Chapter 22: The Destroyed Convoy

Beep, beep.

In Car 1, Lin Xian lay on a comfortable Simmons mattress, feeling the warm, soft body in his arms; after two sleepless nights, he finally got a good rest.

He checked the time: 14:00. Fortunately, the night had passed without incident.

Outside, it was still dark. Lin Xian had preset the time to observe the exact moment of dawn.

The night had been too long, and they had slept too long.

Chen Sixuan had already woken up, silent, and when she saw Lin Xian roll over and sit up, she quickly dressed herself, blushing, pulled up her pants, and whispered to him:

“It seems they’ve blocked the tracks with stones.”

Lin Xian pulled Chen Sixuan close and lightly kissed her lips, then said, “I know. I already took care of it before boarding.”

Chen Sixuan shyly slipped out of his arms, picked up the train logbook, and murmured to herself: “Including the distance from Yushan Station, we covered 54 kilometers yesterday. According to survivor reports, dawn should come before 17:00 today.”

After a night of passion, she now avoided his gaze as she spoke.

“Let’s wait and see.” Lin Xian glanced at his watch. “This distance might not show any noticeable change.”

“Mm.”

Since it was still pitch-black outside, they lowered their voices and ate some food and water.

Leaning against the aisle, Lin Xian pressed one hand against the floor to sense conditions outside the train, and also checked his injuries—just as he’d expected, they were healing remarkably fast.

An adept’s body had already diverged fundamentally from an ordinary person’s. Meanwhile, after yesterday’s life-or-death struggle with Liu Wei, Lin Xian’s Wind Cannon skill had improved dramatically.

【Wind Cannon Lv.125/100】

【Ice Shield Lv.16/100】

In yesterday’s battle, Lin Xian felt he had truly fought with his life on the line. For the first time, he realized how ruthless and decisive he could be—how calmly he could act at critical moments. He even admired himself for possessing such composure.

Time passed second by second.

Lin Xian watched the numbers on his watch tick forward.

15:00. The sky hadn’t brightened.

16:00. Still no dawn.

The later it got, the faster they needed to escape.

But what Lin Xian feared most was that dawn hadn’t changed at all—that would be utterly hopeless.

The temperature had dropped to around 0°C. Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan had both put on long-sleeved clothes to keep warm. Fortunately, he had earlier scavenged a large stack of new cotton quilts and Simmons mattresses from a furniture store; otherwise, they’d have had to sleep on hard wooden boards in such freezing weather.

Just as the clock hit 16:48, a flash of light pierced the sky—the black curtain suddenly lifted, and slanting sunlight blazed above!

“Dawn’s here!” Chen Sixuan gasped, her eyes gleaming with joy.

According to the predicted time, dawn should have come at 17:00—but it arrived twelve minutes early!

Lin Xian opened the passage door and entered the cab with Chen Sixuan. Both stared at the sunlight outside, their eyes filled with both relief and unease.

Relief: dawn had come twelve minutes earlier than expected. Though not much, it proved they were escaping the polar night.

Unease: this small gain was negligible.

Chen Sixuan recovered first, picked up the logbook, and began calculating:

“Dawn came twelve minutes early. If we only consider yesterday’s 54 kilometers, then to catch up to the 17:00 dawn time tomorrow, we’ll need to travel at least 270 kilometers!”

“About right.” Lin Xian nodded. “Matches what we heard on the radio. But don’t get too optimistic—we’re not traveling in a straight line, and covering 270 kilometers will take at least three hours unless we speed up.”

Hearing this, Chen Sixuan’s eyes dimmed again. “Yeah… we can’t go too fast either. There’s no telling if someone else will block the tracks with cars or stones again…”

In just two short days, they’d faced crisis after crisis, each one a brush with death. Thinking of it, Chen Sixuan grew deeply anxious.

Vrrrrm~

The ten-cylinder heavy gas turbine of the Infinite Train roared to life. Lin Xian took the driver’s seat and turned to Chen Sixuan. “Chen Laoshi, hold on tight.”

Chen Sixuan opened her mouth. Hearing him still call her “Teacher,” her heart fluttered with awkwardness and unease—they’d already…

Could he have some kind of fetish, enjoying this forbidden feeling?

Lin Xian had no idea what was going through Chen Sixuan’s mind. He started the train in reverse!

Watching the train retreat, Chen Sixuan’s expression turned startled.

“We’re going backward?”

“Yes.” Lin Xian said grimly. “We’re going back to Yushan Station.”

Liu Wei was dead. With night approaching, his convoy would descend into chaos without a leader. And without Liu Wei, an adept, the remaining armed thugs on the train were powerless against Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan.

He’d eliminated their leader. If he didn’t get something out of it, he felt he’d fought that battle for nothing.

Moreover, he now had a little more confidence—if they pushed hard, they could escape the polar night. For Lin Xian, who had survived for months, this was an undeniably positive sign.

Clank, clank~

Soon, the heavy locomotive slowly rolled back into the Yushan Station platform. The scene before them made Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan both go pale.

!

The platform was in ruins. The Oasis convoy had been completely overrun. The SUVs and Jeeps parked there were splattered with grotesque bloodstains; the platform floor was nearly crimson. Several members had turned black and become shambling corpses, moaning in place.

Chen Sixuan recognized one of the zombies—a middle-aged man who yesterday had worn glasses and pretended to be the father of a family of three.

In just one night, everyone had died.

“Ah~”

“Lin Xian, look!”

Chen Sixuan gasped and pointed toward the waiting hall. The small hall was almost entirely overrun—but what shocked them most were several insect-like legs scattered on the ground near the entrance.

Chen Sixuan’s face turned grim. “Oh my God… what kind of monster is this…?”

Lin Xian frowned. He remembered the insect shadow in Warehouse 14, and a chill ran down his spine.

He’d driven over fifty kilometers yesterday. Had that thing followed them?

About the strange insect and the white giant, Lin Xian had no clue. They appeared out of nowhere in the night and vanished at dawn. If not for those enormous legs right before him, who would believe such terrifying creatures had suddenly emerged into this world?

Lin Xian stopped the train, leaned against the window, and observed for a moment before speaking:

“Don’t worry. It’s daytime now. That thing won’t come out.”

He wanted to curse. He’d just begun considering nighttime movement—and reality slapped him hard.

If that thing was trailing him, how the hell was he supposed to move?

“Do we still go down?” Chen Sixuan asked.

“Yes.”

Lin Xian gritted his teeth. They’d come this far. Since the Oasis convoy was already destroyed, he might as well scavenge whatever supplies remained.

“Alright, I’ll go too.” Chen Sixuan clenched her fists, but Lin Xian raised a hand to stop her. “Wait. Let me go first. I’ll deal with those zombies before you come down.”

“Mm.” Chen Sixuan nodded obediently.

Lin Xian gripped his short knife, opened the cab’s door, and leapt out. The moment his feet hit the ground, he unleashed several Wind Cannons, blowing the heads off the zombies on the platform.

Though it cost him some energy, he didn’t want to alert anything else—Wind Cannon was silent, perfect for ambushes.

Thud, thud, thud~

The zombies collapsed one after another. Only then did Lin Xian notice the overwhelming stench of blood, making him frown.

The entire platform was riddled with bullet holes and scattered limbs—clearly, a brutal battle had taken place last night.

Lin Xian had seen the monster’s unnatural power. Ordinary firearms probably couldn’t inflict serious damage.

New book, please follow!

(End of Chapter)