Chapter 343: Where Are We?!

"Lin Brother, what the hell is going on here?" asked Shi Di, looking disheveled.

Not just him—Mo Nika, Qian Dele, and the others had all been fighting side by side just moments ago; they all knew the strange serpent hadn't died, so why had its dark mark disappeared?

Lin Xian took a deep breath and explained outright how the Silver Dragon 100, 00 Errors, a calamity plant, had suddenly descended like a god to alter heaven and earth for them.

"I'm not sure about the current situation, but if we aren't attacked for a while, it means those strange entities can't detect us in our silent state… we're temporarily invisible right under their noses."

"That's that weird?"

"Another calamity plant…" Qian Dele's eyes lit up at once: "Sounds even more miraculous than psychic abilities. I heard calamity plants only grow in the Star Abyss and the Eternal Night—I'm tempted to get a couple to study."

Mo Nika's eyes gleamed as she spoke up: "Before I reached Xilan City, I saw a convoy with a calamity plant that could accelerate cellular division in a radius, greatly speeding up wound recovery and psychic evolution."

"Because of that thing, the convoy was targeted by the Descent Sect and ran into a lot of trouble—now it seems the whole team was taken over by the Phoenix Society…"

"So the Phoenix Society took the calamity plant too?" Xiang Ningjing said.

Lin Xian frowned slightly at this and looked at Mo Nika.

Mo Nika shrugged: "Of course they took it. The Phoenix Society is now heavily focused on calamity plant research—but they didn't just seize it outright. The entire convoy was taken by the Nightwalkers to the Phoenix City headquarters. At least until the end of the world, they won't have to wander around like us."

Lin Xian admitted: "This calamity plant was given to me by a friend's convoy. It did nothing all along the way—never expected it would save my life at the critical moment."

Shi Di looked at Lin Xian: "Lin younger brother, a calamity plant that erases dark marks—officials would definitely want to study this if they found out."

Shi Di didn't hide his meaning, and Lin Xian understood it clearly—he just said: "Heh, if the authorities could rescue us from here right now, I'd be overjoyed. If they could use something like my Hell Black Chrysanthemum to find a way to eliminate dark marks, it would benefit all humanity."

Back in Xilan City, he'd worried about this very issue—the Hell Black Chrysanthemum held enormous research value for the Phoenix Society—but because of its connection to dark marks and because his old friend Wei Kexue was involved, Lin Xian hadn't kept it secret.

According to Chen Sixuan, after the Xilan City battle, Zhao Yu, Wen Zhuo, and the other Phoenix Society members never mentioned it. Lin Xian guessed that from the Phoenix Society's research perspective, the Hell Black Chrysanthemum's properties had already been discovered, making further study unnecessary. But if they learned it could convert dark energy to enhance psychic abilities, Lin Xian might have had to negotiate with the Phoenix Society's authorities.

But that's all future talk. From Mo Nika's words, it was clear calamity plants with strange properties weren't unique to Lin Xian—other convoys, including the Federation and the Phoenix Society, must have them too.

After so long, the Silver Dragon 100, 00 Errors had only bloomed one bud—and no one knew if it would ever bloom a second. Its true value remained uncertain, but he was stunned by this life-saving miracle. If he could control it, combined with his own Hetero-Cube, it would be like possessing an immortality card—absolutely a priceless treasure.

"Captain Lin, does this mean we're trapped here?"

Zhou Hongqu of the Red Rose Convoy looked tense. She understood the convoy might be temporarily safe, but with so many people stranded in this dark forest, with no tracks and no sign of dawn, this situation was inevitably a dead end.

"Yes."

Lin Xian didn't hide it—he was utterly exhausted. The second time he tried to activate the gravitational lens, it nearly shattered his body. He was still standing here talking to everyone only through sheer willpower.

"I don't know how long this state will last. Either way, let's quickly clean up the battlefield and wait it out. Every extra minute of breathing room counts. That giant snake is definitely nearby—it could attack us at any moment…"

Lin Xian had no confidence in the current situation. He didn't know how long this fragile silence would last, and his nerves remained taut.

Shi Di's expression darkened: "Everyone, return to your convoys and rest. We've suffered heavy losses—having a chance to catch our breath is better than nothing. Just… stay ready for battle at all times!"

In this dark forest, no one felt safe. After a brief meeting among the convoy leaders, everyone immediately returned to their trains, seizing this precious opportunity to clean up the wreckage—all communication handled via communicators.

As the main force began moving, Lin Xian surveyed the entire train line. Under the carriage lights, shadows moved everywhere; the air reeked of blood and burnt flesh.

Outside the camp lay many dead bodies. The worst stretch was the temporary escape route from Heihu Lake to the frontline—hundreds of faces, alive just two hours ago, now lifeless. In the dark marsh, the dead slowly sank into the mud; in the forest, eerie black shadows dragged away cold corpses.

No one dared leave the camp to retrieve weapons or supplies from fallen comrades. Everyone stayed within the train camp, catching their breath after the terror.

On the outer trains, survivors peered through the windows at the pitch-black, dead forest beyond. Faint, eerie whispers could be heard; distant mountains still twisted and surged, the sky a strange deep blue.

At this moment, all convoys quietly cleared the battlefield. Those with medical equipment lined up to treat the wounded; core members counted personnel and ammunition; engineering teams urgently repaired the trains; combat units rapidly reloaded vehicle weapons. Some whispered quietly; others sat in silent grief. The fates of over three thousand people in the convoy camp were now bound together, huddled tightly in this nightmarish forest.

At the start, the Infinite Train, equipped with the Hetero-Cube, had suffered the least from the dark invasion and reacted first. Lin Xian didn't understand why the Hetero-Cube, originally meant to shield only the carriage, had expanded its barrier so drastically—but thanks to this divine artifact, the Infinite Train avoided corruption, and with its automated firepower, Lin Xian's team became the only convoy with zero casualties.

Lin Xian returned to the Infinite Train. In Carriage 2, team members were reporting conditions from other carriages. He removed his power armor, sat in the corner, opened the blackout panel, and stared out at the pitch-black forest, his face cold.

"We've got seven injured here—not serious."

"I've got about ten too, roughly the same—all wounded. Old Li lost one eye to those flying insects. The rest… are okay."

Liang Lei and Daliu's assault teams were core firepower of the Infinite Train, all armed with Lin Xian's finest weapons and powered armor. Yet even so, four sets of armor were destroyed, and many more were malfunctioning.

"We've exhausted all 1130 rounds, and several arc pulse string Zhen ers are fried—but thank god our armor held up," said Luo Yang, still in his power armor. "I've already deployed surveillance sensors outside. Combined with our Sentry System, we'll know instantly if anything moves."

"All we can do is watch—we can't fire now," Kiki said, typing rapidly on her keyboard while checking train status. "Only the track electromagnetic cannon still works. Everything else is out of ammo…"

Shu Qin, exhausted from the all-night battle, noticed the gloomy mood and offered comfort: "We've survived this long already—it's lucky. Before, we could still flee. Now even the tracks are gone. If not for Captain Lin, we wouldn't have made it through these two hours."

"Yeah, think positively—we've survived the Eternal Night. As long as we're alive, there's always a way out!" Li Yi responded enthusiastically.

"So… what's our plan now?" Kiki turned in her chair to face Lin Xian. All eyes turned to him.

Lin Xian shook his head and took a deep breath: "I have no ideas yet. Mainly because we don't even know where we are."

He glanced at his watch, where the compass spun chaotically, and said gravely: "Not just direction—communication pressure is severe. Without train relay devices, communicators lose signal beyond one kilometer. Radios are all down…"

This situation was the most unsolvable Lin Xian had faced since launching his Infinite Train project from Jiang City. This wasn't just a track derailment—it was as if the entire train had been mysteriously transported into this remote wilderness. Even if Lin Xian could build tracks, he had no starting point.

The only idea he could think of was Qian Dele's earlier suggestion: use two all-terrain trains and other vehicles. Lin Xian could devour the trains to produce more vehicles, perhaps evacuating more people.

But in his view, this was the worst possible plan. Without 1130 rounds or electromagnetic cannons, running blindly through this deep forest with so many people was suicide.

So for now, Lin Xian had no clear plan.

Shu Qin, hearing Lin Xian's words, frowned tightly: "Back in the Eternal Night, we could still tell direction. Here, there are no road signs, no one recognizes this lake or these mountains—we don't even know where we are. Could we really be inside the Star Abyss?"

"Wait!" Kiki suddenly spun around to Lin Xian: "When that flash of daylight happened, didn't we see the sunset direction? At least we can tell east, south, west, north!"

"And then what?" Lin Xian looked at her. "Without knowing the exact direction, how do we know which way leads away from the Star Abyss center?"

At this, everyone fell silent.

Then Chen Sixuan walked in, her expression serious: "Figuring out where we are isn't hard!"

She had just finished tidying the rear carriage and now spoke directly to Kiki and Lin Xian: "Kiki, you forgot our Sentry System has surveillance footage. Pull it up immediately—match the sunset point and time to determine direction, then compare the radar-scanned terrain features with our global topographic map. That's how we find our location."

Chen Sixuan's words immediately drew attention. Lin Xian's expression sharpened—he couldn't help exclaiming: "Brilliant, Chen Laoshi!"

"But this terrain looks ordinary—global matching won't be easy, right?" Li Yi asked.

"Not hard!"

At that moment, Ding Junyi walked into Carriage 2, hands in pockets, her face cold: "There are many auxiliary positioning methods. For example, due to the Coriolis effect, riverbanks on the southern side of the Northern Hemisphere erode more severely. Though these trees are dead, we can still identify them as Eucalyptus, Myrtaceae, Eucalyptus genus—large trees. Globally, they're most widespread in three regions: Coata State in North America, Blue Oceania, and… the Hengduan Mountains."

"Hengduan Mountains? Luling Great Forest?!" Luo Yang's eyes lit up: "So we're definitely inside Star Abyss No. 5!"

"Then it's simple!" Kiki immediately understood Chen Sixuan and Ding Junyi's intent. She began retrieving Sentry System footage and radar terrain scans, comparing them with original topographic maps.

"Pay attention to the mountain range to the west," Lu Xingchen said, arms crossed, a mysterious smile on his face: "I noticed—during that instant of dawn, that spot was completely empty."

"I saw it too," Chen Sixuan said. "That's not a mountain."

At this, the carriage's atmosphere tightened. Everyone understood what Chen Sixuan meant. Nearby, Shasha quietly cracked open the blackout panel a sliver, staring at the distant western mountain silhouette, her small face filled with dread: "Could that… be some kind of super monster…?"

Lin Xian pressed her head down. "Relax."

…

21: 0

Nightfall poured down like a churning pool of liquid asphalt through gaps in the canopy, drowning the entire forest in thick darkness. Only the sky solidified into a sickly deep blue. Fragments of a bay floated in the black void above the western horizon—this region no longer seemed like the real world.

After over an hour of continuous comparison by Kiki and others, Lin Xian's team finally confirmed their location.

Approximately 800 kilometers northeast of the center of Star Abyss No. 5, at the southwestern edge of the Hengduan Mountains, beside a swampy lake called Butuo Lake. Upon hearing the name, Lin Xian immediately recalled it—he'd seen it on a documentary about the "Bottomless Lake," a primordial deepwater lake hidden in the forest.

Lin Xian didn't know how the combined convoy had appeared here, over 4, 00 kilometers from the Akesai Desert Zone—but it confirmed the eerie experiences of Lao Mo and Hu Lushou.

After confirming their location, Chen Sixuan used the map to find the nearest railway line.

Baicheng.

A mountain city, swallowed by the Star Abyss since the Day of Revelation, located about 85 kilometers from the combined convoy's position.

From there, a direct track led to Haiqu, roughly a thousand kilometers to Luling.

Lin Xian stood before the information center, staring at the map, his expression complex. The good news: 85 kilometers wasn't far, and it lay east of the Star Abyss, mostly through forest with no extreme terrain—building a simple track might allow the combined convoy to reach Baicheng.

The Ocean Train and Parrot Train had been shattered; their commanders dead. Lin Xian ordered Shi Di to redistribute their survivors into other convoys, transfer all supplies, then prepare to devour these two trains for materials—recycling them en route would solve the material shortage.

But the bad news: they couldn't move. Lin Xian knew the Hetero-Cube's shielding mechanism blocked dark invasion forces, but it couldn't repel the dark marks emitted by strange entities. Their current safety came only from their silent state and the Hetero-Cube's isolation of this area's dark energy.

If they started building tracks, they'd have to enter the dark forest actively—creating noise and movement too slow to avoid detection. If even a Level 1 dark mark was applied, in the Star Abyss, it was a death sentence.

The emergency circular track line they'd hastily built earlier took two hours to complete with dual-track machines operating—and even then, the tracks were crude. Most sections had already sunk into unconsolidated humus soil. Their only function: preventing the trains from overturning.

So if Lin Xian wanted to extract the Infinite Train and the combined convoy from this forest, the difficulty was unimaginable.

In Carriage 2, Lin Xian opened the communicator and discussed with other convoy leaders. Shi Di immediately said: "Eighty-five kilometers—all deep wilderness. We'd be attacked for sure. Even in Yijin City, we only had twenty-some kilometers—and that was paved urban road…"

"Captain Lin, can't your mechanical ability replace the train wheels with tracks?" Qian Dele blurted out.

"No." Lin Xian replied immediately. "That's harder than building rails."

Lin Xian had considered this. The Mo Queen and Longshan No. 1 both had all-terrain drive modules—he'd scanned their blueprints. But manufacturing an all-terrain drive module was nearly equivalent to rebuilding the entire train.

Because the train's core was the traction engine and track drive wheels. Everything else was just a metal box.

In other words, if Lin Xian wanted to convert the Infinite Train into an all-terrain convoy, he'd have to replace everything except the steel carriages and nuclear power units—the Weilong-class, Huanxing 10A, and Whale 03E heavy gas turbine locomotives would all need to be rebuilt from scratch.

Setting aside the engineering difficulty and blueprints, just the materials alone would be a nightmare.

That's why his plan had always been to reach Jinhai—where the China Railway Group had massive train production lines—only there could he upgrade the trains to his Eternal-Class all-terrain standard.

Xiang Ningjing added: "Another problem: Baicheng was already swallowed by the Star Abyss on the Day of Revelation. Even if we reach it, will the tracks still be usable?"

"Yeah, who knows what's happening in the Star Abyss? We're already lucky to be alive," other convoy leaders said.

"So are we really going to abandon the trains and escape by car?"

"We have too many people. Cars aren't enough—we can't even carry a third."

"Why are we even here? Did anyone see anything?"

At this point, someone found the root of the problem.

"It must be connected to that statue in the Akesai Desert Zone," Shi Di said. "Wasn't there talk of a forbidden object? I bet that's what swallowed us."

"Can we find that object and use it to get us out?"

"Stop dreaming," Mo Nika said from the Mo Queen, exhausted, staring at the eerie night sky. "We're barely avoiding it—why would we go looking for it?"

"So we're just stuck here to die?" Shi Di said grimly.

In the Infinite Train's carriage, the atmosphere grew silent. The core members sat or stood, all at a loss.

"Don't panic yet."

Lin Xian picked up the communicator and spoke softly: "We've already faced worse than this. It can't get any worse. Panicking won't help. Inside the Star Abyss, every extra minute alive is a win. As long as we're not all dead and we still have bullets, there's always a way. So right now, each convoy should clean up, organize ammunition and weapons. Since those monsters haven't attacked us, let's rest—conserving energy is a valid strategy."

Upon hearing Lin Xian's words, the frantic arguments within the previous frequency band immediately slowed, and Shi Di promptly replied.

"Yeah, Brother Lin's right—it can't get worse than before. We've all died many times already; surviving under these conditions is a bonus. Let's just do what we must. I want to see if humans can even survive in the Star Abyss!"

"Alright then, let everyone contribute ideas. Speak up if you have any—looks like we're stuck here for a while," Qian Dele said with surprising calm.

Mo Nika added: "In this situation, should we turn off the lights and go silent?"

Lin Xian replied: "Try to. Just don't go beyond the train formation's perimeter. The train lights have been on since the start—if there were going to be problems, they'd have happened already."

Lin Xian no longer relied on common sense to judge the logic of these beings from the Dark World. A flower could explode into spatial bubbles; an Hetero-Cube could block dark incursions. Compared to light and sound, the dark markers were the most direct and lethal threat. The entire convoy had no markers at all—that was the critical point.

After speaking, he stood up. Chen Sixuan called out to him: "Lin Xian, how should we organize?"

"Keep all cars on alert and ready."

After assigning the groups, Lin Xian went to Car No. 3. Ding Junyi knew he would come and had already prepared all the observational data from the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Errors.

"After entering the polar night, its growth accelerated—and even more so after we were swallowed by the Star Abyss. But just now, during your battle, the bud's opening showed a bizarre growth curve. It seems influenced by some kind of energy."

Ding Junyi explained: "Yet strangely, when we were in Xilan City, there was no such obvious change."

Lin Xian frowned: "When I used the gravitational lens?"

Ding Junyi looked at him: "Your hypothesis is insightful. Your ability, on some level, does trigger spatial changes—similar in nature to the spatial bubbles released by the Silver Dragon Ten Thousand Errors."

Lin Xian stared at the plant whose roots glowed with purple luminescence, his expression grim: "Swallowed by the tide, the entire train appeared 4, 00 kilometers away in the Star Abyss region. Catastrophic flora, forbidden objects… these things from the Dark World truly mean to kill us humans…"

He turned to Ding Junyi: "By the way, have you re-established affinity with the catastrophic flora? Did you gain any similar abilities?"

Ding Junyi's face was pale as she spoke: "Unclear. This empathic connection puts a heavy burden on my body—I can't access that ability right now."

The small flower sprout atop her head had curled up and hidden within her black hair. Last time she did this, she collapsed into a coma. That she's still standing now—she didn't know if it was because her ability had improved, or because of the catastrophic flora.

【Non-mechanical energy converted. 1000 mechanical source points acquired.】

At that moment, a conversion notification suddenly popped up before Lin Xian's eyes—the Hell Black Chrysanthemum had absorbed vast quantities of black mist after the battle, and the Hetero-Cube had converted it into mechanical source points.

Lin Xian opened his Mechanical Heart panel and realized that since Akse, his Mechanical Heart's absorption and construction capabilities had both improved dramatically. But after the frantic escape and brutal battle, he'd had no time to check his status.

【Current Mechanical Heart Level: lv. (6340/20000)】

Mechanical Absorption: 4 (1960/2000) — Increased absorption efficiency

Mechanical Construction: 5 (1210/3000) — Increased construction efficiency

"Mechanical Absorption is about to level up… and Construction has improved so much—last time it was only 510…"

"My stamina's recovered a bit. Since we're stuck here, I might as well use this chance to absorb all the trains and the nuclear-powered locomotives—first boost materials and levels!"

In this dire situation, Lin Xian forced himself to find a course of action—he needed vast materials to upgrade the trains and manufacture ammunition!

(End of Chapter)