Now, even the only remaining path was blocked.
Lin Zhen had no idea what to do.
Anxious and restless.
Instinctively, he wanted to get as far away from the Battle Camp as possible to clear his head, so he returned once more to the Underground World.
Of course, there was definitely some avoidance in that as well.
He knew that Yun Ruoxi and the others were probably searching for him right now, puzzled and worried as to why his signal had vanished.
But right now, he truly didn’t want to see any of them.
At first, he’d planned to reveal his entire scheme to Yun Ruoxi, Zi Jiu, and the rest when they regrouped.
To give them a pleasant surprise.
But under these circumstances, he was really afraid to let them down.
“I just knew the plan wouldn’t go smoothly.”
“Of course, the protagonist’s plan never works the first time. It’s always the second try that succeeds.”
“Have you ever watched ‘I Love Inventions’? You have to fail three times, no matter who shows up.”
If Lin Zhen knew that the comments had more faith in his plan than he did, he would definitely force a wry laugh.
At this point, even he was about to lose all confidence.
His Ability to Manipulate and Alter Metal should have naturally been the basis of his escape plan.
But the test location just so happened to be devoid of even a trace of metal, as if the heavens themselves were against him.
“Sigh, what do I do now?!” Lin Zhen sighed silently, “Should I give up?”
Giving up wasn’t something he hadn’t considered.
After all, before Yun Ruoxi was brainwashed, their days in the Battle Camp had become almost stable.
If they could just endure a bit longer, maybe they’d even have a shot at “freedom” in the future.
But his impulsiveness had thrown Yun Ruoxi into danger.
Every time he saw Yun Ruoxi, he remembered the suffering she’d endured, the pain that surfaced on her face.
The urge to take her away from here grew even stronger.
After sitting alone in his room for an entire day, Lin Zhen still hadn’t come up with a second plan, as the comments had predicted.
But he still stood up and walked out of the room.
The boat will straighten itself when it reaches the bridge.
He decided to attempt completing the assessment task first while also keeping an eye out for other opportunities.
Moping around in his room wouldn’t help at all.
Pulling himself together, Lin Zhen once again sought out Randall and asked him about the route to King City.
If there was any place on this planet that might still have metal, it would have to be where power was most concentrated.
“If you want to go to King City, Lin Zhen, you can wait a bit. In a few days, my uncle will be leading a team there. I can ask him to drop you off behind the Earth Dragon, let you ride along.”
Randall said earnestly.
“Ochre City is a long, long way from King City, Lin Zhen. Even if you walked for months, you might never get there.”
“I see.”
Lin Zhen nodded, then thanked him, “Really, thank you. If it weren’t for you, I’d probably be stuck here forever.”
“It’s nothing. You saved my life, after all.” Randall patted Lin Zhen’s shoulder lightly.
***
The next day.
Randall brought Lin Zhen to the Military Headquarters of Ochre City and introduced him to his uncle.
Randall’s uncle, Damian, looked almost exactly like Randall.
Except he was missing an ear, and his face was filled with a fierce aura, making him easy for Lin Zhen to recognize.
Although Damian’s attitude towards this stranger who had saved his nephew’s life was just average, he still agreed to help.
But he warned Lin Zhen that, apart from eating, drinking, and answering nature’s call, he was not to leave the carriage or talk to the soldiers. Otherwise, Damian would throw him out on the road.
Randall was a bit unhappy with his uncle’s stern warning, but Lin Zhen didn’t mind at all.
After all, even a feudal kingdom’s army was still an army. The fact that they were willing to give him a lift was already a big exception.
“Since you agreed, follow me. We’re about to depart.”
Damian was quick and decisive. Once he agreed, he took Lin Zhen straight to the vehicle they would be taking.
The Earth Dragon.
When Lin Zhen first heard the name, but hadn’t seen it, he thought it would be a four-legged beast like those in literary works.
Named “Dragon” because of its size.
But he never expected that the so-called Earth Dragon was actually a gigantic, worm-like creature—over a dozen meters thick and a thousand meters long.
Outside the city, the Earth Dragon was lazily coiled, with a carriage hanging every few dozen meters along its body.
Many soldiers were busy fastening themselves to it with hooked chains.
“Isn’t this just the sandworm from ‘Dune’? Xingchen, pay up for the copyright already.”
“Honestly, some of Xingchen’s settings really are similar to ‘Dune’.”
“That’s a huge worm. Bet it’d be great for making dens.”
“Here go the air force folks fantasizing again.”
Damian assigned Lin Zhen to a carriage specifically used for storing supplies.
He sat there among a heap of jars and bottles.
He picked up a jar, opened it, and found some odorless yellowish liquid inside.
He quickly put the lid back on and put it away, not looking any further.
Lin Zhen had worried that the carriages might get thrown off when the Earth Dragon moved.
But once they set off, he realized he’d been overthinking it.
The Earth Dragon didn’t move by squirming or burrowing, but advanced in a completely illogical straight line.
Fast and steady, too—the carriage was perfectly still inside.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Lin Zhen poked his head out to look beneath the Earth Dragon.
Only then did he realize—it wasn’t a worm, but a centipede. Its underbelly was covered in countless pairs of sharp, slender legs.
These legs supported its massive body, letting it glide over the rough terrain of the Underground World as if walking on level ground.
King City really was a long way from Ochre City.
After the Earth Dragon set out, it traveled day and night for a whole Empire Day without stopping once.
Outside, there was no trace of any city—just a barren plain covered in jagged rocks.
Lin Zhen never stopped reaching out with his senses for metal, but still found not a single sign of it.
Staring out at the endless plain, he let out a deep sigh.
***
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Yun Ruoxi and Zi Jiu had finally reached the last red mark that had appeared on the map. In a forest at the bottom of a sinkhole, they found Aili, who looked utterly dejected.
Aili’s luck could be called good, or perhaps bad.
She had landed right inside this colossal sinkhole, over five hundred meters deep, when she first arrived.
Without the ability to fly, she was completely unable to leave.
So she had to stay put, watching the red dot on the map draw ever closer, waiting for Yun Ruoxi and the others to rescue her.
But precisely because of this.
She hadn’t run into any danger these past ten days and had safely waited for Yun Ruoxi and the others to arrive.
The moment she saw Yun Ruoxi, Aili’s eyes reddened, and she rushed up, hugging Yun Ruoxi tightly, crying out “Sister, sister!” over and over.
Yun Ruoxi soothed her for quite a while, then turned to see Zi Jiu and the others looking very grim.
“If the last red dot was little Aili, then where’s Ah Zhen? Where did he go?”