Yang Zicang looked at Lee Zhinan, who had taken two steps back.
–But what?–
–As long as you let him walk out alive, I’ll share with you the plant-catalyzing secret technique I obtained. If not for that secret technique, do you think I’d care whether he lives or dies?–
Seeing Yang Zicang deep in thought, Robin Lo suddenly jerked upright, sneered, and sprang to his feet, shouting outside the vehicle:
–This bastard is utterly inhuman—don’t let him go. Controlling someone else’s body must come at a cost; we need to weaken his power.–
–But…–
Plop! Robin Lo crushed an ability sphere in his hand. The low-grade Chronos War Artifact that Yang Zicang had kept as a backup shot forth with a trail of crimson light, and Lee Zhinan’s head exploded instantly.
Ding-dong!
A red scalpel fell onto the ancient, darkened flagstone. It quivered slightly, seemingly radiating fear as it stared at the train.
–Alas.–
Yang Zicang’s heart jolted, and then he let out a sigh.
The energy interference brought by the phantom suddenly vanished.
–His power has weakened. The soul inside that treasure is none other than Old Xue, right?– Robin Lo’s small eyes darted back and forth. –Looks like Shi Qian has already struck a deal with Old Xue’s soul inside. You can spit out whatever you’ve been holding in your mouth.–
–Pah!– Yang Zicang spat out the aromatic pill and swept his gaze around. –Shadowless Yueyingyueying, come out!–
All was silent—no answer came.
Robin Lo, still at the carriage door, yelled relentlessly, –Shi Qian, that thing’s not much use to you! Give it to us, and I’ll swear brotherhood with you.–
The next second, a zigzag line shot toward Yang Zicang.
[Wuying wants to perform Pro-Invest on me.]
[Wuying invested 1N in me.]
{That Chronos War Artifact—is it really eighty years old?}
–That’s right.–
{Twenty thousand Chronos, plus that weapon, and I’ll give you this thing. Surely you understand this is a friend’s price.}
Yang Zicang narrowed his eyes.
He hesitated. By all reckoning, a treasure like that wouldn’t be overpriced even at tens of thousands of Chronos, yet something instinctive recoiled against the trade. Spending twenty years at once meant it would take who-knew-how-long before he could afford to purchase time at a Hubville merchant. But if he missed this treasure, obtaining another like it would be a far harder task.
–Wuying says he’ll sell us the Mirage Treasure for twenty thousand Chronos plus that eighty-year Chronos War Artifact.–
–Bloody hell.–
Robin Lo cursed, furious he’d come just a couple seconds too late. He leaped off the carriage, his pickaxe slamming into the Nightmare Scalpel and turning it into scrap metal.
Suddenly, the entire mountain trembled. Yang Zicang’s face turned pale.
–It’s the vines—let’s go!–
Robin Lo surged forward, and the carriage dissipated into the wind in an instant.
Boom! The moment they left, the ground suddenly split apart, countless vines burst through the floorboards and grew, the tree vines writhed wildly.
–Notify the news that this thing exists; no more ordinary people should be allowed into the mountains for now.–
This mountain peak quickly gave rise to an emerald waterfall. It glanced left and right, then stared at a direction where branches swayed.
A trajectory lashed in, and Ju Yin Chase’s voice roared in their minds:
{Can you deal with a monster of this level?}
–Don’t worry.–
{Don’t worry? ZiCang, it’s not that I don’t trust you, but if it gets out and rapidly expands itself, half of the Shibin Wastes might become a death zone for humans. The consequences would be disastrous! If you can’t handle this, I may have to request reinforcements from the Hubville security team.}
The train raced madly, but the young man above it wore a confident expression.
–I already have a plan. Trust me!–
Boom! The forest quaked; the vine monster surged forward like a tide, but soon sporadic torches appeared in the forest ahead of those vines.
Several threads flashed by.
{Captain Robin Lo, the gasoline is ready. Should we keep burning?}
{Ignite it all!}
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Deep within the mountains, one massive bonfire after another blazed to life, flames rapidly spreading through the forest.
……
–Ugh, mm…–
Just as Zuo Feixian roused from sleep to relieve Wang Chong on the night watch, he suddenly heard a distant clamor.
Stretching his arms and scratching his backside as he stepped outside, he heard the distant uproar once more. Focusing his eyes, he spotted what seemed to be faint sparks of light flickering amid the mountains in the darkness.
–So many people in the mountains?–
Frowning, he walked forward to get a closer look, but it was too far to make out clearly.
–Which gathering team is putting in so much effort.–
At that moment, the train transformed into a whirlwind, darting through the mountain forest.
[Storm Fist!]
[Blaze Blade Way!]
A gust of wind laden with flames exploded with a roar, igniting the forest’s vegetation.
No sooner had it stopped than a vine came hurtling in.
A black hole spun as it thrust out the Lance, crackling with impacts! The spear clashed rapidly midair with the vine.
Robin Lo caught the golden gleam flashing in the distance and shouted, –Watch out for the explosion!–
–We’re leaving right away.–
Yang Zicang’s wooden staff burst into sparks with a whomp, then he tossed it into the thicket. The dense woods, already drenched in oil, immediately erupted in a roaring sea of flames, crackling and blazing fiercely.
Just as the vine monster lunged through the flames before the train, both the train and the black hole dissolved into the wind and vanished once more.
As sparks ignited in every direction, soon a roaring blaze engulfed the entire vicinity of the mountain.
Countless beasts stampeded wildly elsewhere.
–You think you can trap me with fire?–
A sword-light slammed into the ground, leaving a crater in its wake. At the same time, a chunk of roots hurdled over the flames and landed inside the pit. Another vine struck down and tossed the carcasses of the captured lesser beasts into the crater, and it began its rapid growth in response.
–Damn, this thing wants to blossom everywhere, doesn’t it?–
The train materialized on another mountaintop, looking down upon the previous ravine from above. Robin Lo gasped in alarm at the speed at which the vine was growing; the thing might well cover the entire forest in less than a day.
A continuous roar echoed from afar:
–Once I become the master of this mountain, I’ll make sure all you humans turn into my fertilizer.–
Seeing its fury, Yang Zicang instead felt that the fire must indeed have a suppressive effect on it.
–Even if we can’t kill it with fire alone, we should at least cut off its nourishment supply.–
Suddenly, the surrounding woods began to warp.
A phantom humanoid silhouette emerged in the sky. With a sweep of both hands, its surging energy rolled dense waves toward the forest.
The Wraith’s voice reached them:
–You start the fires; I’ll keep it confined.–
Yang Zicang gazed intently at the youth’s figure, which had grown far more wild, standing tall in the void like a god or demon.
–Thanks.–
With fewer distractions, Yang Zicang and Robin Lo worked together to set fires more efficiently.
A few small orbs of light appeared above their heads.
{So much fun!}
Lili Fang appeared beside Yang Zicang’s shoulder, and he chuckled:
–If you knew it was fun, why did you only show up now?–
{I was napping, you know. Want to play too.}
The spirit within the small orb stretched out tiny hands, reaching for the burning stick Yang Zicang was holding.
Constantly wielding the Blaze Blade Art, Yang Zicang’s energy surged uncontrollably, leaving him deeply uncomfortable. He activated Lucid Sense to calm the churning force within him, looking at the little creature helplessly:
–Can you even lift it?–
{Don’t underestimate me!}
Yang Zicang handed the wooden stick over to it.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Several orbs of light darted down together, grabbing hold of the stick.
They were utterly unafraid of fire, some lifting, some dragging as they carried the blazing stick haphazardly toward the distant vine trunk warring endlessly with phantoms.
–Ah, those things…– Robin Lo rubbed her eyes.
And just like that, the little spirits actually tossed the burning stick into a cluster of vines.
With a whoosh, the vines ignited rapidly, and the little arsonists buzzed upward, hovering in the air.
Yang Zicang let out a soft chuckle, then turned to Robin Lo and said, –The encirclement plan has been executed perfectly. Now it’s time for cleanup.–
Robin Lo nodded enthusiastically. –Heh heh, even though it possesses terrifying strength beyond the Moon Shadow, since it has already entered our world, it must abide by the Chronos rules here.–
–And as long as Chronos exists, there will come a moment when it is fully depleted.–
A line of folds spread outward from Yang Zicang’s chest.
–Captain Yuan Kun, are you ready?–
In the sensory image, Yuan Kun looked both thrilled and nervous, as if he couldn’t wait to seize this opportunity to shine.
{From the moment Boss Five gave the order, I’ve been preparing with all my might. Right now, I have eight lances with a three-hundred-meter range, five pistols effective at nearly a hundred meters, and one mortar. Of course, that thing takes a while just to fire one shot.}
Activating such a long-distance barrage was far from feasible with ordinary Chronos amplification alone. Thinking of the massive amount of Chronos he was about to spend, Yang Zicang said with a hint of reluctance:
–That’s already good enough. Let’s begin. We need to suppress that monster’s Chronos with all our strength, or else it might recover quickly once it escapes the flame zone.–
A whole night passed.
The next day, Yuan Long, up early, yawned as he looked in front of the tent. A few of his subordinates were silently signaling each other with their eyebrows to step forward.
–What’s going on?– Yuan Long asked, a bit puzzled.
Someone lifted the curtain, and Yuan Long froze in place, staring into the distance.
Ahead, on several mountains, flames soared into the sky; two peaks had already been scorched bare, countless trails of black smoke twisting upward, merging with the overcast clouds.
–Ah… my timber yard…–
Meanwhile, several miles away.
Parched and exhausted, Lu Xiang, looking like a beggar, leaned on his wooden staff and panted heavily as he gazed at the blazing forest ahead:
–I… finally… made it…–
……
After handing out three terrain engines to a group who had fled far from Hubville into the desolate depths of Peng Zone out of fear of being robbed, Zorro left under the thanks and stares of a dozen people.
Beneath the dark clouds, the motorbike sputtered across the wilderness, then suddenly arced to a halt. The man stretched out a leg to steady the bike and looked up at the sky.
A golden ray of slanting sunlight pierced through the scattered clouds, revealing a patch of azure sky.
Little Red Horse curiously felt the warmth settling on its body.
{Huh, a weird sensation… Is this sunlight? I think I’ve seen it before, many years ago.}
On the distant horizon, a few blurry figures moved forward amid the shadowy erosion, soon arriving at the edge of this patch of sunlight.
–Hello, Mr. Zorro, we are executives from the Lost Illusions Corporation, specializing in the Starlight Mirage.–
Zorro paused in slight surprise at these people in their clean, crisp office uniforms. A man with a composed demeanor stepped forward and said:
–In recognition of your contributions in the Shibin Wastes, we sincerely invite you to join our company and become one of us.–
Beside the man stepped a soft-featured woman. Her voice melodious as mountain springs, she chuckled softly and asked:
–If you would like, would you?–
–Me? I’m nothing renowned.–
–But you are a true wasteland-builder.–
Those words softened Zorro’s sharp, intense gaze.
Sunlight spilled over the small patch of ground, with drifting dust and withered leaves slowly floating in the air.
{Lost Illusions Corporation? I’d like to see it.}
The Nightmare Motorcycle chimed in excitedly.
Zorro lifted his hands, looking at his pale-glowing palms. Feeling the long-absent warmth of the sun, the man pulled down his eye patch, letting the crude scars around his eyes and forehead bathe in the golden light.
A smile crept across his stubble-lined lips.
–Of course. This is an honor for both of us.–
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