Qin Kun’s heart sank as he opened the backup oxygen tank; his heartbeat began to slow, but with every beat, the force inside him grew stronger.
He assumed a boxing stance in the water, retaining his Yang Energy, drawing it inward, compounding its intensity, yet not releasing it.
This place, just two minutes ago, had been indiscriminately purged by an ultra-high-voltage electric current.
That overwhelming surge of electricity coursed through the water—even reduced by four or five attenuation levels, it could still incinerate flesh and blood to charcoal.
Now, anything that could still move underwater either survived that purge, or had arrived here from elsewhere within those two minutes.
Qin Kun inspected the marks at the cable breach; there was no trace of electrical damage, and the cut wasn’t made all at once—meaning it was almost certainly the latter.
The response speed of these things was truly fast—if they made it here this quickly, they must have entered the water immediately after the blackout.
All around him was pitch dark. Qin Kun simply closed his eyes and held his breath; his heart rate slowed further, floating silently in place, feeling the current’s subtle movement.
In the darkness, a White-haired Zombie glided like a fish, body swaying gently, silent as it approached Qin Kun from below.
When the White-haired Zombie drew within two meters beneath Qin Kun, it abruptly accelerated.
With eyes closed, Qin Kun’s heart pounded; the Yang Energy he’d been suppressing exploded all at once within him.
Like a cicada sensing the autumn breeze before the leaves even stir—he didn’t see it, didn’t need to; the instant he felt the shift in current and sensed imminent danger, his body twisted in the water, narrowly dodging the White-haired Zombie’s claws.
With one foot, he hooked the White-haired Zombie’s arm, and with the lithe power of a leaping carp, his waist snapped into action.
The moment he hooked the White-haired Zombie to him, he used its force against it, striking out with a single, devastating punch—at that instant, the surging Yang Energy detonated.
It was as if flames erupted beneath the water in the dark—his fist blazed like a meteor with a trailing inferno, crashing down hard.
The white, steel-bristle-like fur covering the White-haired Zombie, upon contact with the flames, instantly scorched; Qin Kun’s fist smashed savagely onto the creature’s skull.
An air cavity bubble burst underwater—the White-haired Zombie’s skull didn’t explode outward, but rather, with a sickening crunch of bone, caved in upon itself.
As though some invisible force squeezed from all sides, kneading and crushing inward, then, under Qin Kun’s fist, it was violently compressed all the way into its chest.
The White-haired Zombie’s chest swelled grotesquely, power rampaging within it, unable to find an outlet.
Its iron-hard bones, under that relentless power, were pulverized into countless fragments in an instant.
The next moment, the air cavity collapsed, hurling a now-headless White-haired Zombie’s corpse spinning toward the distance.
The headless White-haired Zombie, like a plastic bag adrift in the water, limp and boneless, tumbled into shapelessness—and moved no more.
Martial Technique—Reverberation.
Using the Yang Energy within, condensed and refined into a tangible force, locked inside the opponent’s body, transforming into endless reverberating waves.
If controlled with enough precision, it shattered bones but spared flesh and viscera—total bone destruction, but with internal organs and muscle completely intact.
Previously, Qin Kun had used Reverberation to violently destroy a monster whose bones were tough enough to deflect handgun bullets.
His body’s Yang Energy, surging and condensed, did double or more harm to unholy abominations.
One blow drove a White-haired Zombie’s skull into its chest and shattered all its bones—killing it instantly.
Yet, not all zombies possessed the Big Executor Corpse’s monstrous regenerative abilities.
With that single strike, even the water’s flow was thrown into chaos—at that very moment, yet another White-haired Zombie surged up from below.
Qin Kun couldn’t see in the dark; by the time his danger sense picked up on the imminent threat in those spinning currents, the White-haired Zombie was already upon him.
Claws over an inch long swiped up from below, aiming directly at the backup oxygen tank strapped to Qin Kun’s waist.
Yang Energy erupted from Qin Kun, lighting up the darkness around him like a lantern, the water two meters out suddenly illuminated.
He twisted his legs, locked the White-haired Zombie’s head in a vicious scissor hold, and with a whip of his waist, wrung the creature’s skull one hundred eighty degrees.
Fierce Yang Qi burned; the white hair on the creature’s body sizzled like it was on fire, and even as its head was nearly torn off, a ghastly grin remained on the White-haired Zombie’s monstrous face.
The backup oxygen tank at Qin Kun’s waist was torn open.
A torrent of air bubbles burst out, and even though the White-haired Zombie took another blow of Reverberation, its claws still vainly tried to shred Qin Kun’s protective suit.
Staring at the now-motionless White-haired Zombie drifting into the abyss, Qin Kun’s face darkened as he watched the oxygen tank spew bubbles; the bubbles churned so forcefully, even his body was pushed adrift in the water.
Having slain two White-haired Zombies, and with darkness all around, Qin Kun could no longer be sure where he was.
This place seemed endless; not a glimmer of light, the surface was lost overhead—and if not for his martial artist’s honed physical senses, he wouldn’t even be able to tell up from down by now.
His guidance device was destroyed, and every other means of communication seemed to be under heavy interference.
He had to move faster—after all, he was still alive; once the oxygen ran out, he’d have at most seven or eight minutes before unconsciousness took him—and that was his absolute limit.