An Old Acquaintance Knocks on the Door
Seeing that playing card, Liu Qingyan's mind stirred slightly.
Her gaze swept over everyone again. This time, she looked carefully and solemnly, as if to engrave everyone's face in her heart.
At the same time, she bowed slightly, lifted the hem of her skirt slightly with both hands, and saluted everyone:
"This humble girl, Liu Qingyan, has been waiting for everyone for a long time."
As soon as these words came out, Jian Changsheng and the others showed surprise and asked back, "Did Chen Ling tell you we were coming?"
"Never."
"Then how did you know we would come looking for you?"
"Lord Chen Ling asking me to stay naturally has his reasons... You are Lord Chen Ling's companions, and suddenly coming to find me at this time must be related to Lord Chen Ling," Liu Qingyan explained softly.
Jack of Clubs directly handed the letter paper written by Chen Ling into Liu Qingyan's hand.
"This is the message he gave us, specifically naming you."
Liu Qingyan took the letter paper and at a glance saw the eight large characters written in fresh blood: "If there are any accidents, find Liu Qingyan." After thinking for a moment, she suddenly asked:
"Did you... encounter an accident?"
"We lost track of him." Jian Changsheng helplessly scratched his head. "Those people from the Floating Life Painting seem to have used some kind of teleportation method, and our tracking was interrupted... So, we came to find you to see if you have any ideas."
Liu Qingyan smiled.
She held that letter paper written personally by Chen Ling with both hands. Her hazy black hair danced lightly in the wind... Those black gemstone-like eyes without any ripples, rarely curled up slightly, like a pair of joyful crescent moons. Liu Qingyan didn't remember how long it had been since she smiled, but now, she was truly happy.
"I will lead you to find him." Liu Qingyan folded the letter paper well and put it in her embrace like a treasure.
"You can find him? But he might not even be in the Red Dust Main City now, can you really?"
"Mm."
Liu Qingyan firmly nodded slightly. "No matter where he is, no matter how far the distance... I can find him."
Hearing Liu Qingyan's confidence, the Dusk Society members saw the doubts in each other's eyes. They had never heard of this kind of thing before... Just who was this girl? An owner of the [GPS] Path?
"Since there's a way to locate him now, let's hurry up and set off." Jian Changsheng couldn't help but say, "Six of Hearts is easy to say, this guy is insidious and cunning, he shouldn't be so easy to die... But Eight of Clubs has already been deep in the enemy camp for months. If any accident happens, it would be bad."
"Then you're overthinking it." Nine of Hearts shrugged.
"Lin Xi... This kid Eight of Clubs has a very bright mind, he won't be broken so easily. Moreover, he has a close relationship with the Floating Life Painting. With my understanding of those painters, they wouldn't go as far as killing him."
"No matter what, it's better to be quick."
Jack of Clubs raised his head and glanced at the distant sky. Between the leaden gray clouds, that massive Ash Realm Intersection Point temporarily sealed by the abstract painting hung over everyone's heads like a black hole, profound as an abyss, making one's scalp go numb with just a glance.
"I have a premonition... something big is going to happen here."
...
With the departure of Jack of Clubs, Nine of Hearts, Jian Changsheng, and Liu Qingyan, the blocks among this ruin fell into dead silence once more.
In this block now, not a single pedestrian could be seen anymore. The residents here were either killed by Calamities; or their courage was broken and they fled outwards, losing their lives in the more dangerous blocks around; the remaining survivors also didn't dare to go out at all, and could only hide in various extremely hidden corners, shivering.
At this time, only one Theater House still stood under the oppressive and gloomy vault of heaven, with lantern lights faintly swaying inside.
On the street in front of the Jinghong Theater.
A figure walked slowly from the flying dust in the distance.
That was a figure wearing a blue Woolen Overcoat, carrying a Leather Suitcase in one hand. The blue Scarf flew silently in the wind, as if having just rushed over from a Domain with a different climate, completely out of tune with everything in the Red Dust.
He held a piece of letter paper in his hand. The crooked handwriting on it was like crawling insects, difficult to distinguish, with only "Save me Save me Save me" being the most conspicuous.
He lowered his head, pushing his glasses while carefully checking the address at the end of the Envelope, his eyes full of disgust for these ugly words.
Finally, he stopped in front of the door of the Jinghong Theater.
He put the letter paper back in his pocket, raised one hand, and gently knocked on the Theater House door.
Creak——
As the Theater House door was opened from the inside, the lantern's firelight shone on that person. Chu Muyun pushed the frame of his Silver-Rimmed Glasses and smiled politely:
"I heard someone here needs a [Doctor]?"
...
"Guernica".
Seeing that small "♣️", Chen Ling suddenly froze.
"Was that... left by Eight of Clubs?" Chen Ling carefully stared at the turning "arrow" on it, his expression somewhat subtle.
Although Chen Ling had long guessed that Eight of Clubs should be locked here with him, he didn't expect to actually see the mark left by Eight of Clubs in this kind of place... How did he draw it on that large face? And that drawn "arrow" could actually rotate automatically?
Chen Ling looked in the direction the "arrow" pointed to. Without much hesitation, he stepped on the [Cloud Steps] and approached there.
Although he wasn't sure if that "arrow" of Eight of Clubs pointed to himself or something else, Chen Ling had nowhere else to go now either. Compared to aimlessly wandering in the void, waiting to be "bored to death" alive, it was better to take the initiative to attack.
But Chen Ling soon found that things were far less simple than he thought.
In this hollow world, there were no reference points at all. As that large face went far away and disappeared, Chen Ling was completely placed in a universe-like "vacuum"... No reference point meant he couldn't identify his position. Even Chen Ling couldn't accurately find the right direction in this kind of environment.
Helplessly, Chen Ling could only rely on the direction of his toes to keep moving straight forward as much as possible. But short distances were fine; when Chen Ling walked along that direction for a long time, his heart also became increasingly bottomless...
[Audience Expectation Value -1]
[Current Expectation Value: 43%]
Within just over an hour, the Audience Expectation Value had already dropped by two points. Chen Ling could feel that the audience's dissatisfaction was growing madly... It was like buying a movie ticket to go to the cinema, but the protagonist was lost in the desert right from the beginning, and was lost for an entire hour. Besides the yellow sand dancing all over the sky, there was nothing else. Even if this "protagonist's" acting skills were superb and their looks were high, it still couldn't stop the audience's resentment.
And in Chen Ling's current situation, he couldn't even see the "yellow sand".
Chen Ling's heart had already sunk to the bottom of the valley... At this rate, he wouldn't even be able to survive twenty-four hours here.