Chapter 223 - 163: The Space Fissure Riot! They are all Professionists!
Half a month later, Yao Zhixue returned from the North Pole ice sheet, her entire aura becoming even colder.
Her pupils, formerly black and white, gradually turned into a faint indigo color, making her look like a goddess!
Another week later, the summer vacation ended, and the three of them prepared to head to Beijing together!
In the bustling station, under Zhao Yunxiao’s lead, the three of them successively arrived at the platform.
A month of fulfilling the duties of Night Watchmen had caused a great change in their temperaments.
They had become more steady and serious, and their eyes were filled with confidence.
With the addition of Zheng Cheng, Yao Zhixue, and Cai Ji, the safety in the Stele Forest area of Chang’an City, where Zhao Yunxiao was stationed, had greatly improved.
Especially, Zheng Cheng, who used the Central Radar Life Monitoring Technique, weeded out quite a lot of spies of the Fallen Ones.
For some unknown reason, after losing more than a dozen people, the people of Dawn quickly vanished and could no longer be found.
As for people like Song Chaoyu, they had already reported to the Northwest University of Professions a step earlier.
On the night of their parting, she cried in Zheng Cheng’s arms for a long while, insisting on going to Beijing; in the end, it was Zhao Yunxiao who calmed her down.
“Send a thousand miles, there must be a farewell.”
Zhao Yunxiao stood still and said: “We’ll say goodbye here. You’ll have to walk the rest of the way on your own.”
Zheng Cheng suddenly said: “Sister Yunxiao, as I remember, your family’s from Beijing too, right?”
Zhao Yunxiao gently brushed her hair and said: “Why? Digging into my family history?”
“No, no, not at all.” Zheng Cheng shook his head and said, “If you are going back to Beijing, send a message in advance, and we can meet up there.”
“No problem.”
“Sister Yunxiao…”
Yao Zhixue was also feeling a little sentimental, saying, “I’m going to miss you.”
“Silly girl.”
Zhao Yunxiao laughed and touched her head: “It’s not a life or death separation. I’ll be transferred back to the Night Watch headquarters in at most half a year, and then won’t we see each other every day?”
“Really?”
This made even Zheng Cheng excited.
Zhao Yunxiao rolled her eyes: “Why would I lie to you?”
“Get on board, the train is about to leave.”
“Okay!”
“Goodbye!”
“Goodbye, Sister Yunxiao!”
The three of them got on the train, each in a different mood.
“In at most half a year, we can see Sister Yunxiao again, that’s great!”
“I wonder what Beijing is like. I’ve never been there before, and I’ve lived so long…”
“Brother Cheng! Zhixue! Our seats are in the VIP section… it seems to be all prepared for professionists…”
“Let’s hurry…”
The three of them moved with the crowd and arrived at the VIP section.
The number of people here was significantly fewer, but there were still forty to fifty people.
It was a stark contrast to the standard class they had seen before.
All three of them had space equipment. Even Cai Ji had used merit points to exchange for a space ring with an area of about fifty cubic meters.
All their luggage was in the space ring, so they easily sat in their own seats and chatted.
“Brother Cheng, why don’t we just use the teleportation array to get to Beijing instead of taking the green train?”
Cai Ji asked after sitting down, “And besides, isn’t there a high-speed rail…”
Zheng Cheng said, “The teleportation array consumes too much at once, it’s unnecessary.”
“And if we take the train, we can enjoy the scenery along the way. We’ve never really strayed far from Chang’an City, so what’s the rush?”
“As for the high-speed rail… as I’ve heard, it’s too fast and often results in accidents in the wilderness, so it’s been discontinued.”
“The area outside the city is now full of all kinds of monsters; it’s impossible for ordinary people to leave the city.”
“The only reason that trains can still run is that the state has trained formation masters who inscribed specific expulsion formations on the train tracks and the train itself to ensure the safety of the route.”
Zheng Cheng said: “Even with so many formations, there are still specific railway towns constructed every 500 kilometers along the way to maintain the safety of the railway.”
“I see…”
“Huh?” The three of them were just chatting when suddenly a middle-aged man came over: “Young man, why do you look familiar?”
Zheng Cheng also felt that this person seemed familiar and hesitated and asked, “Are you…”
The middle-aged man took another look at Yao Zhixue beside him, his eyes lighting up suddenly, “Haha, I remember now! The hotel next to the Professions Guild, this Yao Zhixue was attacked by the Fallen Ones, wasn’t she?”
“I was there at the time!”
Zheng Cheng’s eyes lit up, “I remember now, you’re Brother Huang Jiu, right?”
“Ha-ha.” If people meet, that means they are destined to meet; never thought to run into you here,” Huang Jiu sat down right next to him on an empty seat, laughing loudly: “You guys must be going to study in Beijing, I’m familiar with Beijing; let me be your guide when we get there!”
“Thank you very much, Brother Huang Jiu.”
Meanwhile, Yao Zhixue turned slightly red.
Hotel next to the Professions Guild?
She remembered the events of that day, and… that feeling!
She glared fiercely at Zheng Cheng and Huang Jiu, then changed seats.
Huang Jiu was confused, but Zheng Cheng just twitched at the corner of his mouth, not minding at all.
The few of them immediately started chatting. Huang Jiu, although being a professionist, was also a businessman, mainly dealing in building materials such as stones and slate.
This trip to Beijing was also for business negotiations.
During the journey, Huang Jiu, Zheng Cheng, and Chick shared many laughs. After all, Huang Jiu had travelled across the world for more than a decade, he had seen and experienced a lot.
Simply speaking about interesting places in Beijing got the other two excited.
“Hehehe, Brother Zheng, Brother Chick, after we report to the school, Big Brother will take you guys out on a tour to look around. Hehehe…”
Even the Chick was excited: “Brother Huang Jiu, are there really gatherings of different races in Beijing? And even different races’ auction houses too?”
“Indeed!”
Huang Jiu spoke in a deep voice: “Even though the Blue Star’s Race like us only joined the Alien Battlefield a little more than 300 years ago, we have already broken into several different races’ gatherings. Although we rank last among all races, we’re still doing much better than other races!”
“Once we’re in Beijing, I’ll surely take you guys to look around…”
“Boom~!!!”
Just then, a violent jolt ran through the vehicle.
Items like water glasses and dinner plates in the car were all knocked over onto the floor.
Chick, who was standing next to his seat, was not careful and fell to the ground.
In the back carriage, ordinary people were in complete chaos.
“What’s going on?”
“Was there an earthquake?”
“Look outside!”
A multitude of shocked voices resounded, and the VIP carriage’s professionalists quickly calmed down.
Zheng Cheng also looked outside through a window, only to see dark black clouds appearing in the sky above the front of the train, spinning continuously.
Streams of illusory, twisted light slowly extended and fell onto the ground.
As the earth shook, a great amount of soil was upheaved and fell in the distance.
Seeing this, Huang Jiu’s face changed drastically and exclaimed: “Not good! It’s a Space Rift!”
“This is Qinzhou Province’s core area, how could there be a space rift here!”
At the same time, a concerned voice from the train conductor suddenly sounded over the train’s loudspeaker.
“Dear passengers, a small space crack has appeared directly in front of train K546 and the vehicle is no longer advancing due to this.”
“Whether or not there are monsters inside the space rift is still uncertain, please all passengers remain calm and do not move around unnecessarily…”
Just then, chaos erupted over the loudspeaker as though people were fighting with each other for the microphone.
Soon, another voice could be heard against the noise.
“I am Xu Qingfeng, the night-time captain of the Chang’an City defence team. All professionalists on train K546, please gather in VIP carriage number one!”
Huang Jiu stood up, grimacing: “Things have taken a bad turn. Why is the defence team captain here?”
“Quickly, let’s go to VIP carriage number one.”
The three of them stood up as well, their compartment happened to be VIP Carriage Number Three, so it wasn’t too far away.
Before they even moved, they saw seven or eight figures in the compartment turn around and hurriedly leave through the back.
Seeing this, Huang Jiu’s face changed and he exclaimed: “What are you guys doing! Where are you going to the regular compartment for?”
“Remember that as professionalists, your duty is to protect the ordinary people behind you. Why are you going to hide in the crowd?”
Hearing Huang Jiu’s shout, some professionalists stopped in their tracks, but three of them didn’t care and went straight into the regular carriage.
One of them gave a bitter smile: “Bro, I only have a two-star auxiliary job, spare me, please.”
“I am a lifestyle professional! According to the rules, when encountering a space rift erupting in danger out in the wild, I can choose not to participate in battle!”
“I-I was injured before, so I’m not participating this time…”
As he was speaking, a few more professionalists turned around and went into the ordinary people’s compartment.
“Damn…”
Huang Jiu instantly started swearing.
“To hell with you all! The country nurtured you so that you could desert us in a crisis…”
“Hey, man! Stop shouting at them!”
A practitioner in the front sneered: “They’re just a bunch of cowards who fear death, let’s go!”
With that, the professionalists in VIP Carriage Number Three divided into two groups.
A small group retreated to the regular carriage, while the majority went in the direction of VIP Carriage Number One.
Chick was puzzled: “Wha-what are they going to do?”
Zheng Cheng pulled Chick to one side and shook his head, saying: “Everyone has their own choices.”
“According to national law and the rules of the Professionalist Guild, any professionalist who encounters a beast tide, a space rift outbreak, or a monster attacking the city in the wilderness must voluntarily stand up to protect ordinary people.”
“Most professionalists follow this rule strictly, but there are a small number of professionalists who chose to sit on the sidelines or even desert their posts out of fear for their lives, cowardice, or other reasons…”
“They’re the ones.”
“What?”
Immediately, Chick got angry and said urgently: “How could they do this? If all of us retreated, who would protect ordinary people? Who would protect our families?”
He ran to the door of VIP Carriage Number Three and shouted: “You guys…”
He suddenly stopped because he saw a weak figure walk out of the Number Three VIP Compartment after someone had pushed the door open.
“Young man, you’re a professionalist, aren’t you? Why are you blocking the door? Aren’t you going to hurry to Carriage Number One to assemble?”
Appearing in front of Chick, Zheng Cheng, and others was surprisingly an old man with white hair and a face full of wrinkles.
Behind him were several other figures.
A construction worker, wearing a hard hat and simple clothes.
A middle-aged lady carrying a basket of vegetables as if she just came back from the local market.
And a young woman holding an infant, constantly trying to soothe the crying baby.
They, too, were all professionalists.