Desolate.
“Little devil, let’s see how long can you hold!” Old man was wearing a dark green mask, only to reveal a pair of cold eyes. He was staring at the table. His fingers were on crossbow, ready to shoot at Dudian at anytime.
Sou!
A shadow suddenly flew out from the table.
Old man’s finger instinctively clicked the trigger of the crossbow. It ejected out a short arrow which flashed quickly but didn’t shoot the shadow. It was nailed at the rear of the wooden cabinet.
At this time, a bottle of powder fall in front of old man’s foot.
His face a changed and quickly looked up to see Dudian jumping up from the ground. He didn’t bypass the work table towards him but to the cupboard. Dudian casually grabbed the bottles and jars and threw them at old man.
Old man’s anger burst to sky. It was very hard to collect all these of experimental material. To see them casually knocked on the ground was making him crazy. He filled another short bow onto crossbow and aimed at Dudian.
However, in his short time to re-fill the crossbow, Dudian had already once again retracted back to the table.
“Damned little devil !” Old man’s angry eyes almost spit fire. He had missed shooting Dudian the second time. If he heard it before that he would feel threatened by a small child, he would laughed at the idea.
“I’d like to see how long you can hold!” Old man’s checked the green fog that was diffusing into the chamber.
“Got it!” Dudian was holding a large glass bottle. It was the bottle filled with sulfur which he had seen before. At this moment he felt suffocated as there was less oxygen as a result of green fog. Unfortunately there was nothing to fire it.
“Damn it! No fire, no fire!”
Dudian mind was in despair. As he was desperately thinking about a way out, his eyes concentrated on the wooden wall where shadows were reflected. “The oil lamp”, he whispered to himself.
“How I haven’t thought about the oil lamp?”, Dudian was in joy.
The despair in his heart vanished. He quickly used fabric torn from his shirt to cover the sulfur bottle. He clenched his teeth. His life and death would be result of the success or failure of this move.
Sou!
Old man saw large group of flying shadows. By nature of self-preservation he shot the crossbow. The short arrow penetrated one of the bottles. But another one which was aimed at him was not affected. In hurry he raised his left arm to block the oncoming shadow.
Unfortunately for him, he blocked the bottle covered with fabric. It cracked and some of the sulfur fall onto his arm and clothes. He sway his arm which hit the table when another bottle hit the oil lamp and overturned it.
Dudian saw the fabric burning up so he quickly lied down.
Bang! . .
Suddenly sound of thunder-like explosion resounded in the chamber. Few pieces of the wood on top of the chamber cracked and fall down. Dust filled the room.
Dudian felt a massive destructive force hit the table and which was reflected on his body. He felt as if his ribs were going to break. Tears flowed out of his eyes because of the pain.
At this time he couldn’t control his slow and restrained breath. As a result he inhaled large amounts of air. There was flavor of burned sulfur. Moreover he inhaled remnant of the previous green fog. His limbs felt soft.
Top of the chamber collapsed at some parts. The cold wind circulated inside the chamber which rolled out the air filled with smell of sulfur and green mist. He slowly began to inhale the fresh air.
Dudian immediately began to crawl because there was a big blast in the chamber and nobody knew when it will completely collapse. He did not want to be buried alive.
As a result of the previous explosion, the oil lamp had blown out. At the moment the chamber was immersed in darkness.
Dudian began to move towards the old man’s direction even though he couldn’t see what was in front of him. He relied on his previous vision to remember the distance between him and the old man. It didn’t take long before his hand touched a wet, sticky but hard objects. His face became ugly.
It was the bones of old man.
Although in the dark, Dudian knew that all that he touched were the part of the body that had remained after the explosion. He didn’t expect the power of this sulfur explosion to be so terrible. It was not made into gun powder so the reason for it to be so effective should be because of ‘dust explosion’ principle.
“I killed a human … …”. Dudian mind trembled. A living human was killed. He had seen the situation of poor in this world and at some point faced the distortion of the law. But to personally kill someone. He did not dare to think about it previously.
He was slightly shaking, he secretly whispered in his heart: “It was just self-protection. I wanted to protect myself, so it’s not a crime… not a crime…” His heart was filled with sadness. The proper laws has long since disappeared from the world so even if it was a crime who can give him a conviction?
In this dark pit which was illuminated by the starlight, he suddenly felt so lonely and desolate. Gradually he let his body relax. The fear in his heart disappeared. Instead a kind of faint indifference was born. He silently looked at the derelict part of the old man’s body. His body slowly moved, not to leave but to explore.
He checked the crossbow.
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