Void Jigsaw Puzzle

"Yes." Zhong Chenmu also looked straight ahead and answered.

"Isn't what I just said enough to cause you to worry?"

"Of course it's enough. This matter is very strange, but I am thinking about more important things."

"Then let's hear it."

"Remember the second time we met?"

"Of course I remember. It was at the City God Temple that night that we rescued Fan Ting together."

Guo Ling held the steering wheel steadily, his thoughts returning to that night a few months ago.

It was from that time that he began to suspect that Zhong Chenmu had a secret, and later the young man admitted it himself.

When they first met in a desperate situation beside a big river, he never thought that his future would depend on this 17-year-old boy.

As he was reminiscing, he heard Zhong Chenmu say, "We weren't actually going to rescue Fan Ting that day, but to trace the source of a great river."

Guo Ling opened his eyes and shouted involuntarily, "Yes! We were heading to the halfway point of Ma'anshan for this very purpose! But before we even reached the Guandi Temple, we saw Fan Ting hanging herself."

Zhong Chenmu's voice was also slightly excited. "Back then, we didn't know what lay beyond the civilization of Wuming City, let alone the people of the Hydrogen Clan. Now we seem to know far more information than we did then, but how to leave Wuming City and enter the Taibai Star of the Hydrogen Clan still seems to be a mystery. If we continue to explore, perhaps we will make new discoveries."

Guo Ling looked at the fuel tank indicator on the dashboard and asked, "There's still enough gas. How about we go now? This time I promise to drive directly to the foot of the mountain, and then we can take the small road."

Zhong Chenmu thought for a while and nodded: "Okay."

At this moment, an extremely clear voice came from his mind: "Don't go!"

Zhong Chenmu was stunned and glanced at Guo Ling out of the corner of his eye. He found that he was concentrating on turning around and didn't notice the strange look on his face at all.

So he said in his heart, "Why?"

"you do not need to know."

The arrogant reply from Qi Nian aroused Zhong Chenmu's competitive spirit: "What if I must go?"

"you will regret."

"You liar, you promised last time that you wouldn't monitor us."

"Yes, what I said at the time was that I would not monitor your conversation with Pierce, and I did that. I did not monitor your conversation, I only monitored you..."

"..."

After that, the two had no more communication.

On the one hand, Zhong Chenmu was very angry, but he had no choice but to endure it and think carefully about countermeasures when he had time. Otherwise, he would be very passive in the long run. On the other hand, his remaining sanity still remembered that Hydrogen Thought had warned him that if they were not in that small dark room, their communication could not be too long, otherwise it would easily attract the invasion of cosmic gangsters.

"Humph...even if you don't let me go, I'll go anyway!"

Thinking this in his heart, Zhong Chenmu asked: "How long will it take?"

"If there's no traffic, an hour would be enough, but it's still raining now, so I'm afraid it'll take a little longer."

"Are there any weapons in your car?"

Guo Ling was startled. "Weapons? What do you mean?"

"Anything that can be used to hit someone or defend yourself is fine."

“Does a badminton racket count?”

"..."

Zhong Chenmu thought about it again and felt that if he went there now, it would be really dangerous. Not to mention ordinary weapons, even if he drove a tank there, it might not be effective.

So, it doesn’t matter whether you have weapons or not.

However, what made him feel a little relieved was that the green binary numbers in his mind reappeared.

"10000001".

It is directly an eight-digit number.

"It seems this direction is correct. I imagine the revelations we can gain will be greater than those at Leyou Pavilion. At the same time, the challenges we face will likely be even greater... Alas, I haven't even had time to properly consider this system, nor the underlying logic of those three cracks, and I'm already facing yet another unknown challenge. Fortunately, it's been activated. If danger strikes, it can certainly save lives in a critical moment, and it's probably more useful than weapons..."

Zhong Chenmu was no longer nervous, but instead looked forward to what was about to happen.

When Guo Ling drove the car along the mountain road to the foot of Ma'anshan Mountain, the rain had stopped.

As soon as they got off the car, they smelled the exceptionally fresh scent of the valley and woods, which was refreshing.

Zhong Chenmu closed his eyes and opened his arms. He heard the sound of a river that was even more turbulent after the rain. Apart from that, there was no other sound at the foot of the mountain in the late autumn evening.

Guo Ling looked around. Under the dim street lights, there were a few cars parked sparsely. In the distance, an off-road vehicle seemed to be vibrating slightly.

He smiled and shook his head.

Looking at the path in front of them that extended to the mountainside, it was no different from the one they walked on last time.

However, because it had rained, the road was full of water and mud.

If you really go in, it’s hard to say whether you can find anything valuable, but what is certain is that your shoes will definitely be scrapped.

"Why don't we come back another day?" Guo Ling frowned and asked.

"No, I'm here now." Zhong Chenmu was very determined.

"If I step in mud, it will be difficult to drive back because I still have to step on the accelerator and brake."

"It's okay, take off your shoes and drive barefoot."

"..."

However, Guo Ling quickly adjusted his mentality and picked up a flashlight from the trunk of the car.

"Maybe it will be useful later."

The two of them walked forward, one in front and one behind, stepping through the mud and water.

Before walking onto the path, Guo Ling deliberately used a flashlight to shine at the vibrating off-road vehicle, with a sly smile on his face.

Compared to the last time we came here, the road seemed even more lonely and desolate. In the near distance, clusters of bushes lay darkly on the ground, and in the distance, the dense shadows of the trees were not very clear. From time to time, the wind blew, and the branches swayed, but the echo of the leaves was completely drowned out by the sound of the river.

At first, they could still see the road clearly with the help of the dim street lights, but after turning a few corners, they could only rely on flashlights.

Last time the weather was very clear, so the stars in the sky could illuminate the sky, but today, because it had just rained, the clouds had not yet dispersed, and the whole surroundings were dark.

Guo Ling suggested again: "How about... we come back another day?"

Zhong Chenmu's attitude remained firm: "What are you afraid of? There's only one Fan Ting."

"What are you talking about? If we had run into her today, we probably wouldn't have even noticed her hanging from the tree..."

Guo Ling tried to tell a joke, but found that neither of them could laugh.

He himself felt that this was a bit too much of a pessimist, and Zhong Chenmu was staring at the phone screen at this time, probably not hearing what he said at all.

Under the bright light of the mobile phone screen, Zhong Chenmu's face looked very ugly.

After a while, he raised his head, his eyes full of anger.

"Old man Pierce actually wants to poach our people!"

"Ah? What's going on?"

"Fan Ting just sent me a message saying that Pu Yue called her tonight and invited her to join Pu Yue's team. She also said that she would contact several other people as well."

"Is it so blatant? Then why didn't anyone contact me?" Guo Ling wanted to make a joke again.

But he saw Zhong Chenmu staring at him with eyes wide open, looking extremely bitter and resentful.

He quickly laughed out loud: "Hehe, don't worry, even if someone comes looking for me, I won't leave."

Zhong Chenmu said softly, "It seems that Master Liang must have already told Pierce about his meeting with me. Pierce is constrained by Master Liang's funds and can't do anything to him, so he can only turn the tables on us. But why would he do this? Our advance team is already part of the Prophet Society. Whether I have any ulterior motives, the most I can do is report any subsequent contact with the Hydrogen Clan directly to Master Liang, and then make some money from him. Wouldn't this be more beneficial to our advance team's work and ultimately benefit the Prophet Society?"

Guo Ling stopped joking this time and helped Zhong Chenmu analyze the situation, saying, "Your idea is not wrong, but it's too idealistic. I speculate that Pierce intended to control you and us from the very beginning. So, although he gave you the title of advance team captain and seemingly great authority, and even didn't interfere with team recruitment, he held up the most critical point - funding. When you asked him for compensation, didn't he ultimately refuse? This was a backup plan he left for himself. However, he probably didn't expect that Master Liang didn't trust him 100% either, and even bypassed him to find you and us directly. Therefore, he felt a sense of crisis and is now a bit unscrupulous."

"Well, if he wants to do that, then I'm not someone you can easily bully!" Zhong Chenmu gritted his teeth and said, "Let's continue tracing the source first. After we get back, we'll think about countermeasures!"

Guo Ling was stunned: "It's already like this, you still want to keep going up?"

"Well, time waits for no one, now we are here!"