The Strange Bird

Danger dogged them all along the way, with Fallen attacking in an endless stream. While the barrier was being moved, it not only failed to protect them but instead drew Fallen from a vast area.

By the time they survived several waves of attacks, it was already noon. The crowd was no longer merely numb; they were utterly despairing.

Over a journey of just forty kilometers, more than ten thousand people had died. The road ahead had been paved entirely with corpses. Ordinary people shattered at a touch in the ash fog, with nothing to safeguard their lives.

With less than twenty kilometers remaining, Lin Shan desperately wanted to stop right then, but he gritted his teeth and announced that they would press on.

They were still too close. If the Cat Clan found them again, it would no longer be a matter of sacrificing a few thousand more people.

They continued onward, screams ringing out all along the way. Lin Shan struck again and again, but there were simply too many Fallen. And the Fallen were no soft persimmons to be squeezed at will-even one-on-one, victory was far from easy.

With the Red Lantern clearing a path, the group finally reached their destination that night. The edge of the barrier just covered the hundred-meter-wide river in front of the Purple Soul Flower Forest.

For a long time to come, this river would be the Human Race's river of life.

"Li Hui, have the procession stop. We're here. This will be our new home. Once we get through tonight, we'll be safe," Lin Shan told the officer beside him.

"Yes, sir!" Li Hui gave a military salute. "I'll go inform them right away."

"Have everyone gather together," Lin Shan added.

"Yes, sir!"

They were still ten kilometers from the Purple Soul Flower Forest. The Clan Artifact could only remain at the very center of the barrier.

This location would become the new City Center, the first place the Human Race would develop.

As for their water supply, they could only dig a canal to bring water in from that hundred-meter-wide river.

The sky gradually took on warmer hues, and the procession began to draw together, shortening its length.

The night passed quietly, without incident. They encountered no danger at all, and not a single Fallen appeared. Lin Shan felt it was probably because they were close to the Purple Soul Flower Forest.

Inside a tent, the eleven pioneers gathered.

"For the next few years, perhaps even a decade or more, we'll need to focus on construction. With natural population growth and people continuing to cross over, we could have a population of a hundred thousand, or even several hundred thousand."

"So I suggest we start planning the urban area now, building from the center and gradually expanding outward. I drew up the plans long ago; I just never had a chance to use them."

Jin Tianzong spoke confidently as he walked around the group. Then he took a plan he had prepared long ago from his pocket and said:

"I've designed a small town covering ten square kilometers, with a planned population of between a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. Here are the layouts of its various areas. Take a look."

Zhang Zhonghua said, "We can leave construction to you. But we've only just moved here, and our clan fortune hasn't condensed into mineral veins yet. We'll probably have to put things on hold for a while. We can use that time to take a census, and we'll also need a more sensible system of administration."

"Clan fortune can manifest as resources?" Lin Shan asked curiously.

"It can. Clan fortune can manifest mineral veins beneath the Clan Territory. Not only that, it affects every aspect of a race's development, including the size of its Clan Territory, the resources within it, and even the health of its people. If it weren't so important, the Cat Clan wouldn't be harvesting us for our clan fortune," Zhang Zhonghua said.

"Then how does clan fortune grow?" Lin Shan asked again.

Zhang Zhonghua replied, "We haven't quite figured that out either, but there seem to be two main factors: the number of people in the race, and how prosperous it is. With the same number of people, a race where everyone has enough to eat and one where some go hungry will have different amounts of clan fortune."

Lin Shan nodded. "I won't get involved in the race's development. You can handle it as you see fit. I'll be off to take care of my own business now."

Before anyone could speak, red light flashed, and Lin Shan vanished on the spot.

The others smiled wryly. They had grown used to Lin Shan behaving this way. They promptly put him out of their minds and continued discussing the Human Race's future development.

At that moment, a thousand meters up in the sky, Lin Shan looked down at the people hurrying about below. The Human Race had stabilized for now. He did not want to take part in its internal administration, and he had even less interest in authority. Sometimes, possessing strength was equivalent to possessing power.

Next, he would pursue power of a higher order.

He took out the Parchment and gently rubbed its surface with his hand. Its cold, sinister touch sank deep into his soul.

Lin Shan stared at the Parchment for a while with mixed feelings, then used the Quill to write:

Lin Shan: [Search for spirit medicine within a five-hundred-kilometer radius that can increase spirituality.]

Parchment: [Searching... There are forty-nine spirit medicine plants within five hundred kilometers.]

Parchment: [Payment of four years and one month of lifespan is required to obtain all locations.]

Lin Shan: [Pay.]

The price had not changed: one month per plant. This time, there was no Sequence 8 spirit medicine; all of it was Sequence 9.

An area with a radius of five hundred kilometers and a diameter of a thousand kilometers contained only forty-nine spirit medicine plants. He wondered whether that was because this world was too vast or because this kind of spirit medicine was too rare.

The Parchment was now densely covered with points of light. The nearest was less than ten kilometers away, while the farthest was exactly five hundred kilometers away.

Three months later.

Five thousand meters up in the sky, a streak of red light flashed past, with a streak of purple light behind it in relentless pursuit.

Lin Shan's entire body was riddled with holes, black blood bubbling out of them.

Behind him, a strange two-headed bird chased him like a creature possessed.

Lin Shan had misery he could not put into words. He had been gathering spirit medicine on a mountaintop when he accidentally touched a small black blade of grass beside it. The instant he made contact, he felt all his supernatural power and spirituality vanish. There was not a scrap of strength left in his body; he was like an ordinary person.

Then he plummeted straight off the mountain, landing squarely in the nest of the strange bird now chasing him.

Merely crashing into it probably would not have made it so furious. The strange bird had been pursuing him for hours.

The main reason was that there had happened to be two eggs in its nest. They were called eggs, but each was large enough to fit a person inside. For some unknown reason, those eggs were especially fragile, and Lin Shan had smashed one of them.

Fortunately, all his power returned the instant he landed. At first, Lin Shan had not fled. He thought a mere Sequence 9 Fallen posed little threat to him, and he could kill it and eat it along with the egg beside it. Perhaps he could even increase his spirituality a little.

But the outcome struck him as utterly absurd. This strange bird was impervious to blades and spears, immune to water and fire. Its spirituality had even reached the very limit of Sequence 9.

The strange bird had two heads, one large and one small. Its long, slender beaks gleamed with a metallic sheen. They were responsible for the holes in Lin Shan's body, piercing straight through his spiritual defenses to strike his flesh. Its wingspan measured a full fifteen meters; calling it a giant beast would be no exaggeration.