Chapter 44 Flash Bombs

In the end, all embarrassing things she could imagine were showed in front of Ding Ning in the short span of half a day.

They had even peed together, so how could she still treat him like a stranger?

It’s just like a man with his buddy, they carried guns together, went whoring together and studied together. How could she turn her back on this buddy?

It goes without saying that the feeling Xiao Nuo had towards Ding Ning at this moment was just like that. Even if he was not her lover, he was definitely her buddy who had experienced many important events in life with her.

Or, she could at least call him her Bromeo, like the slang used these days.

Ding Ning was not in the mood to care about Xiao Nuo’s various fancies. Instead, he got his brain into gear to think about how to get away.

“Although these nauseating things are not very lethal, they are extremely large in number.”

“The flashlight is of little deterrence to them. The gun is of some use, but its effect is limited. Even if one bullet could destroy an enemy, we can’t destroy a thousand of them. On the contrary, it is very likely that they will be aggravated instead.”

“Fire is a good idea, but unfortunately the ground here is too wet to find kindling.”

“Drugs must have some effect, but even a clever woman can’t cook a meal without rice. Who would take insecticides and sulphur with them?”

This predicament gave Ding Ning a headache. He would never have thought that he would be trapped by a group of such disgusting things.

He would rather encounter a group of tigers, lions, or even wolves, than face such things.

After all, the size of these things were too small, such that even if he had the ability to chop them one by one, he would still break his back from exertion.

He racked his brains but couldn’t come up with any ideas. He subconsciously asked, “Do you have any ideas?”

“I have grenades and flash bombs in my backpack. Are those useful?”

Xiao Nuo said weakly. But Ding Ning’s eyes brightened and he said delightedly, “Yes, of course they will, especially the flash bombs.”

“Really? Here you are!” Pleasantly surprised, Xiao Nuo took out three flash bombs and gave them to Ding Ning.

Ding Ning took the bombs. “Hey, hey,” he grinned and shouted suddenly, “I’ll count to three, come out immediately. Don’t blame me if you don’t come out.”

Completely confused, Xiao Nuo asked, “Who are you talking to?”

“The owner of the black cat!” Ding Ning blurted out.

“How do you know she’s nearby?”

After the previous events, Xiao Nuo no longer doubted Ding Ning’s judgment, but she still asked the question out of curiosity.

“Intuition!” Ding Ning gave this cool answer. All of a sudden, he said loudly, “Since you still plan to be a coward, I will teach you a lesson first.”

Ding Ning raised his hand and dropped the flash bomb, in the meantime, he quickly said, “Close your eyes!”

Without needing his warning, Xiao Nuo had already closed her eyes when he dropped the bomb.

The dazzling light reflected across the entire cave, as white as daylight, and there came two heartrending screams in this blinding flash of light.

“Two voices from a man and a woman, now both of them are caught.” Ding Ning closed his eyes and smirked.

He had guessed that the owner of that black cat and the Bone Demon were partners, and they must be together.

Ding Ning assumed that they must be around because these mice, snakes, and insects were not very willing to cooperate. The owner of that black cat should be able to control animals easily but it must be hard for her to control snakes and insects such that he could only control them when she was nearby.

A flash bomb solved the whole crisis. The owner of the black cat and the Bone Demon both were both afraid of light such that they rolled all over the ground in pain after they were hurt by the flash bomb.

Freed from the control of the black cat’s owner, these snakes, mice, and insects fled in all directions, and in the blink of an eye, they had completely disappeared. The biggest crisis was solved.

Xiao Nuo looked at Ding Ning, who hadn’t put her down yet. Her delicate face was glowing red and there were sparkling colors flashing across her beautiful eyes, and no one knew what she was thinking about.

Ding Ning opened his tearing red eyes and walked quickly toward the location of the Bone Demon.

He couldn’t wait to see the true face of Bone Demon to make sure whether he was the one he suspected.

But after he put down Xiao Nuo and unmasked the Bone Demon, he froze up on the spot.

It was a pale face, but what scared him was that the skin on his face was replaced with white bones such that he couldn’t see any human features.

“What kind of monster is this?” Ding Ning swallowed hard and turned to look at the owner of the black cat.

Unexpectedly, the black cat’s owner was a beautiful young girl. Her face was pale and morbid, the white of her eyes were completely bloodshot such that it looked as though she had gotten pinkeye, and she looked extremely ferocious.

Especially now, as she curled up and twitched in pain. Her old black robe was covered with dirt which gave off the strong smell of rotten meat.

“Who exactly are they? How can this be?”

Like a little girl, Xiao Nuo hid behind Ding Ning. Upon seeing Bone Demon’s terrifying face, she went as silent as a cicada in the winter and retracted her head.

Ding Ning frowned, and he stretched his hand to lift the Bone Demon’s clothes to reveal his chest. Looking at the thick layer of bone-like skin on his chest, his face became extremely ugly.

He uncovered the girl’s clothes, and he found that although her body was not bony, it was burnt by the light and it was scattered with festering sores and dying flesh, even her impressive plump bosom were no exception.

Xiao Nuo mood soured at first, but after seeing the nauseating carrion and rotten sores, she covered her mouth in shock, her stomach churned in waves and she almost threw up.

Seeing Ding Ning frown with a gloomy face, Xiao Nuo endured her nausea and said, “They are so pitiful, how did they become like this?”

“This girl must have mutated because of hematoporphyria. Now she has a tremendous desire for blood and she feeds on blood. To some extent, she’s no longer human.”

Ding Ning looked at the girl with some pity and sighed deeply.

“What is she, if she’s not human?” She quickly approached Ding Ning and asked, feeling cold inside.

“She is a vampire, as described in western legends. She must have the ability to control animals, the vampire bats we met before should have been brought here by her. She still has some humanity left, such that she can’t bear to kill humans, so she let vampire bats suck blood and then she would then suck their’s.”

“Vampires? Are there really such things? That’s not right. Vampires are able to live forever and keep the same appearance forever, aren’t they?”

Xiao Nuo opened her little cute mouth wide in shock with a stunned look.

“You really have seen too many movies.”

With a bitter smile, Ding Ning shook his head and said, “Let me impart some scientific knowledge to you. Hematoporphyria, also called porphyria, is a hereditary disease which is characterized by its obstruction of ferro hemoglobin synthesis. The most serious form of porphyria is congenital erythropoietic porphyria, also known as hematoporphyria. During the worst part of the porphyria attack, the damaged tissue becomes deformed, the entire body, especially the extremities, end up curled. The face gets disfigured and the skin blackened. After the gums are corroded, long teeth will appear with the bloody red color porphyrin brings, which will give people a bloody, long-toothed appearance. Such people are afraid of the sun, because in the sunlight, it will often cause painful burnt ulcers to appear on their skin, so they can only go out at night. Then, there will be some mental changes, among which they probably will believe that this disease can be cured by drinking blood. That’s why there were many hematoporphyria patients who tried to treat their disease by drinking blood in the Dark Ages of medieval Europe and hence began the legend of vampires.”

“You also study medicine?” Xiaonuo asked in surprise.

“Uh, I don’t know alot, but one of my friends does. His medical skills are very good. From his influence, I have learned a lot.”

Ding Ning touched his chin unnaturally because he had nearly spilled the beans. His current identity could never be connected to his original one.

“Oh, you are amazing!” Xiao Nuo said adoringly, and she looked like a different person.

Ding Ning, having satisfied his vanity a little, soon focused on observing the girl. “This disease is almost like a terminal illness. There is no proper treatment for this with current medicine. The girl’s symptoms are even more strange. Her illness is very serious already, but her skin is not blackened and her gums are not corroded to the long-toothed state, which is really strange.”

“She was not born like this, someone did this to her. Can you help her?”

The Bone Demon who had remained silent with his head down the whole time suddenly said with a hoarse voice.

“Ah!” Xiao Nuo screamed. She was scared by his terrible voice and jumped into Ding Ning’s arms like a frightened bunny.

Ding Ning held her shivering body in his arms, patted her shoulders and comforted, “Don’t be afraid, I am here.”

Xiao Nuo’s charming face flushed, but she didn’t leave his arms. She seemed to enjoy the feeling of being in his arms.

Ding Ning looked at the Bone Demon seriously, “I can’t cure her, but my friend might be able to cure her. But give me a reason, why should I save her?”

The Bone Demon raised his head and revealed his white bony face, “She is a good person. Although she craves for blood, she would rather drink mouse blood than harm humans.”

“It’s ridiculous. We were almost killed by her and you said that she hasn’t hurt anyone. Do you think I would believe that?”

Ding Ning sneered and scolded rudely.

“That’s because you discovered our hiding place, and posed a threat to us. We had no choice but to make this difficult decision. In fact, we didn’t really want to hurt you, we just wanted to scare you away. I had never thought that you would find this underground base, so we could only kill you or imprison you.”

The Bone Demon said without leaving anything unsaid.

“I can let my friend save her, or even save you. But you have to tell us the truth, who are you? Where are you from? What are you doing here?”

Ding Ning asked a torrent of questions.

Bone Demon’s eyes flashed with a painful gleam, “We were all very healthy ordinary people, but we were kidnapped by a mysterious organization. They treat us like test subjects, kept us in cages like lab mice and gave us the gene medicine they developed. Then they would observe our bodily changes and record the data. I took the genetic drugs for the first time twenty years ago. But it was only because my physical condition was good that I became the only one to survive in the group of people who were taken as test objects with me. However, I lived like a mouse in a sewer because I couldn’t be exposed to light at all. After I had lived like a zombie for more than a decade, I still began to have symptoms like body ulcers, so I became a failed experiment subject too.”

The Bone Demon’s face was full of grief and indignation. “I thought that my life would come to an end, and that I would be relieved. But those damn bastards conducted their second experiment on me. They forced me to take their new gene medicine for the purpose of making me into a super soldier. As a result, I became what I am now. My whole body is constantly growing bones. My strength and my defensive ability are getting stronger, but even the internal organs of my body started to turn to bone. These bones continually grow into muscle which are then replaced by the growing bones. Men can never bear the pain of bones abruptly piercing through muscle, but I have endured it for seven years.”