Chapter 80 – Kidnappers Hitting Florida Man's House Captured and Eaten by "Cat"
A few minutes earlier
BOOM
A loud noise came from the front windows.
Gao Yan, who had been resting in his room along with his two new friends, got up from their makeshift beds. They looked at each other in confusion.
"What's the noise?"
"As much as you know, I don't know!"
"…"
BOOM-BOOM
They heard them again. It got louder and more frequent.
The disciples were never afraid of ghosts. However, they were afraid of the unexplainable phenomenon during the night. Other disciples in the other rooms also got out to see the commotion.
"What's going on?"
Everybody came out and tried to look outside the windows. Gao Yan also followed the others to check the outside.
Then, they found the dark silhouettes of black-clothes cultivators!
"!!!"
The disciples panicked. They remembered what Wu Buyi had warned them earlier that day.
INTRUDERS!
They panicked. Everybody ran around like a headless chicken. Some tried to flee through the backdoors, but they didn't know how to open the modern shutter doors.
Gao Yan gulped and stood there, observing how the cultivators failed to break the glasses. He narrowed his eyes and noticed that a thin layer of energy wall bounced back the attacks.
"That's…"
Gao Yan wasn't sure, but he was certain that a mysterious power was at work, and senior Florida Man might be responsible for the unknown protection array.
After coming up with the hypothesis, Gao Yan was relieved. He regained his composure, and he began controlling the crowd.
"Relax, people! They can't get inside! Senior Florida Man and Senior Wu will protect us!"
Hearing Gao Yan, everybody stopped running around. Still, their faces were as pale as a sheet.
"Are you sure, Gao Yan?"
"I'm sure. Look carefully. Do you think regular glasses are stronger than hammers and Qi blades?"
"…"
Everybody realized the anomaly. They narrowed their eyes and observed the cultivators in front of the store. As Gao Yan had said, they attacked the glass windows several times, but their weapons broke. Some even tried using Qi attacks on it, but they failed to harm or damage the glasses.
Realizing the strange development, everybody stopped making noise although they were still nervous.
CLICK
Suddenly, the wooden door that served as a disguise was unlocked. The intruders opened the door!
"SHIT!"
"It's opened!"
"We're screwed!"
Gao Yan broke a sweat. He gritted his teeth and was about to tell his friends to run to the back of the mall and hide.
RUMBLE
CLANK-CLANK
As soon as the door was unlocked, modern shutter doors slid down from the ceiling, barricading the outsiders from getting in. Lockpads appeared along with the shutter doors, and they automatically locked them to the floor.
RUMBLE
A new air curtain room was also erected, and they were automatically locked from the inside.
Normally, air curtain rooms were usually served as a filter to eliminate foul air, insects, and contamination from the outside from getting into the building. But in this situation, it was used for security, blocking the intruders from getting in.
Gao Yan and the disciples were astonished and relieved that the senior's building magically protected them. Unfortunately, their mental strength was lacking, so they couldn't stand still. Everybody paced around the mall, waiting and praying for their seniors to come and help them.
While they were waiting and praying, the intruders got inside the air curtain room. The cultivators started banging the glass doors and the walls. Noises from the entrance got louder, and the disciples could sense their killing intent directed toward them.
"This isn't good!" Gao Yan couldn't stand still anymore. For the sake of everybody's safety, he reacted first. "TO THE SECOND FLOOR! MOVE!!"
Hearing the order of Gao Yan, everybody rushed to the staircase and headed to the second floor, leaving unnecessary belongings behind. When everybody reached the empty second floor, they looked around as if they had never got up before. Similar to the first floor, there was nothing here but 20 partitioned rooms and an elevator.
One of the disciples approached the elevator. As he had seen how Leo operated it, he wondered if they could get out through this device.
"Can we use this to leave?"
Gao Yan and others followed the disciple and gathered in front of the elevator. They looked at the arrow buttons, but they had no idea what they were for. Nobody dared to touch them.
BOOM
BOOM
The loud bang sounds from the first floor were audible on the second floor. Everybody trembled in fear.
Gao Yan bit his lower lip and pressed both buttons. Then, they lit up.
"Gao Yan! What are you doing?!" The disciples panicked as they were afraid that he might ruin the mysterious protection array in the building.
Gao Yan yelled, "There's no time to hesitate! We saw Senior Florida Man travels up through this shaft. Maybe, there's a way to escape from here!"
"B-But Elder Wu said we should stay indoors!"
"Then, will you wait?"
"…"
The disciple couldn't answer. He, too, wanted to get out of there. The others were also quiet as they were too young and inexperienced in this situation.
DING
While the disciples were silent, the elevator came down from the portal platform. The door was opened.
Gao Yan took a deep breath and ordered everybody, "Get in there! Quick!"
"!!!"
The disciples rushed into the elevator. However, the small elevator was too small for everybody to enter.
BZZZ
In addition, there was a weight limit. The elevator revealed a red light, and a female voice came out from a speaker.
"Elevator Overburdened. Please mind the weight limit."
"…"
The disciples were confused at first, but it took them a few seconds to figure out the hints. They looked at each other as none of them wanted to leave the elevator.
Gao Yan, on the other hand, hadn't entered the elevator yet. He heard the voice, and he understood the general idea. He pulled three people out.
"Gao Yan! Let go of me!" One of them protested.
Gao Yan ignored him, "Not all of us can go. One of you, get out. You can go on the next trip."
Hearing the keyword "Next Trip", the crowd was relieved. One of them sacrificed his spot and got out of the elevator.
DING
The red light was gone, and the elevator was closed. However, it didn't move anywhere as the crowd inside hadn't pressed any buttons.
As the elevator didn't move, the crowd panicked. They started banging on the metal door, trying to get out.
"GAO YAN, HELP!"
"DAMMIT! I SHOULD HAVE STAYED!"
Gao Yan heard their voices, and he frowned. He pressed the arrow button again, and the elevator door was opened. As soon as the people inside could leave, they rushed out of the small place.
Everybody panted and broke a sweat. They thought that they would have been trapped in there forever.
"I ain't going back in! Y'all can go!" One of them pointed his finger at Gao Yan's face.
Gao Yan shook his head. He waved his hand and invited the people that didn't get in earlier.
The left-behind group looked at each other and followed Gao Yan inside. As there were only seven of them, the elevator door was soon closed.
Gao Yan was observant. He noticed the three buttons in the elevator – [1] button, [2] button, and a cloud palace button.
"What are these?"
The others also noticed them, but they weren't courageous enough to press them. On the other hand, Gao Yan already figured out the logic of this elevator. He pressed the cloud icon button.
WHOOM
The elevator slowly moved up.
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
"WHOA!"
The six disciples fell on their butts as if it was their first time riding a modern elevator. As for Gao Yan, he grabbed a rail and managed to maintain his balance.
Soon, the elevator left the second floor, leaving the group of selfish disciples earlier. The people dropped their jaws as they couldn't comprehend how Gao Yan could operate the elevator but they couldn't.
As the elevator exited the building through the absurdly long shaft, the people inside could see through the glass walls and saw the crowd below. They could also see the other buildings from above.
Stunned by the scenery, Gao Yan and everybody forgot about the looming danger. They admired the night view.
Alchemy workshops, clothing store, recycling center, warehouses, granaries, and the three small houses were still bright. LED lights from the facilities were always on during the night. Only the farm plots were in the dark.
.
.
WHOOM
While attacking the store, the cultivators noticed movements from the elevator shaft. One of them climbed the roof to inspect the long glass tube, which connected to the flying platform.
Two of the golden core cultivators tried to attack it. They brought out their low-grade axes and hacked at the shaft.
CLANK
The axe shafts were broken in half upon impact. As for the glasses, they didn't even have a scratch on them.
"How strong is this thing?!"
The cultivators got desperate. They stomped the roof tiles and tried to get in from above. Again, they only hurt their feet and legs.
WHOOM
An elevator moved down from the flying platform and entered the building below. The two golden core cultivators were surprised and took several steps back from the shaft.
"What the hell?!"
"Hey! Something is weird here!"
Although they had been stalking Leo, they didn't understand the logic behind this elevator. They also didn't notice that Leo had once used it to move up to the mystic realm portal platform.
As the two made noise, 30 people that had nothing to do climbed the building and surrounded the shaft.
"What the hell is this?"
"Who cares? Let's crush this thing and get inside. We're wasting too much time!"
30 grown men started hitting the glass walls with their fists and Qi.
BOOM
Again, all attacks were repelled and blocked by weird energy. Everybody hurt themselves in the process.
The agent from the Ouyang Clan had a bad feeling about this. He sent a voice transmission message to his colleagues and talked through their minds.
'Hey, let's retreat. We can't get in!'
Hearing their comrade's voice in their minds, the others also agreed.
'Yeah, it's like a fortress. We should report this to the clan and let the elders handle this. There's no need to risk our lives for achievements.'
'True. We're up against a nascent soul cultivator, a 6th stage monster, and a quasi-immortal. This is not our battlefield.'
After coming to the conclusion, 30 cultivators slipped out of the crowd and began to retreat west, heading to Magpie City. They boldly ran on the road across Wu Buyi's house.
They had no idea that behind the house, a terrifying glutton monster always lurked there. She usually went out at night to find some games in the forest as she was bored of potatoes.
As the Ouyang Clan's agents ran in the dark, they didn't see very far. A few seconds later, their feet hit something large, and they stumbled.
The leader of the group warned his subordinates, "Be careful. There are still logs and trees in the area."
The cultivators grumbled and kicked the ground, planning to fly instead.
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
WHOOSH
As they started flying, 30 thorn vines were shot out from the roof of a house. They coiled around the legs of the Ouyang agents.
"WHAT?! NOOO!!"
They realized it instantly as a pair of glowing red eyes below belonged to a nasty plant monster.
"Nom-Nom Meow?"
