Chapter 220
Chapter 220
Night had fallen over the dunes.
Han Lie stood with a heavy cloak draped over his shoulders to ward off the chill of Hanlu / Cold Dew.
Beside him, a Sand Lizard with a patch of red scales on its forehead had curled itself into a ball.
Han Lie waited there alone beneath a sky full of stars.
“Han Lie.”
The sudden call sounded eerily like a ghost summoning a soul in the dead of night.
Rather than panic, Han Lie brightened.
He looked around and asked softly, “Supreme Deity?”
The next second, the air in front of him rippled slightly.
“Keep these things safe for me.”
As the words fell, Han Lie clearly saw an enormous hand take shape in the void.
There was no body, not even a shadow.
There was clearly nothing there, yet the massive, fine-boned hand seemed to be pressing against some transparent, invisible barrier and could advance no farther.
Han Lie watched with his heart in his throat.
Qin Ying wasn’t faring any better inside the car.
This was her first attempt to open a door between worlds.
It was countless times more difficult than when she had “opened a door” inside the Box.
She kept her eyes closed and tried for a long time.
It felt as though her brains were boiling against the top of her skull, yet she still fell just short.
The Thunderbird sensed that something was wrong and flew anxiously around her.
After a long while, two streams of blood gushed from Qin Ying’s nostrils.
For an instant, she lost consciousness.
She curled up behind the seatback, unable to feel her own body.
It seemed as though an eternity had passed before Qin Ying abruptly came to.
She recalled what she had read in the Wax Corpse Diary: emotion and a medium.
A flash of realization cut through her muddled mind.
She hurriedly opened the test tube containing the Marrow Fluid and balanced a drop of the foul-smelling liquid on her palm.
The next instant, Qin Ying’s hand plunged into empty space. The space before her looked like a painting that had been torn open.
Through the tear, she felt grains of sand native to Danxia Mountain.
Wild joy surged through Qin Ying.
This time, the medium had been the River God’s Marrow Fluid.
When she had opened a door inside the Box last time, had the medium been the Box itself, or the body used in the Soul-Container Consecration?
And could the extreme emotion behind that previous opening have been Chief Clerk Li’s devout faith?
Her control over the rift told her it wouldn’t remain open for long.
Her excitement allowed her to ignore the excruciating pain in her head. She pushed aside her distracting thoughts and hurriedly replaced the wooden stopper in the test tube.
Then she shoved the tube of Marrow Fluid, the Zheng Serum she carried with her, the eyeball soaking in the Specimen Bottle, and the bronze shard into the rift all at once.
She entrusted them to Han Lie in the World in the Box for safekeeping.
Once matters here were settled, she would retrieve them from the Box.
Qin Ying moved quickly. The instant she pushed everything through, the rift snapped shut, grazing her fingertips.
Had she withdrawn her hand any slower, Han Lie might have found himself picking up one of the Supreme Deity’s severed, blood-soaked fingers.
That was without even considering the fresh uproar her actions caused in both the World in the Box and her own world.
Despite her relief, Qin Ying’s mind grew increasingly foggy.
The backlash from opening the door made her feel as though she might vomit up her stomach.
She rested her forehead against the rear seatback for a long time, but still couldn’t catch her breath.
Forcing herself upright, she returned to the driver’s seat.
After posting an SOS in the group chat, she started the car and drove toward Qingzhai Station.
The SUV’s wheels were already completely ruined, and the vehicle clattered and banged the entire way.
It finally gave out just as she reached the entrance to Qingzhai Station.
By the time Qin Ying climbed out on unsteady legs, the tire sidewalls had folded in and been crushed beyond repair.
Her car turned heads wherever it went.
The railway staff at Qingzhai Station hurried over to see what was going on.
They were startled to find her covered in blood and mud and quickly called for help.
The roar of motorcycles came from behind her.
As luck would have it, everyone from Qingzhai Village had come charging after her.
When the village seemed to be haunted and a bride was to be sacrificed, anyone in Qingzhai Village who was even slightly open-minded or had the means had already found a way to leave.
Those who remained were all vicious, unreasonable sorts.
After Aunt Mo tearfully said a few words, the villagers saw several people lying in the ancestral hall who had been shocked so badly that they’d wet themselves.
Naturally, they blamed everything on Qin Ying.
They believed she had ruined the bridal offering ceremony and would inevitably incur the Mountain God’s wrath.
Then Qin Ying had driven off while taunting them, sending the whole group racing after her in a panic.
Seeing the mob approaching, the staff at Qingzhai Station hurriedly contacted the railway police stationed there.
At the same time, several staff members crowded around Qin Ying, who was obviously the victim, and began ushering her into the station.
The people from Qingzhai Village refused to allow it.
Someone in the crowd shouted that the station staff were harboring Qin Ying.
Tensions instantly soared, and the two sides found themselves locked in a standoff.
Afraid the confrontation might turn violent, a railway police officer hurried into the middle of the road and called out, “Everyone, let’s calm down and talk. What exactly happened?”
The villagers of Qingzhai Village could hardly give a proper explanation. They couldn’t very well admit that they had set a trap to trick someone into marrying the Mountain God, could they?
They refused to speak, so Qin Ying spoke instead.
Still conscious enough to answer, Qin Ying said, “Their village is involved in human trafficking. They trick women into marrying the Mountain God.”
Both the station staff and the railway police froze at her words.
None of them had imagined that something so absurd could still happen in this day and age.
When the officer heard that human trafficking was involved as well, he immediately called for backup.
Seeing this, the man who had been hiding behind Aunt Mo and the others could no longer hold back.
Zhang Yubo was limping, and the marks left by the electric shock were still visible on his body.
Remaining hidden behind the crowd, he shouted, “That woman is lying through her teeth! She was the one who snuck into our ancestral hall and wrecked the place!”
Being familiar with his fellow villagers, he knew exactly how to stir them up.
With only a few shouts, he incited several hotheaded young men to step forward and take the lead.
A few thugs who ran with Zhang Lao San pulled clubs from who knew where and started advancing.
Just as the two sides were about to start shoving each other, Zhang Yubo signaled for Aunt Mo to go forward and make a scene.
At that moment, a cold snort came from behind them.
The next instant, a sharp pain shot through the back of Zhang Yubo’s neck.
Someone had seized him by the nape like a chick.
It felt as though his neck bones were about to be crushed. Rolling his eyes upward, Zhang Yubo tried to look behind him.
He couldn’t see the person’s face. All he saw was a terrifyingly massive chest.
“You bastard.”
After that curse, Zhang Yubo went flying sideways like a kite with its string cut.
His eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness.
Aunt Mo instinctively prepared to throw a tantrum, but the moment she saw the newcomers clearly, she fell silent.
At their head stood a burly older man nearly two meters tall, with frighteningly massive pecs and biceps.
Behind him were three or four people, each wearing a Black Trench Coat despite the scorching heat. One glance was enough to tell that there was something off about them and that they certainly didn’t look like good people.
Even the railway police at Qingzhai Station took half a step back, mistaking them for some kind of organized crime group.
Qin Ying, however, let out a long sigh of relief. “Director Chen.”