Chapter 16

Chen Mengzhou's icy gaze was like a substance, suffocating the survivors who had just experienced such a turbulent time. The little girl sleeping on the ground was breathing steadily, a stark contrast to her near-death state. This strange and shocking scene imbued Chen Mengzhou's words with undeniable weight.

The mother hugged her daughter tightly, as if afraid she would disappear. She spoke tremblingly and incoherently, "Fort...fortress...we don't know exactly...but we heard...it's farther west, near the original ecological park...a very powerful group of people have occupied it and built a very solid stronghold. It seems...it seems they have electricity and clean walls...They don't come out often, and they don't often take in people, but...but I heard that people who approach their territory are rarely attacked by monsters...I don't know if it's true..."

Another man, who looked slightly older, added, his eyes filled with awe and fear. "Yes... We all call it 'the Fortress,' and no one knows what's inside. Those bastards at the Jizo Institute wanted to take over the Fortress before, and they sent several waves of people there, but none of them came back... Then they didn't dare to go there anymore... The Hounds seemed to have some ideas about that place too, but they never dared to take action..."

The information was vague, but it outlined a mysterious, powerful, and exclusive force. It possessed electricity and fortifications, capable of resisting the Corruption to a certain degree, even causing fear among the Gathering Institute and the Hounds. This matched some of the characteristics of the "safe zone" in future dreams, but seemed even more closed.

"How do we get to the fortress?" Chen Mengzhou asked.

The survivors looked at each other and finally shook their heads.

"No one knows the exact way..." the mother choked up, "I heard we have to go through the 'Weeping Canyon'. It's a very strange place, full of invisible dimensional cracks. Those who enter rarely come out..."

Weeping Canyon? A new dangerous area.

Chen Mengzhou didn't ask any more questions. The valuable information these survivors possessed was clearly limited. She glanced at the still unconscious little girl on the ground. The dormant, immense spiritual energy within her was like a dormant volcano, temporarily calm, yet impossible to ignore.

This variable cannot be left here. No matter what she is, it is better to control it in one's own hands than to let it go.

"Her," Chen Mengzhou pointed at the little girl, "I took her away."

"What?!" The mother hugged the child tightly, the blood draining from her face. "No! Please! She has already..."

"If she stays here, she'll surely die. We just suppressed her temporarily." Chen Mengzhou stated the facts in a cold tone. "Or, do you want to watch her attack again and blow all of you to pieces?"

The mother recalled the terrifying white light and the shattering stones. Her body trembled violently, and her grip on the child subconsciously loosened a little. Silent tears flowed down her face. She knew the woman was telling the truth. Her Niuniu had changed.

"Come with me, she might still have a chance of survival." Chen Mengzhou stopped looking at her and turned his gaze to Zhao Jun and Lin Xiaozhou, "Get ready to go."

Zhao Jun's face turned grim. Bringing along a burden was bad enough, and now adding a half-dead child? But he didn't dare object.

Lin Xiaozhou looked at the mother and daughter somewhat helplessly, with a hint of sympathy in his eyes.

Chen Mengzhou took out the remaining bottle of antibiotics and some compressed biscuits from his backpack and tossed them to the mother: "This is an exchange."

The mother stared blankly at the medicine and food on the ground, then looked at her daughter in her arms, who was pale but breathing steadily. Finally, great despair and a glimmer of faint hope intertwined, and she trembled, and very slowly, little by little, loosened her hands holding the child.

Chen Mengzhou bent down, and with a gesture that wasn't gentle but steady enough, he lifted the little girl up. The girl was light, like a feather, yet within her lay dormant a power powerful enough to unleash a storm.

Without even glancing at the survivors, Chen Mengzhou hugged the little girl and turned to walk west.

Zhao Jun and Lin Xiaozhou hurried to follow.

Leaving the dilapidated factory, the terrain ahead began to undulate, revealing vast expanses of dry, cracked earth and twisted, dead trees. The air was thicker with the turbulent energy, and in the distance, a ghostly howl echoed in the wind—perhaps this is how the "Weeping Canyon" got its name.

According to the vague directions given by the survivors, the fortress is deep in this area.

Not long after walking, Chen Mengzhou suddenly stopped and glanced sharply towards a rocky hillside in front of him on the left.

"Come out." she said coldly.

It was quiet behind the hill, with only the sound of the wind howling.

Zhao Jun immediately raised his gun and was on guard, and Lin Xiaozhou also nervously hid behind him.

Chen Mengzhou's eyes turned cold, and the spatial energy at his fingertips moved slightly.

"No! Don't do it! Let's get out!" A panicked voice rang out.

Two of the survivors, the mother and the older man, stood up tremblingly from behind the rocks. They had nothing in their hands, and their faces were filled with fear and pleading.

"I...we've thought about it...we can't leave Niuniu behind..." the mother cried, "Please, take us with you...we can do anything...as long as we can be with you and look after Niuniu..."

The man also pleaded, "We are more familiar with the terrain here... maybe... maybe we can help... please give us a way out..."

Chen Mengzhou looked at them, his eyes expressionless. Two barely combat-capable burdens whose only use might be to care for the little girl and conserve her energy. But they also meant two mouths to feed and potential trouble.

The trade-off is only a moment.

"You can follow me," she said, her tone cold and emotionless. "But if you can't keep up, or become a burden, I won't hesitate to throw you away. You'll have to take care of your own food, and life and death will be determined by fate."

The two men, far from being frightened by what they heard, nodded repeatedly as if they had received a pardon. "Thank you! Thank you! We will definitely catch up! We will definitely not be left behind!"

The team became six people: Chen Mengzhou held the unconscious little girl, Zhao Jun was in front with a gun, Lin Xiaozhou and the two new survivors - introducing themselves as Aunt Wang and Uncle Li - followed nervously behind.

The atmosphere in the team became even more depressing and eerie.

Deeper into the dead woodland, cracks in the ground became more numerous, with faint threads of purple-black energy emanating from some of them. The wind grew louder, and the sobbing sound seemed to be a mixture of countless people crying, making one's hair stand on end.

"It's... right in front..." Uncle Li pointed at a huge chasm ahead, as if split open by a giant axe, his voice trembling. "Weeping Canyon... After crossing this canyon, we should be able to see the area where the fortress is... but inside..."

At the canyon's entrance, rocks piled up, the landscape twisted. Most disturbingly, the space within took on an unnatural sense of distortion, bending light as if through a layer of swaying water. Several thin, ever-shifting black cracks could be seen with the naked eye, silently weaving through the canyon like venomous snakes.

The space here is extremely unstable!

Chen Mengzhou's face was grim. She could sense that the spatial turbulence here was more active and dangerous than any she had encountered before. The information fed back by [Spatial Perception] was chaotic and full of deadly traps.

"Follow me closely, and follow my footsteps with every step." She ordered in a deep voice, handing the little girl in her arms to Aunt Wang behind her, "Hold her tight. If anything happens to her, you will be the first to be buried with her."

Aunt Wang was so frightened that she shuddered and quickly and carefully took her daughter and hugged her tightly.

Chen Mengzhou took a deep breath and increased his mental strength to the utmost. A silver stream of data seemed to flash in his eyes. Combining his temporal predictions with spatial perception, he painstakingly traced a tiny, intermittently safe path through the chaotic energy field ahead.

She was the first to step into the canyon.

As he took the first step, the air beside his feet made a slight crackling sound, and a hair-thin crack in space quietly appeared and disappeared.

Everyone's scalp tingled.

Shen Mengzhou concentrated her attention, dancing on the edge of a knife, each step landing precisely on the gaps or weak points in the energy field. Her speed was not fast, but she was extremely stable.

Zhao Jun watched her steps intently, gritting his teeth to keep up, cold sweat soaking his back. Lin Xiaozhou, Aunt Wang, and Uncle Li were even more terrified, their faces pale, and they practically closed their eyes as they trudged forward, following in the footsteps of those who had come before them.

The canyon is not long, but the journey feels like a century.

Just when the team reached the middle of the canyon, the narrowest and most dangerous area——

Woo——!!!

A low but extremely penetrating humming sound, completely different from the howling of the wind, suddenly came from the depths of the canyon!

The moment the sound rang out, the spatial turbulence in the entire canyon seemed to be thrown into boiling oil like cold water, and it completely boiled and ran wild!

Countless tiny spatial cracks appeared out of thin air, darting around like crazy! Huge suction forces emerged from some of the cracks, pulling at everyone's bodies!

"Ah!!" Lin Xiaozhou screamed, slipped, and was almost sucked into a sudden crack. Fortunately, Uncle Li next to him pulled him up with all his might!

"Hold on!" Chen Mengzhou shouted, and the energy in the space around him exploded, forcibly stabilizing the small area around him, but his face turned pale in an instant! This sudden change consumed a huge amount of energy!

The low humming sound sounded again, this time, it was clearer, as if it was not far away!

Immediately afterwards, after a turn in front of the canyon, a huge, twisted "creature" composed entirely of chaotic space energy and metal fragments slowly "swam" out!

It had no fixed form, resembling a constantly swirling dark cloud. Its core shone with a dazzling red light, emitting a low, humming sound. Wherever it passed, cracks in space grew and danced like wild mane!

[Warning! High-concentration spatial energy aggregates (non-living matter) detected! Danger level: extremely high! Immediate avoidance recommended!] The system alarm rang frantically!

Space energy aggregate?! What the hell is this?!

There is no time to think!

The "dark cloud" seemed to have spotted them, and the red light at its core suddenly intensified! The buzzing sound became sharper!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh——!

Dozens of slender space blades shot out from the dark cloud like a torrential rain, covering the entire area! Indiscriminate attack!

It’s over!

Zhao Jun's face showed despair! This kind of attack was impossible to dodge!

Lin Xiaozhou, Aunt Wang and Uncle Li were so frightened that they closed their eyes, waiting for death to come.

At this critical moment!

A look of determination suddenly flashed across Chen Mengzhou's eyes!

She can't die here!

She snatched the still unconscious little girl from Aunt Wang's arms, and at the same time, unleashed all the remaining mental strength and spatial abilities in her body without reservation!

"Space Mark·Jump!"

She locked onto the faint mark left by a huge rock at the entrance of the canyon on the way here! This was the maximum distance she could jump at the moment!

Buzz!

The immense mental energy was drained away in an instant! She even felt her soul tremble!

A flash of light!

At the moment before countless space blades were about to hit his body, Chen Mengzhou, holding the little girl, disappeared out of thin air!

The next moment, she appeared at the canyon entrance a hundred meters away! She stumbled and fell to the ground, and the little girl in her arms also rolled to the side. She suddenly spit out a mouthful of blood, her eyes went black, and she almost fainted! The price of forcing an overload jump was huge!

In the canyon, Zhao Jun, Lin Xiaozhou, Aunt Wang, and Uncle Li, who had lost the protection of Chen Mengzhou's energy, were completely exposed to the devastating space blade storm!

"No!!!"

Zhao Jun roared in despair and unwillingness, and frantically pulled the trigger of his pistol. The bullet shot into the dark clouds but was like a stone sinking into the sea!

Lin Xiaozhou was so scared that he collapsed to the ground.

Aunt Wang and Uncle Li subconsciously hugged each other tightly.

The next second——

Puff! Puff! Puff!

The horrific sounds of flesh being cut and torn rang out incessantly, accompanied by brief screams and whimpers!

The blood instantly dyed the twisted canyon floor red.

After the spatial blade storm, only a few incomplete, almost unrecognizable corpses and the strong and indissoluble smell of blood remained.

The dark cloud-like energy aggregate emitted a low hum of satisfaction, slowly sank into a huge space crack, and disappeared.

In the canyon, the only sound left was the howling wind, like real crying.

At the canyon entrance, Chen Mengzhou struggled to stand up and spat out another mouthful of blood. She looked at the devastation and blood in the depths of the canyon, her eyes cold and silent, without the slightest fluctuation.

She glanced at the little girl who was still unconscious next to her and stood up shakily.

He took up the little girl's arm and dragged her, step by step, with difficulty and without looking back, towards the other end of the canyon, towards the direction of the so-called "fortress".

Behind her was a hellish scene and the short-lived "companion" she had just abandoned.

Her shadow was stretched out long and lonely under the bloody sky.