Chapter 75: Letter

They slept until dawn and then got up to leave Hundred Flowers Town.

Everyone from Hundred Flowers Town came out to see them off. After all, without them, the town would have been destroyed.

The wilderness was quiet.

The withered yellow grass bent low in the wind.

Occasionally, a few unknown gray birds flew overhead, their calls harsh.

Su Shuang’er pushed the bicycle at the front, her steps steady.

White Night curled up in the bike basket, the golden halo around her soul body flickering in the sunlight.

Mu Yingying carried the Tang Dao on her right shoulder, humming an out-of-tune tune.

“Can you stop humming?”

Su Shuang’er had heard enough to make her ears numb.

“No.”

“What are you humming?”

“I don’t know. I heard it before the apocalypse, but I forgot the lyrics.”

“Then stop humming. You’re off-key enough to reach another world.”

“So what if I’m off-key? The weirdness might commit suicide from listening. Saves us trouble.”

White Night secretly smiled in the basket.

As they walked into the afternoon, Mu Yingying suddenly asked a question everyone was thinking.

“Back to business, where to next?”

Su Shuang’er didn’t answer immediately.

These past few days handling things in Hundred Flowers Town, she had actually been planning this.

The matter in Hundred Flowers Town was over.

Gu Jiao stayed behind to rebuild, and the Hundred Flowers Dew had also healed White Night’s soul wound, making her soul body much more solid than before.

White Night’s compass was still the same compass, and the RV System’s level hadn’t truly increased.

In the apocalypse, you couldn’t stand still.

Those who stood still would eventually die.

“We need to find Ghost Crystals.”

Su Shuang’er spoke.

White Night understood what she meant.

Upgrading the RV System required crystals of anomalous energy.

The Ghost Crystals near Hundred Flowers Town had long been cleared out by Gu Jiao’s patrol team. Not enough.

That small amount was barely enough for daily maintenance—far from enough for an upgrade.

“Where do we look?”

White Night asked.

“I don’t know.”

Su Shuang’er shook her head.

“I can’t figure this area out. We need to ask someone.”

“Ask me.”

White Peace walked barefoot on the left, her steps completely unbroken by their conversation.

She looked up at the sun in the sky.

With this body’s senses, her perception of direction and distance was more accurate than any compass.

“East.”

She said.

All three looked at her.

“From here, walk east for about half a month.”

“There’s a long canyon with a rift at the bottom.”

“In such places, anomalous energy converges. The concentration of Ghost Crystals is much higher than in ordinary wilderness—enough for your upgrade.”

Mu Yingying narrowed her peach-blossom eyes.

“How do you know? Have you been there before?”

“I haven’t been to that place in this world.”

White Peace replied.

“But I’ve seen this kind of terrain many times. The patterns near space rifts are similar in every world.”

Su Shuang’er thought for a moment.

“Then east it is.”

White Night also nodded.

“As long as it’s enough to level up, we don’t need to be greedy. Better not take too many risks.”

Having set the direction, their mood lightened.

The four of them turned east and continued on their way.

Mu Yingying started humming again.

This time Su Shuang’er didn’t complain; she was distracted, thinking about Ghost Crystals.

The next afternoon.

The sun moved from overhead to the west, and the wilderness changed from withered yellow to dark gold.

Just as the four were about to find a sheltered spot to set up camp, White Night’s compass needle moved.

Not a rotation—it trembled slightly.

White Night looked up and gazed ahead.

At the end of the wilderness, there was a figure.

Alone, carrying a worn cloth bag, walking toward them.

Steady steps, neither fast nor slow.

Su Shuang’er’s hand rested on the iron hammer at her waist.

Mu Yingying’s humming stopped, and the Tang Dao slid from her shoulder into her hand.

White Peace had no reaction.

She just stood there, watching the figure draw closer.

It was a young woman.

She wore an old gray robe, her hair tied back with a hemp rope, her face expressionless.

Her skin was rough from sun and wind, her lips chapped.

She stopped about a dozen steps away from White Night and the others.

Her gaze passed over Su Shuang’er and Mu Yingying, landing on White Peace.

She looked for two seconds.

She spoke, her voice hoarse but clear.

“You are the white-haired, black-dressed being.”

“Who are you?”

White Peace looked at her.

“A messenger.”

The woman said.

“I deliver letters for money. I don’t ask about origins.”

She took a letter from her bosom and handed it over.

“Someone asked me to bring this to you.”

White Peace didn’t take it immediately.

She looked at the letter, at the woman’s face, and then at the cloth bag on her back.

“How long have you been waiting on this road?”

“Too long. I’ve forgotten.”

The woman’s tone was flat, as if she were saying “three days.”

“That person paid the reward many years ago. I searched for years, and today I finally waited for you on this road.”

Mu Yingying frowned.

‘How many years ago was “many years”? At that time, White Peace was probably wandering in some unknown world. How did the letter sender know that White Peace would take this road?’

White Peace reached out and took the letter.

The envelope was ordinary—yellowed coarse paper with no writing.

But on the seal was a stamp—a black wax seal with a flower pattern.

A seven-petal flower.

Each petal was a different color: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple.

The moment White Peace saw that seal, her fingers tightened slightly.

The movement was subtle, but White Night saw it.

She stared at that seven-colored petal seal for two seconds.

Then, she tore open the envelope.

Inside was only a sheet of letter paper.

Folded twice, the paper quality was much better than the envelope—smooth as silk to the touch.

She unfolded the paper.

There were only a few lines written on it.

The handwriting was neat, the strokes forceful—each stroke looked as if carved with a knife.

It didn’t look like it was written with a pen, but rather like some tool had left marks directly on the paper.

White Night leaned in to look.

The handwriting on the letter was elegant, the content brief.

Go east.

The Deep Abyss is there.

There you will find what you seek.

The last line was smaller: An Insider

The moment White Night’s soul body saw that line, it trembled slightly.

This was an instinctive reaction deep within the soul body.

‘The handwriting was very elegant, yet she felt something strange. A feeling of déjà vu. But she was very sure she had never seen it before.’

Su Shuang’er leaned over to look at the letter and frowned.

“Deep Abyss?”

White Peace’s gaze remained on the letter.

After a few seconds, she looked up.

“The Deep Abyss is the place I just mentioned. The canyon to the east, at the end of the rift there.”

Mu Yingying was stunned.

“Didn’t you just say it only had many Ghost Crystals?”

“The abundance of Ghost Crystals is true.”

White Peace explained.

“But that place is very dangerous. Ordinary people don’t dare approach it.”

Su Shuang’er frowned.

“How dangerous?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t been inside.”

“But I’ve seen other similar places. The amount of anomalous energy crystals inside is astounding—enough to upgrade the RV System.”

“However, don’t worry too much. My strength is enough to protect everyone.”

White Peace wasn’t afraid of any conspiracies—she was willing to pay a small price to deal with the danger.

White Night looked at the letter paper in her hand.

“This letter sender… wants us to go there?”

“Probably.”

White Peace said.

Mu Yingying: “That’s strange. Strangers just point us the way? What’s in it for them?”

White Peace was silent for a moment.

Then she said, “I don’t know. Maybe they have an ulterior motive, maybe they just want us to go.”

“But no matter what they’re after, we were already heading east.”

She looked at White Night.

“It’s on the way.”

White Night nodded.

‘She actually didn’t say what she wanted to. When she saw the handwriting on the letter earlier, that tremor in her soul body bothered her. But she couldn’t tell if that feeling was good or bad. She didn’t want to make everyone nervous over a vague feeling. It’s on the way, so let it be.’

“Did that person have anything else to say?”

White Peace looked at the messenger.

The messenger shook her head.

“No, that person only told me to deliver the letter.”

She turned and left.

After two steps, she stopped and turned back to look at White Peace.

“She told me to say that you might encounter trouble on the road. When you reach the outside of the Deep Abyss, you’ll see a blue light. Just follow the blue light.”

With that, she left without looking back.

The gray robe’s silhouette lengthened in the sunset, quickly merging into the twilight of the wilderness.

The four stood there, none of them speaking.

The wind blew, picking up a piece of wax seal debris that had fallen from the envelope.

The seven-colored petal pattern broke in two, rolled once on the muddy ground, and stopped.

White Night looked at the letter paper in White Peace’s hand, then at White Peace’s face.

“An’an, do you recognize this handwriting?”

White Peace was silent for a long time.

So long that the sun sank another notch, and twilight crept in from the horizon like a huge gray cloth slowly covering the wilderness.

She shook her head.

“I don’t recognize it.”

White Night didn’t detect anything unusual.

‘This handwriting—she had seen it before. Five thousand eight hundred years ago, on the body in the mass grave, there was a piece of paper soaked through with snow, with two words written on it: Wait for me. The handwriting was exactly the same as this letter. But that couldn’t be the same person. The first life of White Night was dead; she had personally carried that skeleton across the world. So now this letter was either a coincidence—there were people in the world with the same handwriting, not strange—or someone was imitating it. Either way, there was no need to tell White Night. This kind of thing would make her think too much. It was dangerous, but this matter had to be clarified. She planned to go to the place and personally take the risk to find out.’

“Keep it.”

White Peace folded the letter and handed it to White Night.

White Night took it.

‘She was surprised to find that she could touch the letter. This was definitely unusual.’

“It’s getting dark. Let’s find a place to camp.”

Mu Yingying spoke.

“Right, right, right. Eat first, eat first. Today’s been like a roller coaster—discussing where to go, then a messenger popping up. I’m hungry.”

The four left the main road and found a sheltered earthen slope to set up camp.

Su Shuang’er started a fire.

Mu Yingying rummaged through her backpack for dry rations.

White Peace leaned against the slope with her eyes closed, resting.

White Night floated above the bike basket, looking at the distant eastern horizon.

‘East. The Deep Abyss was there. She didn’t know why the letter sender had pointed them in that direction. She also didn’t know what was in the Deep Abyss. But she remembered the last words the messenger said before leaving—follow the blue light. Mysterious. What exactly did the letter sender want?’

White Night watched for a long time.

Finally, she withdrew her gaze.

‘She couldn’t figure it out, so she stopped thinking about it, simply relaxed, and leaned against White Peace. Not to mention, by White Peace’s side, she felt completely safe. After all, with White Peace covering them, there was no need to fear any schemes. She didn’t need to waste energy on overthinking.’