Chapter 45: Gas Masks

Tang Yongrui’s POV

Am I forgetting something?

Was it the breakthrough that I’m holding off to now? Or was it naming the baby screecher I recently recruited as one of my subordinates? No, there’s something else…

“Forget it. If it slipped my mind, then it’s probably not that important anyway.” I told myself.

A brand new day in this hopeless world greeted my party and me as if nothing’s changed. The sun, still with its gleaming sun rays as ever, started to arise from the horizon, touching every leaves and trunk it could find by the edge of the forest. A certain brightness flooded the entire city wherein we found ourselves as well. This city was adjacent to the forest and they shared a common border of clear plain ground.

Of course, if these territories were that near each other, then the types of rabid humans must be the same, common sense-wise.

“Oh, you’re awake early.” Wu Yan gently got out of her sleeping bag like a butterfly getting out of its cocoon. She slowly rubbed her eyes as she let out a satisfying yawn before smiling towards me.

For a moment back there, I thought my heart skipped a beat and then I realized that I probably don’t have a living heart anymore. I looked away, unsure whether my cheeks were reddening. After regaining my composure, I cleared my throat and uttered a greeting towards her and to the rest of our party. “And I didn’t sleep at all.” I continued.

“Why? Were we that untrustworthy?” Liu Zhi called out before patting me on the shoulder. “Thanks for keeping a lookout. An extra pair of eyes is more than needed in our group. “

“No, it’s just that I couldn’t sleep,” I told myself. I wasn’t exactly lying, however. But just to get it out there, the reason why I couldn’t get any shut-eye last night wasn’t because I had a lot of things in my mind. Well, that’s one thing but the sole reason why was because I was busily cultivating two of my Cores, refining these ever-growing spheres of energy inside me just so they won’t run amok at a crucial time. I didn’t want the incident in the Si Shelter to repeat itself.

And also, seeing that these guys are connected to a lot of people, I didn’t want to show any of the trump cards I have in front of them. Blade did see me hunt that cow last night (And I still wonder why there were cows in the forest but who cares) but he didn’t tell anyone about my skills. Instead, he helped me butcher the meat and pack it in our bags so that we could have some rations on our journey.

Even if he did tell them about it, I would probably forgive him since he cooked one of the best steaks I’ve ever tasted in my life.

Matters aside, I finally felt that my Qi Core and Virus Qi Core had somewhat calmed a bit. Compared to before, I don’t feel some sort of torrential flow from them. If I were to put them in comparison, then before, it was likened to a see in the middle of a storm. But now, I could feel that it’s like the lake of the Dead Sea, as calm as death itself.

Also, the moment I finished my cultivation a few minutes ago, some sort of instruction entered my mind as if I was enlightened by some knowledge within. In it, I realized just how the blood element works and I managed to gain a little bit of control over it. Since the blood element focuses on the blood flow in every part of the body, I decided to focus my enhanced perception skills on my heart and work my way from there. For now, I could only detect the main artery and some of the main veins all over the body. But this wouldn’t take too long to master. After all, I am the esteemed Sect Master of the Tang Sect. When it comes to cultivation, none can best me.

Technically some had already bested me since I was gone for five years and my cultivation reset but when it comes to knowledge and efficiency in cultivation, I’m the cream of the crop.

Well, I’ll set aside that Blood Element for now. We have the problematic Ziyou Shelter to deal with first.

“YONGRUI!”

I was snapped back into reality when Liu Zhi suddenly screamed at me. Before I could realize what’s going on, he threw a gas mask at me. The three of them were panicking as they hastily put it on.

“PUT IT ON!” Liu Zhi continued, his voice muffled due to the gas mask he was wearing.

Since I didn’t know what’s going on and I could be a bit slow in reading the situation when it comes to these things, I decided to obey his command to the letter. Of course, this doesn’t mean that I look at Liu Zhi as the leader of the group, I just knew that my safety is dependent on my decisions and it wouldn’t hurt if I listen to Liu Zhi.

Because last time I didn’t listen, I found myself in the middle of the road, looking straight through Natalia’s stomach as I painlessly died.

Huff.

Huff.

Not going to lie, the gas mask gave me a sense of claustrophobia due to its tightness and its blurred front.

The gas mask was a modernized one, or at least in my opinion since the whole front of the face was covered with glass. That way, nothing will block someone’s vision even though it could get blurry at times. I just wore it out of impulse but I’m not sure why they told me to wear it as well.

Before I knew it, they came to me and Liu Zhi pulled out a notebook from his backpack. Once he did, some sort of yellow gas filled the entire building where we were in, making it almost impossible for me to see Liu Zhi and the others.

Regardless of that, Liu Zhi continued writing something in his notebook. Wu Yan and Blade also pulled out notebooks for themselves as well and they started writing something on their notebooks as well. Finding it somewhat mysterious, I decided to wait for them. At least, now I know the reason why they all had notebooks with them. It’s quite hard trying to communicate with the gas masks on after all.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep