Earth-Monkey saw that almost all the nearby “Zodiacs” had scattered like birds and beasts, yet he actually remained standing in place.
More accurately, he was standing among numerous “Participants.”
He was still hesitating, but someone had already started fighting with the “Heavenly-level.”
Occasionally defiant rebels who weren’t afraid of death appeared on the “Train,” but no one had ever truly been able to fight with the “Heavenly-level.”
The current situation was already closer to final victory than any previous time.
“Colorful… quail…?”
Earth-Monkey frowned and carefully pondered this description. What kind of strange pet did someone keep?
Or was it a totem, symbol, or code word?
Unfortunately, there was now no way to ask Earth-Tiger again. Fighting sounds continuously came from that open door, sounding like the battle situation was intense.
This was a battle involving “Heavenly-level”—normal people would all stay away from it.
“That’s right…”
Earth-Monkey looked around at the nearby people and discovered that the white snake who had appeared together with him earlier had also left at some unknown time. Only he was left standing here without any purpose.
He knew that although he had obtained clues, seen the cracks, and confirmed his teammates, he really didn’t know what everyone was doing. He only barely knew his own objective.
“Brother Ding, since you like to gamble, I’ll make a bet with you.” That cold voice echoed in his mind. “I bet with you that the crack will definitely appear. If I win, you’ll do something for me.”
“What thing?”
Earth-Monkey’s memory came to an abrupt halt. He raised his head to look at this corridor. “Participants” were actually still queuing to board the train. After boarding, they followed two different streams of people and split into left and right sides—one part heading toward the “train head” direction, one part heading toward the “disembark” direction, as if they were just here for sightseeing.
Unfortunately, the scattered corpses in the distance made these people feel this sightseeing tour had extremely high danger. They needed to try their best to figure out how to obtain “Echo” here.
Earth-Monkey sighed and looked again in the direction Man-Monkey had left.
Earth-Tiger’s Man-Monkey student was so clever, making him involuntarily think of his own Man-Monkey student.
But it seemed something had gone wrong. It was already long past the “Zodiac” getting-off-work time, yet that child still hadn’t come to report to him until now.
Today outside was so chaotic… could it have affected him?
A simple game of drawing “Dao” from a box—that child even had magic tricks as backup. How could he not return…?
Earth-Monkey quickly collected his thoughts and set off toward the train head direction. Passing by the room where Earth-Tiger was fighting, Earth-Monkey turned his head to glance, originally wanting to find an opportunity to ask a couple more questions, but there was no longer any white-furred big tiger in that room.
Only a red-furred big tiger remained, and a child covered all over with blood stains.
Forget about asking him about the quail matter now. The only thing to hope for was that he wouldn’t die in the next few minutes. Otherwise, the teammate he had just recognized would disappear.
……
Black-Sheep led the “Extreme Path” members past Qinglong’s room, turning to head toward the cargo hold.
The “Train” was theoretically a long strip space composed of section after section of carriages and countless “doors,” but only at the end of the corridor was it “T”-shaped.
Here it split left and right, forming two branching paths. The right one led to all the “Heavenly-level” beings’ rooms or offices, while the left one led to the “cargo hold.”
Going forward a few dozen meters past the “cargo hold” door, there seemed to be another solitary “door.” No one knew what it was for.
The “Extreme Path” members’ hearts had always been in their throats. They had thought the journey would be full of difficulties, but the actual situation was that there was basically no one obstructing them. Even if a minority of “Earth-level” beings saw these dozens of people in great momentum, no one took action.
“Zhichun… what’s going on?” Jiang Ruoxue looked at the corridor with a face full of lingering fear. “Aren’t we going too smoothly?”
Even if Jiang Ruoxue didn’t say it, Yan Zhichun had the same feeling. It seemed many external forces were acting on the “Train,” forming the current bizarre situation from various aspects.
The “Heavenly-level” didn’t appear, the “Earth-level” were unwilling to interfere, and now even the “Man-level” were trying to remove their own masks.
“This can only explain…” Jiang Ruoxue answered, “This ‘Train’ has been put on the tracks, everything is proceeding according to plan. They can only block us, they can’t stop the ‘Train.'”
Black-Sheep pushed open the door in front of him. This was an iron door somewhat different from other rooms, about over two meters tall, presenting a grayish-brown color with rust stains all over its surface.
Inside the door was a staircase extending downward, seemingly like a basement. The end of the stairs gradually became pitch black, extending into an invisible void.
“Zhoumo…” Yan Zhichun called out. “What does Xiao Xiao’s side say?”
“Tsk, strange…” Zhoumo said with furrowed brows. “I feel my voice truly and surely transmitted to Xiao Xiao, but until now she hasn’t made a single sound.”
“What about the others…?” Yan Zhichun asked again. “Lin Qin, Zheng Yingxiong—can these two be contacted?”
“Ridiculous.” Zhoumo shook her head. “I didn’t expect this kind of situation, so I didn’t touch Lin Qin and Zheng Yingxiong in advance.”
“Okay, no problem.” Yan Zhichun said decisively. “This at least shows Xiao Xiao is still alive. At least we can be relieved about that.”
“But…” Zhoumo wanted to say something more, but always felt now wasn’t the time.
Xiao Xiao was clearly alive yet remained silent the whole time… didn’t this indicate the problem was even more serious than “dying”?
What was she doing? Who else was beside her?
Was she… still a teammate of “Extreme Path”?
“I’ll say this first.” Black-Sheep turned back, interrupting everyone’s train of thought to say to them, “We have limited time. Everyone line up to enter. I’ll be last.”
“You’ll be last…?” Old Sun paused. “Wait… isn’t there a ‘Heavenly-level’ down below? You’re not going in first, but letting us go first?”
“I will go in, but I must be last.” Black-Sheep said again. “The people who reach the ‘cargo hold’ first indeed have a high probability of death. Those afraid of dying can stand farther back. If anyone wants to directly flee, that’s also fine.”
After hearing this, Old Sun felt this statement had some problems. Not only would it greatly shake the morale of “Extreme Path,” it would also increase everyone’s sense of crisis. He could only speak up:
“This isn’t a question of ‘being afraid of death,’ right… Your way of saying it is like making us go ‘seek death.’ Our people aren’t afraid of dying, but we also can’t be treated as bait.”
“The upcoming situation will be even worse than ‘bait.'” Black-Sheep said with a cold face. “You all might be guns, might be shields, might be living targets. If you can’t mentally prepare for this, you might as well leave right now.”