38: Chapter 38 Playing Side by Side

The moment the black gates closed, three Sun Gold locking stakes plummeted from the top of the depot.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Golden lines lit up simultaneously along the front, middle, and rear cargo rails, and the entire academy waste depot's skeletal structure seemed to be illuminated by a giant hand.

Broken beams, mountains of scrap, suspension chains, old rails, and maintenance trenches all revealed their outlines in the pale golden light.

On the three-story catwalks high above, figures stood in rows, golden-patterned armor plates pressing against their chests, all holding Sun Gold short guns and nail-cutting crossbows.

A black and silver light screen unfurled in mid-air.

[ Waste Depot Trial · Tier C ]

[ Objective: Break through the blockade and reach the deep depot wellhead ]

[ Nominal Supervisor: Sun Gold Department · Senior Student Pei Zhaoting ]

[ Time Limit: Two quarters of an hour ]

Ning Yanqiu raised her eyes, and her mirror case popped open with a "clack."

"The Pei family's reach is long enough."

Lu Jin didn't respond to this. He crouched down to touch the ground, wiped away a layer of thin dust with his fingertips, and his gaze darkened.

"The front tier was left empty on purpose; the real blockade is inside."

A laugh came from above.

"Two freshmen, yet your eyes are quite sharp."

"Senior Student Pei Zhaoting said, just clear the people out, don't damage the things at the bottom of the depot."

As the last sentence drifted down, Lu Jin and Ning Yanqiu looked up simultaneously.

The two exchanged a glance, neither speaking their thoughts aloud.

The Master Crow on Ning Yanqiu's shoulder flapped its wings, and twenty-four Mirror Frost Crows soared into the sky, pressing upward along the cracked skylight strip above the waste depot.

As the cold white mirror light spread, the three-story catwalks and the tops of the cargo shelves on both sides were laid bare.

Lu Jin raised his hand, and two Black Shield Bone Carriages dropped onto the old rails with a thud, their fire oil troughs held perfectly steady.

Sixteen Tunneling Rats scattered toward the maintenance trenches, twelve Ambush Rats crept away along the shadows of the scrap mountains, the Cart-pulling Rats bit the ropes to follow the carriages, and Grey Pupil stood guard at the front left, staff in hand.

"I'll take the high ground; you take the lower level."

Ning Yanqiu's tone was cold and decisive.

Lu Jin looked at the strings of slightly swaying golden bells above.

"The moment you go high, they'll target the crows first."

"The moment your people slip into the gaps, locking lines will trigger below."

Ning Yanqiu retorted just as quickly.

"We'll each fight our own way; whoever makes it through first gets the credit."

Clang!

No sooner had she finished speaking than three golden hook crossbows tore down from the catwalk on the upper right.

The two lead Frost Crows dodged quickly, but the third was hooked by the wing bone, dragged forcibly into the golden net, and exploded into a cluster of broken feathers in mid-air.

At the same moment, the ground lit up.

Fine, dense nail lines suddenly flipped up along the edges of the two maintenance trenches. Three Tunneling Rats had just ventured inside when their bellies were sliced open by the Sun Gold locking lines, blood dripping down the stone crevices.

A Cart-pulling Rat lunged to bite the line, and half its teeth shattered on the spot.

Unstoppable gasps came from the spectator gallery.

Ning Yanqiu's gaze darkened. As her mirror case flipped, six Frost Crows immediately dove low, using their cold feathers to pin the crossbow position on the upper right.

Lu Jin backhanded a severely injured Tunneling Rat into the sacrificial basin, throwing in the two broken pieces of Sun Gold nails as well.

With a swirl of gray fire, the basin puffed out a cloud of black, hot mist, which pressed directly onto the fire trough of the leading bone carriage.

"Grey Pupil, hold the left slope."

"Tunneling Rats, retreat to the shadow belt; do not touch the trench openings again."

He gave his orders without a moment's hesitation.

Ning Yanqiu had already stepped onto a half-collapsed cargo shelf. Hearing this, her brows furrowed immediately.

"Who are you giving orders to?"

Lu Jin didn't even turn his head.

"If you want to lose all your crows up there, keep charging upward."

Ning Yanqiu's footsteps faltered.

She swept a glance downward, her pupils constricting slightly.

The central cargo rail was too clean.

Everywhere else in the depot had half a finger's depth of accumulated dust, yet that main rail had been scoured bright by the wind. Even the iron filings had been swept away cleanly; it was clearly a kill-trap specifically left for intruders to step into.

The senior student leading the formation up high was still laughing.

"Figured it out?"

"Even if you did, it's too late."

He raised a hand, and the twelve Sun Gold nail-shield guards on the left and right wings closed in simultaneously. As the shields locked together, the horizontal corridor between the three cargo shelves was instantly sealed into a golden wall.

Behind them, four nail-cutting crossbow puppets raised their arms, aiming entirely at the only empty opening still lit beneath their feet.

Ning Yanqiu breathed out a puff of white air, her voice even colder.

"Tell me your route."

Lu Jin raised his hand and pointed to three locations.

"The scrap mountain on the far left; there's a blind spot under the collapsed beam."

"The central rail dips by a foot; the dog pack can't get past it."

"The suspension chains on the right are too dense; the golden net can't cover everything, so there will be an opening."

"Illuminate the sky for three breaths, and my people will use the blind spots."

Ning Yanqiu stared at those three pieces of terrain, spinning her mirror case in her fingers.

"If your people are a beat slow, my crows will die first."

"If you illuminate accurately, they'll be able to bite their way in."

Neither yielded an inch, yet their words had already aligned.

Ning Yanqiu flicked her wrist, and the Master Crow flapped its wings, rushing toward the cracked ceiling.

"Open the Celestial Eye!"

Twenty-four Mirror Frost Crows spread out into layers simultaneously; their crow eyes borrowed the mirrors, and the mirrors borrowed the frost light. A circle of cold white light suddenly lit up above the waste depot.

As the ring opened, the entire Tier C seemed to have its lid removed from above.

The thickness of the dust, the turns of the golden lines, the center of gravity of the catwalk crossbow positions, and the shadows behind the scrap mountains were all illuminated with absolute clarity.

Someone in the spectator gallery stood up.

"She's illuminated the entire depot floor!"

Lu Jin was waiting for exactly this moment.

"Rat tide, move through the blind spots!"

Sixteen Tunneling Rats darted out, hugging the ground. They didn't touch the maintenance trenches at all, drilling their way along the shadows of the collapsed beam at the base of the scrap mountains.

Twelve Ambush Rats split into three groups, lunging into the formation along the narrow gap where the central rail dipped and the dark bands cast by the suspension chains on the right.

The Cart-pulling Rats pulled the bone ropes taut, and the two Black Shield Bone Carriages bit into the old rails on the left and right, pushing forward. The fire oil troughs burned low in the gray mist, the sound muffled like the breathing of a beast.

The senior student leading the formation up high changed expression.

"Lock Dogs, go down and block those three dark bands!"

Six golden-patterned Lock Dogs leaped down from the catwalks, their claws covered in Sun Gold barbs, pouncing toward the blind spots the moment they landed.

Ning Yanqiu's gaze shifted, and seven Frost Crows instantly dove, their cold feathers striking the openings of the horizontal corridors on the left-two and right-one.

Click! Click! Click!

Three ice mirrors rose from the ground, directly sealing off the paths for the reinforcements on both sides.

The angle at which the mirrors stood was extremely tricky; it not only blocked the nail-shield guards' horizontal cut but also deflected the line of sight of the crossbow puppets above by half a foot.

The entire blockade formation had been extremely tight, but with her sealing it like this, only one main opening remained in the center.

Lu Jin didn't even hesitate.

"Fire Oil Bone Carriage, ram the center opening!"

The left bone carriage charged first. The Cart-pulling Rats exerted force along the rails, and as the wind-guiding wheels locked and the carriage body dipped and bit down, the entire bone carriage looked like a piece of black bone with its head lowered, slamming forward along the old rails.

Just as the carriage's front shield hit the first row of nail shields, the four Fire Oil Throwers swung their arms, the fire sacs trailing gray-red flames as they smashed against the edge of the ice mirror.

The fire didn't scatter.

The fire slid along the mirror's surface.

A layer of frost compressed the line of fire, making it thin and long, as if someone had used a knife to carve the fire into a blade.

Those streaks of gray-red fire blades bent along the edge of the mirror, precisely drilling into the gaps beneath the feet of the nail-shield guards.

Boom!

The golden wall at the center opening exploded open, and three nail-shield guards were knocked back half a step.

Grey Pupil flipped out from behind the bone carriage, striking the back of the leading shield guard's knee with the sacrificial staff.

As the sound of bone cracking rang out, the Ambush Rats immediately lunged from the shadows, biting wrists, ripping at armor seams, and dragging legs—a seamless, continuous sequence of actions.

Ning Yanqiu leaped down from the cargo shelf on the right, and her mirror case projected a slanted mirror, sealing the path where another team of Lock Dogs was pouncing.

Just as the Lock Dogs hit the ice mirror, their feet were coated in fire oil, and their movements instantly fell into disarray.

Two Ambush Rats dove in along the shadows of the mirror, specifically biting the Achilles tendons of the hind legs, retreating immediately after the bite.

The Mirror Frost Crows pecked at their eyes and nose bridges one by one, directly snuffing out their ferocity.

The crossbow puppets high above lit up again.

Ning Yanqiu didn't even look back.

"The third one on the upper left, suppress it!"

Lu Jin didn't even ask who she was calling to.

The two Fire Oil Throwers carrying the sacrificial basins swung their arms simultaneously, the gray fire from the basins flung into mid-air, smashing exactly into the blind spot illuminated by the Master Crow's mirror light.

As the gray fire touched the crossbow mount, the sacrificial, metal-splitting heat inside immediately drilled into it.

The crossbow puppet's mechanism jammed for a moment, its aim skewed on the spot, and three Sun Gold nail-cutting bolts flew past Ning Yanqiu's ear, only catching a wisp of her hair.

Ning Yanqiu didn't stop moving, but her lips pressed together even tighter.

She knew that this bolt should have pinned her to the cargo shelf.

"Lu Jin, there's another active formation eye on the lower right!"

"I see it."

Lu Jin raised his hand and pressed down.

The second bone carriage, which hadn't moved, cut diagonally along the second half of the central rail. The bone rope dragged beneath the carriage's belly pulled taut, flipping over the old iron plate on the lower right that had seemed collapsed and dead.

Beneath the iron plate, there was indeed an active Sun Gold formation core buried. As soon as the golden light emerged, it was shattered by a strike from Grey Pupil's staff.

The fractured golden patterns splattered all over the ground.

Two Tunneling Rats died on the spot from the backlash, their bellies pierced through by the shock.

Lu Jin didn't even blink, backhanding the half-core and the rat corpses into the sacrificial basin.

With a swirl of gray fire, a layer of gray-gold shards leaped from the bottom of the basin, quickly coating the front shield of the bone carriage and the claws of several Ambush Rats.

"One more charge."

Lu Jin's voice was steady.

"Bite onto those crossbow puppets; don't let them change positions."

After hearing this, Ning Yanqiu had already pressed her mirror case out a step ahead.

"Frost Crows, seal the top!"

The remaining thirteen Mirror Frost Crows rose in unison, their cold white mirror light pressing directly onto the top of the depot.

The two rows of catwalks above, the three crane openings, and those old suspension chains that could still ferry items were all frozen into a slick, bright mirror surface.

The senior students' reinforcements slipped, and their formation immediately fell into chaos for half a beat.

Just that half beat.

The rat tide broke through.

The Ambush Rats used the gray-gold shards to tear through armor seams, the Tunneling Rats tunneled into the inner line from the base of the scrap mountains, and the Cart-pulling Rats dragged the bone ropes to forcibly pull over a nail-shield guard.

The two Black Shield Bone Carriages rolled over the main rail one after another, crushing the middle section of the blockade formation into mud.

The fire oil darted back and forth between the ice mirrors and the old rails, burning the Sun Gold nail lines until they snapped one by one, falling like a rain of shattered gold.

The senior student leading the formation finally changed expression and shouted sternly, "Retreat to the front tier! Guard the depot gate! Don't let them enter the lower well!"

Another senior student blurted out, "What Senior Student Pei wants is that school crest behind the gate!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he froze.

Lu Jin and Ning Yanqiu both looked over simultaneously.

Ning Yanqiu smashed the defensive mirror beside the senior student with her case, saying coldly, "Too much talk."

Lu Jin was even more direct, pointing a finger.

"Grey Pupil, pull the stake."

Grey Pupil pounced with two Cart-pulling Rats, forcibly prying half of the Sun Gold locking stake in the front tier out of the ground.

Once the locking stake snapped, the final circle of the blockade light screen on Tier C shattered with a "pop."

The Cart-pulling Rats immediately dragged the half-stake and a piece of the remnant formation core into the carriage.

After passing through the front tier, the depths of the waste depot were eerily quiet.

Only the old wind swirled up from the lower wellhead in gusts, causing the suspension chains to sway slightly.

Ning Yanqiu landed beside Lu Jin, her temples covered in a layer of fine frost, and the Master Crow on her shoulder had two long feathers broken.

Lu Jin wasn't in much better shape.

His left arm had a bloody gash from a nail-cutting bolt, Grey Pupil had three Sun Gold nail holes on his shoulders and back, four Tunneling Rats and three Ambush Rats in the rat pack didn't get back up, and the front shield of one bone carriage was cracked in half.

Ning Yanqiu glanced at the blind bands on the ground that he had pointed out earlier, her voice dropping a fraction.

"That path just now—you saw it faster than I did."

Lu Jin shook a layer of dust from his sleeve.

"You illuminated the sky accurately."

As these words fell, the sharp, confrontational tension between the two suddenly eased a fraction.

There was no warmth, nor was there any polite pleasantry.

It was like two blades having tested each other's edges, finally knowing the other could be used to slash enemies together.

Ning Yanqiu turned around first, her mirror case pointing toward the lower wellhead.

"The deep depot is still inside."

Lu Jin nodded.

"Let's go."

The rat pack lowered their bodies, the Frost Crows gathered in the sky, and the group descended along the broken rails.

The further in they went, the older the color of the depot walls became, and black and silver school crests emerged layer by layer from the rust spots.

After walking another dozen steps, the Master Crow on Ning Yanqiu's shoulder suddenly bristled, and a very short, low cry came from its throat.

Lu Jin also stopped in his tracks.

The half-map of the Incubation Pool in his sleeve had become hot.

The heat was strange, like a white-hot sensation slowly waking up from the paper bones, breathing in sync with something on the other side of several depot walls.

The final rusted gate ahead was half-collapsed, wrapped in seven old-fashioned black chains, with a very faint white light seeping through the gaps in the chains.

The ground was covered in old-era school crests—circular, layered one inside another. The outer ring looked like a nest, the inner ring like an egg, locking perfectly with the patterns on the half-map in his hand.

Ning Yanqiu raised her hand to hold back the crow flock, her gaze changing for the first time in a truly significant way.

"This place..."

Lu Jin had already walked to the gate, his fingertips pressing against the outermost white pattern.

Familiar.

Too familiar.

The next instant, the half-collapsed rusted gate slid inward with a "click" by an inch.

The darkness behind the gate dispersed, revealing an ancient circular platform sealed by heavy locks.

The surface of the platform was covered in faded white school crests, and the egg-shaped main crest in the center lay dormant, like a giant egg that had been sleeping for many years.

The Incubation Pool remnant map in Lu Jin's sleeve became completely scorching.

The Master Crow on Ning Yanqiu's shoulder suddenly raised its head.

The two of them saw the full picture of that platform at the same time.

It was an ancient Incubation Pool crest platform that had been locked shut.