Chapter 175
Chapter 175
When that uncontrollable little thing finally settled down to digest the gold, Qin Ying let out a long breath.
The round trip had taken an enormous toll on her mentally.
She was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open.
For the first time, she understood the exhaustion of having her mind go completely blank, as though even her soul had closed its eyes and was about to drift off.
Still, Qin Ying forced herself to stay awake and walked over to the Box to open its lid.
Light spilled out the moment it opened.
A desert of red and yellow sand stretched as far as the eye could see. A small cavalry unit raced across the dunes at full gallop.
Amid the billowing sand, a Sand Lizard with red scales on its forehead ran especially fast.
Its severed tail had already regrown by a fair length, and the thick pads on its feet protected it from the scorching sand beneath them.
There was a tiny figure on the Sand Lizard’s back. Qin Ying could recognize Han Lie from the top of his head alone.
She rested a hand on the carvings of the Box and called softly, “Han Lie.”
Han Lie, who was riding the Sand Lizard back to the Kuxi Tribe, thought for a moment that he was hearing things.
How could he hear the Supreme Deity’s voice here?
And why did she sound so weak?
His heart lurched, and he wondered if something had gone wrong. Just as he was about to pull on the reins, Qin Ying’s voice reached him again.
“Don’t stop. Keep going.”
Qin Ying gave a huge yawn and rubbed her temple. Just then, she heard the flutter of wings.
The Thunderbird set a piece of milk candy down in front of her, then cocked its head and stared at her.
Qin Ying unwrapped the candy and popped it into her mouth before stroking the Thunderbird’s head.
Then she told Han Lie, “I’m already back.”
Using as few words as possible, she explained the entire ridiculous chain of events to him.
Hidden beneath his hood, Han Lie’s expression shifted several times.
He never would have imagined that so much could happen while he was away.
Qin Ying asked, “How much longer until you reach the Kuxi Tribe?”
Han Lie answered in an extremely low voice, “Only half a day if we travel at full speed.”
“All right. Get back as quickly as you can and stabilize the situation first.”
His title aside, Chen Zhao was already a General with an independent command in the Fengshan Elite Cavalry.
For him to go missing inside a cistern in the Kuxi Tribe was unquestionably a serious incident.
It could easily spark renewed tensions between the two sides.
Moreover, no one knew what condition Chen Zhao and Liang Pu were currently in. They needed to be rescued as soon as possible, and the aftermath dealt with.
After giving Han Lie a few brief instructions, Qin Ying’s mind was too muddled to continue.
Han Lie could naturally hear it in her voice. He wanted to say something, but with other riders on both sides of him, he could not voice any of his concern.
Once she had taken care of this final matter, Qin Ying could no longer hold out. She staggered over to the bed.
She did not even manage to pull back the covers before collapsing facedown and falling asleep.
The Thunderbird flew over and helped remove the slippers dangling from her feet.
Wangcai jumped onto the bed and curled up beside her, keeping watch.
Qin Ying slept fitfully that night.
Even in her dreams, she felt utterly exhausted, yet chaotic images kept appearing and prevented her from resting.
Amid the flickering scenes, she saw an enormous Shadowy Figure blotting out the sky.
She saw Di Shang coiled around the Shadowy Figure’s wrist.
Then she found herself standing once more in that wet, clammy, icy Rust Tide, watching the Sand People Shaman use a Bone Staff to herd the Rust Men.
Despite her crushing exhaustion, she somehow committed one of the refrains the Sand People Shaman chanted over and over while herding the Rust Men to memory.
By the time Qin Ying woke at noon the next day, she looked worse than a ghost.
She coaxed herself through washing up, then chewed on dry bread that tasted like wax. All the while, she had the nagging feeling that she had forgotten something.
Only after feeding the little animals at home and picking up her phone to see the missed calls did she suddenly remember.
She had a meeting today, and she was late.
Qin Ying stared blankly at her phone for a while before setting it aside.
If you were one or two minutes late, you’d feel anxious. If you were ten or twenty minutes late, you’d panic.
But when you were already two or three hours late, you might as well let it go completely. There was no point beating yourself up over it.
Qin Ying decided to stop trying.
Even speaking felt exhausting right now, so she sent Yin Minmin a message and made up a random excuse.
Yin Minmin didn’t reply.
Dragging her feet, she returned to her room. In the plastic container on her desk, the silver slime-like Di Shang still had a bulging belly and was wholly preoccupied with digesting the gold.
Qin Ying slumped over her desk and examined her battered Soul-Container Puppet.
The little figure, now restored to its natural wood color, lay there quietly with its tiny right hand detached from its body.
Just looking at it made Qin Ying’s head ache. She had no idea how to repair it.
Would she have to play a one-armed hero inside the Box from now on?
She peered through a magnifying glass, picked up the severed hand with the Cell Clamp, and tried fitting it back onto the Wooden Puppet.
She wanted to see whether the broken edges lined up and if she could glue it back on.
After several failed attempts, just as her patience was about to run out, Di Shang slowly wriggled over like a slime.
It extended a filament only one-tenth the thickness of a strand of hair, which climbed onto Qin Ying’s Soul-Container Puppet.
In the blink of an eye, silver metallic tracery spread across the natural wood-colored figure.
The patterns resembled meridians. Even the broken wrist that had been troubling Qin Ying was pulled back into place by the fine filaments.
After the repair, the previously unremarkable little Wooden Puppet somehow looked considerably more expensive.
Di Shang silently finished its work, then silently crawled away.
Its handiwork was on par with a surgeon’s.
Qin Ying’s mood improved a little, and she reached out to stroke it.
Di Shang didn’t avoid her touch, but neither did it act especially affectionate.
With plenty of gold still in reserve, it was nothing more than a cold, heartless eating machine.
Now that the issue with the little figure had been resolved, Qin Ying was about to open the Box and check on Han Lie when her phone rang.
The call was from Yin Minmin. Qin Ying quickly answered.
Before she could speak, Yin Minmin’s anxious voice came from the other end. “Sister Ying, we couldn’t reach you. We’ve been sent on an emergency mission.”
Clanging and banging filled the background, accompanied by the hum of a motor.
An emergency mission?
Qin Ying apologized first, then explained, “I haven’t been feeling well for the past two days. I have a bit of a fever today.”
It was just another excuse, meant to explain why she had been absent without saying a word.
She was still debating whether to ask Yin Minmin what the emergency mission was when the blare of a train whistle suddenly sounded over the phone.
Qin Ying hadn’t heard that kind of whistle in a long time.
There was only one place in Yunlan City where it could still be heard: an old railway line.
Yin Minmin probably realized that the whistle might give away their location. After a couple of hurried sentences, she quickly hung up.
Qin Ying held her phone, deep in thought.
An emergency mission connected to the old railway?
After thinking for a moment, she searched social media using the local railway as a keyword.
A post soon appeared before her.
Its author had used a highly provocative title: “What Should You Do If You See a Ghost in a Railway Tunnel?”
It had no likes and had only been posted a minute ago.
Before Qin Ying could read the contents, the post was marked unavailable.