Chapter 22: The Destroyed Convoy

Beep, beep.

In Carriage No. 1, Lin Xian lay on a comfortable Simmons mattress, savoring the lingering warmth and soft scent of the woman in his arms. Having gone two nights without sleep, he finally enjoyed a restful slumber.

He checked the time: 14:00. Fortunately, the night had passed peacefully. It was still pitch black outside; he had set the time in advance to pinpoint the exact moment of sunrise. The nights were far too long, and they had slept for quite a while.

Chen Sixuan, resting on his chest, had already awakened. She remained silent, but when she saw Lin Xian roll over and rise, her face flushed red. She quickly dressed, pulled up her trousers, and whispered to him, "It seems they blocked the tracks with stones."

Lin Xian pulled Chen Sixuan close, lowered his head to press a gentle kiss to her lips, and said, "I know. I took care of it before I got on the train."

Shyly pulling away from his embrace, Chen Sixuan picked up the train logbook and muttered to herself, "Including the distance from Yushan Station, we covered 54 kilometers yesterday. According to the information spread by survivors, sunrise today should be before 17:00."

After their night of indulgence, she avoided meeting his eyes as she spoke.

"Let's see," Lin Xian said, glancing at his watch. "With this distance, there might not be any noticeable change yet."

"Mm."

Because it was still pitch black outside, the two kept their voices low and took out food and water to eat. Lin Xian leaned against the corridor, one hand pressed against the floor to monitor the situation outside the train, while taking the opportunity to check his injuries. As expected, they were healing remarkably fast.

The bodies of ability users were qualitatively different from those of ordinary people. Furthermore, after his life-or-death struggle with Liu Wei the previous day, his Wind Cannon ability had improved significantly.

[Wind Cannon LV.1 25/100]
[Ice Shield LV.1 6/100]

During yesterday's battle, Lin Xian felt he had truly risked everything. It was the first time he realized how ruthless and decisive he could be, and he admired his own ability to remain absolutely calm in a crisis.

Time ticked by, second by second. Lin Xian watched the numbers on his watch shift.

15:00. No sunrise.
16:00. Still no sunrise.

The later it got, the faster they needed to escape. But what worried Lin Xian most was the prospect that the sunrise time might not change at all—that would be the truly desperate scenario.

The temperature had dropped to around zero. Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan both put on long-sleeved clothing to keep warm. It was fortunate he had scavenged a heap of new quilts and mattresses from the furniture store earlier; otherwise, they would have been stuck on hard wooden boards in this freezing weather.

Just as the time hit 16:48, a flicker of light appeared in the sky. The black veil suddenly retreated, and the slanted sun hung high!

"Sunrise!" Chen Sixuan exclaimed, a look of joy appearing in her eyes.

According to the previous schedule, sunrise should have been at 17:00, but it was a full 12 minutes early!

Lin Xian opened the passage door and entered the driver's cabin with Chen Sixuan. As they looked at the sunlight outside, their eyes held both pleasant surprise and deep concern. The joy came from the 12-minute shift, which, while small, was enough to prove they were escaping the polar night. The concern was that this progress was merely a drop in the bucket.

Chen Sixuan was the first to react. She picked up the logbook and began to calculate: "The sunrise is 12 minutes earlier. If we only count yesterday's 54 kilometers, that means if we want to get back to a 17:00 sunrise tomorrow, we need to drive at least 270 kilometers!"

"About right," Lin Xian nodded. "It matches the info from the radio. But don't be too optimistic; we aren't moving in a straight line. To cover 270 kilometers, it will take at least three hours, unless we increase speed."

At this, Chen Sixuan’s eyes dimmed again. "You're right. We can't go too fast, either—who knows if someone has blocked the road with cars or stones again..."

In just two days, there had been constant crises and brushes with death. Thinking of this, Chen Sixuan grew anxious.

*Hum~*

The Infinite’s ten-cylinder heavy-duty gas turbine engine roared to life. Lin Xian sat in the driver's seat and looked back at Chen Sixuan. "Teacher Chen, hold on tight."

Chen Sixuan opened her mouth to speak, but hearing him still call her "Teacher" made her feel flustered and awkward. They had already… did he have some sort of fixation on that sense of taboo?

Lin Xian, unaware of her inner turmoil, put the train in reverse!

Seeing the train retreating, Chen Sixuan was startled. "We're going back?"

"Yes," Lin Xian said in a low voice. "We're going to check Yushan Station."

He had killed Liu Wei. With night approaching, the gang would be leaderless and chaotic. Furthermore, without Liu Wei, the other thugs with guns would be no match for them as long as they stayed on the train. He had taken out their boss; if he didn't reap some rewards, he felt the fight would have been a waste. Besides, he felt a bit more confident now; as long as they kept moving, they could escape the polar night. For someone who had survived for months, this was a positive sign.

*Clang, clang~*

Before long, the heavy locomotive slowly backed into the Yushan station platform. The sight that met their eyes caused both Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan’s expressions to change.

The platform was in ruins. The "Oasis" convoy had been completely wiped out. The parked off-road vehicles and jeeps were covered in gruesome bloodstains, and the ground was nearly dyed crimson. Several convoy members had turned a sickly black, wandering about as mindless, moaning corpses.

Chen Sixuan spotted one of the zombies—the middle-aged man who had acted so refined and polite, posing as the "father" of a family the day before.

It was hard to imagine that in just one night, everyone had died.

"Ah!"

"Lin Xian, look!"

Chen Sixuan gasped, pointing toward the station's waiting hall. The small hall had been completely overrun. But what shocked them most was that scattered on the ground at the entrance were several limbs that looked like those of some kind of insect!

Chen Sixuan’s expression was ghastly. "My god, what kind of monster is this..."

Lin Xian frowned. He remembered the insect shadow in Warehouse 14, and his heart skipped a beat. He had driven over 50 kilometers away yesterday; could that thing have caught up?

Lin Xian had no clue about the giant insect or the white monstrosity. They seemed to appear out of thin air in the night and vanish after sunrise. If not for the massive limbs before them, who would believe such terrifying monsters had suddenly appeared in the world?

Lin Xian stopped the train, leaned against the window to observe carefully for a while, and then said, "Don't be afraid. It's daytime now; these things shouldn't come out."

He wanted to curse. He had just started thinking about moving at night, and reality had immediately slapped him in the face. If that thing was tracking him, how was he supposed to do anything?

"Should we go down?" Chen Sixuan asked.

"Yes."

Lin Xian gritted his teeth. Since they were already here and the Oasis convoy was gone, he might as well use the opportunity to scavenge their remaining supplies.

"Alright, I'm going too." Chen Sixuan clenched her fists, but Lin Xian raised a hand to stop her. "Don't rush. Let me go down first and take care of those zombies."

"Mm," Chen Sixuan nodded obediently.

Lin Xian grabbed his short blade, opened the train cabin door, and leaped out. As soon as he landed, he fired a few wind cannons, blowing the heads off the zombies on the platform. Although it cost some energy, he didn't want to alert anything else; the wind cannons were quiet, perfect for a sneak attack.

*Thud, thud, thud~*

As the zombies fell one by one, a thick, pungent smell of blood hit Lin Xian, making him frown. The entire platform was riddled with bullet holes and scattered limbs, proving that a brutal slaughter had taken place there last night.

Lin Xian had seen how bizarre that monster was; ordinary firearms would likely struggle to cause any significant damage.