the locations of the cameras set up nearby.
Without hesitation, he fired a destructive Shotgun Spell at the cameras.
"What a shame. Now no one will get to watch your performance! Look at your old friend. If you don't save him now, the little cage he's in will be filled with cement in ten seconds. After that, if you want to see him, you'll have to visit the human sculpture in my plaza."
Although the cameras had been destroyed, it did not stop Luke Morgan from speaking. His tone still suggested he had Li Xingkong completely in his grasp, and there was even a hint of private satisfaction at having gotten his revenge.
After hearing that, Li Xingkong looked again at the "box" holding Mike.
A stream of gray liquid had begun seeping down from the top of the box, pouring down the corners on all four sides.
In just a moment, the cement had surged past Mike's calves.
"Fuck!"
Li Xingkong did not have much time left. He had no time to hesitate.
Under the circumstances, he made his choice instinctively.
Perhaps it was because of the education he had received growing up, or perhaps hot blood had rushed to his head in the heat of the moment.
He charged straight to the box holding Mike.
The box had been designed cunningly. Walls surrounded it on all sides, and even the side facing the main entrance was made of outrageously thick glass, comparable in thickness to the kind Li Xingkong had seen at an aquarium.
There was only a small opening on one side, just big enough for one person to pass through.
To get inside and save Mike, he had to go through there.
Li Xingkong had no choice. He wanted to save Mike, so he darted straight inside.
Mike was struggling fiercely. The murky cement at his feet filled him with the despair of someone practically waiting to die.
Li Xingkong immediately raised a hand and tore the hood off his head, then began breaking the ropes.
Mike could suddenly see again, and his movements grew much less frantic. Seeing Li Xingkong beside him, he stopped struggling and cooperated with him.
There was no time to undo all the ropes. In that brief interval, the cement had already reached their thighs.
Li Xingkong simply wrenched Mike free of the chair and pulled him along, intending to escape.
But the entrance he had come through was gone.
Where it had been, there was now a wall, sealed without a gap.
The situation turned critical in an instant.
Li Xingkong realized he did not seem to have any good way out, either.
The Shotgun Spell was not powerful enough to destroy the wall. He fired it twice in succession, but neither shot managed to break it. Meanwhile, the cement continued to rise inside the box, leaving him less and less room to move.
Just as the cement rose past his chest, the flow from above stopped.
A figure appeared on the other side of the box's glass wall.
It was Luke Morgan.