Chapter 676: Walking

## Chapter 677: Leave

The child died.Died in the wailing wind, in the silent rain, before Huang Suyu’s eyes.More than twenty of them watched helplessly as the child struggled in agony, as his blood slowly drained, as his wounds festered and stank, yet they could do nothing...

The girl’s heart-wrenching cries echoed in Huang Suyu’s ears. Her chest heaved violently, and her eyes were filled with anger, resentment, and bewilderment.Slowly, the girl cried herself out, leaning exhaustedly against a bodyguard, as if all her strength had left her.

“Miss…” Uncle Quan approached the rigid Huang Suyu, opening his mouth.“Miss, we should leave now.”

Huang Suyu slowly turned her head, looking behind her.The convoy’s headlights tore through the dim rain curtain. These humming mechanical beasts carried enough wealth to buy most things in the world... but in war, facing lives on the brink of extinction, they were no different from a car full of blank paper.

“Uncle Quan... does it really mean anything for us to carry all this money?” Huang Suyu asked hoarsely.

Uncle Quan understood Huang Suyu’s meaning and sighed deeply.“Miss, money itself has no meaning, but after this disaster, we still need to survive... This is the wealth we worked so hard to accumulate. It would be too great a pity if it were simply extinguished in the war.”

“But what if... what if we can’t overcome this disaster? What if there’s no more Red Dust Main City in the future?”

Uncle Quan froze.“But Miss, meaningful or not, they are already here.” Uncle Quan frowned deeply. “Surely, you’re not going to burn them all on the spot, are you?”

“...No.”Huang Suyu glanced at the extremely bloody house, a look of determination appearing in her eyes.“Uncle Quan, you’re right... money itself has no meaning; it’s just a medium of exchange. We can’t buy a child’s life with money, but we can use money to prevent more people from dying.”

“How can we stop them? We are just merchants. How can worldly wealth resist those from the Boundless Realm?”

“Of course, by using the method we’re best at... trade.”

Uncle Quan looked at the young woman before him with confusion. He couldn’t comprehend Huang Suyu’s line of thought... Trade? Did she mean bribing those from the Boundless Realm with money? How could that be possible? Since they had initiated a realm war, why would they retreat for mere money?

“I don’t want to be a deserter anymore, Uncle Quan.” Huang Suyu pointed to the neatly arranged convoy.“We grew up in the Red Dust Realm, and we live here... I want to use this money to do something more meaningful, instead of just taking it and hiding like a coward.”

“Then, what about Liuzhen?”

“...No, we’re not going to Liuzhen.” Huang Suyu took a deep breath, a sharp glint in her eyes.“We’re going back to Red Dust Main City!”

***

“Did we really... escape ‘Guernica’?”

The moment he heard that question, Chen Ling froze.He fell silent.

He looked at the charred town before him and the scattered bodies, all while everything he had experienced within the painting came to mind... They had escaped the “Guernica” of the painting, but not the Guernica of reality.

Real war was far more brutal than any painting.

Club 8 had never been a pampered individual, nor was he a novice unable to face bloodshed. He had witnessed too many storms in his youth; even scenes as hellish as those in the Aurora Realm hadn’t elicited such a strong reaction from him... But the situation in the Red Dust Realm was different.

On one hand, he had been tortured for too long in “Guernica” and had developed a psychological shadow. On the other hand, Aurora City at that time saw deaths by extreme cold, formless and invisible, with everyone in the city silently freezing to death. But what the Red Dust Realm faced now was a blatant, man-made massacre!

“This is a war,” Chen Ling said slowly, “but it has nothing to do with us.”

“...Nothing to do with us?”Club 8 looked up, his pale face staring at Chen Ling, filled with confusion.“Chen Ling, you were also in ‘Guernica’... Do you really feel nothing now?”

Chen Ling remained silent for a long time. He even closed his eyes, sensing everything around him... But in the end, he opened his eyes and answered honestly and calmly:

“...No.”“...Heh, you’re truly heartless then.”

Club 8 stumbled to his feet and walked straight in the direction of Red Dust Main City.

“Where are you going?” Chen Ling suddenly asked.

“I’m not like you, Chen Ling... I’ve been in ‘Guernica’ for too long. The shadow of war is etched into my very bones. I can’t be a mere ‘spectator’ to something like this.”

“You’re going to intervene in this war?”

“Before I joined the Twilight Society, I was the Ninth Hall Master here.”

“I know, but you should understand that none of this means anything,” Chen Ling said gravely. “We will eventually reverse time, restart the world. When that happens, whether it’s Red Dust in flames or Aurora in ice and snow, everything will be reversed by time...”

“If we do nothing just because everything seems meaningless, then what is the purpose of our existence at this very moment?! Everything we’ve experienced, everyone we’ve met – our relatives, our friends – are you saying their lives and deaths don’t matter?!”

Club 8 stared into Chen Ling’s eyes, his voice resonating with conviction.“I’m not a machine without feelings... Chen Ling. I can attend the Realm Funeral as a member of the Twilight Society... But before that, I cannot stand by and watch this place turn into a living hell.Perhaps my intervention won’t change anything... but I don’t want to experience that feeling of powerlessness in the face of war ever again.”

Club 8 walked past Chen Ling’s shoulder, and a gentle breeze swirled over the withered land.

The world fell silent.

Chen Ling watched silently as Club 8 walked away, offering no resistance...

Strictly speaking, Club 8’s intervention in the realm war, aiding the Red Dust side, already violated the Twilight Society’s neutral stance. However, Chen Ling didn’t believe that a Rank 6 Club 8 could change anything significant.

Since he wished to fulfill his duties as the Ninth Hall Master, then so be it... What did it have to do with Chen Ling?

Chen Ling and Club 8 walked in opposite directions. Chen Ling returned to the main group of the Twilight Society, where Bai Ye and others looked at the scene with complex expressions, unsure if they had witnessed the previous exchange.

However, within the crowd, Heart 9’s figure was also gone.

The disappearance of Club 8 and Heart 9 made their team seem a bit smaller, but everyone seemed to share an unspoken understanding, and no one mentioned their absence.

“Heart... are we still leaving?” Jian Changsheng asked cautiously.

“Yes, why not?”Chen Ling looked resolutely in a certain direction through the misty rain.“We continue to Liuzhen.”