Ling Cage: Twelve Talismans? I have everything I need.

Chapter 208 Ling Cage
A convoy of several modified armored vehicles was speeding along a bumpy dirt road.

The vehicle was covered in claw marks, clearly indicating that it had been in a fierce battle.

Behind the convoy, billowing dust rose, and dozens of snake-dogs could be vaguely seen frantically chasing after them.

And at the very back, a black gravity object was bringing up the rear.

The gravity entity wielded a massive chainsaw sword, and with each swing, it blocked the onrushing Devouring Beasts.

The movements were swift and precise, clearly indicating that the driver was an extremely experienced soldier.

On the back armor of that black gravity body that was moving at high speed and constantly fighting against the Devouring Beasts, a person stood steadily.

It was a woman, dressed in a neat combat uniform that accentuated her agile figure.

She had very short, silver-white hair, styled in a neat and tidy manner, like a boy, revealing a clear facial contour and a fair neck.

She held a gun in her hand, her body rising and falling slightly with the movement of the gravity body, yet she remained as steady as a rock. Occasionally, a Devouring Beast would slip through her net and attempt to sneak up from the side, but she would always take care of it.

Just then, a particularly ferocious roar came from behind the Devouring Beasts.

A massive, mutated Devourer Beast with its back covered in ferocious bone spurs was also chasing after the caravan.

"Mark! It's a mutated Devourer!" Ran Bing shouted to Mark, gripping the Gravity Body's back armor tightly.

The black gravity entity clearly saw this enormous threat as well, its expression turning serious beneath its visor.

However, at that moment, both Mark inside the black gravity body and Ran Bing on his back witnessed a scene that shocked them.

A figure actually appeared on the shoulder of that mutated Devouring Beast.

That was also a woman, with the same white hair, but her white hair was longer.

She stood there quietly, dressed in a white robe, as if she were one with the Devouring Beast beneath her feet.

Her face was not clearly visible due to the distance, but her body shape indicated that she was a female human.

She appeared abruptly, standing on the Devouring Beast's shoulder, coldly "watching" the black gravity body that was on high alert.

“This?” Mark was shocked.

Ran Bing, standing on the gravity body, also found it incredible.

However, the white-haired woman standing on the Devouring Beast's shoulder only stayed for a brief moment.

Under the tense gaze of the two, her figure walked down the back of the mutated Devouring Beast, as if she had never appeared.

"...Hallucination?" Inside the black gravity body's cockpit, Mark shook his head vigorously, wondering if he was hallucinating from the prolonged high-intensity combat.

But the Devouring Beast's attacks did not stop because of his surprise.

The surrounding pan-evolving Devouring Beasts are already within reach!
"No time to think! Ran Bing, hold on tight!" Mark suppressed the turmoil in his heart, concentrated all his energy, and manipulated the gravity body to meet the attack.

At the second entrance of Longgu Village, Yang Chen and Hong Kou disappeared.

But what the two saw at this moment was no longer the familiar scene.

There are no bustling streets, no skyscrapers in Hisakawa City, and no signs of human activity.

Before my eyes, there were only endless ruins.

The land was covered in yellow sand, the metal was twisted, and the air was thick with dust and a putrid smell.

The sky was a somber, leaden gray, and the sunlight was sparse.

“Here…” Hongkou’s relaxed smile froze instantly as she scanned the unfamiliar wasteland.

"Boss, where is this place?"

Yang Chen's brows furrowed tightly, and the sense of unease in his heart reached its peak.

He looked around.

If this scene were still in the original world, it would roughly match the description.

But most of the ruins had long since been used as outposts and fortifications, providing the villagers with a real battlefield. It would never be like what we see now, with wreckage everywhere.

"What have you done to me this time?"

Yang Chen looked around helplessly.

This uncontrollable sense of being transported is exactly the same as when I accidentally jumped into the world of the young Moon Lord back then, but this time, it seems even more... distant and chaotic.

He raised his hand, and the silver-white ASH mobile terminal floated up.

“Environmental scan…no match to known databases. Signal detection…no available network or signal connection found.” ASH’s voice remained calm, but the content made Yang Chen’s heart sink.

"Yang Chen, we've gone to another world, and it's quite troublesome."

Hongkou looked at Yang Chen in confusion and asked, "Did we travel through time? Boss, can we go back like before?"

Although Hongkou wasn't exactly panicked, she still felt helpless.

She just wanted to go to Jiuchuan to pick out some gifts for Ran Bing, not to go to another world. If she had known this would happen, she would have asked the shop owner to bring the gifts back for her.

"It should be okay, right? But something doesn't feel right." Yang Chen felt the power of the talisman in his body, and the stagnation was even stronger. The rabbit talisman seemed to be stuck in a deep quagmire, and he could hardly feel the existence of "going back".

"This time... the trouble might be even bigger."

Upon hearing this, Hongkou's shoulders slumped, and she rarely showed such a pitiful expression.

She wailed, "Oh no—boss, are we not going to be unable to go back? I promised to bring Ranbing a gift..."

Yang Chen found it amusing to see her so different from her usual dashing self, and comforted her, "Don't worry, what's the rush? This isn't the first time I've encountered this situation, so I'm quite experienced. Judging from the feeling I had last time, as long as we stay here for a while and the talisman heals, we should be able to find our way back."

The certainty in his tone somewhat soothed Hongkou's unease.

She sighed and nodded resignedly, "Alright, with you here, boss, I'm safe. I just don't know how long I'll have to wait..."

Just then, a cloud of dust rising on the distant horizon caught their attention.

"Hmm? There's movement." Yang Chen squinted and looked over.

Hongkou immediately composed herself, regained her warrior's alertness, and followed Yang Chen's gaze.

The dust was moving quite fast, indicating that vehicles were traveling.

As they closed the distance, the outline of the convoy gradually became clearer.

When she saw the style of those vehicles, Hongkou's pupils contracted slightly, and an extremely complicated expression appeared on her face.

Those were several modified armored personnel carriers, their paintwork faded and covered with scratches and dents from battle, but the basic structure and model... she would never mistake them.

“That’s equipment from the Lighthouse…?” Hongkou said softly, her tone filled with a sense of nostalgia. “And it’s a Hunter’s vehicle.”

Although several years have passed since the lighthouse, and life in Dragonbone Village has changed dramatically, the memories will not be easily erased.

Yang Chen also recognized the origin of these vehicles, raising an eyebrow slightly: "Hmm? The Lighthouse of this world is still active? It seems the situation is quite different from ours."

In their original world, the lighthouse had long since merged with the ground and become part of Dragonbone Village.

Here, it seems the hunters are still carrying out dangerous resource gathering missions.

Meanwhile, the convoy, having shaken off the Devouring Beasts, gradually slowed down. After confirming temporary safety, the battered black gravity entity landed on a transport vehicle at the rear of the convoy.

The cockpit canopy slid open, revealing Mark's youthful face that belied his age.

He breathed a long sigh of relief; the adrenaline from the intense battle was still surging through his body.

Ran Bing also lightly jumped off the armor on the back of the gravity body and landed next to Mark.

She casually tidied her short, wind-blown silver hair, looked at Mark, and asked with concern, "Are you alright?"

Mark shook his head, his brows still furrowed, his gaze unfocused as he stared at the receding ruins behind the convoy.

"It's nothing." He paused, then spoke in a low voice.

"Ran Bing, just now...did you see that? That...the person standing on the shoulder of the Devouring Beast."

Ran Bing's expression also turned serious, and she nodded: "I saw it. Although it was only for a moment, it was definitely not an illusion. A white-haired woman standing on the shoulder of a mutated Devouring Beast... This is too bizarre."

"How did she do that? Why would the Devouring Beast allow her to stand there?" Mark was completely baffled; the scene was beyond his comprehension.

"And those snake dogs that were chasing us didn't seem to notice her at all?"

Ran Bing said softly, "Whatever it is, at least we're safe now. Let's go back to the lighthouse."

Mark nodded: "Okay, let's go back first."

After finishing his conversation with Ran Bing, he glanced at the ruins on both sides of the convoy, wary of the Devouring Beasts that might suddenly pounce out of the shadows.

However, this glance had an important meaning; his gaze suddenly fixed on the top of a sand dune in the distance.

There, unexpectedly, stood two figures!

Due to the distance and lighting, the faces were somewhat blurry, but it was still clear that they were a man and a woman.

The man was wearing dark clothes and had black hair.

And the figure of the woman next to her, especially her long red hair that stood out so much in the light...

Mark felt as if an invisible hand had suddenly clenched his heart, and his breath abruptly stopped.

A name that had been buried deep in his heart suddenly came out:

"Red Cocoon...?!"

That fleeting glimpse of his profile, that signature red hair…

It's so similar, so incredibly similar! Even though he knew it was impossible, the visual impact of that moment still left him speechless.

However, before he could even finish uttering the word "Kou," the two figures atop the ruins vanished without warning, as if they had never existed.

Mark blinked sharply, even rubbing his eyes hard, before looking again.

The top of the dune was empty, with only a few wisps of sand blown away, pointing towards the gray sky, as if the two figures from just moments ago had never existed.

"……Forehead?"

Mark stood frozen in place, his mind blank.

First, there was the white-haired woman on the shoulder of the Devouring Beast, and now there's the red-haired woman who looks just like Hong Kou and the strange man... One bizarre sight after another made him seriously doubt his mental state.

Could I have been infected by scarlet blood during the battle just now?
"Mark? What's wrong?" Ran Bing noticed his unusual behavior and followed his gaze, but saw nothing.

Mark opened his mouth: "I...I think I just...saw someone again...on those ruins, a red-haired woman, who looked a lot like...a lot like Hongkou...and a man. But they...disappeared in an instant."

Upon hearing this, Ran Bing frowned deeply.

"Mark, you're exhausted. The continuous high-intensity fighting, coupled with the shock of what you just saw, could easily cause hallucinations. Let's go back and have the medical staff check you up."

She is more inclined to believe that it is a hallucination caused by overwork and stress.

She knew about Hongkou; she had been burned at the stake for violating the Three Laws, and Mark had been depressed about it ever since.

But if you say you just saw Hongkou, wouldn't that be like her coming back to life?
This is even harder to believe than the Devouring Beasts being good people.

Mark looked at Ran Bing's worried eyes, then at the empty sand dunes, and finally shook his head, swallowing back the words "I really saw it."

Ran Bing is right.

He must be very tired today.

Hongkou is already dead; he saw it with his own eyes. How could she possibly appear on this desolate ground?
He forced a smile: "Maybe... I guess so. I'm fine, I'll head back to the lighthouse first."

"Although there were casualties this time, we brought back enough supplies."

In the distance, beneath the clouds.

Yang Chen, with Hong Kou by his side, hovered quietly in the air, gazing at the silently suspended aerial fortress—the lighthouse.

"ASH, based on the terrain, we can confirm that this is still the New World of Aoya, right?" Yang Chen asked.

"So, this parallel world's timeline might be five or six years ago on our side? Around the time the Lighthouse first arrived in the New World of Aoya?"

The silver-white mobile device shimmered faintly, and ASH's calm voice rang out: "The terrain does indeed match the data for the New World of Aoya very closely. However, the timeline estimation may be inaccurate."

"Oh? What do you say?"

“I have previously made calculations based on computing power. If you and Yue Kui had not intervened to clear out the Devouring Beasts on this continent, the Lighthouse’s survival in the following years, although still difficult and with casualties, should theoretically not have deteriorated to the extent we have seen.”

ASH paused for a moment: "Because of your cleanup, the Devouring Beasts have proliferated on other continents. The location of the lighthouse and the recorded supply points are mostly in the Hela Empire, so they have arrived at our location ahead of schedule."

Yang Chen stroked his chin thoughtfully: "You mean, the lighthouse of this world might have arrived in the New World of Australia later than ours?"

“That’s one way to understand it,” ASH confirmed. “Variables have influenced the course of this world, but simply drawing an analogy from our own world might not be accurate.”

Hongkou, who was listening nearby, couldn't help but interject, "So that means the 'me' in this world might be dead?"

She finally understood: if she and Dawn continued on their original path in this world, they would be completely drained by the Devouring Beasts during their journey.

After all, the lighthouse didn't arrive on this continent earlier.

Yang Chen glanced at her and comforted her, "Don't think too much. Who can say for sure what will happen in parallel worlds? Maybe you're living a good life in the Lighthouse here."

"Hmm," Hongkou frowned and thought for a moment, feeling that the possibility was very low.

If it were based on my own personality, I certainly wouldn't agree with the three laws so readily.

Living without emotions is worse than being dead.

Seeing Hongkou's thoughtful expression, Yang Chen changed the subject and asked Ash:

"ASH, since the lighthouse is still there, according to your calculations, Dragonbone Village in this world should also exist, right? And Moon Queen must be alright, right?"

His tone carried an unquestionable certainty.

No matter how the timeline changes, he doesn't believe that the resilient and powerful Bai Yuekui will die so easily.

She's a woman who can single-handedly create a haven in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

(End of this chapter)