120 The Mystery of the End Times Part 1
The group looked in astonishment at the baby in the man’s arms. Indeed, its appearance wasn’t far off from what Zhuang Yao described as a Dragon-Blooded person. So, this is how a Dragon-Blooded person looks?
With golden horns and red eyes, the face was entirely human, but undeniably that of a little monster.
The little monster looked at them and said in a childish voice, “Daddy, are they here?”
The man replied, “Yes, have you had enough sleep?”
“Not yet.” After saying that, the little monster closed its eyes again and snuggled back into the cotton jacket.
The man frowned and muttered, “Such a troublesome brat.”
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Usdt Dky oyp vyjld ycynj. Elal vblpl vos qyvbla yde psd? Eyp vbkp xyd yzps y Paytsd-Jzssele rlapsd?
Mbl xyd zssjle wr yv vblx. “Ebyv yal usw pvydekdt yaswde qsa? Gal usw nsxkdt sa dsv?”
Usdt Dky ypjle, “Jasvbla, bso nyd usw rashl vbyv Usdt Hbldgbsdt pldv usw vs rknj wp wr?”
“Gv 63 Wyduk Ssye, vbl xkaasa kd vbl oyaeascl oyp casjld obld usw olal pkm ulyap sze. Usdt Hbldgbsdt vsze xl vs xldvksd vbkp.”
Usdt Dky oyp pvwddle. Mbyv yeealpp oyp bkp tayderyaldvp’ bswpl, oblal bl wple vs hkpkv qaliwldvzu. Mbl xkaasa oyp kdelle casjld cu bkx. Tkp plnsde wdnzl kdpvawnvle vbl xyd vs xldvksd vbkp clnywpl kv oyp vbl xspv xlxsayczl xlxsau clvolld bkx yde bkp plnsde wdnzl. Gv vbl vkxl, bl tsv pnyale yde nakle obld bl casjl vbl xkaasa.&dcpr;
Tkp plnsde wdnzl, clkdt vld ulyap szela yde y pvweldv yv vbyv vkxl, vssj vbl czyxl qsa bkx vs pryal bkx y clyvkdt. Rd qynv, bkp plnsde wdnzl oyp sdzu pzktbvzu szela yde yzps tsv pnszele zyvla. Rq kv olald’v qsa bkp plnsde wdnzl zlyhkdt qsa pnbssz yde osaj, yde vblx dsv pllkdt lynb svbla qsa ulyap, vblu pbswze byhl clld nzspl.
Usdt Dky dseele. “Ebyv bl pyke kp kdelle jdsod sdzu vs xl yde xu plnsde wdnzl.”
Hbwydt Zys ypjle, “Ebu eke Usdt Hbldgbsdt plde usw vs rknj wp wr?”
The man raised an eyebrow, “Because you guys have the flesh of Tang Seng. Without someone picking you up, you probably won’t be able to enter Beijing City.”
Zhuang Yao sneered, “You think you can bring us in just like that?”
The man grew impatient, “There are people waiting ahead, not just us. If you keep blabbering, you can find your own way into the city.”
Cong Xia glanced at Cheng Tianbi for guidance. He was already excited upon hearing his second uncle’s name and couldn’t wait to enter the city.
Cheng Tianbi holstered his gun and said, “Let’s go.”
Abu brought his tail near the man.
The man looked at the tail for two seconds, showing an interested expression. He reached out and grabbed the large tail. With a swing of Abu’s tail, they were thrown onto his back.
Falling into Abu’s thick and soft fur, the man whistled, “This is quite a nice ride.”
As soon as Cong Xia thought about the man being sent by his uncle, he felt a subconscious fondness, despite the man’s somewhat fierce appearance. He moved closer and said, “Big brother, how should I address you?”
“My surname is Shan, Shan Ming.” Shan Ming caressed Abu’s fur from one side to another, seemingly enjoying the feel of it.
“Okay, Brother Shan Ming. Are you and your son both Dragonblood people?”
“Hmm? I’m not.”
Deng Xiao’s eyes sparkled with excitement as he leaned in, saying, “Big brother, your son looks really interesting. Let me take a look.” Before the words even finished, he reached out to touch the child inside the cotton clothing.
Deng Xiao was quick, and Shan Ming didn’t have time to stop him. Suddenly, something inside the cotton clothing swung a golden light in the air, and with a snap, it struck Deng Xiao’s hand.
“Wow!” Deng Xiao pulled back his hand in surprise, his fingers red from the impact.
Everyone looked closely and saw a small tail about the thickness of a finger that had fallen out of the cotton clothing. The child inside the clothing popped his head out and looked coldly at Deng Xiao.
Shan Ming frowned and scolded, “Who the hell allowed you to touch my son? You deserve it.”
Deng Xiao curiously widened his eyes and said, “This thing still has a tail.” He felt a bit wronged and said, “What’s wrong with just touching it? Why is he so sensitive?”
Cong Xia wiped his sweat and said, “Xiao Deng, you can’t just touch him randomly…”
Deng Xiao pouted, feeling a bit disappointed as he stared at the bundle of cotton clothing.
Cheng Tianbi looked at them and asked, “Is this person the child of that pure-blood Dragonblood person?”
Shan Ming looked at him unexpectedly and asked, “Who are you?”
“I once went to Mozambique to carry out a mission with Al Moray.”
Shan Ming suddenly realized, “With Al? You’re from ‘that’ unit.”
Cheng Tianbi said in a deep voice, “Have Dragonblood people solved their fertility problem?”
Shan Ming held the child in his hand and said, “No, it hasn’t been solved yet.”
“Why is there a baby then?”
Shan Ming shrugged, “You’ll have a chance to find out later.”
As they spoke, Abu led them to take a detour through the burning forest. Apart from charred trees, there were also some bird carcasses turned into charcoal. From their angle, they could already see quite a few, but they didn’t know if there were more things at the center of the burning.
Zhuang Yao frowned, “Did you do this?”
Shan Ming blew a smoke ring, “He did it.”
The attention of everyone once again fell on the little monster lying in his arms.
Cong Xia exclaimed, “He did it?”
Shan Ming nodded, “Can you pick up the pace? My arms are getting tired. Someone is waiting ahead.”
Zhuang Yao looked at the burning forest with a slight change in his expression. He patted Abu’s head, “Abu, faster.”
Upon receiving the command, Abu dashed with great force. Shan Ming, caught off guard, almost got thrown off Abu’s back.
Cong Xia watched the father and son with growing curiosity and more questions. Who were they exactly? How could the toddler have caused the entire forest to ignite? Most importantly, neither of them emitted any energy fluctuations. He believed that others had also noticed this.
Abu carried them for several kilometers until they came across three strange-looking vehicles ahead. The vehicles had massive tires and resembled road bully.
Each car had a red flag with a roaring golden dragon at the center fluttering on its roof.
A bearded foreigner with a full face of whiskers stuck his head out of one of the car’s sunroofs and waved towards them, “Shan!”
Abu ran to their side, and the bearded foreigner spoke with awkward Chinese, “Oh, a cat, such a big cat.”
“Kosi, has anyone been here during this time?”
“No.”
“Contact Al and have someone wait at the city gate to receive us.”
“Ok.”
The cars started up, and Shan Ming said, “Follow the cars.”
Abu trailed behind the vehicles, trotting slowly.
At that moment, several large birds hovered overhead. Shan Ming squinted and looked at the sky, then raised his middle finger upwards.
Cong Xia said, “Those birds have people on them, right? They attacked us yesterday.”
“They are a group of birdmen from the Liudao Huangquan. Just ignore them,” Shan Ming replied, lighting another cigarette. He surveyed the group and asked, “Which one of you is the Wind Natural Force Evolver?” He looked at Cheng Tianbi, seemingly having had a hunch.
Cheng Tianbi calmly responded, “It’s me.”
“As I expected, causing a lot of trouble even before arriving. You guys are quite capable,” Shan Ming remarked.
Deng Xiao excitedly asked, “Big brother, are we very famous? Have we become legendary figures?”
Shan Ming glanced at him, “Yes, you’re quite famous.”
“Wow, that’s embarrassing. What if some beautiful girls secretly admire me?”
Shan Ming sneered, “Wind Natural Force Evolver, a special ability mutant, and a Puppet Jade, I wish you all safety.”
Cong Xia smiled wryly, “We really didn’t mean to cause trouble.”
Shan Ming said, “No big deal. As long as you have strong fists, it’s enough.”
Suddenly, the bundle of cotton in his arms moved, and the little monster stuck its head out. After scanning each of them with its red eyes, it softly asked, “Can your special ability repair scars?”
Zhuang Yao furrowed his brow slightly, and Cong Xia remained silent.
The young child spoke tenderly, using words completely incongruent with his appearance, “If you safely deliver us into Beijing city, you will owe us a favor.”
Shan Ming frowned, “Hmm? What scar do you want to repair? You don’t even get scars.”
“This,” the child suddenly extended a chubby arm and tapped Shan Ming’s neck. There was a vicious horizontal scar on Shan Ming’s neck, clearly left from a previous attempt to slit his throat.
However, everyone’s attention was not on Shan Ming’s neck but on the child’s arm. It was a plump little arm covered in golden scales, and it seemed that the position of the hand was replaced by small claws. They then noticed that besides the human-like face, the body of this little monster was covered in scales all the way to its neck, and it even had a tail on its back.
Shan Ming grabbed the little claw and stuffed it back into the cotton, saying, “Why do you want to repair this? There’s no need.”
“There is a need,” the little monster crawled out from the cotton, bare-bottomed, and hugged Shan Ming’s neck. Its slender tail gently swayed behind it, finally curling around Shan Ming’s wrist with a snap. “Daddy, get me some clothes.”
“Don’t fuss around. We’ll talk about it when we get back.” Shan Ming wrapped it in clothes, saying, “Go to sleep.”
Everyone felt that this little monster was somewhat eerie, but they didn’t inquire further.
After two hours, they came across a massive city wall. The city gate alone was ten meters high, guarded by dozens of soldiers in military uniforms. Eight large mutated police dogs were diligently inspecting the belongings of those entering the city. The scene was heavily guarded and orderly.
The main gate of the city was tightly closed, but the two smaller gates on either side, each three meters high, were open, one for entering and the other for exiting. Most of those leaving the city looked clean and in good spirits, while at least half of those entering the city seemed like refugees from elsewhere and were undergoing strict inspections.
A guard approached and saw the flag on top of their cars, then spoke into the intercom, “It’s the Dragon Blood Clan’s car. Open the gate.”
The central gate of the city wall, about six to seven meters high, opened from the inside, allowing the three cars to enter the city. However, when Abu attempted to enter, it was stopped.
Abu tilted its head, still trying to move forward.
“Wait!” A guard yelled.
Abu’s raised paw fell beside the guard’s feet with a loud thud, and the guard was shaken, sitting down on the ground.
Two three-meter-tall police dogs rushed over, growling loudly at Abu.
Abu also seemed provoked and roared angrily.
Shan Ming shouted, “What’s going on?”
“Who is this cat? Get down and let us take a look.”
Kosi stuck his head out from the car, “He’s one of us too.”
The guard circled around Abu suspiciously and suddenly seemed to recall something, “Is this the cat from the wanted list?”
Kosi stepped out of the car decisively, “Yes, so what? Do you want to stop us?” He pulled out an iron token from his pocket, “Professor instructed us to bring them into the city.”
The guard glanced at the token and took a step back, “You may go in.”
Abu was a bit sulky and squeezed through the city gate, passing by the two police dogs, and even gave a threatening bark.
Conscious of the guard, Cong Xia turned back and saw him using the walkie-talkie to say something, his eyes drifting in their direction.
Is he relaying information to someone?
Cong Xia found it somewhat amusing. There was really no need for him to publicize anything. Abu’s massive size would draw attention from anyone with eyes.
After the several cars entered the city, their speed noticeably slowed down, and Abu followed suit.
They passed through the towering city gate, and a vast modern city appeared before them.
Cong Xia’s mouth gaped as he looked at their year-long objective.
This place looked more like a “human city” than any they had seen before, or rather, a city from the pre-apocalyptic era. After the apocalypse, they hadn’t encountered any city so well-maintained, with no collapsed buildings, no roads overgrown with weeds, no buildings fully covered by vegetation, and no corpses of the same kind and marauding mutated creatures everywhere. If they ignored the emaciated and vacant-eyed people occasionally seen on the streets, as well as the strange vehicles and large mutated pets passing by, this place was almost indistinguishable from how it had been a year ago.
This was Beijing, a city bustling with people during the day and illuminated at night, a city teeming with countless mutated individuals, gathering the sharpest minds and most formidable powers in the country. It was the sought-after city of safety for everyone.
They had finally arrived!
Cong Xia was almost moved to tears at this moment.
It wasn’t just because they had traveled two thousand kilometers, enduring hardships for over three hundred days, and finally reached their destination, but also because here, he saw the memory of a modern human city. He saw the indomitable spirit of humanity surviving through the cataclysm of the Second Cambrian Period, which ignited hope for human revival in his heart again!
Cong Xia couldn’t help but exclaim excitedly, “This is amazing… It’s incredible!”
Deng Xiao was ecstatic, not knowing how to express his excitement, “I never expected it to be like this here. It seems like everything is still intact.”
Tears welled up in Liu Fengyu’s eyes. Seeing how well-preserved this place was, he couldn’t help but think that his parents might still be alive.
Just as everyone was overwhelmed with excitement, Shan Ming poured a bucket of cold water over them, saying, “This place is suitable for only one type of person to live peacefully: ordinary people. Those content with having food to eat can survive. Are you all ordinary people?”
Zhuang Yao glanced at him, “What do you mean?”
Shan Ming smiled, revealing his white teeth, “You’ll find out soon enough.”
As they walked into the city, the streets became increasingly crowded, and the crowd automatically made way for them, looking at them with awe and whispering among themselves.
“Is the leader of the Dragonblood Clan in the car? It’s been a while since we last saw them in action.”
“That cat is enormous, oh my! It’s probably the biggest mutated creature I’ve ever seen, at least eight meters tall.”
“That must be the Dragonblood Clan’s cat; even cats are this big.”
“I’m telling you, the Dragonblood Clan is the most formidable. A street is gone when they say it’s gone.”
“Nonsense, Huangquan are the most powerful. Haven’t you witnessed the earth splitting and collapsing?”
“The most powerful is the leader of the Fenglan Society, okay? When ten thousand volts strike down, how many lives can you account for?”
“Are you saying the leader of Jiujiang County is a vegetarian? Do you know how he kills? He can directly drain the water from your body and turn you into a zombie!”
People on both sides of the street were engaged in various discussions, clearly enthusiastic about which of the four major factions in Beijing was the most powerful.
Shan Ming’s face revealed a sardonic expression, seemingly disdainful of the content they were discussing.
Cheng Tianbi asked, “Where are we going now?”
“We’ll take you to the National Academy of Sciences, and our mission will be complete.”
Cong Xia said excitedly, “Is my Second Uncle waiting for us there?”
“Yes, Professor Cong mostly stays there.”
Zhuang Yao looked ahead with a serious expression. After a while, he asked, “Is Zhuang Yu also there?”
“Do you still remember him? Yes, he is.”
Cong Xia observed Zhuang Yao’s expression.
Zhuang Yao revealed an ambiguous smirk.
**************
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