Ning Gu couldn’t tell what was currently going on with Lian Chuan, whether he really died, lapsed into unconsciousness again, or perhaps was withholding on some big move.
However, he knew that as a subject, Lian Chuan seemed to be the most suitable type for the Irregularity Project’s requirements. His various physical attributes were exceptionally strong—his speed, strength, and endurance were all remarkable. Additionally, his mental resilience and senses were remarkable… But he lacked any abilities.
Therefore, he could probably rule out the possibility of him holding some significant move now.
Him being dead… also seemed unlikely.
Lian Chuan, being such a decisive and ruthless Hyena, would save someone if the gains outweighed the risk, But sacrificing himself for others, with nothing to gain for him… That didn’t seem very probable.
So, he must have lost unconsciousness again.
This meant Ning Gu had to hurry and save him before it was too late!
He glanced at Prosperity and the Black Ring on his side, unsure of their plans in this situation.
The Black Ring had told him they couldn’t speak, or they would risk awakening Poet.
They had already disembarked from the cart, and the golden light inside the black fog was reminiscent of Poet’s previous appearance, so even if he didn’t awaken yet, he could be halfway there already.
“Are we going there to snatch him?” He asked quietly.
Prosperity shushed him, placing a finger on his lips.
“We’re just watching?” Ning Gu mouthed, pointing to the cave.
One of the Black Rings jumped and climbed to the top of the closest stalagmite, and several others followed suit in silent agreement.
Only when he looked up did Ning Gu note that Jiu Yi’s little squad of Black Rings wasn’t all that small—calling them a medium or a big squad would be more appropriate. Many of them had silently climbed onto the stalagmites and surrounding cave walls, looking like some kind of inhuman organisms as they crept closer to the cave where Lian Chuan was suspended in the air.
Prosperity signalled for Ning Gu to follow him, walking out from below the Black Rings’ troops.
In the midst of the deathly silence, Ning Gu came to a stop beside the cave.
A couple of Black Rings hung upside down from above and gestured something to Prosperity, who then bumped Ning Gu’s shoulder and nodded towards the inside.
Ning Gu could more or less guess what he meant—they wanted him to go and get Lian Chuan down from there.
Then what were those Black Rings even there for? Showing the way? Pondering how a Traveller would rescue a Hyena from the cleanup team?
And how was he supposed to get Lian Chuan down?
He didn’t have spring legs of his own…
Prosperity and the Black Rings were all looking at him, which made him feel a bit embarrassed.
But Lian Chuan would probably be completely dead by the time those good-for-nothings thought of something, so he made up his mind to give it a try and employ his ability, despite it being even more temperamental than Jiu Yi.
Come on!
He stared at the black fog suffused with golden light, surrounding Lian Chuan’s body.
He stared at it intently.
Glared even.
“Go play in the crap.” He hissed hatefully through his teeth.
The Bats above turned their heads to him all at once, and Prosperity also looked at him with shock.
The black fog there didn’t show any change and still coiled around Lian Chuan, but now there was another strand of it piercing through his body.
Lian Chuan was going to get stabbed to death.
Although he wasn’t happy with it, Ning Gu immediately abandoned his plan to use his ability and looked up.
The two Bats hanging from above the cave waved at him—Ning Gu suddenly realised that they wanted to throw him in there.
Why didn’t you say so earlier!
Where did they get the confidence that a Traveller could have this level of understanding of Bats’ thoughts!
Ning Gu had no time to consider it. Prosperity had metal legs, and even though he didn’t know if they had springs, they should still help him get up there…
He reached to push on Prosperity’s shoulder and jumped, simultaneously kicking off him and launching himself into the air. As Prosperity’s legs buckled, there was a creak as they bent at a right angle.
So they weren’t actually spring-loaded…
As Ning Gu reached the highest point of his jump, the two Black Rings each caught his hands from their side and, with force, threw him into the cave.
Ning Gu opened his arms. During his flight, many thoughts raced through his mind—this is the most problematic part of having a brain; time slips by fast when you start thinking.
But his flight was too short, so he couldn’t think of any way to rescue Lian Chuan.
As he reached him, Ning Gu used the most brainless of the options.
He grabbed onto Lian Chuan, trying to pull him to the ground with his weight.
But to nobody’s surprise, it didn’t work.
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.
Leuulcu Oljc Jtejc, Rlcu Xe tecu lc atf jlg jibcu klat tlw.
Lbkfnfg tf delmxis mtfmxfv, jcv Oljc Jtejc kjr ralii jilnf—tf gfjiis tjvc’a vlfv.
Cr tf teuufv bcab Oljc Jtejc, afcr bo Dijmx Elcur wbnfv ja atf rjwf alwf jcv ilxf j rfj bo ajaafgfv mibat mjeuta lc atf klcv, jcv lcrajcais jii regufv lcab atf mjnf.
Then, silver streaks flashed within the black fog—their claws.
It looked like Black Rings were indeed worthy of being Jiu Yi’s personal guard; even their modifications were the same.
The black fog in the cave seemed to sense the sneak attack and began to change, continuously gathering and splitting apart, enveloping the golden light as it swept through the cave.
As the wisp of black fog coiled around Lian Chuan was about to pierce through him for the third time, one of the Black Rings bolted from behind, and dispersed it with a slash of his claws.
“Lian Chuan!” Ning Gu lacked strength to do anything. He yelled Lian Chuan’s name while holding onto him with his legs, patting all over his body but finding nothing that could possibly hold him in mid-air.
“Lian Chuan! Lian Dog!” Ning Gu hugged him tightly and pulled down with all he’s got. Lian Chuan’s body swayed along with him but didn’t drop.
“Wake up!” Ning Gu slapped Lian Chuan in the face, then once again yanked him down.
Lian Chuan’s trousers were just short of getting pulled down because of his wiggling, yet he still didn’t succeed.
It seemed like Poet wasn’t awake yet, that golden face was nowhere to be seen, but Black Rings couldn’t gain much advantage in a fight against this black fog—it would immediately reassemble mere moments after they dispersed it.
Ning Gu grit his teeth and forcefully pried open Lian Chuan’s closed eyelids, glaring at him, “Hey! Mutt!”
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the black fog swirling around and flying towards him from the diagonal, yet the Black Rings around him remained oblivious to the upcoming danger. Ning Gu didn’t even have a split second to hesitate about whether to let go and dodge it.
The black fog pierced through his back.
Suddenly, all the sounds around them vanished.
Slowly, the black fog dissipated.
It was as though even the cave itself was washing away.
In its place was a vast expanse of empty whiteness.
Although he couldn’t sense the light, it was dazzling wherever he looked.
Ning Gu frowned and shielded his eyes with his hand, only to notice that at some point, he had found himself standing on the ground, with Lian Chuan nowhere in sight.
“Where are you!” He shouted.
His voice sounded dry, as if sliced with a knife; all resonance and lingering tones beyond the syllables seemed to be absorbed by the air.
Those were Lian Chuan’s memories.
Ning Gu could immediately discern this state by now, as he had become quite adept at it.
He looked all around, and noticed a huge pillar of water swirling silently amidst the white expanse behind him.
In all his years, Ning Gu had never seen such a volume of water, let alone water that could maintain its form outside of a container.
And in the water, there was a person.
It was Lian Chuan.
This answer didn’t need any thought.
“Lian Chuan!” His voice still muted, Ning Gu shouted as walked over, attempting to reach into the water pillar and pull him out.
As his hand dipped into the water, he immediately felt a rush of stabbing pain, as if two hundred Black Rings’ claws pierced it simultaneously, followed by eight thousand hammer blows.
As Ning Gu hastily withdrew his hand, he heard voices speaking.
“Four subjects from the LC13 batch experienced pouring failure.”
“Was the reaction the same?”
“Yes.”
Ning Gu swiftly turned around, but he didn’t see anyone.
“Can we lower the precursor’s mental power any further?”
“No, the pain levels have already reached the critical point.”
Those were the voices from Lian Chuan’s memories, Ning Gu realised. Since his eyes were closed, Ning Gu couldn’t see those people either.
“Do we still have specimens?”
“Just the last two batches. We already did two today, and those from Irregular also want to do some on their side today too; they need to report the data.”
“Leave a batch for them, then make another one; let’s dispose of these.”
“Lost Valley refuses to take in any more.”
“It’s not up to them.”
“Batch LC14, prepare the specimens.”
As those words reached Ning Gu’s ears, he felt a great and genuine fear, as if he was about to face the pain he was acutely familiar with but had no way of escaping from.
He turned his head to look at Lian Chuan inside the water pillar.
No matter if it was reality, memory, or illusion… He gritted his teeth and swiftly plunged his hand into the water. The pain instantly shot through his arm and into his heart, leaving him no time to prepare; he felt his heart contract sharply.
Just as he was about to reach his limit, his fingertips brushed against Lian Chuan’s wrist.
He was about to grab it, but Lian Chuan’s hand suddenly moved and held onto his hand.
Ning Gu immediately tightened his grip and pulled him out.
Lian Chuan was pulled out of the water pillar, a powerful thrust sent them both flying into the air.
All Ning Gu could see was white.
It was impossible to discern up from down, left from right, and for a moment he didn’t even know which way was his head facing.
All he knew was that throughout it all, he was holding onto Lian Chuan’s hand tightly.
One of the reasons was his fear that Lian Chuan would be sucked back into the water pillar again, but another reason was that he simply didn’t want to endure that kind of pain with him again.
How unlucky he must be to have this kind of connection with someone like Lian Chuan, who seemed destined to suffer…
As his surroundings slowly became clearer and the white faded from his vision, the familiar black returned, followed by a dark-red light.
The disorientation he felt vanished, and Ning Gu finally regained his sense of reality.
Right now, he was being dragged headfirst, hurtling towards the depths of the pit.
Judging by its shape, they were already in Jiu Yi’s nest.
Then, he noticed that he was still holding onto something, and with a squeeze, he realised that it was a hand.
But it felt hard, as if made of metal.
He quickly glanced at it and realised that it belonged to Prosperity, holding onto his hand to hitch a ride down!
“What are you grabbing onto me for!” Ning Gu yelled, “Let go!”
“You broke my leg!” Prosperity yapped angrily, “How would I escape if I didn’t grab onto you! Was I supposed to jump?!”
Ning Gu saw the way his shank bent at a right angle and didn’t have the nerve to shake him off again.
But then he quickly remembered, “What about Lian Chuan! Did I manage to get him out?! I…”
“Here.” He heard Lian Chuan’s voice coming from the side.
Ning Gu turned his head and saw him tied with a rope around his waist by a Black Ring, also carried headfirst down alongside him.
“Got it.” Ning Gu sighed with relief and closed his eyes.
For Ning Gu, returning to Jiu Yi’s nest wasn’t as infuriating and upsetting as before, even when he got tied to an iron stake.
Regardless, if it weren’t for those Black Rings, he wouldn’t have been able to rescue Lian Chuan on his own, and he could have ended up endangering himself.
Lian Chuan was tied to the stake opposite to him. He appeared normal, with an expression that betrayed absolutely nothing about what he was thinking.
“Man’s out of danger, so let’s talk about the conditions,” Jiu Yi stood in front of him, his gaze bright, “As we agreed, Lian Chuan’s min-…”
“Enough with this bullshit.” Ning Gu interrupted him impatiently.
“I’m not talking bullshit.” Jiu Yi retorted.
“What, so it all went to your head?” Ning Gu asked, “You’ve got no brain so now it’s full of crap?”
“I lost four Black Rings, you know?” Jiu Yi stared at him.
“Lian Chuan’s mine,” Ning Gu said, “If you don’t keep your word, then I also won’t give you half of the Main City.”
Lian Chuan didn’t pay much attention to the delusional conversation between the two. He was trying to recall what had happened before, but his memory blank. He couldn’t remember anything.
After he threw Ning Gu into the cave, his memory only consisted of the sight of countless pointy stalagmites as he fell into the bottom of the pit, and then his next memory was of the present moment, when Ning Gu’s hand holding him got pried away by Black Rings.
“Did you not think about it?” Jiu Yi turned and walked towards Lian Chuan, still talking with Ning Gu with his head cocked, “Let’s cooperate. I’ll have a Bat modified from the most powerful Hyena, and you…”
Lian Chuan stood up, causing the ropes binding him to snap all at once, then he pushed Jiu Yi to the side, “Modify him.”
Jiu Yi was extremely shaken by how his meticulously crafted Refined Iron Bat Rope, which had bound countless people, seemed to do nothing more than a mere strap for Lian Chuan.
He looked back at Ning Gu.
Ning Gu wasn’t as surprised as him. When he saw Lian Chuan effortlessly stand up, he also moved his legs and prepared to get up, but the rope left deep marks on his body, so he went back to sitting.
“Just who do you think you are?” Jiu Yi glared at him.
“Lian Chuan!” Ning Gu ignored him and turned to Lian Chuan, “Is this how you treat your saviour?”
Lian Chuan walked over to him and gave the rope a tug. With a snap, it broke into several pieces.
“Kill them!” Jiu Yi waved his hands.
Ning Gu didn’t even get to smooth his clothes before Lian Chuan grabbed his arm and dashed forward for a run-up before a leap. After evading the attacks of two Bats, he threw Ning Gu into a cave.
“Ah.” Ning Gu dropped to the ground with a yelp. It kinda hurt. Usually, this kind of pain would be easily negligible for him, but now, it brought back memories from before.
“Get up,” Lian Chuan jumped into the cave as well. On the other side of the entrance was a small tunnel. As he walked towards it, he kicked Ning Gu on the leg, “Black Rings are fast.”
Ning Gu could only scramble to his feet and follow behind him into the tunnel.
The tunnels remained maze-like, and perhaps because they were close to Jiu Yi’s nest, there were hardly any people around. After passing three three passages and two chambers, Ning Gu asked, “Where are we going?”
“Don’t know.” Lian Chuan replied.
“You don’t know?” Ning Gu was taken aback, “Weren’t you able to draw a map?”
“I only know the road after walking it.”
“And you aren’t afraid of getting lost in the Lost Mist Ridge?”
“I’ve already returned.”
Ning Gu went dumbfounded for a moment there, then a realisation downed upon him, “The hole you got hung up in, that was the Lost Mist Ridge? One of the entrances to it?”
Lian Chuan looked around and entered one of the small caves.
“Was it?” Ning Gu followed him.
This cave was so small that at most three people could squeeze in, and they would all have to couch since standing straight was impossible.
Lian Chuan sat on the ground, leaning against the wall, “What did you see just now?”
“In your brain?” Ning Gu sat down too and whispered, “You didn’t feel it?”
“Everything was blank,” Lian Chuan said, “You have to tell me all the details.”
Ning Gu stared at him for a long moment, then chuckled, “You still haven’t thanked me.”
Lian Chuan watched him, remaining silent and expressionless.
“You really are no fun,” Ning Gu chuckled for a moment, but then he couldn’t keep laughing, so he leaned back, “I also only saw a blank. There was a big column of water, and you were sleeping inside it.”
“It was the lab,” Lian Chuan said.
“Mhm. Then, someone started talking, but I couldn’t see them.”
“What did they say?” Lian Chuan asked.
“You still haven’t thanked me.” Ning Gu insisted.
“Thank you.” Lian Chuan said.
“You’re being too pragmatic,” Ning Gu sighed, “But I still have a condition for telling you this. You need to tell me the meaning of what I heard.”
“Fine,” Lian Chuan agreed.
“They were probably conducting experiments. Someone was saying something about how four vessels failed the pouring,” Ning Gu tried to remember with a frown, “Another person asked if the reactions were similar, to which the reply was positive. Then, he gave an order to continue making another batch. But from what I understood, they were using Irregular Program’s resources, however later he said that they had to leave one batch for Irregulars…”
“Mn.” Lian Chuan made a quiet noise.
“Then they said to toss those failed ones into the Lost Valley,” Ning Gu was looking at him, “The Lost Valley was opposed, but it seemed like they were given no choice.”
“Got it.” Lian Chuan said.
Ning Gu continued watching him, but even after a long while, Lian Chuan didn’t explain anything.
“Hey,” He waved his hand before Lian Chuan’s eyes, “I still didn’t get it though?”
“There’s another program going on aside from the Irregularity Program, and they’re getting their resources from the Ghost City. This one is classified,” Lian Chuan explained, “Some details I can’t remember clearly; I only have fragmented memories…”
“Hold on,” Ning Gu leaned closer to him, “Where are their resources coming from?”
“The Ghost City,” Lian Chuan looked at him, “The Aborigines, and the Travellers.”
Ning Gu stared at him agape, then took a step back after a long while, pointing an accusatory finger at him, “You better speak the truth! You saved me, and I saved you, that’s a lifelong bond, so bringing up this kind of thing to stir up trouble is…”
“It’s usually either Captain or Li Xiang sending them over.” Lian Chuan continued.
“Bullshit!” Ning Gu hollered, his eyes bloodshot with fury, “I’m warning you! Any more of this crap and I’ll carry you back to that cave and surrender you to Poet!”
T/N:
Lucilla: I am. So sorry for going MIA for so long. Lately there was a lot of things going on in my life, which didn’t quite help with my recent burn-out, so I needed some time for myself. I will do my best to keep the updates regular, but please be patient with me ;;;
<3