Halt! Monsters!

"Master... hehehehe..."

Lin Yi looked at the boy grinning foolishly beside him and raised an eyebrow, rather speechless.

This guy didn't look too bright.

"I'm not your master."

Lin Yi tried to distance himself.

The boy sidled up again. "Master... Master..."

Lin Yi: ...

He could now confirm that the boy was an idiot.

"Young man, do you know this kid?"

Li Yong walked over, looking at the boy with pity.

"No."

Lin Yi spread his hands.

"Hmm... probably has some mental issues."

"Kid, would you like to come with me?"

Li Yong extended a kind invitation.

"Master... Master..."

The boy still gazed foolishly at Lin Yi.

"Uh..."

Rather helpless, Li Yong could only sigh and pat Lin Yi on the shoulder. "You're a good person."

Lin Yi: ...

Li Yong left, but Lin Yi had no desire to bring this burden along.

What did Sequence Holy Mother have to do with whether he was a saint?

"Hehehehe..."

Seeing Lin Yi fall silent, the boy simply stood beside him, chuckling foolishly.

Lin Yi ignored him, watching the barefoot old man, Elder Qi, just waiting for his order to escape this terrifying town.

"Let's go. Da Hu will catch up. We have no time."

Elder Qi took a long look in the direction of Dama Town, then turned and climbed into the modified heavy truck.

Li Yong said nothing more either. Though worried, he still started the modified off-roader.

As expected, about ten minutes later, the Sequence Transcendence whose eyes were wrapped in black cloth caught up with the convoy.

However, his muscular body looked rather battered, covered in hideous wounds.

Like a tide, the convoy surged forward once again.

The convoy wasn't moving very fast, and Lin Yi kept pace in its middle on his shared bike without much effort.

What puzzled him somewhat was that the convoy kept changing direction.

Once, it even raced back the way they had come.

These baffling maneuvers left Lin Yi utterly confused.

But after a day of traveling, he more or less understood why.

Perhaps this was the guide's ability!

Throughout the entire day, they hadn't encountered even a single anomaly.

Lin Yi marveled inwardly. Can he sense the anomalies' locations? The guide really has something going for him.

"Rest here!"

The announcement looped over the armored pickup's loudspeaker, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Master... Master..."

The foolish voice came from behind him.

Lin Yi paused.

Turning around, he saw the dusty boy jogging toward him, neither flushed nor out of breath.

The convoy hadn't moved very fast today. Apart from the dozen or so people lost in Dama Town, they had suffered no other losses along the way.

Even the survivors without vehicles could keep up with the convoy.

What Lin Yi hadn't expected was how persistent this boy was, still fixated on him even now.

"Master..."

The boy sat down beside Lin Yi and simply gazed at him with a foolish grin.

"You're the one who came to me, so don't blame me."

Lin Yi's tone was quite even.

He casually handed the boy a packet of dry snack noodles.

"Hehehe..."

The boy took the instant noodles with a foolish grin and began crunching away.

And above the boy's head, a gray 5 had appeared.

Yes, it was still Holy Mother Contribution.

However, Lin Yi could currently mark only three people.

Gray indicated a reserve.

If anyone among the three red-marked people died, a gray one would take their place.

Of course, he could also switch them manually.

"What's your name?"

Lin Yi asked casually.

"Hehehe..."

The boy grinned foolishly.

"Fine, I'll call you Da Sha. An ugly name makes a child easier to raise." Lin Yi took a bite of instant noodles and rummaged through his hiking backpack.

"Hehehe..."

The boy kept grinning foolishly.

Knowing he couldn't communicate with this guy, Lin Yi simply stopped bothering with Da Sha and got on with his own business.

After finishing the food in his hands, Da Sha didn't ask Lin Yi for more. Instead, he stared blankly at the night sky.

Meanwhile, Lin Yi fiddled with the screw in his hand. "So, what exactly is this thing..."

"Maybe it's just an ordinary screw?"

However much Lin Yi puzzled over it, he couldn't see any use for it at all.

Yet the Divine Thief sequence indicated that the screw was no ordinary object.

The three modified vehicles up ahead had already gathered together, and their occupants had lit a fire to cook.

The survivors farther back had also gained quite a bit today.

Everyone was busy with their own affairs.

As for Liu Ruyan...

Lin Yi glanced at the constantly rocking red sedan, a sneer curling his lips. "She really doesn't have a care in the world."

What he was most curious about now was whether there was also a Sequence Transcendence in that modified pickup.

And what ability did that Sequence Transcendence have?

The three modified vehicles held dozens of people. Now that they had all gathered together, Lin Yi couldn't tell which one might be the pickup's Sequence Transcendence.

Rustle, rustle.

Suddenly, faint rustling came from the dense woods beside the road.

Ordinary people couldn't detect it, but Lin Yi and the other Sequence Transcendences all immediately turned toward the woods.

Whoosh.

A figure was the first to appear up ahead.

It was Dahu, the blind Sequence Transcendent.

Da Hu's injuries had actually almost completely healed.

Then Elder Qi came forward as well, leaning on his cane.

Li Yong followed close behind.

The three stood there at the front.

There was puzzlement in Elder Qi's eyes.

"An anomaly?"

Li Yong asked quietly.

"I haven't sensed any anomalous presence."

Elder Qi shook his head.

Lin Yi wasn't very far away, and with the physical enhancements of a Sequence Transcendence, he naturally heard their conversation perfectly clearly.

He, too, was staring unblinkingly at the dense woods.

If anything went wrong, he would hide himself immediately.

The survivors also noticed Elder Qi's movements.

Though they lacked the senses of Transcendent Sequences, they followed Elder Qi's gaze toward the woods.

The woods shook more and more violently.

As several dark figures emerged, Elder Qi visibly relaxed.

Elder Qi said, "They're people."

"Probably survivors fleeing disaster." Li Yong also breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing that nothing was wrong, Da Hu didn't linger and turned back toward the camp.

"Ah! Are you... are you humans?"

"Boohoo, we've finally found living people!"

"Can you take us with you? We escaped from Xiaohe Village!"

"Xiaohe Village is gone! Xiaohe Village is gone! Boohoo..."

A clamor rose from the crowd. As people kept emerging from the dense woods, their numbers actually reached over a hundred.

Most had sallow faces and looked like old farmers who spent their lives bent over the soil.

There were also some young people among them, though they weren't in much better shape, their faces covered in dirt and their clothes covered in blood.

"Welcome..."

Hearing this, Elder Qi showed no resistance. A smile appeared on his aged face, and even his hunched back straightened a little.

In this apocalypse, preserving more sparks of humanity was what Elder Qi wanted to see.

Watching the excited refugees draw closer and closer, Lin Yi couldn't be bothered to pay them much attention.

But just then, Da Sha's previously vacant eyes suddenly cleared.

A faint golden light flashed through his pupils and vanished.

He sprang to his feet and pointed at the refugees.

His voice boomed like a great bell:

"Halt! Monsters!"