"Don't move."
Gu Qing Shan carried Su Xue'er slowly back from the edge of the tracks to the middle of the railway.
He let out a long breath and set Su Xue'er down.
--Beyond the tracks stretched bottomless darkness. They couldn't see how far it went or make out how deep it was.
As for above the tracks, the open secret passage was steadily rising and receding into the distance.
The secret passage was about to move away from the tracks.
Gu Qing Shan was a little surprised.
He hadn't expected the passage to shift. That meant no one could use the same method as before to reach this place again.
The good news was that once the passage moved away, the giant bone claw and its master would be far from here, too.
The crowd above stirred, apparently hurrying to figure out how to get down.
Taking advantage of the moment, Gu Qing Shan asked Su Xue'er,
"Did the star chart activate? What did it show?"
"It showed the train's name. It's called the Explorer. There was a line of text beside it, um, it said... 'Train in hibernation. The switch for physical startup is hidden beside window eleven in the third carriage. It's a square button.'"
Gu Qing Shan looked over at the steel train and murmured, "It seems this was left behind by the Star Brilliance Empire."
The train had four carriages, each a little over twenty meters long. It sat silently on the tracks.
Just then, Lan Xiu brought his people down.
"So it's a being from the technology side," Lan Xiu said in sudden realization.
Gu Yan came down, too.
"Didn't you say it was a bug?" He glared at his follower.
The follower said aggrievedly, "My lord, it really did look like a bug."