Epoch of Twilight

One step, two steps. Luo Yuan was moving as slow as an old person at first, but he was gradually getting faster and faster, his movements becoming more sturdy. After a few minutes, he could walk like a normal person again, the pain in his body subsiding rapidly. His brain, which felt like it had been clogged, started to clear up. Suddenly, he felt like he was shedding off a heavy armor and getting back his freedom.

However, that did not last long.

Soon, the exhaustion of his Sensory Perception made him dizzy. His body was detached from the Earth Pulse, and his emotions came back accompanied by fatigue and pain. Luo Yuan felt lost.

It took him a while to snap back to reality, but he slowly sat down at the corner of the bed. He turned on the system attributes panel right away. The Earth Pulse’s healing was super effective. Although it lasted less than half an hour, all his attributes had recovered fully. Both his Strength and Dexterity had gained +1 each, while the rest had reached +8. If he were to add the bonus of his Earth based abilities, his Physique would go as high as +13. However, bonus attributes were not an upgrade on his intrinsic abilities. In a certain context, he could be given a bonus; for instance, the halo in games. Besides the enhancement of his stamina though, it had no other effect on his recovery.

Most importantly, the concentration of his Will remained obscure, although not as torturous as before. His Sensory Perception was spreading naturally like mercury flowing on the floor, but due to exhaustion, it could only be maintained at a six-meter radius. If nothing else, at least this meant that his brain was recovering at lightning speed.

There was no price to pay for such powerful self-healing. What it took was only a massive amount of nutrients and energy. Luo Yuan felt hungrier than he ever had, and a part of the energy nucleus near his heart was used. It was the energy enrichment he had extracted from the snake, which could support him twice as much.

"This should be enough!" Luo Yuan thought to himself as he clenched his fists, feeling the energy growing inside his body.

There was a knock at the door, and a basin full of steamed buns and a big bowl of water were shoved through the small window under the door. Wen Yujie snapped out of her daydream and placed the food on the ground before Luo Yuan. She picked up a bun, squatted in a corner of the cell, and started eating it. There were tears rolling down her cheeks, but she kept eating.

Luo Yuan thought her being emotional during such a moment was ridiculous. "What is there to cry about?"

Hearing what Luo Yuan had asked her made Wen Yujie lose control of her tears.

"I just... I don’t want to talk you, you liar!" she said hatefully while still crying.

She hadn’t had a good rest those past few days, especially during the days Luo Yuan had been spiking a high fever. Every day she’d had to wipe his body more than 10 times. She’d even had to do it at night. Sometimes she would try to catch up on her sleep, but then she would hear Luo Yuan telling her that he was thirsty in his sleep and she’d have to feed him. When he had finally awakened and started getting better, she had still been concerned that he could lose his life at any time.

It was his fault for knowing that he had the unique ability to heal, but not saying anything to her. Did he not realize how worried she was about him? She could not stop crying as she thought about all the things she’d had to do for him.

Luo Yuan was stunned. He turned to Wen Yujie and told her apologetically, "Actually, there were certain conditions that had to be met for me to heal like I did. It’s not like I enjoyed lying in bed doing nothing. Thank you for taking care of me though."

Sensing that there was a boundary in his tone, the girl’s sensitive heart was hurt. Wen Yujie turned cold as she said, "I don’t need to hear that. I would have done this for anyone."

...

Since then, Luo Yuan could sense that Wen Yujie was being cold to him. Although he realized it, he did not say anything. He knew that he had a complicated love life, not only with Huang Jiahui and Zhao Yali, but even with Wang Shishi. Wang Xiaoguang had been hurt so bad that she did not even want to be friends with him anymore. He really should not be planting any more seeds of love. Plus, he was now behind bars and unsure of what would happen to him, so he was not in the mood to invest in a relationship.

After dinner, Luo Yuan put this behind him. He lay down on his bed, closed his eyes and prepared to meditate to speed up the healing of his Sensory Perception and Will. His meditation was not limited to one position. He could do it sitting or lying down. Not long later, he closed his eyes, and all the thoughts in his mind quieted down.

Wen Yujie stared hatefully at Luo Yuan, who was sleeping like a pig right after eating his dinner. She got into her own bed and just stared into space. She thought she would make a bad impression on him. If she did not explain herself properly, it might cause a misunderstanding between them. On the other hand, she was worried that she was being too cold to him and he might think that she was angry with him. Her mind was in complete chaos.

...

Meanwhile, in the other room, there were cigarette butts everywhere, and smoke was filling the air as if there was a fire.

"The underground cables were cut off recently, and the satellite phones were turned up with the excuse of re-encryption. Due to the electromagnetic storm, the Desert City is now untraceable," a guy in glasses laughed.

Su Yu nodded and said, "Good. At least the civilians won’t be affected temporarily. By then, we will be rich and there’ll nothing we’ll need to care about."

Su Yu then looked at Lao Xie.

"Oh, the military has been settled. Master Liu is playing along," said Lao Xie as he stood up and tossed his cigarette away. There was a smell of blood on his body. Apparently, the battle would not be a peaceful one.

"What about you, Hawk Eye?" Su Yu said to an average-looking man with a sharp vision.

"The operation in the government department has been going well these past few days. We have handled a few of them who noticed that something was wrong. Oh, it’s Shuanggui! We have taken care of anyone who caused trouble!" Hawk Eye joked with a frown.

Everyone burst out laughing, but Su Yu was frowning. It was the first time he lacked any talented men. Except for a couple of them, the rest were all talk. Su Yu banged on the table. "Now let’s talk about the evolved people who were captured. Lao Xie, did anybody escape recently?"

"There’s a soldier doing rounds near the prison day and night, and those who were unwilling to submit were all killed. None of them would dare escape now," Lao Xie said arrogantly. Killing was a major privilege to him. It had been his obsession ever since he had become a martial arts coach before the apocalypse.

"Although it was a little cruel, it showed them how powerful we are and that they need to listen. Things would be so much easier if Sister Mo’s hypnosis was effective on evolved people," Su Yu said. Suddenly, he seemed to think of something. "Speed up the investigation on the evolved people that are still out there among the civilians. I don’t want the same thing happening again."

As he concluded, his face was full of bitterness. He had not expected such a small place as the Desert City to have so many powerful evolved people. If it was not for the other party’s inexperience in battle, he would have already lost his life.

"I suspect that there’s a mole in the Desert City, otherwise it would not have taken us so long to take care of this," the guy in the glasses said seriously while pushing up his glasses.

"Let them go on with the investigation and tighten the food control. One day they will not be able to take it anymore and they will show themselves," Su Yu said.

Suddenly, the meeting room door was pushed open, and Sister Mo walked in without acknowledging anyone. She took out a document and said, "We are in trouble!"

Su Yu took the document and looked at it, mumbling to himself, "Luo Yuan!"

Then he said in a deadly tone, "Get him now!"

...

In the middle of the night, Luo Yuan was lying in bed with his eyes open. The cell was in complete darkness as he slowly sat up, feeling for his Zhanmadao. He had been meditating just now, so his sensitivity was high enough for him to feel where the Zhanmadao was. After imprinting it with Will over long periods of time, the sword had been imprinted with his spirit. As long as it was not too far away from him, he could sense it clearly. He could even use the remaining imprinted Will to sense what was happening nearby. Of course, things were not exactly clear. The best he could do was sense if there were any big obstacles near him. Ever since his brain damage, he had not been feeling at the top of his game though. As a result, he had not been able to sense much until now. Things were only just starting to become clear again.

He sensed that his Zhanmadao was not too far. It was approximately 600 meters to 1,000 meters away. He was hesitating to summon it though. The Zhanmadao had become a part of his body now. It was in his blood. He had taken extra time to cultivate it when he’d arrived at the Desert City. He could now move the sword with his mind, but his speed was slow, unlike the terrifying impact of the ‘flying sword’ in the myth. However, it was still good enough for him to summon the sword. All he had to do was think about it, and the Zhanmadao would come to him.

However, after thinking about it, he gave up on the urge to summon it. Now that his body was not completely healed, there was no use. Plus, it could trigger some kind of danger or unpredictable incident. Luo Yuan regained his calm, concentrated his Will, and started to heal his body.

...

The next morning, as soon as the lights in the prison were turned on, Luo Yuan opened his eyes. His body was itching after using the Earth Pulse to heal in the middle of the night. It bothered him immensely, but he wanted to see what was happening to his body. Wen Yujie, who had been sleeping on the top bunk, was waking up as well.

Luo Yuan said immediately, "Please wait, I’m taking my clothes off!"

"Okay!" Wen Yujie replied shyly before she lay down on her bed again.

Luo Yuan’s sword, wallet, clothes, and equipment had not been confiscated when he had been caught. Luo Yuan was relieved to see that he was wearing his own clothes.

In fact, he had plenty of equipment on him. On the outside, he was wearing Levitating Sports Wear, a dark-blue piece of equipment made using Storm Bird Feathers. Although its ranking was not high and it did not look extraordinary on Luo Yuan, its unique Airflow Balancing ability was the reason he’d kept it with him until now.

On the inside, he was wearing a green-level bulletproof armor made of Archelon Egg Colloid with anti-damaging and energy-absorbing effects. His undergarment was the latest Plasma Undergarment, another green-level piece of equipment with an angled shield made of a Green Hidden Person’s Sharp Horn and a Haunted Locust Heart with its own special functions.

Luo Yuan took off his clothes and found out what was causing him the itch. There was dead skin all over his body, looking like layers of scales. The layers looked like they were one size bigger, and the sight of them gave him goosebumps. The dead skin consisted of almost all the dead cells in his body. As his body slowly recovered and regained its normal physique, the dead skin was shed by his metabolism.

Luo Yuan tried to peel off the dead skin, making a sound similar to a piece of cloth being torn. The dead skin was tough, but the limitations of human nature made its defense weaker than that of mutated beasts. However, the dead skin shed by Luo Yuan’s +14 Physique body was comparable to a light-green level creature’s fur. Luo Yuan carried on tearing it, soon getting exhausted.

His strength had not fully recovered yet, so he was only slightly stronger than the average person. It was completely incomparable to when he was at the top of his game. Luo Yuan was panting and staring at his body, which looked like it was suffering from some kind of skin disease. There was nothing he could do. He actually found it funny. He was not sure if he should be proud of himself or laugh at himself. He did not even have the strength to hurt himself right now. He was almost there though. Two more sessions of healing and he would have fully recovered. When the time came, this tiny shell would not be able to contain him anymore.