Chapter 832 - 697: Walk Slowly on Yellow Springs Road

Chapter 832: Chapter 697: Walk Slowly on Yellow Springs Road

The elder didn’t even glance at the eyeball. He simply pinched it lightly with two fingers, and the eyeball, much like the wall before, quickly melted into a viscous liquid, dripping into the sewage at his feet.

"Xiaojiu..."

The elder spoke in a hoarse, deep voice reminiscent of an owl, addressing the empty, dark waterway,

"The item you left for the Young Master, I’ve obtained it. You... can rest in peace now."

He sighed softly, carefully wiped the dust off the Sheepskin Scroll, and placed it safely close to his body.

After finishing all this, the elder slowly pulled the corners of his mouth into a chilling smile:

"However, walk slowly on the Yellow Springs Road, don’t be in a hurry. I will soon send those who wronged you down to accompany you. Would you prefer Mask or Zuo Bai to arrive first?"

Hehehe——

The elder let out a series of eerie low laughs. Before the laughter faded, he casually pressed his palm lightly on the edge of the hole he had melted out.

The next moment, the elder’s figure blurred like a ghost and vanished from the spot.

Five seconds later.

Using the hole in the wall as the center, a section of the underground passage wall, stretching over twenty meters both front and back, along with its supporting structure, seemed to lose all its strength at once, collapsing and softening in a massive crumble.

Like butter doused with strong acid, it turned into a thick pool of sludge, collapsing with a loud crash.

The ground above also sagged deeply downward as it lost support, becoming soft and forming an irregular pit, with mud-like substance continuously dripping from the edges...

.....

The hunchbacked elder was in Zone 9 to retrieve an item for his Young Master, using the jump-and-hop path.

Zhao Jingyi, on the other hand, was in Zone 9 to retrieve something for her mentor, even though her mentor had forbidden her from doing so.

But she still arrived as fast as she could; after all, sometimes a student’s filial piety is just that touching.

Zhao Jingyi took the "zigzag" route.

Between the zones, across the vast Relic Areas and No Man’s Lands, you could drive however you wanted, without any traffic regulations to bind you, as long as you could make it to the destination alive.

However, when Zhao Jingyi and the convoy she was with finally arrived after a perilous journey, they found something was amiss.

All entry and exit channels of the city were under martial law and blockade, the atmosphere murderous.

Uniformed soldiers of the Investigation Corps had replaced the usual security personnel, fully taking over and guarding all entry points.

The convoy from Zone 6 was stopped outside the city.

The convoy wasn’t large, consisting of a total of eight heavily modified cargo and armed off-road vehicles, each appearing as if it had just been pulled out from mud and blood.

A thick layer of yellow sand and dust covered the original paint, and the fronts were flecked with spattered, now dried, blood stains. Some vehicles had armor plates with claw-like tears, while others showed terrifying holes in the body panels.

Clearly, the journey had not been smooth.

When they set out, the convoy was made up of fourteen vehicles, but only eight managed to reach beneath the walls of Zone 9.

A survival rate exceeding fifty percent was already something to boast about in the long-haul shipping between Lower Cities.

One must realize that long-distance convoys typically prepare about thirty percent more "cargo" to account for normal transportation losses.

When the convoy unfortunately encountered hordes of Calamity Corpses or other formidable mutant creatures, the prepared "cargo" would be "released" to pave the way for the convoy.

What exactly the "cargo" was, where it came from, and why it was so sacrificial?

Trust me, you wouldn’t want to know the specifics, and it was certainly not Zhao Jingyi.

At this moment, Zhao Jingyi was sitting in the cargo section towards the rear of one of the transport trucks.

The compartment was dimly lit, filled with the smell of engine oil, sweat, and lingering blood.

Resting against her suitcase, she listened to the whispered exchanges between two convoy members riding with her.

"Damn, what’s going on? Why is Zone 9 suddenly under lockdown? This doesn’t seem right, what’s happened inside?"

The scar-faced member kept glancing nervously at the cold muzzles of the Investigation Corps soldiers outside the window.

Another member spat inside the truck, grumbling:

"Who knows, maybe they’re just looking for an excuse to collect another ’passage fee.’

Sigh, let’s hope they don’t milk us too hard, or after this run, with the losses and ’cargo’ costs, we won’t make much at all."

At that thought, both of them appeared quite agitated.

"Damn, I really don’t get it, why are all the zones suddenly going crazy, registering those Blank People, damn it!!!"

"Yeah, it’ll probably cost a fortune to recruit more ’cargo’ later, these days, it’s getting harder to make a living."

The convoy leader returned with a grim face, slamming the hull of their truck forcefully, the dull sound interrupting their conversation.

The leader’s expression was extremely unpleasant, clearly indicating that discussions with the Investigation Corps hadn’t gone well.

Zhao Jingyi had concealed her identity, blending into a pharmaceutical company’s fleet from Zone 6 as part of the freight under transport.

Yes, as part of the cargo that needed protection.

As such, she officially had no say, simply sitting quietly in a corner of the compartment, like the other silent boxes.