Night's Nomenclature
Chapter 352: Missing a Chance

“Master, should we tell grandpa about this?” Li Ke asked.

The off-road vehicle drove south towards the rising sun.

When they left City 18, they were alone, then they met the Masonic Lodge, and after a couple of bustling days, they were alone again on the road.

It’s like a life journey, everyone will experience the hustle and bustle, then return to loneliness.

The road is always one’s own, there is never a banquet that doesn’t end in the world.

Qing Chen thought for a moment: “Don’t tell him. Old Master’s days are numbered, let’s not let him know about his friend’s death.”

“Yes,” Li Ke replied after a moment of thought.

Actually, Qing Chen didn’t have the right to decide for the old man, but he was really worried that the old man wouldn’t make it to Forbidden Zone 002 after hearing the bad news.

In the evening, the old man finally regained full consciousness.

At this time, Hu Xiaoniu was exhausted, so Qing Chen took over driving. Although he was a newbie driver, he drove exceptionally skillfully.

The off-road vehicle drove steadily across the wilderness.

In the distance was the sunset, surrounded by plains and fields, the whole world seemed to be coated with a layer of orange-red paint, magnificent yet desolate.

Li Ke supported the old man in the back seat and fed him a little warm water from the thermos.

Qing Chen suddenly couldn’t help asking: “Old Master, how did you meet your friend?”

He looked up at the rearview mirror, but found that the old man was stunned.

The old man asked: “You’ve met him, haven’t you?”

Qing Chen was silent for a moment: “Yes.”

“You’ve met him, but you don’t want to tell me, so he’s dead,” the old man guessed.

Silence filled the car.

The old man thought for a moment and said: “You don’t tell me because you’re worried that I won’t make it to Forbidden Zone 002 after hearing the bad news, right.”

“Yes,” Qing Chen nodded.

“Don’t worry, I’m not that fragile,” the old man said: “Besides, I’ve seen too much parting in my life.”

“You seemed to know he would die,” Qing Chen said.

“Let me tell you how we met,” the old man said with a smile: “At that time, I wasn’t as old as I am now, and I especially liked to go out through the secret passage of Autumn Leaf Manor to play. Once I went to a bar I often went to, and the bar was holding a beer-drinking contest.”

“That night, most of the people in the bar were drunk, and in the end, only the two of us were left,” the old man looked at the setting sun and recalled: “Later, we both got drunk, and we don’t remember what happened afterwards. According to Li Yunjing, the two of us ran to the Red Star Boxing Gym and said we wanted to participate in the grading match together, and we smashed a lot of their stuff. I didn’t have any money in my pocket at that time, so Li Yunjing helped pay the boxing gym a sum of money, and we didn’t get beaten up.”

“From then on, whenever I secretly went out for drinks, I would often call him, and then do some very absurd things. Now that I think about it, that was probably one of the few happy times in my life.”

“When did you know he was a Shendai member?” Qing Chen asked.

“Actually, I found out the following year. Li Yunjing followed him for three months and discovered some clues,” the old man said: “But I didn’t expose him, and he never reported my whereabouts to Shendai. It seems that as long as everyone pretends a little, they can remain friends.”

The old man continued: “In the third year, his mother fell seriously ill, but the Shendai Family refused to let him return to the north. He was very depressed during that time, and I knew why he was depressed, so I took the initiative to give him a piece of important information, so that he gained status and was qualified to negotiate terms with the family.”

“He returned north and accompanied his mother through her final moments. When he returned to City 18, he took the initiative to confess everything to me,” the old man said with a smile: “He felt particularly guilty at that time, so I made him drink eight cups of wine as punishment, and this time I won.”

“It was from that time on that he kept saying that he wanted me to use him once, so that his conscience could be at ease.”

“But actually, I knew that he had already decided in his heart that once I used him, he could choose death without guilt, so he wouldn’t have to suffer from the torment between family loyalty and friendship. Lu Doujun is different from those people in the Shendai Family. Sometimes I wonder, it’s so rare for such a dirty family to produce a person like Lu Doujun.”

“So you knew that he would die after you used him this time,” Qing Chen said softly: “Then why did you still use him?”

The old man smiled: “You might want to hear a very philosophical answer, or an answer that will make my image shine again, but my answer is very simple, because I am the master of the Li Clan.”

Qing Chen was silent.

Just because he is the master of the Li Clan, he is willingly ‘imprisoned’ in Ban Shan Mountain Estate all his life.

Just because he is the master of the Li Clan, he wants to use the best opportunity to eliminate one of the most promising people to become a Demi-God in Shendai in recent years.

There is never a win-win situation in this world, not for Shendai Lu Dou, nor for Li Xiurui.

“Qing Chen,” the old man said with a smile: “It’s because you Knights are never bound by worldly constraints that I envy you, so don’t learn from me.”

When Qing Chen looked up, he suddenly saw two lines of tears flowing down the old man’s Face^[-] in the rearview mirror, but he was still smiling.

“Old Master, is this world really so complicated?” Qing Chen asked inexplicably.

“No, if you live simply, the world will be simple,” the old man replied: “Kid, I don’t have the ability to make this world change the rules for me, but I hope you do.”

……

……

Return Countdown 31:00:00.

5 pm in the evening.

Qing Chen in the off-road vehicle saw the magnificent giant tree again, standing like a heavenly pillar in the center of Forbidden Zone 002.

No matter how many times he had seen it, Qing Chen would always feel particularly shocked when he saw it again.

At this moment, Hu Xiaoniu suddenly exclaimed: “Brother Chen, there seems to be a colorful tail dragging down outside the crown of that big tree!”

Qing Chen looked over, and sure enough, a tail more than ten meters long was dragging outside the crown of the tree, while its body was hidden in the crown.

The old man, wrapped in a sleeping bag, stared blankly: “So what he said was true.”

This ‘he’ was Li Shutong’s master, the old man’s close friend.

Decades ago, when that friend described the beauty of the outside world to the old man, the old man always thought that the other party was deceiving him, because even the Federation army had never taken corresponding photos, nor had they found such a magical creature.

All this, for the old man, was like a dream he had longed for for decades, and today he finally saw it.

The old man was a little entranced.

The next moment, a shadow floated from the sky, just covering the off-road vehicle driving below.

Hu Xiaoniu looked up and was stunned. The huge Qingshan Falcon was circling in the sky, and when its wings spread, it gave people the illusion of obscuring the sky and the sun.

A cry.

Qing Chen was stunned.

Because he actually understood what the other party meant: “You’re back so soon? Where’s that old guy Li Shutong?”

Qing Chen thought for a moment and shouted to the sky: “My master has gone north, and I’ve brought new Knights this time.”

The Qingshan Falcon cried again: “Are there going to be two more annoying brats? Don’t bring so many Knights, too many Knights will cause trouble.”

Qing Chen: “……”

It seemed that after he became a Knight, he met the acceptance conditions of Forbidden Zone 002, and he could even understand the meaning conveyed by the creatures in the Forbidden Zone.

The Qingshan Falcon ignored the off-road vehicle and flew back into Forbidden Zone 002.

The old man curiously asked: “Is this the Qingshan Falcon?”

“Yes,” Qing Chen nodded: “It gets along well with the Knights.”

The old man asked again: “It seems to be talking to you, can you understand it?”

Qing Chen nodded: “Yes.”

“What did it say?”

“It said welcome the Knights home.”

The old man was envious: “This big falcon is quite hospitable.”

The off-road vehicle drove towards the big tree, but Qing Chen slowed down after a while.

“What’s wrong?” the old man asked.

“There’s a motorcade parked outside Forbidden Zone 002,” Qing Chen said: “There are Masonic Lodge vehicles and Federation army vehicles.”

Together, there must be hundreds of vehicles, making the outside of Forbidden Zone 002 look like an expanded parking lot.

The Masonic Lodge vehicles were dilapidated and had clearly been through a fierce battle. They must have been chased into Forbidden Zone 002 by the Federation army.

Qing Chen said to Hu Xiaoniu: “See if there are any shell casings on the wilderness outside.”

“Yes,” Hu Xiaoniu replied: “And the shell casings are quite dense, it looks like there’s been a battle.”

At the Federation army’s parking lot, dozens of people were guarding the vehicles. When they saw a vehicle approaching, they immediately raised their weapons.

“I saw their unit number. It should be the 198th Division of the Federation Second Army Group, which is the Chen Family’s loyal forces,” the old man said: “The south has always been the Chen Family’s private land. Black Spade helping Wildlanders and Time Travelers rebuild their homes here will inevitably provoke them.”

“Most of them should have chased into Forbidden Zone 002,” Qing Chen wondered: “Isn’t it said that the Federation army generally won’t easily enter the Forbidden Zone to hunt down Wildlanders?”

He clearly remembered that Ding Dong’s mother was driven into the Forbidden Zone by the Federation army, which is how she escaped the chase and eventually gave birth to a new life in the Forbidden Zone.

At that time, the Federation army stopped at the edge.

Without a mission like Qing Huai’s Shadow candidate, no one would enter the Forbidden Zone for no reason.

The old man said: “This Forbidden Zone 002 is located in the Chen Family’s territory, and they are more familiar with it. In the past, the Chen Family used prisoners to test the rules of the Forbidden Zone.”

“Wait, can prisoners be taken out of prison by them?” Qing Chen curiously asked, Yi shouldn’t allow this to happen.

“Not those who are already in prison,” the old man explained: “They use the PCE Safety Committee to arrest suspects, and then they don’t prosecute them, but directly put them in the Chen Family’s secret prison waiting to be used.”

Qing Chen was stunned, extrajudicial punishment?

Sure enough, humans will always find various ways to avoid artificial intelligence.

Since artificial intelligence is so just, then don’t send the criminals to prisons controlled by artificial intelligence, just set up secret prisons.

The old man thought for a moment and said: “We have nothing against them, and there are Qing Family markings on the car, they shouldn’t interfere, just bypass them.”

However, as soon as the old man finished speaking, he saw Qing Chen take out ‘Conquer with Virtue’ and fire a shot at the Federation army’s motorcade.

Those Chen Family loyal forces immediately got into their cars and chased after them.

The old man was stunned: “What are you doing?”

Qing Chen didn’t answer. He did this simply because he remembered what Li Shutong said when he first climbed Qingshan Cliff: You’re missing a chance.

Now, Hu Xiaoniu and Li Ke are also missing a chance.