The New Human Mind

Luo Ping seemed to have been telling the truth. Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei traveled together from then on, and after leaving Fengcheng County, they didn't run into anything else.

The road through the latter half of Fengcheng County grew harder and harder to travel. It wound and twisted, rising and falling along the mountainside.

It had also fallen into disrepair over the years, making it far more dangerous than other roads. Lu Xi'an had to slow down and drive carefully.

"Did we choose the wrong road? What if we run into a collapsed section or a rockslide?"

As he took a sharp bend, he couldn't help wondering.

On these winding roads along the cliffs, back in the old days, you'd have needed to check the convex mirror at the corner to see if there was a car coming from the other direction.

The mirror was still there, but its surface was so blurred that you couldn't make anything out.

Fortunately, in this day and age, hardly any cars would be driving through a place like this. They were unlikely to meet another vehicle, so they could take it slow and get through safely.

Unfortunately, they'd come to a fork earlier and chosen this road because they needed to keep heading west. He wondered if Luo Ping, who had been ahead of them, had taken the other branch.

If Luo Ping had stayed on the same road as them, that would prove the way ahead was clear.

After all, Luo Ping had come from the southwest. He might have already traveled this same route on his way here.

"If a collapse blocks the road, we'll just clear it. If there's a rockslide, we'll move the rocks."

Yao Wei offered a completely new solution.

Only then did Lu Xi'an come to his senses.

Right. He was a New Human now. How could he let a little thing like this stump him?

He gave himself a stern mental reprimand. He still hadn't adapted to the way New Humans thought and acted.

Build a bridge when you came to a river, smash through a wall when you came to one. He had the strength to do those things. He shouldn't be worrying over such simple problems.

It seemed Yao Wei already had experience handling this sort of thing.

"If we can't clear a collapse, we can carry the car over."

Yao Wei added.

Lu Xi'an: "..."

She wasn't wrong. They really could lift the car. But when he imagined himself and Yao Wei carrying a heavily loaded off-road vehicle and hopping along like it was a game, it felt completely absurd.

Fortunately, the road ahead wasn't blocked by a collapse. They only encountered a rockslide.

About an hour into their drive along the mountain road, they saw that rocks that had fallen from the mountain at some point had completely blocked the way.

The rocks were all different sizes. The smaller ones were manageable, but the bigger ones weren't easy for an ordinary person to lift.

Luckily, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei weren't ordinary people. They first had the Mechanical Dog send out a drone to scout the area. Once they confirmed the blockage was purely natural, not man-made, and that there was no one around, they got out of the car.

Working from the outside in, they cleared the rocks one by one, small and large alike, carrying them over to toss them down the cliff. Before long, the road was clear.

They used the shovel in the car to push the loose gravel off to the side. After making sure there was nothing sharp that could puncture a tire, they got back in and continued on their way.

"Good thing we're New Humans."

Lu Xi'an said with a laugh to Yao Wei.

Yao Wei nodded. "Mm."

The road continued downhill. It looked like the mountain pass was finally coming to an end.

Yao Wei opened the map and said, "Mengxin City is ahead. It's all grassland, with nowhere to take cover, so we'll need to be careful."

"Mm. Got it."

Lu Xi'an looked out as he drove. Beyond the mountain, the world opened up beneath a vast sky. Clouds filled the heavens in great swaths, seeming to stretch incredibly high and giving the landscape an immense, boundless feeling.

He looked out the window on his left. The distant hills were dark as ink, their peaks shrouded in black clouds. But where he was, the sky was clear and blue. It was hard to imagine that the blue sky and the black clouds met anywhere.

Looking to the right, he saw a solid bank of dark clouds. The landscape beneath them made the phrase "mountains like painted brows" suddenly vivid in his mind.

These were no ordinary painted brows. A woman with brows like these would surely have bold, dark, spirited sword-shaped brows.

"Mengxin City... They really got the name right."

Lu Xi'an murmured to himself.

No wonder Yao Wei had said, "This still isn't the south." The true south probably didn't have scenery like this.

He'd been walking everywhere on his own two feet before. He really had been traveling too slowly.

"What?"

Yao Wei asked.

"Nothing."

Lu Xi'an couldn't explain the impression he'd carried over from his past life, so he said, "I just feel like the name fits this place so well. These mountains, this grass, this sky—it feels like a place that should have a name like that."

"Mm."

Yao Wei didn't find his answer strange or dismissive. She nodded and went back to studying the map.

She pointed at the map with her slender finger. "If we keep going straight, there's a gas station up ahead. Let's check it out."

"Sure."

Lu Xi'an answered and kept driving.

The unmaintained road had cracked into patches, and hardy weeds had spread from the grass at the roadside onto the pavement, growing in patches of their own.

Unlike the grass off the road, the grass on it was shorter. Beyond the road, it grew much taller.

Moisture glistened on the grass. Here and there, the road's raised sections had blocked the sun, leaving patches of snow and ice unmelted. It seemed a severe cold snap had just passed through, and Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei had happened to miss it.

Lu Xi'an suddenly remembered what Luo Ping had said.

These plants had kept growing tenaciously in a world of unpredictable change. He wondered how they had survived wave after wave of bitter cold and scorching heat.

It really was worth studying.

If they could figure out how it worked, perhaps they could grow crops in this world's harsh environment.

At last, a gas station appeared ahead. Its sign was remarkably intact, and Lu Xi'an could read the whole thing: "Changshengtian Petrochemical Gas Station..."

After reading it, he couldn't help saying, "This has to be a local gas station in Mengxin."

"Why?"

Yao Wei didn't understand.

Lu Xi'an explained, "I'm only guessing, but a phrase like 'Changshengtian' feels local to Mengxin. Maybe it's a deity worshipped by one of the local ethnic groups?"

"I see."

Yao Wei admired Lu Xi'an and thought he knew a lot.

Though it wasn't much use.

As usual, when they got close to the gas station, they had the Mechanical Dog control a drone to scout it out. Only after confirming it was safe did they connect the power and pump gas.

They were lucky. Of the four pumps, one was still intact. They filled the car's tank, then filled the gasoline barrel they'd recently acquired and stowed it back in the car.

It had to be said, having a lot of stuff in the car was pretty convenient. Once they wedged the barrel in, it couldn't move at all. It couldn't even wobble, which made it safer.

Beside the gas station stood a two-story building. In the old world, someone had built it as a detached residence. Its doors and windows had all been removed, and weeds filled the courtyard. It looked as though no one had visited in a long time.

While having the Mechanical Dog inspect the gas station, Lu Xi'an also had it check the building and confirm there was no danger.

While Yao Wei filled the car, he went into the gas station office to take a look. He found nothing, so he decided to explore the building next.