Author: Xevinaly

“All right, I’m just messing with you.” Cheng Yang said with a laugh, “But seriously, one of you needs to be the Governor. Even if you’re going to level up soon, you need to use it now since Divine Blessing doesn’t work if you’re a High-Grade Apprentice.”

“Couldn’t you just give the position to someone from Yicheng?” Lau Hui asked.

“Nope, as the core soldiers of Phoenix Village, it’s more important for me to strengthen my pillars. The territory here can’t contribute anything else to us.” Cheng Yang explained. “Moreover, you won’t waste the Divine Blessing since it gives you the exact number of Experience Points needed to level up as if you’d never trained. So anything else contributes to the next level.”

Although both Lau Hui and Liu Wei understood Cheng Yang’s intentions, neither of them stepped up.

“All right, we’ll make a decision later. Let’s conquer the Territory Altar now.” Cheng Yang said. “Ox, wait here. There are too many monsters. You’d just be a burden.”

“That’s a little harsh, but I understand.” Lau Hui said. “I never expected to be more than a mascot today.”

Cheng Yang would clear out large numbers with Petal Blizzard while Enlai rampaged, tearing monsters apart with his powerful swipes. In the meantime, Liu Wei cleared up the leftovers.

Although the horde was vast, the strongest were only Pinnacle-Grade Immature monsters. As such, the slaughter only lasted ten minutes before Cheng Yang, Liu Wei, and Enlai to finish.

Once the battle ended, Liu Wei agreed to become the Governor of Crane Summit and, since there wasn’t anyone else around, Lau Hui became the Vice-Governor automatically. She had reached the Standard-Grade the night before, so when she used her Divine Blessing, she leveled up to become a High-Grade Apprentice.

This level up made Liu Wei the strongest person on the planet. Even Cheng Yang would be killed in an instant if Liu Wei wanted him to die. Unless the opponent was at the second stage of evolution, their power was useless in front of her.

As for the new village, Cheng Yang was facing a dilemma. He didn’t have the materials to build a wall, and without one, he couldn’t defend people living in the village.

One option was to leave since monsters wouldn’t destroy the Territory Altar. However, Cheng Yang did want to help anyone that was still alive in Yicheng.

Although a group of them could perform a class change ceremony, the village would become a meat grinder if even a single High-Grade monster showed up.

Cheng Yang deliberated for several minutes but ultimately decided to find a way to defend the village. He reasoned that if he waited until he could bring a force to occupy the village, the golden window of growth could be missed. The tutorial was almost over, and it would be much harder to develop a village at that point.

Defending the village and developing it would also allow the people in Phoenix Village somewhere to flee to if Yuan Jianzhe somehow managed to capture all of the villages near Cloud City.

For now, Cheng Yang would leave Liu Wei and Lau Hui to defend the village. With them around, there wouldn’t be any problems before the wall was built.

When Cheng Yang explained his plan, both of the others were disappointed. However, they didn’t object and agreed to stay.

“Don’t worry. I’ll come back tomorrow.” Cheng Yang promised. “When I do, we’ll find enough wood to build a wall, and you can both come back.”

“Well…” Liu Hau said with a guilty expression. “I wouldn’t mind staying here permanently. As long as you bring Pang Sun tomorrow, we’ll be able to set up our own place. It’ll be like a honeymoon of sorts.”

Cheng Yang almost spit blood. Why didn’t he mention that before he made Liu Wei the Governor? More importantly, he’d only been dating for a month and a half! Now wasn’t the time to be getting married!

Doing his best to suppress his anger, Cheng Yang ignored Lau Hui and left the village riding Enlai.

The group traveled East for half an hour before reaching Yicheng. Unlike Cloud City, Yicheng had neither a safe zone nor bottomless chasms. Since the gods’ rules forbid nature to reclaim cities,
Yicheng looked like any city would after a major earthquake.

“Hey, Yoko. Why aren’t there any trees here? I remember when Huimin looked like this, but now it’s so overgrown hard to find a single brick.” Lau Hui asked.

“Why would I know that? Maybe Huimin wasn’t big enough to receive protection from nature? My best guess would be that since everyone evacuated from Huimin, it no longer counted as a city.” Cheng Yang replied.

“That makes sense. The gods want us to evolve, not die, so they wouldn’t want to destroy the small amounts of food and shelter left.” Lau Hui said. “Since there aren’t any trees, that means there are still people, right? How many do you think there are?”

“Yicheng had a population of three hundred thousand before the earthquake, so maybe a third are still alive? That’s an optimistic guess, though, considering most of the survivors will probably die without medical aid within the next day or so. Liu Wei is going to be busy once we start resuing people.”

“That few? Nearly half of the people in Cloud City survived.” Lau Hui was shocked. “Although, without a safe zone, I can understand why the death toll would be so high.”

Cheng Yang shook his head. “It’s not the safe zone that matters. It’s not very hard to survive the first month or so of the apocalypse in a city. There will be a lot of casualties, and you’ll dance on the edge of a knife every day, but it would take a month or two before the last quarter of a city dies.”

“Wouldn’t food be a problem after a few weeks?” Liu Wei asked.

“Not really, once the population is that low, you can scavenge enough to last for two months or so. You can extend that by another few months by hunting monsters for food.” Cheng Yang said. “The real problem will be that no one cleared out the monster hordes. Since Cloud City had the military nearby, there were only small groups of monsters left after the first week.”

“Even if they could last a month or even three months, I don’t think Yuna Jianzhe would have the strength to reach Yicheng in time.” Liu Wei said. “Since he can’t, most safe zones are probably in a similar situation. In that case, what are people in cities like Yicheng supposed to do?”

Cheng Yang sighed. “There isn’t anything they can do. Most will starve to death once the easy food runs out. The rest will get eaten by monsters. There might be a few hundred die-hard survivors in each city, but that would be it.”

Liu Wei and Lau Hui were silent after that. Although they were worried, what could they do? Now that the gods controlled the world, there was no use worrying. They were truly the luckiest among lucky people to be able to live in Phoenix Village.

As they walked through the ruins, the group was able to spot signs of survivors. There weren’t very many monsters here, but there were still hordes of up to a hundred that roamed the ruins. As such, they didn’t see anyone in the open.

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When Cheng Yang returned to his companions while riding a white tiger, they were amazed. It was a little frightening, but since Cheng Yang was on its back, it was under Cheng Yang’s control, they knew they weren’t in danger.

“Yoko! You’re so domineering! How did you get that thing?” Lau Hui asked, with his mouth hanging open.

Before Cheng Yang could say anything, the white tiger let out a vicious roar, frightening Cheng Yang’s companions. Although it did that, the white tiger was physically incapable of attacking something not designated as an enemy by its owner.

“My name is Enlai. Tell those humans to address me properly. I do not take kindly to being called a ‘thing.'” The tiger said through its connection with Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang snickered. “This is Enlai. He’s very sensitive and can understand human language, so don’t say anything rude.”

Cheng Yang’s warning was just in time to stop Lau Hui from escalating the situation. He had wanted to say something fierce to raise their momentum, but now he could only swallow his words and let out a dry cough.

“Brother Enlai, sorry for my words. I didn’t know you were able to hear me, so I said something I shouldn’t have. Hopefully, in the future, you’ll be able to help me out since you’re so mighty.”

Enlai gave Lau Hui a human-like nod but otherwise ignored his words. Humans were too weak for it to consider equals. If Cheng Yang hadn’t been there, it would have killed Lau Hui without hesitation.

“So, Yoko, what the hell is going on?” Lau Hui ignored Enlai’s contempt.

“Calm down. You’re being weird.” Cheng Yang said with disdain, “Enlai is now my Pet. I told you before, but there are creatures called Ascendants in this world that can be tamed. Enlai is one of them.”

“Tch, why am I never the lucky one?” Lau Hui complained, “I hope I can find Pet of my own someday.”

Cheng Yang was startled. He knew Lau Hui held a grudge since he was the only member of their friend group without something cool, but he didn’t realize it was this strong.

“Don’t do that unless you want to die a quick death. Most Ascendants are found deep in the wilderness and are frighteningly strong. I was only able to tame Enali because I was lucky, so don’t waste your life on a Pet. You’ll get a cool specialty soon, I promise.”

Lau Hui didn’t respond. He just shrugged his shoulders with exasperation.

Although Cheng Yang said he only tamed the white tiger because he had been lucky, he had sacrificed a lot to ensure he got a Pet.

Even if Enlai hadn’t restrained the python, opening it up for an attack, Cheng Yang would have won by using the Bone-Gnawing Bead. He’d already upgraded it to the High-Grade using 110,000 Experience Fragments. If he had enough, Cheng Yang would have boosted it all the way to a Pinnacle-Grade artifact.

Lau Hui and Liu Wei took this opportunity to listen to a retelling of the battle and learn more about Ascendants. Now that they knew getting a Pet was a matter of luck and strength, they were willing to wait.

“All right, enough chatting. We need to reach Yicheng before noon.” Cheng Yang said.

Lau Hui sighed as they walked. He was struggling through the brambles and tree roots, while Enlai nimbly carried Cheng Yang over every obstacle. “Yoko, do you think you can you let us ride Enlai wit-“

Before he could finish, Enlai snarled at him. Lau Hui immediately shut his mouth. Even if he knew Enlai couldn’t hurt him, Lau Hui couldn’t bare to provoke the tiger.

Cheng Yang didn’t try to stop Enlai. Although the tiger was his Pet, he knew not to be too pushy. An unruly Pet could cause a lot of problems even if they couldn’t disobey orders.

However, what if he asked Enlai to carry Liu Wei? Just that should be fine, right? They were already quite close, so even though they would need to squeeze together to fit… Forget it, that was too embarrassing. What if she didn’t want to but felt compelled because he was her boss?

That would be too horrible!

After a few quiet moments of contemplation, Cheng Yang jumped down from Enlai’s back.

“Liu Wei, why don’t we switch places? You have the lowest Movement Speed of the three of us, so if you ride Enlai, we’ll get to Yicheng faster.” Cheng Yang said after coming up with a reasonable justification.

Before Liu Wei could answer, Cheng Yang forced Enlai into a crouching position.

“Just hop on, its for the sake of the people of Yicheng.” Cheng Yang said.

“Well, if you insist.” Liu Wei smiled faintly. With a light jump, she landed on top of Enlai.

“Hey, Little White, you better make sure to protect her. If she falls or you let a monster hit you, I’m going to skin you and turn you into a carpet!” Cheng Yang maliciously gave Enali a nickname and threatened him over their mental link.

Enlai stared at Cheng Yang with bitter eyes. He naturally understood that “Little White” was a shitty name, especially since he already had a good one! Enlai could only hope Cheng Yang would only use it if he was angry.

After that, the three of them continued on their way.

It was much easier with Enlai around. His strength made any obstacles meaningless. Brambles were crushed underneath his paws, and smaller trees were toppled with a single swipe.

Enlai also helped Cheng Yang utterly crush any monsters they encountered. Moreover, no one needed to focus on protecting Liu Wei since she was on Enlai’s back. When a fight started, she just had to hold on tight and Smite anything that came to close.

As for Lau Hui, he hid behind his dire wolf and waited for the fights to finish. He vowed to one day get a Pet of his own. Although he could summon a wolf, it was useless as a mount and barely useful in combat.

A little over an hour later, Enlai had fully recovered from its fight with the python. As long as it wasn’t doing anything strenuous, his body rapidly healed itself. If he had been allowed to sleep, he might not have even needed forty minutes to recover.

Now that Enlai was at full strength, Cheng Yang prayed that they would run into a powerful Standard-Grade Mature monster guarding some priceless treasures. With his team’s current strength, a monster with that level of strength could only obediently get beaten up.

Unfortunately, the gods ignored his prayers. Let alone a Standard-Grade Mature monster, they didn’t even encounter a Pinnacle-Grade Immature monster.

Once they were around a kilometer away, Cheng Yang stopped the group. He didn’t want to go directly to Yicheng since, even if he saved people, they would have nowhere to go. He wanted to claim a Territory Altar first.

“Hold on, everyone.” Liu Wei said from her position atop Enlai. She could see a massive multi-species crowd of monsters in the distance. It was the biggest horde she’d ever seen at over ten thousand individuals. Although she’d hunted some big ones with Cheng Yang, this was on a different level.

“What did you see?” Lau Hui asked as he dropped to the ground.

“A horde of monsters, and it looks like there might be several since there’s a ton of different species.” Liu Wei reported. “There’s too many of them to fight, what should we do, Cheng Yang? Attack them or try to go around?”

“Attack them, of course.” Cheng Yang laughed joyfully. “The only reason several monsters species would intermingle is if they’re guarding a Territory Altar.”

The face of Liu Wei and Lau Hui lit up. They knew what it meant to become the Governor and how that would affect their standing.

“Yoko, you can give this opportunity to Liu Wei.” Lau Hui said magnanimously. “My training speed is quite fast, so I don’t need it. I’ll level up soon even without the Governor position. Besides, how could I leave Pang Sun all alone?”

“That’s okay.” Liu Wei retorted, unwilling to get exiled into the wilderness. “My training speed is several times faster than yours, so you don’t need to be courteous. I’ll level up even faster than you.”

Cheng Yang sighed. “Where am I going to find someone to become the Governor now? You two should have mentioned this earlier.”

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The white tiger struggled to get up several times, but in the end, all it could do was lay on its stomach. That beam attack had used up all its strength.

For both monsters and Professionals, if they used a skill, it would only drain their Mana. Ascendants, however, were outside the gods’ rules, so their skills didn’t act the same. As such, any abilities it used pulled from its own strength, not that which was gifted to them.

The python crept slowly towards the tiger , dragging a trail of blood behind it. Once it reached its prey, it coiled itself around the tiger and started squeezing.

Powerless to resist, the tiger contemplated its mistakes. It had been drunk on its newfound powers and challenged someone it shouldn’t have. It couldn’t have known the python had a dangerous poison skill, but that didn’t matter. It had lost.

At this time, a large icicle flew out of the woods and struck the python on its head.

The python hissed before trying to unravel itself from its prey. When it did, the tiger let out a final struggle, stopping the python from fleeing.

A moment later, a second attack hit the python, spattering its flesh onto the lion’s white fur. It was like a spent arrow after the fight with the tiger , so there was nothing it could do to avoid it.

The python stopped struggling this time. Without a doubt, it was the most powerful monster ever to die in human hands, even if it was only picking up the scraps of someone else’s fight.

The white tiger was at a loss. It didn’t know what killed the tiger and had expected to die soon, but the fatal blow never arrived.

A few moments later, Cheng Yang walked out of the woods and stood in front of the tiger.

“I know you can understand me.” He said in a calm voice. “If you want to live, submit yourself to me.”

In response, the tiger closed its eyes and went to sleep.

“Don’t try and stall for time.” Cheng Yang warned while raising his stave. “I know how powerful your vitality is, so I won’t give you a chance to recover.”

The tiger opened its eyes in fear. Unlike a monster, if you attacked an Ascendants vitals, they would die instantly. If it fought the human in its current state, there was no way it would survive.

“I’m giving you ten seconds, and if you don’t agree, I’ll kill you.” Cheng Yang said. “Even if you don’t become my Pet, I can collect your blood and use it to brew special potions.”

The white tiger shuddered but stayed put.

“One.” Cheng Yang brutally started counting.

“Two.” The tiger still wasn’t moving.

Once Cheng Yang reached nine, the tiger lightly roared then bowed its head towards Cheng Yang.

Cheng Yang smiled. Ever since he saw the tiger’s beam skill, he was determined to obtain it as his Pet. Now that it had submitted to him, he was overjoyed. As long as the tiger didn’t die, it could reach the pinnacle of strength with him.

“In the name of Cheng Yang, I take you as my servant and Pet. This contract binds our souls together and…” Cheng Yang started reciting a mantra that the gods would feed to anyone that obtained the trust of an Ascendant.

Of course, if the tiger wanted to, it could have started that process instead. It didn’t because it had hoped Cheng Yang wouldn’t know how. To its dismay, he did. Thus, although he could try and fight the magic binding spell, he could only accept becoming a human’s Pet.

Waves of energy flowed out of Cheng Yang, into the tiger, and back again until suddenly, a hazy image of the tiger formed in Cheng Yang’s mind. As the ritual continued, the image solidified until it was indistinguishable from the real version.

This signaled the successful completion of the taming process. When it finished, Cheng Yang innately understood how to communicate with and command the tiger using the replica in his mind. He could also speak to the Pet as long as it could hear him.

Then, Cheng Yang opened the tiger’s system pane.

Ascendant White Tiger
Owner: Cheng Yang
Approximate Level: Low-Grade Mature Monster

Age	8	Life Span	312
Health	480	Stamina	104
Physical Attack	126	Magic Attack	16
Physical Defense	21	Magic Defense	19
Attack Speed	15	Movement Speed	29

Innate Abilities

• Ascendant Independence: The creature is outside of the gods system and must use its Stamina to fuel its abilities instead of Mana
• Ascendant Vitality: This creature can be killed if it’s heart or brain is destroyed but recovers at a rate several times faster than normal
• Vorpal Attacks: This creature can permanently remove another creatures limbs or kill them instantly through decapitation

Skills

• Spirit Beam (N/A): This creature gathers soul fragments both from itself and defeated enemies before firing it in a single beam attack | Projected Damage: 370 – 410 | Projected Cooldown: 30 minutes
• Fatal Bite (N/A): This creature will gather its strength into its jaws, overexerting them to deal increased damage | Projected Damage: 120 – 140 | Projected Cooldown: 2 minutes

---

Sure enough, the tiger had strength on par with a Mature monster. What surprised Cheng Yang was that the tiger had skills since most Ascendants wouldn’t have one.

Not only did the tiger have a skill, but it was also an outstanding one! It almost tripled its damage, which was enough to turn around almost any fight.

Of course, the skills weakness was glaring. If it didn’t kill the opponent, the fight was over.

As for the tiger’s other skills, they were nothing special except for its ability to use vorpal attacks. As long as the tiger was able to land a single well-placed attack, it could kill any opponent.

Against a monster with that kind of ability, even Cheng Yang would need to be careful. If his head was bitten off, it would be game over.

Seeing how strong his new Pet was, Cheng Yang felt pressure to level up quickly. If he ran into another monster like that, his death was guaranteed.

He also wanted to level up the tiger , but it wasn’t going to be easy. It couldn’t progress using the gods’ rules, so it could only rely on slowly building up its strength and experience.

In Cheng Yang’s previous life, only three people were able to level up their Pets. However, it seemed to happen at random, so no one knew the best strategy for leveling up a Pet.

Less than five minutes later, the tiger stood up. It had purged the poison from its body and had healed the external injuries from its battle with the python. It still had some internal injuries, but it could trounce someone like Cheng Yang in this state.

Other than its use in combat, Pets had two additional functions. They could be ridden as mounts. They could also shrink in size, allowing even the most ferocious Ascendants to harness the power of moe.

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TL Note: Moe is a concept of girlish, childlike cuteness. Hence, a tiny, fluffy tiger is moe.

“Why didn’t you bring them, Yoko?” Lau Hui asked.

“If I brought them with us, there’s a ninety percent chance they’d die.” Cheng Yang said. “It would also slow us down, which might mean us dying as well.”

Liu Wei and Lau Hui exchanged a meaningful glance. They weren’t much stronger than ordinary humans, so if Cheng Yang was scared of death, that meant this journey was more dangerous than they initially thought.

They were currently traversing a narrow stone pathway along the side of a mountain that was nearly eight hundred meters long. It had no shrubs or trees growing on it, so the group was able to reach the end in just a few minutes.

This path seemed to be a dividing line as the monsters on the other side were far stronger than those from whence they came. High-Grade monsters were common, and the occasional Pinnacle-Grade monster could be seen leading a horde.

They weren’t a threat since Cheng Yang could deal with them. However, it would be a different story if they were ambushed since Lau Hui and Liu Wei were defenseless against numbers.

“Cheng Yang, let’s go find the treasure these monsters were guarding!” Liu Wei said after Cheng Yang defeated one such horde.

“Unfortunately, they probably don’t have anything.” Cheng Yang said sadly. “Maybe they would if we were closer to Cloud City, but out here, only Mature monsters will be guarding treasure. It’s possible that even they won’t have anything if there are any monsters in the third stage of evolution nearby.”

“Yoko, could there really be monsters that strong out here?” Lau Hui asked nervously. There was a deeply ingrained fear in his voice since even a High-Grade Immature monster could easily kill him.

“It’s not a high chance, but there is a chance.” Cheng Yang remembered the dragon he saw while he was in the Mystery Gate when he said that.

Lau Hui was nervous for a moment before reconciling his fate. If he met a monster that strong, he would probably die instantly. Since that was the case, there was no point in worrying.

The group continued onwards for another eight kilometers, all while killing High-Grade monsters that roamed the area. Three times they encountered large hordes. Twice they were able to hide, but they needed to battle the third.

By now, they were only fifteen kilometers from Yicheng and twelve kilometers from the nearest Territory Altar.

In Cheng Yang’s previous life, an intuitive person noticed a certain pattern. Even if there wasn’t a safe zone, monsters near a city would be stronger than Pinnacle-Grade Immature. This “beginner-area” extended outwards around three kilometers, but after that, you could encounter monsters of any level.

As such, Cheng Yang was incredibly tense. That’s why he was able to notice something was amiss.

“Stop!” Cheng Yang suddenly hissed.

“Did you see something?” Lau Hui whispered as he ducked behind some brambles.

“There’s a fight going on ahead of us.” Cheng Yang said after listening for a few moments. “It’s faint, but it sounds like a massive hammer striking a piece of metal.”

“A fight? Maybe Yicheng had a safe zone after all.” Lau Hui commented.

“Maybe two monster hordes are fighting over territory?” Liu Wei guessed.

Cheng Yang shook his head. “That’s not possible. I’m certain there isn’t a safe zone, and monsters can’t aggro each other.”

“Who’s fighting then?” Liu Wei asked.

“I don’t know.” Cheng Yang frowned. “Stay here. I’m going to investigate.

Liu Wei and Lau Hui nodded. They knew that if they tried to follow, they’d be dead weight.

After the two were hidden, Cheng Yang swiftly ran forwards.

Two hundred meters later, Cheng Yang stopped. The crashing sounds were defending and interspersed by animalistic growls and hisses.

Creeping forwards a bit farther, Cheng Yang was able to witness a fight between giants.

On one side was a gigantic black python. Its body was over a meter thick with fangs as long as Cheng Yang’s arms. Its body probably had the power to crush tanks into scrap metal.

On the other side was a pure-white tiger. If not for its massive size, it might be mistaken for a cute housecat. It was over two meters tall and three meters long, but compared to the python, it seemed small.

Cheng Yang didn’t know what level these creatures were, but he was sure they were both Mature monsters.

Cheng Yang motionlessly watched them fight, but even ten minutes later, they showed no sign of stopping.

The python tried to bit into the tiger’s flesh but ate a mouthful of dirt after the cat nimbly dodged its attack. Not to be outdone, the python smashed its opponent with its tail, sending the tiger flying.

The tiger wasn’t an easy opponent, however. It bounced back immediately and used its sharp claws to shred the python’s scales.

The battle continued for a few more minutes before the python tipped the scales of victory in its favor.

After allowing the tiger to dodge a bite attack, the python turned its head to the side and sprayed the tiger with a dark green mist. Cheng Yang couldn’t see it, but the tiger’s blood began to boil and dissolve.

While this happened, Cheng Yang pondered as to why these beasts were fighting. Sometimes powerful monsters would fight over treasures, but there were none to be seen.

As the tiger swept past Cheng Yang’s hiding spot, he noticed something about its eyes. There were crystal clear.

Monsters were usually in a constant state of frenzied rage, which manifested as dark red eyes. The stronger the monster, the deeper the color. The tiger, however, didn’t have the slightest tinge of red to its eyes.

This could only mean one thing. The tiger was an Ascendant.

But what was an Ascendant doing so close to Cloud City? The odds of it spawning here were frightfully low.

It goes without saying that even though the current situation was dangerous, it also represented an opportunity. If he could make this Ascendant his Pet, it would be an enormous boon. There were only a hundred people with Pets in his previous life, so obtaining one now would help to solidify his power.

Since the tiger was an Ascendant, Cheng Yang desperately wanted to tame it. Who knows, maybe it would be the only Ascendant he meets in this life.

The only problem was that Cheng Yang had no way to do that. His only chance was to hope the Ascendant won its battle with the python but was too injured to resist Cheng Yang.

Suddenly, a massive energy spike pulled Cheng Yang out of his thoughts. The tiger had opened up some distance between itself and the python earlier and was now preparing an attack.

Within a few short seconds, a ball of blinding white energy filled the tiger’s mouth. Then, in the blink of an eye, it was fired as a beam at the python.

When it did, the python’s scales melted off, and the smell of seared meat filled the area. It let out an earsplitting hiss as its tail was nearly severed.

At the same time, the tiger flopped powerlessly to the ground.

Unfortunately for the tiger , the python was still able to move. It slithered towards the tiger with ridicule filled eyes.

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“You two wait here. I’ll go have a look.” Cheng Yang said in a quiet voice.

The cry for help came from somewhere on a cliff above them. So, Cheng Yang took a sword out of his ring and sprung upwards in a mighty leap. At the zenith, he pushed the sword into the stone as if it were tofu. Then, once it was stable, Cheng Yang pulled himself onto the hilt and jumped up once more.

With barely a centimeter to spare, Cheng Yang grabbed the edge of the cliff. If anyone from before the apocalypse saw this feat of strength, it would have shocked them. Cheng Yang had scaled an astounding ten-meter cliff in just two jumps.

When he pulled himself over the edge, his nose met an ungodly stench. Fortunately, he had smelled much worse before, so the odor was barely tolerable.

Glancing around the small plateau, Cheng Yang saw a pitiable trio of people. The first was a dead woman, the source of the smell, who looked to be in her sixties. Next to her was an unconscious man in his thirties who was lying in the juice her decaying corpse produced. He would appear dead if not for the faint oscillation of his chest. Finally, there was a young girl who was maybe eleven or twelve at the most. She was curled up on the ground with her back to the wall.

The girl’s eyes were out of focus, but she was still weakly calling for help, even in her current condition. Cheng yang didn’t need to ask her what happened to get the gist of the situation.

“Liu Wei, come on up.”

Cheng Yang summoned a bottle of water and a coil of rope out of his ring. The rope he tied to an outcropping and the water he pressed against the girl’s lips.

The water trickled into her mouth and although she weakly swallowed most of it dripped out. However, it was enough to bring her back to reality.

“Help… my dad.” The girl weakly pointed towards the unconscious man once she realized Cheng Yang was there.

Cheng Yang nodded, and at the same time, Liu Wei made it to the top of the cliff. She immediately understood what had happened and, instead of shirking away, rushed forwards to use Healing Light.

With the heavenly glow of the healing skill, color returned to the girl’s cheeks, and the ravages of hunger and atrophy disappeared.

“Please, help my dad.” The girl said with more strength this time. “Please, mister and miss, save my dad.”

Liu Wei moved on and cast Healing Light on the unconscious man. However, despite his condition improving, he didn’t wake up and seemed just as close to dying as before. Even if the damage caused by prolonged starvation was cured, the weakness didn’t disappear.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t save him anymore.” Cheng Yang said while handing the girl an energy bar. “He’s given up and no longer wants to live. If you want your father to stay with you in this world, you’re going to need to force him to.”

The young girl took the energy bar and devoured it with watery eyes. After a short pause, she turned to look at her father and struggled to use her stiff limbs to crawl towards him.

Seeing this, Cheng Yang sighed. Then, he picked her up and closed the distance for her.

“Dad…” The little girl cried out in a weak voice. “Get up. Don’t leave me alone. You promised you wouldn’t like mom did.”

The man’s eyelids fluttered but didn’t open. However, his head tilted upwards slightly.

“Ling-Ling… I’m sorry…” The man said with a raw voice. “Dad wants to go… see your… mom and grandma… now.”

“No! Please, dad, you can’t!” the girl said with passion while gently shaking him.

The man’s eyes finally opened, allowing everyone to see that they were the eyes of a corpse.

“You there.” He said when he saw Cheng Yang and Liu Wei. “Take care… of Ling-Ling. I can’t an-“

“No.” Cheng Yang harshly cut the man off and dashed his hopes. “Your daughter is your responsibility. If you want to die so badly, I’ll let her die here with you.”

“I…” The man’s eyes filled with a strange light as his lips twitched into a frown. “This…. the world is… perhaps… it is better.”

“Pathetic.” Cheng Yang stared down at the man with angry eyes. “Even a child is struggling to live in this world, but you’ve given up. The world has changed, but that’s not an excuse to abandon your daughter. If I can survive, why can’t you?”

Cheng Yang’s harsh words brought life back into the man’s eyes. He watched his daughter desperately crying before staring into Cheng Yang’s eyes with determination. Then, he fiercely trembled as he tried to force his body into a sitting position.

“Don’t force yourself. I can see you’ve made the right choice.” Cheng Yang said, pushing the man back to the ground before tilting the water bottle into his mouth. “I’ll help you both as much as I can.”

Once the bottle reached the man’s lips, he greedily started drinking the water. When his daughter saw this, her tears turned to laughter. She knew that her dad had decided to live.

“Hey, Ox, wait down there a while longer.” Cheng Yang called over the side of the cliff. “There’s no danger, but I need to take care of something for a while.

Once the girl’s father was sitting up against the cliff and eating an energy bar, Cheng Yang and Liu Wei asked the girl for her story.

Her name was Chu Yiling, and she was from a family of farmers who lived in the area. On the day of the earthquake, her father, Chu Qiang, drove her and her grandmother to the nearby general store. While they were there, the earthquake struck, and this mountain rose right in the middle of the store, demolishing it.

When the earthquake subsided, they found themselves on this platform and initially considered themselves unlucky since other patrons were at the foot of the cliff where Lau Hui was. They threw foodstuffs up to the trio since the distance was too far to jump while they waited for help.

However, the family soon learned that they were the lucky ones when they watched everyone else get devoured by monsters. After that, the family never considered trying to get off the small plateau they were on. All they could do was hide and hope they never encountered a monster capable of scaling the cliffs.

Their only problem was food since a water stand was on the plateau with them. There was a lot they could scavenge from the store, but it was only enough for a week or two.

The first week passed with no sign of rescue; no planes in the sky and nothing but the howls of monsters to break the silence of the forest. Qui Yiling was optimistic, but her family was able to see the situation for what it was.

On the ninth night, the grandmother used a knife to kill herself. When Qui Qiang discovered this, he was wracked with grief. Although he knew she was trying to help her family conserve food, the incident dealt a massive blow to him.

Ever since then, he’d sat next to his mother’s body, unwilling to throw it to the monsters below. Until, finally, three days ago, their food supply ran out. If Cheng Yang hadn’t arrived, they would have starved to death.

Although they were doing better now, Cheng Yang wasn’t sure what to do with them. If he took them to Yicheng, the journey would take forever, and they’d probably die. He could leave them enough until he was traveling back to Phoenix Village, but it would only delay the problem.

“Chu Qiang, I’ll be honest. I can’t take you with me right now. I can leave you some food and come back for you later, but I can’t say when only that it would be soon.

“Thank you, sir.” Chu Qiang’s face changed, but he seemed to accept that.

“No! Please don’t leave us!” Chu Qiling, on the other hand, was distraught.

Cheng Yang sighed. “It’s not that I want to leave you, it’s just too dangerous. I can protect you, but right now, I need to do something. Relatively speaking, you’ll be safer here.”

“We can come, my dad can protect me.” Chu Yiling protested.

Cheng Yang shook his head. “The world is different from how it used to be. Even if your dad were healthy, it wouldn’t be enough.”

After saying that, Cheng Yang cast Icicle Blast, creating a crater in the side of the cliff.

The father-daughter duo was shocked. Taking advantage of that, Cheng Yang summoned a mass of food out of his ring. Then, he jumped off the plateau with Liu Wei.

A few short moments, the forest hid Cheng Yang and his group from view.

“Dad, will that man come back to save us?” Qin Yiling’s voice quivered.

“He will.” Qin Qiang said with a firm nod. “He gave us his word so we can trust in him.”

Qin Yiling nodded, satisfied with her father’s words. “Dad, since that man is so strong, do you think he’ll be able to find mom when he gets back?”

“I don’t think so, Ling-Ling.” Qin Qiang said, fighting back the tears. “Mom went somewhere very far away, so he won’t be able to help us find her.”

He wanted to believe in his wife, but how could she have survived? She would have been home alone in the fields. Maybe she was still hiding somewhere near their house, but… the fate of the others who had been in the store with him crushed any hope that she survived.

“I can wait.” Qin Yiling said, “Mom will come back someday, right?”

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This trip was going to be wrought with danger. That’s why Cheng Yang didn’t tell anyone before coming. Lau Hui was a straightforward and righteous person, so he wouldn’t protest. But, if Liu Hau or Yu Kai caught word of the plan, they would definitely try to stop him from going.

Worse still, they might have forced him to take more people with him. However, a big group would be disadvantageous for this kind of task. He and Liu Wei were all the combat power needed, and Lau Hui could handle any administrative work dealing with the Yicheng citizens. He was also a Summoner so he could use his dire wolf to aggro monsters if he was in danger.

As for guarding the citizens of Yicheng, Cheng Yang never planned too. He was only going to stay long enough to capture the Territory Altar and supervise the building of a Wall. From then onwards, they would be on their own.

If everything went well, Cheng Yang would considering sending some high-level soldiers to help the village develop. Unfortunately, it would be a while since there was a shortage of labor. Perhaps he could get Adventurers to do it?

Yicheng was almost fifty kilometers away from Phoenix Village, and the further anyone had traveled since the apocalypse was twenty kilometers, but it wasn’t close to cleared yet. Naturally, Cheng Yang couldn’t defend Yicheng if a crisis were to occur.

In Cheng Yang’s past life, the two Territory Altars near Yicheng weren’t captured until four months after the earthquake. By that time, nearly everyone from Yicheng was dead, and dozens of Mature monsters were roaming the area. Fortunately, humanity was strong enough by then to capture the Territory Altars.

No one knew if those Mature monsters were there from the beginning or if they evolved over time since they were already there when they arrived.

Originally, Cheng Yang was hesitant to make the journey since he could encounter a Mature monster or Boss. Fortunately, he picked up the Bone-Gnawing Bead the other day, which would allow him to face a Mature monster on even footing.

If he were to fall into a dangerous situation, he would immediately invest his fortune into upgrading the Bone-Gnawing Bead to a High-Grade Artifact. So long as it wasn’t a Mature Boss, any monster would be killed in just ten seconds.

Of course, that was a last-ditch effort since it would deplete everything he had worked for since the beginning of the apocalypse.

Thankfully, Cheng Yang didn’t need to explain this to Lau Hui or Liu Wei. They trusted him enough to know he had a plan.

Suddenly, Cheng Yang felt a chill go down his spine. As if a venomous snake was staring at him. He turned his head to look realized that the Orc Stronghold was in that direction. Cheng Yang had nearly forgotten about it, but they were reasonably close to it right now.

“What’s the matter?” Liu Wei asked when she noticed Cheng Yang tense up.

“It’s nothing important.” Cheng Yang said, “We’re just in a dangerous location and need to move quickly.”

Liu Wei didn’t look convinced, but, since he had initially discovered the Orc Stronghold, he let Liu Wei know about it. When she heard, Liu Wei unconsciously quickened her pace.

Cheng Yang wasn’t sure what was going on over at the Orc Stronghold, but he had a strong feeling someone, or something, was looking at him just then.

In his previous life, the mystery of the Orc Strongholds was never solved. In this life, Cheng Yang wanted to be the one to unravel the riddle. It was a goal he’d set for himself.

Moving quickly, the trio left the Orc Stronghold behind.

During the journey, Cheng Yang deliberately avoided running into any hordes. Thankfully, the hordes were starting to conglomerate, so there were fewer of them running around. Thus, utilizing Liu Wei’s instakill ability, they were able to move around stealthily.

Liu Wei wore a full set of Purple Silver equipment, all of which boosted her healing ability and, thus, her Smite skill. Unless she was facing a Pinnacle-Grade monster, she was invincible.

Lau Hui knew about Liu Wei’s Innate Abilities, but it didn’t lessen the shock of seeing a High-Grade monster die without a sound.

On the downside, Liu Wei was a glass cannon. All of her equipment was geared towards offense, so her other attributes were pitifully weak. If she didn’t have Cheng Yang to guard her, she would be nearly useless. Her attribute weighting wasn’t as apparent right now, but once people chose their subclasses, her attributes would be even more lopsided.

An hour later, they were eighteen kilometers from the village. This would have been inconceivable before the apocalypse, but for superhumans like them is was slower than a brisk walking speed.

The original shallow hills in the area surrounding Cloud City had been turned into a dense forest with endless steep mountains interspersed with small flatlands. There were cliffs everywhere, so finding Yicheng just based on memory would be difficult if you weren’t Cheng Yang.

“We need to go through that crevice.” Cheng Yang softly said as he pointed to a thick crack between two mountains.

When they passed through to the other side, the rising sun painted a picture across the landscape that made them gasp in awe.

“You know, this would probably be a famous tourist location in the old world.” Lau Hui reminisced. “People would bring the kids and eat lunch on the grass as they watched the sun dance across the horizon. Maybe I’ll bring Pang Sun here someday.”

“It might be nice for couples like you, but in my opinion, that canyon surrounding Cloud City is much cooler.” Cheng Yang replied.

“Oh come on, Cheng Yang, don’t you think this is nice too?” Liu Wei asked, turning around in such a way that the light flowed through her uneven feathery hair. “I especially like that I get to see it with someone like you.”

“Well, it’s not bad, I suppose.” Cheng Yang said, fighting back a blush.

“Heeelp!” Luckily for Cheng Yang, a drawn-out, piercing cry ruined the moment.

Since the apocalypse began, no one in this world had a more tragic fate than people living in rural areas. Safe zones wouldn’t spawn near them, and more than likely, neither would Territory Altars, so it was impossible to perform a class change ceremony. Their only fate was to either starve to death or get eaten by a monster.

But now, one of those scattered individuals fate had changed for the better. They had been lucky enough to survive this long, and now someone with the strength to save them happened to pass by.

“Help.” The voice repeated, much softer this time.

“Yoko, what should we do?” Lau Hui asked.

“We help them!” Cheng Yang said firmly, “What else can we do?”

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Cheng Yang and Liu Wei stayed out hunting monsters until ten that night. Once he returned, Cheng Yang had permanently transferred a hundred thousand Experience Fragments to Liu Wei for her training. It was a lot, but Cheng Yang couldn’t help but care about her. At the very least, he could justify it since she was the first member of his special guard squadron. Then, he bought the remaining Stones of Return from the Grocery and listed them on the Auction House.

A few hours, people purchased all of the stones, and Cheng Yang’s total number of Experience Fragments had reached 1.22 million. Cheng Yang’s assets had grown eleven fold. It was so amazing that Cheng Yang felt like shouting to the world: “Let the profits keep rolling in!”

Unfortunately, Cheng Yang knew that high-profit margins would become a distant memory tomorrow. Once people realized the supply was so high, very few people would pay more than the base auction price.

Ever since he listed the other Stones of Return, Cheng Yang had been focused on brewing potions. Not only would it be a decent source of income, but he was also close to becoming a High-Grade Alchemist. Once he did, he would be able to make High-Grade potions that blew anything else available out of the water.

Once he used up his Energy for the day, Cheng Yang went to find Old Lee. He’d seen him return to the village a while ago and needed to talk to him.

“Old Lee, how are you? Is everything going well?” Cheng Yang asked.

“It’s not bad. There aren’t any dangerous hordes nearby anymore, so the last few days have been slow. If we didn’t have to watch over the Bone-Eating Ant Nest, I’m afraid my soldiers would be bored to death.” Old Lee replied with a chuckle.

“That’s good to hear.” Cheng Yang paused for a moment. “Anyways, I’m going to give your battalion a hundred thousand Experience Fragments. You can’t use them to buy things or consume them during training. I’m giving them to you so that you can accelerate the training speed of your soldiers. You can decide whether to use it all yourself or distribute it to your subordinates.”

Old Lee frowned. He was currently using sixteen times training speed and was barely keeping up with the consumption costs.

“My Lord, they won-“

“Don’t worry about that.” Cheng Yang interrupted him. “Even if they can’t support that level of training speed yet they will someday. I just need you to decide how to allocate those Experience Fragments quickly. I have a hunch that people won’t be able to transfer Experience Fragments to each other for much longer.”

“Why do you say that?” Old Lee asked. “Isn’t it allowed under the gods’ rules?”

“Its exactly because its the gods’ rules that I’m worried. If they can allow it, they can ban it too.” Cheng Yang said with a wry smile. “They changed a bunch of the rules regarding safe zones earlier, and the people who relied on them are probably crying tears of blood now. Since the gods will try and patch any loopholes they left open, I’m worried they’ll see what we’re doing and move to restrict it.”

Old Lee didn’t know where Cheng Yang’s confidence came from, but since it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared, he stopped arguing.

Cheng Yang transferred the funds to Old Lee and then sold half of his potions to the Alchemy Tower manager.

Finally, cheng Yang visited the Nirvana Feather Meditation Hall to train for the night. Since he still had over a million Experience Fragments, Cheng Yang was able to utilize sixty-four-times training speed. It was really gratifying since his experience bar would noticeably fill while training.

If he were able to maintain this pace, it would take less time for him to reach the second stage of evolution than it would for someone to enter the Standard-Grade. Of course, that was only if they didn’t boost their training speed at all.

The next day, Cheng Yang cleared the Nightmare Difficulty Blood-Soaked Church and, after so many days of bad luck, finally had another piece of Red-Gold equipment drop.

It was a ring that increased his Magical Attack by six, and his Mana regen by ten percent. At this point, his damage was so high that this hardly mattered. Most monsters could only survive two strikes from him, and the only ones they couldn’t, Bosses, wouldn’t be affected by a small increase.

The Purple-Silver protective gear he found was even more inconsequential. His Physical Defense was more than enough to stall any monster that wasn’t a Bone-Eating Ant.

Once he was out, Cheng Yang visited the class change statues. Three days ago, he started the research to increase damage. Now that it was finished, he could pick another. Three of the five research options were complete now, so soon, the statutes would level up again.

Once the statues leveled up, Cheng Yang was willing to let the people who performed class change ceremonies be Adventurers. After all, the village wouldn’t be able to support a bigger military.

After selecting the Physical Defense research option, Cheng Yang summoned Lau Hui and Liu Wei.

While he was waiting, Cheng Yang bought the day’s Stone of Return supply and listed them on the Auction House. However, this time he kept three stones in his ring.

Shortly after, the people he summoned arrived at his Meditation Hall.

“Hey, Ox. I need you to arrange something for me. Have your second-in-command lead your battalion for today. I need you to come with me to do something.”

“Of course, my Lord.” Lau Hui replied happily. “Let me go settle that.”

With a salute, Lau Hui turned and walked away.

“We are we going today Cheng Yang?” Liu Wei couldn’t help but ask. Usually, it was just the two of them, so it must be a special location if he was bringing someone else.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Cheng Yang said with a sly smile.

Liu Wei understood that Cheng Yang wanted to be a surprise, so she stopped asking.

After a while, Lau Hui returned with a grin. “It’s done, my Lord.”

“Alright, let’s go then.” Cheng Yang said before leading them to the Southern gate.

After they walked more than ten kilometers away from the village without any signs of stopping, Lau Hui couldn’t help but as: “Yoko, are we just exploring the wilderness today? If you wanted to do that, I could have brought the rest of my battalion.”

Cheng Yang smiled. “If we wanted to clear the wilderness, they would be useful, but we’re doing something an army can’t help with.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Do you know what’s over there?” Cheng Yang asked while pointing in the direction they were traveling.

“Well, we’re going south, but I don’t know what we’ll find. After the earthquake, it could be anything.”

“If we keep walking that way, we’re going to find Yicheng. No one from Yicheng has posted anything on the forums yet, which means there’s not a safe zone there. My visions say the same thing. Anyways, it must be tough for anyone still living out there.”

“Yoko, you’re not planning on saving the people of Yicheng, are you? With just the three of us?”

“Yep, we three are going to save them.”

At this point, despite her trust in Cheng Yang, Liu Wei had to say something.

“Cheng Yang, how do you plan to save them with just us? You’re powerful, but if we have to escort those people several kilometers through the wilderness, even you won’t be able to protect them.”

“We’re not going to bring them back. My visions also showed me that there’s a Territory Altar near Yicheng. We’ll clear out any big hordes near the city then allow them to perform class change ceremonies in a village.”

Liu Wei and Lau Hui looked at each other, no longer able to refute Cheng Yang’s claim. As long as they provided a way for the citizens of Yicheng to become Professionals, the three of them could help the citizens help themselves.

Cheng Yang wasn’t initially going to visit Yicheng even though there were two Territory Altar there. However, after what happened yesterday, he realized it would be foolish not to expand his strength as quickly as possible.

Although the Bone-Eating Ant Nest might have appeared in his last life too, after hearing that the gods were watching him, Cheng Yang grew paranoid. Most of his geographical knowledge was probably still accurate, but everything else was starting to change. He could no longer expect the little details from his previous life to carry over.

He now, more than ever, needed to solidify his position of power, and expanding the number of territories under his control was the best way to do so.

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Almost every safe zone leader around the world had recognized the importance of stationing an intelligence officer inside the Tavern. Shortly after Cheng Yang listed his Stones of Return, every leader knew about it.

Since the end of the world, people couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the gods’ rules and modern video games. As such, many leaders had religiously studied video games from the past and knew that some form of return function must exist. The only problem was, they didn’t know how to unlock it. So, as soon as they saw the Stone of Return, they realized they’d found what they were looking for.

Without a doubt, anyone with the Stone of Return in their hands would be completely safe. All they needed was for their subordinates to buy enough time for them to escape!

When someone bought the first Stone of Return, countless people cursed themselves for being so stingy. If they had just raised the price a little faster, they would have an indisposable tool. Even if it was a consumable, it was a life-saving object.

This disappointment didn’t last long since a new Stone of Return was listed a few minutes later. One safe zone leader, in particular, saw that and instantly bought it. She was a cowardly and vicious person, so the ability to escape death was a very precious thing to her.

Just when people thought their chances were gone, another Stone of Return was listed!

By now, it was clear that someone had obtained several Stones of Return and was selling most of them. Some of the more observant individuals were even able to associate the appearance of these items with the disappearance of a God Quest. However, for both groups of people, there was only one question in their mind: how many stones did this person still have?

Some people weren’t able to ease their anxiety and decided to buy a stone right away just in case there were only a few. However, once those wealthy individuals were out of the way, the price fell, but not once did an auction finish without the stone selling.

Watching stone after stone sell for astronomical prices, many people grew uneasy. If this was one person like they thought, they had just become the wealthiest person on the planet. Since this morning, very few leaders dared to plunder the resources of their populace, so the number of Experience Fragments they watched flow through the Auction House to that person was enough to make them green with envy. Almost every leader had concluded that a single strong individual couldn’t defeat an organized military force. However, someone with that many Experience Fragments for training would still become a monster they couldn’t provoke.

At the same time, Yuan Jianzhe was contemplating in the silence of his condo’s attic. A few moments later, he broke that silence when his subordinate Lao Wu entered.

“How many stones were you able to buy?” Yuan Jianzhe asked in a grave voice.

“Only one.” Lao Wu said apologetically. “Since we aren’t willing to pay more than six thousand for a stone, it took a while for the price to fall.”

Yuan Jianzhe naturally understood that the limitation he placed on Lao Wu made it too difficult to obtain that many so he wasn’t upset.

“They’re disposable items, so don’t invest too much into them since we still need more funds for Project Uplift. Still, try and buy a few more even if it means throwing money towards that bastard.” Yuan Jianzhe said. “Someone else would do it if we didn’t, so it doesn’t matter in the end.”

Yuan Jianzhe wasn’t a foolish man. He had already connected the dots between the God Quest that disappeared and the Stones of Return. Considering the nature of the quest, in Yuan Jianzhe’s mind, only that monster who cut down humans like wheat could have completed it so quickly.

“Is there any news on the forums?” Yuan Jianzhe asked. “Did Cheng Yang post anything?”

“There’s too much to sort through. Dozens of people are claiming to be the ones selling the stones, but none of them have any proof.” Lao Wu replied.

“That’s to be expected. There are scammers anywhere you go and plenty of fools around.” Yuan Jianzhe snorted. “Those fools on the forums are likely to end up dead.”

“You’re right, commander.” Lao Wu replied. “By my estimates, Cheng Yang’s earned more than six hundred thousand Experience Fragments by now. Anyone claiming to have that much is going to find themselves in a lot of trouble.”

“Since that rat Cheng Yang is progressing so quickly, please tell me the investigation had good results.” Yuan Jianzhe asked with a bitter sigh.

After losing to Cheng Yang that day, Yuan Jianzhe came to an important conclusion: there was a place outside the safe zones that allowed people to perform class change ceremonies. Since that day, evidence continued to point to that being true. So much that even ordinary safe zone leaders believed it was a possibility.

That evidence was, of course, the various items listed in the Auction House. Architecture drawing, statue lifting stones, and even different class change statues were listed, but none of them could be used in the safe zones. The only logical conclusion was the existence of something else.

Although the existence of safe zones outside Cloud City wouldn’t explain Cheng Yang’s overpowered abilities, it would allow Yuan Jianzhe to find the source of Cheng Yang’s army.

Thus, Yuan Jianzhe violated the contract he made with Cheng Yang the same day he signed it. Spies and scouts were sent to observe Cheng Yang’s subordinates, and a check the status bridges Cheng Yang wanted to control.

Sure enough, although the Western Bridge under Yuan Jianzhe’s control was teeming with monsters, the other three were completely cleared. As such, Yuan Jianzhe ordered a long term investigation mission to explore the other side of the bridges. Today was the day that mission was supposed to end.

“Commander, the investigation was a complete success. All of our scouts returned alive and without being detected. It seems Cheng Yang believes the contract was enough to stop us from investigating him.”

Hearing this, Yuan Jianzhe sneered. “What a fool. He may be powerful, but he’s just one man. I’d like to see him stop us once our preparations are finished. What were the results of the investigation?”

“People are passing through the Northern and Southern bridges every day to hunt monsters and obtain refugee laborers. Our scouts followed those teams and found two outposts in the wilderness. We also checked the Eastern bridge but couldn’t find anything, but there’s strong evidence a third outpost exists to the East.”

“So, there was something out there. Is there another one to the West, or did Cheng Yang let us keep that bridge because he couldn’t find one?” Yuan Jianzhe’s eyes lit up. “We’ll need to explore that possibility later, but for now, were we able to determine the size of Cheng Yang’s army?”

“We were able to make some inferences. We weren’t able to observe the outposts for long, but Cheng Yang should only control around fifteen hundred soldiers but as many as twenty-two hundred if a third outpost exists.”

“Just fifteen hundred?” Yuan Jianzhe frowned. “Are you sure? That’s far too few. Are they all as strong as Liu Wei?”

“No. Their average soldier is stronger than ours, but only so much that a single monster wouldn’t trouble them. They probably have more Standard-Grade soldiers proportionally but less overall.” Lao Wu replied. “Other than that, they are better equipped than us, meaning they control more instance dungeons that just the one in the city.”

“Good, that means Project Uplift was the right choice.” Yuan Jianzhe said once Lao Wu said that Liu Wei was an exception. Although Cheng Yang was a monster, Liu Wei was a more shocking existence in Yuan Jianzhe’s mind. In less than a week, she had developed from an ordinary civilian to a person capable of slaughtering dozens of soldiers.

Yuan Jianzhe wracked his brains on how that was possible and eventually concluded that her Innate Abilities must be unique. He’d read on the forum that several Unique Innate Abilities had been discovered, and quite a few were absurd. Whenever he thought about how he personally handed a treasure like Liu Wei to Cheng Yang, he gnashed his teeth, but at least now he had a way forwards.

Since there were powerful individuals hidden among the city’s populace, Yuan Jianzhe started project uplift to find every last one of them. His previously passive attitude towards civilians becoming Professionals morphed into an aggressive push to pay for every single person within the safe zone performs a class change ceremony and forcing them to reveal their system panes. In addition, he ordered his soldiers to focus as much labor as possible towards rescuing civilians from the ruins since any one of them could turn into a hidden ace as useful as Liu Wei would have been.

Although allowing so many people access to power would destabilize the safe zone and possibly even fragment his authority, it was the only choice Yuan Jianzhe could make. If he didn’t act decisively, Cheng Yang would come back and devour the safe zone eventually.

“Have we found anyone useful yet?” Yuan Jianzhe asked.

“Several dozen candidates have Unique Innate Abilities, but none of them seem as powerful as Liu Wei.” Lao Wu replied. “They will raise the combat prowess of our armies, but they won’t help us in a battle against Cheng Yang.”

“Keep looking. Less than a quarter of the population have performed class change ceremonies. There’s bound to be someone useful out there.” Yuan Jianzhe said, unaffected by the lack of progress. “And if there isn’t, we still have the artillery project.”

“About that commander.” Lao Wu said with an awkward face. “We’ve run into an issue with the artillery. Most of our weapons specialists are dead, so progress has been slow. We’ve tried to contact specialists using the forums, but if we don’t receive help, it will take a few weeks.”

After the earthquake at the start of the apocalypse, electrical equipment stopped working, which fried the firing mechanisms on most of the advanced weaponry Yuan Jianzhe had in his arsenal. However, the actual explosives were still active, so if the ignition method was switched to manual or mechanical they could still be used.

Doing so was only a matter of time. The real question was, how much damage would the advanced weaponry deal? A handgun only dealt three or four, while a rifle could deal up to seven. The most potent weapons the military possessed right now were the USES armor-piercing sniper rifles, which dealt between ten and twelve damage. Regardless of the number, Yuan Jianzhe was satisfied that the artillery would deal damage to multiple enemies.

“Do whatever you need to to make the artillery usable by next week.” Yuan Jianzhe said. “We’ve already lost prestige among the militias, and without the ability to control the civilians that became Professionals, the safe zone will be splintered.”

“Commander, I also have something to report regarding the monsters outside the safe zone.” Lao Wu said, “The number of Standard-Grade monsters has increased greatly. If we don’t do something, casualties will skyrocket.”

“What do you suggest.”

“Right now, we’ve spread our elite soldiers among the ordinary ones, but that strategy will grant diminishing returns in the future.” Lao Wu explained. “I suggest we gather all of our elites into a single unit. It will act as our sword and neuter hordes so that our ordinary soldiers can clean up the rest.”

“Do it. Even if lives are cheap now that we’ve planned to have everyone perform class change ceremonies, we can’t afford the loss of respect heavy casualties will cause.”

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Ten minutes later, someone finally made the minimum bid of three thousand Experience Fragments.

It was stingy but to be expected. As long as no one else noticed the auction, the bidder would walk away with minimized expenses. Cheng Yang chuckled at that mindset, and the next ten minutes bashed the first bidder’s hope.

3,500…

4,000…

5,000…

7,500…

9,000…
When the auction finished, the final price was nine thousand seventy-seven Experience Fragments.

Stones of Return were consumables in the first place, so Cheng Yang was more than pleased to get eight times returns. Since it was still useful as a life-saving trump card, several cowardly leaders around the world wanted it.

Of course, if they knew the price Cheng Yang bought it at, the Stone of Return would be treated like the other overpriced items in the Auction House.

A moment later, the boy from earlier brought Cheng Yang a card that increased his Experience Fragment balance by eight thousand points.

After buying a bag of stones, Cheng Yang had less than twenty thousand Experience Fragments. Even if he sold each one for half the value of the first, he’d have nearly half a million Experience Fragments. Then, he could buy the other hundred from the Grocery and do it all again.

Cheng Yang listed a second stone of return on the forum. This time, however, he added a “buy it now” price of ten thousand Experience Fragments. He wanted to see if there were any rich bastards in this new world.

Unlike the first listing, this one got bids as soon as it was posted. Its relatively low price for the auction house and usefulness had attracted a lot of attention from leaders around the world.

Five minutes in, the stone was bought. Someone must have been infuriated by losing the first stone and paid the high price to guarantee it fell into their hands.

Satisfied with the efficiency of earning money using the Stones of Return, Cheng Yang prepared to leave the Tavern. He had never planned to sit here and sell each one individually since it would be too time-consuming. Luckily, there was a way to sell items in bulk.

The first was to list them as a whole. The other was to set up each item to list after someone bought the current one.

The boy from before retrieved the whole bag of stones from Cheng Yang before he left the Tavern. Once he did, Cheng Yang visited the Grocery. He wanted to reserve all of the Stones of Return for himself and asked the manager not to sell them to the public.

Since Cheng Yang was the Lord, and it didn’t matter as long as someone bought the items, the manager agreed. He could only keep two hundred in the store at a time, so the more he sold each day, the better.

It was now four in the afternoon, so Cheng Yang decided to go hunt monsters.

Although it was no longer profitable in terms of Experience Fragments, Cheng Yang knew the importance of honing his skills. Every battle, big or small, would allow him to take another step forwards.

Cheng Yang hadn’t planned to finish his God Quest until tomorrow morning, so he had arranged for Liu Wei to train under the supervision of Xue Yu. The members of the Imperial Guard were absolutely loyal to Cheng Yang, so they were the only people he trusted not to leak Liu Wei’s skills and importance.

Now that Cheng Yang planned to hunt monsters at a leisurely pace, he wanted to bring Liu Wei to accompany him. Xue Yu couldn’t leave the territory’s boundaries, so any battle were low intensity and one-on-two. As such, Cheng Yang wanted to bring her deeper into the forest for stricter training.

Cheng Yang found the duo while they were looking for monsters.

After over a week of constant fighting and hiking, Liu Wei’s previous fragile appearance was disappearing. Although it wouldn’t affect your stats, the exercise would still improve your physique. Her legs were filling out with muscle, and she had visibly more energy than before. In addition, her previously long hair had been cut short with a sword, leaving it choppy and asymmetrical. She now looked more similar to the seasoned warrior Xue Yu than the idols of the old world.

Liu Wei had long since learned that beauty without strength was a sin in this world. She had learned that lesson the hard way, and now that Cheng Yang gave her a chance to change her fate, she would do everything in her power to do so.

Seeing this, Cheng Yang couldn’t help but smile. Even with a bare face and hairy legs, this Liu Wei was infinitely more beautiful to him than the old one since her skills were enough even to make him envious.

“Hey.” Cheng Yang called out to Liu Wei with a smile. “I finished my work early today and thought we could go hunting together.”

“I’d love to.” Liu Wei visibly lit up when she saw Cheng Yang. “Tell me how your quest went.”

Cheng Yang dismissed Xue Yu and spent the next half hour chatting with Liu Wei on their way to better hunting grounds. Along the way, Cheng Yang shared his plan for the Stones of Return with Liu Wei and showed her how his Experience Fragments total would skyrocket every few minutes.

Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last forever. After over a dozen Stones of Return were bought for the price of ten thousand Experience Stones, people caught on to the high supply. As such, the price stabilized around six thousand Experience Fragments. For Cheng Yang, even that was good since it was five times returns.

“You seem to be in a good mood.” Liu Wei said with a light laugh. “Those auctions you set up must be doing well.”

“How could I not be happy when a cash cow like that falls into my lap? With these funds, I’ll have enough money to do anything I want.” Cheng Yang boasted. “In fact, I’ll even start paying for your training costs, so Old Lee doesn’t have to.”

Liu Wei’s eyes flashed with surprise. Then she furiously shook her head. “There’s no need to do that, Cheng Yang. I kill plenty of monsters when we travel together, and I’ve been paying for it myself these last few days. I’m confident that I could pay to train at the next level of training speed if you wanted me to.”

Cheng Yang rolled his eyes. “Do you think it would be so cheap? Do you know how many Experience Fragments it would even take to unlock the next stage?”

“Well, if the pattern doesn’t change, I think its a million?”

“Yep, a million. So the training costs will be nearing the ten thousand mark.”

“Well, once you unlock the next level of training speed for me, I’ll need to work hard.” Liu Wei said with a charming lilt as she stuck out her tongue.

Cheng Yang groaned at that cheeky response. Even if she could make enough to pay the nightly costs, it would be a long time before Cheng Yang accumulated the Experience Fragments needed to unlock 64-times training speed. To do so would require the equivalent of killing a million Low-Grade monsters. It was a daunting feat.

---

While Cheng Yang was fretting over how to spend his influx of Experience Fragments, leaders around the world were wracked with anxiety.

Ever since that earthquake signaled the end of the world, the global political power balance had been in the process of reshuffling. Prominent political organizations of the past were pushed aside in favor of more militant ones.

In Cheng Yang’s previous life, a full three-fifths of the safe zones on the world were controlled by former military commanders. Even in safe zones where that wasn’t the case, military personnel were able to influence the direction of that safe zone’s leadership.

In addition to military forces, there were safe zones controlled by militarized police forces, corporate entities, and criminal syndicates.

Many of these new leaders fancied themselves the rulers of modern empires and desired a return to the imperial age. Today, however, that had changed. At the end of the week, no less than a sixth of the world’s leaders would be permanently banished from their safe zones and left to die.

As for the rest, most of them only stayed in power because their subordinates were worse than they were and acted as a shield.

After this incident, the leaders and public officials of safe zones would begin to restrain themselves. Some even stooped to distributing Experience Fragments in massive public campaigns in the hopes that the populace would spare them.

Thus, although the safe zones weren’t peaceful, a tenuous order was created since there were no longer despotic leaders in charge.

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After sending off Old Lee, Cheng Yang visited the Mission Hall to turn in his God Quest.

Once he did, a strange light twirled down from the screen and enveloped Cheng Yang.

“Congratulations, mortal Lord. Your bravery has astounded the gods, and they’ve seen fit to reward you most generously. For their enjoyment, continue to struggle and suffer. It pleases them greatly.”

As the light swirled around Cheng Yang, the messenger of the gods whispered in his ear. It was an odd sensation since the voice was usually booming, but it wasn’t an unpleasant one. However, Cheng Yang couldn’t help but feel spooked by the messenger’s words. Nothing good could come from the gods’ attention.

A moment later, the light condensed into a circular token which landed in Cheng Yang’s hand.

---

Stone of Return Business License
This license, granted by the gods, allows the sale of the specialty item “Stone of Return” by the Phoenix Village Grocery at a sales tax rate of twenty percent.

Stone of Return: Teleports you to a previously visited territory or safe zone

---

When Cheng Yang read the item’s system pane, his heart fell into his stomach. The Stone of Return was far too practical. It was a must-have for anyone, even if it was less useful than it appeared to be from the description. Not to mention, since there was no way the Stone of Return would be cheap, the territory would benefit immensely from the taxes on the item.

Although the gods gave this to him for now, Cheng Yang was confident it would eventually spread to other territories since other specialty products earned in his previous life did. However, if he handled this properly, he could become a very wealthy man before it did.

Cheng Yang immediately sprinted towards the Grocery. Once he arrived, he handed the license to the manager without a word.

“My Lord, you… How did you get this?” The manager asked with an excited and reverent voice. To be able to sell a specialty item was the dream of any merchant, so how could he not be excited.

“It’s just a new product.” Cheng Yang smugly. “With me here, you’ll be seeing tokens like this a lot.”

“I will? If it’s you, then maybe. Together we can turn this into the best Grocery on this planet!” The manager said with confidence.

“Now hurry up and get permission to start selling.”

The manager swiftly ducked into a back room and returned a few minutes later.

“My Lord, I’ve received the first shipment of goods along with some fantastic news!” The manager said with a smile bursting at the seams. “Since we’re the first territory to start selling a specialty product, they increased my sales authority to tier two! Now I can sell two hundred Stones of Return instead of a hundred. Normally I’d need to sell them for a few weeks to get my sales authority increased!”

“Good. Give me all of them.” Cheng Yang said with the air of a wealthy man.

The manager’s mood fell instantly, and an awkward expression bloomed on his face. “My Lord, this product is a little expensive, so I’m not sure-“

“How much are they? Are you worried I can’t pay?” Cheng Yang asked, annoyed by the manager’s shift in attitude.

“My Lord, I highly value your patronage and dedication to my store, but each Stone of Return cost a thousand Experience Fragments, so you lack the financial capability to purchase two hundred.” The manager explained carefully. “I want to let you use credit, but until your citizens spend more at my store, I’m afraid I can’t.”

“Fine. Give me a hundred stones for now.” Cheng Yang said with a sigh.

This time, the manager didn’t hesitate. He immediately pulled a box down from a shelf behind the counter and started to move quail egg sized stones into a bag. They were covered entirely in mysterious engravings that pulsated with light blue energy.

“That will be a hundred thousand Experience Fragments, my Lord.” The manager said with dollar signs in his eyes.

As much as it hurt Cheng Yang to do, he transferred his life savings over to the manager. Then, he took the bag and left the Grocery.

When he checked the system pane for a Stone of Return, he was pleased to see it was worth the price.

---

Stone of Return
These stones were crafted by Dwarven smiths then perfected by the ancient Orcish mages before they lost access to magic. Now they are used by those who struggle in the countless planes for a second chance at life.

Effect: Teleports the user to a previously visited territory or safe zone
Restriction: Unusable if a skill was used in the past three minutes
Cast Time: Three seconds
Cooldown: 24 hours
Uses Remaining: Three

---

Cheng Yang didn’t go far after leaving. He walked over to the Tavern and ordered an expensive meal with a drink.

There were only a few other non-NPCs in the building. Since the army had strict administration, there was almost no one who spent time here.

Cheng Yang found a place to sit down and then opened the Auction House. To his surprise, there were already several hundred items listed. Each and every one of them was something weird and powerful. It appeared as if people listed anything they didn’t understand how to use.

What kinds of items were people unaware of at this point? Anything related to Lordship and territories. They couldn’t be used in the safe zones, so even if someone found one, there wasn’t anything they could do with it.

Of course, even if they were confused, they could still read the items system pane. As such, most of the items were listed at very high prices. Not one of them cost less than fifty-thousand Experience Fragments, and some were in the millions.

Some of the items must have been found in the ruins of a city like the Imperial Guard Pavilion blueprints while the rest were rewards from getting the first clear of an instance dungeon. As long as you entered with fifty Standard-Grade Apprentices, it was possible to clear the Easy Difficulty of a Team-Size instance dungeon. By now, a large number of elites have entered the Standard-Grade, and several safe zones had dozens. As long as the population was high enough and the leaders ambitious enough, it was an easily achievable feat.

While the percentage of safe zones capable of forming a force that can clear in instance dungeon was in the single digits, there were thousands of safe zones globally.

Cheng Yang was curious, so he scrolled through the Auction House and found a few items of interest.

---

Divine Phoenix Garden Blueprints
These blueprints allow the construction of several Divine Phoenix Gardens.

This walled garden increases the efficiency of the meditation skill by 120% for up to five people.

---

The Divine Phoenix Garden was the same type of building as the Meditation Hall, but it was far better. It was even better than the expensive villas in the safe zone, which only doubled meditation efficiency. However, the owner had listed it at five million Experience Fragments. It was unfortunate, but there was no way for Cheng Yang to purchase it.

As disappointed as he was, Cheng Yang had to admit it was a fair price. The monthly rent for the best villa in the safe zones was a hundred thousand Experience Fragments, so, for a replicable, permanent structure, five million was the absolute minimum.

Even if he had the money, however, Cheng Yang wouldn’t waste it on those blueprints. For that amount, hundreds of soldiers could unlock eight-times training speed, so it wasn’t worth it unless he had so much money he didn’t know what to do with it.

There was also a statuette that unlocked a new secondary class listed for two million Experience Fragments. Naturally, Cheng Yang wouldn’t buy it.

Cheng Yang could only sigh. Did these fools think anyone would buy those? They had to understand the value Experience Fragments held, right? Couldn’t they make it a bit cheaper so he could snatch all the good things up?

Dispirited by the high prices, stopped browsing the Auction House.

Cheng Yang opened up a new listing and had the terminal scan one of his Stones of Return. Its description was copied into the listing, and then Cheng Yang set a base bidding price of three thousand Experience Fragments. Finally, he set a time limit of thirty minutes.

Cheng Yang’s idea was simple, list all of the Stones of Return he bought on the Auction House and reap massive profits. Since everyone else was being greedy, Cheng Yang figured he should milk as much out of his specialty product as he can. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be worth it.

As soon as the listing was posted, a waiter visited the table and retrieved the Stone of Return.

After the waiter took the stone into the back of the Tavern, Cheng Yang ate his meal while staring at the auction listing.

Ten minutes later, there were no changes.

Cheng Yang wasn’t in a hurry. People wouldn’t want to buy something as soon as they saw it, and the listing time was reasonably short, so he wasn’t expecting much. Once the timer was close to finished, people would start bidding.

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