Chapter 136: Go to a Safe Place

Zhou Liren covered his ears with trembling hands. He dared not listen, feeling as if he might faint again.
Was he about to die… but he still wanted to continue living…
{Don’t be afraid, child.}
A gentle voice arose from within his heart, and a natural fragrance seemed to emerge from the depths of his soul.
Zhou Liren looked up. A phantom-like female figure appeared before him, smiling warmly at him. In an instant, all his fear vanished, and he felt much calmer.
A faint, elusive fragrance filled his nose. Zhou Liren noticed that the osmanthus flowers at the woman’s temple were moving without any wind. Their petals opened and closed, shedding barely visible, light golden specks like lost time made visible.
{Don’t make a sound. Someone will come to rescue you soon.}
[Soon? Who are you?]
{The one who once gave you the formula.}
About ten seconds later, the hands of the man bent over the operating table paused slightly. He cast a sidelong glance behind him. The figure on the ground had disappeared!
The scalpel in his grip flared red.
“Invisibility? Seven, is that you!”
There was no answer.
“Isn’t it No. 7 who just gained the invisibility model?” He squinted his eyes. “Who could it be?”
Propped up on the stone platform, the newly awakened Li Zhinan felt his eyelids heavy and his mind drowsy as he looked at the figure holding a scalpel.
“Who… are you?”
“You can call me Bandage. Sleep now. When you wake up… go into the mountains for me and see what’s hidden there.”
The man succumbed to sleep, and not long after, he felt as if he caught a faint, fragrant scent. Naturally, he snapped awake—but found himself in a dream.
Splintered fragments of information surged into Li Zhinan’s mind.
“This is… information from another world? Wait, what is ‘another world’ all about?”
The ethereal cave was surrounded by lush vegetation. Li Zhinan stepped outside and gazed up at a star-dotted, azure blue sky. Faint sunlight filtered down from between the stars onto the ground, as the forest teemed with chirping birds and fragrant blooms. It was an abandoned camp, yet the supplies appeared as if they had been placed there just moments ago.
Li Zhinan walked over and wiped his hand on a makeshift assembly of long spears and short swords.
He turned his head toward a basket filled with food and a chest stocked with armor, picking up an iron-framed glass mirror from a box of clothing. On its surface appeared the reflection of “Wang Chaoguang.”
Suddenly, those features rippled with change, shifting into his own face.
Abruptly, Li Zhinan jolted awake, and the mirror crashed to the ground.
Everything came back to him now: he had left Earth, arrived in a strange world… and now, the other occupant here hadalready been captured!
The entire team had been dissected and met their deaths, and the very first among them was Wang Chaoguang—all because he had obtained the incense pill formula!
And that bandaged figure, wrapped from the neck down in bandages, sliced Wang Chaoguang into countless pieces, even stuffing some parts into the bodies of the other companions traveling together…
“Why is my face Wang Chaoguang’s!”
Li Zhinan slumped down to the ground, utterly shocked because a certain foreboding had already dawned on him.
The world suddenly twisted, and a godlike or demonic figure stood in midair, sweeping down a palm that shattered the earth. Li Zhinan felt his very spirit torn into fragments, only to coalesce again as a fragrance.
The phantom frowned and muttered, “Wounded this badly, yet able to counteract my mental attack…”
Back in reality, on the stone platform, Li Zhinan’s tightly-knit brows slowly relaxed.
……
Outside the cave, Zhou Liren, who was being hugged and quickly carried away, was startled to find himself floating about a meter off the ground, held by a faint, barely discernible silhouette; yet whenever it’s speed slowed down even a bit, he faced the risk of falling.
After rapidly moving for a while, as the heel of Zhou Liren’s shoe brushed past a certain bush, he noticed leaves marked with a sign they had made when entering the mountain—had he really escaped?
Shortly after, he felt himself being set down by the invisible entity. Beside him, a handsome figure materialized out of the surrounding air.
“Finally got you away from that terrifying freak,” the young man said, letting out a long sigh and smiling casually.
“Thank you, thank you.”
Zhou Liren nearly burst into tears. Someone had actually saved him! He immediately turned to kneel and bow in thanks, but was held fast by the young man beside him.
“It’s nothing, no need to thank me. I just happened to pass by.”
The young man crouched down: “Hah, lucky you didn’t make a sound when I touched you, or I wouldn’t have been able to get you out.”
Zhou Liren wiped his eyes with his sleeve, looking tearful and puzzled.
“Wasn’t it you who used your ability to tell me not to make a sound?”
“Huh? Me?”
The young man looked at him blankly, pointing a finger at himself. “No, I didn’t. Hey, you’re not scared out of your mind, are you?”
“N-no, it’s just that someone told me not to make a sound back then, and then you picked me up and ran away. Uh, my name is Zhou Liren. May I ask who my great benefactor is?”
“That’s strange. Me?” The young man frowned, deep in thought. He hadn’t told anyone about his plan, so how did someone get wind of him.
“Never mind. You can just call me Shi Qian.”
The young man smiled and patted the other’s shoulder. “Of course, I’m not the only one using the name Shi Qian. So you can call me by my current alias… Wuying.”
Wuying stood up and looked into the distance. Half a mile away, flocks of birds were startled into flight. A hunting team must have drawn near after buying incense pellets from Yang Zicang and heading into the mountains.
He thought of the young man he had once exchanged timelines with.
Never expected the other party to have caused such a stir in the Frequency-Loss Zone in such a short time—truly worthy of someone who could quickly boost his city’s ranking.
“Looks like I need to find an informant to gather more intel on Yang Zicang. Maybe someone around him has some covert surveillance ability.”
“What are you saying?”
Zhou Liren looked at the murmuring Wuying; the young man suddenly looked up and smiled:
“Nothing much. We’re not far from outside now; just head out on your own. Yeah, for safety’s sake, don’t go back to your old shanty area.”
Zhou Liren was still pondering the “Shifts in Time” that Wu Ying had just mentioned — wasn’t that a name from the Water Margin?
“Then where can I go now…”
Zhou Liren asked, his heart adrift like a child who had suddenly lost his home.
“For now, go to the safest place, of course.”
“The safest…”
“Also, don’t casually reveal information about that person just now, unless the person you’re looking for is very strong.”
Suddenly, the rustling of leaves sounded beside him. Zhou Liren looked back in fright, but it was just a running wild hare. Yet it reminded him that this place was not safe.
“Very strong? How strong does he have to be? As strong as you?”
“I’m not that strong.” Wu Ying smiled, spreading his hands, then pointed in a direction: “Someone as strong as Manager of Cargo Team from Big Party, only then could he deal with that person.”
“You mean…”
Zhou Liren opened his mouth vaguely but then shut it tight.
He already knew where he should go.
……
The next morning, Yang Zicang was contacting Boppoli.
“Is Moli still unconscious?”
In the perception image, the boy with curled yellow hair was also very anxious. By Moli’s bedside, two doctors were hooking him up with IV drips to replenish his energy.
{No, he still hasn’t woken up until now.}
These doctors couldn’t detect any issues either.
I can only pray that Moli will be okay.
After severing the connection, Yang Zicang looked at the man who had just been brought into the tent by Luo Bin. He sat very awkwardly in the corner and was indeed an “acquaintance”—the very one who had sold him the formula three hundred years ago.
Yang Zicang pulled over a newly made chair, saying,
“I heard that Mr. Liren arrived near here early this morning. Is it about the formula?”
“No, no, no. Something like a formula, once sold, is sold.” Zhou Liren lowered his head, stammering.
To Yang Zicang’s surprise.
He took a few extra looks at him. From his expression, it was clear that the man seemed deeply frightened, having gone through an absolutely terrifying experience. His entire face was haggard to the point of being almost deformed.
“What happened?”
“I, many of my men died in the mountains. It wasn’t monsters that did it. It was humans,” he rambled incoherently.
After listening to Zhou Liren’s account of the terrifying experience in the cave, Yang Zicang patted him on the shoulder heavily.
“My condolences.”
On this lost-frequency land, trouble was common. Running into someone like that only meant the poor bastards had it coming.
However, this kind of twisted character was definitely worth guarding against. Clearly, the Shed Master Wuyou had rich experience in these matters. It seemed that Yuan Xuelin hadn’t come to assist him solely due to a demotion.
“I’ll need to share more time-rewards with these uninvited helpers,” Yang Zicang thought.
After a long sigh, the model on his chest lit up, and a broken line shot out toward Zhou Liren, who was still sitting primly on the opposite chair.
“This is five thousand hours of sequence — consider it payment for buying out your formula. Don’t mention to anyone that you know this secret formula from now on; you can’t protect it.”
Zhou Liren almost broke down in tears.
Indeed, he had no strength to protect it.
Ever since obtaining the formula, he’d only met two people who wanted it: one gave him sequence, the other cost his brethren their lives. If he blabbed and more people came after the formula, he truly couldn’t withstand it.
He no longer dared to mention knowing the formula, wishing with all his heart he could actually forget it.
Yang Zicang got up, picked up his water cup from the cabinet, took a drink, and casually asked:
“You just said someone carried you as they ran out. Who was that, so fast? Did he also come over here?”
“No, no. He wasn’t that fast; he could simply turn invisible.”
“Invisible?” Yang Zicang’s hand, holding the teacup, paused.