Chapter 142

If this were a women's bathhouse, perhaps Li Ang would be interested in disrobing and taking a pleasant bath.

Unfortunately, this was a men's bathhouse, and the mist would only conceal malevolent spirits with covetous eyes, spying on Li Ang's perfect physique.

The thought alone was unsettling.

Li Ang shook his head and turned off the faucet.

The bathroom was divided into three sections: individual shower stalls with showerheads on the left, massage and scrubbing stalls in the back, and two large bathtubs on the right.

Almost the instant Li Ang tightened the faucet, all the faucets in the entire bathroom turned on, and all the showerheads spewed out fierce streams of water.

Li Ang, clad in his S.W.A.T. uniform, was drenched by the showerheads, but this time, the water pouring out wasn't comfortably warm,

but scalding hot water, close to boiling point.

"Damn it, that was sudden."

Li Ang cursed inwardly. Even with the special operations team uniform providing some protection, the boiling water still seeped through the gaps, scalding his skin.

Despite his constitution stat of 8, the boiling water still left crimson marks on his skin, the entire area stinging with a faint, burning sensation.

"Hiss..."

Ripple Breathing erupted instantly, gathering on the surface of the skin beneath the uniform's seams. The skin rippled gently like a wave, shaking off the remaining water droplets.

Li Ang took a half-step back, avoiding the water flow, and reached up to grab the overhead showerhead, throwing it to the ground and turning off the faucet.

This time, turning off the faucet triggered another change in the bathroom.

The thick, stuffy mist gradually cleared, coalescing into six humanoid silhouettes composed of mist.

The outlines were blurry, but it was generally apparent that they were a group of teenagers, taking showers in the individual stalls.

Soon, another short, thin humanoid mist entered, glancing at the original six and silently walking to a corner in the distance.

However, the six in the individual shower stalls seemed to notice him, slowly turning off the faucets and walking toward him.

It seemed there were pre-existing grievances between them, and after a few words, a conflict quickly erupted.

The short, thin humanoid mist was pinned to the ground and beaten. One of the mist people ordered his companions to hold him down firmly while he removed a showerhead,

repeatedly pouring scalding hot water over him and prying open his mouth to shove the showerhead, turned on full blast, inside.

The short, thin humanoid mist struggled violently for a while, but soon stopped moving.

The six mist people seemed to be frightened, immediately running toward the bathroom door.

However, before they could reach the door, the showerheads on both sides of the aisle spewed out large amounts of scalding water,

blinding their eyes,

damaging their limbs,

and scalding their skin.

All the humanoid mists gradually dissipated, and the entire bathroom returned to its misty state.

"Is this some kind of death memory?"

Li Ang muttered.

Combined with the seven sets of clothing in the changing room lockers, it could be surmised that these seven humanoid mists were the source of the supernatural event here.

He frowned and shouted into the mist, "So, you, or you all, what do you want?"

After a long silence, a blurry voice came from the mist, "Take a bath."

"Take a bath and then have me pick up the soap, right?"

Li Ang flatly refused, saying earnestly, "You're all grown up now, you need to learn to wash yourselves."

The voice in the mist seemed not to have heard Li Ang's words, simply repeating, "Take a bath."

Li Ang looked at the faucets that were frantically spewing scalding water, chuckled, and turned to say, "Tell the truth, do you

want to secretly drink my bathwater?"

The voice paused, seemingly suppressing the urge to retort, "Who wants to drink your bathwater? It's not like you're some billionaire celebrity," and said nothing.

Li Ang was inwardly delighted.

The voice in the mist was reacting, indicating that it had intelligence.

Intelligence meant it could be negotiated with.

"Young man, I've encountered this kind of strange fetish for drinking other people's bathwater before."

Li Ang earnestly advised, "Once, the director of our orphanage happened to mention that he wanted to drink a bowl of chicken soup from his hometown.

Respecting my elders, I immediately went to a bathhouse near the *hongdengqu* (red light district) and stole a spoonful of bathwater for him to drink, but he criticized and educated me.

I think it was probably because he was afraid of exposing his fetish.

As a young Japanese man, it's normal for you to have such a fetish,

but you shouldn't drink my bathwater.

If you want to drink, you can turn left, go out the door to the women's bathhouse, the taste there is purer, stronger, but it's best not to overindulge."

The voice in the mist seemed to be shocked, unable to utter a word for a while. After a long pause, it said faintly, "If you don't take a bath, then die."

Before the words were finished, the showerheads behind Li Ang spewed out even more torrential boiling water, splashing toward him.

Li Ang spun on his toes, turning around and avoiding the water flow while sweeping the steel rod in his hand toward the shower stalls.

The marble individual stalls were directly smashed open by the sweeping steel rod. Gravel flew everywhere, scattering into the boiling water-filled ground.

Li Ang swung the steel rod, demolishing one shower stall after another like a violent demolition crew.

The bathroom's water pipes were originally buried in the walls and floor.

Now, with Li Ang's demolition, all the metal pipes were exposed.

"Drink!"

Li Ang roared, picked up a giant stone block that had fallen from the shower stall wall, and slammed it hard on the metal pipes.

With a "buzz," the pipes that were still spewing boiling water were bent.

"Bang—"

Li Ang released his hands, slamming the stone hard on the pipes.

The surging boiling water spraying from the pipes all hit the surface of the stone, quickly forming a small puddle on the ground.

"I'm actually a very refined and easy-going person. As long as you're willing to talk properly, I don't want to resort to violence."

Li Ang said loudly as he smashed everywhere with the steel rod, "But since you refuse to show your face and let me properly persuade you, I can only use this method."

His threat still received no response, only the water pipes covered by the stone no longer spewed boiling water,

but like a water source running dry, began to "hiss" and constantly spew out high-temperature steam that stretched for several meters.

The steam did not dissipate quickly but quickly merged into the mist, rapidly increasing the temperature inside the men's bathroom.

Under standard atmospheric pressure, the boiling point of water is only 100 degrees Celsius, but the upper limit of steam temperature is more than that.

The steam temperature in low-pressure boilers is mostly saturated temperature, not higher than 400 degrees Celsius, while the steam in high-pressure boilers can reach more than 500 degrees Celsius.

Right now, all the water pipes were spewing high-temperature steam.

Even if Li Ang twisted and turned, avoiding the direction of all the water pipes, he couldn't stop the temperature inside the entire bathroom from rising.

Forty degrees, fifty degrees, sixty degrees....

If this continued, staying in this bathroom would be no different from soaking in a boiling water pool.

He would be steamed alive like fish, shrimp, and crabs.

The scorching heat assaulted him, corroding the special operations team uniform Li Ang was wearing. The full-coverage breathing mask on his face even showed signs of melting.

Li Ang grabbed the breathing mask and tore it off. Anger welled up in his heart, and he became bold, gripping the steel rod with both hands and slamming it hard on the right wall of the bathtub.

*Dong—*

A bowl-sized dent was smashed into the wall. The ceramic tiles around the dent crashed to the ground, splashing fragments.

Li Ang held his breath, attaching ripple energy to the tip of the steel rod, and swung the rod again.

With a "boom," a man-sized hole leading to the outside of the swimming pool was smashed into the wall.

The heat wave effect at the hole was much smaller. Li Ang stood in front of the pile of rubble, took a breath, and activated the Consumable Skill, Hate Taunt, toward the mist.

"Young man, the cherry blossoms in your hometown are blooming, the carp streamers are fluttering in the wind, and the wind chimes are hanging under the eaves. When the wind blows, they jingle and jangle.

Come back and take a look. Your mother and I both miss you."

Li Ang said loudly, "If you come out now, I can let you live.

Maybe you can be reincarnated and be a student again, spend a wonderful campus life,

and through your own efforts, improve your *gaokao* (college entrance exam) scores time and time again, and finally get into your ideal junior college."

Li Ang's taunt was quite effective. The visible and intangible hot mist, after a moment of silence, immediately boiled over,

gathering into a tornado that rushed toward him.

Li Ang shouted, "Chai Chai combination!"

"Who's Chai Chai?!"

Chai Cuichiao shouted angrily, but still obediently transformed an arm behind Li Ang.

Li Ang, who had transformed back into a humanoid spider, firmly nailed his spider claws to the wall while he gripped the steel rod, pushing Ripple Breathing to its limit.

The spider claws kept tensing and bending, then suddenly snapped, propelling Li Ang like a cannonball toward the tornado of mist.

*Boom—*

The steel rod, concentrated with vast Ripple Energy, easily cut through the mist like a hot knife through butter. A blurry humanoid mist figure fell from the mist.

Before the mist figure could react, a spider claw descended from the sky, completely piercing its chest cavity.

Task Target: Resolve seven supernatural events. Currently completed 5/7