The railway had been abandoned for fifteen years, all but condemned to an eternal sleep beneath the weeds, never to see daylight again.
Yet today, it received a rare visit—not from a roaring train, but from a team of students from prestigious academies out on a training expedition.
The tracks across the wilderness were fairly easy to follow. As long as no demon beasts were using them as beds, the route was generally clear.
But once the tracks entered the mountains, passing through tunnels choked with dense vegetation, the journey became downright unnerving.
"I checked the map. This tunnel is two kilometers long. Judging by how often we've encountered demon beasts so far, there's a good chance some are living inside."
Song Xia studied the map in her hands as she spoke to Mo Xie beside her.
"I suggest we go over the mountain instead. We shouldn't deal with creatures of unknown species and numbers inside a pitch-black cave."
"Hey, aren't you being a little too cautious? Who cares what's in there? We'll just fight our way through. If the tunnel is two kilometers long, who knows how much time we'd waste going over the whole mountain?"
Lu Zhenghe spoke dismissively, offering a different opinion.
"I don't think we need to be that cautious either. Let's go straight through."
Zheng Bingxiao also felt that crossing the mountain would take too much time. Besides, there was no telling whether stronger demon beasts lurked up there.
With opinions divided, everyone turned to Mo Xie at once. After all, he was the one who truly held command.
Mo Xie considered it for a moment, then made his decision.
"We'll take the tunnel. Crossing the mountain would drain more of our stamina, and we'd be in serious danger if we ran into flying demon