Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Chapter 839 - 87: Nanhua Town (Part 2)

With bullet time prediction and level-up driving skills, Sun Hang maneuvered the off-road vehicle to evade the attacks of two giants, while the "Dung Beetle" car remained relentlessly on their tail, never being shaken off.

"The driver of the car behind is really skillful," Sun Hang said. "If they manage to escape Giant Hill alive, everyone in the car owes the driver a life."

"There’s probably only the driver left alive in that car," Candle Dragon glanced at the damage on the "Dung Beetle," shaking his head. "The roof is too caved in. Apart from the driver’s seat, the other seats have been hit. If the passengers didn’t crouch down in advance, their heads would have been crushed by now... even with helmets on."

"Then... is that car filled with blood?" Xue Yue, pale-faced, clutched the seatbelt across her chest tightly and asked.

"If it were just blood, that would be fine," Sun Hang replied. "The most disgusting is the mixture of blood, flesh, and brain matter, mixed with the filth from the digestive system... One drift, and those things would have blended well, coating the interior of the car thoroughly."

"Thankfully, I had breakfast early," Ya Qiaoxi pressed her abdomen with a pale face, "Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit."

"How far is it to the exit of Giant Hill?" Sun Hang asked while rolling down the car window. Two cables formed by thousands of intertwined fungal threads shot out from the window, embedding into a giant’s calf. The car then used the force to leap, narrowly avoiding a massive bronze hand sweeping across the sand surface.

But the "Dung Beetle" following them wasn’t so lucky; the bronze hand smacked hard on the car’s front, instantly crushing and deforming it. Sun Hang vaguely saw blood spraying out from the twisted steel seams.

"Could it be that I inadvertently caused their demise?" Sun Hang couldn’t help but mutter to himself, "What a sin, what a sin..."

"Three kilometers more! Keep going straight ahead!" Ya Qiaoxi shouted, "The giants won’t chase us out! They never leave the Giant Hill area!"

...

...

meters away from Giant Hill, on the nameless Gobi Desert.

Sun Hang glanced at the bronze giant frenziedly sprinting in the distant Desert Sea, then turned to Ya Qiaoxi, who had half of her body under the car’s hood, asking, "So, can it be repaired?"

"Difficult... Three out of eight cylinders have blown, the circuitry severely burnt, oil leaking everywhere... Without a major overhaul back at the factory, it’s basically considered scrapped," Ya Qiaoxi’s sigh came from beneath the hood, "It’s a miracle this car held up until we got out of Giant Hill before breaking down."

"How long will it take to walk to Nanhua Town?" Candle Dragon asked.

"At least a day and night," Ya Qiaoxi emerged from under the hood, wiping the oil off her hands on her leather jacket, and kicked the front tire, "That’s assuming everything goes smoothly."

"I think it’s your car repairing skills that are lacking," Sun Hang walked over, feigning to examine the smoking engine.

"Even though I taught myself car repair, any mechanic at a regular garage would advise you to replace the engine... unless you can magically produce a brand-new engine..."

Upon saying this, Ya Qiaoxi unintentionally glanced towards Giant Hill, then shook her head.

Searching the wreckage of those vehicles in Giant Hill might yield a usable engine, but she’d rather walk to Nanhua Town on foot than return there.

"I think this car can run," Sun Hang closed the hood and gave it a heavy smack.

The next second, the engine of the off-road vehicle roared back to life.

"What the heck?" Hearing the sound, Ya Qiaoxi turned around incredulously staring at the engine. "How did you do that?"

"I used liquid metal to restore the original structure of the engine—nothing too complex," Sun Hang shrugged.

"Not complex... really?" Ya Qiaoxi took a deep breath and then exhaled forcefully, "Whatever, as long as it runs... are you driving or should I?"

"You drive, I don’t know the way," Sun Hang climbed into the back seat of the car, very conscientiously.

Candle Dragon took the front passenger seat.

"Alright, I’ll drive," Ya Qiaoxi gripped the steering wheel. "But just to be clear... I haven’t been to Nanhua Town either."

"Do you know the way?"

"I do," Ya Qiaoxi nodded, "It’s not exactly knowing the way. Just drive straight west from Giant Hill; there’s no fork in the road or obstacles, anyone can’t possibly go wrong. Even this young girl could drive there."

"I can’t," Xue Yue shook her head. "I don’t have a driver’s license."

"Speaking of which, doesn’t the terrain of Hexi Corridor’s uninhabited zone change frequently?" Candle Dragon leaned his arm on the car window, gazing at the desolate Gobi Desert outside, "Why are you so certain you won’t take the wrong path?"

"You’ll find out why soon," Ya Qiaoxi said.

They drove less than two kilometers ahead when the land split into two along an invisible line, one part staying level while the other rose into a vast slope with no discernible end.

Between the slope and the flat ground, there appeared a smooth cliff face with layer upon layer of strata visible. These geologic structures, like layers of puff pastry, each represented billions of years—the Candle Dragon sighed softly, took out his phone from his pocket, and snapped a photo of the cliff.

"Follow this cliff to the place with town ruins—that’s Nanhua Town," Ya Qiaoxi said, "So you see, once you’re here, it’s impossible to get lost."

"Hard to imagine how terrifying the forces capable of uplifting the crust like this must be," Candle Dragon murmured, "This isn’t a place where continental plates converge; there’s no compressive force from plates, and such a smooth cut isn’t formed by the kind of mountains created by compression..."

"Who knows with those eerie forces," Ya Qiaoxi said indifferently, "After all, you guys at Dubhe Tower haven’t figured it out after all these years of research. We regular folks shouldn’t worry about it... All we need to know is which areas are safe and which ones are deadly."

"Which category does Nanhua Town fall into?" Candle Dragon asked.

"Somewhere in between," Ya Qiaoxi said, "There’s no notorious eerie force I’ve heard of here, but it’s also not exactly a safe zone."

"Very few people come here on missions," Ya Qiaoxi continued, "Lucrative places in the uninhabited zones have long been scoured by Hunters and mercenaries, but Nanhua Town... those who visit once don’t come back a second time... Even before it was abandoned by the Federation Government, this place was almost half-abandoned. It wasn’t developed commercially, industrially, or tourism-wise, with no natural resources nearby—it was a backwater through and through."

Candle Dragon and Sun Hang exchanged glances but didn’t interrupt Ya Qiaoxi.

"To be honest, I was surprised when I first heard of the treasure location being in Nanhua Town... but then I thought it was quite reasonable," Ya Qiaoxi said, "A treasure spot should be such a nondescript place. What’s that saying again, great hiding in the bustling city... Tsk, seems not quite right to use here."

"Hey, if you ask me, this place could develop tourism nicely these days. Look at this fault cliff; reportedly, the largest elevation difference is over 900 meters, with half a city on top and half below... add a bit of packaging and hype, and this is certainly a top internet-famous check-in spot!"