Chapter 14
Behind the broken wall, they gasped for breath. The shadow of the ruins, like a dormant beast, temporarily engulfed the two. In the distance, the gaze of the "hound" was like a cold probe. Although it did not immediately pursue, it firmly locked onto the area, bringing an invisible pressure.
Chen Mengzhou quickly suppressed the dizziness brought on by the overuse of her superpowers, her mind racing. The hounds hadn't immediately pursued her, either because they were wary of her uncanny counterattack ability, or because they were redeploying their forces, preparing for a more lethal encirclement. Either way, it wasn't advisable to stay here for long.
"Can you still move?" She looked at Zhao Jun, who was lying limp on the ground with a pale face. Her voice was cold and clear, without any concern, only an assessment of the effectiveness of the tool.
"Yes...Yes!" Zhao Jun shuddered, tumbling to his feet and frantically wiping the sweat and dust from his face. His fear of Shen Mengzhou was now deep in his bones, and he dared not neglect it even a little.
"This way!" He no longer held back, pointing to a narrow gap deep in the ruins, almost buried by rubble. "Go through here and you'll reach the old sewage canal. It's dirty... but it's definitely well hidden. The hounds won't be able to find it for a while!"
Chen Mengzhou glanced at the gap, and his perception of time ability quickly passed by, but he did not foresee the immediate danger.
"lead the way."
Zhao Jun gritted his teeth and was the first to slip through the gap, which was only wide enough for one person to pass through. Chen Mengzhou followed closely behind.
The crevice was dark and damp, filled with an indescribable stench. Beneath their feet lay sticky mud and unidentified decaying matter. The two trudged forward with difficulty, practically crawling. Zhao Jun's "stealth enhancement" proved effective in this environment, allowing him to move as lightly as possible to avoid destabilizing the structure above.
Chen Mengzhou tried his best to restrain his own breath and mental fluctuations, and at the same time compressed his spatial perception to the smallest range, covering only a few meters around his body, like an invisible energy cocoon, trying not to reveal any traces as much as possible, avoiding possible tracking.
The journey was depressing and long, with only the sounds of the two people's heavy breathing and the stirring of mud.
Finally, a faint light appeared ahead, and the stench grew stronger. They emerged from the gap and saw a wide, mostly dry concrete sewage ditch. The bottom of the ditch was piled with black-gray silt and household garbage, and the walls on both sides were covered with slippery moss.
"Go west along the canal for about one kilometer, there is an inspection well you can go up to, and that's not far from the landslide site of the old railway." Zhao Jun panted and pointed in the downstream direction, his face finally regaining a trace of color.
At this moment, Chen Mengzhou suddenly raised his hand to stop him from speaking.
Her gaze darted sharply toward a dense patch of dead bushes to the right, above the canal bank. Her time-based abilities picked up the subtle, unnatural rustling of branches and leaves, and... the almost inaudible smell of blood. Not the putrid stench of a corpse, but the scent of fresh human blood.
Was there an ambush? How did the hound get around so quickly?
No. The voice and the breath belonged to only one person, and they seemed... in a very bad state.
Chen Mengzhou's eyes moved slightly, and he made a warning gesture to Zhao Jun. He then climbed up the shadow of the canal wall as quietly as a civet cat, his movements so light that he made no sound at all.
Zhao Jun nervously raised his pistol, pointing the muzzle upwards, his palms sweaty.
Chen Mengzhou carefully pushed aside the withered branches of the bushes.
What came into view was a figure huddled deep in the bushes.
He was a young man who looked only seventeen or eighteen years old. He was wearing a tattered, ill-fitting, oversized coat. He was incredibly thin, and his face was so dirty that his original features were unrecognizable. Only his eyes, wide open with fear, shone startlingly in the dim light. There was a deep wound on his left arm, and bleeding was gushing out. He pressed it tightly with his other hand, his face as pale as paper.
Seeing Chen Mengzhou suddenly appear, the young man was so scared that his whole body trembled. He subconsciously wanted to shrink back, but it agitated his wound. He groaned in pain, tears welling up in his eyes.
Not a hound. Just a wounded, lone survivor who seemed harmless.
Chen Mengzhou's gaze quickly swept over the boy, lingering for a moment on his wounds, tattered clothes, and the empty, torn backpack beside him.
[Target Person Detected: Minor trauma, severe malnutrition, no psychic reactions, no weapons. Danger Level: Very Low.] The system gives its verdict.
The young man looked at Chen Mengzhou's cold, scrutinizing gaze, his teeth chattering with fear. He trembled and spoke in a voice as thin as a mosquito, with a sobbing tone: "Don't... don't kill me... I... I have nothing left... It's all been... taken away..."
"Who hurt you?" Chen Mengzhou asked, his voice not loud, but with a sense of oppression that made it impossible to lie.
The boy was intimidated by her aura and stammered in response: "It was... a few people... wearing black and gray clothes... very fierce... they stole my bag and the last bit of food... and... they pushed me, and I bumped into the iron sheet..." His description was vague, but the feature of "black and gray clothes" seemed to match the "hounds" that attacked them before.
Chen Mengzhou's expression didn't change at all. She extended her hand.
The boy was so scared that he suddenly closed his eyes, thinking he was going to be beaten.
The expected pain didn't come. Chen Mengzhou simply pressed lightly near his wound, and a trace of extremely weak spatial energy leaked out, precisely pressing on several bleeding points.
The blood flow slowed visibly.
The young man opened his eyes in surprise, staring blankly at his arm which was no longer bleeding madly, then looked at Chen Mengzhou, his eyes filled with confusion and disbelief.
"Follow us, or stay here and die." Chen Mengzhou withdrew his hand, his tone without any emotion, as if he was just stating a fact, "Choose one."
She didn't need a burden, but this young man had appeared in the hounds' area, so perhaps he had seen or heard something. Furthermore, for such a frail survivor to survive until now, perhaps it was due to a bit of luck or some unremarkable skill. Bringing him along might provide an additional source of information, or perhaps a decoy to draw fire in a critical moment.
The boy struggled to stand up without hesitation, his voice a little louder due to his eagerness: "I'll go with you! Please... don't leave me... I can do anything... I know where to hide from those bad guys in black..."
Chen Mengzhou raised his eyebrows slightly. As expected.
Zhao Jun waited anxiously below, and when he finally saw Chen Mengzhou coming down with a skinny, blood-soaked stranger, his face suddenly darkened. One more person meant one more burden, one more mouth to feed, and an injured one at that.
“Miss Shen, this…” He couldn’t help but wanted to speak.
Chen Mengzhou glanced at him with an icy gaze, and Zhao Jun immediately swallowed back the rest of his words and glared at the young man angrily.
The young man shrank his neck in fear at Zhao Jun's vicious eyes, and subconsciously hid behind Chen Mengzhou. Although Chen Mengzhou looked colder, it seemed... he would not kill him immediately?
"What's your name?" Chen Mengzhou asked the young man while motioning Zhao Jun to continue leading the way.
"Xiao...Xiaozhou..." the boy answered in a low voice, his voice still trembling, "My name is Lin Xiaozhou." The name was a coincidence.
Chen Mengzhou said nothing. The three of them walked silently down the sewage canal. Lin Xiaozhou endured the pain and tried to keep up, not daring to utter a single groan.
After walking a distance, Lin Xiaozhou seemed to muster up his courage and spoke timidly: "Um...thank...thank you...I...when I was hiding there before, I seemed to hear those bad guys in black talking..."
Chen Mengzhou didn't stop: "What did you say?"
"They... they didn't seem to be looking for us..." Lin Xiaozhou tried hard to recall, his words fragmented due to fear and weakness. "They said something like... 'signal'... 'coming from the west'... 'must get it'... and... 'can't alarm the fortress'..."
Signal? West? Get? Fortress?
The combination of these fragmented words made Chen Mengzhou's eyes narrow slightly.
The hounds' target doesn't seem to be just any survivor. Are they looking for something specific? Or... someone specific? What does "fortress" refer to? A new faction?
"Anything else?" she asked.
Lin Xiaozhou thought hard and shook his head in frustration: "No...nothing...They just said a few words and then went further west..."
The information was limited, but invaluable. The hounds' behavior now had a more plausible explanation; their movements seemed to point to a specific destination to the west. This might mean they needed to be more vigilant of the hounds on their journey, but it could also reduce the chances of encounters because the hounds now had a clear target.
"Well done." Chen Mengzhou said lightly.
A blush of flattery suddenly appeared on Lin Xiaozhou's pale face. He quickly lowered his head, and his steps seemed to become a little lighter.
Zhao Jun listened from the side, his eyes flickering, and it was unknown what he was thinking about.
After walking a few hundred meters further, Zhao Jun pointed to a rusty iron ladder on the canal wall and said, "Go up here and you'll reach the inspection wellhead."
He climbed up first, carefully lifted the manhole cover, observed for a moment, and then whispered, "Safe."
The three of them climbed out of the inspection shaft one after another. Outside was a deserted factory area, and in the distance they could see the old railway embankment that had been broken by a landslide.
On the other side of the railway embankment, the scene made all three of them stop.
The sky ahead was no longer a uniform, dark blood-red, but instead took on a strange, oil-painted purple hue, constantly distorting and fluctuating. The air was filled with intense energy fluctuations, and even a subtle "crackling" sound like countless shattering glass could be heard.
A massive, pitch-black rift in space and time, like a hideous scar, stretched across the railway line, blocking the path. Destructive lightning flashed along the edge of the rift, occasionally sucking in rubble and scrap metal, vanishing without a trace.
The scope of the crack was extremely large, far exceeding the micro-turbulence that Chen Mengzhou had encountered before.
On the other side of the crack, one can vaguely see the railway extending westward and the vague outlines of buildings in the distance.
That's the direction they have to go.
The only passage seemed to be a terrifying path, only half a meter wide, carved by previous generations, clinging to the edge of the massive rift. On one side of the path lay the twisted and broken roadbed, and on the other, the all-consuming black abyss.
The energy storms of time and space turbulence would occasionally escape, blowing across the path, bringing with them gusts of skin-stirring evil wind.
Zhao Jun's face turned pale, and his lips trembled. "This... this can't go through... It's too dangerous! I'll be swept under!"
Lin Xiaozhou was so frightened that his legs went weak and he could barely stand.
Chen Mengzhou stared at the deadly path and the blurry opposite bank at the end of the path.
In future dreams, the marks left by the survivors point to a circuitous path that leads right here.
She could feel the spatial energy within her body resonating faintly with and repelling the violent energy ahead. Perhaps her newly acquired "weak resistance" and "primary analysis" to turbulence would be of some use at this moment.
But the risk is still extremely high.
She looked back at the pale Zhao Jun and the trembling Lin Xiaozhou.
Tools and bait, it's time to use them.
"Zhao Jun," she said, her voice eerily calm, "you go first."
"What?!" Zhao Jun was shocked.
"Your 'Stealth Enhancement' is more sensitive to energy fluctuations, making it suitable for exploration." Chen Mengzhou's reason was impeccable, but his eyes were undeniable. "If you discover any energy anomalies, issue an immediate warning."
She looked at Lin Xiaozhou again: "You walk in the middle."
Finally, she said, "I'll cover your retreat."
Being the rearguard was the safest position, but it also meant she had complete control over the lives of the two people in front of her. If uncontrollable danger arose, she would abandon them without hesitation, even... using them as shields to withstand the onslaught.
Zhao Jun's face was ashen, he knew he had no choice. He glanced at the terrifying crack, then at Chen Mengzhou's emotionless eyes. Finally, he gritted his teeth, a glint of despair and ruthlessness flashing in his eyes.
"Okay... I'll go ahead!"
He took a deep breath, pushed his "stealth enhancement" ability to the extreme, and carefully stepped onto the path of death.
Lin Xiaozhou was so scared that tears streamed down his face, but under Shen Mengzhou's cold gaze, he could only follow tremblingly.
Chen Mengzhou walked at the end, with his spatial perception raised to the limit, carefully feeling every subtle change in the energy of the crack in front of him. At the same time, he was also calculating the best landing point for each step, and... if necessary, who to push into the energy storm to buy himself a few tenths of a second of escape time.
The three of them were like walking on a tightrope with a bottomless abyss beneath their feet.
The smell of death was so thick that it was almost suffocating.
The truth about the western suburbs seems to be hidden at the end of this road of destruction.
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