The tunnel returned to a dead silence, leaving only metallic dust drifting slowly within the beams of the emergency lights.
Chu You did not waste time.
She tilted her head and focused for two seconds, confirming there were no footsteps of reinforcements rushing over due to the brief commotion.
She then gave a crisp, clean gesture to Lin Mo and the other three — follow and stay quiet.
Without unnecessary questions or pleasantries, she turned around.
Her figure resembled a nocturnal animal melting into the shadows as she hugged the cold, rough rock wall, quickly turning into a narrower, more dimly lit side path.
Lin Mo nodded to Gao Yuan and Du Qiang, and the three of them followed immediately.
The route Chu You chose was extremely tricky.
It was not a main road or a conventional passage visible in the cave; instead, she utilized many naturally formed rock cracks, abandoned maintenance tunnels, and gaps left behind during artificial expansions that appeared to be dead ends.
She moved almost silently, her pace carrying a strange rhythm.
She paused at times and accelerated at others, as if she could hear dangers imperceptible to the naked eye or common sense.
She truly could perceive them.
The Oracle she inherited from Xie Ling was extremely sensitive to liquid perception.
Even without much development, it had extended into a faint ability to sense the flow of blood within living organisms.
Within a certain range, she could vaguely feel the unique rhythm and heat distribution brought by the blood flow of living people.
This allowed her to avoid patrol teams in advance, choosing paths where the guards were sparsest or their attention was temporarily diverted.
Although this ability was not as clear as direct X-ray vision, it was a priceless guide in the intricate, poorly lit underground labyrinth.
In less than ten minutes, they had made several turns and completely distanced themselves from the previous combat zone.
They eventually slipped into a secluded small warehouse filled with dusty wooden crates and old mechanical parts.
The warehouse door was a heavy metal one.
Chu You fiddled with a slender wire in the keyhole a few times before it opened gently.
Her technique was practiced and professional.
The air inside was musty, but fortunately, it was safe enough.
The four of them quickly slipped inside.
Chu You closed the door behind her, leaving only a small crack for observation.
She had just turned around, intending to assess the condition of Lin Mo and the others, when her pupils suddenly constricted …
In the dim light of the warehouse, Lin Mo’s face appeared exceptionally pale.
His forehead was covered in a fine layer of cold sweat that shimmered slightly in the faint light.
He seemed to be forcing himself to hold on, but his body had reached its limit.
The moment Chu You turned around, his feet stumbled, and he lost his balance, falling straight forward!
“Lin Mo!”
Chu You’s voice rose slightly.
Without a moment’s hesitation, she lunged forward, her arms instinctively spreading out to catch his collapsing body.
The young man’s weight and momentum forced her back half a step, but she stood firm.
Her arms wrapped around his shoulders and back.
Where she touched him, she could feel his muscles unnaturally stiff and trembling slightly beneath his combat uniform.
“What’s wrong?”
Anxiety and concern were irrepressible in Chu You’s tone.
She quickly lowered her head to check his face.
Lin Mo’s brows were tightly knit, and his jaw seemed to be clenched with effort.
His breathing was much faster than usual, accompanied by heavy panting.
“I’m… I’m fine.”
Lin Mo tried to steady his voice, but his words betrayed his weakness.
“…The Oracle consumption was too high.”
He offered a brief explanation, unwilling to elaborate on how he had squeezed his already nearly exhausted Oracle source to destroy the ventilation grilles and create the ice surface for the surprise attack.
Chu You understood immediately.
She didn’t ask further questions.
Half-supporting and half-carrying Lin Mo, she let him slowly slide down until he was sitting against the cold warehouse wall.
She then knelt on one knee and quickly took off her tactical backpack.
She unzipped a waterproof side compartment and precisely pulled out a flat metal box.
After opening it, she took out a deep blue liquid sealed in a transparent ampoule — a high-efficiency compound energy supplement.
This was a military supply she had scavenged while outside.
They were scarce and extremely precious.
“Drink this. It will quickly replenish your basic energy and relieve neural fatigue and muscle sluggishness…” She spoke rapidly.
As she talked, she neatly flicked off the sealed neck of the ampoule with her fingernail and brought the mouth of the bottle directly to Lin Mo’s lips without any hesitation.
At the same time, without looking back, she spoke to Gao Yuan and Du Qiang, who had followed them in, her tone returning to its usual steadiness.
“There are a few high-energy compressed rations and two bottles of purified water in the middle layer of my backpack. Replenish your strength first and take the time to rest.”
“This place is relatively hidden, but I can’t be sure it’s absolutely safe.”
Gao Yuan and Du Qiang had indeed reached their physical limits.
Gao Yuan, in particular, was at his wit’s end as Lu Sanshan’s middle-aged body had been put through repeated ordeals.
Hearing this, the two didn’t stand on ceremony.
They whispered their thanks, caught the backpack Chu You tossed their way, and sat down against another pile of goods to eat ravenously.
Du Qiang ate with more restraint, but his speed was not slow.
This female body also desperately needed energy.
On the other side, Lin Mo did not resist Chu You’s feeding.
He tilted his head back slightly and opened his mouth, obediently letting her slowly pour the cool, slightly viscous supplement into his mouth.
The liquid slid down his throat with a strange taste, like a mixture of metal and mint.
Soon, a gentle but steady stream of heat spread out from his stomach, like dry land being nourished by a fine drizzle.
Although he was still far from recovering his Oracle power, that heart-palpitating sense of exhaustion and the needle-like headache began to fade.
His stiff muscles also relaxed slightly.
Chu You watched his Adam’s apple move as he finished the last drop.
Only then did she withdraw her hand and carefully place the empty bottle back into the metal box.
She did not stand up immediately.
Instead, remaining in her kneeling position, she carefully studied Lin Mo’s face.
Only when she saw the deathly pallor fade slightly did she let out a nearly inaudible sigh of relief.
Lin Mo leaned against the wall, feeling the warmth gradually reviving within him, but his gaze remained fixed on Chu You’s face, which was inches away.
The yellow light from the warehouse ceiling lamps outlined her unfamiliar profile — the somewhat thin cheeks, the nose that wasn’t particularly high, the pale lips, and those eyes with slightly drooping corners that were currently focused and shining…
‘Not a single part of her resembles the Senior Sister in my memory. But heartbeats don’t lie.’
Beneath this completely strange skin, he was absolutely certain that the soul watching him was the one who had walked through countless life-and-death dangers by his side, the one who could read his intentions with a single glance.
This sense of confirmation that transcended physical appearance gave him an indescribable peace of mind despite his weakness, and even… a slight throb of something lost and found.
After resting for a few minutes, the effects of the supplement manifested further.
Lin Mo felt his breathing become much smoother.
Only then did he speak.
His voice was still a bit raspy, but it was steady.
“Senior Sister, how did you… also get in? What happened… outside?”
Chu You finally stood up and sat down beside him, leaning her back against the same wall.
She glanced at him sideways, her expression somewhat complex.
“A violent structural mutation occurred at the edge of the Dead Zone. The cause is unknown.”
“After the three of you entered the Dead Zone, the remaining rescue members couldn’t get in. Moreover, they were ambushed by Shi Bian Ti…” She paused and looked at Lin Mo.
“Fortunately, the Night Hunt team arrived in time. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.”
Lin Mo fell silent.
This explained why the other team members had been delayed.
“Besides,” Chu You changed the subject, her gaze turning subtle, filled with understanding and a hint of helplessness, “haven’t you already guessed most of it? That squad leader named Luo Yong from the 108th Regiment… the unique fisherman’s reverse loop knot on his arm that I only taught you…”
“And the simplified directional markers you left all the way from the outskirts of the valley…” She listed them one by one, her tone flat but every word clear.
Hearing this, the corners of Lin Mo’s pale lips finally curled upward slightly, forming an extremely faint but genuine smile.
“I just did it casually,” he said softly, his tone nonchalant.
“The situation was chaotic at the time, and I thought… just in case.”
“Heh.”
Chu You let out a short, blunt snort through her nose and then gave him a very clear eye-roll.
Regarding his nearly instinctive habit of planning ahead and his meticulous layouts, Chu You had only one evaluation…
Old Fox.
She didn’t dwell on the topic, her expression quickly tightening as she returned to the grim reality before them.
“We can catch up once we’re safe.”
“Now, sync all the information you’ve gathered since entering to me as quickly as possible… Su Xiji, the Underground City, the battle outside, and every anomaly you’ve encountered.”
Over the next period of time, the warehouse echoed with their deliberately lowered, rapid conversation.
Gao Yuan and Du Qiang recounted how they had encountered an internal purge, been imprisoned upon entering the Dead Zone, and how Lin Mo had appeared to rescue them.
They focused on describing Su Xiji’s chilling absolute control and those vague but dangerous orders.
Lin Mo supplemented the key details, especially the highly disciplined squad of Abnormal Beings, as well as Su Xiji’s final, puzzling words: “You don’t understand” and “I have no choice.”
Chu You listened with extreme focus, her back straight.
Her fingers unconsciously traced light patterns on the dusty floor, as if she were deducing various possibilities on a virtual chessboard.
Her brows drew tighter and tighter.
About five minutes later, the situation was mostly clear.
Chu You stopped her moving fingers and slowly raised her head.
In the dim light, the fleeting relaxation she had shown during their reunion was gone, as was the focus she had while gathering intelligence.
All that remained was a heavy, almost tangible gravity and a deep sense of urgency hidden in her eyes.
“We’re in big trouble…” she said softly, her voice sounding exceptionally muffled in the empty warehouse.
“What we are trapped in isn’t just a reenactment of a historical fragment.”
“You probably don’t know this yet.”
“Before we left, Blacksmith from Night Hunt used special means to obtain an encrypted file.”
“The file was very blurry, and… only I, Blacksmith, and Flower Yao have seen it. We’ve communicated briefly and reached a preliminary conclusion — “
“Major General Lu Sanshan, the political commissar of the 103rd Division, might be a survivor of this blocking action.”
Hearing this, the three men were all stunned.
What Chu You said was clearly beyond their expectations.
Because no matter how they looked at the current situation, Lu Sanshan’s fate seemed bound to Su Xiji and even the command center of the 103rd Division.
How did he survive?
“From your descriptions and Su Xiji’s behavior, the Dead Zone might have undergone some kind of unexpected… distortion or change.”
“The wheels of history are not only rolling along the old tracks; they might also be pushed by an unknown force into a more extreme abyss — one that didn’t even appear in the original records.”
“Most importantly…”
“The time left for us is running out.”
Her sharp gaze swept over the three of them, eventually landing on a certain point in the air, throwing out the ultimate question that hung over everyone’s hearts but remained unanswered.
“But the core problem is still shrouded in mist… What is Su Xiji’s true purpose? How could he incite so many soldiers and officers to defect with him? Does some kind of connection exist between him and the Shi Bian Ti? And…”
She paused, her voice dropping even lower, each word striking their eardrums like a hammer.
“Where are the officers and soldiers of the Second Synthetic Brigade? They should also be in the Dead Zone, but where are they?”
The air in the warehouse seemed to solidify completely as that question fell.
Silence flooded the small temporary shelter like a cold tide.
The distant hum of the ventilation system sounded like the heavy breathing of this massive underground tomb in its sleep, striking the increasingly tense nerves of everyone present with an ominous rhythm.
“Let’s replan.”
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Mo suddenly spoke.
He looked up at Chu You with a serious tone.
“Even though we are in the Dead Zone and the people we encounter are… cough, souls who have long since died.”
“Their thinking at this moment remains in the state they were in when they were alive… especially Su Xiji. This man is not simple.”
As the commander of the 103rd Division, the only flaw people could find with him was that he was not an Oracle.
“Yes.”
Chu You nodded.
“In this era, being able to lead an army to resist the invasion of Abnormal Beings means that, in a sense… he is even the most powerful enemy we have ever encountered.”
“So our current goal is to catch Su Xiji?”
On the other side, Gao Yuan also joined the discussion.
Du Qiang fiddled with the long hair by his ear, his eyes narrowing slightly.
“Catch him, and I guarantee I can pry his mouth open… You can leave the interrogation to me.”
Hearing this, Lin Mo nodded.
He forced himself to stand up slowly.
“That’s the plan.”
“Now, we need to have a good talk about how to properly invite this Commander Su to a…”
“Place suitable for a chat.”