Armed Train in the Apocalypse

The black smoke condensed once more, forming the outline of Donghuang soldiers. Su Huan squinted his eyes, but before he could speak, his right hand directly grasped the latter’s neck. Facing the greedy and ruthless mark of the white demon, however, he remained quiet, showing no sign of feeding. Out of frustration, Su Huan gritted his teeth audibly, wishing he could bite down himself.

As the evil anomaly was about to open its mouth again, Su Huan sighed, reaching for his last resort.

All Things-Sealing!

The Court of All Things flickered and disappeared, and the evil anomaly in Su Huan’s hand vanished along with it.

Fortunately, the domain remained stable in performance. Unfortunately, the energy patterns on Su Huan’s body dimmed a little more. Thankfully, the escape of the two white demons caused the energy patterns on his body to nearly fully illuminate. The evil anomaly only occupied a few millimeters of the length of a pattern, leaving Su Huan capable of sealing hundreds more with ease.

At some point, the surroundings dimmed once more, while the ground became entirely red, gently swaying within the pit like orange-red jelly.

After dealing with the evil anomaly, Su Huan finally had the energy to carefully examine this world. Aside from the snowfall on the ground being melted, everything else was about the same as when he arrived. The night was like ink, windless and calm, with only the occasional sound of flames burning.

However, his evolutionary ability still existed, with a continuous stream of energy circulating and surging within his body, slowly enhancing his physique.

His hand habitually grasped his scalp to brush his hair back, but it ended up with a handful of black ash and broken hair. Su Huan paused slightly, casually conjuring a light mirror. In the mirror, his waist-length hair was burned, looking like a dog had gnawed at it, with the tips scorched and split.

Although his hair was far more resilient than wire, he had exerted almost all his effort during the battle with the white demon, naturally not having the time to pay attention to his hair. The recent explosion had been sudden, and the hair he’d grown for over a year couldn’t withstand it.

With fingers like a sword, energy passed through and his long hair fell into the boiling magma, slowly being devoured by flames.

Su Huan felt no sentiment about it. If it weren’t for Yu Yue finding it beautiful and frequently helping him maintain it, he would’ve shaved it earlier. Hair length doesn’t affect combat strength.

Touching his now much cooler buzz cut, Su Huan picked up the hunting gun and turned to head south.

Though there was no sun here, he remembered the direction he had entered, and such things were not prone to error.

He wanted to test exactly what was preventing others from leaving the Eternal Night Zone.

The energy torrent underfoot shot towards the south like a comet.

But half a day later, the conductor returned to the original spot, with a puzzled expression, frowning at the pit he had created.

Without wasting time, he once again flew south.

This time, a day passed before Su Huan returned to the original site, his face slightly darkening.

Discerning the direction for a while, he changed his approach this time, choosing to walk instead of flying.

Three hours later, he returned to the same spot, his face as dark as water.

The first time he flew for half a day, realizing he hadn’t moved far, the second time he flew for a day in the same direction, discovering he hadn’t flown out at all. The energy consumed by holding himself up inexplicably returned to his body, but due to interference from passive recovery abilities like ”energy reversal,” he hadn’t discerned it the first time.

Once he realized this, he almost instantly appeared at the edge of the pit.

Thus, he concluded the first rule: in the Eternal Night Zone, one cannot use flight as a rapid mode of movement.

The third time, he didn’t fly, but walked, and he finally exited, but even after several hours, he still hadn’t left the Eternal Night Zone. Given that he had only stepped back a bit to enter, the actual distance shouldn’t require him to walk for three hours. Continuing any further was pointless, so he decisively returned.

He moved slowly upon entering, taking close to two hours, yet only took a little over an hour to return.

This distance was substantial; relative to flying, he indeed walked a long distance.

”Could the rule of Eternal Night be spatial?”

Su Huan pondered.

If that were the case, finding this rule stone would be hard, but that’s only true for ordinary people.

For the conductor, he could use sheer force to break through.

In essence, Eternal Night is not much different from large areas like Plants and the Wind Snow Zone. So long as he transforms several grams or even hundreds of grams of substances, destroying everything visible, he could forcibly blow apart even a zone’s rule.

But that path is the worst option for Su Huan, who longs to understand the secrets of the apocalypse.

After sitting by the pit for three days, Su Huan erased the last sliver of Vikaron’s consciousness before getting up to walk further north.

He wanted to see what kind of monsters were hidden within the night’s darkness.

...

At the border between Wind Snow and Eternal Night, Iron Pine Forest leader Song Zhiyue squatted with a face the color of iron in the snow nest, having been here for half a month. Eating compressed biscuits like bricks when hungry, grabbing handfuls of snow to quench thirst, a dignified leader of a great force in such dire straits, yet daring not utter a word of complaint.

Not far away, the Armed Train hovered in mid-air, He Jie’s angry roars nearly relentless all night. The eight hundred pale green soldiers were scolded like rabbits, red-eyed, searching throughout the Wind Snow Zone.

Everyone knew it was futile, but no one dared pause for a moment.

All leaves on the train were canceled, all benefits of the Armed Corps revoked; soldiers trembled, and officers were extremely repressed, cooped up in the ready rooms, sharpening their fists and waiting for orders to march into the Eternal Night Zone.

Regarding whether to invade the Eternal Night Zone, daily disputes erupted ten times or more in the train’s locomotive and second-floor conference rooms in the dining car.

The train strictly prohibited discussions about its direction, but in every laboratory, public activity space, everyone privately debated whether the train would enter Eternal Night.

In the train’s school, Liu Yu gravely explained the train’s origins and rules; this is a mandatory lesson for every child growing up on the train.

They could be weak, lacking much education, but they must know to revere the rules, revere the conductor.

”...The Armed Train guards the top-grade evolutionary resources because the conductor is the highest-ranked evolver in this world. Just with him alone, the train is rated among the top forces.”

”No matter which career path you take in the future, remember the fundamental principle: only a train with the conductor is a complete train!”

The children’s ages ranged from a few months old infants to twelve-year-old teenagers; most listened with comprehension, and even the smallest babes remained attentive, seriously listening to Liu Yu’s lecture.

[Because when Master Eight turned twelve, he was already capable of fighting, so twelve on the train signifies adulthood; they may not enter the corps for combat, but must start working.]

In the apocalypse, everyone is stimulated by crisis, growing rapidly, even children.

A little girl with grass on her head hesitated for a moment, raising her small hand.

Liu Yu nodded, ”Xiaoya, do you have a question?”

The latter stood up, hesitatingly said, ”But... where did the conductor go?”

Liu Yu opened his mouth, unsure how to respond, temporarily appease?

That would be a lie to the perceptive children, who would eventually realize the conductor was missing, but would the conductor really return from the Eternal Night Zone?

Even witnessing the power of one resisting a thousand troops, he couldn’t confidently make this promise.

Thankfully, the bell signaled the end of class; facing the earnest and sincere gazes, Liu Yu left a parting word: ”This question the teacher doesn’t know either, but if there’s an answer, you’ll be informed first,” then hurriedly exited as if escaping.

Just outside the door, he saw the parents coming to pick up their kids in the hallway.

Because the school was on the train and adults were busy working, only very few parents came to pick up their children, with only the one here doing so consistently.

Liu Yu respectfully greeted, ”Master Eight.”

The youth gazing out the window turned, warmly smiling, ”How’s Xiaoya’s studies?”