Upon hearing this, the Black Goat’s eyes instantly turned cold.
“You should know, Monkey…” the Black Goat said darkly, “lying to me is pointless, right?”
“I had no choice,” Monkey replied. “This is what my teacher conveyed, so I’m just passing it along.”
“So that damned thing has already gone up against the Sky Tiger, hasn’t it?”
“Yes,” Monkey nodded.
Yan Zhichun could see the Black Goat was anxious, but at this moment, he was utterly helpless—as if two crucial matters had collided in his mind.
“Is he still alive?” the Black Goat pressed. “He’s not dead, is he?”
“He was alive when he left.”
“That damned thing…” The Black Goat gritted his teeth. “Going after the Sky Tiger without waiting for me… I’ll kill you sooner or later.”
“Teacher Black Goat, you may have misunderstood,” Monkey shook his head. “Teacher Tiger didn’t seek out the Sky Tiger—the Sky Tiger came to him.”
“He came to him…?”
The Black Goat couldn’t tell if today’s plan was going smoothly or not.
After all, assembling this team had taken far too long. The hundreds of “participants” flooding into the train had been an unexpected variable for everyone, disrupting many plans.
What had seemed like a disastrous start now felt oddly smoothed over by some unseen force—tiny fractures in the plan silently mended.
For instance, the “Death Gate” among the “Zodiacs” had been cracked. The massive team had marched to the “cargo hold” unhindered. The “Celestials” had moved alone and scattered. And this squad was far stronger than he’d anticipated—nearly all of them wielded “immortal techniques,” with one even possessing “Spiritual Sight,” allowing the others to steadily acquire “immortal techniques” in a place like the “train”…
And just when they needed a “gatekeeper,” one appeared before them.
If his own part of the plan had already received so much inexplicable aid, what would it mean if the battlefield expanded to the entire “train”?
It was as if an invisible hand loomed over the “train,” treating every player as a chess piece, orchestrating alliances and maneuvers.
At every critical moment, it would push the right piece to the most needed square, compensating for strength with strategy, balancing numbers with cunning, leading ordinary pawns to challenge a “god” in checkmate.
Whenever the Black Goat remembered that this person no longer existed, a chill ran down his spine.
What was truly terrifying?
It wasn’t that this unseen hand was now overseeing the board, adjusting tactics to the current situation.
No—it had foreseen every possible scenario months, years, even decades in advance and laid out the countermoves beforehand.
Perhaps, for a single move, it had spent years approaching and studying a piece, subtly shaping them into a weapon it could wield.
In the end, it had transformed itself into one of the many pieces on the board, cooperating with the invisible hand it had once extended from above, charging into enemy territory.
Among all the pieces, only it knew it was a piece.
The rest believed they were fighting desperately for their own goals—even the enemy.
The enemy thought that not interfering with these “rebels” was the most advantageous choice, unaware they too had become pieces.
So… if asked who in the entire “Peach Blossom Spring” he admired most, the Black Goat could only blurt out one name: the White Goat.
This admiration wasn’t submission to someone’s ability but rather a sense of powerlessness before an unknowable entity—a feeling so overwhelming that the Black Goat couldn’t even muster the thought of “resisting the White Goat.”
If the White Goat had been just within reach, the Black Goat might have dared to compete. But once entangled in this plan, he realized how laughable that idea was—like a three-year-old declaring war on the Soviet Union.
“I need to get the Sky Bull out of here,” the Black Goat said to Monkey and the other “Human-Level Zodiacs.” “I’ll leave this place to you… Fair warning, holding this position might mean death.”
“We’ll all die sooner or later,” Monkey nodded. “And I was about to say—if you find you can’t return, the only explanation is that we’ve been wiped out.”
“Fine,” the Black Goat nodded. “If you’re all dead, I’ll kowtow ten thousand times in hell to apologize to that idiot Tiger.”
“Don’t joke—we’ll all be dead by then.”
The Black Goat exchanged a glance with Yan Zhichun, and after a mutual nod, they stepped through the metal door one after another, descending the stairs. Their footsteps echoed in the dark tunnel before fading away.
Monkey crouched, wedging his mask into the door crack before leaving it slightly ajar.
Just as he was about to assign tactics to the others, the sound of a door opening echoed from the direction of the “Celestial-Level” rooms.
Everyone turned to look as a gaunt old man and a white-haired old woman emerged from their respective doors. The hearts of Monkey and his companions leapt into their throats.
The Black Goat had barely left when two “Celestials” appeared—even he probably hadn’t expected the mission to fail this quickly.
For a dozen “Human-Level” Zodiacs, risking their lives might stall one “Earth-Level.” But facing two “Celestials” at once as mere mortals?
No one spoke. They simply watched as the two “Celestials” strode to the center of the T-junction.
The gaunt old man seemed injured, his face pale, dried blood at the corner of his mouth. He soon noticed the strange group by the “cargo hold” door. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then hesitated, shook his head, and feigned ignorance, turning toward the train corridor.
The old woman behind him was even more puzzling. She didn’t seem to notice the group at all, clutching a severed limb covered in bite marks while scanning her surroundings. Were it not for the grotesque object in her hand, she might have looked like a grandmother searching for a lost child.
Just like that, the two “Celestials” strode past the “Human-Level Zodiacs” without so much as a word—let alone any attempt to stop them.
Monkey and the others exchanged baffled glances. This wasn’t what they’d expected.
But no matter—they’d take one hurdle at a time. Given the Black Goat’s urgency, dealing with the Sky Bull shouldn’t take long. All they could do now was hope for a swift resolution.
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