Category: Doomsday Lord

Cheng Yang took some prepared clothes out of his ring for the father-daughter duo. After so much continuous use, their current clothes stank—especially Qin Qiang, who had been lying in his mother’s corpse juice.

Then, Cheng Yang carried them down the cliff face one at a time before placing them on Enlai’s back. Enlai resisted at first since he didn’t want civilians to ride him, but Cheng Yang’s threats forced him to allow it.

Under Cheng Yang’s orders, Enlai rushed back to the village ahead of Cheng Yang, who followed behind his path of destruction.

Since the path had already been cleared, and the weight of two emaciated riders was negligible, Enlai took less than half an hour to return to Phoenix Village.

Once they were safely behind the village’s walls, Qin Qiang finally allowed himself to believe that they were saved. As for Qin Yiling, she was ecstatic to see so many people.

Over the last few days, the duo had come to believe that humanity was all but extinct. Even when he was feeling hopeful, Qin Qiang thought that human civilization had been thoroughly razed. So, when he saw a thriving village, he was moved to tears.

Cheng Yang was slower than Enlai but not by much. He arrived a few minutes later, and when he did, he explained the current state of the world to Qin Qiang.

Qin Yiling was too young to understand most of what Cheng Yang said, but Qin Qiang was different. When he learned that the world had been gamified, the shock in his eyes didn’t subside for a long time.

“Mister, if we get classes, the monsters can’t hit us?” Qin Yiling asked.

Cheng Yang froze. When he brought them here, he never intended to let them perform a class change ceremony. Not only were all of the slots taken right now, but the task of selecting people had been delegated to his generals. However, Cheng Yang couldn’t refuse when he saw the hope in Qin Yiling’s eyes. So he nodded.

“You’ll become a Professional soon, and then the monsters won’t be able to hurt you.”

Those words brought a smile to Qin Yiling’s face. Seeing her smile made Cheng Yang smile too, so, in high spirits, he checked the class change statues to see if there were any open slots.

Unfortunately, it was as he thought. There weren’t any open slots since it was weird for a Phoenix Village soldier to die. Qin Yiling would have to wait until the statues leveled up.

He also had the option of taking her to a satellite village and performing a class change ceremony there. However, since none of them granted the soldier an Innate Ability, he didn’t want to.

Regardless, he tested their aptitude. Qin Yiling was best suited for the Mage class, while Qin Qiang was best suited to be either a Warrior or Ranger.

After explaining the situation to Qin Qiang, Cheng Yang had one of his subordinates lead them back to his Meditation Hall. Cheng Yang wasn’t worried about how the duo would be treated since they were his guests. If anyone dared to harass them, that person would be expelled from the village.

It was just after eight at night, so Cheng Yang decided to visit Joyous River village and get the first clear of the Nightmare Difficulty of the Abandoned Citadel instance dungeon. Then, after midnight, he could run that difficulty again. After that, he would return to Phoenix Village to train.

With Enlai’s speed, it only took Cheng Yang ten minutes to arrive at Joyous River Village. It was even faster than driving a sports car down the highway. Of course, that was mostly due to the road between the two villages.

The road led towards the southern gate, where several people could be seen coming and going. It was time for dinner, so even civilians were bustling about.

Liu Hau’s subordinates were also hard at work. Their role was vitally important in protecting the civilians as they used the road. They needed to sweep through the surrounding areas to ensure there weren’t any monsters forming herds. This was especially important after the discovery of two Nests. If the soldiers of Joyous River Village weren’t careful, monsters might overrun the road and massacre civilians.

Thankfully, the village was on the brink of becoming a High-Grade one. At that point, there would be two thousand soldiers dutifully defending the territory.

In the future, after Cheng Yang annexed the safe zone, those two thousand soldiers would be supplemented by tens of thousands from Cloud City. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be enough combat strength to restrict the monsters hordes in the tens of thousands.

Cheng Yang’s appearance shocked those near the village’s gate. Although Cheng Yang felt he should be used to it by now, he couldn’t deny that he liked the looks of awe he received while riding Enlai.

“My Lord, what are you doing here?” Liu Hau rushed to the city gates as soon as he heard Cheng Yang had arrived. Not only was that his duty as a Governor, but he was also curious about Cheng Yang’s mysterious trip. However, his enthusiasm turned to shock when he saw the white tiger. “Yoko, look out behind you!”

“Calm down.” Cheng Yang gleefully rolled his eyes, “This is just my new catch.”

Liu Hau was stunned for a moment but quickly understood what Cheng Yang meant.

“Then this is an Ascendant? Didn’t you say they’re almost impossible to meet and harder to tame? Where did you find that guy?”

“I ran into him halfway to Yicheng.”

“That’s where you were going? But Yicheng is over fifty kilometers away, how did you get back so quickly.”

“Haven’t you visited the Tavern in the last few days?” Cheng Yang chuckled.

“What would I go there for? Their food is overpriced and not even that good.” Liu Hau seemed offended that Cheng Yang believed he would frequent the Tavern, “Besides, it would look bad if I went in when my subordinates are forbidden to.”

At present, no one aside from Cheng Yang and the five generals were allowed the freely enter the Tavern. Anyone else needed permission, something that was only granted if Old Lee needed someone to browse the forum.

Cheng Yang’s greatest enemies were other humans, so he decided to restrict the biggest information leak. Although Yuan Jianzhe might have found the villages by now, Cheng Yang wasn’t going to announce that Yuan Jianzhe’s suspicions were correct.

Since Liu Hau didn’t know, Cheng Yang told him about his business selling Stones of Return.

“We’re rich. Totally completely rich.” Liu Hau said with eyes bigger than a cow’s.

“In a sense, but our expenses are going to grow just as quickly.” Cheng Yang replied, “Anyways, I came here to deliver some of those Experience Fragments and help you clear the Nightmare Difficulty of the Abandoned Citadel.”

“My Lord, don’t change the subject, what were you doing in Yicheng? Why didn’t you tell anyone you were planning to visit?”

“It was a spur of the moment decision.” Cheng Yang lied. “So, I only took two people, and coincidentally, we found a Territory Altar.”

Liu Hau sighed.

“My Lord, you are the core of our territory, so don’t throw yourself into danger like that! Every time you do, we’re terrified you might die. Although it’s unbelievable, we trust you when you say you had visions, so let us share the burden of fulfilling your dream. What if something happened and you died? Everything you’ve built would become sand in the wind before Yuan Jianzhe conquered everything you left behind. Can you bear to see that happen?”

“Don’t worry. I have my limits.” Cheng Yang replied. “I knew it wouldn’t be too dangerous, so I didn’t want you all to be worried all day. I even brought some Stones of Return, so if we encountered danger, we could safely escape. Besides, look at everything we gained from my trip. We have a new village incorporated into our territory, and I obtained a powerful Pet. Although Little White might seem gentle, he’s at the same level as a Mature monster No risk, no reward, right?”

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With so few people carrying wood, only thirty units arrived at Crane Summit. Even that amount was only possible with the enhanced strength from the physical Professions. However, it was enough to build two Meditation Halls, so there was no reason to go collect more before the sun set.

Everything was progressing slower than Cheng Yang would have liked, but there was no helping it. He would have to claim the other nearby Territory Altar tomorrow.

To help increase the strength of the new soldiers, Liu Wei and Lau Hui took them out to hunt monsters. They limited their range of operations to a kilometer away from the village. Their combat experience wasn’t enough to help if they ran into a large horde, but, with Liu Wei’s powerful Priest abilities, there was no need to worry about casualties as long as the number of monsters was less than five hundred.

After his new subordinates left, Cheng Yang used the Territory Altar to check the day’s Auction House earning. The Stones of Return had sold out today as well, allowing him to make up more than the deficit of upgrading the Bone-Gnawing Bead. The profits weren’t as incredible as the first day, but he earned almost six hundred thousand Experience Fragments.

After that, Cheng Yang used a Stone of Return to send himself back to Phoenix Village. Since Enlai was Cheng Yang’s Pet, he was forcibly sent to Phoenix Village as well.

Three seconds later, Cheng Yang and Enlai appeared in a random location on the outskirts of the village.

When they did, the civilians harvesting Alchemy materials screamed. Although those willing to brave the wilderness weren’t cowards, the relative safety of the area had lowered their guards. Thus, when a monster suddenly appeared, they were terrified.

However, that only lasted a few seconds. Once they realized Cheng Yang was there, they felt a sense of security. As if they were immune to harm as long as their Lord was there.

“This tiger is my Pet, so you’ll see him a lot more in the future. Warn the other civilians so they won’t react so strongly.” Cheng Yang said before riding Enlai into the village.

Along the way, Cheng Yang’s head turn rate was a hundred percent. Every person that saw him couldn’t help but turn around for another look. Of course, it was to see the white tiger he was riding, not him. No one had seen such a ferocious yet majestic creature before, so they couldn’t help but watch as it progressed through the Outer Village.

Things calmed down once Cheng Yang arrived at the Inner Village. There were fewer civilians around, and the soldiers were either training quietly or outside the village.

“Welcome back, my Lord.”

Cheng Yang turned around to see Xue Yu approaching him at a brisk powerwalk.

When Xue Yu saw Enlai, she couldn’t help but fill with jealousy. A Warrior’s steed was their pride, and seeing her Lord riding an outstanding one only reminded her of the one she was forced to leave behind.

“Thank you.” Cheng Yang replied. “Was there something you needed to report?”

“I do, my Lord. Old Lee told me that they noticed a spy lurking around the woods near the north of the village this morning. Unfortunately, they escaped capture using a Stone of Return.”

“That was probably one of Yuan Jianzhe’s scouts.” Cheng Yang wasn’t surprised. “It was inevitable that he’d try to find the village.”

“I also have a report from Liu Hau that an explosion nearly killed one of his soldiers while they were hunting near Joyous River Village. We don’t have any clues as to where the explosion came from, but Liu Hau is convinced it was Yuan Jianzhe. Although I’m not sure what caused the explosion, I’m afraid that man obtained the Artificer class.”

“No, that doesn’t make sense. Yuan Jianzhe can’t unlock any special classes even if he found an item for it. That was probably a weapon from this world.” Cheng Yang frowned. “I knew Yuan Jianzhe wouldn’t sit still, but it’s unfortunate that he isn’t willing to hand Cloud City over to me obediently.”

Cheng Yang knew about the Artificer class, but the first ones were from Cairo. Some kind of military-grade munitions definitely caused the explosion. Probably a grenade or landmine.

“My Lord, I recommend you immediately mobilize your forces and eradicate Yuan Jianzhe before he becomes a bigger threat.” Xue Yu said.

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to. The gods forbid killing within the safe zones, so unless I was willing to starve him to death, it’s impossible to kill him. We can’t waste time guarding the safe zone since it would limit our growth, and a protracted war would be more harmful to us than them since they have far more soldiers.”

“What do you plan to do, my Lord?” Xue Yu asked, “We can’t allow that commoner to continue causing trouble for us.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll deal with him.” Cheng Yang sneered. “If he tries to do anything over the top, I’ll personally drag him out of the safe zone and see whether he can die like the rest of us.”

Although Cheng Yang said that, he was hoping he wouldn’t have to kill Yuan Jianzhe. In his past life, Yuan Jianzhe could be considered the reason he had lived as long as he did. He had valiantly mobilized the military against horrible odds to capture the safe zone and rescue civilians. He also set aside Experience Fragments for food before he could be kicked out for not doing that.

As such, how could he not be lenient with Yuan Jianzhe?

Cheng Yang also hoped he would be able to count Yuan Jianzhe among his subordinates someday, but it seemed the man wasn’t the type to be someone’s second-in-command. He had hoped that just developing his forces would be enough to dissuade Yuan Jianzhe, but now he would have to change his strategy.

“Since you have a plan, this subordinate will not bring up the matter again.” Xue Yu said with a bow.

Cheng Yang sent Xue Yu away, then he visited the Territory Altar and sent thirty thousand Experience Fragments to Crane Summit. It was enough to level up the village and compensate workers for any collected materials.

When he was done, Cheng Yang left the village. He had a promise to fulfill.

Riding Enlai was a calming experience. Thorns and shrubs were crushed under his paws, and any monster they encountered were left in the dust. The combination of the safe environment and his boredom allowed Cheng Yang to think introspectively for the first time since he returned to the past.

When did he become a kind person? Why was he wasting time to rescue a pair of civilians that were utterly incapable of helping him? Although he’d focused rescue efforts before, it was always because he had more to gain by rescuing them.

He wasn’t this nice even before the apocalypse in his past life. In fact, he’d been rather selfish. He spent most of his free time gaming or sleeping but never helping others.

Was his experience as a Lord changing him? No, from the perspective of a Lord, this trip was even more wasteful since he could use this time to rescue more civilians from Yicheng.

Was he still the same person as before? When he returned to the past, did something change? He had only grown more vicious in his previous life, so what had happened? Did the gods meddle with his mind to make him some into an ideal person?

When was the last time he did something fun? Even before the apocalypse in this life, he never stopped to enjoy good food or rejoice over the lives of his friends? Did he not care about anything but power now?

Why couldn’t he forget the look in Qin Yiling’s eyes?

Why did the tired and defeated Qin Qiang fill him with sorrow?

Why did the thought of leaving those two to die on that ledge fill him with such remorse that he set out to save them immediately after returning to Phoenix Village?

For more than half an hour, all sorts of questions flowed through Cheng Yang’s mind. Although he didn’t have any answers, he knew something about him had changed, and he wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“Mister! You came back for us!”

Cheng Yang’s thoughts were interrupted by the childish cry of Qin Yiling.

“Aren’t you afraid that you’ll attract monsters by shouting so loudly?” Cheng Yang asked with a bright smile.

“Dad! Dad, wake up! That uncle came back! Hurry and get up!”

Cheng Yang never got an answer since Qin Yiling was too excited to hear the question.

He slowly got off of Enlai while lamenting his new status as an “uncle.” Then, he quickly scaled the cliff.

The outcrop was much cleaner than before. The loose rubble had been thrown off the cliff, and a small shrine had been created for the grandmother’s body.

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Only after the group was over a hundred meters away did any of the survivors voice a complaint.

“Captain Hu Zhuang, are you really going to bring everyone over to that guy?”

“Of course, there’s nowhere left for us in Yicheng, and life is only going to get harder. The last scraps of food are disappearing, and too many people died the last time we hunted a monster to eat. With what we have now, everyone will be dead in less than a month.” Hu Zhuang, the burly man, said.

“I know, but…” The man couldn’t find any words to refute Hu Zhuang.

“Circumstantial evidence proves most of what he said is true. We heard that voice, and when we killed monsters, we got Experience Fragments. Moreover, no sane person would dress like that guy unless there was a benefit. Our only hope for survival is to become a Professional like him.”

“But if he’s lying to us or has evil plans for us, what’s to stop that tiger from eating us?” A man in a red shirt said.

“Nothing. That’s why if that man wanted to force us to do something, he could have. At the very least, I believe he wasn’t lying when he said he would find someone else if we didn’t agree.”

The rest of their group was hidden around three hundred meters, so it didn’t take long for the group to return to Cheng Yang. Once they did, Cheng Yang smiled warmly.

“Now that you’re all here let set off.” Cheng Yang took the initiative.

Although several people wanted to say something, Cheng Yang didn’t give them a chance.

Cheng Yang led the way while his companions, Liu Wei and Lau Hui, covered the rear. Since they had to defend over a hundred people, a loose ring was formed around the densely packed survivors. Enlai and Lau Hui’s wolf prowled the surrounding area while the humans finished off any monsters that got close.

After traveling for a few minutes, Hu Zhuang decided to get some answers from Cheng Yang, no matter the cost.

Cheng Yang was rather indifferent, but since he knew Hu Zhuang would have a useful Innate Ability, he humored the man. If he had an answer, he would provide it. The only things he hid were details regarding the state of Cloud City.

After a half-hour of conversation, Cheng Yang learned quite a bit about Hu Zhuang. He was an ex-soldier, and after being discharged, he started a security company with his former squadmates. He continued to hire ex-soldiers until the company had nearly two hundred employees.

With their prowess, they fared much better than ordinary people during the apocalypse. Even so, of the original group, only half of them were left.

Cheng Yang’s group had cleared all the hordes earlier that day, so there wasn’t any danger. However, Hu Zhuang and the other survivors were able to see the power of Cheng Yang’s group clearly. They already knew they were strong from watching them earlier, but it was different seeing it up close.

After arriving at Crane Summit, Hu Zhuang and the others were deeply shocked by the class change statues. They were incredibly life-like and didn’t have any signs of being worked on.

“This is the village, and those are the class change statues. In the future, there will be a wall and wooden buildings. However, those buildings need resources. So, for the next few days, it will be your job to collect the necessary wood. Do any of you know of any places with a stockpile of lumber nearby?”

“I know the location of a few lumber mills nearby.” Hu Zhuang said.

“In that case, hurry up and perform your class change ceremonies. Afterward, get to work.”

Although they didn’t have many Experience Fragments, everyone had a few. With some teamwork and wits, a large group could kill a monster without casualties.

For those with less than ten, they borrowed some Experience Fragments from Cheng Yang.

Hu Zhuang was the first to perform a class change ceremony. After this, Cheng Yang eagerly checked his system pane.

---

Hu Zhuang
Crane Summit Soldier
Class: Warrior
Level: Low-Grade Apprentice (0%)

Age	41	Life Span	110
Health	30	Mana	20
Physical Attack	5	Magic Attack	1
Physical Defense	3	Magic Defense	1
Attack Speed	1	Movement Speed	1

Innate Abilities

• Receive 20% more stats in the Physical Defense attribute when you level up
• Iron Wall (Special Ability): Increase the Physical Defense of you and your allies by 30%

Skills

• Meditation (Standard Grade): Meditate to absorb experience fragments and level up
• Lacerate (Low Grade): Add magic to your blade making it easier to cut through enemies | Damage: 5 | Cost: 2 MP | Cast Time: 3 sec | Proficiency: 0%

Equipment

• Iron Sword: Status symbol of the warrior | Damage: 4
• Wooden Shield: A wooden shield | Can block physical attacks

---

Hu Zhuang was the perfect meat shield. His Physical Defense was fifty percent higher than usual, which was ideal for a frontline tank.

In Cheng Yang’s previous life, Hu Zhuang had twenty-four points of Physical Defense, enough to make most of his enemies despair. As a result, he became one of Yuan Jianzhe’s generals.

At present, only Hu Zhuang and Zhou Jie had general-level Special Abilities. At least with regards to Cheng Yang’s forces.

Those two needed to work hard inside an official army position before their Innate Abilities were useful to anyone else. That’s because the gods’ rules only recognized someone as an ally if they were in the same military unit or adventuring party.

Once everyone finished performing their class change ceremonies, Cheng Yang had Liu Wei relieve Lau Hui of his Vice-Governor position. In his place, Liu Wei assigned the job to Hu Zhuang.

“Mr. Cheng, why did you make me the village’s Vice-Governor?” Hu Zhuang was notified when the position was passed to him.

“Because you already have the trust of the citizens that will be living here. Since my companions and I will be leaving soon, I need someone who can run the village more than someone who has absolute loyalty to me.” Cheng Yang explained. “It’s also impossible for you to directly rebel since you have this position, so loyalty isn’t a big deal at the moment.”

As Hu Zhuang prepared to protest, Cheng Yang checked his watch. It was around three in the afternoon. He needed to hurry.

“Instead of complaining, put your energy into gathering wood. For now, I’ll guide you back to Yicheng, so we can gather enough wood to build two Meditation Halls. They won’t be as good as a Wall, but they’ll keep the civilians safe for now.” Cheng Yang said.

The group once again prepared for a long trip, but this time, the survivors were in high spirits. They had obtained the key to unlocking their own destiny. There was no longer a feeling of despair weighing down on them, and a sense of freedom had bloomed in their hearts.

Any monsters they encountered during the journey were dealt with by Hu Zhuang and his companions. Although they were worried at first about fighting monsters without using traps, it didn’t take long for them to adapt to their new abilities.

Hu Zhuang led the way to a lumber mill, and when they arrived, they pulled massive logs from the rubble and carried it back.

On the way back, there was almost a disaster. They ran into a horde with a Pinnacle-Grade leader. Fortunately, Cheng Yang was able to detect the monsters before the two groups collided. As such, he was able to rush forwards and ensure there weren’t any casualties.

When the survivors caught up to Cheng Yang, all that was left of the horde was a few scattered monsters and blood-soaked corpses. In their eyes, he seemed invincible.

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“Who are you?”

Cheng Yang had just finished killing a few monsters when he heard someone call out to him. He had sent Liu Wei to search on their own with Enlai, a decision which apparently made him more approachable.

About a hundred meters away, a small group of people slunk out from behind some rubble. Their clothes were nearly rags, and their hygiene was horrible. Their eyes were filled with a deep weariness, but their posture showed Cheng Yang their determination to live.

Cheng Yang was overjoyed. He hadn’t expected to find any survivors so quickly. Most importantly, Cheng Yang recognized the man in the middle. In his past life, that man was famous throughout the greater Cloud City area.

“I’m just someone passing through. Are you the survivors living in the ruins?” Cheng Yang tried to maintain a friendly tone and atmosphere despite the surroundings. He was confident that the people in front of him were on edge since the earthquake, so he didn’t want to spook them.

“We live in the ruins, and we survived, so I suppose you could say we are.” A burly man in his forties said suspiciously, “You’re not from a settlement, so where did you come from?”

“Settlement?” Cheng Yang had forgotten, but there were rumors of some settlements in Yicheng in his past life. By the time he visited Yicheng, the settlement had already been destroyed, and its handful of surviving residents had migrated to one of the nearby villages.

Another reason the settlement was destroyed was the implementation of the gods’ second trial. After the first month, the gods evaluated everyone living outside the safe zones. So long as they were deemed worthy, the gods teleported to the nearest safe zone. Around ninety percent of the survivors were, leaving only the weak and cowardly left to fend for themselves. After that, only the very resilient survived until rescue could find them.

“You don’t know about the settlement? So you are from outside the city.” The burly man said. “So you know, the settlement is an area that the monsters rarely visit.”

“I take it you live in a settlement.”

The man angrily shook his head. “Our settlement was recently taken over by a bunch of scumbags who raided a police armory. We didn’t want to be exploited by them, so we’re traveling to another settlement.”

Cheng Yang smiled warmly at the man, hoping his sincerity would allow him to get some more useful answers.

“How many people live in that settlement?” Cheng Yang asked.

“Why are you asking, who the hell are you?” The man immediately became hostile.

“Didn’t you say scumbags run the settlement? Why does it matter if you tell us what you know.” Lau Hui asked.

Cheng Yang smiled sadly in his heart. Didn’t this guy get it?

“It matters because although the leaders are scum, the people there are just desperate citizens trying to survive. No one asking questions like that can have small goals, so what would I do if you started a massacre?”

No sooner had he said that than Liu Wei returned riding Enlai.

“Their monster…” The group of survivors grew pale and started to back away.

However, before they could escape, Enlai jumped and landed behind them. As if it enjoyed seeing the humans tremble, Enlai got as close as possible before roaring. With such a big tiger roaring at them, none of them had the strength to run. Some of them didn’t even have the strength to stand.

“Don’t be afraid.” Cheng Yang said. “This tiger is my Pet.”

After the initial roar, Enlai appeared satisfied, so the survivors were able to get over their shock. Since a young woman was sitting on the tigers back, perhaps it was a trained pet like Cheng Yang said.

“It doesn’t eat people?” The burly man asked, desperately trying to sound confident.

“Not unless I tell it to. What do you think Enlai, do you want to eat them?”

Enlai quickly shook his head lest that horrible nickname come back.

“Who are you?” The man asked again, but much more politely.

“Do you remember the three messages that came from the so-called gods?” Cheng Yang asked.

Members of the group nodded.

“Those gods allowed us to obtain powers like in a video game. When we did, we leveled up a few times and then made a journey here from Cloud City.”

“Does that mean you’re a wizard or a sorcerer?” One of the younger survivors asked.

“I’m a Mage, this man is a Summoner, and the woman on the tiger is a Priest.” Cheng Yang then explained how he founded Phoenix Village and their desire to make a satellite village near Yicheng.

“I don’t understand what you mean when you say the world is a game, but will we really become like the superheroes in the movies?” The burly man excitedly asked after watching Lau Hui lift a car off the ground.

“As long as you’re able to level up, you will.” Cheng Yang said with a devious smile.

“Good! Once I become a Warrior, I’m going to level up as soon as possible!” The burly man said fiercely.

Cheng Yang ignored the daydreamer and asked: “Now, will you tell me about the settlement?”

“If you do, will you promise to make us stronger?”

“As long as you swear loyalty to me. Its nothing major, just view me as a government official. In addition, I’ll make sure none of the scum from the settlement can become Professionals. You’ll be able to watch them struggle while you get stronger.”

“Let me talk it over with my friends.” The group of survivors moved a few meters away before having a hushed conversation.

Cheng Yang almost burst into laughter when he saw that. With his hearing ability, even if they were another ten meters away, he would be able to hear them clearly.

From their conversation, Cheng Yang knew that the survivors really were worried about bringing a disaster to the settlement. That wasn’t the only reason, however. There were about a hundred more of them in their group in a nearby apartment’s basement. Since they didn’t know Cheng Yang’s intentions, they didn’t mention them.

They finished discussing after deciding to wait until Cheng Yang proved the existence of the Territory Altar. Only after that would they reveal anything about the settlement. It was only natural to be wary of Cheng Yang, so he didn’t mind their decision.

However, he wasn’t going to agree to it. He didn’t have the patience to wait until the survivors trusted him. So, when the burly man came forwards to explain their decision, Cheng Yang stopped him.

“I already know your plan, and I don’t care about it. Since you’ve got over a hundred people in your group, that’s all I need. The nearby village can only accommodate eighty Professionals, so I don’t care about the settlement anymore. You’re only option is to gather your group and follow me to the Territory Altar or leave now and lose this opportunity forever.”

The survivors were worried since Cheng Yang had heard everything, but the burly man took the initiative. Since this was close enough to their original plan, he decided to agree.

“We’ll go get them now, sir. Just wait a few minutes, and then we can go.”

When he finished, the burly man ran off without waiting for either Cheng Yang or his companions to reply. Once their leader was gone, the other survivors followed.

“Cheng Yang, who were those people?” Liu Wei asked once it was quiet.

“A suitable group of survivors.” Cheng Yang then explained the situation.

“I see, why did you let them go then? What if they don’t come back?”

“If they don’t come back, then we find someone else.” Cheng Yang said. “Besides, I don’t think their leader will pass up this opportunity.”

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“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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