Chapter 170
Suddenly, Chen Jing interrupted Bai Aji's meditation and reflection.
He lowered his head and looked at the quiet provincial capital below, frowning.
Because he had been hiding in Sentinel Ridge before, and the network signal was interfered with, all ways to understand the outside world were cut off, so before this return, he could hardly feel the changes outside.
But fortunately, this time the examiner opened the plane forum.
Through the posts in the forum, he still had some understanding of the situation outside.
In addition to Qiao Youning and Li Mobai's narration, he had already outlined the world outside Sentinel Ridge in his mind...
Bloody, cruel, and chaotic.
The whole world was messed up by those suddenly resurrected aliens.
The city seemed to be shrouded in a bloody shadow.
The remains of the victims were everywhere on the street, and even the air was filled with a disgusting smell...
Of course, all this was Chen Jing's imagination.
At least this world was so terrible in his mind before, like a decaying corpse, and he could imagine its rotting and pus-filled appearance without even looking at it...
But the scene in front of him at this moment broke his imagination.
The city was empty, nothing.
No aliens, no humans.
There was not even garbage on the clean and tidy streets.
Except for some damaged buildings that had not been repaired in time, there were almost no traces of aliens in the city...
The scorching sun pierced through the dense and heavy clouds, ruthlessly burning this empty and silent city. Chen Jing seemed to hear the sizzling sound in the air, and the whitish sunlight seemed to burn it into ashes and roast it to produce oil before it would stop.
"It's so quiet..." Chen Jing glanced at the empty main road in the city, feeling a kind of oppression coming at him.
"They all hid at home." Qiao Youning explained softly, "The Foundation's actions were very fast, even faster than the rescue of the [Ether Association], and they have the support of people from various countries behind them, so..."
At this moment, several black drones suddenly took off rapidly below and began to approach Bai Aji at a rapid speed.
"It seems to be the Foundation's drones..." Qiao Youning tilted her head and took a look, and whispered, "Maybe they suspect that there is another alien invasion... After all, your mount looks like an alien..."
Hearing this, Bai Aji suddenly turned around and glared at Qiao Youning.
Alien? !
How dare you use such a low name for me? !
But I...
"What should we do?" Chen Jing looked at the drones hovering not far away with a headache, "If we just go around like this, the Foundation can't just shoot us with missiles, right?"
"How is that possible? Hahaha!"
At this moment, Qiao Youning changed her previous image in front of Chen Jing.
She laughed whenever she wanted in front of Chen Jing, and she didn't feel embarrassed and deliberately restrained her emotions. Her inferiority and introverted personality was no longer visible.
"I have an ID card from the [Ether Association]." Qiao Youning took out something similar to an ID card from her long sleeves and waved it at the drone.
The next second.
The drones split into two rows to make way for Chen Jing and his team.
"I knew when I saw they were equipped with cameras... there must be someone watching us from behind..." Qiao Youning put away her ID card, with an embarrassed expression on her face, "It's too conspicuous for us to fly over directly like this..."
"Li Mobai said that candidates like us whose identities are exposed will get into trouble if we keep hiding. It's better to be more aggressive, at least when someone comes to me... I can be a little polite."
Chen Jing patted Bai Aji's neck and said softly.
"Go, there are people waiting for us over there."
...
At the same time.
In the monitoring room of the [Shuguang Foundation] branch in the provincial capital.
Hundreds of monitors sitting in front of their workstations have fallen into a stagnation.
They stared at Bai Aji, who was flapping his wings slowly on the big screen, and felt that the world was really crazy...
Especially after seeing Qiao Youning take out the ID card, they felt even more incredible.
Could it be that the association has become so powerful... Even alien species can be taken as mounts? !
"Is that young man also a member of the [Ether Association]?"
"I don't know... Through information comparison... We can only confirm that he is also one of the candidates... But it seems that he has not joined the [Ether Association] yet..."
Hearing the answer given by his subordinates, the middle-aged man standing next to the screen nodded and showed a satisfied expression.
"Very good, we must not let this kind of talent go, and we must pull him into our organization before the association."
"Understood!"
Chapter 201 Lonely Temple and Wishing Pool
Manshan Temple is located in the mountains on the northern outskirts of the provincial capital.
Compared with other temples in the provincial capital that are popular with incense, this temple is a bit too low-key, and it can even be said that it has no sense of existence...
But Chen Jing has been here before.
Li Mobai did the same.
That was when they were still studying.
In order to pray for a good score in the college entrance examination, the two of them visited all the temples and Taoist temples in the city with the mentality of trying their best.
They even visited the only church in the provincial capital.
Chen Jing still remembers the scene of himself praying to the statue of God with a helpless look on his face.
At that time, Li Mobai was sitting in the back and eating fried potatoes, causing all the believers who came to attend the church service to roll their eyes at him.
"It's still the same here..."
When Chen Jing brought Qiao Youning to Mangshan Temple, he only found that the place was no different from what he remembered.
The simple and empty temple is hidden in the mountains, and the mountain path paved with bluestone bricks is still covered with yellow mud after the rain.
Everything here looks very shabby.
The pervasive smell of decay is a little unsettling.
Chen Jing remembered that an old monk lived here.
He is the only living person in Mangshan Temple.
When Chen Jing and Li Mobai came here for the first time, the chubby old monk specially gave them some scones to eat, saying that he made them with wild vegetables from the mountains, and they were delicious when they were freshly baked. !
But now...the old monk is gone.
It's possible that he died or moved away.
Both the front and back of the temple were empty and no one could be seen, and Chen Jing could not sense the presence of anyone other than him and Qiao Youning.
"Why is it so gloomy here..." This is what Qiao Youning said, and she deliberately leaned closer to Chen Jing, but her expression was not afraid at all, and she seemed to be a little curious about this place.
"This place is not popular. It's normal for it to be eerie."
Chen Jing said, looking back at Bai Aji.
His eyes were full of warning.
Be good and don't run around, and don't follow me into the temple.
To avoid accidental collapse of the outer wall.
"I just sent a message to Li Mobai. He said that they encountered a little trouble and might come a little later..." Qiao Youning said in a low voice.
"Then just wait." Chen Jing smiled and pointed to the large water tank placed in the temple yard, "I made a wish here back then."
With that said, Chen Jing took Qiao Youning over.
The water tank placed in the yard is about one meter in diameter. It is filled with rainwater collected on rainy days. There is also a small ceramic bowl carved with dragons and phoenixes at the bottom of the tank, and some fifty-cent coins are piled on the side.
"Did you make a wish to this big water tank in the first place?"
"Yeah, haven't you ever played with it?" Chen Jing was groping in his pocket as he spoke, as if he was looking for something, "I see that many temples have this thing..."
Qiao Youning shook her head and asked curiously: "What are you looking for?"
"Coins, do you have them?" Chen Jing asked.
"Nope..."
"It's okay, it's here!"
Chen Jing glanced into the water tank. Before Qiao Youning could react, he had already rolled up his sleeves and thrust his right hand into the water tank, grabbing a handful of fifty-cent coins.
"Here you go." Chen Jing gave half of it to Qiao Youning. He bent over and stood by the water tank and stared at the small ceramic bowl at the bottom of the tank. "Don't touch the water. Throw the coin down. If it falls into the bowl, it means you want to Lucky..."
"I understand...then let me try!"
Qiao Youning held her breath, aimed at the small bowl at the bottom of the tank, and carefully put down a coin.
With a splash, the coin entered the water.
The route that was supposed to go straight down suddenly changed. The coin swayed left and right in the water, and finally fell next to the porcelain bowl.
"This requires skill." Chen Jing said with a smile, and then tossed a coin... Under the expectant eyes of the two, the coin finally fell on the edge of the bottom of the tank, which was worse than Qiao Youning.
Seeing Chen Jing's expression a little disappointed, Qiao Youning hurriedly persuaded him.
"It's okay! We still have a handful of coins! Take your time and don't rush!"
"I wasn't in a hurry..."
Perhaps because Chen Jing and the others came, the empty temple finally had some life.
The two of them were chattering in the yard, while Bai Aji was lying on his stomach and yawning outside the gate.
Occasionally, it would look up into the forest and find those noisy cicadas really annoying...
For this rare and interesting entertainment activity.
Both Chen Jing and Qiao Youning cherish it.
From beginning to end, they kept the strength of their hands at the level of a normal person.
No one wants to cheat.
But it was probably Chen Jing's bad luck.
Qiao Youning threw in more than a dozen coins one after another, but in the end he failed to throw in even one.
So when it came to the end, Chen Jing couldn't help but feel a little irritated. The coin toss became more and more crooked, and he wished he could just...
"It's okay, take your time." Qiao Youning could see that Chen Jing was a little angry and hurriedly comforted him, "I believe you can do it!"
"Don't use coaxing words to coax me..." Chen Jing said in a dumbfounded voice, and was immediately discouraged.
Chen Jing squatted beside the water tank looking helpless.
He opened his palm and took a look, only the last coin was left...
"I shouldn't be so unlucky..."
After looking at it carefully for almost half a minute, Chen Jing carefully tossed out the last coin.
Plop into the water.
The coin staggered towards the porcelain bowl.
Chen Jing couldn't help but hold his breath when he saw this, and watched eagerly as it fell into the bowl... But when it fell to half the water depth, it shook violently and deviated from the original route again.
Seeing that the last coin was about to fall out of the porcelain bowl again, Chen Jing sighed as if he was resigned to his fate.
It seems that I am really unlucky. It is better to be careful recently, especially not to gamble with others, otherwise...
suddenly.