The World of the Classic of Mountains and Seas

But the girl in the middle had a serious leg injury, and with her terror overwhelming her, her legs simply gave out. The two girls flanking her had to support her as they ran, which slowed them down considerably.

The mutant quickly caught up.

Fear swept over all three of them.

The girl in the middle pushed her two companions away first, collapsing to the ground, her face ashen with dread. "You two run! I... I'll hold it off." Her voice trembled violently.

"You can't hold off shit—you'd barely be a snack for it! Get the hell up!" the short-haired girl shouted, yanking at her arm with all her might.

The girl in sportswear picked up a branch from the ground, shielding the two of them behind her, glaring fiercely at the mutant that had caught up.

Tu Ran had already confirmed it—these people were from the First World.

The mutant paid no heed to a mere branch. It roared at them, and the gust of air sent all three stumbling back half a step.

Then the mutant opened its abyssal maw and lunged at them.

"Ahh—" The short-haired girl clutched the white-dressed girl on the ground, screaming in sheer terror.

Perhaps the piercing scream caught it off guard; the mutant froze for a moment.

In that instant of hesitation, Tu Ran flashed before it.

Her laser gun was already raised. A blue beam shot straight into its open mouth. She moved her arm upward, and the laser carved through its skull, slicing it cleanly in two—the mutant had no chance to fight back.

Its corpse collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud, thick green blood gushing from the cut.

The shadowy forest fell silent in an instant, leaving only the sound of flowing blood.

Tu Ran stepped back and looked at the three stunned people before her. "Leave this place. That blood is corrosive."

At her warning, the girl in sportswear snapped back to reality first. She pulled her two companions to their feet and retreated more than a dozen steps.

No sooner had they moved than the green blood spread to where they'd been standing, hissing and bubbling as it ate into the ground.

The three stared at the sight, then turned back to Tu Ran.

Their gazes held wariness, gratitude, curiosity, and disbelief.

Tu Ran ignored all of it. She glanced at the wound on the white-dressed girl's leg, took a recovery serum from her spatial storage, and walked toward them.

The three instinctively took a step back, watching her nervously.

Tu Ran stopped, extended her hand, and revealed the injection in her palm. "Her wound needs immediate treatment. Inject this into her, and she'll recover quickly."

Hearing that her voice was a woman's, the three relaxed a little.

The girl in sportswear stepped forward and took the serum from her hand, still somewhat doubtful. She asked cautiously, "Will this really work?"

"Yes." Tu Ran nodded.

Though the girl in sportswear still had her doubts, she couldn't think of any other option at the moment. Besides, this person had saved them—if she wanted to harm them, she wouldn't have bothered.

"Thank you." She returned to her companions, pulled the needle cap off the serum, and hovered it over the injured girl's body, hesitating on where to inject.

"Anywhere works." Tu Ran said.

"Okay." Her hand trembled badly, but she still managed to push the needle into her companion's arm and emptied the liquid in.

Both of them watched the injured girl's reaction with bated breath.

"We can't stay here long. The mutant's corpse will attract more mutants. Carry her on your back—we need to find a different spot." Tu Ran said.

The moment they heard more monsters would be drawn here, the two didn't dare delay. Working together, they hoisted the white-dressed girl onto the sportswear girl's back and followed Tu Ran away from the area.

Tu Ran led them to a place with fewer trees, where sunlight could filter through and it wasn't so gloomy. There was a river about three meters wide, its banks strewn with stones of varying sizes—a perfect spot to rest.

Along the way, the wound on the white-dressed girl's leg healed at a visible rate. The bleeding stopped, fresh pink flesh grew over it, and the pain faded, leaving only an itch.

The three were utterly stunned by this miraculous sight.

"Where did you all come from?" Tu Ran asked, though she already knew the answer.

The three exchanged glances, and the girl in sportswear spoke up. "We seem to have come from another world. It's completely different from ours."

"Can you tell me more specifically how you got here?"

"The three of us went on a picnic. There was a little stream there—shallow, with clear water and tadpoles in it. She went in to play," the sportswear girl said, pointing at the short-haired girl. "Then she slipped, and the two of us rushed to pull her up. We all fell in together, and when we got back on our feet, we were in this forest—and ran into that monster."

Tu Ran guessed that the place where they fell might have been a Threshold gate.

A connection had appeared between the First World and the Third World!

Tu Ran's mood grew heavy.

"From the moment you fell until you arrived here, were the three of you ever separated?"

"No." The sportswear girl shook her head, looking at Tu Ran, not understanding what she meant.

When people from the Second World came to the Third World, they were always separated and sent to different locations.

But people from the First World didn't experience that.

Why?

How many Threshold gates did the First World have? Had the relevant authorities discovered them? If not, what if more people stumbled in by accident—unarmed and helpless—and ended up in the Third World, waiting to be devoured by mutants?

Tu Ran's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

And there was an even more important question.

Was there a gate connecting the Federation and the First World?

Compared to the Threshold connecting to the First World, Tu Ran was far more afraid of seeing the Federation become linked to the First World.

The greed of the Federation's tycoons, the advancement of Federation technology—those were far harder to deal with than any mutant.

"What kind of person are you? Is Tu Ran your name?" The sportswear girl didn't notice Tu Ran's unease and asked cautiously.

To them, Tu Ran was clad in a high-tech combat suit, held a laser gun of devastating power they'd only ever seen in sci-fi movies, wore a fully enclosed helmet hiding her features—everything about her was foreign to them.

The only information they could glean was the five characters on the front of her uniform: "Pioneer Tu Ran."

But they had no idea what a Pioneer was either.

"Where are you from? Are there humans in this world?" she probed.

Tu Ran gave her a surprised look. The girl had caught on to that point so quickly.

"My name is Tu Ran. There are no humans in this world—it's a world of mutants. You could also say it's the world of the Classic of Mountains and Seas."

The Classic of Mountains and Seas?

The three of them all looked at her at once.

Though Tu Ran hadn't said it directly, the moment the words "Classic of Mountains and Seas" left her mouth, they knew—the person before them came from the same world as they did.

The last traces of their wariness dissolved away.