Red Hare had barely finished speaking.
As if to prove Red Hare's point.
At the very front of the camp, the horn on Lin Lu's command vehicle suddenly blared.
The sound carried throughout the camp.
Xiao Liu's voice came over the loudspeaker from the lead vehicle.
"Emergency notice! Everyone, pack your things. We leave in ten minutes!"
"I repeat, everyone must board their vehicles and leave camp within ten minutes!"
No one in the camp complained.
Everyone hurried to pack their belongings.
Brother Dao woke with a start in his tent and rushed into his vehicle with his wife.
He left his underlings to pack up the tent.
Elsewhere, Hu Yaya sat behind the wheel, while Li Shiqi was still saying something from the passenger seat.
Chen Mo climbed into the driver's seat, started the engine, and slowly pulled toward the lead vehicle.
A black-and-white blur flashed past his window.
Red Hare had already landed squarely in the passenger seat.
The donkey plopped down.
Those flashy pink shorts were especially glaring in the dim light.
With a wave of a hoof, a gray mist immediately coated the windows, blocking the view from outside.
"Get moving, get moving!"
Red Hare urged him on.
The convoy slowly set off into the night.
Chen Mo's dump truck remained in its previous position.
Right in the middle of the convoy.
Ahead were the vehicles belonging to the Transcendents,
along with several private cars.
Behind him were the bus and a group of motorcycles.
Chen Mo turned to look at the donkey.
"You said you'd help me become a Transcendent."
"When?"
Red Hare took out a potato and bit off more than half of it.
"Getting impatient already, kid?"
Chen Mo had long since realized it.
This was the fate of an ordinary person.
If they told you to run, you had to run.
If they told you to stop, you had to stop.
When danger struck.
You were the first piece of cannon fodder they threw out.
Now, the desire to awaken as a Transcendent grew wildly in his mind.
Red Hare grinned, revealing two neat rows of gleaming teeth.
The donkey's tone was full of mockery.
"Want to take your fate into your own hands?"
Chen Mo didn't answer. His grip on the steering wheel tightened until his knuckles turned white.
Red Hare finished the potato in one bite.
The donkey cleared its throat and tapped a hoof against the center console.
"There are only three ways to awaken a sequence and become a Transcendent."
"First, natural awakening."
"All the Transcendents in your convoy awakened naturally."
"Heaven handed them a gift. You can't compete with that."
Red Hare tapped a hoof again and spoke quietly.
"Second, awakening through a potion."
"High-level apothecaries can use spectral materials to make awakening potions. The success rate is over fifty percent, and they're safe."
"But... those things aren't something you can just get whenever you want."
Chen Mo turned to the donkey and raised a question.
"Isn't Su Qian in the Healer sequence? Can't she make one?"
"I said apothecaries, you idiot. Listen properly!"
The donkey pounded on the center console, took out another potato, and continued slowly.
"The third way is what I'm going to help you do."
"Find a spectral creature, beat it half to death, and use a special method to strip away its weird energy."
Red Hare smiled. The smile was full of bloodlust and cruelty.
"Steal their energy, channel it into your body, and force your way through that barrier."
"If you try this on your own, you'll have a one-in-ten chance of surviving."
"But with yours truly, your odds of success go up by twenty percentage points."
"So think it through. Will you stake your life on awakening?"
"Or keep living like this pathetic coward!"
"Why do you know so much?"
Chen Mo asked the crucial question.
A spectral creature knew the human Transcendent system inside out. That alone was the strangest thing of all.
"Now you're asking the right question."
Red Hare sat up straight.
The donkey folded its hooves across its chest.
It looked every bit the schoolteacher.
"Because your Brother Hare isn't one of those brainless idiots."
"Kid, you need to know that the world we live in is called the 'Still Realm.'"
"And above our heads, there's another world you can't see or touch, called the 'Resonant Realm.'"
"You can think of the Still Realm as a dinner plate."
"Every living thing on our plate, including you and the spectral creatures, is food."
"And the Resonant Realm is the diner at the table."
"The so-called 'Tide Cry' is the cook shouting, 'Dinner's ready,' while sprinkling seasoning onto the plate."
Chen Mo felt a little dazed as he listened, quietly committing this knowledge to memory.
The donkey rested its hooves on the center console.
Then it pulled out its little wooden ladder again.
And began slowly rubbing off the black grime.
"Spectral creatures have different grades of potential, too."
"The lowest are the natives."
"They're monsters native to this world that the Tide Cry turned into spectral creatures."
"They can only act on their instinct to kill."
"That Hairy Savage you killed in the village was half native, half variant."
Chen Mo remembered the black-haired monster in human skin.
It had indeed possessed some intelligence, but not much.
"The second kind are variants, like your Brother Hare."
"Miracles that kept their intelligence fully intact through the distortion. We can think, learn, and make deals."
"To other spectral creatures, we're a miraculous tonic. Eating us gives them a huge boost."
For the first time, Red Hare's expression turned serious. The donkey lowered its hooves and sat upright.
"The most troublesome are the third kind, invasive species."
"They slipped straight over from the Resonant Realm."
"Pure predators."
"Before level four, they have no intelligence, only the urge to kill and devour."
"That Spectral Bear chasing us is a typical level-three invasive species."
Chen Mo's mind raced.
He forced all this earth-shattering information into his head.
So the truth behind the apocalypse was even more hopeless than he had imagined.
Just then.
The entire convoy slowed down.
The command vehicle and several off-road vehicles up ahead stopped by the roadside.
Chen Mo slowly pulled to a stop as well.
From a distance, he saw Su Qian storm into Lin Lu's command vehicle.
"Tsk, tsk."
Red Hare's gloating voice sounded beside him.
"They're arguing. They're arguing."
"That guy Lin wants everyone to split up and run, to minimize losses."
"The healer deputy captain disagrees. She thinks they can't abandon anyone."
Red Hare's voice was full of amusement.
"One wants to be a butcher, the other wants to be a saint. Interesting."
About fifteen minutes passed.
The argument seemed to have reached a conclusion.
On the outskirts of Apricot Blossom Town.
Xiao Liu picked up the loudspeaker and began making an announcement.
"Attention, everyone. Orders from the lead vehicle!"
"Ahead lies Spectral Apricot Blossom Town. The terrain is complex, and the spectral threats are unknown."
"To avoid presenting too large a target and attracting dangers beyond our control."
"We have decided to split up the convoy."
"Find your own routes through Apricot Blossom Town."
"Are you kidding me? Are you sending us to our deaths?"
"No! There are so many people on the bus. We need protection!"
Wave after wave of desperate cries immediately rose from the convoy.
A burst of electrical static crackled through the loudspeaker.
Then came Xiao Liu's final, emotionless announcement.
"In five hours, regroup at the highway junction thirty kilometers north of town."
"Good luck to you all."
Before you continue