When the female knight woke, she checked the time and saw she had only slept for half an hour—she was truly exhausted.
Looking out the car window again, she saw the kid packing up his contraptions, while Rossi walked out of the room looking full of vigor.
Hadn't they agreed to rest for an hour? Poking her head out, she asked, "Time isn't up yet, is it?"
"Things feel a bit off," Rossi replied, not minding telling her the truth.
He had been forcibly shaken awake by Wu Youren and was nowhere near as energetic as he looked, though he felt much better than before. "We're running."
At his words, the female knight locked her gaze onto the youth. "Are you sure they're pursuing us?"
"I trust him," Rossi answered bluntly. "As for you folks... do as you please!"
As a knight, who would trust an apprentice knight without good reason?
Yet at this moment, he had no other choice. Even if it turned out to be a false alarm, he refused to take any chances.
Besides, the casualties the Intelligence Bureau had suffered earlier were very real.
"We're leaving too," the female knight said, feeling somewhat refreshed. "Hurry and wake everyone up."
Fortunately, the Intelligence Bureau personnel were well trained, and in less than a minute, they were ready to depart.
By then, Wu Youren had finished packing. He discarded the mechanisms meant to be abandoned and gathered only the reusable components.
Rossi started the motorcycle and pulled onto the road. Just as he hit the throttle, the boy behind him jabbed him in the flank.
Wu Youren pointed into the distance. "Don't take the road—that way!"
He wasn't pointing straight ahead, but diagonally forward at nearly a forty-five-degree angle.
"Damn it," Rossi cursed under his breath. He twisted the throttle harder and veered off the road—thank goodness they weren't on four wheels.
"Hey!" The female knight leaned her head out of the vehicle behind them. "What's going on?"
"The road ahead isn't safe!" Rossi shouted back. "Try it yourselves if you don't believe me!"
"Stay on them," the female knight ordered through gritted teeth.
One of the men beside her looked stunned. "That's open wilderness—it's rough terrain!"
The Intelligence Bureau's vehicles had decent off-road capabilities, but abandoning the main road to bounce across open ground—wasn't that just asking for misery?
The female knight replied expressionlessly, "Follow them if you want to live."
"Are we sure their route is the right one?"
"At least the two of them haven't suffered a single casualty. Aren't you supposed to be intelligence operatives? Don't you even have that much analytical sense?"
"It's mainly the vehicles... Sigh, it's bound to be trouble."
"A rough ride is better than getting killed, isn't it?"
Two motorcycles and two vehicles—one of which was a minibus—charged recklessly through the wilderness, bouncing violently...
The dark clouds overhead thickened, and a biting chill hung in the fine drizzle.
After driving through the rough terrain for more than half an hour, the motorized tricycle burst onto a dirt path and sped along it.
"It's definitely smoother, but... isn't this heading toward Skull Wharf?"
At the same time, Rossi also called out, "We're straying pretty far off course. Are we flanking behind the Rust Belt?"
"Just keep riding," Wu Youren answered, stifling a yawn. "If you don't trust me, drop me off and go on alone."
He was desperately sleepy, but he had no choice—the hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end!
It was a pity the youth in white had passed out; otherwise, Wu Youren would have loved to hear his assessment of their current route.
"Cut the crap," Rossi snapped. "Are we... surrounded by Guizu, and this is the breach?"
"I really don't know," Wu Youren said, his head bobbing against Rossi's back. "I just feel this is the way to go."
After traveling more than twenty kilometers, the vehicle left the dirt path again, speeding into the open wasteland.
Fortunately, it was late spring turning into early summer, so the shrubs and weeds hadn't overgrown yet. Otherwise, riding a motorcycle might not have been any faster than walking!
Two hours later, they finally reached a major road and kept racing along it, finally pulling over half an hour later.
"Damn, if we kept driving, we'd be right back at the academy," Rossi said after getting off, rubbing his backside. "My ass was almost split into eight pieces from all that bouncing."
The convoy pulled up right behind them. "Is it safe now?"
"Even if it isn't, it doesn't matter," Rossi said, taking off his helmet. "Worst comes to worst, we head straight back to Red Pine!"
The female knight stepped out of her vehicle again, this time turning her gaze to Wu Youren. "How were you able to tell that there was less Guizu aura in this direction?"
"Is there really less?" the youth muttered groggily, yawning as he answered. "I'm dead tired. I didn't sense a thing!"
"Then why did you choose this direction?" The female knight had been observing him for a long time.
The ride had been incredibly bumpy, but the bumpier it got, the more closely she watched him.
"Just felt safer this way," Wu Youren said, opening his mouth wide. "*Yaaawn...*"
"*Yawn...*" Yawns were truly contagious. The female knight yawned in response. "So the ability you awakened... is precognition?"
"What awakening?" Wu Youren yawned repeatedly.
He swiftly pitched a simple tent by the roadside as he replied, "I don't have abilities like that."
In barely a minute, the tent was set up. He ducked straight inside, and within seconds, loud snores were already echoing out.
The female knight looked over at Rossi. "Red Pine is quite close now. You two aren't heading back to rest?"
"We're not that fragile," Rossi replied, thinking to himself that once he returned to the academy, getting back out would mean facing more complications.
He looked around, picked a tree as thick as a bowl, and leaned back against it with his eyes closed to doze.
Seeing this, the female knight yawned and ordered several of her subordinates to drive the minibus away to get the wounded to a hospital promptly.
She kept behind one off-road vehicle, one motorcycle, and four martial artists.
Choosing another tree, she also sat against it to doze, though she didn't keep quiet. "Has that kid really not awakened?"
"Never heard of it," Rossi answered lazily, his voice devoid of energy.
Wu Youren slept for a solid three hours before waking up.
As a martial artist, being able to sleep on demand like this was a required skill, hardly worth mentioning.
Three hours of deep sleep completely wiped away his exhaustion. He swapped places with Rossi, letting him go into the tent to rest.
The female knight was well rested by then too. This time, she directly asked the youth his name.
Wu Youren shook his head. "My lady, you may ask Instructor Hong Yan. Forgive me, but it is inconvenient for me to answer."
The female knight didn't mind. "Tell me, how do you sense Guizu aura?"
"If there's potential for an awakening, we're willing to invest."
"I suppose I was just born without a sense of security," Wu Youren replied. He didn't dare refuse to answer, but neither would he say too much.
"Could the Guizu pursue us here?" the female knight asked again.
They weren't far from Red Pine, but there was still some distance, and they were out in the desolate wilderness.
"We'll have to see once night falls," Wu Youren replied casually, sitting cross-legged to circulate his internal breath. "For now, I don't feel any danger."
Just then, the female knight's communication wristwatch vibrated. She stepped aside to speak with the caller.
A few minutes later, she returned, her expression somewhat grave.
She instructed her four remaining people to rest while they could, noting that the mission to investigate Suotu Town was not over.
A reinforcement unit would arrive to provide support, and as the initial reconnaissance team, they needed to coordinate with the incoming troops.
Toward evening, Rossi woke up. Leaving behind some food and gear, he mounted the motorcycle and departed on his own.
He needed to deliver the monkey-tiger head, claws, and tendons they had harvested earlier back to the academy for processing.
Chapter 27