Volume 2, Chapter 55: The Midnight Express
Rain dripping down my collar. It is a miserable feeling. I stood on the rusty metal gantry overlooking the House Lin freight depot. A drop of cold water slid perfectly down the back of my neck, right under my scarf. I shivered. Ten thousand years old, and a cold raindrop still makes me flinch.
Who builds a private rail yard this close to the civilian sector? Greedy people, that's who. They hide their stolen military goods right behind a row of cheap, crumbling apartment buildings. They think no one will look here because it is ugly. They are usually right.
Down below, the midnight train sat on the tracks. It was a massive, ugly machine of black iron and steam, humming with heavy soul-driven engines. Guards in gray raincoats patrolled the wet gravel perimeter. They carried sleek, high-end soul rifles. These men weren't Abyssal monsters or brainwashed cultists. They were just regular guys working for bad people because the pay was good.
I touched the communication crystal in my ear.
"Positions," I said quietly.
"In place," Yuhao's voice crackled back through the static.
"Go."
I watched from the shadows. I told them this was their first real test as a unit. I am the teacher. I point the way, but they have to walk it. And they had to do it quietly, without killing anyone. Dead bodies raise alarms. A missing train just causes confusion.
A guard near the main loading dock turned to light a cigarette. The small orange flame flared in the dark. Then, a massive invisible wave hit him. He dropped his silver lighter in the mud. His eyes rolled back into his skull, and he slumped against the wet brick wall, fast asleep.
Yuhao stepped out of the rain. His Spirit Eyes glowed with a faint gold light in the gloom. Spiritual shock. It is clean, quiet, and completely non-lethal. It is like turning off a switch in someone's brain.
"Clear," Yuhao whispered into the crystal.
Bei Bei moved next. He was a blur of dark blue cloth darting between the cargo containers. He didn't use his lightning to fight. He used it to eat the power from the depot's security system. He pressed his bare hand against the main junction box on the wall. The camera above him sparked once and went totally blind.
Xiaotao and Tang Ya slipped past the sleeping guards and made for the rear cargo cars. They moved like ghosts. I was actually proud of them.
I dropped down from the high gantry. My heavy boots hit the wet gravel without a single sound. I walked past a pair of guards snoring on top of a pile of wooden pallets. They wouldn't wake up for hours.
We met at the third car from the engine. The heavy sliding door was locked with a thick electronic keypad. It looked expensive.
"Tang Ya," I said, pointing at the lock.
She stepped up. She didn't use force or try to guess the code. She pressed her small hand against the metal frame. A thin, bright green vine sprouted from her palm. The Blue Silver Grass snaked its way inside the lock mechanism. It felt the tumblers and the internal wiring. A second later, the heavy lock clicked open.
We slid the door back and stepped inside out of the rain.
It was dark. The car smelled heavily of machine oil, ozone, and wet dust. I struck a match against the wall. The small yellow flame illuminated rows of massive wooden crates stacked to the ceiling.
"Pry one open," I told Bei Bei.
He drew his sword and used the flat of the blade to snap the iron bands off the nearest crate. We looked inside. It was full of dull, heavy gray ingots. Spirit-sealing lead. Two tons of it, exactly like the smuggler Jin told me in the Drains.
"This is it," Yuhao said. He reached out and touched the cold metal. "This is what they use to hold the souls inside the batteries."
"But look at this one," Xiaotao called out from the other side of the train car. She had opened a different crate with her bare hands.
I walked over and looked inside. It wasn't lead. It was a row of long, cylindrical glass tubes packed in thick straw. Inside each tube was a glowing, thick purple liquid. It pulsed slightly, almost like it had a heartbeat of its own.
"What is that?" Tang Ya asked. She backed away from the crate, rubbing her arms.
"Liquid draining force," I said. My stomach turned sour. I rested my hand on the hilt of my Kampilan hidden under my coat, feeling a sudden urge to smash the tubes. But I stopped myself. "It is concentrated Abyssal energy. You do not transport this much raw power just to keep a portal open. They aren't just building a hub. They are building a bomb. Or a massive generator."
Suddenly, the entire train lurched forward. The heavy iron wheels shrieked against the wet steel tracks. The soul engines roared to life, vibrating the floorboards under our boots.
"We are moving," Bei Bei said. He grabbed a metal handrail to steady himself.
"Good," I said. "Keep quiet and stay low."
But things never go that easily. The universe loves a bad joke.
The heavy iron door at the front of our car slid open with a loud bang. Four men stepped inside from the adjoining car. They wore heavy, tactical combat armor and carried active soul rifles with glowing blue barrels. The leader had a deep, ugly scar across his nose.
"Who the hell are you?" the leader shouted. He immediately raised his rifle and aimed it at my chest.
"Don't kill them," I ordered my team. I leaned back against a crate of lead and crossed my arms. I didn't draw my sword. I didn't even raise my voice. "Your turn, kids. Show me what you learned."
The leader fired. A bolt of red, superheated soul energy shot across the dark car.
Xiaotao didn't flinch. She simply raised a hand. A wall of pure, concentrated heat flared in front of her. It wasn't a fire blast; it was just a localized temperature spike. The red energy bolt hit her heat wave and simply dissolved into harmless steam.
"Subdue them," Yuhao commanded.
He stepped forward, taking the lead. His eyes flared brilliant gold. He didn't throw a punch or draw a weapon. He unleashed a highly focused blast of Spiritual Confusion.
The four guards froze instantly. The leader dropped his heavy rifle. It clattered loudly on the metal floor. He looked around wildly, his eyes wide with sudden, irrational panic. To his mind, the train car was suddenly filled with an angry swarm of biting hornets. He started slapping his own face and neck, screaming at insects that weren't there.
Bei Bei moved in the chaos. He darted forward, his hands crackling with a very low voltage of black lightning. He tapped each guard directly on the back of the neck. The tiny electrical shock scrambled their nervous systems just enough to shut their brains down safely. They collapsed onto the floor like broken marionettes.
It was over in exactly five seconds.
"Nice work," I said. I kicked the leader's dropped rifle under a heavy crate. "Clean, fast, and quiet."
"They will wake up in an hour," Yuhao said. He rubbed his temples. Using spiritual attacks on multiple trained targets is mentally draining.
"Tie them up," I said. "Use the heavy cargo straps on the wall. Make sure they can't break loose."
Tang Ya and Bei Bei quickly bound the sleeping guards to the iron tie-down rings on the wall. The train picked up speed. The rhythmic clack-clack-clack of the wheels on the tracks filled the dark car, drowning out the sound of the rain outside.
I sat down on a crate of lead and stretched my legs out. My boots felt wet inside. Water had seeped through the old leather during the walk across the yard. I sighed heavily. Sometimes being a god is just a lot of wet socks and poorly lit rooms.
"Where exactly are we going, Professor?" Xiaotao asked. She sat on the floor across from me. The faint, warm glow of her passive Phoenix fire kept the damp chill away from the group.
"Sector Seven," I said. I looked out the small, barred window in the side door. The bright city lights were rapidly fading behind us. Ahead of us was nothing but the frozen, empty wasteland of the deep north. "We are going to find the end of the line. We are going to find Chen Feng's Hub."
Yuhao sat near the window, staring out into the dark. He looked incredibly focused. He wasn't the scared, skinny kid who joined the academy a few years ago. He was a weapon now. A very sharp one. And I was the one aiming him. I just hoped I was aiming him at the right target.
I pulled my flat cap down lower over my eyes.
"Get some rest," I told them. "It is a very long ride."
The train sped faster into the night, carrying stolen lead, liquid poison, and five very angry ghosts.
End of Volume 2, Chapter 55