Wasteland, Walking Alongside Others

"Uncle Yannian!"

At the crossroads, someone jumped onto the roof of an abandoned car and shouted in this direction, the sound carrying far across the open fields.

"How's it going up ahead?"

Yannian hung his helmet on the right-side rearview mirror of the motorcycle, turned around and shouted, "It's okay."

He turned back to him, "Brother Tianshu, wait a moment, I need to go back and help move the car."

Chu Tianshu had completely regained his composure and smiled, "Let's go together."

Exploring the similarities and differences between this world and my hometown requires patience.

Yannian turned the motorcycle around at a slow speed, and Chu Tianshu easily kept up with it by applying a little force.

When the two arrived at the intersection, there were already more than a dozen people weaving among the abandoned vehicles.

Every now and then, they would jump onto the hood of the car, step over the roof, and leap from the most crowded spot to another.

It appears they are checking if there is any gasoline left in these cars.

However, some cars were so badly rusted that when they stepped onto the roof, the entire car was crumbling and splintering.

"Alright, these cars have been abandoned for a long time. Countless people have visited them long ago, so there's no way there would be any gasoline left."

Yannian stopped his motorcycle, got off, and said with a smile, "Quickly move these things aside so everyone can continue on their way."

The dozen or so men all looked to be young and middle-aged, and most of them laughed and responded when they heard this.

They were all experienced; they first pushed the cars in the congested area with their wheels facing more conveniently to the sides, and then moved the ones with less convenient wheels.

Hey! Yo!

Two people work together, clapping along to the beat. In an ordinary car, one lifts the head up and the other lifts the tail, and they can easily move sideways for several steps.

But some large vehicles aren't so easy to manage.

Yannian beckoned and led his men to take down the most conspicuous Dongfeng truck.

Chu Tianshu saw a cement mixer truck next to him, so he rolled up his sleeves as he walked.

Click!

He placed his right hand on the side of the vehicle and applied slight pressure. He heard a faint cracking sound coming from inside the mixing drum, indicating that there were at least several tons of hardened cement inside.

This thing is difficult to move, not only because of its weight, but also because the balance is inherently unstable after the cement hardens.

Since people are much shorter than cars, moving a vehicle could cause it to tip over.

Chu Tianshu channeled more of his inner strength. Although he only placed one hand on the chassis of the vehicle, he focused his internal energy on the front of the vehicle and the mixing drum, treating them as a whole, and then exerted force to propel it forward.

The tires scraped against the road with a dull thud, leaving dark scratches, as the cement mixer truck moved sideways.

With each step Chu Tianshu took, the car moved half a meter to the side.

After Yannian and his group shouted slogans and lifted the heavy truck, they saw that the cement mixer had already been pushed to the side of the road.

"Hiss!"

A young man whispered, "Is this what a master is like, able to walk alone in the wilderness? Terrifying!"

Stop fooling around.

Yannian patted him on the shoulder and looked over there as well, "Brother Tianshu is quite enthusiastic, let's give it our all."

On the other side of the intersection, even more people were moving around, and soon the intersection was cleared to create a path for the convoy to pass.

Chu Tianshu had some experience with large groups, and when he looked up, he saw a huge crowd.

There were probably more than two thousand people standing outside the train, many of them carrying luggage and sweating profusely.

Outside the group were two or three hundred young men carrying submachine guns, their gun barrels pointing outwards, their expressions wary.

Those buses and public buses were packed with people, and there were iron hooks welded to the outside of the vehicles, with lots of miscellaneous items hanging on them.

At first glance, they all appear to be clothing, food, and dried meat.

Any car will appear bulging and doubly bulky and heavy when its sides are covered with these kinds of odds and ends.

However, each vehicle was equipped with light and heavy machine guns mounted on its roof, adding to their menacing appearance.

Most of the machine gunners sat cross-legged, hands off the handles, guns pointed skyward; some had binoculars hanging from their chests, while others were eating.

The machine gunners were surprisingly a mix of men, women, and children, and they didn't seem nearly as alert as the young men carrying submachine guns.

But Chu Tianshu could sense that these machine gunners were all cultivators.

They are better at conserving energy, and their reaction speed far surpasses that of ordinary shooters.

Based on what Yannian said before, it seems that in this day and age, zombies are not commonly seen in the wilderness.

However, judging from the team's composition, there must still be formidable enemies in the wilderness that make one's heart tremble.

Let's go!

Yannian, who appeared to be at least one of the leaders of the group, waved his hand, and the large vehicles started moving again.

One possibility is that they were deliberately controlling the speed, and another is that they were carrying too much cargo.

The overweight truck roared for several seconds before its wheels finally began to turn.

The roaring sound only lessened slightly after the cars started moving smoothly, but it still resonated throughout the entire convoy.

Yannian pushed his motorcycle at the front.

Chu Tianshu chimed in, "Why are there so many people going to Jinling together?"

"The disaster has been raging for over twenty years, with all sorts of undead monsters running rampant."

Yannian walked, he said, "In previous years, everything was chaotic. Everyone was scattered, helping each other out in their own territories to make a living."

"In recent years, however, there has been an increasing trend of population movement, leading to the formation of megacities."

"We, a few thousand people, were initially taking a wait-and-see approach, but a while ago, our power plant was damaged while fighting a group of Borderland Species."

Yannian stretched his thumb behind his back.

"Those machine guns, while effective, also deplete their ammunition quickly."

"Since the megacity of Jinling came into being, it has become increasingly difficult for us small towns to procure weapons."

"After everyone pooled their opinions, they decided to take this opportunity and make a firm decision to move the entire operation to Jinling."

As Yannian was speaking, he seemed to feel some discomfort in his mouth, so he took out a cigarette, Mind Power his fingertips to rub a flame, and lit it.

Suck!

He took a deep breath, a contented look on his face, and instead of exhaling smoke, he let wisps of smoke escape from his nostrils.

The young man who had been joking around suddenly poked his head out and said, "Uncle Yannian, aren't you going to share one with this guy?"

Yannian: "Just because they don't smoke doesn't mean they're like you guys."

"What you're saying... I haven't smoked in ages."

The young man turned to look at Chu Tianshu, extending a hand. "My name is Hou Jian, Jian for health. Hey big brother, want a candy?"

In his hand was a piece of yellowish rock candy, wrapped in a small piece of plastic wrap and twisted into a knot.

Chu Tianshu had been handing out candy a lot, and it had been a long time since anyone had given him any. He took it, peeled it, and popped it into his mouth.

Hmm, it's not poisonous, but why is there a hint of bitterness mixed in with the sweetness? There are quite a few impurities in this sugar.

"Me too..."

Chu Tianshu reached into his pocket and suddenly fiddled with something.

The production dates on his candy wrappers were all from the early 2000s; they looked quite new.

Fortunately, he still had his own homemade mint-flavored medicinal candy.

However, during his delay, Hou Jian had already moved closer to Yannian, staring at Uncle Yannian with pitiful eyes, and successfully took the cigarette and puffed away.

The candy that Chu Tianshu took out caught the eye of two teenagers, who sneaked over and called him "Uncle."

Once the candy wrapper is peeled off, the candy inside looks like small, translucent cubes made of green granulated sugar, and it looks very delicate.

After receiving the gifts, the two children refused to put them in their mouths for a moment, as if they had received a toy, and ran back to the crowd.

Chu Tianshu's eyes darted around, and he blended into the crowd.

It would seem too suspicious to keep asking Yannian alone; it would be easier to chat with everyone and gather information that way.

He was gentle and kind. He initially used the excuse of giving out a few more candies to blend into the crowd and strike up conversations with the children and elders.

She quickly became one of the people in the neighborhood and took the initiative to strike up a conversation with him.

Some asked him about the fabric of his clothes, some thought he sounded like someone from the same hometown based on his accent, and others asked him his age and whether he was married...

Chu Tianshu was pleased with this; amidst the chaotic conversation, he would casually ask a few questions, knowing that someone would always answer him.

Most people don't know where the world's disasters started; it seems that in a very short period of time, similar situations occurred all over the globe.

This phenomenon of people suddenly turning into zombies in the crowd lasted for several months.

After that, it seems that humans developed antibodies, and these random zombie-like events stopped happening.

But the biggest change brought about by this disaster was not just in humanity, but also in... the terrain.

Spirit Realm landscapes began to rise and embed themselves into reality.

If the real world were like a landscape painting depicted on a piece of cloth.

So, embedding the Spirit Realm is like cutting a hole in the fibers of a piece of cloth, stretching and deforming the fibers, and then filling in the puzzle pieces.

Each additional puzzle piece increases the area of the entire picture.

Fortunately, even when the Spirit Realm's landscape comes to the real world, there seems to be a subtle barrier between it and the earth's strata, preventing it from directly compressing the earth's layers and causing various geological disasters.

But the mere fact that the zombies' rampage disrupted humanity's original transportation and introduced numerous abnormal environments already presented a huge problem.

Many creatures in the Spirit Realm, while not particularly fond of the real world, enjoy preying on real-world beings.

They often go out to hunt, and only retreat back to the Spirit Realm when the real environment rejects them and they can no longer bear it.

Therefore, there are forbidden zones in this world that ordinary people are unwilling to set foot in.

However, over the past twenty years, the number of hybrids between the Spirit Realm beings and real beings has increased significantly.

These ferocious beasts, known as Borderland Species, can roam freely in the different environments of the two realms.

The undead cannot prey on their own kind, and eating them would be useless. However, the Borderland Species have diverse tastes and good digestion. If they are really pushed to the limit, they will even dare to eat the undead.

Now, 99% of the zombies have either been killed or starved to death.

Those Borderland Species have taken their place and become the most common threat to humans in the wilderness.

As for the things that Chu Tianshu was more concerned about, he also found out some of them.

Chu Yannian's master did indeed share the same name as his grandfather.

Some elderly people say that Chu Yannian should have originally been surnamed Lin, but his closest relatives passed away early, and a local magistrate arranged for him to change his surname when he became an apprentice.

After all, his master was also a lonely old man, whose own Sunzi died young.

Chu Tianshu asked casually, "Died young?"

"Yes, it seems like he committed suicide when he was just over ten years old."

An elderly woman sitting on the bus leaned against the window and exclaimed, "I heard that child is incredibly gifted. When he was four or five years old, he suddenly understood things just by looking at books. Nobody could have predicted that!"

"But those who Aperture Opening Side-Door Dharma Lineage too early have had their talents wasted and have even developed chronic illnesses; it's truly pitiful..."

Chu Tianshu walked outside the window, lowering his eyes.

I was in my early teens, and I did often think about dying back then.

But every time I really wanted to commit suicide, I couldn't help but feel resentful.

Those bastards in my dream were so annoying. If they just died like that, wouldn't I never be able to get revenge?!

He didn't get through that time by relying on any outstanding qualities, but simply by grinding his teeth, sucking blood, and enduring extreme hatred.

The reason why Little Chu in this world is at a disadvantage is that he doesn't have such a bad temper as I do.

Chu Tianshu followed the group for a long time.

The clouds in the sky thickened, and the sky darkened considerably, as if it were about to rain.

Some people had already turned their umbrellas inside out and were holding them over their heads.

Suddenly, a dark shadow with a wingspan of more than five meters swooped down from the sky as the dark clouds churned.

Chu Tianshu suddenly looked up.

The large bird with its iron beak and steel claws had excellent eyesight. It inexplicably caught Chu Tianshu's gaze, and its feathers suddenly stood on end, letting out a cry like an eagle.

The tiny sparks of fire, like a fiery red ribbon, swept high into the sky.

The roar of machine guns followed shortly afterward.

The strange bird was hit squarely by the machine gun fire, and was bombarded for several seconds until it was reduced to mangled pieces.

The people on the roof breathed a sigh of relief, but then looked puzzled.

"Strange, the Scale Eagle is extremely alert, usually requiring three or four firing points to force it back. Why didn't this one dodge just now..."

Chu Tianshu silently picked up a lime candy and popped it into his mouth.

Suddenly, an umbrella was handed down from the window. The old woman said, "It's going to rain soon, take this."

Chu Tianshu was taken aback, then smiled and said, "Thank you."

Dark clouds gathered, and raindrops began to fall.

Chu Yannian, who was leading the way, rode his motorcycle back against the wind and rain, and shouted loudly to the crowd as he braced himself on one foot.

"We'll reach Jinling in less than half an hour!"

"The rain might get heavier and continue into the night. Should we rest until tonight, or get to the fields and decide what to do next?"

Someone in the crowd immediately shouted.

"Of course, we'll continue."

"Good!!"

A large group of people echoed loudly, and since the truck showed no sign of stopping, even more people rallied and continued forward.

Chu Tianshu looked up and opened his umbrella, facing the raindrops in the sky.

(End of this chapter)