The 26-Hour Limit

[Consumed 100 points of Origin Artifact Materials. White cloth clothing refined into the low-grade Dharma artifact, the Dust-Avoiding Dharma Robe]

910 points remained.

Amid a flash of white light, the originally rather plain garment with its coarse stitching became an exquisite Dharma robe, sparkling with a faint treasured radiance and as white as a pearl from top to bottom.

It also bore some elegant gold-thread patterns.

Chen Fan beckoned, and the robe floated up on its own and slipped onto him.

His original clothes were completely covered, leaving him dressed from head to toe in the robe, looking every bit like an immortal.

He raised his arms and glanced at the wide sleeves on either side. With a wave of his hand, the Spirit Refining Sword appeared beneath his feet.

He floated gently up inside the RV.

"It worked!"

Chen Fan clapped his hands lightly and chuckled.

He put away the Spirit Refining Sword and began sensing the robe's functions.

He soon understood them.

First, the Dust-Avoiding Dharma Robe could ward off dust. Wearing it would keep his body spotless and clean.

Second, the robe could adjust to its wearer's size, fitting the body perfectly.

In addition, the robe offered some protection. It could ward off water and fire and withstand a certain amount of attack.

Besides that, it could also protect its wearer from heat and cold. No matter the temperature outside, wearing it would make every season feel like spring.

Lastly, the robe could change form. Besides its flowing white style, it could take on the appearance of other clothes at will.

"Not bad, not bad!"

Chen Fan waved his hand, and the robe faded away in a flash of white light.

His original clothes reappeared.

Though the robe had all sorts of benefits, wearing it all the time meant continuously using his supernatural power.

That would keep draining his mental energy.

Now that he had reached the second tier, his mental energy was stronger, and he could sustain the drain.

But he still preferred to keep himself in peak condition.

Perhaps after he reached the third tier, maintaining the robe would take such a negligible amount of mental energy that he would wear it all the time.

Worth mentioning was that, after stabilizing over this period, his mental force had grown as strong as his physical strength.

It was twice as strong as when he had been a first-tier supernatural.

Compared with an ordinary person, it was roughly four times as strong.

That gave both his body and his mental force considerable combat power.

After finishing the robe, Chen Fan left a giant insect ghost hidden on night watch as usual.

At the same time, he had Yan Kuan and the others take turns standing guard.

Then he went to sleep in the RV.

A little after four in the morning, Chen Fan was suddenly awakened by the giant insect ghost.

The moment he woke up, he heard a voice coming from the walkie-talkie beside his bed.

"Wang Bing divined that the convoy is in danger. Everyone, pack up and get ready to move."

Chen Fan frowned. Was Wang Bing still divining in the middle of the night?

He picked up the walkie-talkie and called Qian Lei.

"Qian Lei, wake up and use your senses. Is there any danger in the camp?"

"Qian Lei!"

After he called several times, Qian Lei's groggy, just-awakened voice finally came through.

"Captain, I don't sense any danger of a fine in the camp. What happened?"

"Wang Bing divined danger. Don't go back to sleep. The convoy is setting out tonight."

After saying that, Chen Fan decided to trust Wang Bing's judgment.

He walked to the RV door and found that it was Yan Kuan's turn on guard. Chen Fan told him to pass the word along.

The whole convoy began moving.

The Fairness Convoy was the first onto the road.

On Chen Fan's side, the Mortal Convoy followed close behind.

Chen Fan told Rongrong to speed up and catch up with Nie Shufeng and the others' vehicles.

He first pulled alongside Wang Bing's vehicle and shouted into it, "What's going on? What kind of danger are we going to run into?"

Inside the vehicle, Wang Bing's hair was disheveled, and her eyes were bloodshot as she kept stroking the crystal ball. She paid Chen Fan no attention at all.

Helpless, Chen Fan could only hurry over to Nie Shufeng's vehicle instead.

"Brother Shu, what's going on?"

Nie Shufeng lowered his window. "Wang Bing has been uneasy lately. She feels like danger is following us, but she can't divine exactly what it is. It's nearly driving her crazy.

"Tonight, after we'd all gone to sleep, Wang Bing suddenly had a hunch and divined that the convoy was in danger. She told us to hurry and get moving.

"But she still couldn't divine what the danger was."

Chen Fan was puzzled. "How can she still not work it out? Could it be the price of her supernatural power?"

Nie Shufeng shook his head. "Her power can't divine everything. She's only a first-tier supernatural, after all. Sometimes it's hard to divine even when the fog suddenly appears. But Wang Bing sounded certain, so I think we should err on the side of caution."

Chen Fan asked, "But Qian Lei's supernatural intuition didn't sense anything! What about your Clairvoyance and Clairaudience? Didn't you notice anything around us?"

Nie Shufeng said helplessly, "Nothing. With the power out, Clairvoyance isn't much use at night. Clairaudience can pick up some sounds, but none of them count as a danger to the convoy, given what we have now."

Chen Fan was at his wits' end. "Damn it, are we just going to run around like headless flies?"

Nie Shufeng reassured him, "Let's keep moving for now. Maybe Wang Bing will get a result after we've gone a little farther."

Chen Fan frowned, but he didn't order the convoy to stop.

Nie Shufeng was right. It was better to err on the side of caution.

The convoy traveled like that from before dawn until daybreak, then kept going until noon.

The gray sky blocked out the sun, making its light look weak, but the weather was still scorching every day at noon.

It was as though the faint sunlight were merely an illusion, or perhaps the sunlight could pass unhindered through the gray sky and shine directly on them in an invisible form.

From four in the morning to eight was four hours.

From eight in the morning to noon was another four hours.

They had already been traveling nonstop for eight hours.

Even in the apocalypse, they rarely traveled without a break for that long.

Yet Wang Bing still had the same thing to say.

The danger was still there, and they had to keep moving.

Only because the convoy wasn't driving fast could the survivors behind it barely keep up.

Even so, the survivors were already nearing their limits.

One after another, they cursed as they trudged along.

"Damn it, why aren't we stopping?"

"They're running us into the ground! We've been going all day, and we haven't seen a single aberration catch up to us!"

"What, are they putting us through a forced march?"

"These supernaturals really don't treat us like people! They're sitting in their cars, singing with the air conditioning on, while we're relying on our own two legs! Just tell me, am I a person or not? Am I a person or not?"

They didn't care whether the supernaturals riding in the vehicles ahead could hear them.

They were exhausted to death and couldn't worry about that much. At least they could vent.

By afternoon, the survivors were close to running on empty, too exhausted even to curse.

Some of the old, weak, sick, and disabled had begun falling behind.

Wang Bing still insisted they couldn't stop.

By now, Wang Bing was close to hysterical in the vehicle.

Her hair was disheveled, and her eyes were bloodshot.

Her face was pale, and her lips were chapped.

She stared fixedly at the crystal ball, refusing to look away.

By nightfall, the convoy still showed no intention of stopping.

The survivors panicked. Some began using the last of their strength to curse at the top of their lungs.

Others instead squeezed out the last of their potential, doing everything they could to catch up with the convoy.

They didn't dare imagine what kind of danger could frighten the convoy so badly that it didn't dare pause for even a moment.

Whenever they thought of it, the fear in their hearts made them afraid to fall behind.

In a van, Zhao Xing was driving while Zhao Xin sat in the passenger seat. She leaned over to look at the dashboard, worry appearing on her face.

"Brother, we're running low on gas. What happened to the convoy? We've been traveling for fourteen hours straight. This has never happened before.

"Normally, fourteen hours of travel would cover what usually takes three or four days.

"And even when we pass supply points like villages, there's no sign of stopping."

Zhao Xing's expression was grave as he said, "The supernaturals must have their reasons for acting so strangely. The more they act like this, the less we can afford to fall behind! If we don't have enough gas, we'll find someone to trade supplies with later. No matter what, we have to make sure we can keep up!"

Time passed bit by bit, and night fell.

Even with darkness completely covering the land, the convoy still showed no intention of stopping.

Many survivors broke down completely. Some burst into tears and collapsed by the roadside.

Others went numb, gave up struggling, and stayed behind in the darkness.

They had been traveling without a single stop for nearly a full day and night.

Large numbers of survivors could no longer keep going and began to fall behind.

Seeing that this couldn't go on, Chen Fan had Sun Hong keep driving while Yan Kuan went into the van's cabin and made some simple food. He shared it with the people around him, so they could at least fill their stomachs for the time being.

When he asked Wang Bing, she only forced four familiar words through her teeth.

"Keep... moving."

The night passed, and the first light of morning fell upon the earth.

They had been traveling nonstop for over twenty-four hours.

Chen Fan, Rongrong, Yan Kuan, and Sun Hong had taken turns driving to keep themselves alert.

The other drivers behind them had done much the same.

In the apocalypse, the occupants of each vehicle were usually several people working together to survive.

There were very few vehicles with only one person in them.

Chen Fan stuck his head out of the RV window and looked toward the back of the convoy.

Of the more than six hundred survivors they had originally had, only a little over a hundred remained.

The vast majority had been unable to endure the long journey and had vanished completely into the darkness of the previous night.

Among the hundred-odd people left, there were more than thirty cars. Nearly all the cars in the convoy had made it.

There were also a dozen or so motorcycles and electric scooters, and over twenty people on bicycles.

Only five or six people were left on foot.

Two of them were in the best condition.

One was Huishi, the monk who had joined them earlier. He still held his monk's staff, his expression unchanged.

As a lone wolf in the apocalypse, Huishi's condition was understandable to Chen Fan.

The other survivor, however, surprised Chen Fan a little.

He was tall and thin, with dark skin, a buzz cut, and a long face.

His arms and legs were also long and thin.

He had been jogging along at a steady, unhurried pace the entire time.

He carried a small pack of supplies on his back.

His face showed no sign of haste, breathlessness, or fatigue.

It was hard to imagine that this was an ordinary person who had been traveling continuously for more than twenty-four hours.

Chen Fan was already guessing that this person might be a supernatural keeping his identity hidden.

At that moment, Chen Fan noticed a van behind them speeding up to catch up.

The van had already pulled alongside several vehicles in succession to discuss something, apparently trying to make a trade, but it had been turned down each time.

Now the van pulled alongside Chen Fan's vehicle.

Zhao Xing stuck his head out of the window and called to Rongrong, who was driving, "Miss, could you ask the captain if we can trade supplies for some gas? We're almost out."

Before Rongrong could answer, Chen Fan's voice came from the RV. "No. Things being what they are, nobody has much gas left."

Rongrong could only give Zhao Xing a look that said, "Sorry, I can't make that decision either."

Zhao Xing had already been turned down many times, and this time he could only pull his head back inside helplessly.

Zhao Xin, who was driving, was furious.

"Brother, they won't even lend us a little gas. How stingy can they be?"

"Let's ask some other people. We haven't tried the Fairness Convoy yet."

Zhao Xing refused to give up.

After Zhao Xing left, Chen Fan had Rongrong drive up beside Nie Shufeng's vehicle.

"Brother Shu! If we keep going like this, the convoy will fall apart on its own before the aberrations even destroy it. We're almost out of gas! Can Wang Bing do this or not? I think her divination has driven her into qi deviation."

Nie Shufeng's expression was serious too. He had kept Clairvoyance and Clairaudience active the whole time, but hadn't detected anything unusual.

So he too was wondering whether Wang Bing had really misjudged the situation.

Chen Fan looked at Nie Shufeng and said meaningfully, "Brother Shu, remember, you're the captain of the Fairness Convoy. You should be the one making the decisions!"

A moment later, Nie Shufeng's voice came over the walkie-talkie on the channel for the whole convoy.

"If we keep going, the convoy will be completely spent. It's already daytime, so let's stop and rest for a while."

Wang Bing's hoarse voice came through. "Captain, we can't..."

Nie Shufeng sighed. "Wang Bing, you should rest too. If you keep divining without getting a clear answer, you'll only trap yourself. If there really is danger, the whole convoy will face it with you."

"I..."

Wang Bing hesitated for a moment, then fell silent.

After 26 hours of nonstop travel, the convoy finally pulled over by the roadside.

The few survivors who had kept up on foot until now.

At this point, they cared about nothing else and simply lay down on the ground.

Their faces were full of despair, and they did not want to lift a single finger.

The others also got out of the vehicles one after another, stretching their sore, stiff bodies.

Wang Bing sat in the vehicle, her hair disheveled and her face haggard.

She sat in a daze, staring at the crystal ball before her.

Her hand had stopped stroking it.

She just stared at it blankly.

Suddenly, Wang Bing snapped out of her daze and turned toward the side window.

A bald man with narrowed eyes had his big face pressed against the window.

Staring at her.