"What on earth happened?!"
"Bang!..."
Before Ryan could voice his question,the wooden door of the blacksmith shop blew to pieces.Three men wearing copper gas masks came into his view.
The leading man,with blatant arrogance,brandished a modified steam rifle!!!
Wrapped around the barrel was a piece of burning talisman paper.How strange!
"You old codger!So you've been hiding here.Hand over The Book of Heavenly Creations right away!"
"The Book of Heavenly Creations,published in 1637(the 10th year of the Chongzhen reign),has long been commonly printed.Why are these people still after it?!
Wait a minute!Could the time here be more than 400years ago?But that doesn't make sense.There are steam engines here already!"
Completely bewildered,Ryan babbled to the old lady beside him.
Obviously,in his mind,this was just a strange dream.
The old lady instinctively lunged towards the workbench and grabbed a wrench engraved with runes.Her movements were so agile that she outdid this 20-something -year -old young man.
Ryan watched as the old lady raised her walking stick,intending to single -handedly stop the bullet.
The bullet,originally aimed at him,whistled past his ear and hit the steam -engine blueprint on the wall.
"Maybe seventy is the age for daring deeds,"Ryan thought,his eyes wide with disbelief.He was almost about to applaud when a shout cut through his thoughts.
"What are you standing there for?Run,you idiot!"
The old lady took the lead,retreating several steps.After stuffing the pocket watch back into Ryan's arms,she forcefully jabbed her walking stick into the ground.
With a "boom",the floor beneath their feet suddenly caved in.
Just before falling into darkness,the last thing Ryan saw was the hem of the old lady's clothes,charred by the blue flames of the steam rifle.
At that moment,the steam -engine blueprint hit by the bullet suddenly glowed a blood -red light.Immediately,the mechanical parts on the entire wall started vibrating violently.
The sound of gears meshing grated on everyone's ears.In an instant,the once -intact blacksmith shop was plunged into darkness and silence.
Ryan slowly regained consciousness in a stinking pool of mud.
He lifted the still -warm pocket watch in his palm.At some point,the popped -open watch cover revealed the faces in the blood beads,which had merged into a swaying ghost -fire skull.
Forced to lock eyes with it,Ryan felt a shiver down his spine at the skull's empty gaze.
Before he could hurl the pocket watch away,a hoarse male voice came from above:
"Welcome to the sewers of Manchester,you stray dog from Wall Street."
Ryan looked up sharply.Confirming that the disheveled,blue -eyed teenager's half -face was sticking out from the drainpipe,Ryan raised his eyebrows in annoyance.
"Who are you?You know me?I'm an elite from Wall Street!!!"
Emphasizing "elite",Ryan,determined to save face,got up and walked towards the teenager.
"Hey,buddy!I bet you don't know what a mirror universe is.We came from the future to the present,while you've come from the present back to the past!"
The teenager tilted his head impatiently.At this moment,his left eye,covered with a bronze plate engraved with gear patterns,was fully exposed to Ryan.
"What the hell?Are you even listening to yourself?!"
Ryan,intrigued,stared at the teenager's left eye and reached out curiously,only to have his hand slapped away.
"The dollar bills in your pocket are from 2025.But in this godforsaken place,they've been using pounds for twenty years.
Moreover,your clothes say'made in China',and this is the Whitney family's death trap."
The teenager coolly threw down a rope ladder,motioning for Ryan to climb up quickly and waving his hand impatiently.
"From this far away,you can actually see the dollars in my pocket?I'm impressed!"
Ryan shook his head with a wry smile and climbed up the rope ladder.To his surprise,he found himself in a small hidden chamber within the steam pipes!!!
He looked around in disbelief.
The walls of the chamber were plastered with hand -drawn factory maps and numerous,densely -written special talismans.
On each map,a symbol that looked rather eerie at first glance was circled in red.
Some of these symbols resembled inverted bronze sacred trees,while others were similar to variants of Dong -ethnic -group talismans.
"I'm Korxun,a mechanic apprentice.Last week,before my master was dragged into the No.3furnace,he specifically told me to give this to 'the person who doesn't belong to this era'."
Saying this,the teenager handed Ryan a yellowed piece of parchment.
On the parchment was a blood -drawn depiction of the soul -redeeming ceremony Ryan had seen in the Dong village.
Above the altar,instead of paper scrolls,there was a miniature steam engine.
On the back of the parchment was scrawled a sentence:[When the branches of the sacred tree pierce the full moon,the cursed gears will devour time.]
"What on earth is all this nonsense?Dude,can we just..."
As always,just as he was getting to the crucial part,Ryan was interrupted.Sure enough,a long steam -whistle blast reached his ears.
Seeing Korxun's face turn ashen in an instant,Ryan noticed that the bronze gear on his left eye started spinning rapidly.
"Damn,dude!That's so cool!It's a prosthetic eye!Must've cost a fortune,right?!!"
"Why are they here?The Whitneys'cleaners!This is bad news."
Korxun's frantically spinning prosthetic eye mirrored the rapid pounding of his heart.
With a puzzled look,Ryan reluctantly glanced towards the rusty ventilation duct.
He saw over a dozen black figures swiftly climbing along the steam pipes.
At the joints of their limbs were rotating gears.
What sent a chill down his spine was their chests.Through the torn work clothes,he could clearly see!!!
He saw their metal hearts,engraved with talismans,and the black mucus oozing out continuously...