Chapter 86: Discussion

The nightmare train galloped across the wasteland.
Inside the carriage, Yang Zicang flipped through the items Ma Chao had left behind, which included books, spoiled food, some clothes, a valuable watch that now had little worth, and a few feminine articles.
“Ma Chao, did any previous train conductors bring people into the Lost Frequency Zone?”
The train nightmare had shifted from initially yielding to the intimidation of Yang Zicang’s White Shadow Thought-Dragon to now enjoying the feeling of carefree galloping, much like a horse basks in the thrill of a sprint.
{A few times, but their focus wasn’t here. Most of the time, he came here alone with me.}
“So, that means no one from the Heroes’ Posse is in the Lost Frequency Zone, right?”
{He once came here looking for a woman named Sun Shangxiang. Later, he found out she had been killed, so they chose a new Sun Shangxiang. She entered my belly just two days ago.}
Code names could be inherited. Yang Zicang speculated that perhaps, after a year or two, another Ma Chao would appear.
{Other than that, I’m not sure who else came in. However, he had a few enemies here.}
“Enemies?”
“They know I exist and want to become the new conductor. But they are far away from you.”
“Yeah, I understand.”
In less than an hour, YangZicang found three dried bones lying in the wilderness, along with a combat blade. Unexpectedly, it came with an additional 5N damage per attack.
“Too bad there’s no currency here; otherwise, I could have earned quite a bit.”
Apart from investing, temporal order only allows peer-to-peer transactions without liquidity properties, and it also has an upper limit. Perhaps the only person who could turn it into a currency right now is Mori.
YangZicang swung the blade in his hand, the edge carrying a sound of cutting through the air. It could be used normally for at least two or three years without issue.
“Not bad.”
The train roamed hundreds of miles across the land overnight, encountering shantytowns struggling to survive, deserted settlement, and thriving boisterous communal areas.
In front of a deserted and dilapidated wooden house, YangZicang, his entire body emanating a pale golden phantom flame, stepped into the eerie gathering area.
{Urgh aaahhh~}
A phantom sound echoed in his ears. The White Shadow Thought-Dragon naturally materialized, charging into the roof-off wooden house ahead.
Inside, several twisted humanoid mental bodies madly writhed, their forms merging together.
But as far as the White Shadow Thought-Dragon was concerned, these things offered no real challenge.
After easily shredding the most vicious ghost-like illusion away in two handfuls.
By the corner of the room, a phantom sobbed as it drifted before YangZicang, speaking in an almost inaudible voice:
“{Release… me… from… my pain…}”
A bone-like saber formed of psychic energy was stabbed into his chest. The mere sight of it fed a sense of mental anguish back to Yang Zicang through his eyes.
All the surrounding psychic bodies were pierced by these same gray blades.
“Don’t struggle. Let me take it out for a look.”
The White Shadow Thought-Dragon rippled its form, lowering a head as large as half a human down to the psychic body. Using its mighty curved jaws, built for perfect interlocking and tremendous force, it extracted the gray blade. As soon as it left the man’s psychic body, the blade dissipated like smoke.
[Gained 7.1N.]
Yang Zicang helplessly watched the man’s relieved expression. He waved his hand, and the White Shadow Thought-Dragon cheerfully rushed towards the surrounding apparitions.
[Gained another 2.8N.]
[…4.5N…]
Yang Zicang picked up a wooden sliver from the ground and activated “Ironflame Swordsmanship.”
The mysterious energy flowing through his muscles rapidly surged into his hand.
WHOOOOM! The wooden rod burst into flames, illuminating the dark interior of the room.
Inside the room, a dozen twisted and withered corpses came into view. Men, women… they were bound together, and the dried grime on the floor soiled most of the space. Decades had passed.
Yang Zicang looked upon this scene with a flash of anger in his heart.
These people were mostly residents of the settlement.
He looked at the faint magic patterns on the ground, where in the center lay a large man holding a bone knife. Extremely similar to the strongest psychic entity from before, his skin was still relatively full even after several years of death, showing no signs of withering.
“Damn thing.”
Yang Zicang coldly drew his blade, flames tinged with red-gold radiance surging forth, and cleaved the head into ashes with a single stroke.
Flames roared into the sky, engulfing the house.
Yang Zicang glanced at it once, turned back, and stepped into the train, heading into the distance.
……
At breakfast time, everyone was beaming with joy over the new well. Throughout the day, people gathered spontaneously to guard it; anyone who caused trouble faced a collective backlash. It had become the best spot for chatting and playing cards.
“Wang Chong.”
Wang Chong, still washing up, heard Yang Zicang calling him and rushed over excitedly.
“This is for you.”
A long blade, covered in many stains, was tossed over by the young man. As soon as Wang Chong caught it, his expression changed: “Giving this to me? Isn’t this…”
“What’s up?” Xu Xiuchuan and a few others gathered around.
Wang Chong glanced at those in the shelter area looking their way and urged, “Let’s talk inside.”
Six or seven people squeezed into the already small room. Xu Xiuchuan, upon taking the blade, gasped sharply. He never thought he would ever actually touch something like this.
“An eon… war artifact?”
“And five years at that, holy shit!”
“This… this must be worth thousands of Chrono years.” Qian Zhongsheng’s head was spinning as he said, “If I had something like this back there, would I have tripped up in a C-tier pit?”
“Oh? Worth that much Chrono, is it?” Yang Zicang leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed, chuckling.
Qian Zhongsheng nearly slapped himself twice, but then thought again—how could Yang Zicang possibly not know its value?
“It wouldn’t be worth that much back where we’re from, but it’s quite valuable over here.”
Wang Chong snatched the knife back, looking at Yang Zicang hesitantly: “Bro, I know you probably have better stuff, but giving something this precious to us…”
“Brother Jia, if he won’t take it, give it to me. Give me one of those things too, and I won’t ask for an extra minute.”
“Alright, I’ll give you guys the next ones I find. This blade is just something I stumbled upon while picking through trash last night.”
Hearing Yang Zicang say that, the room erupted into cries and groans.
……
Upon hearing the report, Ning Yang furrowed his brow.
So this Jiazi Intermission was indeed a last-minute decision. That meant Wang Chong and the others had been bought off by him shortly after he met them?
“Did they really say ‘Chrono Weapon’?”
{It was a bit far to hear clearly, but at least two or three of them were saying that term ‘Chrono Weapon’. He claimed he found it while scavenging last night.}
Ning Yang laughed in anger.
Found while scavenging…
Wang Chong, these idiots—could they really fall for such nonsense? No wonder they’ve been so easily tricked into spilling information.
Would I really not know if I were the overlord of this land? If there were such good stuff within these dozens of miles that I hadn’t found, then I’d be a damn mule.
“Find an excuse to kick him out this afternoon.”
{Brother Ning, why this afternoon? We can make him scram right now, many of us.}
“He’s got Master Zuo seriously fooled. I’ll make up an excuse to take Master Zuo out first, then we’ll talk.”
{We’ve underestimated Master Zuo too much.}
Inside the small room by the entrance, Captain Jia conferred briefly with a few people beside him, whispering his plan in a low voice.
“What reason should we use?” Niuwa said.
“Think he’s some big shot? We don’t need a reason. You’re really just a brute from a cow.”
Niuwa scratched his head. He still felt these guys were making a mountain out of a molehill, especially since they’d just put on his hat.
But he was just the man in charge of the dirty work and couldn’t deal with anything else. He could only sigh at his bad luck—this time, he’d end up a beggar out in the wilderness.
Just then, Zhang Yuanxin’s frowning figure appeared in front of the wooden hut beside the main gate of the shed area.
Huddling inside saw someone coming and quickly stopped their discussion. Captain Jia smiled as he asked:
“Master Zhang, what gives you the leisure to step out?”
“I’m looking for you guys. After I fell asleep last night, I felt like someone came into the room.”
“Really? Did you lose anything?”
“No, but…”
“That might be just some itchy fellow who bumped you open, Master Zhang. Remember to lock the door with a wooden stick tonight.”
Seeing that the others weren’t paying attention to him and were subtly hinting for him to leave, Zhang Yuanxin walked away with a dark look on his face.
As he disappeared through the main gate, a man in the small guardhouse near the entrance curled his lip:
“He hasn’t even done anything yet, and he’s already acting like an assistant camp chief.”
“Keep your voice down. Boiler-making is crucial for us. We’ll need that tech to even get an order ticket in the future.”
“That can’t be the only thing we rely on. Sigh, we’ve got way too few people here who know how to actually build things.”
Items that used to be everywhere leave you scratching your head when you actually try to make them. Forget about the recipe—even when you have the materials and components right in front of you, you wouldn’t know how to assemble them.
For a joint, building a complex item—you try to find someone with genuine first-hand manufacturing experience, or at the very least, a blueprint.
“Aren’t you a mechanic?” Niuwa suddenly looked at the scrawny man across from him. “Why don’t you build a car then?”
The man in question—who was always squatting next to Captain Jia acting as his assistant—didn’t like that suggestion one bit. He pursed his lips sourly:
“Do you know how to use a smartphone?”
“Yeah…”
“Oh yeah? Then come over here and build me an MCU. You’re barking about building a car—believe me, I’ll turn you into one first.”