Chapter 37: The Disobedient One
Once he decided to make a move, sitting in a wheelchair was no longer realistic.
It was fine to pretend usually, but when something really happened, that speed was simply not enough.
To reduce suspicion, Xu Xunyue used his spiritual power to interfere with the people around him, and by the way, he also pulled the wheelchair onto the aircraft.
After this set of operations, the people from the academy couldn’t see him boarding the aircraft, and afterward, they would subconsciously avoid thinking about, blur, and ignore how he had gotten on.
Even, they probably wouldn’t realize for a while that the person using the last lifeboat was actually Xu Xunyue.
There was a smaller version of the display screen on the lifeboat, and on it, one could also see the small dots representing the students.
The red was getting more and more intense, with a tendency to overflow the screen.
Xu Xunyue soon arrived near the team that was closest to him in a straight line.
The Sentinel’s roar was suppressed and painful, not loud, but rather had a bit of weakness from extreme pain. The Guide’s breathing was rapid, and even a turn or a step back was very light, as if afraid of disturbing the other.
This team was in good condition.
Although the Sentinel’s spiritual domain had been affected by that mysterious power, he had not completely lost control. The team’s Guide was still holding on, and they were lucky enough not to have encountered any cataclysmic creatures for the time being.
So should he stop and help?
Whoosh—!!
The lifeboat did not lower its altitude, but instead accelerated and rushed into the interior of the Endless Snow.
The fact that this team was the first he encountered meant that it was very close to the safe zone and easy to be found by other teachers and the local outpost soldiers. The five of them had no serious injuries and had not encountered any cataclysmic creatures. Their combat power was well preserved, and they were fully capable of surviving on their own.
The space in the small lifeboat was very limited. The cabin could only sit seven people. When the accompanying teacher was driving, they would usually be in pairs, with the remaining five seats left for the students.
If he went down to rescue them, he would have to make a trip back after picking up these five people. Not to mention the time it would take, it would be inconvenient to be seen by Xu Mengwei and the other teachers. When the few students came to their senses, they might even wonder why it was him driving the aircraft.
Xu Xunyue could use his spiritual power to interfere with perception, but distorting cognition for a long time, over a large area, and with multiple targets was too mentally taxing.
As an Offensive Guide, he couldn’t provide any assistance to any Sentinel other than Zhu Hui. He could help with transportation as an accompanying teacher, and he could tear apart those cataclysmic creatures attacking the students as a combat force, but that was all too slow.
The key was to solve the mysterious power emanating from within the Endless Snow.
His intuition told Xu Xunyue that this was a good opportunity to uncover the Emperor’s secret. As a retired person, it was difficult for him to apply for a pass to a cataclysm zone, but in a practical activity that had an accident, he could swagger into a cataclysm zone.
Compared to the him of three years ago who knew nothing, the him of now was stronger and had more information.
If he missed this opportunity, there would be no next time.
The lifeboat traveled at high speed and soon approached the area where Zhu Hui was.
When the precise coordinates on the locator were getting closer and closer to him, Xu Xunyue glanced down.
To be honest, he couldn’t see very clearly.
It was already snowing heavily here, and the sky was getting dark, so the light was not strong. In the vast, boundless snowfield, even the remains of cataclysmic creatures would become small, stain-like black dots. It was impossible to see a specific person with the naked eye.
Only snow.
The falling snow, and the snow on the ground.
Fortunately, although the naked eye couldn’t see, the equipment and his instincts were still working.
On the lifeboat’s display screen, the small dot representing Zhu Hui was not emitting a red light. In the listening function, Zhu Hui’s breathing was slightly disordered, but Xu Xunyue had been listening carefully and had not heard any signs of injury.
More importantly, his instinct, his sense of Zhu Hui, had once again become distinct.
His senses said that his Sentinel was fine.
Whoosh—!!
The aircraft accelerated again. At the same time, Xu Xunyue gathered his spread-out spiritual power and formed several invisible spears that swept downward.
The more autonomous a cataclysmic creature was, the more it could be harmed by a mental attack. If it were an ordinary student, Xu Xunyue might not be able to help much, but what was holding Zhu Hui back happened to be a cataclysmic being.
The most autonomous cataclysmic creature.
The strange wails of the cataclysmic beings sounded. The coordinates on the locator were getting closer and closer, soon overlapping with the aircraft on the horizontal plane, and finally becoming further and further away.
…That mysterious contamination was originally aimed at Sentinels. It was better not to take Zhu Hui with him.
With his help just now, Zhu Hui was more than capable of shaking off the entanglement of the cataclysmic beings and entering the safe zone where the aircraft was.
Zhu Hui abruptly looked at the sky.
A cataclysmic being shrouded in black mist pounced on his back, but as if he had eyes on his back, he stabbed backhand without even turning his head.
The dagger, gleaming with a cold light, was crisp and clean. The humanoid creature had no time to change its movements and would definitely have been cut in half according to its trajectory.
But it wasn’t.
Strictly speaking, it was indeed torn apart, but in a different way.
At the moment the dagger was about to touch the cataclysmic being, without any warning, its huge head, different from a human’s, directly exploded!
Blue-green liquid, fragments, and gelatinous matter scattered all over the ground, dyeing the white snow a nauseating color. The already messy scene became even more spectacular.
The cataclysmic beings within a three-meter radius of Zhu Hui instantly fell.
A flaw appeared in the dense encirclement. He took the opportunity to speed up his attack, calling on his spiritual body to fight a bloody path with him, and retreated toward the safe zone without a moment’s delay.
His feet were at the Sentinel’s top running speed, but his mind was on what had just happened.
That feeling… it was brother, right?
Brother passed by here, and the sudden death of those cataclysmic beings just now was because of brother’s mental attack.
Did brother also participate in the rescue?
It’s a little strange. The lifeboats on the aircraft should be far fewer than the number of accompanying teachers. Brother is in a wheelchair and it’s not very convenient. Did they actually let him participate?
Of course, that’s no problem. Maybe brother decided to join himself. After all, brother is the most powerful Guide in the Empire.
Zhu Hui’s condition was actually not bad. Although he had been held back by the cataclysmic beings, his stamina had not dropped significantly. He could fight for another day without any problem. Even if the cataclysmic beings continued to surround him, a flaw would appear due to the decreasing number by then.
Although he didn’t know why there were so many cataclysmic beings here, the number of cataclysmic beings in an Undeveloped Zone, or rather, on the outskirts of a cataclysm zone, was always limited.
Did brother notice me?
That scale and intensity of mental attack should have a considerable cost, right?
I don’t know why I’m a little uneasy. Is it because brother is getting further and further away from me?
But if brother is carrying out a rescue on the boundary line, and I’m running toward the safe zone myself, the distance will naturally get further and further apart.
In an environment with insufficient information, it’s better to go back and replenish my ammunition first.
Zhu Hui’s bullets were all used up, which also declared the temporary retirement of his gun. Fortunately, Zhu Hui had many ways to attack: his spiritual body, cold weapons, and even his hands.
A high-level Sentinel who often fought alongside his spiritual body could transform parts of his body into the form of a spiritual body.
When necessary, his nails could be very sharp.
I’ll go back and replenish my ammunition, and then see which lifeboat has a seat for me.
Anyway, the teachers at the Sentinel Academy are basically no match for me. It’s better to let me participate in the rescue as well.
It would be even better to be on the same boat as brother…
An hour later.
“Buzz!”
In all the Undeveloped Zones from Endless Snow A1 to A5, everyone’s ears rang for a second.
A second later, the ringing disappeared, and the Sentinels who had been brought out but were still complaining of headaches also stopped their cries of pain at the same time.
“How do you feel?” Although Xu Mengwei didn’t understand what the ringing was all about, seeing that the person had quieted down and his face looked much better, he leaned over and asked.
The Sentinel student he asked let out a long sigh of relief and said slowly, “It seems… it’s fine. Before, it felt like there were a lot of chaotic voices arguing in my head, but now they’ve all stopped.”
“That’s good.”
Xu Mengwei stood up and asked the other two Sentinels who had been brought back by the lifeboat. After getting a consistent and similar answer, he began to frantically send messages on his terminal.
The messages were sent to the people who were driving the lifeboats out.
After communicating with multiple parties, they found that everyone had heard the ringing sound. The part that had found students but had not yet flown back also said that the Sentinel’s abnormal symptoms had disappeared.
This was good news, but Xu Mengwei did not completely relax.
Because one person had not replied to his message.
The last person to leave had not replied to his message.
Anxiously waiting for a reply, Xu Mengwei suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He ran into the white aircraft and checked the screen that showed the location of the lifeboats in the flight system.
One, two, three, four… seven.
Xu Mengwei’s heart went cold.
It only showed the location of seven lifeboats.
And the eight small lifeboats equipped on this aircraft had all been launched.
The magnetic field of a cataclysm zone was special. Only transport vehicles that entered a cataclysm zone might be unable to send and receive information, and thus unable to display their location on the screen.
Xu Mengwei was so anxious that his face turned pale.
Suddenly, a sound of machinery operating came from outside. He hurriedly ran out to look.
It was Qiu Ye who had brought a team of students back.
At this moment, one of the sixteen lifeboats equipped on the two aircraft had finally returned.
Xu Mengwei took a few steps forward and explained the situation to Qiu Ye. Qiu Ye was even more shocked.
“How could you let Guide Xu go?”
“I… it’s not that I was afraid of death… I don’t know what happened. I was about to get on that aircraft at the time. I don’t know why senior got on it before me.”
“Then I’ll call someone to go look for him now—hey, hey, hey—that—Zhu Hui? What are you doing, you brat!”
Xu Mengwei hadn’t even noticed that someone had passed by him. It was only when Qiu Ye suddenly shouted that he followed his gaze.
A young Sentinel with fragments of cataclysmic creatures on his protective suit flashed by, jumped onto the just-landed lifeboat from which the students had just disembarked, then closed the cabin door with a “bang,” his hand in a black combat glove pulling the control stick.
The just-shut-down engine started again, and the dull sound of machinery operating sounded again.
Xu Mengwei felt like he was about to faint.
“Wait, don’t start it! Stop! Student Zhu, did you hear what we were just saying? But you have to calm down too. We’ve lost his coordinates. The Endless Snow just had such a terrifying incident, and we haven’t figured out the situation inside yet. Blindly entering will only increase the casualties…”
Qiu Ye’s tone actually softened, as if he were trying to comfort him. “I know how you feel right now, but you shouldn’t act alone. At least find a few more people.” At the same time, he quickly reached for the handle outside the cabin door.
Too late.
“Boom—!!”
The only existing lifeboat in the safe zone took off again, its ascent curve incredibly similar to the last one that had taken off.
A similar madness.
“I am his Sentinel. I know where he is.”
The aircraft shot out in an instant, but Zhu Hui’s slightly hoarse voice remained.
“I can feel the danger there. Don’t come. After entering the cataclysm zone, the coordinates of this aircraft will also disappear.”
Deep within the Endless Snow.
The rumors were not wrong. The exterior of the Endless Snow was a pure snowfield, but the interior was by the sea.
The white snow on the coast was piled with countless debris, or rather, it was more appropriate to call them trash. They were a mess of unclassifiable wooden planks, cement, sofas, bottles, and cans.
There were no city ruins on the entire periphery of the Endless Snow. The trash on the shore could explain one thing:
An old city slept under the sea.
In the years after the Cataclysm, whenever the weather was bad and the sea was rough, these debris from the old city would be washed ashore and become trash.
Unused, worthless things were trash. In the depths of the Endless Snow, there were only cataclysmic creatures. They had coexisted with this trash day after day.
However, today, the tranquility of the Endless Snow was broken.
Today, the coast was piled with countless remains of cataclysmic creatures, dyeing the white snow a strange color, stretching from the endless distance to the shore, forming a long line.
At the end of the line, on the edge of the coast, stood a person.
He—was indeed human, not a humanoid cataclysmic being, because he did not have a blurry black mist around him.
But he did not look like a human either, because his eyes were a cold gold.
Just by standing there, doing nothing, the world around him was terrifyingly quiet.
The thick snow could cover the prying eyes of predators, and the snowfield was thus full of hidden dangers. But he just stood here simply, yet he could make the hidden creatures feel fear and submission.
Just as this person took a step forward and his military boot touched a trace of seawater, his movement suddenly paused, as if he had sensed something.
He thought for a moment, then expressionlessly raised his hand to look at his wrist.
On it was an instrument, and on the display screen, a single coordinate point was rapidly approaching.
The distance between the two was shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye, but this person frowned.
Xu Xunyue felt that he was very strange.
Seeing this dot on the display screen approaching, he was a little happy, and a little unhappy.
He couldn’t say why he was happy, but he seemed to know why he was unhappy, because his creation was a little disobedient.
Wait, his creation… who?
Does this dot on the screen have anything to do with his creation?
Why would he feel that his creation is disobedient?
Oh, he had an impression of this. It seemed like he had forcefully made the other person promise to protect himself.
So it’s very dangerous here?
Strange.
Since it’s his creation, why protect it? Just use it, right? It doesn’t matter if it gets broken.
But, looking at the image displayed on this instrument, that guy seems to be arriving soon.
A disobedient one who came to his door…
Xu Xunyue took a step into the seawater, a smile suddenly appearing on his lips.
How should I punish him?
