32: Chapter 32 The Falling Star Train

When Lu Jin boarded the train, the hexagonal good-luck star talisman in his pocket grew hot for a moment.

The heat was brief, like someone poking the back of the talisman with a needle, before it faded away.

The intercity divine rail train of the Zhuixing Divine Academy was parked in the deepest part of the Qinglan Divine Rail Station; it was black and silver, with a long, narrow body suspended on guide rails three zhang above the ground.

The windows were narrow, the doors were narrow, and the entire train resembled a blade pressed against the mouth of its scabbard.

New students stood outside every carriage, but their gazes all turned towards the seventh carriage.

The top scorer of the Unified Exam was boarding today.

Lu Jin ignored those gazes, and as he stepped into the carriage, his divine sense had already sunk into the Dead Ash Mine.

The fire by the Return Fire Well had stabilized.

Two Black Shield Bone Carriages were parked at the rear hatch, their undercarriages pressing down on divine statue fragments, the sides of their wheels clamped with silver altar edges, and Grey Pupil had nailed the remnant patterns of the wind pillar into the axles.

Twenty Tunneling Rats stood in two rows, twelve Fire Oil Throwers carried triple fire troughs on their backs, ten Ambush Rats lurked in the shadows, and eight Cart-pulling Rats were harnessed with bone ropes, all silent.

Grey Pupil stood at the edge of the well, carrying the flag-bone ritual staff on his shoulder, his grey eyes cold and heavy.

"Those remaining in the nest shall guard the well."

"Those leaving with the carriage shall follow the master."

Lu Jin only replied with four words.

"Seal the rear hatch."

The White-Bellied Mother Rat, the Breeding Cave, the young, and the crystal cores were all pushed back to the deepest layer. The only things brought out alive were the frontline combat group.

The line of faith tightened slightly, as if the entire nest had bowed its head once.

He opened his eyes; the carriage was already more than half full.

The fatty opposite him wore short armor with gold patterns, a sponsorship badge hanging behind him, and was looking him up and down with an ill-intentioned smile: "Lu Jin? I heard that nest of rats of yours can bury a city. The carriage is only this wide, where do you plan to bury them?"

Lu Jin placed the black box by his feet and sat down.

"Your feet are occupying the seam on the carriage floor."

The fatty was stunned, looked down at the soles of his boots, and his expression immediately soured.

"What do you mean?"

"Move them."

Lu Jin's voice was flat, without any fluctuation.

Just as the fatty was about to speak, a girl sitting diagonally in front suddenly lifted her eyes.

She sat by the window, her long black coat buttoned up to her throat, a long, slender mirror case resting horizontally on her knees. Her skin was a cold white, her brows and eyes sharp, like a piece of unmelted thin ice. She glanced at the fatty, her gaze cool and chilling.

The fatty's mouth twitched, and he actually pulled his feet back.

The train doors closed, the train gave a gentle jolt, and it slid out along the star rails.

The cityscape receded, and soon there was nothing outside the window but the high sky, broken clouds, and a straight, silver-white track extending into the distance. Occasionally, dilapidated floating platforms and abandoned approach bridges flashed by on both sides of the track, blackened as if burned. The chatter in the carriage was quite loud at first, discussing the academy, rankings, and who would get into which class, but mostly, they were looking at Lu Jin.

Watching to see if he was really as tough as he appeared on the light screen.

Lu Jin did not look at them.

His fingertips rubbed the good-luck star talisman rhythmically, the strange fire-sealing line on the back of the talisman becoming clearer and clearer. When the train broke through the third layer of cloud, the star talisman suddenly grew hot again.

This time, it was much hotter than before.

Lu Jin raised his eyes to look at the ceiling of the carriage.

From deep within the steel plate, a very faint scratching sound came.

Grey Pupil spoke in a low voice within the Sea of Consciousness.

"There are claws above."

Almost at the same instant, the entire train lurched to one side.

Clang!

Dozens of people in the carriage were thrown off balance by the jolt, suitcases slammed into seats, and the stable star rail outside the narrow window looked as if it had been yanked by someone, breaking half a foot to the right. In the distance, a mass of blue-black turbulence rolled down, containing fragments of light, broken bones, and blurry human faces.

A piercing alarm finally sounded.

"Star rail turbulence alert!"

"Seventh to ninth carriage new student compartments, protect the train yourselves!"

"Train protection performance will be included in the enrollment evaluation!"

As soon as the last eight words fell, the carriage erupted.

"Protect the train ourselves?"

"Where are the guards!"

No one answered.

A creature lunged at the outside of the train window.

Half of its body resembled a scorched rail, while the other half bore a twisted human face. Five hooked claws squeezed through the window gap, grabbing the frame and tearing inward. The star-patterned glass emitted a piercing screech, and strings of blue-white sparks exploded.

"Rail-splitting remnant spirit!"

Someone screamed.

Lu Jin had already stood up and kicked the black box at his feet open.

"Grey Pupil, lock the central aisle."

"Cart-pulling Rats, brace the doors."

"Fire Oil line, guard the windows, not the people."

"Digging Squad, gnaw the seams of the carriage floor."

A grey shadow darted out from the crack at his feet, landing and swinging its ritual staff horizontally, directly smashing the first row of seats in the aisle. Following close behind, the two Black Shield Bone Carriages were dragged out of the crack by the Cart-pulling Rats, their fronts wedging into the front and rear doors, instantly dividing the narrow carriage into three sections.

There were exclamations throughout the carriage.

The fatty's face went pale: "Why are you blocking the doors!"

Lu Jin didn't even look at him.

"If the doors open, the wind pressure will blow you out first."

The first window shattered.

As the Rail-splitting remnant spirit poked half its body inside, three Fire Oil Throwers raised their arms and threw simultaneously. Grey-red fire bladders slammed into its chest, the fire slurry burning up along its hooked claws, and the originally intangible remnant spirit was stuck by this mass of grey fire, causing it to pause.

Grey Pupil stepped onto the seat, swinging its ritual staff diagonally.

Crack!

The distorted human face burst on the spot, and a fingernail-sized blue-grey remnant core fell out. Several new students nearby were stunned; no one had expected that this thing could be fought this way inside the carriage.

There was already more than one outside the window.

The turbulence rolled to the side of the train, with over a dozen black shadows crawling frantically against the outer shell, their hooked claws continuously digging into the star-patterned steel plate. The connection between the seventh and eighth carriages sank suddenly, and the carriage roof buckled inward.

Lu Jin looked down; the seam on the carriage floor had just been gnawed open by the Tunneling Rats.

Cold wind poured in.

"Ambush Squad, follow me to the outer shell."

He pressed one hand to the floor, his divine sense pressing down along the crack. Ten Ambush Rats and four Cart-pulling Rats drilled out, almost hugging the underside of the carriage; as soon as their claws touched the outer shell, the bone ropes had already hooked onto the wind-locking buckles of the wind pillar remnant patterns. The blue-black turbulence whipped past underneath the train, and the world outside was a vast, fractured high sky, with broken rails, shattered clouds, and ghostly blue spirit fire racing beneath his feet.

Below the seventh carriage connection point, three bone hooks had already pierced the bottom of the train.

A larger creature lay on the roof, its back arched high, while its tail hung down from the bottom of the connection, hooking the entire carriage. Every time it pulled, the train tilted a little more.

Lu Jin's eyes darkened.

"Rail-nailing Demon Head."

Someone in the carriage had already released their familiar to fight back.

A silver-armored great ape had just squeezed out, but its shoulders got stuck in the aisle, making it hard to even turn around; two winged wolves were fast, but when they lunged to the window, they were swept up by the turbulence outside, half their bodies slamming into the carriage wall. Narrow terrain, high wind pressure, mid-air vehicle combat—many people's usual combat styles began to fall apart as soon as they hit the ground.

Grey Pupil listened for a breath, then looked up and said: "Three points on top, one point below; break the bottom first."

Just as it finished speaking, the cold, white-skinned girl diagonally in front had already stood up.

She picked up the mirror case and wiped it with her hand.

The lid of the case sprang open, and a cold light like shattered mirrors spread across her palm. The next second, over twenty palm-sized Frost Crows rushed out from the mirror, their wing edges all sharp silver-white blades; when they flew out through the window, even the turbulence was cut into a circle of white lines.

There was a collective gasp in the carriage.

"Mirror Frost Crow Court..."

Someone muttered.

The girl stepped onto the window frame, half her body already out of the carriage, the wind whipping her long coat, but she didn't even sway.

"That bunch of scum above the third carriage is mine."

Her voice wasn't loud, but it was coldly direct.

"Handle that tail hook below yourself."

Lu Jin glanced at her.

"Freeze the mirror bone on its left shoulder."

The girl also glanced at him, her gaze like a blade passing by.

"If you are half a breath too slow, I will freeze yours along with it."

As she spoke, the flock of crows had already swooped onto the roof of the train.

White frost exploded along the steel plate, and the Rail-splitting remnant spirits that had been clinging to the outer shell were knocked away one by one by the Frost Crows; a few winged demon spirits tried to dive into the turbulence, but as soon as the mirror light shone on them, their wing bones froze on the spot, and they plummeted from the high sky. Even more ruthless were the three lead Frost Crows, whose sharp beaks pecked directly into the left shoulder of the Rail-nailing Demon Head, silver-white cold patterns instantly crawling over half of its back.

The opportunity was in this one breath.

Lu Jin clenched his five fingers.

The four Cart-pulling Rats under the carriage pulled the ropes simultaneously, and the ten Ambush Rats scrambled frantically along the underside of the shell, biting wildly at the tail hook and the connection seam. Their teeth were no longer the soft teeth from the Wasteland; they had been sharpened by the silver altar edges and tempered by the grey fire, and as they bit onto the bone hook, they actually chewed out a string of sparks.

"Fire Oil!"

In the carriage, six Fire Oil Throwers rushed to the crack just gnawed open in the floor, raising their arms to throw. The fire bladders didn't scatter outward but rolled precisely down through the gap, all slamming into the base of the tail hook.

Lu Jin raised his hand and pressed down.

The black fire in the Sea of Consciousness sank, and the bit of ritual power stored in the Return Fire Well jumped violently along the line of faith.

The grey fire outside the gap suddenly flared bright.

The Rail-nailing Demon Head let out a piercing, shrill screech; the tail hook was torn open by the fire slurry and rat teeth, the entire carriage suddenly righted itself, and the thing on the roof tilted along with it. Just as it was about to lift its head, the Frost Crows on Ning Yanqiu's side had already pierced through the ice layer on its left shoulder, revealing a fist-sized mirror bone core inside.

"Now."

She spoke coldly.

Lu Jin did not hesitate at all.

"Grey Pupil, get to the top!"

Grey Pupil stepped onto the back of a seat, kicked off the carriage walls three times, and thrust the ritual staff straight at the roof. The steel plate was forcibly pried open, and it surged up through the gap, its ritual staff wrapped in grey-red fire, piercing straight into the frozen mirror bone core.

Bang!

Ice, fire, and black bone exploded simultaneously.

Half of the Rail-nailing Demon Head's body was blown to pieces; the remaining piece of spine still wanted to entangle the carriage, but the Ambush Rats under the carriage had already pounced, biting and dragging, pulling the entire thing away from the connection point. The moment the Demon Head fell off the side of the train, the turbulence rolled it downward, and Ning Yanqiu waved her hand, the last three Frost Crows piercing through its throat, directly pinning and shattering the broken spirit core in mid-air.

The train felt lighter.

Many people in the carriage only dared to breathe at this moment.

The remnant spirits on the outer layer lost their leader, and their offensive immediately became chaotic. Grey Pupil stood by the gap in the roof, shook off the ice shards and black blood from the ritual staff, and lowered its head to issue a command. The Fire Oil Throwers continued to throw fire along the window frames on both sides, the Tunneling Rats gnawed the floor seams wider to make room for the Ambush Rats below to climb back up. The bone carriages firmly blocked the front and rear doors; anyone who tried to rush in would first hit the black shields.

The turbulence dragged the train along for another quarter of an hour before it gradually dissipated.

When the last Rail-splitting remnant spirit was pinned to the window by Grey Pupil's staff, the carriage was filled with broken glass, frost, and scorched hooked claws. Two slow-reacting new students were bleeding from their arms; one had their shoulder torn open, and another had half of their star-patterned armor cracked on their chest. Lu Jin's side also had battle damage: three Ambush Rats had fallen from the outer shell, two Cart-pulling Rats had half their bodies sliced open by bone hooks, and a Fire Oil Thrower with a burnt-through front claw lay by the gap in the roof.

Grey Pupil dropped back into the carriage; the first thing it did wasn't to rest, but to drag back those blue-grey remnant cores and the half-section of the Rail-splitting spirit nail, throwing them at Lu Jin's feet.

"Can be melted."

"Seven remnant cores, one section of spirit nail."

Lu Jin gave a grunt of acknowledgement, raised his hand, and collected them into the black box.

Diagonally in front, Ning Yanqiu also dropped back to the window.

Her shoulders were covered in frost, her knuckles were bloody, but her mirror case was clean and shining. The carriage was very quiet; everyone was looking at her, and also at Lu Jin.

Ning Yanqiu closed the mirror case, her gaze falling on the Black Shield Bone Carriage at Lu Jin's feet.

"Your carriage is not bad."

Lu Jin glanced at the cold patterns that hadn't yet melted from her palms.

"Your crows are not slow either."

Ning Yanqiu nodded, accepting the comment.

"Lu Jin."

"Ning Yanqiu."

The two stated their names and didn't speak again.

The train did not slow down; instead, it went faster.

The clouds outside the window suddenly cleared, and in the distance, a massive black city suspended between broken bridges and floating platforms crashed into everyone's view from the end of the high sky. Countless star rails converged there like silver threads, the outer walls were oppressively high, and black flags were planted on the tower peaks, surrounded by wind.

The shock in the eyes of many new students had not yet faded, but their expressions had already tightened.

Just as someone wanted to stand up to get their luggage, the entire train's broadcast suddenly rang out.

Cold, crisp, without a word of comfort.

"All new students, do not disembark; the entrance trial battle begins now."