Chapter 306

Lu Wanxing looked up upon hearing the words, meeting the calm gaze of the young man.

Among all the cultivators present, his eyes were the gentlest, indicating a kind-hearted nature.

She was prepared to be accepted, but to her surprise, Wen Hemian shook his head: “Miss, we are entering the desert not to seek treasures.”

Lu Wanxing’s expression froze.

His meaning was clear—since their goals were different, they would not take her along.

“N-no need for treasures! How about I guide you and you pay me for my services?”

She seemed somewhat desperate.

“I’m in urgent need of money right now. As long as you pay me, anything can be arranged!”

Lin Xun suddenly understood.

“So the reason you stole my money pouch is that you’re in a hurry to get money?”

Lu Wanxing nodded vigorously.

If she had stayed calm, it wouldn’t have seemed odd, but now, in her anxious state, it was hard not to feel something was off.

With the demon cultivators hiding in the shadows and their plans unclear, allowing someone with such unclear motives to join them could cause problems.

Moreover… disregarding her own safety, she seemed overly eager to accompany them to Tianhe.

This unexplained persistence was, in itself, suspicious.

Ning Ning had assumed that Wen Hemian was an easygoing person.

However, after a moment of silence, without any hesitation, he shook his head again.

=====

Tianhe was a distance from the town, so after some discussion, the group decided to hire carriages to reach the desert.

There were too many of them to fit in one carriage, so they split into two, with one carriage in front and the other behind.

Ning Ning rode in a carriage with Pei Ji and Lin Xun.

The driver appeared to be in his forties, with a long scar the width of a thumb at the corner of his eye, giving him the rugged, bold look of a warrior from a martial arts film.

Still pondering Lu Wanxing’s strange behavior, Ning Ning softly instructed after boarding, “Driver, we’re heading to Tianhe Desert. You can drop us off at the entrance.”

The driver replied with a simple “Alright.”

The desert was wild and harsh, and the carriage sped along with astonishing speed, racing through the landscape.

Worried that Tian Xianzi’s carriage might fall behind, Ning Ning leaned out of the window, shouting against the wind, “Driver, there’s another carriage following us!”

Following them?

Her voice, carried away by the howling wind, sounded urgent and frantic.

The man’s eyes flashed, and he glanced behind them.

In the vast expanse of sand, another carriage was indeed tailing them stealthily, always keeping a careful distance.

Had it not been for the woman’s warning, he might never have noticed the pursuit.

What a despicable method!

The driver’s desert-born fierceness was suddenly ignited.

His hand, gripping the reins, trembled with excitement—this, this was the legendary…

Chase battle!

Ning Ning wondered if she was imagining things.

Otherwise, why did the driver, after hearing her warning and replying, “No problem,” let out such a wild, arrogant laugh, as though he were the ruler of the world?

Meanwhile, in the other carriage…

He Zhizhou had been calmly following Ning Ning’s carriage, but when he looked out the window, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

The carriage ahead of them, without any warning, suddenly sped up like a rocket, zigzagging wildly like a snake possessed!

What a crazy maneuver! Sensing trouble, He Zhizhou yelled, “Driver! Hurry up! Don’t lose sight of the carriage ahead!”

The young driver’s eyes gleamed coldly at He Zhizhou’s words.

No wonder the carriage ahead was acting so erratically—they must have realized they were being followed! Could he be shaken off? Absolutely not! That would be an insult to his years of driving skills!

“Don’t worry.”

He snapped his fingers, flashing a devilish grin.

“Leave it to me.”

The wind whistled, the sun setting over the vast desert.

Now two carriages were zigzagging like mad snakes, kicking up clouds of dust along the road.

The shrieks of horses and the shouts of the drivers filled the air, reminiscent of a legendary race down Mount Akina in ’86.

(T/N: this is the Japanese anime ‘Initial D’ )

This was no longer just a simple carriage ride—it had become a battle of honor between two men!

This was the desert!

People were thrown from their seats, horses stumbled, and the townsfolk fled in all directions, screaming.

One person, catching a glimpse of the carriage window, was almost scared out of their wits.

Inside, everyone was being tossed around, limbs flailing in all directions like twisted noodles.

A young man in white slid past the window, his eyes filled with a desperate desire to survive and a tremor deep in his soul, his tongue and eyeballs almost flying out from the violent shaking!

He Zhizhou’s voice trembled with fear, his words breaking apart as he screamed, “Big ah ah ah brother! Slow, slow ah ah ah ah!”

The fierce wind swallowed his words, making them sound weak and faint.

The only thing the driver heard was the word “Slow,” which was infinitely magnified and shouted desperately by He Zhizhou.

“Ugh—ahhh!!”

The man’s eyes were already bloodshot from the intensity, and as he saw the distance between them and the other carriage grow, he finally let out the most heroic roar of the day.

As a driver, he would never allow anyone to say he was slow!

The two carriages raced neck and neck, arriving at the desert a whole incense stick’s time earlier than expected.

To any onlookers, it might have looked like they were filming a desert edition of ‘Boys and Girls Go forward’.

(T/N: “Boys and Girls Go Forward” is a national fitness model program of Anhui Satellite TV. This program is  to promote national fitness exercises.)

When Ning Ning finally stepped shakily out of the carriage, still trembling from the ordeal, she disentangled herself from Pei Ji’s embrace and glanced back at the endless expanse of desert, her voice unsteady: “Uncle, what about the carriage behind us?”

“Don’t worry.”

The cold wind lifted strands of hair from his temples, and the blazing sun highlighted the sharp angles of his face.

He gazed up at the sky, taking a slow drag from his pipe.

As the wisps of smoke dissipated into the air, his eyes grew distant and profound.

In a raspy voice full of authority, he declared, “Just mere ants—”

With a cold laugh, the man continued, “We’ve left them in the dust.”

Ning Ning: ???

Ning Ning: !!!

—So you’ve just gone ahead and started acting out ‘Infernal Affairs: Cultivation Storm’ on your own, haven’t you, uncle?!

(T/N: Infernal Affairs was produced by Media Asia Film Distribution. Starring Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang. The film depicts two characters in detail, each of whom has a special mission. One is an undercover police officer, and the other is a secret agent in the underworld. The two protagonists experience a series of psychological and strategic battles in the tense and complex background of the times. So the author of this novel actually put a playful twist to the film title by putting it as  ‘Infernal Affairs: Cultivation Storm’. )