twenty two
Lian Chuan checked every place in this half of the cave and found no place that could lead to an exit or that could be destroyed.
He sat down on the ground, picked up the cup that Ning Gu had given him and took a sip.
"Are you too calm?" Ning Gu squatted down in front of him, "We are trapped here, you know? The old blind man might want to trade us with the poet."
"That's just right." Lian Chuan said.
"Why is it just the right time?" Ning Gu looked at him.
"It saves us from having to look for a poet," Lian Chuan said.
"What do you want to see the poet for?" Ning Gu also sat down. He reached out to get a cup to drink from, but found that the other cup of sweet water had been smashed by him. So he picked up the cup that Lian Chuan had just put down and took a sip.
"I thought this cup was mine," Lian Chuan said.
"Sorry, it's yours." Ning Gu said.
Lianchuan picked up another cup.
"That cup is mine, too," Ning Gu said, "and I have to remind you responsibly that it tastes terrible."
Lian Chuan lost interest in drinking, leaned back, and looked at Ning Gu: "Let me ask you."
"Ask." Ning Gu raised his chin.
"Did you feel anything when I fainted?" Lian Chuan asked.
"No," Ning Gu said, "I won't hide it from you. I have met this poet twice. Li Xiang said that when he appeared, there was no light, and people who heard him speak went crazy."
"You heard him talking." Lian Chuan said.
"Well, ask who I am." Ning Gu nodded.
Before, he would not be so honest with Lianchuan and exchange information with hyenas... Oh no, not exchange, but provide information to hyenas unconditionally. Travelers would never do that.
But the current situation is clearly related to the poet, and he would be dead if he faced the poet alone. With Lian Chuan, there is still hope. After all, according to Top Hat, Lian Chuan was picked out from ten thousand dead people.
"Who are you..." Lian Chuan repeated in a low voice.
Ning Gu immediately replied: "I am a ghost town..."
"Who gave you the weapon you brought?" Lian Chuan interrupted him.
"The one you stole?" Ning Gu looked at him. "The Land King, a veteran merchant in Ghost Town, can get anything. I heard he has seen Betelgeuse... That's not right..."
"There have been several on Betelgeuse," Lianchuan said, "If you force a match, the chances of error and death are very high."
"You are the only one left now, and you are the only one who can fit in," Ning Gu felt a chill on his back, "The others are all dead?"
"Yeah." Lian Chuan responded.
"Ten thousand people died?" Ning Gu asked.
Lian Chuan didn't say anything else.
Ning Gu discovered that when Lian Chuan spoke, he basically didn't make any unnecessary movements. Apart from occasionally turning his head and raising his eyes, there was very little other body language, and it was impossible to judge the truthfulness of his words and his emotions from other aspects.
"That self-destruct weapon belongs to Qi Hang," Lian Chuan said. "There is his information in the database. There is nothing special in the public information. We only know that he is missing..."
"Self-destruct?" Ning Gu was stunned. "If I press it, he will die?"
"You can start, but you may also die," Lian Chuan said.
"You're feeling a bit regretful. You should have not kicked me that day," Ning Gu said. "If you had let me press the button, maybe we wouldn't have had so much trouble."
Lian Chuan glanced at him and said, "Yes."
"Then tell me, what's the trouble?" Ning Gu lay down on the ground and stretched. "If you tell me clearly, I will know how to help you."
Help you.
This word made Lian Chuan feel uncomfortable, although he could tell that Ning Gu was a cautious but generally messy and rough person, so this sentence was just an ordinary truth.
But this word brings only pain to Lianchuan's memory.
Let me help you.
We are here to help you, as long as you can...
You have to know that this is the only way that can help you.
"You can see my thoughts and my memories," Lian Chuan said.
"I can still feel it, your pain, your... pain, your..." Ning Gu failed to use parallelism and sighed, "Pain, you are the most powerful hyena in the main city, but you are even worse off than the most neglected low-level traveler scum in the ghost town. You have no memory of not feeling pain."
"My memory is incomplete," Lian Chuan had no reaction to his summary, not even a word off topic, "so I want to know how much you can see and feel."
"Help you regain your memory?" Ning Gu sat up and found that Lian Chuan was still in the same posture as before, without any change. This kind of concentration might be difficult for other hyenas to have.
"Help me keep the secret." Lian Chuan said.
Ning Gu was stunned.
Lian Chuan didn't say anything else.
They were silent for an unknown amount of time. Ning Gu felt his butt hurt from the ground, so he moved to a flatter place and asked, "What's the secret?"
"I'm not sure if you know." Lian Chuan said.
"...Okay, what if I don't keep this secret?" Ning Gu said, "You can kill me, but your mission is to capture me alive. If I die, I'm afraid my fate will be similar to yours if your secret is exposed."
Lian Chuan didn't say anything.
"Right?" Ning Gu raised his eyebrows proudly.
"Yes." Lian Chuan said.
"So what are you going to do?" Ning Gu became even more proud. In this dilemma, he was looking forward to Lian Chuan's expression.
"So I have to have a second way," Lian Chuan said.
"Where?" Ning Gu moved closer to him and stared at his face.
"Meet the poet," Lian Chuan did not hide this point, "maybe we can find a way to protect ourselves."
"How? Wait for that old blind man to find the poet? If there is really any deal, I'm afraid you won't even have a chance to speak. I advise you to be cautious." Ning Gu was still very careful where he should be careful. Even if this second way would make him lose the weight to restrain Lian Chuan, there was still hope as long as Lian Chuan was alive. He still had to work hard to survive the present.
How can I die if I don’t know anything
"You," Lian Chuan finally moved and turned to look at him, "you can call him over."
"Me?" Ning Gu pointed at himself, "What do you mean?"
"I don't know," Lian Chuan's answer was very constructive, "You figure it out yourself."
On days when the wind in the ghost town is "extraordinarily strong", travelers rarely go out, hiding in their own cabins, waiting for the wind to become "very strong" before going out.
Especially after coming back from the main city, most travelers will have a good sleep, reminisce the light of the main city, reminisce the mystery of the Lost Valley, and then count the fun things they brought back. Most importantly, those who have drunk alcohol need to get rid of the smell of alcohol.
Unless there is a group fight between several shelters, on days like this, a ghost town is a town where there are really no ghosts.
This was the first time that as soon as the train arrived, all the travelers were stuck on the road to the shelter, as they had today.
The ones who blocked them on the road were the regiment commander, Li Xiang, and Lin Fan who was standing in the shadow behind the regiment commander. These three people represented the highest instructions of the Ghost Town.
"Where is Ning Gu?" asked the team leader.
No one answered, some people were confused, some were panicked.
The captain's words were not a question, but a dying affirmation as if he already knew the answer but still wanted to know who answered it or he would die. If no one answered it, he would die too.
The wind blew up the fog, creating waves of black waves around the leader. All the travelers lowered their heads. He was the only one in the ghost town who could make everyone give in collectively.
"Has anyone seen Ning Gu in the main city?" Li Xiang asked.
This is a question, and it's quite mild.
"I saw it," Sister Qi raised her head, "at the entrance of the tavern in the Chanting Cave in Lost Valley."
Li Xiang tilted his head and motioned for her to come over and talk.
When Sister Qi walked over, the travelers who were lowering their heads seemed to have received the signal at the same time and suddenly fled in all directions.
The team leader ignored her and just looked at Sister Qi. When she came closer, he asked again, "Who is he with?"
"Hyena." said Sister Qi.
The team leader and Li Xiang were both a little surprised, and Lin Fan behind them also raised his head slightly.
"Hyenas entered the Lost Valley?" Li Xiang frowned. "How is that possible? Even if they were not lost, would Jiu Yi allow hyenas to stay in the bats' territory?"
"It's definitely a hyena," Sister Qi also frowned, "Although he's not wearing a uniform, his murderous aura is so easy to recognize."
"Can you recognize who it is?" asked the captain.
"Lian Chuan," Sister Qi said without hesitation, "I really don't know what he looks like, but with that kind of speed, I don't have the chance to use my abilities. Lian Chuan is the only one left."
"Why didn't you bring him back!" the captain suddenly roared angrily.
Sister Qi retreated several meters in an instant, her hands raised to activate her ability to protect herself. Seeing that the captain did not make the next move, she threw her hands and shouted: "Is it unreasonable! How can I bring him back! That's Lian Chuan! If it wasn't in the Lost Valley, I don't know where I would have died! Even if there is only a little devil in Ning Valley, everyone knows how good he is at escaping the ghost town. Even the bell tower can't hold him, how can I bring him back!"
Even the belfry couldn't hold him.
The team leader waved to Sister Qi, and Sister Qi ran along the lantern path like the wind.
He turned his head and glanced at Lin Fan: "Even the bell tower can't hold him."
Lin Fan sighed calmly, "He ran at the exact time the car was arriving, and the guards were in chaos at that time..."
"The door may not be able to open, right?" Li Xiang said. The door was locked by the captain's ability and only he could unlock it.
"I don't know," Lin Fan raised his head and looked at the empty black fog in the sky. "When was the last time the captain's ability failed? Was it when the experimental subject sent from the main city escaped? Or was it when the old madman entered the basement..."
"Shut up!" The captain looked at him.
Lin Fan did not say anything else, but slowly turned around and walked back: "It is meaningless to focus on how and why he ran now. These things will happen sooner or later. From the day you knew that Qi Hang was still alive, you should have known that time will only move forward, and everything will move forward, not backwards."
"It doesn't matter whether it was Lin Fan who let him go or not," Li Xiang whispered, "The problem now is that Ning Gu is with Lian Chuan, and we don't know Lian Chuan's intentions."
"Do you also think," the captain glanced at him, "that the poet really..."
"Poets have existed for a long time. There have been poets since the day the Lost Valley was created," Li Xiang thought for a moment, "but the poet's form is destined to make him infiltrated and contaminated. As long as his mental strength is strong enough, so... it's hard to say."
"We have to start early," the leader said, "The main city won't tell us the truth, nor will it really cooperate with us. The ghost town is just their warehouse for raw materials."
"We already have enough samples in the basement," Li Xiang said. "We can start now, but we can only do simple copying."
"That's enough," said the captain.
Ning Gu was lying on the ground, snoring for an hour.
Lian Chuan kept staring at him and found that he was really asleep.
I don’t know if it’s because his mental strength is too strong or his mind is too simple, but when Ning Gu said he dreamed of Betelgeuse, he didn’t really believe it…
He picked up the cup and knocked it on the ground, ding.
Ning Gu snorted, raised his hand and scratched his face, then stopped moving.
Ding ding.
Ding ding ding.
Now I believe it.
After the connection with Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse and Lianchuan can be considered as the same person, so it is reasonable that the part that Ning Gu can sense is Betelgeuse.
It seems that Ning Gu's ability is more exaggerated than he imagined. Betelgeuse can be regarded as a powerful spiritual body, and it is even difficult to match it, but Ning Gu can see it in his dream.
Lian Chuan felt that his guess was a little too idealistic. Perhaps it was because he had experienced so many things day after day, and each of his guesses was beyond the scope of his control. Once these thoughts could be read, he might not even have a one in a million chance of survival.
If his abilities were fully activated, Ning Gu might...
"Hey!" Ning Gu suddenly shouted and jumped up from the ground.
Lian Chuan watched him jump up and fall back to the ground. If he had not been paying attention to his surroundings and knew that there was nothing unusual, Ning Gu would have allowed him to jump directly from this cave to the cave opposite.
"Did you hear anything?" Ning Gu sat on the ground and looked at him, with a confused look on his face.
"No," Lianchuan said, "What did you hear?"
"Someone called me." Ning Gu rubbed his eyes and pinched his eyebrows, "I thought you called me."
"Poet." Lian Chuan said.
Ning Gu frowned and pondered for a few seconds, then suddenly jumped up, walked to the cave entrance, and shouted at the huge vertical hole in the middle: "Ah—"
Lian Chuan was startled by his movement. Staying with a species like the Traveler, whose brain nerve structure is different from his own, would simply shorten his life.
"What are you doing?" Lian Chuan looked at him.
"Respond," Ning Gu glanced at him, "You said he called me, so shouldn't I respond?"
Lian Chuan didn't want to say more: "You go back..."
"Ah—poet—" Ning Gu shouted again.
Lian Chuan picked up a cup and smashed it on his head: "Shut up."
"Lianchuan," Ning Gu covered his head, "You can only act crazy now. As long as you get out of the Lost Valley..."
"I will be even crazier in the main city," Lian Chuan said.
"Once my ability is activated," Ning Gu pointed at him, "I will beat you up first, just wait!"
"I'll help you."
When the voice rang out, Ning Gu rushed forward and suddenly felt a little breathless.
Ning Gu didn't see clearly when Lian Chuan, who had been sitting against the wall, came to block him. He only knew that Lian Chuan pushed him back and said, "Don't get close to the cave entrance."
Ning Gu came to his senses and took two steps back. He couldn't determine the direction of the voice, but he was sure that it was not Lian Chuan's voice, nor was it from the man in the top hat, nor even from the one who asked "Who are you?"
At this moment, there was a sudden change in the vertical cave, which had been so quiet outside that one could hear the distant noisy sounds coming from various places in the Lost Valley.
Countless small golden light particles appeared in the air, dancing chaotically in the air as if they were blown by the wind or moved by something.