28
"Do you really think that Lost Valley is a place where you can come and go as you please? Do you really think you are traveling on your own? Do you want a tour guide for you?" Jiuyi sat on his iron stool, "Do you think we bats have nothing to do?"
"You don't want the main city anymore?" Ning Gu asked.
"I see you are not going to share with me. Neither travelers nor hyenas keep their promises." Jiuyi looked at the spike on his index finger, shaking it again and again. Silver light was jumping on the spike. If you ignore the fact that he has no brain, he still looks very imposing.
"Find a safe way to get us out," Ning Gu said, "I still keep my word."
Jiu Yi didn't say anything and seemed to be thinking.
After a long time, he finally said, "To be honest, I don't know what I want half of the main city for. I can't even get in."
"We can turn half of the main city into Lost Valley," Suki said beside him, "No need to go up."
"That makes sense." Jiuyi's fingertips tapped lightly on the dog-head mask.
"Deal?" Ning Gu asked.
"Deal," Jiu Yi said, and then he looked at Lian Chuan and added, "I believe in travelers, not hyenas."
"Whatever." Lian Chuan said.
Jiuyi jumped down from the iron pier and hooked his finger at them: "Follow me, I will show you a completely safe way."
Ning Gu glanced at Lian Chuan, who said nothing and followed Jiu Yi.
"Where are we going?" Ning Gu asked.
"Of course it's the Black Iron Wasteland," Jiuyi said, "Do you still want to go directly to the main city?"
"Okay." Ning Gu nodded.
Jiuyi led them into a tunnel, and after walking for a long time, they finally stopped in front of a cave and said, "I won't take you there. You can see clearly by yourselves. I don't want to go there."
"Why?" Lian Chuan asked.
"There's a grave over there," Jiu Yi said, "and that's where someone I don't want to see is buried."
"Who?" Lian Chuan asked again.
"Why should I tell you?" Jiuyi glared at him.
"Yeah." Lian Chuan responded.
"What does he mean?" Jiuyi looked at Ning Gu.
"How should I know?" Ning Gu said, "If you don't want to tell me, then don't tell me. Let's talk about the way first."
"In here." Jiuyi walked into the cave.
The entrance to this cave is not big, and looks like the size of an ordinary trading hut, but once you go in, you find that it is a huge cave hall, and there is no other entrance or exit.
However, Lian Chuan could feel a slight air flow, which meant there was at least one hidden hole inside.
After the previous experience of the cave entrance suddenly disappearing, Lian Chuan kept an eye on the movements behind him after entering the cave.
"What... is this?" Ning Gu was not alert at all, just staring at a huge object covered with thick black cloth in the middle of the cave.
"You are very lucky. There are no more than..." Jiuyi thought for a moment, "no more than..."
Perhaps he started counting in his mind, and he didn't continue this sentence for a long time.
"Open it." Lian Chuan said.
"No more than a hundred people." Jiuyi said.
Ning Gu didn't believe it, and he estimated that Lian Chuan didn't believe it either, but you couldn't tell from his expression.
Even when Jiuyi went over and pulled a corner of the black cloth to open it, and Ning Gu looked at the thing in front of him with his mouth half open in surprise, Lian Chuan still had a blank expression on his face.
This is a thing whose shape is difficult to describe. It is three people tall, and the main body is four upright columns. Between the columns from top to bottom are countless curved circular pipes that interconnect with each other. The pipes are of varying thicknesses, and in the middle are randomly distributed small bulging holes of different shapes and sizes.
The whole thing glowed with a faint blue light, which seemed out of place in the black iron world of Lost Valley.
It’s obvious at first glance that it’s not Nine Wings’ thing.
"What is this?" Ning Gu asked again.
"The map of the Lost Valley." Lian Chuan said.
"Map?" Ning Gu was stunned.
"Yes, a map." Jiu Yi walked around the huge object, his face full of fascination. "A three-dimensional map. Does it look like an ant nest?"
"What is an ant nest?" Ning Gu asked.
"I don't know." Jiuyi answered simply.
"So what do you mean by similar?" Ning Gu was puzzled.
"The people who made this thing said it looks like," Jiu Yi spread his arms, "a giant ant nest."
It turned out that it was not done by Jiuyi.
"That's not right. Isn't yours bigger at the top and smaller at the bottom?" Ning Gu pointed at four vertical holes that were irregular but still looked about the same size from top to bottom.
"This one," Jiu Yi pointed at one of them, "When I made this map, my cave hadn't collapsed yet. It became what it is now after it collapsed."
"Why did it collapse?" Ning Gu couldn't help but touch the cave wall next to him, "It's all black iron."
"Fool," Jiuyi laughed, his laughter carrying a sharp metallic sound, "The main city is collapsing, the Lost Valley is of course collapsing, even the ghost town can't escape, so where won't collapse? The whole world will collapse..."
"Where to go out?" Lian Chuan interrupted Jiuyi's generous speech.
Jiuyi stretched out his index finger, and the fingertip popped out. It continued to extend a little bit, and then pointed at a hole closer to the center and tapped it lightly: "We are here."
The knocking made a faint "ding" sound that echoed in the cave, light and long.
Lian Chuan took a look and slowly circled the map.
"You guys go along this tunnel," Jiuyi pointed his finger along the pipe, "When you get here, take the left side of the three-way fork. Don't go wrong. The other two roads lead to Misty Ridge..."
Ning Gu stared at the three-dimensional map. Because it was three-dimensional, the locations of many tunnels and caves overlapped with each other. He stared at the tip of Jiuyi's finger, and several times he couldn't see clearly where Jiuyi was pointing.
"Don't go down this road. If you go down, you will go to the chanting cave. If the poet wakes up, Qi Hang may not wake up, but if Qi Hang wakes up, the poet will definitely wake up," Jiuyi said, "For the sake of half of my main city, you should stay away from the chanting cave."
"This tunnel..." Ning Gu wanted to confirm it again.
"Go on." Lian Chuan said.
Okay, it seems Lianchuan can remember it.
Thinking about how Lian Chuan had been able to draw the routes they had traveled before, Ning Gu felt that he should have no problem. And with Lian Chuan's personality, if he didn't understand, he wouldn't allow Jiu Yi to talk endlessly.
Ning Gu immediately felt relieved.
When a person relaxes, his brain works slower. Not only did he not remember the routes that Jiuyi mentioned later, he also forgot everything Jiuyi said earlier.
"Let's go." Lian Chuan finally turned around in front of the map and said as he passed by Ning Gu.
"Remember?" Ning Gu asked.
"It's alright if you can't remember," Jiu Yi said, "The deal doesn't include a guarantee that you'll find the right way out."
"No one will stop us on the road again," Ning Gu said, "like that old blind man last time."
"Blind man?" Jiuyi tilted his head and thought for a while, "Oh, you mean Dajiong. As long as we don't go within the range of the chanting cave, we won't run into him."
Jiu Yi drew a circle on the map: "He is only here."
"Da Jiong?" Ning Gu didn't understand. Lian Chuan said that the old blind man was from the training department of the main city, so he should have a less bat-like name.
"Bright and sharp," Jiuyi made a glittering gesture with his hand in front of his eyes, "Who cares what he's called."
"Why can't he leave the chanting cave?" Lian Chuan asked.
Jiu Yi's face turned cold: "This is not in the deal. Why should I answer you after asking so many questions?"
"I understand." Lian Chuan said.
"What did you know?" Jiu Yi asked.
"He lives on the spiritual power of a poet." Lian Chuan turned and walked out of the cave.
Lian Chuan was probably right. Jiu Yi cursed a few words behind him. He probably wanted to cover his map, otherwise he would not have come out to curse him.
Ning Gu followed Lian Chuan and walked halfway through the tunnel before he lowered his voice and asked, "Really?"
"Guessed." Lian Chuan said.
"Did you guess it right?" Ning Gu asked.
Lian Chuan didn't answer.
"Do you remember the route?" Ning Gu remembered the key points of this trip.
"Well," Lian Chuan looked back at him, "the exit is far from the main city."
"The city guards can't arrive, right?" Ning Gu wanted to confirm.
"The city guards don't know about this exit." Lian Chuan said.
Ning Gu was stunned: "Does it mean that if we know this exit, we will go there? Aren't the city guards only deployed outside the D area? The Black Iron Wasteland is no longer the territory of the main city."
"I was supposed to be out within a day," Lian Chuan said. "Anything can happen now."
Ning Gu frowned. No wonder Lian Chuan wanted to find Jiuyi. Only Jiuyi knew which exit the main city was.
So, Jiuyi was willing to risk everything for this half of the main city, and actually told the hyena such a secret...
What made Jiuyi think that he could take a chance on destroying the main city
Perhaps because of Jiu Yi's orders, when they were heading towards the exit, they did not encounter any of Jiu Yi's guards or black rings except for ordinary bats.
Ning Gu followed behind Lian Chuan. The excitement he had felt when he saw the map had slowly subsided. He didn't know why, but when he thought about returning to the ghost town, he felt an indescribable feeling.
When he came out, he didn't think about when he could go back. Now, he was anxious to go back, but at the same time he began to resist.
He is scared.
Fear of not knowing.
Also afraid to know.
The Lost Valley is very large. Although Ning Gu has seen the map, he still doesn't have a clear idea of it.
How big is the main city, how big is the Lost Valley, how big is the Black Iron Wasteland...
What about ghost towns
He was a little tired. He had never walked so boringly before. He walked and walked for such a long time. Lian Chuan didn't know why he didn't pull him forward.
At the beginning, there were all kinds of people around me. It was lively when there were no cars coming, but there were also many things to see. There were people humming in the corners, and people fighting over a small piece of glass in the trading cave. There were also bat fights that could be heard from across several tunnels...
Chaotic and dark, like a ghost town, yet completely different.
After all, whether it is Jiu Yi or the poet, they are different from the team leader.
Head of…
Now I don’t know where I am or how far I am from the exit. The sounds around me are gradually dying down. There are no people, no goods, no laughter or scolding, nothing.
There was only the sound of his and Lianchuan's footsteps.
Moreover, Lian Chuan's footsteps were very light and he walked very fast, but if you didn't listen carefully, you couldn't hear them at all.
Maybe the hyena's shoes are better than his, so there is no noise and he doesn't feel tired.
"I'm tired," Ning Gu stopped, "I won't leave."
Lian Chuan also stopped and turned around.
"How far is it?" Ning Gu asked.
"It's twenty this far." Lian Chuan said.
"Are you sure?" Ning Gu was stunned.
"Maybe farther." Lian Chuan said.
Ning Gu didn't say anything, he just sat down there, leaning against the wall of the tunnel for two seconds, then leaned to the side and lay down.
"Let's go to the front and rest," Lian Chuan turned around and continued to walk forward, "There is a small cave hall."
"I can't get up." Ning Gu felt completely out of energy.
For a traveler, this kind of rushing on the road is simply torture. He has the urge to find an exit and run out to die.
Lian Chuan walked back, stood beside Ning Gu, and looked down at him.
Ning Gu was a little scared by his gaze: "What are you doing?"
Lian Chuan didn't answer. When he bent down and reached out his hand towards his feet, he didn't give Ning Gu any chance to retract his legs and dodge.
Ning Gu was grabbed by the ankle and rushed out of the tunnel. When he came to his senses, he was lying on the ground in the cave hall at the other end of the tunnel, even maintaining the same posture as before.
"Rest here." Lian Chuan said.
"You!" Ning Gu pointed at him, "If you do this again without warning, don't blame me for being rude to you."
"You're welcome." Lian Chuan sat down.
Ning Gu just wanted to punch his chest twice to get rid of the pent-up anger.
He turned over and faced Lian Chuan, not wanting to curse anymore. He was really tired.
"Are you hungry?" Lian Chuan suddenly spoke.
It's amazing.
Ning Gu didn't want to pay attention to him, but Lian Chuan asked him if he was hungry. He couldn't help it and turned around to look at Lian Chuan: "Hungry."
Lianchuan took out a box of rations from his coat pocket and threw it in front of him.
"Where did it come from?" Ning Gu jumped up from the ground, grabbed the box and took a look. The small squares of green, white and yellow looked delicious.
"I got it from the pub," Lian Chuan said.
"Stolen." Ning Gu looked at him.
"If you don't want to eat it, give it to me." Lian Chuan said.
"Eat, eat, eat, eat," Ning Gu quickly opened the box, took a yellow piece and put it in his mouth, "What does this taste like? Ghost Town can't make so many flavors. I haven't eaten anything like this before."
"Banana." Lian Chuan said.
"It's delicious. If you want to say what's good about the people in your main city, it's probably the food." Ning Gu said, "It's better than what we eat."
Lian Chuan thought that not everyone could afford to eat it. He didn't know how the bats were obtained for this ration. Of course, the Training Department would throw experimental subjects into the Lost Valley, so the rations were not something that could not be delivered.
But before he could say this, Ning Gu suddenly squatted in front of him with a box in his hand.
"Take one," Ning Gu said, "You should eat two pieces of your food, but I'm really hungry, and it seems that your appetite is not as good as mine..."
"I don't want to eat." Lian Chuan said.
"You're welcome. I'm not being polite to you. I'll eat two pieces and you'll eat one," Ning Gu said. "After all, it's yours. In our ghost town..."
"No, I don't want to eat it." Lian Chuan said.
"If you don't want to eat it, then forget it." Ning Gu took back the box, sat down next to him, and stuffed both rations into his mouth in one breath.
Then she turned around and started chewing at him.
Maybe it was because of the food he had eaten, Ning Gu's mood seemed to have improved.
He lay down on the ground comfortably, patting his belly and said, "Lian Chuan, who made that 3D map?"
"I don't know." Lian Chuan looked at him.
"That person that Jiu Yi said he didn't want to see, that grave," Ning Gu thought for a moment, "could it be the person who made the map?"
"It's possible." Lian Chuan said.
"Could that person be from the main city?" Ning Gu turned his head and looked at him, "I don't think that thing looks like something from Lost Valley."
"Well," Lian Chuan tilted his head back and leaned against the cave wall, "that light..."
"Yes!" Ning Gu raised his arm and pointed at him, "I didn't even remember it until you mentioned it. Is that blue light the same as the weapon of your Hyena Team... the Cleanup Team?"
"Yeah." Lian Chuan responded.
"But that person shouldn't be Qi Hang. Jiuyi's attitude towards Qi Hang is not very good." Ning Gu frowned, "And it's not that Da Jiong either. That person is not dead... Tell me, besides the homeless people in the main city, how many other people have entered the Lost Valley?"
"I always thought you didn't have any worries." Lian Chuan said.
"How could that be? I like thinking the most," Ning Gu smiled, resting his head on his arm and looking at the cave ceiling. "You know, the wind in Ghost Town is very strong. It blows every day and every moment... I especially like to think in the wind. Whatever I think about, it will be gone once the wind blows, and no one will know."
Lian Chuan turned his face to the side. Thinking was not a pleasant thing for him. He had to think less. The more he thought, the more doubts he would have. Doubts were the most dangerous and would shake all beliefs.
"But where does the wind come from? Where does it blow to?" Ning Gu asked.
"I don't know." Lian Chuan answered truthfully.
"They all say the world will be destroyed. It has been destroyed many times. The Black Iron Wasteland is collapsing, the main city is collapsing, and the ghost town may also be collapsing. Why?" Ning Gu said softly, "It keeps collapsing, so what are we? Why are we here? What are we going to do?"
Everyone is used to the life in front of us. We come and go. We live this way because we live this way. The world is like this because the world is like this…
But why
"Lianchuan, I want to ask you." Ning Gu said.
"Ask." Lian Chuan looked at him.
"If the world were to be destroyed and collapse one day," Ning Gu said, "what would you most want to do?"
"Watch."