Surrounded on All Sides

After the Red Yellow Green Convoy joined, the Dawn Alliance had grown to three convoys.

Its numbers had also swelled from around two hundred to over six hundred.

Counting Qian Lei, they now had thirteen transcendents.

That was already a considerable number of transcendents in the apocalypse.

The vast majority of convoys had nowhere near that many.

Only after joining the alliance did the people from the Traffic Light Convoy learn that it had another transcendent out in the field, rather than the nine they had assumed.

Before setting off, the dozen or so transcendents briefly gathered and introduced themselves to get acquainted.

Since they were about to leave, Chen Fan did not call Qian Lei back.

He introduced Qian Lei on his behalf.

With more and more transcendents joining, a lavish welcoming feast would consume far too many supplies.

Chen Fan and Nie Shufeng had silently agreed not to bring it up again.

From now on, they would probably just hold simple meetings and introduce everyone to one another.

The transcendents from the Fairness Convoy and Mortal Convoy introduced their abilities one after another.

Finally, it was the newly joined Traffic Light Convoy's turn.

Han Tai said, "Everyone's transcendent abilities are very powerful. Ours are ordinary by comparison. I'll start with mine.

"My transcendent ability, [Traffic Light], lets me place traffic lights that only I can see to determine whether certain directions are suitable for travel.

"In battle, I can also place traffic lights to forcibly change the direction of an enemy's attack."

Chen Fan was mildly surprised. It seemed like a very interesting transcendent ability.

After Han Tai finished, it was the red-haired girl You Xiaoya's turn.

You Xiaoya raised her left hand to cover her face, leaving only her right eye exposed.

"Hmph, hmph, my transcendent ability is-Amaterasu!"

Everyone else looked at one another, unsure how to react.

Han Tai and Qin Renliang, who stood beside him, remained expressionless, as if they were already used to it.

You Xiaoya lowered her right hand with a smile, seemingly pleased with her performance.

"Hehe, my transcendent ability, [Eye of True Sight], lets me see information about everything. If there's anything you don't understand, just ask me from now on."

Qin Renliang took over. "My transcendent ability is [Blue Fire Gun]. I have a Desert Eagle pistol with unlimited ammunition that fires bullets wreathed in blue flames."

That transcendent ability made the eyes of Chen Fan, Wu Zhiyou, and the other men light up.

What man wouldn't want a Desert Eagle that shot blue fire?

More importantly, it had unlimited ammo!

Nie Shufeng spoke up. "Once again, welcome to the Red Yellow Green Convoy. We're all part of the Dawn Alliance now, and we've gotten to know one another. Everyone should help each other out.

"All right, the convoy is about to leave, so we shouldn't delay any longer. Everyone, go get ready."

Nie Shufeng brought the meeting to a close, and everyone dispersed.

On his way back to the RV, Chen Fan encountered You Xiaoya, who had caught up to him.

You Xiaoya patted Chen Fan's Dust-Avoiding Dharma Robe and asked curiously,

"Hey, were you a coser before, too?"

Chen Fan: "..."

Faced with that question, Chen Fan chose to ignore it outright.

That left You Xiaoya huffing, and she decided not to speak to Chen Fan for three hours as revenge.

Everyone returned to their vehicles, and after a few brief preparations, the convoy set off again.

Qian Lei, still nowhere to be seen, was scouting ahead.

This time, however, the first vehicle in the convoy was not Chen Fan's RV, but Han Tai's hybrid sports sedan.

His transcendent ability let him use traffic lights he placed within his line of sight to determine whether a direction was safe.

It was an ability suited to scouting, so he drove the lead vehicle.

For example, suppose they came to an intersection and Han Tai placed a traffic light there.

The light showed red for a left turn, green for a right turn, and yellow for going straight.

Turning right at that intersection would then be the safest choice.

With Qian Lei and Wang Bing, plus Nie Shufeng's Clairvoyance and Clairaudience, multiple transcendents could use their abilities to scout and corroborate one another's findings, better ensuring the safety of their route.

Behind Han Tai was Nie Shufeng's SUV.

He was something of a perception-type transcendent himself, so it was better for him to be near the front.

Only behind Nie Shufeng came Chen Fan's RV and truck.

As for everyone else's vehicles, they were all in the middle.

Li Yuanyuan's yellow pickup, Yang Xiaomei's Cat Bus, and Zheng Alin's hybrid SUV were relatively close to the front.

The vehicles of Shen Li, Ma Wuyuan, Wu Zhiyou, Qin Renliang, and the others were farther back.

You Xiaoya's pink itasha and Wang Bing's white SUV were protected in the middle, as the two of them had little combat strength.

That was the transcendents' current formation.

Farther back came the survivors.

After they had traveled a little farther, Nie Shufeng's voice came over the convoy's radio.

"Things aren't looking good. There's fog forty-seven kilometers ahead. Wang Bing, can we change routes?"

Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat. Forty-seven kilometers? Just how far could Brother Shu see?

At that distance, even Qian Lei, who was scouting ahead, would have to travel a long way before reaching it.

Han Tai's Traffic Light could only assess directions within his field of vision.

With fog suddenly appearing ahead, they now had to see what Wang Bing's divination revealed.

Wang Bing's voice soon came through.

"There's a monster chasing us from behind..."

Those words made everyone listening to the radio feel their hearts sink again.

Chen Fan picked up the radio and asked, "What about the directions to either side?"

Wang Bing said, "The road to the right passes through a town. There's a rule-based anomaly in that town, and I'm afraid it would be hard to get out if we went in. As for the left, we'd run into another patch of fog..."

Chen Fan said, "How strong is the monster behind us? What if we turn back and take it out? If we kill the monster, won't that give us a way out?"

Wang Bing said, "My divination showed it was second tier, so we could..."

Nie Shufeng's voice came through. "There's a second-tier monster tracking us thirty-five kilometers behind. It should be a second-tier Silent Monster, with powerful hearing and tough armor.

"It isn't much of a threat, but I noticed a mysterious black shadow following it the whole time. I can't make out what it looks like, and Wang Bing can't divine anything about it either..."

Silence fell.

Wang Bing was already a second-tier crystal witch. If even a second-tier divination could not reveal anything, that meant it was at least third tier.

Moreover, its outward appearance was a humanoid black shadow rather than a body of flesh and blood, which meant it was likely an anomaly rather than a monster.

At the same tier, anomalies were always somewhat harder to deal with than monsters.

Everyone felt weighed down.

What was going on?

There was danger in every direction. Didn't that mean they were doomed?

Because these dangers were all too far away, there was no way for Qian Lei and Han Tai to verify them at the moment.

Qian Lei and Han Tai's transcendent abilities could only give them a rough idea of which way was safer at the next intersection.

Those dangers were still far away, with countless intersections in between. Their transcendent abilities could not reach that far.

Distant as they were, since Nie Shufeng had seen them and Wang Bing had divined them, it meant the routes ultimately converged.

If they kept going in those directions, they would be almost impossible to avoid.

At that moment, Nie Shufeng's voice came over the radio again.

"The fog forty-seven kilometers ahead is Living Fog. It's moving toward us, and now it's only forty-five kilometers away.

"But the fog to the left is Dead Fog, about fifteen kilometers away. It's very calm, with no movement at all.

"I can't see through it. Wang Bing can try divining it. If we really have no choice, we can try pushing through the Dead Fog."

Go into the Dead Fog?

Chen Fan could not relax.

In the apocalypse, fog meant danger. As long as there was another way to survive, nobody wanted to enter it.