Bright Sword: Conquer the monk at the beginning and take down Zhou Weiguo

He was afraid of watching people fall down one after another around him without even being able to call out their names.

"What on earth was I thinking?" he muttered, the almost inaudible sound rolling in his chest. "Didn't I say I would get them out alive one by one?"

This thought struck his mind like thunder, making him suddenly wake up.

He turned around and looked at Liu San, who was still standing there motionless, with a complicated expression.

Liu San's eyes held anger, confusion, and pain, but more than that, a stubborn determination to persevere.

"Why don't you leave?" Qin Cang tried to keep his tone as calm as ever, but his voice was so low and hoarse that it didn't sound like his own.

Liu San pursed his lips, his eyes reddened, but he still gritted his teeth and replied, "Brother Qin, I'll just stand here and not go anywhere. If you die in there, I'll go in and find you. If you come out alive, I'll help you out."

The words were silent, but they were like a thunderclap, hitting Qin Cang's heart.

He suddenly felt his throat tighten, and a long-lost sour feeling surged from the bottom of his heart, as if some emotion that had been sealed for a long time found a crack at this moment.

He took a step forward and grabbed Liu San's shoulders with such force that he almost crushed his bones.

"You treat all my words as bullshit!" He growled, his teeth clenched, his voice trembling so much it almost didn't sound like it came from his mouth. "Listen here, you're not leaving, we're going in together! If anyone dares to stop half of my brothers from going in, I'll blow up the entire circuit!"

The astonishment in Liu San's eyes was suddenly shaken by this fiery cry. His nose felt sore and he almost couldn't hold back his tears on the spot.

"Brother Qin..." His voice was hoarse, "You can't carry this alone."

Qin Cang let go of his hand and plopped down on a stool beside the power lines, leaning his head back against the power lines and gently closing his eyes. The light fell on the side of his face, casting a deep shadow. He let out a long breath, as if releasing the burden that had been weighing on his heart for years.

"Don't be too touched." His tone returned to a teasing tone. "It's mainly because I just finished eating and my stomach isn't warm yet. I'm going to get a stomachache if I move around. I need you to carry my bag and follow me."

Liu San grinned and said, "Okay, as long as you don't let me go, I'll carry the pot for you."

Qin Cang nodded, and some light returned to his eyes. Although the bloodshot under his eyes was still thick, his expression was obviously no longer as stiff as before.

"After we eat, let's start." He stood up and took out a backup device from a folding bag beside him. "I've found the backup channel. It's a little more roundabout than the main route, but the chances of safety are much higher."

"Do you have a picture?" Liu San leaned over to take a look.

Qin Cang unfolded the diagram on an old circuit board, which clearly marked several broken wires, frequency conversion points, and a secondary pulse channel that ran through the entire area.

"The red circles are where you watch me operate, the yellow circles are where you're responsible for bypassing the sensors, and the green circles are where we must work together."

Liu San nodded, scanned the picture, and said, "I'll remember it."

"Don't memorize it in your head." Qin Cang handed him a small piece of bionic sticker. "This sticker can record my operation path. Don't be clever and think you can remember it clearly. One wrong step and you will lose your life."

"How do you know I want to walk through it from memory?" Liu San scratched his head embarrassedly.

"I can see right away that you're so clever that you're almost dying."

The two laughed for a while, and the atmosphere finally eased from the depressing dullness.

But as the last preparatory action was completed, the laughter subsided, and Qin Cang's gaze fell into the depths of the line again, and his expression became sharp and solemn again.

The gray passage was like a beast with a bloody mouth, silently waiting for them.

"Let's go."

When he said these two words, his voice was calm, like a steady stone thrown into boiling lava, not causing any waves, but containing infinite weight.

Liu San nodded, picked up his tool bag, followed him, and stepped into the gray area that was chaotic, complex, and even filled with the breath of death.

He led Liu San through the branch roads, each step within the safe zone he had repeatedly deduced. His fingertips would touch the wall or pipe every three steps, as if confirming those imperceptible changes in the magnetic flow, as if recalling something.

Memories, bit by bit, pried open the nailed door in his heart.

It was the night five days ago. Xiaohu quietly found him and squatted outside the door of his makeshift tool shed like a cat for an hour, until Qin Cang could no longer bear the deliberately suppressed panting sound and opened the door.

"Xiao Hu, what do you want to do now?" Qin Cang's tone was a little impatient that day. He thought Xiao Hu had just caused trouble that he shouldn't have and wanted him to help him sort it out.

But Xiaohu didn't say anything. He just lowered his head, quietly took out a gray metal box from his sleeve and handed it to him.

At that moment, Qin Cang's brows were deeply furrowed.

He recognized the metal box; it was an old-fashioned data box left over from the consolidation of the West Branch line. Theoretically, it had long been abandoned; no one used that technology anymore. He reached out and picked up the box. The moment his fingertips touched it, he felt an unusual vibration—a microwave feedback with a pulsed frequency, indicating that the box contained not only data but also an activation signal.

"Xiao Hu, where did you get this?" he asked in a low voice.

Xiaohu licked his cracked lips, his eyes revealing an extremely complex emotion, "Someone... told me that this thing can lead me to the truth about my sister."

At that moment, Qin Cang's heart suddenly shook.

He knew Xiaohu's sister, a name Xiaohu was most reluctant to mention and most afraid to mention. She had disappeared in the old, sealed-off area of ​​the railway line. It was said to be an accident caused by a railway line collapse, but everyone's file said "natural damage," and no one mentioned what happened before or after the railway alarm sounded that night.

"Who gave it to you?" Qin Cang asked again, his tone lowered even more.

Xiao Hu hesitated for a moment and shook his head. "They wouldn't let me say anything. They only said—'If you really want to know, take this box to the deepest part of the Gray Realm.'"

Qin Cang gripped the box tightly, a smoldering fury between his brows. He knew exactly what these words meant—someone was playing with his life, using a child's emotions as a fuse to try to ignite the long-buried anger in his heart.

But he also understood that Xiaohu was not someone who would be easily intimidated.

"Have you really decided?" he asked that night.

Xiaohu's eyes were full of stubbornness: "Didn't you say that people who walk the line can't always live in the map drawn by others? Then I want to walk it myself now."

At that moment, Qin Cang fell silent.