Chapter 29 Chapter 29 (2/2)

Song Qinglan also discovered something. Standing behind a bush, his expression wasn’t very good. Ji Yushi put away the compass and walked around the bushes to look. His expression similarly fell.

There were three corpses behind the bushes lying haphazardly together. Most of their bodies were covered by the mud washed ashore from the stream during heavy rain.

These people seem to have been dead for a long time. Except for the hair that was still there, the rest of their body have become bones.

What made them uncomfortable were the clothes on these corpses that were basically still intact —- The high strength polymer material that is fire and water resistant, the colour, the style, and the position of the numerical symbol on the left chest, they were exactly the same as the black combat uniform they wore.

Song Qinglan bent down and brushed away the mud on one of the corpses with his hand. The number on the Guardian’s chest appeared: 12.

These three corpses were all Tianqiong’s Guardians.

“Fifteen years ago, there was a Guardian squad numbered 12 who accepted a S-level mission.” Song Qinglan said, “But 180 seconds after their departure, contact was lost for all eight of the members. Since then, for all those years, we haven’t received any news from them again. The Tianqiong System has checked various times and spaces many times, but no traces of them could be found.”

Ji Yushi: “This is them?”

“It should be.” Song Qinglan frowned, “I heard about this case when I first joined as a Guardian. According to the experts, they were lost in a certain time and space and hid away.”

Whether it was a Guardian or a Recorder, the requirements for one to become one was very high.

Not only were they required to be capable enough, but they also needed to be strong and firm psychologically. Humans after all have weaknesses. Just imagine. Those who go back to the past have the ability to predict the future, while those who go to the future can have an entirely new life….Since the establishment of Tianqiong, because of various human desires, it wasn’t that something like that had never happened. It wasn’t unusual for one to be unwilling to return to their original time.

During those times, Tianqiong would send out another squad to correct the mistakes. They are referred to as Inspectors. Once they set off, they are tasked with the mission to deal with the deserters and bring them back to their original time for execution.

And the Tianqiong twelfth squad was the only squad that had not been captured by the Inspectors.

Song Qinglan, “Everyone thought they had deserted because of their selfish desires. I didn’t expect them to be here.”

Deserters.

Ji Yushi stared at the three corpses before him. It was unknown what was going through his mind.

This matter was a secret in Tianqiong, only squad captains knew about it.

Song Qinglan then said, “You may not have heard of this….I feel bad for them. Looks like it was just as we thought, there is indeed a strange magnetic field here which causes those transitioning to be sucked in.”

Ji Yushi said, “If we can’t go back, we will also be treated as deserters.”

Song Qinglan was noncommittal.

Ji Yushi was right. Except for the fact that they were hijacked to that transfer station by the so-called “Tianqiong self-awareness”, their current sutation was similar to that of the Tianqiong twelfth squad. If they couldn’t return, as far as the third command centre was concerned, the seventh squad who had lost contact after departing had become a deserter.

But Song Qinglan wasn’t a pessimistic person. The same was true for the entire seventh squad, they wouldn’t succumb to their current predicament.

“What’s the cause of death?” Ji Yushi asked, “Can you tell?”

“There is no visible trauma to the bones…” Song Qinglan examined the corpses, “The clothes are also undamaged. Doesn’t seem to be due to external factors. If it was because of starvation, they wouldn’t all die in the same place. Based on their posture, it was probably due to poison.”

Both remembered the dragonfruit-like fruits and large mushrooms they had passed by.

After burying their seniors, the two continued on.

This time, they walked for a very long time.

Time in this rainforest seemed to be at a standstill. Just like the place where they came from, there was no day or night. It made it difficult for them to feel the passage of time.

But the energy consumption of the human body wasn’t at a standstill. Very soon, they felt hunger and fatigue.

They walked along the stream, into the deeper parts of the rainforest and once again saw huge mushrooms and thick and tall trees.

With lessons learned, even in the case of extreme hunger, they passed through the brightly coloured fruits and resisted their strong desire to give them a try.

After passing by a group of plants with thick round leaves, Ji Yushi stopped, “Cap Song.”

There was a broken off mark on one of the plants. Milky white liquid was still dripping from that broken off part. It was the leaf Song Qinglan had broken off before.

Song Qinglan also recognised it, “Fuck, we’re going around in circles?”

In fact, Ji Yushi had been thinking about this issue for a while now. He pursed his lips but decided to voice his inner thoughts, “I don’t think so.”

Song Qinglan also didn’t think that. He and Ji Yushi had a good sense of direction and wouldn’t going around in a circle, but the situation was just too strange.

It was almost like a ghost knocking on a wall.

After thinking for a few seconds, Song Qinglan made a decision, “It’s easy to know if we’re going around in circles. Let’s continue.”

Then, everything happened very suddenly.

As they walked, one second earlier they were still in the rainforest and the next second, they had stepped into nothingness.

They surroundings became dark again.

The temperature dropped and the dampness from the rainforest on their bodies was still there. Even if they put on the protective suit they had not discarded earlier, they weren’t able to warm up. They could only bite the bullet and move on.

Ji Yushi was so cold, his teeth chattered.

Without the flower’s glow this time, he had to hold tightly onto Shen Mian in the cold, trying hard to speed up his pace.

Song Qinglan looked back at him several times, but said nothing.

The aurora in the sky flashed.

In the silence, they stopped in place.

What appeared before them was another mountain of garbage.

No, this was the mountain of garbage they had walked past earlier.

Moving further on, when their hands and feet were almost about to freeze, they saw a familiar space capsule.

Song Qinglan pushed the door open and the two walked in.

Big Beard was sitting on the small sofa, using a towel to cover the bleeding nose Song Qinglan had made.

Seeing the two of them enter, Big Beard immediately bounced off the sofa with anger, “Anfalahagenhe!!”

Song Qinglan sneered. He raised Shen Mian and pointed it at Big Beard. He copied his pronunciation and said, “Anfalahagenhe.”

He didn’t know what it meant, but he knew that it definitely wasn’t anything nice.

Big Beard froze.

It wasn’t known if it was because of Song Qinglan’s words or because he was afraid of the gun, but the two-metre-tall fool stood there in daze.

Ji Yushi was so cold, his lips had turned pale, “………”

The space capsule was much warmer. He took off his protective suit and tossed it aside and then walked over to the pile of wreckage gathered by Big Beard.

Big Beard returned to his senses and shouted anxiously in fear of Ji Yushi taking away his things.

Ji Yushi however only picked up a retro-looking alarm clock made of metal and said, “Cap Song, it has been less than two hours since we left the space capsule.”