Chapter 87

Chapter 87

Chu Ya ran swiftly toward the rear as gunshots echoed around him. There were no more children behind; the snow was littered with wood rat corpses. A Mutant leaped at him from the cliff, but without even looking, he swung his fist and sent it flying.

The Mutant crashed into the rock wall with a thud, then fell silently to the ground.

The Black Wolf was about to follow, but Chu Ya shouted, "Stay here and help them hold off the creatures. I'll go."

"Shen Juanjuan, Shen Juanjuan, Tang Yuanyuan, Chen Hongliang..." He called out as he ran, finally hearing a distant response.

"Brother Chu Ya..."

He recognized Chen Hongliang's voice and quickened his pace, leaping over scattered logs and snow pits along the way.

As he drew closer, the children's voices grew clearer.

"Shen Miaomiao."

"Brother Chu Ya."

Ahead, a pile of logs lay across the canyon like a small mountain, blocking the group of young students. Chu Ya rushed forward and began moving the logs, speaking reassuringly, "I'm here. Don't be afraid. You'll be able to come through soon."

From behind the logs, Shen Juanjuan called out loudly, "Shen Miaomiao, I'm helping them move the logs. We've already moved several."

Chu Ya threw the log he was holding down the hillside. "The squad leader is doing great."

Chen Hongliang called out clearly, "The deputy squad leader is also leading them in moving the logs."

"The deputy squad leader is also doing great."

"Brother Chu Ya, I'm moving logs too."

"I'm moving logs too."

Chu Ya lifted another log. "You're all doing great."

Despite the urgent situation, he kept his voice calm, quickly soothing the children's panic. But just after he tossed the log aside, he felt a sudden dizziness and stumbled, falling to the ground.

Shen Juanjuan, who had been listening closely, immediately asked, "Shen Miaomiao, did you fall?"

Chu Ya knew this was due to releasing a large amount of mental energy without proper guidance. However, he couldn't stop now. After the dizziness passed, he stood up, picked up the log again, and continued using his mental power to kill the Mutants at the bridgehead, replying, "It's nothing, just slipped."

"Be careful then."

"Okay."

A gap soon appeared on the left side, and the children began to crawl through one by one. Chu Ya helped each child down and led them forward.

"Oh!" One child had only run a few steps before tripping and falling.

Chu Ya righted an overturned empty cart, and the children climbed onto it without being told.

Without waiting for everyone to settle, he pushed the cart forward. The road was bumpy, occasionally rolling over fallen tree trunks, causing the children to bounce up and down, but not a single one complained.

After running for a while, several managers rushed over to help push the cart toward the bridgehead. Only then did Shen Juanjuan and the other children see the swarm of Mutants on the cliff walls, which left them wide-eyed with fear.

As they neared the bridgehead, a gray flood of Mutants had already covered the entire cliff face, extending to the bottom of the valley. The managers fired their guns at close range, scattering Mutant corpses and snow, the deafening gunshots echoing through the canyon and triggering an avalanche on a nearby mountain peak, creating a loud rumble.

Wang Chengcai and three others still held the iron cable, fortunately, there weren't many people left, so they didn't need to exert as much effort as before. Students who had already crossed the bridge stood on the opposite cliff, jumping and shouting encouragement.

"Run! Run!"

"Come on, run faster!"

Managers on the bridge also reached out to them: "Quick, quick!"

At this point, the Mutants were charging even more frenziedly. The bridgehead was blocked by logs, and the managers carried two children each under their arms, rushing onto the bridge. Chu Ya walked last, holding Shen Juanjuan in his left arm and swinging a dagger in his right hand. The Black Wolf darted back and forth in front of him, blocking the charging Mutants.

Seeing that there were fewer people on the bridge, he shouted to Wang Chengcai and Liu Zhen, "Hurry, get on the bridge quickly."

The four temporarily secured the iron cable to the iron post, each grabbing two children and rushing onto the iron bridge. "Brother Chu Ya, come quickly."

Chu Ya, blocking the Mutants, replied without turning his head, "I'll withdraw once you're all across."

The Mutants had filled the canyon, a surging gray tide covering the entire snowy landscape. They kept charging, squeezing through any gaps to reach the bridge. Unable to repel their nearly insane assault with his mental power alone, Chu Ya placed Shen Juanjuan on the ground and shouted, "Get on the bridge, follow them."

Shen Juanjuan remained silent, and when Chu Ya saw him on the bridge out of the corner of his eye, he paid no further attention, focusing entirely on holding off the Mutants with the Black Wolf.

Finally, the other managers carried the children to the opposite shore, leaving only two standing in the middle of the bridge, firing at the Mutants.

"Chu Ya, you can come over now! Hurry up!" Rong Chen's voice came from the opposite side.

"Alright!"

Chu Ya prepared to cross the bridge, but as he took a step back, he heard a sharp crack from the left. He saw the thick iron cable wrapped around the iron post was crawling with mutated wood rats, gnawing at the connection with their steel-like teeth.

Not good!

Just as these words flashed through his mind, he heard another crack, and the iron cable snapped, flying out. The crowd on the opposite side let out a collective gasp.

Shen Juanjuan!

Chu Ya's heart pounded, and he turned his head quickly. The entire bridge had collapsed, and the two managers clung to the right iron cable, hanging in the air and swaying back and forth.

But Shen Juanjuan was not on the bridge.

Shen Juanjuan had fallen.

As this thought crossed his mind, Chu Ya felt a thunderous explosion in his head, losing all consciousness. His eyes fixed on the misty deep cliff, and all sounds faded away, as if the world itself had frozen.

Shen Juanjuan fell down.

I let him onto the bridge, but he fell...

"...Dare to bite Shen Miaomiao? I'll beat you to death. Thick-skinned, get lost..."

Chu Ya blocked out all external sounds in his mind, except for this familiar voice filled with anger. When the sound pierced through his eardrums, it abruptly pulled him back from his daze, instantly clearing his mind and making his blood flow again, his heart resuming its beat.

He turned his head with great difficulty, looking at the little boy beside him who was wielding a wooden stick, fiercely beating a wood rat mutant, his two small pigtails swaying with his movements.

"Thick-skinned, you're so ugly, how dare you show me your teeth? Just because you have teeth, do you think you're something? Watch me knock them out, I will, I will..."

While Shen Juanjuan roared in anger and poked at the mutant in front of him, he suddenly found himself lifted off the ground and tightly embraced by a familiar pair of arms.

Bending over, Shen Juanjuan tried to continue poking at the mutant on the ground, but Chu Ya carried him toward the nearby cliff.

"You didn't get on the bridge?" Chu Ya asked hoarsely.

Shen Juanjuan replied, "You didn't move either, so I didn't move."

Chu Ya ran very fast, releasing his mental power while also brandishing a dagger, moving swiftly and reacting quickly, showing no signs of the recent turmoil he had just experienced. The only indication of his current state was his pale face and the arm that held Shen Juanjuan tightly, trembling uncontrollably.

"I'll beat you to death, I'll beat you to death." Shen Juanjuan, unable to move, shouted at the ground. Chu Ya carried him toward the opposite mountain wall, turning him around and placing him on his back mid-way, "Hold on tight!"

Shen Juanjuan obeyed and wrapped his arms around Chu Ya's neck. Chu Ya rushed to the base of the mountain wall, grabbed a vine, and leaped up, climbing quickly along the wall.

The Black Wolf followed closely by his side, biting into the mutants that were chasing them, clamping down with sharp teeth and then tossing their dead bodies into the rat swarm.

On the other side of the cliff, shouts echoed across the sky. Everyone watched as Chu Ya and Shen Juanjuan, jumping and shouting anxiously. The two managers had already crossed the iron chain, but the mutants were also climbing along it. The managers fired at them or knocked them off with wooden sticks.

"Try to come over... come over..." Chu Ya heard Rong Chen's voice.

Continuing to climb toward the mountaintop, he shouted back, "Cut the chains, don't wait, we'll go over from the top."

Rong Chen didn't hear clearly, so Shen Juanjuan shouted even louder, "Cut the chains, don't wait, we'll go over from the top."

This time, Rong Chen finally heard and quickly cut the chains, causing the iron bridge, now crawling with mutants, to fall into the deep chasm.

Chu Ya added, "Leave here as soon as possible, we'll meet at the swamp ahead."

This mountain was connected to the opposite side only by the iron bridge, so he and Shen Juanjuan had to take another route and meet up with the orphanage at the swamp.

Shen Juanjuan continued to shout, "We can also meet at the bath."

"What?" Rong Chen shouted back.

"At the swamp," Chu Ya corrected.

Shen Juanjuan yelled, "At the bath."

"…Alright!"

Suddenly, Chu Ya felt dizzy, and his body swayed uncontrollably. But his mind remained clear, and he clung tightly to the withered vine, stepping firmly on a rock to steady himself.

The Black Wolf stood beneath him, swinging its claws to knock away mutants while supporting his body.

Once the dizziness passed, he continued climbing toward the cliff top, his mental power continuing to pierce the swarm of wood rats following behind.

Shen Juanjuan lay on his back, his left hand around Chu Ya's neck, his right hand gripping a wooden stick, cursing incessantly. Whenever a wood rat tried to sneak an attack from the side, he would swing his stick, "I'll beat you, thick-skinned!"

Chu Ya wasn't aware of the state of his mental domain, only that his current condition was dire. His mental power was almost depleted, and although he couldn't enter a trance state, he had no other choice. Although individual wood rats weren't strong, there were too many of them, so he could only keep releasing his mental power, hoping to reach the peak quickly and find a place to hide with Shen Juanjuan.

Wood rats rained down the mountain wall, and the managers on the other side of the cliff fired at the wall, students cheering and throwing stones at the rat swarm.

Amidst the various shouts of encouragement, Shen Juanjuan fought bravely, but he also heard the cries of Lin Duozhi and the younger children.

"Shen Juanjuan, beat them, use mental defense, sniff sniff..."

"Brother Chu Ya, Shen Juanjuan, climb faster, climb faster."

"Mental attack, everyone attack."

"Sniff sniff..."

Finally, Chu Ya reached the mountaintop and placed Shen Juanjuan on the ground. The top was a relatively flat, elongated open area, now covered in heavy snow. He held Shen Juanjuan's hand and stared ahead into the blizzard, but his head grew increasingly dizzy and painful, and the world before his eyes began to warp and spin.

He continued to release his nearly exhausted mental power, mechanically swinging his dagger, seeing only the undulating snow and the black shadows of wood rats crawling on the ground. Shen Juanjuan's voice fluctuated, mixed with meaningless noise.

"Beat... get lost... dare to come closer..."

Shen Juanjuan, led by Chu Ya, walked through the snow, one step after another, constantly turning to swing his wooden stick. His attention was entirely focused on the pursuing wood rats, not noticing that Chu Ya's movements were becoming slower and his steps heavier, nor that the Black Wolf's form was beginning to blur, like a TV signal with poor reception.

Chu Ya only wanted to find a safe place to hide Shen Juanjuan, but his vision became increasingly blurred, the sky morphing into twisted lines, the ground beneath his feet turning into boiling red lava.

He knew he had entered a trance state and used his last bit of consciousness to release one final wave of mental power, his words barely audible even to himself: "Run, run, quickly."

He no longer felt his body, and just before he completely fell into darkness, his only thought was: ...What about Shen Juanjuan?

Chu Ya silently collapsed on the snowy ground, and the Black Wolf, after killing one more mutant, staggered forward a few steps and disappeared into thin air.

This final attack from Chu Ya drained all his mental power, like a shower of fine steel needles, immediately felling hundreds of the leading wood rats. The trail was now littered with dead wood rats, which finally instilled some fear in the others. After this powerful attack, they no longer charged forward recklessly but stopped in their tracks.

"Wow, you killed so many! They've stopped, they—"

Just as Shen Juanjuan shouted excitedly, he was pulled down to the snow by Chu Ya. He quickly got up and tried to help Chu Ya, only then realizing something was wrong.

"Shen Miaomiao, Shen Miaomiao." Shen Juanjuan shook Chu Ya's shoulders.

Chu Ya lay motionless on the ground, and when Shen Juanjuan rolled him over, he saw that Chu Ya was unconscious, his eyes tightly closed, his face pale and devoid of color.

"Shen Miaomiao!" Shen Juanjuan cried out in panic, then turned to look at the dense crowd of wood rats behind him: "Shen Miaomiao, what's wrong with you? Were you bitten? What happened?"

The sharp teeth of the wood rats dripped with long strands of saliva, their eyes filled with both fear and a bloodthirsty madness. Sensing that the danger was dissipating, they began to muster the courage to approach.

"Shen Miaomiao, Shen Miaomiao..." Shen Juanjuan knelt beside Chu Ya, shaking him desperately while keeping an eye on the wood rats. Seeing them getting closer, he shouted with red eyes: "You're not allowed to come any closer! Don't bite him! You've already injured him, don't come any closer, I'll beat you all!"

The wood rats continued to advance, and Shen Juanjuan stood in front of Chu Ya, gripping a wooden stick and swinging it forcefully, crying out in a sharp, off-key voice: "I'm the squad leader, I order you not to come any closer. If you dare to come, I'll beat you all..." He turned his head to look at Chu Ya on the ground: "Shen Miaomiao, what's wrong with you? Wake up, wake up quickly, sniff sniff..."

The wood rats surrounded them from all sides, tentatively approaching. Shen Juanjuan swung the wooden stick continuously in the shrinking circle around Chu Ya. But when he drove away the wood rats on the left, he couldn't keep an eye on those on the right. A bold wood rat suddenly darted forward and bit Chu Ya's calf, its sharp teeth piercing through the thick cotton pants, causing blood to gush out.

Shen Juanjuan turned sharply, hitting it with the wooden stick and screaming helplessly: "Get lost, get lost, I won't let you bite him..."

The scent of blood excited the mutants, making their eyes even more bloodshot. Especially after realizing that Chu Ya no longer attacked them, they became even more aggressive, opening their mouths and lunging at the two.

When Shen Juanjuan saw a wood rat's fangs about to sink into Chu Ya's chest, he was overwhelmed by a wave of terror, as if a snow avalanche had occurred in his mind, producing a deafening roar.

I can't let them bite Shen Miaomiao, not even once.

I have to protect him, I have to protect him...

The shrill screams in Shen Juanjuan's mind grew louder, like a flood surging over shattered rocks, shaking the entire world with a loud rumble.

But in the next second, all sounds suddenly disappeared, and the world fell into absolute silence, as if time itself had stopped.

He saw the snowflakes stop dancing, the white mist suspended in mid-air, and the leaping wood rats frozen in their pouncing positions. The wood rat that was about to bite Chu Ya's chest had its mouth open, the saliva on its fangs hanging in the air.

Shen Juanjuan panted, staring blankly at everything before him.

He reached out and touched a snowflake hanging in front of him, watching it move slightly under his finger but remain suspended in the air.

The stillness lasted for about two seconds, and then time resumed. A thunderous explosion echoed in Shen Juanjuan's mind, as if something had detonated, releasing a powerful force that spread out in all directions from him. The wood rats and the snow were flung outward, covering the sky and falling far into the snow and valleys.

His mental energy spread out like a vast tide, instantly flooding into Chu Ya's mental domain.

A silver torrent swept through this space, clearing away tornadoes and meteorites, dispelling the darkness. "Wheat Ear" emitted a brilliant golden light, and more golden threads rapidly appeared, following the silver torrent to spread over the black outer walls of the mental domain and cover them.

When the last patch of black on the outer walls was covered by the golden threads, a white entity appeared at the center of the space. It resembled a celestial body floating in the universe, spreading out like a slowly unfurling scroll.

As the scroll unfolded, a pure ice world appeared in the air. The pristine ice plains, towering glaciers, and gently falling snowflakes created a silent, peaceful scene.

...

Time seemed to pass like half a century or just half a minute. The snow peak had returned to silence, with no more howls from the mutants, only the howling wind.

A dark patch of ground, several meters wide, had appeared in the snow, the accumulated snow having been swept away to reveal the deep black mountain rock beneath. Chu Ya lay with his eyes closed at the center of the patch, Shen Juanjuan collapsed on top of him, and the surrounding snow was littered with the bodies of wood rats.

The silence was soon broken as the surrounding mountains began to rumble, large patches of snow collapsing down the slopes, sending clouds of snow dust flying and causing the earth to tremble.

It was like a chain reaction; a major avalanche was imminent.

The avalanche sent the mutants fleeing from the forests, running in panic and converging on this mountain peak.

"Roar!"

The Black Wolf suddenly appeared on the patch of ground beside Chu Ya, raising its head and letting out a powerful roar.

Its fur flew in the wind and snow, still a deep black, but with several prominent golden stripes on its body, and its deep green eyes had turned dark gold.

Hearing the Black Wolf's roar, the mutants rushing toward the peak froze in fear. But with the avalanche behind them, they continued to flee toward the peak.

Chu Ya slowly opened his eyes in the midst of the continuous rumbling and the roars of the beasts. His gaze was clear, free of any drowsiness.

He could now examine his mental domain, seeing the golden-glowing outer walls and the ice plain that had not only recovered but had become even more expansive than before.

Chu Ya gave a low laugh, a short, nasal sound.

He slowly shifted his gaze to Shen Juanjuan lying in his arms, then raised his hand to gently brush away a snowflake from his eyelashes.

"Little Guide, it's time to wake up," he said hoarsely.