Chapter 218
Chapter 218
Qin Ying’s ears hurt like hell, every sound stabbing into her eardrums.
Her stomach was pressed against one of the small spikes on the shoulder of the unnamed Willow Immortal carrying her. Every jolt of his long strides nearly made her vomit.
Unable to take it anymore, she hurriedly slapped him on the shoulder. “Put me down!”
Her hearing was shot, so she was practically shouting.
Her voice carried through the repeated booms coming from deep inside the mountain and reached the Willow Immortal carrying her.
Unfortunately, the man, who was still sprinting along despite blood spurting from all over his body like dozens of tiny fountains, clearly misunderstood what she meant.
Blood spraying from his head, he declared heartily as he ran, “Don’t worry. I can handle it.”
“Our recovery ability is nothing to sneeze at.”
As he spoke, he took a huge stride over a man-made drainage ditch.
“Ugh…”
Qin Ying nearly threw up a mouthful of stomach acid.
Behind them, the rumbling grew louder and louder. The entire mountain was shaking.
Spiderweb cracks spread across the concrete walls.
Under the circumstances, Qin Ying didn’t dare distract him by saying anything else. Suppressing her nausea, she raised her head and looked back.
Amid the earth-shaking tremors, she saw the building they had just escaped from.
Built into the mountain, the structure aboveground looked like an entirely ordinary, large residence.
Nestled among the mountains, its faint outline resembled a colossal beast lying in wait.
Suddenly, Qin Ying spotted people running through the darkness.
Dim flashlight beams swung wildly about.
Someone was chasing after them.
As one of the beams swept past, Qin Ying got a clear look at their pursuers.
They wore gray cloth jackets and carried old-fashioned rifles.
A thought abruptly occurred to her. If the space created by the River God encompassed the entirety of Qingzhai Mountain, then when the two time periods overlapped, there should be an old manor above the laboratory, built to conceal it.
In 1910, that manor had not yet been abandoned. It still had guards.
The people chasing them were the laboratory’s guards from 1910.
The thought flashed through her mind. The instant she saw the armed men, she shouted, “Watch out! There are enemies behind us, and they have guns!”
The Willow Immortal carrying Qin Ying faltered and glanced back.
His eyesight was pretty good too. Once he saw them clearly, he cursed.
Then he abruptly ducked.
A sharp pain sliced across Qin Ying’s cheek as she lay over his shoulder.
It felt like a vicious blade had skimmed right across her skin.
Though she wasn’t injured, her skin still registered the searing pain.
She caught a fleeting whiff of gunpowder. Only then did she belatedly realize that a bullet had just grazed her face.
If Brother Willow Immortal hadn’t reacted quickly enough, it would have struck her eye socket and blown open her skull.
Her mind went blank for a moment after that brush with death.
Then fury surged through her.
Which bastard was trying to kill her?
Qin Ying jerked her head up and stared into the darkness from which the bullet had come.
Beneath a flashlight beam, one of the men was raising his rifle to aim again.
The instant she saw his face clearly, one word flashed through Qin Ying’s mind: lingchi.
In the old days, the most heinous criminals were punished by erecting a frame at Caishikou, stripping the prisoner naked, and wrapping them in a fishing net. Their flesh would then be shaved off in thin slices, as if carving a roast duck.
It continued until nothing remained but a bare skeleton.
The shooter behind them looked exactly like someone who had suffered lingchi.
Not a single patch of normal flesh remained on his scalp or face. They were covered in dense, scale-like scars, each two fingers wide.
In the darkness, he looked like an evil spirit that had crawled out of the abyss.
Through the darkness, Qin Ying locked eyes with the hideously disfigured man.
The next second, the scar-faced man raised his rifle and pulled the trigger again.
Qin Ying heard the gunshot and felt a surge of panic, but the Thunderbird, which had been flying alongside her this whole time, flapped one wing.
Violet-blue electricity crackled.
A bolt of lightning far faster than the bullet struck it out of the air.
Surprise and confusion crossed the scar-faced man’s face. He narrowed his eyes, seemingly trying to make out what had just flashed past.
He wasn’t the only one astonished. Yin Minmin and the other two were just as shocked.
But everyone was too busy fleeing for their lives to ask how the little bird could suddenly shoot lightning.
Only Zhao Jixian and Feng Meiyu had ever seen the Thunderbird unleash its power.
But as people who lived in the turmoil of 1910, they were far more sensitive to gunfire than the others.
The moment they heard shots behind them, their scalps prickled, and they fled down the mountain path in panic.
Just as the scar-faced man worked the rifle bolt again, another deafening boom erupted.
The ridge bulged upward in a massive arc, as though a giant python were slithering beneath the layers of rock.
Trees as thick as the mouth of a bowl toppled in unison. Their upturned roots tore dirt from the ground, sending clouds of dust and soil billowing through the darkness.
The scar-faced man staggered several times, and the fallen trees brought his group’s pursuit to a halt.
Qin Ying and the others were not faring much better. As they raced through the mountains, the grinding of rock accompanied huge fissures splitting open beneath their feet.
The violent upheaval of the mountain and earth was scarcely less dangerous than an earthquake.
They had to avoid the enormous cracks, or they might fall in and be crushed to death between the rocks.
Zhang Lang bore the heaviest burden, carrying one person on each shoulder. The plump director, Wu Qian, was especially heavy.
Even with his Monstrous Beast Transformation, Zhang Lang was panting for breath.
Yin Minmin and Feng Meiyu were like two bounding rabbits, nimbly hopping from rock to rock.
Zhao Jixian, on the other hand, had fallen to the very back.
Seeing this, Qin Ying had no choice but to pat Brother Willow Immortal on the shoulder again. “Put me down. I can run by myself. Go help Zhang Lang.”
Only then did Brother Willow Immortal stop beside an uprooted tree and set Qin Ying down.
Still catching her breath, Qin Ying was about to go help when she stared in shock. Zhao Jixian and Feng Meiyu had been enveloped in an unnatural mist.
Their figures flickered in and out of sight, on the verge of disappearing.
Qin Ying knew they were about to return to their own time.
Her heart tightened. She hurriedly called to Yin Minmin, who was standing beside Feng Meiyu, “Minmin, move away from them.”
Then she pulled two severed halves of a gold bracelet from her backpack.
They had originally been intended as food for Di Shang, but for now, they would have to serve another purpose.
From a distance, she tossed one half to Zhao Jixian and the other to Feng Meiyu.
She also took the Migu Flower from her waist and handed it to Zhao Jixian so it could light their way.
After they caught the items instinctively, Qin Ying said, “Listen carefully. Don’t look back. Start running immediately.”
“Especially you, Mr. Zhao.”
“You’d better act as though you’re already dead. Otherwise, disaster will come knocking at your door.”
Zhao Jixian needed no further warning. He was no fool. He knew that everyone on the train had fallen victim to the monsters.
If he alone returned alive, he would face endless interrogation, perhaps even being silenced.
He tightly clutched the piece of gold bracelet Qin Ying had thrown him. Holding the Migu Flower in his other hand, he nodded solemnly.
Qin Ying then turned to Feng Meiyu.
Feng Meiyu had climbed aboard the train midway through its journey. Since she did not even have a ticket, the authorities probably would not be able to trace the incident back to her.
Unless Zhao Jixian betrayed her.
Qin Ying told Feng Meiyu concisely, “The same goes for you. Find a way to get as far away as possible.”
“Take on a new name and identity. Neither of you should ever return to Yunlan.”
Feng Meiyu was younger, and all she knew to do in response to Qin Ying’s instructions was nod.
Thinking of the era in which they lived and the catastrophe that was soon to come, Qin Ying added, “In the future, a great catastrophe will sweep from north to south. Find a way to reach Nanyang.”
“If you want to make something of yourselves, then eleven years from now, on July twenty-third…”
She shook her head, ultimately not daring to finish. “If you wish to accomplish something, remember what is connected to that date.”
With that, Qin Ying pointed toward the distant mist. “Don’t look back. Run into the mist!”
Feng Meiyu still stood there in a panic. Zhao Jixian, deep in thought, stepped forward and seized her wrist. “Let’s go. We mustn’t delay these heroes.”
Feng Meiyu ran a few steps, then stopped again.
She felt inside her pocket. The Thunderbird feather Qin Ying had given her was still there.
Turning around, she tore an object tied with red cord from her neck and tossed it toward Qin Ying from afar.
“Goodbye, big sister.”
As her voice faded, she and Zhao Jixian disappeared amid the mist and churning earth, their figures erased bit by bit as though by an eraser.
Soon, they had vanished from the spot completely.