Epoch of Twilight

It was 10:30 in the morning, seven to eight hours before the sky turned dark.

Their hours were numbered, even Huang Jiahui and the other ladies who were cooking had put down what they were doing to help carry the gravel.

The cockpit’s windshield was broken while the inside was blocked by a great amount of soil. To get through the round aircraft’s head, the only option they had was to clear a path among the gravel in the cockpit, and dig from the inside.

Luo Yuan was standing in front, and he used his sharp Zhanmadao to slice through humongous rocks that weighed tonnes, into smaller pieces weighing hundreds of kilos each. The rest quickly helped to move the rocks away.

With Wang Shishi’s capability equivalent to that of six people, she was the most efficient one. She used her telekinesis to levitate pieces of gravel and soil, forming a river on top of their heads. They went through the metal door and into the cabin, one by one.

Her telekinesis was improving at breakneck speed. Since the bridge explosion, she was getting used to the impact and now, her telekinesis could carry things that weighed fifty kilos. Sooner or later, she would be able to fly.

It had been an hour since the clearing of gravel, and the cabin was soon cleaned up. All that was left was an elongated rock that had pierced through the windshield. It was a humongous rock extending from the windshield to the floor, which damaged the panels and chairs, as well as leaving the metal floor deformed.

The tricky thing was that it acted as a barricade to the head of the aircraft. So it must be removed, by hook or by crook. Luo Yuan was afraid the aircraft would collapse, but now that all rocks were cleared away, it was time to get rid of this particular piece of rock.

Luo Yuan touched the rock and found out that the smaller rocks surrounding it were compact from the compression after the critical hit. They had formed a new balance, preventing any more rocks from falling from above. Collapsing was definitely not possible now.

“Everyone, stay away from here!” said Luo Yuan.

“Please be careful,” said a worried Huang Jiahui.

Luo Yuan nodded. Once everyone was out of the cockpit, he stared at the rock, took a deep breath and sliced it with his Zhanmadao seven to eight times. He left the cockpit right after that. His speed was astonishing – from slicing, sheathing to leaving the cockpit, it only took him no more than half a second.

A loud noise came from the aircraft after Luo Yuan left and stood outside the door. As loud as thunder, the sliced rock fell onto the metal floor and another loud noise was heard. The chairs in the cockpit were hit by the rolling rocks. Thankfully, there was no casualties as everyone had evacuated the area.

Apart from the humongous rocks, there were no other gravel that fell. The cut left a smooth surface. Although they were tiny cracks at the edges, but the middle was flat, so no more stones were able to be removed.

Without the hindrance of the rock, Luo Yuan managed to empty the aircraft’s head. Even the smallest parts in the head were sliced using the Zhanmadao. Commander Xia’s face twitched as he watched from the sidelines.

This was the most advanced aircraft, possibly worth billions before the end of the world. But even without being destroyed by Luo Yuan, many parts of the aircraft were already damaged, as the head was hit and compressed like a biscuit, with malformed internal parts.

Especially at the top of the head, it was completely dented to a concave shape. The head was soon chopped off by Luo Yuan using his Zhanmadao in a circular motion. The metal dropped onto the floor with a loud thud, revealing a man-sized cave.

Although it wasn’t the first time this slicing took place, but everyone, especially a few soldiers, were still amazed by how sharp the Zhanmadao was. The rocks in the cave were crushed by the impact on the aircraft’s head. With a slight touch, the crushed stones disintegrated into powder. It was as fine as flour, and sprinkled across the cave. It didn’t even need any more digging. With Wang Shishi’s telekinesis, the powder formed into a giant white dragon and was sent outside.

With the removal of the crushed stones, they had more space to work with. Gravel could only be found three to four meters away. Wang Shishi’s telekinesis was partially used up. Less than half an hour later, it was depleted and she had to stop. But the job she had done was similar to what everyone else had accomplished collectively, as most of the crushed stones were moved by Wang Shishi. What she did even earned her a compliment from Luo Yuan, which was quite rare.

......

Being in this risky environment, no doubt it was extremely dangerous for them to be moving the rocks inside as they could be buried by the gravel. But the people here were anything but ordinary. Even for ordinary people, their body should be around 12 points. But their strength, reaction and speed was twice as strong as those of ordinary people. It will be equivalent if these people were to join any athletics competition, as they would definitely break the record. Even for Wang Shishi who seemed weak, without telekinesis, she was able to run with ease with a hundred kilos of rocks in her hands. If they were to be placed in the apocalypse, many would be shocked by their abilities. But as compared to Luo Yuan, these people seemed to be mere weaklings.

There were several collapses along the way but they managed to avoid being buried. The most dangerous incident was when more than ten pieces of gravel that weighed approximately hundreds of tons, fell towards their head. Luo Yuan warned them, and they managed to run away before the gravel even landed on them. Nobody was hurt, except for one who was hit on the head but it was merely a scrape; no bandage was needed.

As they were digging seven to eight meters deep, the gravel were nowhere to be seen but there were many, many gigantic rocks. For safety purposes, Luo Yuan digged a few meters in until he reached a rock wall.

The task progressed faster than expected, as nobody took a break from working. Before 7pm, they were already wrapping up. The cave was now approximately ten meters deep and six meters wide. Although it was narrow, it was good enough to hide in a safe place that could fit all of them during the apocalypse.

Looking at the cave surrounded by walls, everyone was relieved as they could finally sleep in peace that night.

............

As they walked outside, it was completely dark. It was rather windy that night; the wind swept through the woods, creating an eerie whistling sound. Everyone was preparing to make dinner.

“Would you guys look at the sky now?” suggested Huo Dong, out of nowhere.

Everyone quickly looked up, to be greeted by an aurora above their heads. It was resembled an ever-changing ribbon, giving the sky a bizarre yet alluring vibe. What caused their scalp to feel numb was the aurora that almost blanketed the entire sky.

“Why would this thing appear at a place like this?” Cao Lin was shocked. “Maybe an earthquake is coming!”

No, that is impossible, maybe this is just a coincidence,” Wang Xiaguang said, while looking at the beautiful aurora with a trembling voice.

Luo Yuan didn’t say anything, as he knew that an aurora wasn’t a good indication of anything. This was only caused by the earth’s magnetic layer or the high-energy particle flow from the milky way triggering the ionization of the molecules. He had seen it before at the volcano; it was obviously a magnetic field change the last time too.

But it was different this time round. Before the plane crashed, he had witnessed a majestic aurora, but it was much smaller and it did not cover as much of the sky as this one did. This could be the storm of the universe that Commander Xia was talking about.

Luo Yuan looked at Commander Xia. He didn’t look so good and his lips were quivering. Clearly, they shared the same thought.

The wind was blowing more and more intensely, causing them to falter in their stance. The green carpet above the forest was shaking too, emitting an unusual rustling noise. Luckily the tree branches here were tough, or else they would have been uprooted by now.

The strength of the wind had the same magnitude as an eighth to ninth-tier typhoon. For this to be happening in such an inland area, it was definitely something really odd.

The aurora was spreading further at high speed, almost engulfing the entire sky. Lightning had even struck, occasionally followed by thunders. As time passed, the unusual atmosphere slowly dominated the night.

The atmosphere was intense, causing goosebumps and fear unbeknownst to all. Later on, there was an uproar in the forest, causing many creatures to scurry about aimlessly in the dark. An unknown creature that was three-meters long ran towards Luo Yuan. Consumed by fear, it had lost its mind. It eventually crashed into a tree and lost consciousness.

Within ten minutes, the lightning was striking more frequently, as if forming an electrical web in the sky. For a second, the sky was illuminated, as bright as day.

A shiver ran down Luo Yuan’s spine. He pulled Commander Xia aside and asked, “If this is really the storm of the universe, how bad would it potentially be?”

Commander Xia’s face turned pale. He thought about it for a little while and said, “I’m not too sure either, but first the ionosphere would expand, and the dissipation of the outer space’s atmosphere would accelerate. The atmospheric layer was discharging at a large-scale, and the earth’s temperature will rise subsequently, which is what we are now experiencing.

“If it gets even worse, the atmospheric would be later destroyed by the storm, forming a hole. Anything would be inevitable after that, should the hole get bigger. All the living beings would cease to exist. The only way to survive is to hide underground in a condition that provides a complete ecosystem.”

“So do you mean the only thing we can do now is to pray for the storm to pass as soon as possible?” Huo Dong asked in desperation.

Boom!

A huge lightning struck a hundred-meter tall tree from approximately a hundred meters away. The tree was sliced into half and started bursting into flames.

The lightning gave everyone a fright.

“Quick, we have to leave,” Luo Yuan shouted with three kids in tow, while he ran towards the aircraft. They were all scared and followed Luo Yuan, as they ran for their lives.