The flower vanished into thin air. In the instant Xia Lun's attention wandered, the flower on the wall disappeared.
About two seconds later, White Line's surprised voice came through the Mindvoice Earbud. He spoke slowly. "Xia Lun, something's happened. A white flower suddenly appeared on the wall here. Did you do that?"
"It was me," Xia Lun said, slowing his speech. "I'm running an experiment."
As he spoke, he sliced a piece off a vine with his sword. With a turn of his wrist, he speared the falling piece on the tip like a chunk of steak, then held it against the Blood-red Graffiti on the wall again.
"Drip, drip."
Murky, viscous sap seeped from the cut vine and fell to the ground one drop at a time, like blood.
Xia Lun narrowed his eyes and watched the graffiti closely. An instant later, the vine disappeared as though a frame had been skipped.
He waited patiently for three seconds. Then White Line's voice came through the Mindvoice Earbud, even slower than before. "Xia Lun, a piece of vine just appeared on the wall too. Are you going to keep experimenting?"
"No. Time seems to be moving faster on my end. I need to hurry." Xia Lun turned toward the carriage entrance. "Stick to the original plan. Get to the Underground Ruins beneath the Winden Thermal Power Plant as soon as you can."
"Got it!" White Line paused. "Oh, and 'Warrior' hasn't done anything suspicious so far. I've also put the contingency plan in place, just as we discussed." "Nice work," Xia Lun praised him. "Be careful over there. I'll be there soon."
"Mm!" Even through the earbud, Xia Lun could hear the excitement in White Line's voice.
Xia Lun shook his head, took a deep breath, and brought his attention