The entire soul guide train had been cut apart. What was originally twenty full carriages was now reduced to only seven at the front, the tail end showing a clean slicing scar. When Gu You reached out to touch it, the surface was chillingly cold, like ice biting into his fingertips.
Gu You was genuinely shocked. Clearly, a lot had happened at the rear of the train, yet while he was pretending to sleep, he hadn't heard a single sound. Who had this kind of monstrous ability — to snatch an entire Federation-registered train, running on Shrek City tracks, and drag it into this snow-covered wasteland? And it wasn't even riding on tracks anymore — it had been forcibly dragged here.
"So cold…"
"It's freezing!"
Most of the passengers were ordinary people, with only a few scattered soul masters among them. By Gu You's estimate, the temperature here was at least minus twenty degrees Celsius. An average person wouldn't last more than half an hour before falling into shock or worse.
And it wasn't like everyone was prepared — Shrek City had been in the middle of spring when they boarded. Some passengers wore thick coats, while others were dressed for mild weather. Those who weren't bundled up faced a much higher risk of freezing to death.
Most people instinctively rushed back into the train to huddle for warmth, but ironically, that only made things more dangerous.
Someone was coming…
Dozens of black-clad figures dropped silently from the sky. They all wore dark masks, each carved with a twisting vine-like pattern.
"Anyone who doesn't want to die — get out here. Now."
The leader's voice was cold and chilling, distorted enough that it was impossible to tell if it belonged to a man or woman.
"Why should we listen to you?" a middle-aged man outside the train shouted angrily.
"Why? Ha! Because I can decide your life or death with a snap of my fingers!"
Five soul rings rose beneath the masked leader's feet. All the other black-clad figures revealed their own martial souls too — all of them were at the four-ring level.
"How… how is this possible?!"
Several people collapsed to the ground in terror. Despite the bone-numbing cold, more and more passengers staggered out of the train, unable to resist the pressure.
"That's better. If you behave, you'll get to live a little longer. Now, hand over everything you're carrying. Don't make us search you, or things will get messy."
"I'll fight you to the death! We're going to die anyway — you're evil soul masters! There's no way we're walking out of this alive! At least let me die fulfilling my childhood dream of being a soul master hero!"
A young man roared in defiance. He might not have been strong, but as a soul master, he was determined to show dignity in his final moments.
"He's right! We're dead either way."
Three more two-ring soul masters stepped forward to stand beside him.
The wind howled coldly across the snow, but after those four, no one else moved. The only things left were despair on the faces of the passengers — and the merciless sneers of the black-clad invaders.
"Looking for death, are you?"
Strange spell arrays lit up in the surrounding snow. With a faint black glow, dozens of undead puppets emerged, their rotting bodies lurching forward grotesquely.
"My little pets… leave the rest alive, the boss needs them. But the ones who resist? Go ahead and use them as food — they'll make excellent fuel for your evolution."
"Stone Fortress!"
The young man's third soul ring blazed as countless earth walls shot up, surrounding the gathered passengers inside a defensive circle.
"Don't give up! The Federation won't abandon us. Just hold on! Just a little longer!"
But no sooner had he finished shouting than cracks began spidering across the earthen walls.
A decaying hand punched through.
Then another.
Then dozens more.
"No—!"
Two undead puppets tackled the young man to the ground, and his screams filled the air. He wasn't the only one — the other three soul masters were quickly overwhelmed as well, torn apart by rotting hands and snapping jaws. Blood splattered, intestines spilled across the snow, and the coppery tang of gore filled the air.
"Ahhhh!"
Someone shrieked, trembling uncontrollably. For most of the passengers, peaceful civilians, this was a nightmare beyond anything they had ever imagined.
Even Gu You felt his stomach twist in revulsion.
With his current strength, he might be able to fight off the undead puppets, but once his energy ran out, he wouldn't stand a chance against the evil soul masters waiting outside.
Should I use that move?
Gu You hesitated.
Cloud Elder Yun Ming had given him a special soul guide connector. If he forcibly emptied his soul power reserves, or deliberately absorbed a surge of corrupted energy, Yun Ming and the old lunatic Feng Wuyu would sense it immediately, even across thousands of miles, and rush to his rescue.
But… maybe this was the real test.
Gu You quietly swallowed the idea.
Instead, he transferred all his belongings into his storage ring and tucked it into his mouth, ready for the inevitable inspection.
His voice might change slightly, but these evil soul masters had never heard him speak before. If he just faked a foreign accent… who would notice?
"Please, no! That five thousand Federation coins is my daughter's school money!"
"Shut up, old hag! If it weren't for the boss's orders, I'd gut you right now."
Gu You's eyes narrowed.
It was the woman from before — the mother of the pretty little girl. She was now wailing on the ground, rolling and sobbing uncontrollably. Her daughter, though clearly scared, was also looking around curiously, as if fascinated by everything happening.
"You. Your turn."
One of the black-clad figures stepped up in front of Gu You.
"Sorry, sumida, I don't understand."
Gu You deliberately spoke in a clumsy foreign accent.
"What the hell?"
The masked man froze in confusion.
"I come from Xingluo, just arrived on Douluo Continent. Didn't expect this kind of trouble on the train. I don't have much money, just these clothes. You can search me, taikun."
The black-clad man squinted at him suspiciously. Xingluo? A foreigner?
Well, they'd never met one before — and Gu You sold the act so well, they didn't press the matter.
After a full-body search that turned up nothing, the man cursed under his breath about poor foreigners and moved on.
…
Listen — the snow is still falling.
Thunk.
Someone collapsed directly into the snow from exhaustion.
No one spared them even a glance.
Of the original two hundred passengers, only about thirty remained now. Just walking here had claimed over a dozen lives — not even counting the back half of the train, which was already gone.
Gu You, with his abnormally strong physique, barely felt the cold. At nearly 1.7 meters tall, unless someone specifically checked his bone age, no one would ever guess he was just a nine-year-old child.
"So slow! Move faster, damn it!!"
A black whip cracked through the air, accompanied by a chorus of screams. The long line of prisoners picked up their pace.
…
"I'm sure you're all very curious. How did you fall asleep on a train and wake up in this frozen wasteland?"
The masked leader finally addressed them, his voice echoing through the wind.
"Well, now that we've received word from above, I can tell you. This is the northernmost border — we're approaching Nonalin, the city just ahead. That's our destination. Once you arrive there, you'll find your… release."
Behind the storm, the blurry silhouette of a city loomed. From afar, it looked bustling and prosperous, its tall buildings standing like a beacon of hope in this icy world.
"As for how we got you here? Oh, it wasn't easy. The boss doesn't like the borderland peasants — not enough blood essence, weak cultivation, too slow for growth. So, we came up with a special plan: six batches of captives, all snatched directly from city trains. We specifically targeted urban folks like you and dragged you here by force."
"You might wonder: doesn't the Federation care? Oh, they care, all right. But by the time they figure out what's happening, we're already deep inside the borderlands. At most, they can send some mid-level reinforcements — and even then, we've accounted for that. We cut the carriages, you see. Let's see if they're willing to abandon the passengers inside."
"And so far, it's worked just fine. If anyone chased us, we simply cut off another carriage, forcing them to stop and rescue the people inside. We kept doing that, over and over, until all that was left… was you."
The masked figure gave a cold laugh.
"One of the trains was lucky, I'll admit — they were saved by a Title Douluo. Our brothers on that mission never made it back. But the rest? Well…"
(End of chapter)
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