"But what happens after we kill them?"
"Obviously, we take their vehicles, guns, and money. Then, once dawn breaks, we leave Gray Soil Town. We can sell the vehicles and guns, and with enough money, we'll be able to buy Dawn City resident identities."
"Brother Ye, don't be reckless! That officer and the young man beside him both look like trouble. We're not in danger right now, so why take such a risk?" Li You was so anxious he was nearly in tears. He earnestly tried to persuade Bai Ye, hoping to awaken what little reason Bai Ye had left.
Bai Ye cut him off. "What the hell do you know? We may not be in danger now, but their goal is to shove every last one of us into that deathtrap called Black Mountain and force us to die!
A man born between heaven and earth cannot be coerced by others! My mind is made up. I'll sneak over there in a moment and take out those two officers first. Once the camp falls into chaos, you strike immediately. We'll attack from within and without and wipe them all out in one go!"
With that, Bai Ye gave Li You no chance to argue further and silently headed toward the dark corners beneath the surrounding houses.
"Brother Ye! Don't be impulsive. Think more about the sixteen-character mantra... Ah! What a sin!" Li You sighed in anguish.
He watched Bai Ye move through the shadows with nervous eyes. He did not know whether his eyes were playing tricks on him, but in the blink of an eye, Bai Ye had vanished from sight.
Bai Ye silently made his way toward the tent area. Quite a few soldiers were standing watch around the perimeter, but none of them could stop him.
Time Stop!
Buzz!
Strange temporal ripples enveloped the world, and Bai Ye charged into the camp like a sprinting cheetah.
Time resumed.
After passing the outermost soldiers, he immediately restored time without wasting a second.
His target was the tent at the very center of the tent area. He had observed it earlier—the officer and the hawk-eyed man were both inside.
As long as he took out those two, the remaining ordinary soldiers would be easy to deal with.
This risky move was not because Bai Ye had been carried away by the extra minute of time. He had considered it carefully.
It was already known that the Dawn Army had entered Black Mountain long ago. Once this unit reached Black Mountain and joined the main force, escaping would become far more difficult. It was better to strike early!
He could have simply run away. With Time Stop, escaping would be easy. But where would he get money?
Dawn City kept a close watch on stowaways. Even if he managed to sneak in, without an official resident identity, he would be unable to do anything in the city. With over a hundred guns laid out before him, how could he possibly not take them?
With Time Stop's help, Bai Ye avoided every patrolling soldier and soon reached the tent where the officer was staying.
"Ying, people outside are saying that the Pangu Project established before the Great Cataclysm is inside Black Mountain. Is that true?" The officer's deep voice came from inside the tent.
In the shadow behind the tent, Bai Ye paused. The Pangu... Project?
What kind of plan would be named after Pangu? Pangu was the being who split heaven and earth apart. Did that mean this plan could have the same world-shaking effect?
And it concerned the time before the Great Cataclysm, which made him deeply curious. The Great Cataclysm had happened a hundred years ago, while he had traveled here from two hundred years in the past. In other words, the Civilized Era he came from had continued developing for another hundred years before a Great Cataclysm of unknown cause suddenly struck and shattered human civilization.
After civilization collapsed, the surviving humans had spent a hundred years forming the present era.
The two hundred years of history in between fascinated him.
He was suddenly no longer in a hurry to carry out the assassination. He decided to listen to what the two of them had to say first.
"Don't ask questions you shouldn't ask," Ying said coldly.
Forget it. Better kill them all.
Bai Ye silently drew his dagger.
"Ying, the news has nearly spread throughout all of North Mang. Why hide it from your own people?" the officer asked with a smile.
Ying pondered for a moment before finally speaking. "There is a shelter built before the Great Cataclysm in Black Mountain, designated Shelter 189. The Pangu Project was carried out in Shelter 189."
"So it's true." The officer's voice showed little reaction, as though he had expected it all along.
"Legend says that after the Great Cataclysm, the Pangu Project could split heaven and earth anew and usher in a new era. Is that true as well?"
"It is. When the Great Cataclysm occurred, humanity built many shelters to escape the disaster. Because shelter space and resources were limited, only the greatest human elites of that time could enter.
Those elites planned to emerge from the shelters after the Great Cataclysm had passed and use the Pangu Project to create a new era for human civilization. The key to the Pangu Project lay in Shelter 189.
Unfortunately, they failed. A hundred years have passed since the Great Cataclysm, yet the Pangu Project has never been carried out. Not even the human elites from the shelters have appeared. No one knows what happened. All they know is that every one of those elites died.
Instead, it was the ordinary people abandoned by them who survived. Without the shelters' protection, ninety-five percent of those ordinary people died from the Great Cataclysm's pollution.
The remaining five percent adapted to the pollution and miraculously survived. They rebuilt civilization on the wasteland. Some fortunate people even found buried shelters and obtained fragments of the previous era's technology. Using that technology, they rapidly expanded their power and established great cities like Dawn City."
As he spoke, a trace of inscrutable mockery entered Ying's voice.
"Yes, I know that much. After all, Apocalypse Technology Corporation, the true controller of Dawn City, rose to power by relying on a surviving shelter.
Ying, after all that, what exactly does the Pangu Project involve?"
Ying fell silent for a moment. "I do not know the exact details either. I only know that the Pangu Project contains a crucial item called the Pangu USB Drive."
"The Pangu USB Drive?"
"The Pangu USB Drive contains all the knowledge of the Civilized Era. It is the crystallization of human civilization! That is precisely why the Pangu Project has the foundation to split heaven and earth anew upon the wasteland!"
"The crystallization of human civilization?!" the officer blurted out instinctively. A storm surged in his heart. He understood very well what the crystallization of human civilization meant.
Apocalypse Technology Corporation, which controlled Dawn City, had become a colossal force entrenched in North Mang because its founder had found a surviving shelter and obtained a portion of its gene-editing technology.
Just a small portion of gene-editing technology had been enough to create such a powerful force. If some faction mastered the entire crystallization of human civilization, then given enough time, ruling the whole world would not be difficult.
"My apologies for embarrassing myself before you, Ying." The officer took a long time to calm down before speaking again, though his tone still could not hide his shock. "With my limited knowledge, I truly cannot imagine how many world-changing technologies the crystallization of human civilization contains."
"Gene editing, mechanical armor, artificial intelligence, Life Engineering, transcendent evolution, and more... Whether you can imagine them or not, the Pangu USB Drive contains them all."
Gasp! The officer sucked in a sharp breath.
Before you continue