Chapter 225: Hide And Seek

Before the gunmen could pull the triggers, Chen Chuan had already started moving. He charged forward at the people who seemed somewhat able to keep up with his movements. Sparks came out of their guns.

Chen Chuan brought an arm up to cover his head and ignored the other parts of his body. When the bullets landed on him, his protective gear bounced, and the bullets fell off.

With the saber in hand, he spun in a circle. A flash appeared, and then came a sound that was a mix of bodies, guns, metal, leather, and all sorts of other things being cut apart. A gash instantly appeared on both sides of the train.

The gunmen in the first row were still for a moment, then their upper bodies fell back. The items they carried were also cut apart neatly.

Chen Chuan looked ahead before jumping. The saber flash enveloped him, and he charged forward with the force of an avalanche. When he finally stopped, the carriages behind him were filled with severed bodies and limbs.

At this moment, he had reached the third to last carriage. There were no seats here. The three people ahead had shields positioned before them, while the ones behind had guns pointed at the company representatives’ heads.

Yet even as the company representatives were held at gunpoint, they just kept repeating their lines.

The resistance group members had found this interesting and fun in the beginning, but they soon got annoyed and really wanted to just kill them all.

Bao Yuan stood at the back of the group and stared at Chen Chuan in shock and puzzlement. He gnashed his teeth. He had already succeeded and even sent his telegram, but someone who seemed like a Third Limit martial artist had come in and ruined things for him.

He wasn’t sure whether this was someone Yangzhi City had assigned to guard the train or if the government had planned this long ago to take them out, but it did not matter now. The most important hostages were already in his hands.

“Stop! Are you from the government? These are company representatives. If you take another step, they’ll die! You’re fast, I’ll admit that, but we aren’t slow either. I wouldn’t bet whether we can pull our triggers faster or whether you can move faster if I were you!”

This wasn’t a complete bluff. When they heard the gunshots outside, the elites of their team took the medicine. All of them had bloodshot eyes right now and were in a highly-alert and excited state. They could somewhat follow Chen Chuan’s movements.

But Chen Chuan acted as if he hadn’t heard Bao Yuan. He positioned his saber and continued onward. Since he was unaffected by the threat, Bao Yuan immediately killed one of the company representatives.

“I’m not joking around! These are representatives from foreign companies! You won’t be able to bear the consequences of them dying here! Leave now, or none of them will survive!” he snapped.

There was a time limit to the medicine’s effects. If he couldn’t make Chen Chuan see their determination, he could just wait them out. Then, they would surely die.

Chen Chuan took a look before stopping and slowly stepping back. The resistance group watched him nervously. When he moved back, some of the tension bled out of their system.

Chen Chuan remained calm. He had to deal with this problem as soon as possible. The ritual put a continuous mental onslaught on its victims. If he ended up dragging out the fight, then even if the passengers could snap out later, they might suffer irreparable damage.

Compared to the passengers in front, there were only a handful of company representatives. If he could save them, he would, but if he couldn’t, he wouldn’t beat himself over it. The fact was that if he continued with this stalemate, everyone would die.

If he attacked now, they would have a chance of surviving.

Hence, Chen Chuan retreated until he was at the entrance to the carriage. At this point, he was some distance away from Bao Yuan. Then, he stomped on the floor, and the wooden floorboards shattered. The wooden wall around the door frame also became bent out of shape as Chen Chuan charged forward like an arrow.

The resistance group members started mercilessly shooting their hostages. As the gunshots rose, Chen Chuan crashed into them. Regardless of whether it was the shields blocking his way or the people behind them, they were all sent flying the moment Chen Chuan rammed into them. When they crashed on the floor, their bones shattered, and their organs were torn to bits. The Frost King Saber also let out a brilliant flash as Chen Chuan swung it. Wherever it went, heads flew.

Bao Yuan was shocked and enraged when he saw Chen Chuan slaughtering them without any concern for the hostages. With an angry shout, he threw a punch at him. The medicine he took was undoubtedly the best, and he was also the strongest of his group. His accuracy and strength were perfect.

Chen Chuan gave him a cursory glance and saw black lines on the back of his hand, as if something was about to burst through. Immediately realizing that something was wrong about that hand, he didn’t cut it off. Instead, he pushed his elbow forward and brought the saber hilt up while channeling a wave of yielding force to block the arm.

Shick!

A whip-like tongue shot out of Bao Yuan’s mouth, while another two tore through his cheeks in an attempt to pierce through Chen Chuan’s head from the sides.

With agile movements, Chen Chuan ducked and took a step forward. Not only did he manage to avoid all three attacks, he also passed by Bao Yuan. He placed the saber on Bao Yuan’s neck before using the momentum to drag the saber forward, only for the sound of metal scratching against something hard to tear through the air.

Chen Chuan could see black chitin armor under Bao Yuan’s skin, but he didn’t so much as bat an eye at it. He just twisted his waist and dragged his saber further forward.

This time, the armor couldn’t block his attack. As the blade cut through, Bao Yuan’s head was removed from his shoulders. It bounced off the floor before rolling to the side. The three whip-like tongues were still flickering around.

When there were no more enemies, Chen Chuan straightened his back. As he examined the whip-like tongues, he recognized their origins.

“Implants from the Secret Python Cult?”

He had seen Tan Wang’s implant shopping list before, and these tongue implants were part of the list. Then, he remembered that the Secret Python Cult didn’t just provide implant surgeries for their own members but also for other people. Still, he wondered whether Bao Yuan had any ties with the cult or had simply bought them.

It did not matter, though.

Chen Chuan looked away and went to grab the door handle of the next carriage. He wanted to check whether there were any resistance group members there.

His eyes widened.

In front of him were several familiar bodies. One of them had crashed into the wall of the carriage and left a dent there, while across from him was a body with a head blasted open by a stone. Chen Chuan could also see a slash across the carriage door. This was clearly the first carriage.

But he had been at the last few carriages just now.

He whipped his head toward his second self and saw him flickering nonstop. This only happened when he was suffering a continuous barrage of strong attacks.

Chen Chuan’s mind raced. He shut the door before turning around and heading to the next carriage, only to find that the next carriage was the same; it was still the first carriage.

Even though he had changed direction, nothing changed.

Rituals mostly affected the mind. Their effects on physical things were relatively weaker, which meant that he wasn’t dealing with a ritual, but a supernatural being!

Cultists could use certain rituals to bind supernatural beings and use them, like the Two-Faced Creature and the Hill Demon of Spill Hill.

While Chen Chuan didn’t have a great understanding of rituals, supernatural beings were his area of expertise.

He thought about it calmly. The supernatural being couldn’t have appeared out of thin air. No ritual could do that. This meant that the cultist had found the supernatural being in Spill Hill and bound it.

Chen Chuan went through his memories and recalled something similar from

the Legend of the Three Mountains—

the Lost Maze.

According to the legends, there was a mountain path in Spill Hill that led nowhere. If a person accidentally walked down this path, they would never reach the end, regardless of whether they went up or down. They would keep going around in circles until they died.

The legend said that this was a ghost playing hide-and-seek with the person. If they wanted to leave, they had to hide in a place where the ghost couldn’t find them. Then, they would be able to leave.

If they couldn’t find a place to hide, they would never be able to get out. This meant that there was only one solution.

Chen Chuan shut his eyes and grabbed the door handle. He then yanked it down and stepped forward.

When he opened his eyes, he was in a carriage he had never been to before.

It was stated in the legend that all a person needed to do was shut their eyes, and their mind would then be in a place where the ghost couldn’t find them. Then, they could get down the mountain.

This was not as easy as it sounded. On a mountain, it would be impossible to walk forward with eyes closed. They might end up falling to their deaths if they did that. Yet Chen Chuan was on a train, so he didn’t have to worry about that problem.

Of course, the true reason why he could do this was because he knew about it. If anyone else had been in his shoes, they would have been unable to get out within such a short time, and the most problematic thing about supernatural beings weren’t the creatures themselves, but their continuous onslaughts. Hence, if they were trapped for even a bit, they might break down.

Still, the problem wasn’t gone just because Chen Chuan had gotten out. While he had managed to leave the Lost Maze’s influence, the others were still trapped inside. He needed to kill the supernatural being, but first he needed to find the ghost to do anything about it.

Chen Chuan observed his surroundings. He was at the second to last carriage, but strangely, there were no signs of the resistance group members having come here. It was as if they had skipped this carriage.

The problem was that even if this place didn’t have any passengers, it was their retreat path from the train. Under normal circumstances, they should have stationed a few people to watch over the place.

Once Chen Chuan linked it to the Lost Maze, he found his answer.

He continued forward to the door leading to the last carriage. Just like before, he shut his eyes and grabbed the handle. Once he opened the door, he took a look inside.

There were no seats in the carriage ahead, only luggage bags of all kinds. In the middle of the carriage was a box, and a person with an array on his face sat on it.

When Chen Chuan opened the door, panic seized the man, and he started moving back. “H-How did you get here? D-Don’t come any closer!”