Ning Gu’s initial reaction was to assume that a fellow Traveller was playing a prank on him. After all, he knew of at least three people with an ability to speak without revealing themselves.
However, he quickly dismissed that notion, as he didn’t recognise this voice. If it wasn’t any of the Travellers he knew, then regardless of whose voice was that or what kind of ability or new equipment it was… he had to flee.
Ning Gu’s speed when fleeing danger was as remarkable as his combat skills among the ordinary humans. After hastily escaping the dark room, he felt as though the voice still lingered inside.
But despite his swift escape, Hammer was already nowhere to be seen. Ning Gu stood in the centre of the chamber, carefully scanning the surroundings, but he couldn’t spot Hammer; that damned coward had already escaped into one of the passages. For him to escape so decisively, it was obvious that he placed no faith in the Ghost City’s local bully.
Ning Gu didn’t immediately follow Hammer’s instructions and go into the few walkable passages to look for him. He wasn’t familiar with the local terrain, the behaviour of the inhabitants and visitors here, and wasn’t sure if Hammer had fled or encountered some trouble.
He had originally planned to quietly observe the people around. After a huge commotion like this, most would typically focus on the direction the culprit had fled. Yet, to his disappointment, he soon realised that his previous experiences didn’t apply in this place. People were casually moving about, seemingly unbothered, but when he casually made eye contact with a few, he could tell that they were all watching him discreetly.
He simply locked gazes with each one of them. It appeared that no one was ready to expose the situation, so an immediate stand-off ensued.
As Li Xiang approached Ning Gu from behind, Ning Gu turned his head warily when he was still some distance away, and the face he made when he saw Captain’s right-hand man was beyond all description.
“You’re coming with me,” Li Xiang said as he walked past Ning Gu.
Ning Gu’s continued sharpness even in this messy and bewildering situation was quite reassuring for him.
“Hammer’s gone.” Ning Gu followed up without any word of explanation in his defence, bringing up Hammer right away.
“He’s fine.” Li Xiang said as he entered a passage on the left.
Behind him, Ning Gu came to a halt. When Li Xiang looked back at him, Ning Gu was staring at his own wrist.
Li Xiang glanced at the Bats with black rings on their fingers moving about in the group of people behind them and then back at Ning Gu’s wrist with a few blue dots. “What are you doing? Keep following me.”
“Who are you?” Ning Gu didn’t move and leaned on the side, keeping his gaze on Li Xiang.
“Li Xiang.” Li Xiang replied.
“Who is Li Xiang?” Ning Gu continued to stare at him.
“Li Xiang is the one who used to pleaded for mercy for you whenever you got into trouble as a kid,” Li Xiang responded, “The one who helped you fix the houses you damaged, who took you down from the clocktower when Captain hung you up there for three days for everyone to see, who helped you patch up your pants when they got torn in a fight…”
Ning Gu definitely didn’t learn this way of verifying a lost human from Hammer. None of the Travellers who visited here frequently would be as dumb, so it was quite evident that he had come up with it himself. That was pretty vigilant of him.
“Fine, fine, fine,” Ning Gu quickly walked over to Li Xiang and waved his hand, “That’s enough, you can stop already. Either way, your sewing skills were terrible, yet you seem to remember it really well.”
“Did Hammer teach you this?” Li Xiang continued walking ahead, “That mark on your hand.”
“Yeah,” Ning Gu nodded, “Is it effective?”
“That guy you just kicked,” Li Xiang said, “He cut a mark on his face ten years ago. He never returned to the Ghost City.”
Ning Gu fell silent for a moment.
Li Xiang glanced back at him, “You’re too disobedient.”
“No one ever properly explained those things to me,” Ning Gu frowned, “Why would I stay obedient?”
Li Xiang didn’t speak again. Black Rings were approaching, so he kept moving forward.
“Someone’s following us.” Ning Gu said, “They’re all wearing black rings.”
“They’re following you.” Li Xiang replied, patting his shoulder.
“Why?” Ning Gu asked, “Because I got into a fight? It can’t be that bad… This place doesn’t seem to have any rules in place.”
Li Xiang pushed him into one of the huts on the side, then he reached out and pointed at the few Black Fingers who were following them. They immediately stopped in their tracks, then made a U-turn and left, pretending as if nothing had happened.
Ning Gu wasn’t happy about being pushed inside by Li Xiang like this, but after seeing the situation inside the hut clearly, he quickly retreated to the entrance, admitting his mistake with all due humility as he tried to flee, “I was wrong, I was wrong! I won’t dare to do it again.”
Inside the hut, apart from Li Xiang, who once again pushed him back inside, there were three more people: Captain, his assistant Lin Fan, and the most powerful woman in the Ghost City—Sister Qi.
“What did you do wrong?” Captain asked.
Sister Qi flashed Ning Gu a smile, and he immediately jumped onto a nearby table, then again to grab a metal rod stuck in the crevice of the ceiling, suspending himself in the air.
Sister Qi’s ability was very strong, but he also had a good understanding of it. As long as he didn’t touch the ground, he wouldn’t be pulled to the ground by the woman’s invisible hands, losing all his senses.
“If you’ve got the balls then don’t come down, kiddo.” Sister Qi said.
“If you’ve got the balls, then stay here and watch me,” Ning Gu retorted. “Beauty.”
“Tell me, what did you do wrong!!” Captain hollered.
The budding smile on Sister Qi’s face got swallowed by the fright caused by this holler, and she even coughed for a bit from the shock.
“I shouldn’t have sneaked into the Main City in secret,” Ning Gu promptly got back to the main point.
“Where did you go? Did you bump into anyone?” Lin Fan asked.
This man never smiled, not allowing even a single expression on his face. Ning Gu always found his age the hardest to guess from his appearance among the still-living people from the first generation of Travellers—perhaps because he ceased to use expressions so long ago that no wrinkles had a chance to form on his face.
Ning Gu feared him even more than Captain.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Captain was like a sledgehammer that would make a sound when swung, so you had a choice whether to take it on or escape it. Meanwhile, Lin Fan was like a fine metal wire sweeping over in the dark, one you wouldn’t be able to detect before it cut you in half.
“P pera kjixfv atgff ragffar lc atf Zjlc Jlas, atfc fcafgfv j gec-vbkc yelivlcu ab riffq obg j wbwfca,” Rlcu Xe gfwjlcfv rerqfcvfv ecvfg atf mflilcu jcv jcrkfgfv ageatoeiis, “P fcafgfv j rtbq, abbx j mbja—atf bcf bc wf gluta cbk—atfc obiibkfv Ljwwfg tfgf jcv yewqfv lcab Oljc Jtejc jcv tlr mja bc beg kjs.”
Upon hearing the last part, everyone in the room raised their heads to look at him.
“I was scared to death! He shot me twice in my leg! It hurt so much that I almost fainted, and he also stole my pouch,” Ning Gu took this chance to gain some sympathy, “If we hadn’t run so fast…”
“You ran faster than Lian Chuan?” Li Xiang could help but ask, “Did Hammer run faster than him too?”
“Can’t we run faster than him?” Ning Gu pondered, “It seemed like he didn’t chase after us.”
“Are you sure you’re telling the truth?” Captain stared at him, “If what Hammer says doesn’t match your story when he returns, I will throw you into the Tongue Bay.”
“It’s the truth.” Ning Gu said.
Everything he had said was indeed true. However, he didn’t tell them the entire truth.
Ning Gu had grown up in the Ghost City under Captain’s care, but he always wandered aimlessly, causing trouble left and right. With a scuffle every three days and a huge brawl every five, he was well aware that the Travellers weren’t necessarily a kind and pitiful bunch of escapees.
Escape they did, but those who managed to flee to a place like the Ghost City and survive weren’t typically kind or pitiful—those qualities had already been eradicated in the Main City years ago.
So, the suitcase Captain left behind, his weird dream, Lian Chuan’s weird behaviour that let him escape, and even the little glowing cube that he had been robbed off—from Ning Gu’s perspective, there were things he could only share with Captain himself, while some of it he wouldn’t even tell him.
Also, he’d better give Hammer a beating to make sure he never spills the beans.
“You’re staying here,” Captain said, “You’re not going anywhere. When it’s time, you’ll return with us.”
“I’ve already come all the way here…” Ning Gu held onto the iron rod, unwilling to give in.
“You’ve already come all the way here,” Captain glared at him, “If something happens, you won’t be whining about it as a corpse!”
“Just have Li Xiang follow me.” Ning Gu suggested.
“Why should he follow you?! Who do you think you are!”
“I’ll follow him,” Li Xiang said,” If he stays here, then I need to watch over him, and we’ve already had someone come after us.”
“Who did you encounter?” Lin Fan inquired, “Tell the truth. And I mean after you arrived here.”
“I ran into a bunch of lunatics who attacked me,” Ning Gu explained “Li Xiang should’ve seen it, right? I encountered them as soon as I came out.”
“Where did you come out from?” Lin Fan followed up.
“I left from that dark room,” Ning Gu glanced up at the cracks in the ceiling above his head, “There was no red light like this seeping through…”
“Poet?” Lin Fan muttered.
“Hm?” Ning Gu paused, not sure what he was saying; only later he realised that Lin Fan was speaking to Li Xiang.
“I’m not sure,” Li Xiang responded plainly, “The ones who followed us were Jiu Yi’s squad of Black Rings.”
Lin Fan didn’t ask further questions.
Perhaps because they still had some purchases to make, or had other business to attend to, Captain, along with Li Fan and Sister Qi, all prepared to leave.
“You can get down now,” Sister Qi glanced at Ning Gu, who was still suspended in the air.
“No,” Ning Gu said, “I just like hanging.”
Sister Qi rolled her eyes at him and followed Captain out.
Now, only Li Xiang remained in the room. Ning Gu finally let go of the rod and jumped down, taking a closer look around the room. It was completely empty.
“What’s this room for?” He asked.
“It’s empty, it’s just a hole,” Li Xiang replied, “There’s a lot of rooms like this. When there’s something particularly confidential to trade, they use a place like this.”
“Oh… Let’s leave as well, we’ll roam around the places you know.”
“Who did you meet just now?” Li Xiang asked.
Ning Gu stared at him. After a long staredown, he leaned against the cave wall behind him and crossed his arms, “Take a guess?”
“The master of the Lost Valley isn’t the Bats, the Main City people or Travellers, and it definitely isn’t the vagabonds,” Li Xiang said, “The real master of the Lost Valley is Poet.”
“What is a Poet?” Ning Gu asked.
“A person.”
“Oh,” Ning Gu nodded. And here he thought that Poet was some kind of group, just like Travellers, “Then I haven’t seen Poet.”
Li Xiang’s expression was full of doubt, and Ning Gu didn’t really put much effort into this lie, but Li Xiang didn’t say anything. He only added, “When Poet appears, there’s no light around. I heard that those who heard him speak all got lost.”
Ning Gu went completely stiff. It didn’t matter for him if there was no light, but it wasn’t the case with the latter part. He still wanted to get back.
“Did you meet him?” Li Xiang asked again.
“It’s possible that I did,” Ning Gu said, “There was no light in that room.”
“Did he say anything?” Li Xiang continued his inquiry.
“No.” Ning Gu’s reply was simple, and he gave it without any hesitation.
Li Xiang seemed relieved for a moment, but he quickly frowned again, “But that’s the weird part.”
He didn’t know why it was weird, but Ning Gu chose to not believe him.
Li Xiang was a gentle man, the only person among Travellers he knew who had never shouted at him. However, Ning Gu had his own sense of what constituted ‘danger’. He currently had no way of making sure whatever Li Xiang told him about Poet was true, especially since he had never heard anyone mention this before. Therefore, for that moment, he could tentatively conclude that Li Xiang’s insinuation that it was ‘weird’ was an attempt to coax information from him.
“Where do you want to go?” Li Xiang asked.
“I’m looking for goggles for Nail,” Ning Gu said, “And I also want to find…”
“A picture?” Li Xiang cut in.
“Mhm,” Ning Gu nodded.
“You might not find it, I’ve never seen one here,” Li Xiang replied.
“Then I’ll just look for the goggles.” Ning Gu quickly cut down on his goal list.
“Let’s go,” Li Xiang walked out of the room.
When they passed through the central chamber, there were a whole lot of people around, so Ning Gu’s breathing became a bit hard to discern, but he could still hear his footsteps.
However, when he looked uneasily back, he discovered that within those mere dozen-or-so steps they took, Ning Gu had already disappeared.
“That rat bastard.” Li Xiang frowned and cursed under his breath.
.o0o.
A pair of goggles, even rimmed with red—simply magnificent. In the monotonously coloured Ghost City, the owner of such flashy goggles would definitely be a target for many attacks, the first one to get beaten in a fight, and the first one to get caught when fleeing.
Ning Gu picked up the goggles and looked at the person sitting in the corner, unsure if was asleep or awake. “Are these yours?”
“If you want them, then they’re mine.” The guy said.
“What do you want in exchange?” Ning Gu asked.
“What do you have?” That guy shifted and scratched his left leg with his right foot.
Ning Gu searched through his pockets but found nothing on him at the moment. He originally had some things to trade in his pouch, but he didn’t know where it was after Lian Chuan took it. Ning Gu didn’t know whether it’d be handed over to some authorities, but if he had a chance to encounter Lian Chuan again, he would definitely make him compensate for it. Those were all his precious treasures.
“Clothes,” Ning Gu showed off the stolen coat he was wearing.
That person didn’t speak, only reaching his hand out. Ning Gu took off the coat and tossed it over to him. The guy caught the coat, shook it, and waved at Ning Gu.
Ning Gu happily hung the goggles on his leg. It was his first time making a transaction with someone outside of the Ghost City, and he surprisingly enjoyed it quite a lot.
It was as if a small window opened before him—however, even though the view on the other side wasn’t particularly pretty, and even though it was still a similar pile of garbage, it was still at least a pile of garbage he hadn’t seen before.
When he left the small room, he looked around in all directions but didn’t spot Li Xiang or the Black Rings.
Shaking Li Xiang off wasn’t anything particularly difficult; he had shaken off over a hundred people in his lifetime, if not five hundred.
And if it wasn’t over five hundred, it was still certainly over a hundred.
However, it wouldn’t be too difficult for Li Xiang to find him again, as he only dared to roam around the few criss-crossing tunnels and halls at the end of the tunnels that Hammer had pointed out for him. He needed to find him before Li Xiang to make sure he didn’t spill anything.
After strolling around aimlessly for a while, Ning Gu finally realised why Hammer would only go to those few places every time. This couple of tunnels were all very long with a lot of turns, and aside from the caves at the end of them, there were also some smaller caves in the middle. There were people in all of them, as well as all kinds of interesting things.
Books written entirely in symbols, wooden bowls, dice that were allegedly made with polished bones of ancient rare beasts, an hourglass with tiny gears… as well as stuff Ning Gu couldn’t guess the nature of. Some of the things for trade were heaped on the tables, some were spread on the ground, and some were hanging around the owner’s entire body.
Ning Gu stopped in front of a black iron table. There was a lot of stuff on it, piled together in one big mess. According to the first, in his experience, principle of trading in the Ghost City—anyone who could put so many goods and be so hands-off with it was definitely very impressive, and most of the time would be one hell of a swindler.
And according to the second one, which Ning Gu didn’t know whether it applied here—the more eye-catching the placing of the item, the less it was worth. Those were the ones the seller couldn’t get rid of, and waited for some dumbass to catch sight of it and make a trade. That’s why when he looked more to the side, he quickly saw a dark-green metal ball. It was small enough to fit in the mouth and not very smooth, with a lot of small indents on its surface left by someone trying to bite or smash it.
He couldn’t guess what it was for, but aside from the defence and fight gear, Ning Gu liked those useless but colourful and interesting-looking things.
“What is it?” Ning Gu asked.
“It’s the secret key from legends.” The owner moved to the front of him and said mysteriously.
He only had one eye left, with a steelwork flower painted yellow in the place of the other one in his other eye socket.
Ning Gu never believed in any secret keys, or any ‘secret’ trinkets used to swindle people off.
“It’s hidden inside,” Yellow Flower Eye signalled him to shake that little ball, “Only a destined one can open it. And if you manage to open it, it means that you’re the Saviour.”
Ning Gu shook the ball; it was indeed empty, with something rattling inside when he moved it. It also felt like metal to touch, so it could be just some steel ball of little value.
“I no longer remember how many times I traded it back and forth, but until now, no one managed to open it. You probably also won’t be able to do so either. However, if you fail, you can just come back with it to trade it, but the price will change,” Yellow Flower Eye watched him with his arms crossed, “I haven’t seen you before. First time here?”
Ning Gu glanced at him without a word, holding the small ball in his hand, gently shaking it and giving it an occasional squeeze.
“Are you buying?” Yellow Flower Eye asked.
“Not buying,” Ning Gu placed the ball back on the table, “You’re profiting from the price difference with those trade-backs, aren’t you?”
“Beat it.” Yellow Flower Eye pointed finger at him.
Ning Gu chuckled, put his hands into pockets, rocked on his heels, and left.
After taking just a few steps, someone bumped into his shoulder. As he turned to scold them, he realised it was Hammer, wearing a half of an iron helmet with a spike on top.
“What the hell is it?” Ning Gu asked, “Was this piece of junk really worth trading for?”
“Did Captain find you?” Hammer asked, “As for this one, I just picked it up.”
“Li Xiang found me,” Ning Gu looked around, “Today we entered the Main City, ran through three streets, took a nap, stole a coat, bumped into Lian Chuan, who gave us a beating, then fled into the Lost Valley before you left me behind and ran off—got it?”
“I didn’t leave you behind; I wanted you to run with me, but you didn’t keep up!” Hammer explained anxiously.
“Got it?” Ning Gu glared at him.
“Got it.” Hammer quickly responded.
“Let’s find a place with fewer people,” Ning Gu said, “We’ll wait for Li Xiang to come looking for us.”
“Then…” Hammer raised his hand to point the way when suddenly, a commotion erupted behind them.
“It’s him!” Yellow Flower Eye stood on the table, stepping on a pile of merchandise and pointing in their direction, shouting, “He took the key—!”
Everyone around looked in their direction.
“What key?” Hammer quickly turned to look at him, causing the helmet on his head to make a half-spin along with the movement.
“Run.” Ning Gu grabbed the spike on top of the helmet to pull it off Hammer’s head, then flung it straight at Yellow Flower Eye before turning to flee.
“Right!” Hammer reminded him in a hushed voice from behind.
To the right were several piles of goods on the ground; they didn’t have enough time to run around them, so Ning Gu simply leaped over them, stepping on the jumbled items as he ran past.
“Catch them!” Immediately, a mob of people shouting, cursing and throwing things formed. With all of them appearing from who knows where, they already pursued closely behind Ning Gu and Hammer as they just entered the tunnel.
“Don’t follow me!” Ning Gu grabbed whatever he could reach and hurled it behind him, yelling as he ran, “They’re only after me!”
“Bullshit, I’m already following you!” Hammer was behind, clutching his head for protection, “Quick! Get out and turn left, there’s a staircase!”
“Where to!?”
“The Main City! Where else can we go at this point!?” Hammer yelled.
Even amid the chaos, Ning Gu could still distinguish the hits on his back, butt, and legs, he wasn’t just sure about the nature of the things thrown at him. The back of his head also seemed to be struck by a rush of air, making him a bit dizzy.
It seemed like there really were Travellers who had stayed here, and they no longer sympathised with the folks from the Ghost City.
If it weren’t for the exit being close, he and Hammer might not have been able to endure the beating amidst the brawl until Li Xiang and Captain came looking for them.
As he ran up the stairs, Ning Gu reached back to grab Hammer’s arm, and then yanked him forward, pushing him ahead.
When Hammer couldn’t use his ability, he was just a useless youngster, not even as useful as Nail. If he stayed at the rear, he probably wouldn’t be able to make it up the stairs, so it was better to let him go first. As long as he had solid ground beneath his feet, Hammer would be a formidable ally once again.
When Ning Gu saw Hammer rushing out of the exit, he turned around and kicked one of the nearest attackers in the face.
It had to be said that most of the modified Bats were quite agile. Kicking down two of them didn’t stop the few Bats from quickly rushing to the exit. He sprinted forward a few steps, breathing a sigh of relief the moment he stepped on the solid ground of the Main City. Then he saw Hammer bending down, reaching out his hands to the ground.
But before Hammer could unleash his power, a low mechanical noise suddenly came from behind. When he turned his head, a strong beam of light shot out from beside the exit.
Amid the intense blow of air and the burst of flying black debris, a deep gash appeared in the ground. The people chasing after them had no chance to emerge from the exit before the shockwave sent them all back into the tunnel. Among the debris, the sharpest of the fragments hit their targets with a sharp whistle, causing the Bats to shriek in pain.
Ning Gu got swept back by the air. As he crawled up from the ground, he finally saw the perpetrator of this explosive scene.
Not even five metres away.
Lian Chuan had disembarked from his vehicle.
This scene looked so familiar. Black uniform, silver mechanical exoskeleton, a gun gleaming with blue light, its muzzle already aimed at them, and the cold, ruthless face behind it.
The caracal had definitely cut off their escape route.
Main City’s cleanup squad, you are already locked in—any move will be the reason for me to open fire.
If this phrase was a part of the procedure Lian Chuan had to keep, it meant they still had around five seconds.
But before this thought could fully form, Ning Gu learned that his understanding of Lian Chuan’s reputation for murdering people without as much as batting an eye was far too shallow.
Without saying a word, Lian Chuan’s gun activated, emitting a dark blue glow throughout.
Author’s note:
To be fair, I checked the duration of this phrase with a stopwatch in my hand to see if it really takes five seconds to say, and it was pretty close. Seems like our dear friend Ning Gu is quite good with his estimations.
Translator’s note:
I’m not saying anything, but… Li Xiang is so mother-coded. And how Ning Gu and Hammer will get away this time, I wonder… ʘ ∇ ʘ
