Chapter 158 - 58: A Thought Difference
"Alright, those who needed to escape have escaped, those who needed to be knocked down have been knocked down. Gu Fan and Lu Yi have dealt with all the hindrances and can finally work on rescuing their classmates.
Seeing twelve of their classmates unconscious, with their faces pale especially when they saw Zhou Yu and Xia Yue, Gu Fan let out a deep sigh. "Wait a bit, I’m about to get you all out of here," he said.
Lu Yi specifically went over to Qian Chuan and tried to shake him awake to no avail. It was unclear if they were under the control of some drug, or if they had lost their souls after being sacrificed. It was clear they had to do exactly as Du Jun had suggested: they had to rotate the compass on the stone wall.
The compass indicated twelve traditional Chinese time periods; Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai. Gu Fan wondered if it meant that, although these twelve classmates were all born on the same date and month, they were born in different time periods that spanned over a day.
Gu Fan had an inkling that something was off, but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He decided not to worry about it too much and started to rotate the compass. As soon as he moved it to Chou, the blue light emanating from Li Xiaoyan’s direction disappeared and he began to show responses, though he was still unconscious.
Just turning the compass once made Gu Fan’s hand hurt. He had Lu Yi come to turn it the third time, while he searched the surroundings for anything he had missed.
With great effort from Lu Yi, the compass turned two more periods. At this point Lu Yi was exhausted. The pain in his hand became unbearable, and Gu Fan had to take over.
While rotating the compass, Gu Fan worried about the others. He wondered if Su Hui had managed to escape the horde of pursuers or if Lin Xi had found safety.
When the compass had been rotated six times to the period of Si, Gu Fan thought back to a time when they encountered an elderly man in the ancient town who always spoke loudly. Adding in the instances where they had run into him at the foot of the mountain, they had seen this man four times already.
Gu Fan knew that the elderly man was also a member of the ancient town and thus, he shouldn’t trust him blindly. Yet, whenever he remembered what the old man had said, Gu Fan couldn’t help but feel uneasy, as if he had overlooked something crucial.
The last time they had met, the elderly man had reminded Gu Fan that if he could remember what they had spoken about previously, he might have a chance of turning things around.