Mist (Web Novel CN)-Chapter 38: Chapter 38

Chaos

Chapter 38

Big Beard’s space capsule was very large, and they also weren’t here for a very long time so not every room had been entered. As a result, they were unaware that there was also an escape capsule in there.

Seeing that something was happening on this end, Big Beard walked over with his teammates. This team from PU-18 was also very young. While Big Beard talked to them, they looked curiously at the man kneeling in the middle. He seemed to be explaining to them what happened to him during this time.

Ji Yushi looked at Big Beard and asked him something.

Big Beard was slightly surprised for a moment and then he nodded and said something back.

Ji Yushi told his teammates, “There is indeed an escape capsule in there which was left by another team previously. It can be used after restoration.”

Li Chun was confused. He couldn’t help but ask Xie Sian, “But as long as the crevice is closed, everyone will return to their original places. What do you need the escape capsule for?”

Xie Sian knelt on the ground staring at the people in front of him. He didn’t answer.

Cap Qi said, “Because he doesn’t want to return.”

The Tianqiong twelfth squad was sucked into the crevice during their mission and were trapped here, unable to find a way out. While they were trapped, they discovered Big Beard who had been living alone in the space capsule and with the help of Big Beard, they managed to gather all the parts that were still usable to successfully repair one of their capsules.

There were however many of them and only one capsule, so everyone negotiated and decided to wait until there were enough capsules gathered before preparing to return.

However, this wait lasted several months.

This barren land with no distinction in day and night as well as the limited supplies very quickly made them unable to stay here any longer. As a result, they decided to find a new way out.

One day, several teammates joined together to rob Big Beard —- Somehow, they had mistakenly thought that Big Beard would sneak off alone with the capsule and it resulted in a fierce dispute. It was only when Cap Qi and the two other teammates arrived, that they realised that it was because Xie Sian had ‘misunderstood’ Big Beard due to the language barrier.

In such a desperate setting, it was hard for one to differentiate between good and evil. Cap Qi decided to believe him.

This time, in order to avoid a similar situation from happening again, Cap Qi and several of the teammates brought Xie Sian along when they went to scout out the area. Together, they entered the rainforest and were in there for an unknown period of time. After taking a break and eating by a creek, they started to develop symptoms of food poisoning. Only Xie Sian was fine.

It was him who had added poisonous mushroom juice into his teammates food and killed them.

As for what happened to Xie Sian after he left the rainforest, everyone could basically guess it.

Rain poured heavily.

Thunder boomed.

Big Beard stood on the side and muttered a few words. Ji Yushi interpreted at the same time, “Big Beard was hurt during that, but he didn’t hand over the key to the capsule so Xie Sian and the others could only find another way out of this place. As for whether those people got lost or died in a situation similar to Cap Qi’s group, only Xie Sian knows.”

Having said that, Ji Yushi paused, “Big Beard didn’t tell us about the existence of that capsule because he was worried that history would repeat itself and Xie Sian didn’t expect that fifteen years had passed after leaving the city.”

“So he lied to us from the beginning.” Li Chun was miffed, “When we came out of the rainforest, he had clarified the relationship between himself and Big Beard. It was because he wanted to return with a clear conscience.”

Xie Sian’s plans had fallen through.

He didn’t expect that this group of people with Tianqiong’s mission would quickly discover that this was a crevice in time and would treat this predicament as a mystery to be solved. When he learned from Ji Yushi about how they could get out of this place, his surprised expression and passionate emotions concealed the panic inside him.

He must’ve been scared. If all his teammates could really be resurrected and they could really return to how it was before they were sucked in, then it was a dead end for him.

Zhou Mingxuan cursed and then said, “This is what you call you reap what you sow.”

Rain rolled down along Song Qinglan’s small face. His eyelashes were wet, and his dark eyes were bright, “So you deliberately telling those people who had just resurrected that we’re stealing the escape capsule, was it so that you could benefit afterwards or your attempt to stall for time?”

Song Qinglan didn’t wait for an answer and he also didn’t need Xie Sian to answer. He continued, “You want that capsule now because you want to escape to another time before the crevice is closed but are you not afraid that Inspectors will find you sooner or later after we return?”

Having hit the mark, Xie Sian felt ashamed. He however still gritted his teeth and said, “Escaping to the ends of the world is better than going back to die. Besides, even if I regret it now…….Isn’t it too late?”

If he knew that the situation would end up like this, he would’ve been able to curb those malicious thoughts of his. Unfortunately, it was too late.

Everyone had a chance to redo it all, everyone except for him.

Song Qinglan said, “It’s too late.”

Xie Sian, “Then exchange for it with the capsule. As soon as I enter the capsule, I will tell you the location of the flower. Otherwise, don’t even think about returning.”

Everyone was in an uproar.

There was only a small circle of light left on the mountain of garbage and they were soon about to succeed.

Could it be that they really had to let Xie Sian leave first?

Cap Qi’s muzzle hadn’t moved. Under the rain, the knuckles of the finger on the trigger had turned white, “Give it to him.”

Everyone: “???”

Tang Le refused, “No!”

Tang Qi had been attacked by Xie Sian. If it hadn’t been for the accelerated Tang Qi pushing Tang Le away in time, Tang Le would’ve also been hurt.

Except for Song Qinglan, no one else noticed the frowning Ji Yushi who was deep in thought.

Frame by frame, Ji Yushi’s mind played out all the scenes with Xie Sian. His memory was flawless. As long as it was something he had seen, heard or felt, even the slightest of detail wouldn’t escape him.

Where would Xie Sian hide the flower?”

Xie Sian entered the space capsule and fought with Big Beard.

Xie Sian sat on the ground and talked to them.

Xie Sian held a can of food and talked to them while sitting on the sofa……..

“Kemeng Beans……….” The moment Ji Yushi said those words, Xie Sian’s expression changed.

Li Chun was surprised, “Fuck, did he hide the flower in a Kemeng Bean can?!”

In the space capsule, everyone unanimously expressed dislike of those Kemeng Beans. Even if they had to eat the vegetarian canned foods that tasted worse than it, they refused to touch those beans.

The cans of Kemeng Beans were pretty much a garbage-like existence.

Ji Yushi looked at Xie Sian, “No, not the cans of Kemeng Beans.”

Xie Sian also looked back at Ji Yushi. His expression was cold, and he didn’t speak a word.

What Ji Yushi could guess, Xie Sian could also guess.

This was a confrontation between scouts.

Ji Yushi’s words were calm, but it gave people chills, “Cap Qi, you can shoot.”

Everyone was shocked by Ji Yushi’s words.

Only the seventh team weren’t shocked. Their Advisor Ji would always be able to bypass the fog and reach the truth.

Cap Qi was a little hesitant.

Ji Yushi said with affirmation, “The flower is inside Xie Sian.”

Zhou Mingxuan immediately stepped forward and ripped away Xie Sian’s black combat uniform.

This young body wasn’t weak, but it was sickly pale. There was a fresh wound stretching about ten centimetres across the lower abdomen and inside that hid a small plant. Xie Sian had used his body to nourish this plant. To do something like this to himself, it was clear that Xie Sian’s determination to escape this place had reached the point of paranoia.

Xie Sian slumped onto the ground, his face ashen, “You….how did you know?”

“You told me.” Ji Yushi said, “When you returned to the space capsule, you were choked by Big Beard and as soon as you caught your breath after he released you, you patted your body off first —You dislike his smell. When you sat on the floor to talk to us for the first time, you sat away from Big Beard’s carpet because you also didn’t like the smell of it. After Cap Song and I left halfway and later returned, you had already taken a shower and whenever Big Beard passed by, you would hold your breath. What was strange was that, although you clearly showed an expression of approval when I replied that Big Beard’s smell would be the first thing that I will remember later, you sat on his sofa without a concern and even used his blanket to cover yourself.”

Xie Sian, “……….”

Was Ji Yushi’s memory too good, or was he smarter than he thought?

Ji Yushi continued, “Most importantly, despite not eating for two days in the city, you only ate the can of vegetarian food that I gave you and when Big Beard allowed you to eat the can of spam meat, you didn’t finish it and only ate one third.”

Xie Sian sneered. He had admitted defeat, “Don’t you think I could be the same as you and just hated the taste of spam?”

Song Qinglan on the side: “………”

Advisor Ji hates spam?

Ji Yushi shook his head, “It’s because you had already put the plant inside you at the time and was too weak to stand, let alone eat anything due to the pain, isn’t that right?”

Xie Sian stopped talking.

Amidst the silence, Cap Qi calmly spoke up, “Xie Sian, I, as the witness and guardian of time, will give you your sentence.”

There were about fifty or sixty traversers present.

Everyone came from different worlds and different times. Those who shared the same language and those who had a different language, they each translated the current situation for each other.

As the witnesses of time who abide by their responsibilities, they looked at Xie Sian with contempt.

“Bang—–”

With the sound of gunfire, Xie Sian fell to the ground.

A bloody hole appeared on his forehead and his eyes were wide open and lifeless.

Everyone here knew that Xie Sian would be resurrected and returned to the capsule after the crevice was repaired and he would then be arrested by his teammates and brought back to Tianqiong where he would be sentenced to death again.

This wasn’t Xie Sian’s final ending.

The heavy rain suddenly stopped.

All the traversers worked together, and they managed to quickly collect the last batch of flowers. These were burned together with the one taken out of Xie Sian.

The kaleidoscope-like reflection of the city was gone.

“Everyone, look!” Someone shouted.

Everyone raised their heads. The gorgeous aurora in the sky had also disappeared along with the city.

Was this the end of the time rift?

Before the light from the last flower was extinguished, numerous loud sounds suddenly came from the sky.

Immediately afterwards, a huge ship belonging to the Middle Ages emerged from the ground, the mast piercing through the bodies of several traversers in the process. It followed a non-existent wave and charged towards the others at an unimaginable speed!!

“Run!!”

With this shouted in various languages, the traversers followed their survival instincts, and all turned to run.

Ji Yushi subconsciously held little Cap Song’s hand. That ship however suddenly disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

Precipices appeared. A desert grassland took their place. Planets, polar regions, volcanic hells; it was unpredictable.

In just a few short seconds, hundreds of years of several worlds overlapped.

The world was chaotic. Time and space were intertwined. There was no way out.

No one ran anymore.

All the traversers stood in place. Standing in the centre of the vortex of time and space, for the first time they realised how small they really were.

Ji Yushi saw the tallest one in the group with a red beard who had returned to his thin and clean youthful appearance wave at him.

He saw Tang Qi slowly open his eyes and his wound heal at a speed visible to the naked eye.

He also saw that mountain of garbage disappear completely, and even more traversers appear.

The light grew smaller.

“Poof.”

The last vine burned into ashes.

Before they fell into complete darkness, Ji Yushi could feel the small hand he held grow at a rapid speed. It very quickly transformed into a large and well-defined hand that contained a lot of power. The joints were slightly rough and there were calluses left from training long term with a gun.

That hand didn’t let go, and instead wrapped around his hand.

There was warm heat next to Ji Yushi.

That person seemed to be half a head taller than him.

They were very close.

In the darkness, the adult man’s voice was low and pleasant to hear, “Advisor Ji……..”

This sentence was not finished.

A long time later, Ji Yushi continued to wonder what Song Qinglan had wanted to say to him.

*

When Ji Yushi regained conscious, he had already returned to the capsule.

【Warning! Warning! You have deviated from the destination coordinates! You have deviated from the destination coordinates!】

The warning light in the capsule flashed nonstop as the warning was made.

As the capsule shook with great force, Ji Yushi saw countless pictures flash across quickly on the transparent panel in front of him. Sharp alarm sounded.

For a while, he thought he had become deaf.

Again………it was going to start again?

After a short period of silence, the warning light stopped flashing and the capsule stabilised. Another announcement was made.

【Illegal transition detected! Successfully intercepted.】

【Current mission is terminated. You are now set to return. 】

Ji Yushi’s pupils enlarged slightly. He somehow couldn’t believe those words.

Successfully intercepted?

Which Tianqiong had intercepted them?

Did the third command centre finally notice the anomaly and quickly terminated their mission before they could be hijacked, allowing them to finally return?

Ouroboros. Chaos.

The sources of those endless nightmares that made them feel like they were trapped in a bog, was all over?

Very quickly, the capsule turned quiet.

A system prompt appeared in front of Ji Yushi. It was the current time coordinate: [1456.06.15 14:51:40].

A robotic arm very quickly delivered over a packet of nutrient solution. It waited for the human to drink. Noticing that the human wasn’t moving, it moved the nutrient solution around in attempt to attract their attention.

[Welcome Ji Yushi. Welcome back to Tianqiong.]

The hatch opened. For a while, the light outside was a little too dazzling for Ji Yushi.

Someone was holding a flashlight and shining it at his eyes while holding his eyes open. They quickly shouted, “Over here! The scout is in a pre-shock state! First aid needs to be administrated immediately!!”

Ji Yushi recognised this voice.

It was the person who had examined his physical condition before they set off on their mission.

They had returned, thought Ji Yushi before he fell unconscious.

KK has something to say:

Sorry guys, I had it scheduled but I set the wrong date ><