Chapter 304: Wheel

"Ugh, my head hurts. Where am I?"

The air was filled with noisy clamor. Yun Mu opened her eyes, feeling only dizzy and lightheaded, her limbs unable to muster any strength.

One second before being struck by 【Heavenly Punishment】, she had pressed the button to equip the 【Reversing Pocket Watch】. According to the effect of the skill 【Timing】, the pocket watch would record her physical state at the moment she pressed the button.

As long as she pressed the button again within the next five minutes, no matter what had happened previously, her physical state would be restored to how it was when she first pressed it.

"Haa."

Exhaling softly, Yun Mu took out the pocket watch.

"Has it only been three minutes?"

Click.

Pressing the button on top of the pocket watch, the needle that had been reversing suddenly paused, then began to spin rapidly clockwise.

A strange aura enveloped her. For a moment, Yun Mu felt as if she were walking within a loop of time, but this sensation was fleeting. When she came to her senses, she discovered that all the injuries on her body had vanished.

Actually, at the very beginning, she had intended to put on the mask of the Apostle of Joy, so that even if she died, the mask would be able to resurrect her.

But the situation at the time was too urgent; before she could even put on the Mask, 【Heavenly Punishment】 had already landed behind her.

Fortunately, she had plenty of life-saving methods, whether it was the vitality stored within her Blood Core, the effect of blood-Qi conversion brought about by the 【Scarlet】 Qi Strength attribute, or the enhancement of all healing effects when her health was low. Of course, most importantly.

The impact point of that shell was the location of the last scrapped Flash Silver Tank; she was not at the very center of the explosion. "That was close," Yun Mu thought, still feeling a lingering fear.

I should go find Brenna. I hope the aftermath of that explosion didn't hurt her.

Although the warhead had detonated above the mountain and Brenna had the protection of her mecha and wasn't exactly close, three minutes had passed since the explosion ended, and the other party still hadn't come to find her.

This made Yun Mu feel a bit worried; could something have happened to Brenna?

She expanded her Blood Perception to its maximum range, and soon, she sensed Brenna's location.

Yun Mu's expression tightened; her pace quickened, and then she broke into a run.

Blood—it was the smell of flowing blood, and a large amount of it! How could this be? At that distance, logically speaking, she shouldn't have been injured!

Brenna. Jumping down along the collapsed hillside, Yun Mu soon found the Princess, which had toppled into the mountain rocks. A thick metal bar had pierced through the Princess's armor from an upward angle, and glaring Scarlet blood flowed onto the rocks below.

With just one look, Yun Mu deduced what had happened: perhaps a component of the Flash Silver Tank had gained immense kinetic energy after being blown away by 【Heavenly Punishment】 and had accidentally pierced the Princess's cockpit. Damn it, how could it be such a coincidence? "Brenna, Brenna, are you alright!?"

Yun Mu called out Brenna's name while running, and when she got close to the toppled mecha, the other party's weak voice came from the cockpit.

"Miss Yun? Hiss... it's so good that you're alright..."

Upon hearing Yun Mu's voice, Brenna seemed somewhat excited, and a painful gasp came from the cockpit.

"Ugh... my abdomen has been pierced, I can't muster any strength..."

"The hatch is jammed by this rod, I can't open it..."

Listening to Brenna's description, Yun Mu felt a sharp pain in her heart. She said, "Don't talk for now, I'll find a way!"

In this situation, she needed to open the hatch first, but the hatch was jammed by this metal bar; if she didn't deal with the metal bar first, there was no way to open the hatch. After pondering for a moment, Yun Mu took out the Scarlet Cross Sword and injected the Qi Strength within her body into the blade.

"Swish!"

A sharp sword light flashed, and the Scarlet Cross Sword, wreathed in the radiance of Qi Strength, easily severed the exposed metal bar! "Can you open it now?"

"Brenna?" Yun Mu asked hurriedly.

"... I'll try." Although she didn't know what Yun Mu had done outside, out of trust for her, Brenna pressed the button to open the hatch.

She heard a faint sound of gears turning inside the Princess's body, because Yun Mu had severed the exposed part of the metal bar.

This time, the cockpit hatch was opened successfully.

After opening the hatch, Yun Mu saw Brenna lying on the seat with a pale face. Her forehead was covered in sweat, and her bloodless lips were trembling continuously from the cold caused by excessive blood loss.

Crimson blood flowed from her pierced abdomen, soaking the palm she had subconsciously used to cover the wound, as well as the seat beneath her.

Honestly, upon seeing this miserable state of Brenna, while Yun Mu felt heartbroken, she also felt a slight sense of relief.

Although the penetrating wound to the abdomen was terrifying, it had just happened to avoid any vital organs.

If it were an ordinary person, facing this level of injury, they would certainly have been beyond saving long ago.

But Brenna was not an ordinary person; she was a Fourth Order Master-level Transcendent. This level of injury would not be fatal.

That said, this level of penetrating wound... it looked very painful. If it were her suffering such an injury, she might even cry out from the pain.

"Please endure it, Brenna, I'm going to carry you out."

Breaking off the metal bar stuck in Brenna, Yun Mu carefully supported her legs and back, carrying her out of the Princess's cockpit.

And at the moment the metal bar was pulled out of her body, the Young Girl couldn't help but let out a painful groan.

Yun Mu hurriedly took out the Blood Brewing Bottle and fed Brenna two sips to temporarily stabilize her condition, then took a medical kit from the Storage space of the Divine Blood Pendant and began to treat her wounds urgently.

After being busy for about ten minutes, and carefully confirming there were no issues, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The wound had been disinfected, the bleeding had been successfully stopped, and for the rest, she would leave it to the Qi Strength within Brenna's body and the powerful recovery ability she possessed as a Master-level Transcendent.

According to Yun Mu's prediction, for this level of injury, Brenna would likely be fully recovered in just four or five days.

As for herself... if she didn't use the Scarlet attribute Qi Strength to restore health, relying solely on her healing ability, it would take about five or six minutes.

There was no helping it; the trait granted by the Scarlet Path, 【High-Speed Regeneration】, was simply too terrifying.

If one had to name a drawback, it would probably be that the energy required for recovery far exceeded what was needed for normal healing.

But what did that matter?

The trait 【Blood Core】 could store vitality equivalent to 80% of her total health.

That was more than enough for her to use.

"There shouldn't be any problems now," Yun Mu said after putting away the medical kit.

"Thank you." Brenna looked much better now; she thanked Yun Mu: "I don't know why, but when I heard Miss Yun's voice inside the cockpit, I suddenly felt much more at ease."

"Is that so?" Yun Mu smiled with some surprise, but, "Actually, I have that feeling too," she said.

"When I heard Brenna's voice, my whole heart became calm."

"..." The two looked at each other in silence for a moment, then Brenna was the first to give in.

She shyly averted her gaze: "Ugh, don't suddenly say such mushy things!" "Eh?" Yun Mu feigned surprise and said loudly: "Wasn't it you who said it first!?"

"Hehe, hehehe."

Both of them couldn't help but laugh out loud, though Brenna covered her mouth halfway through because of a sharp pain in her abdomen.

"Let's stop the joking here."

Yun Mu put away the smile on her face and said seriously: "This place is not suitable for a long stay. That kind of attack from just now might happen again, so we must hurry and leave."

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go quickly." Brenna nodded in agreement.

After she finished speaking, she blinked at Yun Mu.

Without needing to guess, Yun Mu knew what she meant; translated into plain language, it was likely that she couldn't walk on her own right now and hoped Yun Mu could carry her.

Carrying her was, of course, no problem at all.

However—

"Walking is too slow, but running is easy to jostle your wounds."

Yun Mu used the painting 【Thunder God】 to summon the Thunder God Mecha, then carried Brenna inside the mecha's cockpit.

Was she going to use the Thunder God as a Mount to run away?

Yes and no.

She directly used the skill 【Medical Transport Support】, letting the Medical Transport Plane latch onto the Thunder God Mecha from below, then Flying through the air along the tracks on the ground.

This is, the Flying Thunder God Technique!

"Miss Yun."

At this moment, inside the cockpit of the Thunder God Mecha, Brenna, who was being held in Yun Mu's arms, spoke up.

"Hm?"

"What's wrong?"

Yun Mu asked upon hearing her call.

"You're flying in the wrong direction; it's not this way, it should be that way." Brenna used her finger to correct the direction for her.

"Uh."

Hearing the instruction, Yun Mu immediately changed direction and flew toward the location of the Federal Capital.

The speed of the Medical Transport Plane was clearly not as fast as the Magic Train; the journey that originally had only one hour left was flown by Yun Mu in the sky for over two hours before reaching the destination.

Because they were about to arrive at the city, to prevent being shot down as some suspicious flying object, for the final short stretch of the journey, Yun Mu went down to the ground and carried Brenna the rest of the way.

And when they arrived at the station following the tracks, the place had already been controlled by the Federation's Guard department.

After all, not to mention the deputy conductor murdering the conductor and wanting to commit suicide with the entire train, just the casualties caused by those few cannon shots after the train was attacked by the Old Legion, the Guard Court (not a typo, the Federation's Guard department has a different name than the Kingdom's) would definitely have to send guards here to conduct an investigation.

But calling it an investigation, it was actually just taking down statements; later they would probably send people to the scene of the incident to take a look, but those things had nothing to do with Yun Mu.

Come to think of it, the two guards responsible for talking to her seemed to have a much higher status than ordinary guards, and the way they looked at her was a bit strange, as if they were looking at some kind of monster.

Yun Mu guessed they probably knew about the 【Heavenly Punishment】, otherwise there was no reason for them to look at her with that kind of gaze.

Of course, it was also possible they were just surprised that she could defeat those Flash Silver Tanks.

Before coming to the Orc Federation, Yun Mu had heard Brenna explain that there were no Transcendental in the Federation; what ordinary people could come into contact with was mostly Mechanical Modification.

And the truly wealthy used a power known as Magic Rune.

By inscribing different Magic Rune in their bodies, they obtained power of different degrees and effects; here, wealth could truly be converted into power.

The more you pay, the stronger you are; whether it is Mechanical Modification or Magic Rune, it is actually the same, only the former is cheaper and more affordable, while the latter has a better experience.

At the very least, you don't have to replace your original body with cold machinery.

Moreover, the power of Magic Rune is somewhat similar to Transcendental, and when facing some enemies in the Supernatural Realm, the effect of Magic Rune is also better.

However, it is said that the Federation seems to be researching a method that allows Magic Rune and Mechanical Modification to coexist; this was intelligence Brenna heard from the Kingdom's spies.

It's just that whether it's true or false is not yet clear.

At the time, Yun Mu had asked for Brenna's thoughts, and she believed it was highly likely to be true, and it was very possible that it wasn't research that had only recently begun.

According to her, if she were one of the Federal Councilor, research of this type would definitely have been considered from the very beginning; how could it have been dragged out for so many years.

"Alright, we have understood the situation."

"We are very sorry that you encountered such a thing just after arriving in the Federation."

After recording the information in the statement, the two guards apologized very respectfully to Yun Mu and Brenna.

If a princess of a neighboring Kingdom were to die within the Federation's territory, that would count as a very serious diplomatic incident.

It was just that Brenna was relatively low-key, arriving in the Federation's territory by boat without any prior notice; otherwise, if the high-level Federal Councilor had known she was coming earlier, they would likely have sent an army to escort her all the way to the capital.

Brenna was of course unwilling to do that; after all, she only came here to handle her own private affairs and did not want to use the Kingdom's resources for it.

Of course, this was actually not the main point.

The point was that the Federal Councilor were not of one mind; if those guys knew in advance that she was coming, heaven knows what schemes they would hatch.

She did not want to be dragged into the infighting among the Federal Councilor.

"By the way." Before the two left the Guard Court, Yun Mu suddenly thought of something and turned to ask the two guards: "The deputy conductor of the Zhuifengzhe T18, the Dog Beastman Kesi, how do you plan to deal with him?"

"That remnant of the Beast God Cult?" Hearing Yun Mu's words, one of the guards replied: "Please rest assured, the two of you; he will never be able to get out of prison in this lifetime."

There is no death penalty in the Federation's laws; at most, it is life imprisonment.

But Yun Mu didn't need to worry about how well that guy could live in prison.

After all, as the deputy conductor of the Magic Train, Kesi was not considered wealthy, nor did he have power, and furthermore, the Federation had a zero-tolerance attitude toward remnants of the Beast God Cult.

That guy's prison life would definitely not be very happy.

"I see, then I can rest easy." Thinking of this, Yun Mu smiled softly.

(End of this chapter)