Chapter 273

The emergency light flickered on with a 'pop', its eerie blue glow casting a ghostly pall over the cramped space.

The communication device emitted a sharp burst of static, and that cold, icy male voice emerged once more:

"Target locked, preparing for clearance."

Lin Yu yanked the power cord from the device, but this time, it was completely useless.

The speaker continued to blare: "Residual data of Xu Jianhua detected, currently triangulating physical location."

"Damn it!" Lin Yu kicked open a hidden handle beside the storage cabinet, revealing a pitch-black, narrow passage. "Retreat! Take the chip and the gear, dump everything else!"

Xu Xiaochuan swiftly pulled out the chip, grabbed the handgun from the table, and shoved it into his waistband.

Xuanyuan Qing picked up the medical kit with one hand and dove into the passage right behind them.

Lin Yu was the last to leave; he fumbled at the entrance to press a red button: "Self-destruct sequence initiated, countdown three minutes."

The passage was incredibly narrow, forcing them to walk sideways; the walls were rough and cold.

The three of them scrambled forward by the faint emergency light, the sound of electronic components sizzling and a faint, acrid smell of burning drifting from behind.

Lin Yu's voice was kept very low, bouncing off the narrow walls: "The Ouroboros has its eyes on us; it won't let go. That thing can mobilize surveillance across the entire city; it's like it has countless eyes—there's nowhere to hide."

Xu Xiaochuan ducked under a rusted pipe overhead, the choking dust making him cough a few times, his heavy, ragged breathing echoing in the passage.

"Why are they so hell-bent on killing us?"

"We know too much." Lin Yu's voice carried a chill. "The observatory, Xiao Ya… those matters are kept under tight wraps by those above. The Ouroboros is just a watchdog; it bites whoever tries to lift the lid, and it won't stop until they're dead."

The passage branched ahead, deep and dark.

Lin Yu didn't even hesitate, pointing to the left: "Go this way, it leads to an abandoned subway line that can dump us near the outskirts."

Xuanyuan Qing's breathing was erratic, aggravating the injury on her arm; she drew in a sharp breath: "That broken communicator is still sending signals; it's calculating where we're running. By analyzing the safe house and this passage, it can guess our route."

No sooner had she spoken than the skin on Xu Xiaochuan's back suddenly felt a sharp, needle-like pain.

The receiver mark had been dormant, but now it was burning hot, and the sensation of something crawling beneath his skin became increasingly vivid.

"It's scanning us…" his voice tightened. "Same as it was back with the Zero Machine."

"Move fast!" Lin Yu urged. "The exit is right ahead!"

At the end of the passage was indeed a rusted iron ladder leading to the surface.

Lin Yu climbed up in a few quick movements, poked his head out to look, and then signaled to those below.

Xuanyuan Qing grabbed the iron ladder with one hand, gritting her teeth as she climbed, with Xu Xiaochuan pushing her from behind.

The moment the three of them emerged from the ground, a dull, massive boom erupted from the direction of the safe house behind them.

The ground beneath their feet shook, and a smell of damp earth mixed with gunpowder surged from underground.

"It blew," Lin Yu exhaled. "Hopefully, that buys us some time."

They were now standing in an abandoned alleyway, flanked by mottled, peeling walls piled high with all sorts of trash, exuding a damp, musty odor.

The rain had stopped, and the moonlight was deathly pale, casting the surroundings into a deathly silence.

In the distance, the lights of Si Jiu City were brilliant, a completely different world from this place.

"Where is the observatory?" Xu Xiaochuan asked, gasping for air.

Lin Yu tilted his chin toward the dark silhouette of the mountains in the distance: "Over there. It doesn't look far, but it's at least twenty kilometers on foot. And we have to bypass the cameras on the main roads."

Xuanyuan Qing leaned against the cold wall, her complexion even worse: "We need to find a vehicle, or we won't make it."

Xu Xiaochuan looked around; a few broken motorcycles were parked crookedly at the end of the alley, covered in thick dust.

"Can those things be ridden?"

Lin Yu walked over, kicked one, and twisted the handlebars: "Two of them look okay, but they'll definitely make a lot of noise, which could easily attract trouble."

"Better than running on two legs," Xuanyuan Qing said weakly.

Lin Yu didn't hesitate further: "You ride one, I'll take Xuanyuan Qing. I'll take the lead, you follow close, don't fall behind."

Xu Xiaochuan had just straddled one of the dust-covered motorcycles when his hand subconsciously reached into his pocket and touched that small chip.

He pulled the chip out and examined it over and over in the moonlight.

The charred edges still felt slightly warm to the touch.

"What's wrong?" Lin Yu had already started the other bike, the engine emitting a roar like a tractor.

"This chip…" Xu Xiaochuan frowned tightly. "It's burnt all wrong. Not from the high heat of an explosion, more like… energy overload. It feels the same as when the receiver on my back gets hot."

Xuanyuan Qing leaned over to take a look: "It looks like it was used to transmit some… massive amount of energy."

"Talk on the road! Let's go!" Lin Yu roared.

The two broken motorcycles let out roars like death throes, jolting as they charged out of the alley, following the potholed, abandoned path, and plunged into the night and mountain shadows of the Si Jiu City outskirts.

Xu Xiaochuan rode the bike, the cold wind pouring into his tattered clothes, making him shiver uncontrollably.

His mind was a chaotic mess.

Xiao Ya's crying, the Ouroboros's pursuit, the safe house and secrets left behind by his old man, and those hair-raising data points from the Zero Machine…

All clues pointed to one place—that abandoned observatory.

Thirty years of secrets, the imprisoned girl… the truth was right there.

The night wind scraped against his face, his skin numb and stinging like needle pricks.

The broken motorcycle jolted on the potholed path as if it were about to fall apart; Xu Xiaochuan gripped the handlebars for dear life, feeling as if his internal organs were about to be shaken out.

Lin Yu was in front, his bike's silhouette blurred, carrying Xuanyuan Qing, his speed not dropping in the slightest.

Xuanyuan Qing's hair whipped wildly in the wind, her expression unclear, but Xu Xiaochuan could imagine her face, pale with pain.

"Left!" Lin Yu let out a low roar, the front of his bike swerving violently as he turned onto a dirt road so narrow it could only accommodate one vehicle.

Xu Xiaochuan scrambled to follow, his tires grazing the stones on the roadside with a screech, nearly flipping the bike.

"What's wrong?" he shouted against the wind.

"Surveillance! The main road ahead is full of eyes!" Lin Yu's voice was distorted by the wind. "That dog of an 'Ouroboros' has already blocked the road!"

The dirt road was even bumpier; it wasn't a road at all, but something seemingly trampled out by wild beasts. The weeds on both sides were taller than a person, and dead branches whipped against them from time to time, leaving stinging welts.

The moonlight was deathly pale, casting the road ahead into a gray haze.

Suddenly, the skin on Xu Xiaochuan's back twitched violently, a piercing pain as if someone were pressing a red-hot branding iron against it. The dormant receiver mark was now terrifyingly hot, and something was crawling beneath his skin.

He let out a muffled groan, the handlebars swerving, nearly crashing into the bushes nearby.

"Uncle Lin! My back… it hurts!"

Lin Yu slammed on the brakes, the tires carving two deep grooves in the mud, and turned his head to look at him.

"That thing… is it ringing again?"