Chapter 373: A Stroke of Luck
From Xu Zhi’s observation, Jiang Qing—who had been left behind—seemed to have fallen into a state of profound bewilderment, seemingly at a loss for what to do.
In reality, there was probably nothing she could do now.
Shortly after, her eyes grew clouded, as if she were being beguiled by something. Dragging her heavily injured body, she picked up her longsword to use as a crutch and began shuffling slowly toward the deeper depths of the Lost Lands.
Xu Zhi frowned as she watched this unfold, realizing one thing.
Having lost her extraordinary abilities and suffered a drastic drop in rank, Jiang Qing was no longer capable of resisting the temptations of the Lost Lands.
She had likely lost her sense of self by now.
Dusk was fast approaching, and in about an hour, the sky would turn pitch black. When midnight arrived, Jiang Qing, who was still walking toward the core of the Lost Lands, would inevitably be swallowed by the Midnight.
Because of the earlier clash and the high-ranking Extraordinary who had come out from this direction, many native extraordinary creatures had actually been scared off. Furthermore, Jiang Qing was grievously wounded and moving at a snail’s pace, so for the time being, she didn’t run into any danger.
However, blood continued to pour from her wounds. Because her circuit was ruined and her extraordinary energy was depleted, her self-healing ability could no longer close her injuries; it could only barely keep her alive. Before long, even this residual self-healing capacity wouldn’t be enough to preserve her life.
By her estimate, when Midnight descended, Jiang Qing would probably have only half a breath left.
If she dies after entering the Midnight, will she turn into one of the trees inside it?
Xu Zhi was quite curious about this.
As Jiang Qing crawled closer toward the depths of Midnight, the thin mist on the ground gradually grew dense. When the last ray of sunlight dipped beneath the mountain ridge, the forest fell back into absolute silence.
Perched high in the treetops, Xu Zhi watched coldly as Jiang Qing moved ahead, seemingly completely oblivious to the impending danger. She saw the girl’s golden eyes—which usually shone like bright lanterns—lose all their luster. Like a blind person groping forward in the forest, her steps grew incredibly sluggish until she finally lacked the strength to take another step and collapsed to her knees. Yet, as if entirely entranced, she stubbornly tilted her head up to gaze toward the deepest parts of the Lost Lands.
What exactly was in there?
The night dew grew heavier, and the white mist on the ground completely submerged the kneeling Jiang Qing. Then, Xu Zhi felt a slight chill run down her spine. Her instincts seemed to perceive something extremely dangerous, flashing a warning in her mind. In the next instant, the slowly drifting white mist suddenly surged. Xu Zhi felt her palm burning hot, and she immediately went on high alert, her body tensing as she prepared to flee at any moment.
Amidst the churning white mist, Jiang Qing’s aura grew increasingly faint; describing her as on her last legs didn’t even do justice to her current state. If nothing went wrong, she would stop breathing in the very next second.
However, Xu Zhi didn’t get to witness the moment she breathed her last because, in the blink of an eye, Jiang Qing’s figure completely dissolved into the dense fog, as if the mist had carried her away to another world—a world where only the dead could exist.
The sense of danger dissipated along with Jiang Qing’s disappearance, and the burning heat in her palm gradually returned to normal. It seemed as though some terrifying entity had receded, but Xu Zhi’s heart was still pounding harder than usual.
She was certain that what just occurred was definitely the “Midnight.”
The Midnight had taken away Jiang Qing when she had one foot in the grave. No, perhaps she was already dead the moment she entered it.
Xu Zhi tried to channel the [Moth] she had left inside Jiang Qing’s body, only to find that the [Moth] had lost its effect.
It could be that the [Midnight] was isolating her extraordinary ability, but it was also highly probable that Jiang Qing was already dead.
The [Moth] would not work on a corpse.
Regardless, this outcome was exactly what Xu Zhi wanted to see.
As she traveled deeper into the Lost Lands, aside from the intensifying temptation, Xu Zhi could also feel that this deep-seated inner craving seemed to lessen by just a fraction after nightfall.
This could only be because of the Midnight.
It appeared that the Midnight truly existed at the very center of the Lost Lands, and the thing generating that intense temptation for all Extraordinaries was also within the area shrouded by the Midnight.
This wasn’t particularly good news for Xu Zhi, but it wasn’t unexpected either, so she wasn’t terribly disappointed.
The night passed without incident. Early the next morning, Xu Zhi once again set out toward the deeper regions to rendezvous with her thralls. However, she slightly altered her path. She wanted to check out the place where that [Lantern] aspect Extraordinary had come from. Jiang Qing had staked out this spot under orders to ambush him, clearly determined not to let him return alive. Why him?
Was there something special about him, or had he discovered something within the Lost Lands?
Xu Zhi had looted everyone’s storage devices, but she hadn’t found anything out of the ordinary inside. They were mostly packed with extraordinary resources, along with two circuit scrolls and a circuit inscription.
On the whole, nothing was particularly special, and she couldn’t see anything indicating that this man absolutely had to die. It couldn’t have been solely to deliver a power-up to Jiang Qing, could it?
That wouldn’t warrant Jiang Qing taking such an immense risk…
Thus, Xu Zhi decided to head toward the direction the man had come from. In truth, she wasn’t sure if the man had walked out in a straight line; she was just trying her luck at random.
As Xu Zhi gradually approached the mid-tier zone of the Lost Lands, the ranks of the native extraordinary creatures appearing along the way also began to steadily rise. At times, Xu Zhi had no choice but to stop and first deal with the extraordinary creatures blocking her path and glaring at her maliciously.
Strangely enough, she didn’t encounter a single fellow Extraordinary throughout this entire journey.
This didn’t seem quite right. There was a settlement directly behind this area, so it should be much easier to spot Extraordinaries here compared to other parts of the Lost Lands. Furthermore, her advancing speed was quite fast, which should have made running into people more likely. Yet, she had been running for nearly a day and hadn’t crossed paths with a single soul.
As time ticked away and she had been running in this direction for close to seven hours, Xu Zhi finally spotted something different.
A “path” unexpectedly appeared ahead.
To be precise, it wasn’t a constructed road, but rather a trail that looked as though it had been beaten out by human footsteps.
This was the Lost Lands. According to the map, there wasn’t any settlement ahead, and there wasn’t even a single settlement anywhere near this location. Regular Extraordinaries coming to the Lost Lands would never walk this way.
This was a relatively obscure spot extremely close to the mid-tier zone.
Yet, signs of frequent human movement had actually appeared here?
Instead of approaching recklessly, she summoned Xiaozhen and signaled it to scout ahead from above.
Xiaozhen could fly at high altitudes where it was extremely difficult for the human eye to detect, and with the faint white mist and tall, lush trees constantly blanketing the Lost Lands, its figure should have been even harder to spot.
Yet, completely against expectations, Xiaozhen was discovered almost immediately.
A sharp, piercing shockwave shot directly toward Xiaozhen with incredible speed, but it was still easily dodged by the falcon.
Xu Zhi instantly instructed Xiaozhen to pretend it was startled and fly away to avoid alerting the enemy.
Xu Zhi realized that her random decision had truly hit a massive stroke of luck.
There was bound to be something extraordinarily important hidden here.
