Outside of Time

Perhaps because of the singing, the roar of strange beasts has never appeared in this area of ​​​​the jungle, as if the source of the singing is the master of this restricted area.

After its appearance, all things will be silent.

Captain Lei sat there silently, still looking into the distance. It was pitch black and there was nothing there.

Xu Qing's expression was a little complicated. After a while, his eyes swept around, and finally landed on the barbarian ghost's mace and the broken shield fragments.

The corpse of the wild ghost, like all the corpses here, turned into dust when the fog of singing left, as if it had never existed in the world.

Scavengers often have no relatives, so not many people may care about their disappearance.

Even if there is, it will eventually be slowly forgotten as the years go by, and no one will know or remember it until a few years later.

Xu Qing suddenly thought of what the teacher in the slum who was kind to him said to their group of children before Feng Zhu died of illness in his later years.

"Having someone you can't forget is a kind of pain, but being remembered by someone is a kind of happiness."

At that time, Xu Qing did not understand this sentence very well, but now he looked at Lei Dui and understood the meaning of this sentence to some extent, so he did not bother him, but silently walked to the place where the body of the barbarian ghost once was, and took out The dagger was dug into the ground.

Although the relationship with the barbarian ghost was not deep, to be precise, it was only a few days, and he only spoke a few words, but the other party taught him the experience of the jungle, and they both survived the catastrophe of life and death. In the end, he also relied on the other party's things. , blocking the black blood.

So Xu Qing felt that he should do something.

Just like when he left the city and cremated all the corpses in the city, he dug hard into the ground and gradually dug a pit.

Buried the barbarian ghost's mace and shield fragments.

During this process, Xu Qing was very serious and did not notice Lei Dui behind him. At some point, he had withdrawn his gaze from the jungle and was looking at him.

There was a hint of strangeness in his expression that he had when he first looked at Xu Qing in the ruins of the city. After seeing Xu Qing burying the wild ghost's weapon and seeming to want to make a tombstone, Lei Dui spoke softly.

"Scavengers don't need tombstones."

"Ashes return to dust, dust returns to dust. This is the life of a scavenger. He struggles in the world during his lifetime, and after death... there is no need to worship, just be quiet."

At this point, Lei Dui's breath became weaker and weaker. The severity of the injuries, the accumulation of heterogeneity, and the overdraft of his mind made him unable to hold on. The world slowly blurred, and he closed his eyes and passed out.

Xu Qing approached, took out some seven-leaf clovers from his pocket, and stuffed them into Captain Lei's mouth.

He didn't know if it was useful, but he thought that since this item was a necessity for making white elixir, it would have the effect of alleviating the abnormality to some extent.

After doing this, he carried Lei Dui on his back and tied him tightly with his clothes. Then he took a deep breath and galloped through the jungle in the dark night.

When passing by the place where Captain Blood Shadow turned into dust, Xu Qing saw a leather bag. He picked it up and opened it. There was no elixir in it, only some miscellaneous items.

So he put it away and walked away.

When Lei Dui's consciousness weakly recovered, it was already half an hour later.

He vaguely felt that he was being carried by a thin body, rising and falling with its beating. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the side face of the young man in front of him.

He fell silent.

Xu Qing also noticed Captain Lei's awakening and spoke in a low voice.

"Are you feeling better? You can continue to sleep for a while. In a few hours, we should be able to leave the restricted area before dawn."

Captain Lei did not speak. His weak body could no longer hide his age. He tried to look up at the dark sky, his vision slowly blurred, and when his consciousness was about to fall into coma again, he murmured.

"Child, do you know why I offered to take you away twice in the ruined city?"

Xu Qing did not pause and shook his head.

"Then do you still remember the scene when we first met?" Captain Lei's voice was weak.

"Remember." Xu Qing moved his body, jumped up to a big tree, raised his right hand to the side and grabbed it, hiding one end there, grabbing the alien lizard that was rushing towards him, and threw it to the ground in front of him.

With a bang, as the lizard fell, a large number of vines on the ground twisted and entangled it quickly. During the lizard's struggle, the skin was pierced and the flesh was devoured.

Xu Qing took this opportunity to jump up, avoid danger and continue walking away.

At this moment, Lei Dui's weak murmur came from behind, his voice was sickly and weak, and it would be extremely difficult to hear it unless he was very close.

"I saw your figure cremating the corpse. At that time, you were reflected by the firelight, and you seemed to be fused with the fire. It made me seem to see... a ray of warmth in this cruel world."

Xu Qing paused and fell silent. Team Lei behind him also fell into coma again.

After a few breaths, Xu Qing silently raised his feet and continued to gallop through the jungle, passing through the trees and flying away quickly.

Time passed, and an hour passed quickly.

Xu Qing avoided danger, and his figure got closer and closer to the edge of the jungle.

The sky was at its darkest at this moment, and the coldness coming from the restricted area at night invaded the surrounding areas. Fortunately, Xu Qing had been moving rapidly, and the heat naturally generated by his body slightly resisted the cold.

But... as he moved forward, the coldness became stronger and stronger. After burning the incense, Xu Qing's figure suddenly stopped and looked ahead with a gloomy expression.

In front of him, heavy fog appeared in the jungle.

This mist was extremely thick and spread in the distance, but unlike the singing and blood mist Xu Qing had seen before, it did not seem to have a strong sense of oppression.

But wherever he looked, the place shrouded in fog was blurry, making it impossible to see clearly everything around him.

Especially at this moment of darkness, the fog's cover was even stronger. Xu Qing wanted to avoid it, but after running for a long time, the fog still hit him.

He knows what it is.

When they first entered the restricted area, Shi Shi and Luan Ya said that among the dangers in the restricted area, there was something called fog.

If shrouded in this fog, people will lose their direction and eventually get lost.

And once the fog forms, it often takes a long time to dissipate naturally.

Xu Qing felt that although he could survive until the mist dissipated and the foreign matter in his body would not surge, the weak Lei Dui could not. If he was trapped in it, he would die of alienation soon.

This forced Xu Qing to retreat, trying to avoid the fog in a wider range.

But... the fog was too big. No matter how fast he was, he still fell into a situation where there was fog in front, back, left and right. He had nowhere to hide and was submerged in the fog.

But soon, the mist that submerged Xu Qing gradually became thinner, and Xu Qing's surprised figure was finally revealed again.

He lowered his head and looked at his feet.

There were no shadows in the dark night, but Xu Qing could feel the mist around him, which was rapidly pouring into the soles of his feet.

It was like the invisible shadow formed a whirlpool, swallowing up all around.

The devouring speed was not fast, and it didn't take long for it to feel full and no longer absorbed, causing the mist to submerge Xu Qing's figure again.

But... as the swallowing of the shadow ended, a feedback force poured into Xu Qing's body, focusing his eyes. As far as he could see, the dense mist became transparent.

Or you can’t describe it by looking at it, but by perceiving it!

The fog was clearly still there and extremely dense, but in his perception it was only slightly blurry, far from blocking his vision to the point of making him lose his way.

This made Xu Qing breathe faster and looked down at the invisible shadow under his feet.

"What on earth are you..." Xu Qing whispered.

After a while, he raised his head and sensed his surroundings. He silently moved his body and immediately moved without slowing down. He was like a ghost in the thick fog, speeding past.

Not long after, Xu Qing, flying in the dense fog, saw a living person.

Those were two scavengers.

Xu Qing vaguely remembered seeing them in the camp. The two people were holding each other's hands at the moment, like blind men in the thick fog, slowly exploring forward.

But in Xu Qing's perception, their progress was actually going in circles. Apparently they were aware of this. The sweat on their foreheads and heavy breathing revealed their nervousness and despair for the future.

After looking at these two people, Xu Qing withdrew his gaze and was about to leave in a flash.

He does not have extensive compassion and lives in this cruel world. He has seen too many examples in the slums of rescuing people without purpose, only to have his own life backfired.

But for people whose vision is obscured, their hearing will be extremely sharp at this time, so Xu Qing's footsteps when leaving were still detected by them.

The two men immediately looked nervous. They couldn't tell whether the noise was coming from a human or an animal, so one of them growled and showed ferocity, as if to intimidate them.

The other one shouted for help, and even to show his sincerity, he took out the white pills and spiritual coins from his leather bag, promising to give them away just for a chance of survival.

Xu Qing stopped for a moment, looked back at the Bai Dan in the man's hand, and felt the weakness of Lei Dui behind him.

So after thinking about it, he rummaged through the leather bag, found a candle, and lit it, so that there was a fire in the place. However, the fire was weak, and the fog suppressed it, and it was slowly dimming.

While there was still light from the fire, Xu Qing stepped back some distance, looked at the two people not far away, and spoke slowly.

"Go straight seven steps to the right, then ten steps to the left..."

As Xu Qing's voice came in, the two scavengers' bodies trembled, their faces showed ecstasy, and they immediately followed Xu Qing's instructions while breathing rapidly.

Soon, under Xu Qing's successive instructions, they circled left and right, avoiding dangerous places. The fog in front of them gradually became thinner as they approached the place where the candle was.

Until they walked into the range of the candle that was about to go out, they were illuminated by the light of the fire. They fell down next to the candle in an instant, feeling excited and boiling like a blind man regaining the light.

As for Xu Qing, he was hiding in the darkness at the edge. Even though the firelight was slightly shining, his figure was still blurry. He looked at the excited look of the two people in front of him with an expressionless face and spoke lightly.

"Give me the white pill."

One of them was trembling, and without any hesitation after the disaster, he immediately threw the leather bag containing the spirit coins and white pills to Xu Qing, and thanked him profusely.

The other one was about to take the elixir from his body, but after his eyes glanced at Xu Qing's figure, his excitement subsided.

Because Xu Qing was in the dark and the mist was thin, Xu Qing's face could not be clearly seen in this person's eyes. He could only see his thin body and what seemed like an unconscious person on his back.

Then there was a glint in his eyes, but a smile appeared on his face, and he spoke sincerely.

"Little brother, I've finished all the white pills on my body, but don't worry, when the fog clears, or if you have a way to take me out, I will repay you twice as much."

After saying that, his eyes flashed slightly and he looked towards where Xu Qing was, a little eager to give it a try.

The companion next to him was also annoyed at this moment, feeling that he had given it too quickly before.

Xu Qing looked deeply at the scavenger who didn't give Bai Dan and said nothing.

Just raising his right hand and waving, the wind blew by, the candle flame was extinguished in an instant, and the surroundings fell into darkness and fog again.

When the exclamation came from the man just now, Xu Qing came closer and pulled off the leather bag from his body, and then a calm voice echoed around him.

"No, just stay inside."

"Wait, I was wrong, I was really wrong, I will give you Baidan, I..."

The man suddenly became anxious and wanted to grab something, but his body was blocked by the trees under his feet and he fell down.

When he got up, his calls became more anxious, and a strong sense of regret filled his body and mind.

"Little brother, listen to my explanation, I..."

Xu Qing ignored the other person's call and walked towards the other person who gave him Bai Dan.

This man now looked horrified, falling into the fog again and full of panic. Without him noticing, Xu Qing passed by him and spoke calmly.

"Follow the sound of my footsteps."

After saying that, Xu Qing did not look back and continued to move forward. After hearing Xu Qing's words, the man's breathing became rapid and he immediately followed. At this moment, he was grateful for the speed of his reward just now.

Especially when he heard the anxious wailing behind him that quickly turned into crazy curses in vain for help, the despair in his tone made his heart tremble, and he felt a stronger sense of awe towards the owner of the footsteps in front of him.

----

I got up late... It's too hot today. I want to go to the jungle in the restricted area for a while...