Apocalypse: Last Traveler

The snow stopped on the second day, but the winter cold lingered, and the snow refused to melt. Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei had no choice but to continue staying here.

When they woke up the next morning, Lu Xi'an saw that the temporary frame outside the car was covered with frost. If anyone were to lick it, they'd be inseparable for sure.

The strips of meat on the frame had frozen rock hard, and the snow wrapping around them had formed into solid ice chunks. Breaking them off for use as hidden weapons would definitely work.

Lu Xi'an thought that if he had these meat strips in hand yesterday, the boar's head would have a big hole poked in it by now. The effect might have been better than using the car's wheel spokes—the boar would have just fallen without energy left to go berserk.

Neither of them rushed to collect the pork strips, letting them remain frozen in the cold. They waited another two days until the weather warmed up before dealing with them.

They cleaned off the frost from the surfaces of the frozen meat strips, then let them sunbathe to dehydrate for a day, finally storing them after that. They packed them using the cleaned wild boar skin and placed them on top of the car.

But doing this took up the spot where the books had been, so Yao Wei could only place the box of books at her feet again.

Observing this, Lu Xi'an suggested, "Why don't we go ahead and remove the rear seats? We aren't planning on picking up anyone else anyway."

Yao Wei glanced at the back seat, and after a brief thought, nodded and said, "Sure."

She realized that having just the two of them in the car was sufficient, and a third person wasn't necessary.

When she was driving alone, the car had enough room to store things, and she hadn't bothered removing the back seats. But with Lu Xi'an on board and more items found along the way, the supplies were piling up, and space was becoming scarce.

In hindsight, removing the seats should have been done sooner. As Lu Xi'an mentioned, if they had thought of this earlier, they could have stored more supplies from the Tan Village Shelter in the car.

They decided to take immediate action, pulling out all the items from the back seat area and using tools like wrenches to dismantle the seats. The space in the back of the car significantly increased.

Next, they placed conveniently storable items like boxes and unopened bags of food at the bottom, then carefully arranged the other items inside the car, still leaving some extra space.

Thus, Lu Xi'an climbed up to the car roof, retrieved the wild boar skin-wrapped dried meat, and placed it inside the car. As for the two seats that were removed, they were now useless and could only be discarded.

After setting off, Lu Xi'an felt driving the car was noticeably easier.

During the day, as they dehydrated the dried meat, they also waited for the ground's ice and snow to fully melt.

Despite the heavy snowfall, it was short-lived and didn't accumulate too deeply. Once melted, the road conditions were not problematic. The day after sunbathing the meat strips, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei set off again, unaffected by the conditions.

Just ahead lay East Stone Store Village. They had always been close to this village but hadn't ventured in to explore.

Firstly, they currently had sufficient supplies, with food, drinks, tools, and everything they needed, so there wasn't an urgent need to scavenge for resources.

Secondly, with the car immobilized due to the freezing weather, any residents in the village would likely leave, assuming they could escape on their own, rather than risk damaging the car, which would be a costly mistake.

With a clear understanding of their own abilities, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei weren't too worried about encountering ordinary people now. But what if the village wasn't inhabited by ordinary people?

They had parked to process the wild boar by the Zhuoshi River on the west side of East Stone Store Village, yet there was still some distance from the village, with a hill in between preventing them from being seen starting a fire and cooking meals from the village.

Feeling cautious, Lu Xi'an had taken out the Resonant Gene Scanner as a precaution when they settled on this spot, confirming no Neo-Humans were nearby.

However, even with such reassurances, Lu Xi'an couldn't promise they were entirely safe.

After all, in Jianshan City, the Resonant Gene Scanner had already "failed" three times.

Those mutants born from the mysterious entities and the X-17 Strain couldn't be detected with the Resonant Gene Scanner.

If there were such a freak in East Stone Store Village, what would they do?

What if a mutant stronger than the Fish Rider, capable of controlling several brown bears with pheromones, had them go berserk on their car? Lu Xi'an wasn't confident in stopping all the bears by himself.

Thus, they huddled in this relatively safe place, processing food and waiting until the harsh winter gave way to clear skies.

But when the weather cleared, they had no choice but to head towards East Stone Store Village.

Their car had to pass through the main road of East Stone Store Village to reach the tunnels by Sword Tail Mountain.

The layout of this village was similar to the previous West Fang Village, with a main road slicing the village in two. The village wasn't large, with rows of houses neatly lined up on either side of the main street.

Once they pass through the main road, they could leave the village and continue onwards.

Yao Wei climbed onto the car roof again, holding Gou with a bow and arrows.

"Here's a piece of meat for you."

Inside the car, Lu Xi'an started the engine, extending his hand through the window as he spoke.

They hadn't had breakfast that morning, planning to use the newly prepared meat strips to solve their breakfast issue.

Having indulged in a big meal just three days prior and spending the last two days mostly in the car without much activity, their energy consumption was low. Hence, they weren't that hungry, only needing a bit of food to replenish energy.

Therefore, they didn't wait to finish breakfast before departing, intending to chew on the meat strips along the way.

Lu Xi'an took a meat strip from the car, reaching it out through the window, and Yao Wei, hearing him, leaned over to take it.

Lu Xi'an grabbed another one, popping it into his mouth and setting off.

Meanwhile, Yao Wei, on the car top, also took a meat strip, biting it between her own mouth.

And so they entered the village, both gnawing on meat strips. The drone flew high above the car, with Yao Wei carrying Gou in hand. Just like that, they made their way through East Stone Store Village, safely and soundly.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei can almost confirm there isn't a single living person in East Stone Store Village.

As they walked along the main road, they saw the current state of the village. Some of the houses along the street had collapsed, while others were still standing, which is better than many other places.

The well-preserved houses had their doors wide open, or simply had no doors at all.

The situation behind the doors was visible, chaotic and empty, even cleaner than West Fang Village.

After surveying the entire village, they stopped the car, searched the village from top to bottom, and indeed, as seen from the car, East Stone Store Village had long been cleared out, leaving nothing for Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei didn't mind, as they weren't necessarily looking to find something in every place. Their car was well-stocked, and finding more things would only cause trouble as there was no space to store them.

Better to carry on.

About an hour later, at a bend in the road, there was a gas station.

After confirming safety, they refueled and the road turned westward.

In the distance, the mountains loomed like dark eyebrows, and the road, surrounded by wild grass, sloped diagonally upward, heading straight into the mountains. Going down this southwestern route would lead them into Sword Tail Mountain.

"Hopefully, this road isn't blocked."

After refueling, as they continued their journey, Lu Xi'an commented.

"Hmm."

Yao Wei nodded, hoping for a smooth trip as well.

Entering Jianshan City on this route has truly been fraught with difficulties. So far, they had to change course twice due to blocked roads.

If it happened again, they would have no choice but to turn back and head south another way.

Yet, as fortune would have it, just when they feared it most, they drove uphill and made their way onto Sword Tail Mountain. Merging onto the main road, they quickly reached the fourth tunnel in the Sword Tail Mountain tunnel group. After passing the fourth tunnel and then the fifth one, they suddenly encountered another landslide at the sixth tunnel.

Huge rocks from the mountain had blocked the entire tunnel, and from the glimpses of rock peeking through the blockade, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei could both tell that it wasn't just the outside of the tunnel that had collapsed; the inside probably had too.

Lu Xi'an still held onto a sliver of hope, asking Gou to take a look, "Gou, can you see if the inside of the tunnel has collapsed?"

Gou glanced inside with his dog eyes, and a light shone brightly.

Yao Wei opened and checked the tunnel's length. With such a landslide blocking it, the road ahead was effectively sealed off.

"Oh, my jinxed mouth!"

Lu Xi'an sighed and said.

Yao Wei asked, "What do you mean by 'jinxed mouth'?"

"It means only the bad predictions come true, not the good ones."

Lu Xi'an explained.

But Yao Wei reasoned calmly, "What's happened has happened; it has nothing to do with what was said."

"True."

Lu Xi'an replied.

Now the road ahead was cut off, and unless they wanted to abandon the car and walk, they would have to turn back the way they came.

The two quickly made a decision, not lingering there, and turned the car back down the mountain.

"Which way do we go now?"

On the road back, Lu Xi'an asked Yao Wei, "According to you, Jiangbei is too chaotic and dangerous, so we can't go there. That leaves us with two options.

"One is to head further west and see if there's a road on the west side of Jianshan City, and the other is to detour around Jiangbei City, heading south from the east.

"I'm not too familiar with the situation in the south, so how we choose the route is up to you.

"But rest assured, no matter which way you choose, I'll definitely go with you."

"Hmm, I know."

Yao Wei knew Lu Xi'an would do this, but hearing him say it still made her lips curl unconsciously into a charming smile.

Looking at the map, she said, "Let's take the detour to the east. If we head west, we'd still have to cross Sword Mountain, which feels even more unsafe."

"True enough."

Lu Xi'an thought back to everything they encountered since entering Jianshan City and agreed that Yao Wei made a good point.

Along the way, there were mutated monsters, strange pressures, fish growing tumors in the water, and bears that developed impulses towards cars, far too dangerous. This place felt more dangerous than other places where humans gathered.

So let's take the detour from the east; perhaps the chances of encountering people there are higher, but at least it shouldn't be as bizarrely dangerous.