Chapter 1682: Chapter 1683: Mom’s Had Enough of These Clay Things
The thing you and the others are grateful for is that the chivalrous man did not run towards the position with the most soldier statues, but just sprinted along the edge path. The chivalrous man must have known the power of these soldier statues and chose not to fight them head-on. Moreover, since these soldier statues had just awakened, their movements were still relatively slow. By the time they took up their weapons and started moving their legs, you and your group had already dashed ten meters away.
"These soldier statues aren’t that fast," Xu Mingjie said, breathing heavily and laughing. Being able to observe the soldier statues up close was a great opportunity for him.
"Soon they will be able to run as fast as us, and our presence seems to have startled King Qin. These soldier statues will continue to hunt us. Therefore, from now on, we must run with all our strength until we rush out of the tunnel."
The chivalrous man’s words immediately chilled your hearts.
You timely asked, "How far are we from the tunnel exit now?"
"At our current pace, at least 15 minutes."
You all stopped talking, knowing that the real test had just begun!
A stick of incense was a rather vague concept. You knew that a stick of incense roughly equaled an hour in modern terms, so half a stick was thirty minutes.
Asking everyone to maintain their top speed for half an hour, with a large horde of The Terracotta Warriors of Emperor Qin Shi catching up minute by minute, shows how difficult this task is.
You have relatively abundant stamina, using only a quarter of your strength at this running speed, so you looked quite relaxed.
But it was different for Wei Yingyue, Deng Fang, Liang Xinyue, and Xu Mingjie.
Wei Yingyue, despite having good stamina and exercising regularly, was still holding onto Liang Xinyue. Liang Xinyue was small, couldn’t run fast, and naturally slowed down Wei Yingyue. As for Deng Fang and Xu Mingjie, both were high school students, studying most of the time with limited physical training. Running a fifteen hundred meters was already quite an accomplishment, let alone sprinting full out through a tunnel now.
Seeing this, you suddenly sped up, running to Liang Xinyue’s side, and said to her, "Xiao Xiao, get on my back!"
Understanding the urgency, Liang Xinyue didn’t hesitate. Seeing you stop suddenly ahead, she let go of Wei Yingyue’s hand and hopped onto your back.
"Hold tight!"
In just a few breaths, you had already pulled ahead by ten meters from the group, and at this time, the sound of the soldier statues moving—that resembled rocks scraping—became louder from behind.
Liang Xinyue’s petite figure didn’t burden you much, and you continued to fly ahead effortlessly, although you could no longer bring up the rear.
When Du Yanan saw this, she immediately slowed down, retreated to your side, and said to you, "Keep up with the hero’s pace, I’ll cover the rear!"
You glanced at Du Yanan, nodded to her, "Lao Du, be careful!"
"Stop the nonsense, keep up the pace!"
You chuckled, took a few big strides, and caught up with the chivalrous man’s pace.
Xu Mingjie, panting, looked at Liang Xinyue, full of envy. Unable to speak, he could only stick his tongue out as he dragged Deng Fang by the hand, running desperately.
The noise behind grew louder, indicating the soldier statues were approaching. The closer they got, the harder it became for you all to speed up, as their proximity increased your psychological burden.
Seeing you all growing more fatigued, knowing you can’t hold on like this any longer, you turned and asked the chivalrous man, "Hero, how much longer until we’re out of the tunnel?"
The chivalrous man pondered for a moment, then said, "Half an incense stick’s time left."
Upon hearing it was only seven or eight minutes left, you quickly shouted to the others behind, "Brothers and sisters, just seven or eight minutes left, about fifteen hundred meters. Don’t drop the ball now!"
No one responded verbally, but visibly everyone’s faces grew more resolute. Having a clear time frame gave everyone hope, making it easier to run with some Qi force.
You continued sprinting all the way, and suddenly you heard Xu Mingjie’s startled shout from behind, "Oh, my God!"
Turning your head, you saw that soldier statues had already charged at you, and the distance between you and them was less than ten meters!
"The exit is just ahead!"
At this crucial moment, the chivalrous man provided great motivation, and when you looked up, indeed you saw a light about a hundred meters ahead, dim silver white, indicating that was the exit!
Yet, even with all your might to run, the distance between you and the soldier statues kept closing. At this time, you even noticed some soldier statues raising their spears, preparing to throw them.
In this critical moment, you suddenly slowed down, ran to Du Yanan and Wei Yingyue’s side and said to them, "Xiao Xiao is in your care now!"
Wei Yingyue hurriedly took Liang Xinyue from your back, and as the burden on your back lightened, you quickly drew the long knife from your waist, turned around, and charged at the advancing soldier statues!
To your surprise, Du Yanan also drew her waist knife and charged at the soldier statues with you.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
"I’ve been annoyed by these clay things for a long time!"
Du Yanan replied with a fiercely bold explanation, swinging her steel knife hard at a soldier statue thrusting its spear. With a "clang!" sound, Du Yanan’s hands almost lost grip of the knife handle.
"These guys are stone, not clay!"
Then, in the brief pause of Du Yanan talking, three soldier statues with stone spears stabbed at her.
You quickly shouted, "Watch out!" and sidestepped away from the soldier statue in front, flicking your body to Du Yanan’s side, using your left hand to wrap around her waist, dragging her several meters away with effort.
"What are you doing? Let me go!" Being so intimately held by you, Du Yanan’s face blushed, feeling shy yet angrier at you.
Du Yanan struggled, and you responded to the soldier statues with the steel knife in hand. During the scramble, your hands slightly shifted position; your left hand, originally supposed to be placed at the waist, ended up on the prominent Jade Maiden Peak.
Du Yanan usually wrapped her chest, which was a bit uncomfortable, but as a criminal police officer, her oversized chest made her feel awkward in action and attracted strange gazes from others, so she forcibly compressed an E to a C.
When you touched an inappropriate place, Du Yanan let out a sharp scream, turned and slapped your face. By instinct, you avoided it, though dodging the top, Du Yanan stomped hard on your foot—"Hiss!"
As you inhaled sharply, another soldier statue thrust its spear at you from behind.
At this moment, you didn’t even have time to curse, ignoring Du Yanan’s delicate curses, you quickly embraced her into your arms and desperately dodged the attacks from all directions by the soldier statues.
"Let me go, I can handle them myself!"