Lin Yan whipped his head around and looked out the train window at the tracks.
A chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to his crown.
Wait.
I'm on a Soul Guidance Train right now, sitting beside Tang Wulin.
Nothing's going to happen to this train, is it?
This guy was notorious for being a train killer.
With him aboard, eight out of every ten trains ran into trouble.
They were either hijacked by Evil Soul Masters or attacked by terrorist organizations. At the very least, some track malfunction would leave them stranded halfway through the journey.
Before he could finish the thought, a thunderous crash sounded overhead.
"BOOM!!!"
The entire Soul Guidance Train jolted as if an invisible giant hand had smashed into it.
The carriage shook violently, all the lights went out, and the passengers' screams rose one after another.
Lin Yan instinctively pulled Gu Yuena into his arms and clamped his other hand around the armrest, barely keeping himself from being thrown aside.
The emergency braking system engaged, and the train slowly ground to a halt amid the shrill screech of metal.
Outside the window, a ghastly white pillar of light flared in the night sky.
A black figure hovered at its center.
His black robes billowed in the wind, concealing his face. Only two points of crimson light beneath his hood flickered on and off.
He spread his arms wide, his voice hoarse and booming.
"Foolish people!"
"The prophecy of the Creator God, the symbol of the primordial beginning, has appeared."
"The End Dragon has awakened. The Tenth Era has reached the brink of destruction."
"Humanity needs the Holy Spirit Cult to guide it."
"Next, I will take away the boy whose End Dragon Martial Soul has awakened and make him the Holy Spirit Cult's Holy Son."
"And you—will face the ultimate Judgment."
His voice echoed through the night sky for a long time.
Everyone in the carriage went pale.
"Holy Son... He said Holy Son? Is the Holy Spirit Cult's Holy Son in this carriage?"
"The Holy Spirit Cult—that Holy Spirit Cult! The Evil Soul Master organization!"
"We're doomed, we're doomed! My mother said that if you run into people from the Holy Spirit Cult, you should run for it. If you can't, play dead—"
"What good will playing dead do? They'll rip out your soul!"
The carriage descended into chaos.
Some people huddled beneath their seats, clutching their children.
Others pulled out their communicators and frantically dialed emergency numbers.
A few had already begun writing their last letters.
Tang Wulin's face was deathly pale. His fingers gripped the armrest so tightly they were turning white.
"How can I be this unlucky..."
His voice was choked with tears. "It's my first day at work, and this happens... Mom, Dad, what should I do? Am I really going to die at the hands of Evil Soul Masters today?"
Gu Yuena poked her head out of Lin Yan's arms.
She glanced at the black-robed man in the sky, then at Tang Wulin trembling in front of her, and her eyes darted around.
Then she gave a light leap and landed on Tang Wulin's head.
"Eh—?"
Before Tang Wulin could react, a sharp pain shot across his scalp.
Gu Yuena's claws drew a cut across the top of his head.
Then she lowered her head and lapped up the few drops of blood, drawing them into the Small World.
"Ah!" Tang Wulin let out a scream and crouched down, clutching his head.
"Let's go, let's go." Lin Yan's urging voice sounded in her mind.
Gu Yuena leapt back into his arms, curled her tail around him, and wrapped it tightly around his arm.
"Time to run, time to run!"
Lin Yan nodded.
The next moment, he vanished.
He hadn't run out. He had disappeared into thin air.
In the dark carriage, amid the passengers' screams, no one noticed that a boy and a dragon had suddenly vanished from a corner.
Space Teleportation.
Lin Yan appeared on the grass outside the train.
Then he appeared by the road fifty meters away, and then on the roof of a building farther off.
His figure turned into a silent bolt of lightning in the night. Each flicker carried him the maximum distance, without a moment's pause.
After five consecutive jumps, his meridians began to ache faintly.
But Gu Yuena's Creation Power immediately surged into him.
The gentle power washed through his meridians like spring water, suppressing the tearing sensation.
Five more jumps.
Then five more.
In less than thirty seconds, he was already two kilometers away.
Lin Yan finally stopped on the roof of an abandoned factory.
He bent over with both hands braced on his knees, gasping for breath.
Cold sweat covered his forehead, and his legs trembled slightly.
More than twenty consecutive Space Teleportations at maximum range.
Even with Gu Yuena's boundless Soul Power sustaining him, the strain on his body and mind had nearly reached its limit.
"Are... are you all right?"
Gu Yuena poked her head out of his arms, a rare hint of worry appearing in her violet eyes.
"I'm not dead yet." Gritting his teeth, Lin Yan sat down against the concrete parapet and looked toward the Soul Guidance Train.
The ghastly white pillar of light still hung in the night sky.
Tang Wulin was still crouched in the carriage, clutching his cut scalp as he stared blankly at the now-empty seat before him.
Where was the boy who'd been holding a dragon? Where had that living person gone?
He'd been sitting right across from me just a moment ago. How did he disappear in the blink of an eye?
Before he could make sense of it, an even more terrifying voice sounded outside the carriage.
"Not coming out, huh?"
The black-robed man in the sky let out a cold laugh. He raised his right hand, spread his fingers, and pointed down at the train.
A ghastly white blade of light gathered in his palm. Space warped along its edges as it let out a piercing shriek.
"Then I'll cut the carriages open one by one. I'll find you eventually, my sect's future Holy Son."
Tang Wulin's pupils suddenly contracted.
The night sky outside the window had been lit up as if it were broad daylight by that ghastly blade of light.
His hands and feet went cold.
He was frozen to his seat, and even breathing felt like a luxury.
I'm going to die.
I'm really going to die here today.
Then a cold snort came from the horizon.
It wasn't loud, but it struck everyone in the chest like a heavy hammer.
Even the passengers crouching on the floor and screaming fell silent at the sound.
Then a streak of crimson fire tore through the night sky.
No one could make out what it was.
They saw only a blurred flare of fire plummeting straight down from the distant heavens.
It struck the black-robed man hovering in midair with unerring precision.
He didn't even have time to scream.
The ghastly white blade of light and his body were pierced, torn apart, and incinerated by the crimson fire.
It went straight through him, from head to toe.
When the fire died away, only a wisp of smoke and a few charred scraps of black cloth remained in the air, drifting slowly down in the night wind.
A figure descended slowly from the sky and hovered above the Soul Guidance Train.
It was a woman.
She wore a moon-white qipao, her figure straight as a sword.
The last glowing embers of flame still swirled around her.
Her face was breathtakingly beautiful, her true age impossible to discern.
Her features held the authority of someone long accustomed to being in command, along with the detachment of someone who had witnessed life and death time and again.
She glanced down at the scorched mark still giving off smoke and spoke in an even tone.
"The Holy Spirit Cult's reach has grown a little too far."
She turned and swept her gaze over the disabled Soul Guidance Train below, seeming to search for something.
Then she raised her eyebrows slightly.
He wasn't there.
That little brat had run pretty fast.
The corner of Leng Yaozhu's lips curved almost imperceptibly.
What an interesting little fellow.
Before you continue