On the dim ocean, the invisible demon train suddenly plunged into a twisted and eerie expanse of waves, instantly transforming into a speeding train with darkened windows flashing high.
Ahead of it appeared another train floating on the sea surface, alongside a medium-sized wooden sailing ship.
Ning Jiajia, clad in a white dress, stood beside the boat as she waved, watching the demon train slow down. After Cheng Yunze said, “I’ll be right back, ” from inside the open doorway, the train accelerated into the distance, slicing through the air and vanishing across the sea, lifting and tearing the rising sea mist apart to either side, forming air-pocket channels that swirled back slowly like rolling waves.
{Whoosh—— }
Inside the sturdy brown-brick-and-pine-wood strongroom-like third floor of Special Forces Commander Black Benford’s Headquarters Command Office, a few people were watching Yang Zicang. He folded two pieces of paper that appeared hastily doodled with schematic scrawls in fluid strokes and sealed them into an envelope.
Suddenly, a high-pitched, urgent swoosh rang beside their ears, racing forward with speed from distance to close range.
Yang Zicang immediately lifted his head and said to Mai Jiesen, “You, get out quickly. “
Although this person didn’t understand what he meant, he still obediently ran to the door, pulled it open, and walked out.
And just at that moment, Yang Zicang’s expression appeared slightly weary as he blinked lazily. Then, with a roar like a wind explosion, a vehicle’s silhouette overlapping the wall appeared on the right wall of this room.
General Ross’s eyebrows jumped on his rough-pored face.
“Whoosh! ” The car doors slid open left and right, revealing its transparent, lamp-lit interior. Inside, Cheng Yunze, Anxi, and the others were looking out at the room.
Yang Zicang held the sealed envelope in his hand. General Ross said, “President Buchen, is this your Science Demon train? It’s astonishing. How did you manage this? “
Having heard praises and exclamations of amazement from countless people, the Demon Train had long since become immune. It couldn’t be bothered to respond to such inquiries now.
Cheng Yunze stepped down and said, “Because our Station Chief is on the third floor, it appeared here. As for passing through walls? That’s just one of its instincts. “
Zhao Anlong, sizing up the train’s form, crossed his arms and chuckled:
“If we could thoroughly study the abilities of Science Demons, I’m afraid we wouldn’t be racking our brains over our current worldly troubles anymore. “
“That’s true. ” General Ross nodded appreciatively. If such a Science Demon train could be possessed by his own nation, it would definitely be an immensely powerful asset.
Unfortunately, most of these could only be accomplished by the Fog dwellers. As for the bloodline polluters of the kingdom, it was already difficult for them to encounter demons with normal minds, let alone tame these Science Demons with their special abilities.
Yang Zicang and his companion boarded the train, and the side doors of the carriage closed.
General Ross watched as their figures moved into another carriage of the train.
Facing the void-like chaos outside, Yang Zicang asked the slightly uneasy group: “How are those data drawings coming along? “
Anxi and Wang Zhi exchanged glances, then moved a few steps to bring over a small wooden case. Cheng Yunze let out a regretful sigh, took it, and handed it to Yang Zicang.
“Everything has turned into Nightmares. And I suspect it might be because there was too much data that they all started, over roughly the last ten-plus minutes, collectively gestating these Nightmares. “
A trace of heaviness lingered around the few of them.
Anxi couldn’t help but comment: “What this world is going through is truly a terrifying affair. “
Cheng Yunze fixed his gaze on Yang Zicang, who was wearing a tie-dyed cotton shirt, and asked:
“Is there anything we need to confirm today? “
“I’ve got this on my end. ” Yang Zicang handed over the letter in his hand, along with the stack of technical design drafts, which had been carefully packed by Bai Yuan in a kraft paper file bag and delivered to him that afternoon, to the increasingly spirited man in front of him.
Zhao Anlong, like a curious child, scrutinized the objects inside the carriage. Though their shape was much the same as a subway car’s interior, the subtly uncanny distortions in color and texture left him with a feeling like a little brush was tickling his heart.
As the people behind him chatted, he walked over to a small beverage cart and an iron cabinet standing beside it.
“Cold medicine? “
Zhao Anlong looked at the densely packed medicine boxes on top. He picked up a few to examine them; underneath were some yellow medicine boxes.
“Special effect cough suppressant? “
He picked up two more.
“Fever and pain relief? “
……
Above the misty sea, under the full round moon, boundless shimmering ripples spread endlessly.
Drifting through the patches of sea fog rolling over the undulating waves was a mass of thicker mist, within which emerged the shadowy outline of half an ancient wooden ship.
At this moment, the few people on the ship were sweaty and startled as they looked up at the figure standing before them.
Luca, his skin clinging tightly to his bones, relied entirely on the thick, heavy robe he wore to project his authority, but now he knelt on the deck, his eyes revealing extreme terror.
Opposite him stood the silhouette of a stout man in a blue, vertically striped linen robe, wearing a hood, his feet pale and bare. He leaned on a wooden staff, and on the deck, damp with moisture and covered in years of grime, he appeared as though he had stepped out of another world.
This person, as soon as he appeared, turned the two foul-mouthed men on the ship into quietly fallen corpses behind him.
And all the attacks from everyone on this ship, in front of him, seemed so low-level; the other party only needed to tap with his wooden staff, and the world spawned a storm as real as a dream, impossible for anyone to break through and escape.
“Which one of you is the salvager? ” Sir Kye opened his mouth in a calm tone.
The eight people gathered on the deck of this half-section ancient ship all looked toward the old fisherman on the left, who was slightly older.
The person kneeling prostrate crawled forward two steps, his voice trembling as he said, “I am him. Please don’t kill these people. I, we can all be of use. “
These words shook the hearts of several people around them. They all turned their heads as one to look at the man in front, wearing a linen tunic.
Lucas said, “Sir, we can offer this half of the ship to you, just let us jump into the sea and that’s enough. “
Sir Kye took a step forward with his wooden staff and looked at Lucas.
“It seems you don’t regret it now, about the trail of that half-ship you missed this morning? “
Lucas’s turtle-egg-like eyes bulged wide; he had no idea how this person who suddenly appeared could know what was on his mind.
The first mate beside him immediately stepped forward, waving his hands urgently, saying,
“That news was fake, noble lord. The group of enemies we scouted had already long stopped living on this island here. “
Archon Kline gave a faint smile, then looked at the Traveler, whose body had trembled, and said,
“Tell him—what comes of his pathetic little tricks. “
“Huh? ” The First Mate turned his head in shock, looking at the Traveler beside him, whose face carried a sobbing expression—Lon Turson.
Lon Turson, dressed in a fisherman’s outfit and wearing leather gloves, spoke with a slightly apologetic tone: “Vice-Commander, right after you spoke those words, in every single blurred future I saw, your fate ended with you falling on… ” His finger pointed at the deck— “Right here. “
The First Mate’s gaze followed the Traveler’s finger inch by inch, landing on the damp deck before him.
Just as he was about to lift his head and speak, there was athump. Archon Kline lightly tapped the wooden staff in his hand, and a surge of energy, a chaotic blend of stellar yuan and temporal order, burst from the point of the tap, rippled across the deck, and pierced into his body.
A faint crackling sound came from within the First Mate’s left chest. He felt a surge of heat inside him, followed by a chill. A blurred sense of dizziness flooded his eyes in an instant, as if all the blood in his brain was draining back towards a hollow feeling in his heart.
Startled, Luca crawled two steps to the side, watching his capable deputy fall onto the deck before him. Wrapped in his dark gray robe, he stammeringly looked up at Archon Kline.
But that man didn’t even glance at him; instead, he walked toward the Traveler.
“You succeeded. “
“Wha, what? Sir. ” The ferryman shrank back.
“You pleaded for them and succeeded in changing their fate, so the rest no longer need to die. “
“Huh? “
“Salvager, you have thus arrived at a future that originally did not exist. Hmph, extract this experience into a Radiance Lord Ambassador sẽ nhẹ nhàng nói. “
“Use this ‘Glorious Starlight’ of yours from arriving at a nonexistent future… oh no, ‘Glorious Light,’ to invest in the next future you saw. “
Lord Ambassador Kāi turned sideways and walked towards the stern. Within a few steps, he reached the edge. The sea wind made his linen robe flutter.
Long Tǔn obediently ran to the obviously later-added rudder, which used pillars spanning wheel arms it bracing handled loop to ship post grip handle, and placed both hands on the large spoked wheel.
“Which direction should I turn the helm? “
“You’ll see. “
At the stern, Lord Ambassador Kāi raised his staff. Whorls surface spout cauldron Storm gales wrath about sea harsh around billow go.
They whip the waters, churning the distant dark sea as turmoil entangled waves bounce crash over others. Spates count wave bodies between looming swells birth new combers climbing with climbs measured slow rise sudden peaks crash, beating with crash and each, crest falling roar steady groan shift from up leg down.
“Nuoh awaits worldbirth land board borderbound? “
He stood, not seeing measure, can still near moves not move tail vessel Icon timber steadiness midst gust weather onslaught sway falls still.
“WATCH AND ESCHUW. “
Bodes of hardy bawl do ride gust, ear piece as ears far folk all hear sound.
Those trail shapes which edging times, always slip through this fog mist sea chop’s temper and roam—more so their hidden shape full weave midst our focus trace no thought, to know land unknown. _”
Grasping the ship’s wheel, Long Tusun saw several overlapping, dim images before his eyes. In some of those images, that great mysterious figure turned his head to reprimand and inquire, asking why he had not yet started investing using the Earthly Light.
His throat tightened nervously as he immediately closed his eyes. Gripping the circular, brass-like object in his pocket, he silently confirmed in his heart that he would use the faintly flickering, swirling star-light that had been born just moments before.
Suddenly, the man snapped his eyes open. His brown and blue pupils seemed to scatter their gaze without focus, the pupils moving left and right as if simultaneously identifying several targets before him.
Then, with a slight opening of his eyes, he looked toward a distant direction.
It was as if, in the ethereal images beside him, the man in the vertical-blue-stripe linen fabric turned his head, only to instantly shatter into white and murky foam, stirred up by the turbid waves of the sea.
“It’s there! ” he shouted loudly, pointing toward the distance. Then, with a sharp turn of the wheel, he straightened the half-split hull of the ancient ship.
The people on the ship ran to the edge of the deck, looking out into the distance at the waves emitting some peculiar sounds.
“What’s that patch of sea over there? ” Luca asked, his expression turning grim.
He was finding it increasingly difficult to understand the strength and purpose of this man who had suddenly appeared on the ship.
Ambassador Kai wore a slight smile on his lips as he gazed into the distance at a patch of sea surface with unusually peculiar waves. Those waves, with their strange, stacked peaks undulating one after another, seemed as if they had been sketched by the brush of an invisible, divine being.
“This is it—the sea that the Fogfolk must inevitably cross to reach the next era. “
“What?! ” Crossingman Long Tuson listened to these words in disbelief. “Can our ship find that sea too? “
Ambassador Kai’s pupils shifted slightly sideways, and he let out a soft hum of laughter.
……
Cheng Yunze followed Zhao Anlong back to the feilü Hotel, then headed to Klocken, awaiting the arrival of the demon train.
On the demon train, Yang Zicang examined the strangely ominous papers in his hands, chatting with the train itself, waiting for Zhao Anlong to gather the design concept plans in Klocken—the ones needed for tonight’s voyage across the sea.
Suddenly, the carriage door was knocked on.
Yang Zicang walked to the car he had come from, watching the General knocking on the door of the evil nightmare demon train stacked against the wall. “Whoosh! ” The door slid completely open to the left and right.
“General Ross. ” Yang Zicang stepped down with a smile.
“An old mentor of mine just called me, saying his little granddaughter is waiting for you. I wonder if you have time to meet with her tonight. “
Yang Zicang was a bit curious. “Oh? Who is it? “
“I heard you know her. Seems to be called Veronica Augustus. Mm, she’s also Kony’s friend. By the way, how is Kony doing lately? “
“Uh… ” Yang Zicang let out a laugh. “Because we came through a special channel, we didn’t let Kony take that route with us. She’s currently still with the delegation in Krun. But you can rest assured, she’s being well protected. “
“I’m not worried about her. ” The General smiled as he struck a match.
“Mr. Buchen, the Haili family is an ancient family. They existed long before the kingdom was born. They just ultimately chose to support our king back then. Even during the era of the Golden Shell Federation, they exerted considerable influence within the country. “
“What are you implying, sir? “
The General looked at him and said, “With the help of the Haili family, I believe you could display your talents more freely. “
“General is joking. “
Ross used the match to light his cigarette with a smile.
“In this era, where power in this country is increasingly shifting from families to departments and being alternated by law, every family keeps an eye on every power position they can grab. So, you should be able to feel that it’s hard to see ordinary commoners among the people who come and go around you. “
Yang Zicang pondered for a moment.
He turned his head to look at the young man. “Speaking of which, I haven’t properly thanked you yet for your help back then. “
“Huh? “
“If you have time, how about I treat you to a simple meal after we’re done here? “
General Ross let out a puff of smoke with a smile and said, as if addressing a like-minded person:
“If I’m there, the girl from the House of Augustus might not feel at ease. Of course, we could move it to tomorrow noon, but I’m afraid you’ll have disappeared again by then. “
The double-faced gold pendant sent a few reminders from the distributors.
Yang Zicang quickly guessed that General Ross was worried he didn’t have much experience dealing with these old families.
“Thank you, General. Once I find the personnel list for the Hellfire Sect, I might have to head over immediately. So, even if I do meet with the Augustus people, I probably won’t have much time to hear what they want to discuss right now. “
“Hmm, looks like your time is indeed very tight. Don’t worry, I’ll personally oversee the preparations at the Magelsson Lab. I hope our future cooperation can grow deeper. ” He reached out and gave Yang Zicang a heavy pat on the shoulder, “I understand the stakes of this project. It will be at the top-secret level. “
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