adbindia Chapter 130 130 | Speedy Spada
Chapter 130 130 | Speedy Spada
The road to the River of Oblivion did not run through the main district.
That was the first sensible decision anyone made after forming the world's least trustworthy alliance.
Midnight Avenue still glittered somewhere below the slope of dark crystal, loud and crowded and dangerously full of people with cameras. Taking two Guardians alongside the Heaven's Elite Force in commercial streets would have produced one of three outcomes: mass panic, viral footage, or a new category of divine audit.
Possibly all three.
However, discretion in the afterlife took many questionable forms.
Ji Renshu led them off the visible road, down a narrow service path behind the old theatre district that wound toward the outskirts.
Eathan walked near the middle of the group because apparently everyone had silently agreed he was too close to collapsing to be trusted near either front or rear.
He hated that everyone was right.
His ribs still ached with every breath. He was able to raise his [HP] back up with [Major Reconstitution], but [Humanity] continued to trickle low on his HUD like a thorn on the skin.
[Humanity]: 34%
Wonderful. Alive in the same way a holopad at one percent charge was technically usable if no one breathed on it.
Chewie kept close enough to catch him if he tripped, though she pretended she was only staying near because Chen Mo was behind them and deserved supervision. Chen Mo, in turn, kept staring past everyone at Bai Hu with the kind of intensity that made Eathan want to tape his eyes shut with talismans.
Bai Hu walked up front beside Ji Renshu.
That remained the most offensive part of the current arrangement.
The White Tiger had not looked back once.
Every time Eathan's gaze landed on that white-haired back, the same bitter question rose and then got swallowed. Was this really Mei Yuling's influence? Was Bai Hu pretending? Was he at least half-pretending because he decided it was good to think three turns ahead and did not bother to explain himself?
"Stop looking at him like that," Chewie muttered without turning her head.
"I'm not looking at him like anything."
"You look like someone stole your emotional support animal."
Eathan glanced at her in horror. "Do not say that out loud."
"Is it inaccurate?"
Honestly, he didn't know.
Ahead, Yue Shiyin paused near a rusted platform half-hidden between two stone outcrops. A faded sign hung above the entrance, its lettering flickering in pink and gold.
MIDNIGHT AVENUE SKY-SILK EXPRESS
Temporarily Closed for Minor Passenger-Digestion Incident
Eathan stopped walking.
"Passenger what?"
Yang Mingze leaned over to read the sign and snorted. "Old tourist route."
"Tourist route," Eathan repeated. "The sign says digestion."
"Minor," Mingze said helpfully.
Eathan looked at him. "You and I have very different relationships with adjectives."
Ji Renshu stepped onto the platform without hesitation. "This route bypasses the market and reaches the ferry in under thirty minutes. It has been closed to civilians for decades, which makes it ideal."
"For us," Eathan said, still looking at the sign. "Or for the creature doing the digesting?"
Yue Shiyin adjusted his fan. "The Sky-Silk Express was an economic project sponsored by Commander Foxfire during the Third Tourism Expansion. It promised scenic overhead routes, exclusive views of the Oblivion riverbank, and 'an unforgettable afterlife memory.'"
Chewie squinted at the dead platform. "Sounds like a trap."
"It made excellent revenue for six months," Shiyin said.
"And then?" Eathan asked.
A slow creak came from above them.
The platform's ceiling trembled.
"Then," Mei Yuling said, voice flat, "one of the transport spiders entered a poor mood and swallowed twelve mid-tier passengers, two snack vendors, and one family on their way to reincarnation."
Eathan stared upward.
Something huge slept in the shadowed webbing above the platform.
At first, he only saw legs—long, jointed, each one hooked into thick ropes of pale silk stretched between the tower supports. Then the body shifted. The thing was the size of a small bus, its abdomen fitted with two stacked passenger compartments made from wood and shell.
Faded paint along its side in cheerful bubble letters:
SPEEDY SPADA
"…"
Eathan swallowed.
Above their heads, the spider twitched in its sleep.
"I think I'm good?" he said.
"Relax." Quine Long tilted his head up, robes shifting faintly in the draft. "Although Foxfire always did believe safety regulations ruined the ambience."
"People were eaten," Eathan said.
"Spirits," Shiyin supplied.
"Thank you, that helps with nothing."
Chen Mo looked at the sleeping spider with visible disdain. "Captain, surely there's a more dignified method?"
Ji Renshu's eyes flicked to him. "This is an aerial route that avoids the district."
"Still vulgar."
The spider chose that moment to open one eye. It was glossy black and twitching in multiple directions at once.
Bai Hu studied it for a brief moment.
"This is a good choice," he said.
Chen Mo's entire posture changed.
"Of course," he said instantly. "I shall prepare the vehicle."
Eathan and Chewie both turned to stare.
The spider woke fully when Chen Mo jumped up onto the first length of webbing.
Its legs unfolded with a violent crackle. The passenger shell swung wildly. Several old charms clattered to the platform. Somewhere inside the creature, a sound like wet grinding rose into a shriek.
Eathan took a large step back. "Vehicle preparation," he said faintly. "Right."
Chen Mo did not bother with soothing spells.
He flung a line of qi around the spider's front legs and yanked. The spider lunged. Chen Mo leapt aside, ran along the webbing, and drove a seal straight between its eyes. The creature shrieked again, this time loud enough to make the platform boards rattle.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Yang Mingze laughed. "That's one way to wake it."
The fight lasted five minutes.
It involved the spider trying to bite Chen Mo twice, Yang Mingze grabbing one of its legs when it nearly tore free of the platform, Yue Shiyin muttering something about insurance clauses, and Quine Long politely refusing to help because, in his words, an "educational opportunity."
Bai Hu watched the entire process with no particular expression, which only made Chen Mo fight harder.
By the end of it, Speedy Spada had stopped shrieking and crouched with all eight legs tucked neatly beneath the platform railing, black eyes lowered in grudging obedience. Chen Mo landed beside the boarding gate, hair disheveled, cheek scratched, expression bright.
"Ready," he breathed.
Eathan glanced at Bai Hu, who had not even blinked at this outcome.
"That," he muttered, "just says too much about Heaven."
They boarded.
The interior looked worse than the outside.
The first level of the spider-bus had rows of outdated mortal-style seats upholstered in cracked green material. The floor was faintly sticky. Thin strips of webbing held the windows in place. From the ceiling hung several strands of green mucus that swayed with the creature's breathing.
Eathan picked a window seat because if he was going to die inside public transportation, he wanted at least one last look at the skyline.
Chewie sat beside him, arms crossed so tightly she might as well merge into the furniture.
Bai Hu sat two rows ahead, settling near the Paladins again with alarming ease. Mei Yuling sat across the aisle from him holding his bloodstained outer coat folded over her arms with the resigned posture of someone who had been handed a holy relic and a laundry problem at once.
That had happened five seconds after they boarded.
Bai Hu had stood in the aisle, looked down at the crimson-stained fabric, then turned.
Eathan had half-risen out of habit before he caught himself.
Bai Hu's gaze moved past him.
"Store this," he said to Mei Yuling.
The bus went silent.
Eathan sat back down very slowly.
Mei Yuling looked at the coat, then at the White Tiger, and appeared to regret every professional achievement that had brought her to this moment.
"Of course, Commander," she said at last, taking it with both hands.
Chewie leaned toward Eathan. "I'm going to bite something."
From the back row, Chen Mo's voice drifted forward. "If Commander White requires assistance, I am perfectly capable of—"
"No one asked," Chewie said.
"He did ask someone," Chen Mo replied.
"Exactly. Someone who hypnotized him. Congratulations on losing to mind crime."
Mei Yuling, still holding the coat, said without looking back, "Allegedly."
Chen Mo's smile sharpened. "You seem to be full of yourself."
"I seem wanted," she replied. "There's a difference."
Yang Mingze barked a laugh from behind Ji Renshu. "She got you there."
Now both Chewie and Chen Mo looked ready to bite someone. Ji Renshu closed her eyes for one brief moment and looked like a woman deliberating on whether she should just resign.
Then the spider shrieked.
An old, warped melody began playing above their heads, tinny and cheerful in the way of abandoned amusement rides. A broadcast crackled through the ceiling.
"Wel—come aboard the Speedy Spada. Please keep all limbs, regrets, and lightly attached memories inside the cabin. Next stop: River of Oblivion. Have a pleasant afterlife commute."
Eathan had just begun searching for seatbelts—which, unsurprisingly, didn't exist—when the spider launched at once, leaving his stomach stayed behind.
Speedy Spada drove into the open air on web-lines strung between old transport towers. Midnight Avenue dropped beneath them in a wash of light. The spider moved fast, moth-like wings spearing through its outer skin, forming four distinct shapes that fluttered so rapidly he could only catch the shadowing aftermath from the window.
The cabin rocked, dipped, rose again, and then settled into a swaying glide over the city.
Eathan gripped the grimy edge of his seat with one hand and another to his stomach.
Beside him, Chewie looked faintly green. "If I vomit in the afterlife, I'm blaming Foxfire."
He couldn't reply. Too busy executing meditative breathing.
As Speedy Spada levelled into its flight, the lower cabin settled into tense quiet as the city slid underneath.
Ji Renshu sat at the very front, spine straight and separ laid across her knees. Beside her in the same impeccable posture, Yue Shiyin stared ahead. Behind them, Yang Mingze leaned back, snoring off already, while Mei Yuling sat with the stained coat folded over her lap as she gazed out the window.
Bai Hu sat across from her, hands folded loosely. Every now and then, his eyes shifted to the coat.
Eathan noticed.
He wished he hadn't.
And then there was Chen Mo.
Despite sitting in the last row, he had not stopped staring at Bai Hu since they boarded. The gaze was so intense it might have counted as a minor attack if anyone bothered to file it.
Chewie lasted four minutes.
Then she stood so abruptly her elbow nearly clipped Eathan's temple.
He ducked. "Where are you going?"
"Upstairs."
"Why?"
"Self-restraint."
He followed her before his body could argue.
The rickety staircase to the upper level curved along the inner shell of the spider's abdomen. It smelled like rot and damp wood. Eathan climbed slowly, one hand on the rail, while Chewie took the steps two at a time like she was trying to outrun her own temper.
The second level had the same old seats and webbed windows, but most of them were empty.
Except for Quine Long.
The Azure Dragon sat by the window with one elbow propped against the frame, long hair sliding over his shoulder as the wind pushed through the cracks. Below them, the city lights streamed past in ribbons. He looked peaceful.
Too peaceful.
At their footsteps, he glanced sideways. "Tire of the soap opera downstairs?"
Chewie dropped into the seat across from him. "Start talking."
Quine Long glanced at her. "Unfortunately, I am not too engaged in history about the spider's regrettable upholstery."
Chewie narrowed her eyes.
Eathan sat more carefully beside her in the aisle seat, wincing as his ribs complained. "You staged your death."
"I prefer to call it an unscheduled disappearance with artistic merit."
"How'd you manage to get your hands on the boss's Shard fragment?" Chewie blinked, dodging a drop of mucus on the ceiling. "That's possible?"
"It was a hassle to achieve," he said. "But very possible. Heaven's Guardians, after all."
"You faked dying so you could enter the Passing."
Quine Long smiled faintly and looked back out the window.
"Among other reasons."
Eathan studied him. First, the calm. Then the bloodstained sleeve tucked just out of sight. The way he had watched Bai Hu earlier with irritation seemed too old to be simple anger.
"Hold on." He gathered himself. "So all this time—your absence, your staged death—it was all just to help Mister White collect his scattered core?"
He stared, incredulous.
"I thought you hated each other."
Quine Long shrugged. "'Hate' is a strong word."
Chewie gave the dragon a look that clearly said, "I'm waiting for you to dig yourself deeper," but remained silent.
"But surely, you will not mistake my actions for kindness," he said, gaze returning to the dark landscape. "It's purely because of Bai Hu's persistent idiocy. Left to himself, he'd probably find a way to karmically dissipate permanently."
"And what's wrong with that?" Eathan prompted.
"Well," Quine Long replied, contemplative. "The other Guardians would be quite angry, I suppose."
Chewie's eyes narrowed. "You could have told someone."
"Who?" He raised a brow. "The Council, which would have argued until Bai Hu's pieces became museum exhibits? Heaven, which sent its private knives? You bunch, who were very busy choosing the most roundabout way of dying?"
At that, Chewie's mouth closed.
Eathan watched the dragon's profile, the fine line of his jaw, the eyes reflecting the city lights. When he'd first met Quine Long, he had assumed the Azure Dragon and White Tiger were simply enemies with too much history and too little impulse control. They fought like breathing, insulted each other like ritual, and sabotaged each other in the careless way of people who had been doing it before nations learned to name themselves.
But the more he saw, the harder that answer held.
Quine Long had died—pretended to die, whatever technicality immortals preferred—just to move through this realm freely enough to hunt down pieces of Bai Hu no one else had even reached yet, even at the cost of his own injuries, only forced it back into the only person who would probably wake up and insult him for it.
That wasn't friendship in any mortal shape Eathan understood, but it definitely wasn't hatred either.
"You may not know, but Bai Hu and I share a history worth millennia of competition, sabotage, and very occasionally, unwanted collaboration," Quine Long said, catching their complicated gazes. "True, we've tried to kill each other several times, but fate is not exactly one to be read."
Chewie furrowed her brows. "So you risked everything just to piece together his core?"
"What better way to spite him?"
At that, Eathan and Chewie exchanged a look.
Maybe immortals really did invent whole emotional categories just to avoid admitting they cared.
"I'd gathered four fragments already," Quine Long said, lips quirking. "Then you two conveniently appeared, found what I'd pieced together and hidden, and alerted the Paladins by manifesting his half-assembled physical form in a luxury hotel. You even lost one to the River."
"You sound annoyed that we weren't tidier."
He glanced at them sidelong.
"I do believe I have chosen grace by only being mildly annoyed."
Chewie pointed at him. "If you had shown up earlier, we might not have had to improvise with a divine gluestick."
"I repeat: I chose grace."
Eathan ignored them and kept following the pieces.
"Three active when we reconstructed him. Curiosity, innocence, attachment. Then you added Resolve. Then Ruthless merged. That leaves the River shard and the one beneath the Spires."
Chewie nodded. "Two left."
His stomach tightened.
"Hold on," Eathan said.
Quine's eyes shifted toward him.
Eathan frowned. "When the Paladins asked, Mister White implied there was only one recoverable shard left. The River."
Quine Long lifted one finger and pressed it lightly to Eathan's lips.
Eathan recoiled so fast his spine hit the seat behind him.
"What was that for?"
Chewie stared between them. "Did you just shush him like a scandalized concubine?"
The dragon withdrew his hand with perfect composure. "Do not insult me. My technique is far more refined."
Eathan wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, half-disgusted and half too shocked to form proper outrage. The Azure Dragon was already looking out the window again.
Below, the city had thinned. Midnight Avenue's loud colors had faded behind them, replaced by the darker outskirts where the land sloped toward the River. The spider-bus ran along its web-lines with a steady, unsettling rhythm.
Quine Long's hair stirred in the draft.
"Bai Hu heard Meng's map same as you did," he said at last. "He knows the Spires hold one shard. He also knows the chamber will not open to him yet."
"So he lied to the Paladins."
Quine smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
"He gave them the truth that would move them where he wanted."
Eathan looked down through the window to the silver light spreading ahead.
The River of Oblivion.
The shard they had lost.
The monster waiting under it.
And somewhere behind them, under the Obsidian Spires, the secret piece Bai Hu had once sealed away with his own permission.
Eathan exhaled slowly.
"Of course," he muttered. "He's back for fifteen minutes and already lying to us all."
Chewie's expression eased for the first time since the chamber.
"That," she said, "sounds just like boss."
The spider-bus dipped.
Ahead, the River of Oblivion widened into view, glimmering beneath the eternal twilight. The old melody crackled overhead again as the bus began its descent.
"Next stop," the warped broadcast sang, "River of Oblivion."