Half an hour later, Qin Xun had recovered most of his strength.
He wouldn't let Xu Chao carry him anymore. Instead, he got down and chose to run alongside him.
Xu Chao felt sorry for Mengmeng, so once Qin Xun got down, he carried Mengmeng on his back.
Mengmeng had been running at full tilt for more than ten hours straight since they escaped during the night, and had long since become more dog-tired than a dog.
Mengmeng felt sorry for Xu Chao and insisted on getting down from his shoulders.
But Xu Chao wasn't about to indulge Mengmeng. One sharp scolding, and Mengmeng obediently stayed put.
An hour later.
They reached the side of a highway.
After the fall, many highways had been abandoned.
Over time, those highways disappeared.
But there were some highways that the nobles organized people to maintain and repair, using them as major routes connecting the various zones.
Dense forest flanked both sides of this highway, and its surface was full of potholes.
But compared with the forest paths, choked with thorns and grass, it was far easier to travel.
Xu Chao crouched by the roadside, panting heavily, and said he really couldn't run anymore. They would wait a few minutes and see whether a vehicle came by. If one did, they would hitch a ride.
If they rode in a vehicle, they could escape their pursuers for good in just half an hour.
Heaven seemed to be looking after them.
In less than three minutes, more than a dozen battered trucks came down the highway.
These trucks weren't transporting the Guard Team. They were carrying cargo.
It was a merchant caravan!
The truck at the front had a reinforced cab and a spiked plow fitted to its front.
Xu Chao stood by the road and raised his hand.
The lead truck pulled up beside them and stopped.
The driver was a middle-aged man with a knife scar on his face and a cigarette between his lips.
Another middle-aged man sat in the passenger seat, his eyes full of menace.
He was the caravan's security captain, and a Psionic Power user!
As long as they safely escorted the caravan to its destination,
he and his team would collect a hefty commission.
"Brother, give us a ride!"
Xu Chao addressed the man in the passenger seat.
He could tell that this man was the one in charge.
The man glanced at Xu Chao, then at Qin Xun, and said indifferently, "Where are you from, and where are you going?"
"Someone was trying to kill us, but we shook them off. We really don't have the strength to keep running, so we wanted to hitch a ride. As for where we're going, just keep following this road and let us off near Zone 103."
"Forty thousand demon coins!" The man held up four fingers.
"A ride doesn't cost that much!"
"But someone's trying to kill you right now. It's only reasonable to charge a little extra!" The man looked at Xu Chao. If he hadn't needed money urgently, he wouldn't have wanted to take the risk either.
"Will gold coins do?"
"Gold coins are even better!"
Xu Chao opened the backpack on Qin Xun's back, reached inside, and pulled three coins from the bag of gold coins. He tossed them into the truck. "That's all we've got."
The man caught the coins and bit them. Once he was sure they were real, he pointed behind him. "Get in the cargo bed of the truck behind us. Remember, no tricks. Get off when we arrive! Don't touch the cargo in the bed. We'll inspect it when we get there, and if so much as one candle is missing, neither of you is going anywhere!"
"Understood!"
"One more thing. If the people hunting you catch up, you know what to do, right?"
"I do. We won't drag you down!"
The man waved his hand, signaling that they could get aboard.
The two went to the truck behind it, lifted the waterproof tarp, and climbed in.
The cargo bed was piled full of goods, leaving almost nowhere to put their feet.
The two could only sit on the crates, while Mengmeng stretched all the way out across several of them, tongue lolling and panting.
Xu Chao leaned against a crate with his eyes closed.
Cold sweat kept beading on his forehead, and there wasn't a trace of color in his face.
Qin Xun carefully examined the wounds the Ghost Wolves had bitten into him.
There were at least ten, stretching from his shoulders all the way down to his thighs!
The worst was on his left shoulder, where a chunk of flesh had been torn clean off.
Just looking at it hurt!
"Here!"
Xu Chao opened his eyes and looked at the red bottle Qin Xun held out to him. "What's that?"
"It stops bleeding and eases pain. There's only half a bottle left."
"Thanks!"
"Let me help you." Qin Xun unscrewed the cap, leaned forward, and poured the red powder little by little onto Xu Chao's wounds.
There were too many wounds and not enough powder, so he could only save it for the most serious injuries.
"Under normal circumstances, killing twenty-odd Ghost Wolves wouldn't be much trouble for me. The problem was, those Ghost Wolves just wouldn't die." After the powder was sprinkled on his wounds, Xu Chao's pain eased considerably, and even his breathing became smoother.
Qin Xun asked curiously, "How is a Psionic Power user's strength ranked?"
"Psionic Power users have ten realms in all, from the first realm to the tenth."
"What realm are you?"
"The third realm. Dazhuang is in the third realm too, but even though we're in the same realm, he's a little stronger than me in combat! Of course, my Psionic Power is special. They all say Mengmeng and I together are worth a Psionic Power user of the fifth or sixth realm!"
"What realm is Brother Shui?"
"Brother Shui is really strong. He's the most talented Psionic Power user I've ever met!"
Qin Xun nodded slightly, then said, "Brother Zhuang will be all right, won't he?"
"Don't worry, he's much more resourceful than us." Xu Chao changed the subject. "There's something I'm curious about. You've fought in ninety-nine matches in the Killing Arena. How did you feel when you killed those boys your own age? Of course, you don't have to answer!"
Qin Xun sat back down and lowered his head. "The first few times, I was scared. I couldn't sleep all night, night after night. Later, I stopped feeling anything."
"Didn't it make you feel awful, guilty?"
"Everyone who entered the Killing Arena was forced into it. By the time they stepped in, they'd all already put their lives on the line. They had their reasons, and I had mine. When I killed them, I knew they wouldn't hate me. In the same way, if I'd died at their hands, I wouldn't have hated them either. Every time I killed an opponent, I did feel awful, but guilt... if you mean feeling sorry for them, no, I never did."
As Qin Xun said this, the faces of ninety-nine boys surfaced one by one in his mind.
The sight of every opponent dying was etched deeply into his mind!
The people he had killed weren't just opponents, but ninety-nine boys like himself.
"No, that's not right. I did... A-Liang. He was stronger than me. He could have beaten me..."
Qin Xun's eyes reddened, and waves of bitterness welled up in his heart.
"If you'd recognized A-Liang as your opponent from the start, what would you have done?"
"I would have done the same as him..."
"Then what about your little sister?"
"I trusted him. He would have looked after Xiao Ling for me."
"One day, there won't be any more Killing Arenas in this world." Xu Chao looked at Mengmeng. "Right, Mengmeng?"
The trucks continued down the road.
Even when it was time for the afternoon meal, they didn't stop.
Anywhere outside the zones was a danger zone, where monsters or some other danger could appear at any time, in any place.
Once merchant caravans carrying cargo set off, they would hardly ever stop along the way unless something happened!
Whether eating or going to the toilet, anything they could take care of on the trucks, they did on the trucks!
More than two hours later, the convoy had left Zone 108 far behind.
While they were still some distance from Zone 103, Xu Chao chose to slip off the truck with Qin Xun and Mengmeng.