Epoch of Twilight

The Blue Dragon that was still excitedly shouting suddenly noticed that Luo Yuan had come close to its baby [1] and subconsciously became tense.

Its body curled up and it wriggled in unease around the hill while staring at him without so much as a blink.

If it were another mutated beast, it would have slapped the mutated beast to death but for Luo Yuan it dared not, his strength still impressed it.

In fact, it did not even know the usage of this the tree and had no knowledge of obtaining the Heart of Wisdom. It just instinctively liked it. After occasionally seeing the tree, it occupied the area and learned of the intelligent race that continued to tend for the tree.

Soon it felt a wave of relief after seeing Luo Yuan touching it and immediately flew away, leaving the place. The Blue Dragon stared at him intently until he disappeared from its eyesight.

Once Luo Yuan left, it immediately jumped to the bottom of the hill, its huge body leaning cautiously against its ’baby’. It held its breath because it was afraid that if it exhaled, the breath from its nostrils would hurt the little tree.

It carefully looked up and down for a short moment, focusing in particular on the place Luo Yuan had touched. It repeatedly looked at it several times.

It was only when it found that the tree remained exactly the same as before that it became completely relaxed.

The Blue Dragon moved its body away and drank all the water in a nearby pool before curling itself into a ball. It felt comfortable with the gentle rays of sunlight that shone on its body so it lazily lied on the edge, not wanting to move anymore.

It was still excited over what happened today. In the beginning, it was hunted by the giant bird before this ’sun’ [2] appeared, almost burning it into a crisp. Fortunately, it was able to survive the struggle but immediately a horrible demon appeared. Today could be considered to be quite a brutal day for the Blue Dragon.

Fortunately, everything was now over. It was still alive unlike the giant bird that was killed by the demon [3].

Fortunately, everything was all over, it was still alive and not like the giant bird that was killed by the demon.

There was a price to pay for the ability to self-recover. It would consume its own energy reserves in order to recover its injuries so once it was relieved and fully recovered, it tried to get some sleep as its eyes slowly closed to doze off.

...

While Luo Yuan was flying, he noticed on the property panel that the Blue Dragon’s loyalty had dropped dramatically. It took only a few minutes for it to drop to 52 points which was very close to the bottom line of 50 points.

He shook his head as this was within expectation.

Lower level mutated beasts were hard to control but once they were successfully controlled, they would not likely betray you. In contrast, it was easier to get control over higher level mutated beasts when they were under threat of death but it would be hard to win their loyalty. Once the threat is eliminated, they would most likely betray their master just like how the Blue Dragon had almost forgotten about Luo Yuan even though he had not left for long.

If he did not show up for several days, it would probably betray him already. However, this time he only took a temporary leave and would be back after a few hours. In addition, since the wisdom tree was there he would definitely continue visiting this place.

He had mixed feelings on the identification results of the wisdom tree. Although the level of the wisdom tree was higher than the previous one he encountered, it was still only level seven. Both level six and level seven life-forms were categorized as light-green and green ranks and had little difference.

WIth his 16 points of Wisdom, there would be no effect if he used the Heart of Wisdom at this level unless he kept growing the tree until it evolved to level eight.

At this level, the flesh and blood from level six or seven mutated beasts had little effect on the tree and it may need a longer time to grow. If he wanted to accelerate the tree’s growth, he would need to feed it with higher level food such as those from level eight or nine creatures.

The flesh and blood of level nine creatures were very impractical for Luo Yuan to attempt but he could still try to get those from level eight creatures. There was already a ready level-eight corpse in Hope City and that was the reason for his sudden return.

He flew at high speed with only his Will but he managed to reach a speed of two to three kilometers per second. When he was riding the Blue Dragon, this distance took him 20 minutes but now, when he returned alone, it took him only four to five minutes to reach the destination.

At this point, Hope City had started restoration work. There were people everywhere below him. Since it was difficult to get so many equipments in a short time, it required a lot of labor-intensive resources to carry and clean up the ruins that have piled up like mountains.

Though the duration where the two level eight mutated beasts raged in Hope City was not that long, the city took a bad hit. When Luo Yuan looked down from high above, nearly one-fifth of the area had become ruins. Some parts had badly collapsed to the point where even the underground base was impacted. The amount of work needed to restore the city back to its original state will definitely not be one or two days.

Some factories were even still ablaze and smoking, looking like they would explode at any time.

Several aircraft that were once used to spray insecticide were now being used as fire trucks. They flew back and forth, spraying mists of water but the results seemed insignificant and redundant.

Fortunately, despite a huge amount of materail losses, there were not many casualties due to the timely response from the top management. During the apocalypse, people have been trained to be sensitive toward unexpected events so they managed to react very quickly. Aside from the few thousand casualties in the beginning of the disaster, there were almost no casualties after that initial hit.

Luo Yuan rapidly landed and walked towards the isolation area.

The location where the giant bird was located had already been isolated by the soldiers. Within the cordoned off area, there were more than 10 tanks which blocked off most of the streets.

"Stop! It’s dangerous in front and everyone is prohibited from entering!" A young soldier shouted when he saw Luo Yuan approaching the area.

Luo Yuan did not stop. Instead, he took out his identity card as he walked and asked, "Who is the leader here? Please bring him to me."

The soldiers knew he had to be a bigshot when he spoke in this manner. One of the soldiers took the identity card and was shocked. He immediately returned the identity card back to Luo Yuan and greeted, "Hello Chief Officer!"

As the Deputy Minister of the Firearms Bureau, his level was deifinitely not low. His rank of lieutenant was even more shocking.

The soldiers did not dare neglect his orders and immediately contacted the highest superiors they could find and from there, their superiors contacted their superiors until the message went up several levels.

Before long, a middle-aged old soldier who wore a camouflage suit walked towards Luo Yuan. He looked at the familiar black suit on Luo Yuan’s body and suddenly felt like he was being burnt so he immediately looked away. He greeted Luo Yuan formally with care, "Hello Minister Luo, I am Chen Junde, the Divisional Commander who is in-charge of this area. May I know if there’s anything I can do to help you?"

He knew the Firearms Bureau was a special department that was completely out of the military’s control, so he would not address him as Chief Officer like how the regular soldier did.

He secretly took a look at Luo Yuan and as he thought of the shocking scene when Luo Yuan killed the level eight creature, he felt a sudden insecurity creep up from within him. The feeling was like standing before a giant beast; if he did not pay extra attention, he would probably be killed at any moment. It felt awful.

"Hello, General Chen. I am sorry that I need you to personally come over. You could have just assigned someone to talk to me. What I want from you, is the corpse of this giant mutated bird as it has a little usage for me. Can General Chen spare it to me?" Luo Yuan apologized and asked.

Chen Junde was relieved when he saw the easygoing attitude of Luo Yuan as he smiled and said, "No, it’s no trouble at all Minister Luo. You killed it, so it actually belongs to you. You do not need to get my permission on how you plan to handle it. It would be even better if you can take it away from this location."

He was telling the truth. Level eight creatures were strong but it had little value to the reconstruction area as the flesh and blood of the creature had been mutated, making it inedible. Unless they used a small part of the corpse for research or to manufacture accessories for weapons, most parts of the corpse would be burned and disposed of.

The thing that was more troublesome was its the frightening force field around it and the serious radiation its body gave off. Even after it died, the effects its body gave off were still present in the atmosphere. Without wearing any clothing to isolate these effects, none of the ordinary people could even get close to the corpse. It would definitely spell trouble when they needed to move and carry it away.

"Excellent. In that case, can you please evacuate the weapons and tanks you have here?"

"You... Are you ready to move it now?" Chen Junde was a little surprised. This was a 70 to 80 meter high corpse of a giant bird which was comparable to the size of a 20 storey building. He could not imagine how he could move the corpse. Regardless how strong he was, it was impractical to move such a giant size creature alone.

Luo Yuan nodded, confirmed and said, "The sky is getting dark and by then, it will be even more difficult to move."

Chen Junde was confused and almost wanted to say that it did not matter with the sky was dark or not but in the end, he held his tongue and agreed, "Yes, you are right."

Then he immediately ran to command the soldiers to evacuate.

Within a moment’s notice, all the tanks drove away, leaving only Chen Junde and a few more officers. Apparently, they were interested to see how he would move the corpse of this giant bird.

Luo Yuan did not care but just went straight to the other end to the giant bird.

After such a long time, the corpse of the giant bird was still energetic and was still fluttering before them. Even if the brain was damaged within the skull and the cerebral fluid was all gone, it still had a strong life-force and took a very long time to completely die.

This was also the reason why a large number of tanks surrounded the area earlier. The giant bird was too dangerous, even if it managed to struggle out of this area by unconsciously rolling around, it would cause enormous damage and casualties.

As he looked at the giant bird’s head that was struggling endlessly, his arm blocked the stones that flew over in his direction like a bullet.

Although these stones would not hurt his skin at all, it would still hurt him if they hit his eyes. Luo Yuan scowled and began thinking that it would not be easy to move the corpse at all.

The life-force of a level eight creature was too strong and Luo Yuan estimated that even if he cut the corpse into two, it would still struggle for some time. It seemed like the had to break all its bones.

He walked a few steps to the back of the giant bird. There were feathers that made it seem a little thin, almost to the point where most of the bones were visible, especially the spine. It was covered only by a thin layer of skin that allowed Luo Yuan to see the gap between the joints.

He proceeded to the location of the spine and got ready to begin from this position. He looked at the few soldiers who stood at 500 to 600 meters away and said, "Stay away from me, I am going to break its bones."

Chen Junde and the rest suddenly felt a chill run up their spine. Without hesitation, they quickly stepped back. They had watched the video so they knew how strong the impact would be when he attacked. It was very impressive to them.

"Keep going. You need to to go a little further!" Luo Yuan scowled and said.

"Carry on!"

A group of people had stepped back to a distance of a thousand meters away. Luo Yuan roughly estimated the impact of his attack and thought that they should be safe at this distance.

Then he took a deep breath. His muscle slightly inflated until his joints made a popping sound. The air surrounding started to stir up until his face became twisted and at the very next moment, he landed a full blow.

"Boom!"

A loud noise was heard and the air instantly exploded. The air surrounding the corpse had completely turned white as a result of the dense air in the area.

Following that, a cracking sound ensued. He had broken a piece of its spine and it was followed by a series of explosions which happened one after another.

Chen Junde and the rest who stood far away half-hunched their bodies. A strong sandstorm surrounded them and the wind stirred up small gravels that hit their bodies, making them feel an aches on their bodies.

They quickly retreated another two kilometers before the situation finally improved.

They stood in a nearby ruin and used a telescope to continue observing Luo Yuan. However, their line of sight was blocked by the sandstorm and the strong winds before them. A few of them took down the telescope together, feeling shocked by what had happened.

Three minutes later the explosion finally stopped.

"He threw about 3000 punches!" One of the soldiers quietly estimated and looked a little pale.

Another said, "The size of the giant bird is so huge! It is impossible to punch continuously."

Everyone was silent, an evolved human of this caliber had completely broken the concept of what a human could be. With power like this, it was possible to destroy a country with just the power of a single man.

...

The breeze in the air soon blew away the dust, revealing the giant mutated bird. When they saw that the air had cleared, a few of them quickly used the telescope to see what had happened.

At this moment, the body of the giant mutated bird was now limp as it lay on the ground after its bones were broken by Luo Yuan. Only a small area of muscle remained twitching but compared to the fierce struggle of its body earlier, it looked way less dangerous now.

When they looked in more detail, they saw countless small wounds everywhere on its body and they were still bleeding. In fact, the wounds were not small as each of them were about two meters in diameter.

Beside the body of the giant bird was a small, almost negligible silhouette with his hand in its body, his entire body covered in blood.

"Isn’t he afraid of getting a gene infection?" An officer felt a chill run down his spine when he saw the scene and asked in doubt.

"Do you think someone who is able to kill level eight creatures would be afraid of its blood? I’m just wondering what he’s doing. Does he really plan to drag the body in this condition?" Chen Junde said while looking at the huge gap in size between Luo Yuan and the giant bird. He was amused but when he thought about what had happened earlier, he could not laugh at all.

After five minutes, Luo Yuan still remained in the same posture and did not move.

"Hey, he’s moving!" One of the officers suddenly shouted, "He is moving with the giant bird!"

After hearing him shout, everyone noticed that Luo Yuan had moved about half a meter away from his original location. Over time, the speed he was moving at seemed to get faster and finally they could clearly see him move with their eyes.

...

10 minutes later, Luo Yuan could be seen flying in the sky with the giant bird and as they passed through the area, they left a huge shadow. This scene was unbelievable as it looked like a skyscraper was suddenly flying across the sky. What’s even more unbelievable was that a human was doing this, pushing the giant creature through the skies.

Everyone looked up and unconsciously opened their mouths. They looked at the giant creature slowly flying across the sky, its speed becoming faster and faster until it finally disappeared in the horizon before they came to their senses.

For a moment of time, everyone felt a dryness in their throats and nobody was sure if it was due to excitement or fear. Everyone had complex emotions that were in their hearts.

"Is the emergence of a Superman like that good or bad for the reconstruction area?" An officer asked after holding his breath for quite some time.

"It’s not something that we should think about." Chen Junde said. However, inside his heart, he thought that it was, at the very least, a good thing for Hope City.

Translators Note:

[1] ’Baby’ here refers to the Wisdom Tree that the Blue Dragon is guarding.

[2] ’Sun’ here is referring to the nuclear bomb the reconstruction area dropped on it while it was battling the giant bird.

[3] ’Demon’ here is referring to Luo Yuan from the Blue Dragon’s perspective