56: The train that fell into the valley

Lu Yang picked up a hand bone left behind after Old Ode dissipated, which still bore a trace of his spiritual imprint.

If Lu Yang were to pay a certain price, he could transfer Old Ode's spiritual imprint into the Magic Net Core, allowing him to survive in another form.

However, that couldn't be done immediately.

Because it would require consuming extremely precious Mind Crystals.

Mind Crystals are a valuable material that can only be produced when the positive energy of the Magic Net Core is condensed to its extreme.

They are extremely difficult to obtain.

It's even questionable whether they can be obtained at all.

All Lu Yang could do for now was to keep this golden hand bone from Old Ode, waiting for a future opportunity.

Stepping down from the high platform, Iron Hammer respectfully approached Lu Yang and saluted him.

Now, Lu Yang had inherited the Civilization Fire of the Golden Kobold Tribe and had undergone the coronation ceremony presided over by Old Ode.

Both in form and in substance, he was the sole new King of the Golden Kobold Tribe.

All Kobolds genuinely respected him.

Most importantly, through the propaganda of Iron Hammer and the first batch of five hundred Kobolds, they already knew that their Great King would grant them the opportunity to mine in rich mineral points, a boon that no Kobold had enjoyed for hundreds of years.

Praise the Great King!

Lu Yang had all the Kobolds and Train Police representatives board the train.

He himself boarded the Xinhuo Train's Train Captain carriage.

The timed area clearing dungeon outside hadn't ended yet, so Lu Yang planned to explore this safe Civilization Fissure a bit more.

It would be best to wait until the Civilization Fissure completely dissipated before leaving, at which point the timed area clearing dungeon would have just ended.

Perfect timing!

However, while the idea was good, reality was harsh.

As soon as Lu Yang entered the carriage, he saw that the Strongest Train Captain System, which had been silent, suddenly displayed a new emergency alert.

Emergency Alert: Due to the loss of the civilization fissure anchor point, this Civilization Fissure has lost its spatial shielding effect and will dissipate in one hour. Exploring Train Captain, please drive the train away as quickly as possible and be sure to take valuable belongings to avoid losing them in the space-time rift.

Below the emergency alert, the Strongest Train Captain System thoughtfully showed Lu Yang what the so-called civilization fissure anchor point was.

It was Old Ode!

The reason this Civilization Fissure existed was because of Old Ode's existence.

Now that Old Ode had dissipated, the civilization fissure anchor point was lost, and it naturally could no longer exist independently.

At the same time, upon receiving the emergency alert, the previously blank enemy radar also showed dense red dots representing enemies.

Alarms blared throughout the Xinhuo Train's Train Captain carriage.

Before Lu Yang could react, a huge ball of fire lit up on the southeast side of the canyon.

This was followed by a series of continuous explosions.

The explosion point was not far from the Xinhuo Train's location, about one kilometer away.

According to the markers on the enemy radar, the explosion occurred at Lu Yang's old acquaintance—the Tier 3 train, the Giant Whale Train, with which he had conducted slave trade.

However, at this moment, compared to its previous spirited appearance with a dozen or twenty carriages, the Giant Whale Train was on the verge of destruction.

Its locomotive was nowhere to be found.

Only a few carriages remained, not completely shattered.

Under external forces, they were twisted and deformed.

When the Xinhuo Train arrived, there were no survivors on the Giant Whale Train.

Broken window glass and charred bodies were everywhere.

Some strange zombies, emitting black smoke, wandered around the destroyed carriages of the Giant Whale Train.

Their eyes glowed with an eerie red light.

They occasionally let out piercing screams.

"What are these things?"

Looking at the images of the strange zombies captured on the display screen, Lu Yang felt an inexplicable chill.

Lu Yang had seen mutated zombies before, but he had never seen creatures with red glowing eyes and black smoke emanating from their bodies like these.

Most critically, the Strange Warning Compass also reacted to their presence.

Lu Yang first had the Train Police Squad shoot with ordinary flintlock rifles, aiming for the vital head, just like dealing with ordinary zombies.

Three bullets simultaneously hit the target zombie's head, smashing half of it.

But not only did the opponent show no sign of falling, it became even more ferocious, accelerating its run towards the Xinhuo Train.

Dense black smoke emanated from its entire body.

"Second group, Ghost Killer Flintlock Rifle team, prepare, aim at the heart where the black smoke is densest, ready, fire!!!"

"Bang bang bang!!!"

With a series of gunshots, the bullets fired by the Ghost Killer Flintlock Rifle team all hit the strange zombie's heart without exception.

This time, it let out a shrill, ear-piercing scream.

It made one's soul tremble.

In the front row of the firing squad, one Train Police on the left bled from all seven orifices simultaneously and involuntarily collapsed.

He was quickly supported by others nearby and urgently sent to the train's medical bay for treatment.

In the command center, seeing that Lu Yang had not spoken, Yang Kui continued to calmly command: "Cinnabar Bullets team, continue to aim at the heart where the black smoke is densest, ready, fire!!"

"Do not stop until the target zombie ceases activity."

"Bang bang bang bang..."

This time, the Cinnabar Bullets' shooting effect was significantly better.

Each bullet that hit the strange zombie took away a large amount of black smoke from its body.

After being hit more than a dozen times, the black smoke on the strange zombie's body completely dissipated.

Only then did it finally collapse to the ground with a thud, like a puddle of mud.

Xiao Xin meticulously recorded the strange zombie's reactions.

In Lu Yang's headset, Xiao Xin's real-time analysis report on this newly appeared strange zombie also came through.

"This type of zombie possesses both strange and ordinary zombie characteristics. The black smoke on its body seems to be related to the strange, allowing it to ignore physical damage. Only Cinnabar Bullets can produce a significant effect. It will not die until the black smoke on its body has completely dissipated."

"When it launched its shrill scream attack, the black smoke on its body fluctuated violently, and a portion of it dissipated. Clearly, this attack is also a considerable burden on itself."

"However, there is only one observed sample at present, and it is not certain whether all strange zombies are like this. Please, Train Captain, send personnel to continue the shooting experiments to provide Xiao Xin with more observational data for analysis."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yang immediately had the Train Police Squad lure another strange zombie over and began new shooting tests again.