Atlas of Heaven and Man

Before those gunmen could pull their triggers, Chen Chuan acted first, his figure suddenly lunging forward. However, these people seemed barely able to keep up with his movements, and muzzle flashes erupted instantly.

Chen Chuan merely raised his arm to shield his head and face, ignoring the rest of his body. When the bullets struck him, he only felt a slight jolt in certain areas of his protective suit, before they fell to the ground one by one.

At that moment, he spun around sharply, wielding his blade. A flash of light accompanied a sound as if cutting through a mixture of human flesh, firearms, metal, and leather. Instantly, a blade mark appeared on both sides of the carriage walls.

The row of gunmen in front paused, then their upper bodies flipped over in unison, along with all the items they held, neatly sliced apart along a perfectly smooth line.

Chen Chuan stared ahead, his figure leaping forward, enveloped in a whirlwind of blade light, like a rolling snowball. By the time he planted his foot, the carriages behind him were littered with severed limbs and broken bodies.

He had now reached the third-to-last carriage. There were no seats here. Three men held shields in front, while others behind them held guns to the heads of the company representatives.

Despite being manipulated in this way, the representatives continued to repeat their words.

The members of the resistance organization had initially found it amusing, but now they were simply annoyed and wished they could just shoot them all.

Bao Yuan stood behind the crowd, watching Chen Chuan with suspicion and uncertainty. He gritted his teeth. The plan had already succeeded. He had even sent the telegram. He never expected a fighter suspected of being a Third Threshold to appear and ruin everything at this point.

He wasn't sure if Yangzhi City had originally arranged for someone to guard the train or if this was premeditated. Now, he didn't need to think so much. The most important hostages were already in his hands.

He shouted, "Stop! Are you from the Yangzhi City government? These are representatives from various companies. If you take another step forward, they're dead! You may be fast, but we're not slow either. You can gamble on whether our triggers are faster or your movements are!"

He wasn't entirely bluffing, because upon realizing that gunshots were ringing out, the elite members of their team had all taken their drugs in time. Now, their eyes were bloodshot, and they were in a highly alert and excited state, barely able to keep up with Chen Chuan's movements.

Chen Chuan seemed not to hear him. He brandished his long blade and continued to walk forward. Seeing that he was unmoved, Bao Yuan immediately raised his gun and shot one of the company representatives dead.

He said sternly, "I'm not joking. These are all representatives from foreign companies. If they die here, you can't afford the responsibility! Now, retreat immediately, or none of these people will survive!"

The drug's effects were limited. If they didn't show Chen Chuan their determination and kept waiting here, they would surely die when the drug's effects wore off.

Chen glanced at the body, stopped, and slowly retreated. The others watched him nervously, but seeing him move backward, they relaxed slightly.

Chen Chuan's expression was calm. He needed to resolve this matter as soon as possible. The esoteric ritual also had an invasive effect. If it dragged on for too long, even if the passengers were lucky enough to wake up afterward, it would probably cause irreversible damage.

Compared to those passengers, these company representatives were just a minority. He would save them if he could, but if he couldn't, there was nothing he could do. If they stalled, everyone would be doomed.

Acting now, on the other hand, gave them a chance to survive.

Therefore…

By this time, he had retreated to the doorway, slightly distancing himself from Bao Yuan. Suddenly, he stomped down with force, and the wooden floorboards beneath him cracked open. The wall panels near the carriage doorframe twisted and deformed, and his entire body shot forward like an arrow!

The instant he made his move, the members of the resistance organization also fired mercilessly at their targets. Amidst the gunshots,

Chen Chuan crashed directly into them. Whether it was the shields blocking the way or the human bodies behind them, they were sent flying upon contact, each landing with shattered bones and ruptured organs. The light of the Snow Monarch Blade bloomed, and with each flash, heads flew into the air.

Seeing Chen Chuan charging forward without regard for anything, Bao Yuan was shocked and enraged. With a furious roar, he threw a punch directly at Chen Chuan. The drug he had taken was undoubtedly the best, and his own strength was the greatest here. This strike was both accurate and powerful.

Chen Chuan glanced at him and saw that the skin on the back of his hand was turning blue, with something seemingly about to burst from within. Realizing there was a problem, he didn't directly slash with his blade, but instead used his elbow to deflect outward, while simultaneously using the hilt of his blade to parry upward, using a gentle force to push the arm aside.

Because in front of him, there were several familiar-looking bodies lying upside down. One was smashed against the carriage wall, and another had their head blown off by a stone. On the carriage door next to them, he could still see the blade mark that had been cut open. This was clearly the scene from the first carriage he had entered when he boarded the train.

But he was clearly in the last few carriages now!

He looked at the overhead lights, seeing them flicker erratically, a sign of being strongly affected.

His mind raced. Even if the esoteric ritual could cause influence, most of it would be mental, with relatively weak physical effects, so this was not an esoteric ritual, but… a Myth!

The esoteric sects could restrain and utilize Myths through certain rituals, such as the Two-Faced Heart Monster, the Mountain Wraith in Xie Mountain, and this one in front of him…

However, he didn't understand much about esoteric rituals, but he was familiar with the realm of Myths.

He calmly pondered that this Myth could not have been created out of thin air by a ritual. Currently, no esoteric ritual could do that, so it must have been obtained and restrained from the source of Xie Mountain.

After a moment of recollection, he found a very similar existence among the legends of the Three Mountains—the Maze Road.

Legend has it that there is a mountain road on Xie Mountain. Once a person accidentally enters it, no matter whether they go up or down, they cannot reach the end and will only spin around on that section of the road until they are trapped to death there.

And in this Myth legend, it is said that there are little ghosts playing hide-and-seek with people, so if you want to get out, you only need to hide, hide in a place where the little ghosts cannot find you, then you can get out.

But if you really go looking for a place to hide, you may never get out. There is only one way here.

He closed his eyes, reached out, grabbed the door handle next to him, twisted it open, and took a step out.

When he opened his eyes again, he had appeared in a carriage he had never been to before.

If you encounter the Maze Road, then you only need to close your eyes, which means you have hidden in a place where the little ghosts cannot find you, then you can go down the mountain.

However, the most difficult thing here is that a person cannot walk on the mountain road with their eyes closed, as they are likely to fall to their death, but here on the train, there is no need to worry about this problem.

Of course, it was only because he knew the solution that he was able to get out. If it were someone else, they might really not be able to get out for a while, and the most serious thing about Myths is not the Myth itself, but the constant intrusion, so if you delay for a little longer, you might not be able to withstand it.

But he had come out, which did not mean that the matter was resolved. He had escaped the influence, but the others were still trapped in it, so he had to break this Myth, and if he wanted to do that, he needed to find the ghost!

He observed his surroundings. This should be the second-to-last carriage, but strangely, the members of the resistance organization showed no signs of coming here, as if they had automatically ignored this place.

But the problem is that even if there were no passengers in this place, because it involved their own retreat, under normal circumstances, they would have arranged one or two people to watch it.

Combining the situation of the Myth, he already had an answer in his mind.

He continued to walk forward, came to the front of the last carriage, closed his eyes, grabbed the door handle, turned it open, and then opened his eyes.

There were no seats in the carriage in front, only various luggage items were placed, and in the middle of them, a person with esoteric patterns painted on their face was sitting on a box.

When this person saw Chen Chuan open the carriage door, they looked up in astonishment, then got up in a panic and moved back, saying, "You, how could you possibly get here? You, don't come over."

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