Cave Refuge

For Dong Tianyu, women only slow down his cultivation speed. Coupled with the continuous onslaught of disasters that lay ahead, he evaded any discussion on the topic, no matter how much Mrs. Thompson tried to persuade him.

In the Four Elements of Cultivation, the term "Dao Companion" is mentioned, representing not a wife per se, but a companion who can discuss and explore the Dao with oneself.

The most important factor, however, is that Dong Tianyu has not yet reached the Foundation Building Stage of cultivation. Breaking his body prematurely would dissipate the innate Pure Yang Qi within him, negatively impacting his cultivation speed.

Mrs. Thompson was infuriated by Dong Tianyu's attitude, considering carrying on the family bloodline a top priority in their beliefs, regardless of the circumstances.

Listening to Mrs. Thompson's tirade against her son, Mr. Thompson simply stayed out of the matter and watched the drama unfold without uttering a word.

Mrs. Thompson rambled on and on, while Dong Tianyu didn't talk back or try to refute her words. Instead, he let them enter one ear and exit the other, sitting there as calm as an old monk in meditation.

Seeing Dong Tianyu's unflappable demeanor, Mrs. Thompson couldn't help but feel a bit helpless.

Seeing the tension between mother and son, Mr. Thompson tried to defuse the situation, "Dinner's ready, let's eat first. We can talk about our problems later."

After settling in the office building, the officials made some modifications. Now, limited-time electricity and fire usage were available to the inhabitants.

There were two ways to generate electricity in the office building. One was human-powered generation – no need for further elaboration here, as the survivors didn't have many job options to choose from.

Compared to those risking their lives diving for resources, working on the power supply was somewhat tiring but relatively safe and didn't involve leaving the building.

Coming to the second power generation method vindicated that there were indeed talented people among the officials.

Who would have thought that the officials could clear the entire building's sewer system to construct a biogas pool in the fire protection layers beneath the building, then use the biogas to generate electricity?

With the biogas pools in place, survivors in the building could also use them to cook their meals.

Although there were only a few shared kitchens on each floor, having access to fire meant they'd left the savage age behind and no longer had to eat raw food.

After the Cataclysm came to Blue Star, perhaps due to proper handling by the Great Summer, the situation wasn't as tumultuous as you'd imagine. Despite the majority of the population experiencing a sharp decline in their standards of living, no one was starving to death.

I can't speak for other places, but in Pengcheng the Officials have always been in control. While many might harbor their own little schemes, they should know that Pengcheng has forces stationed throughout.

Even after going through several catastrophes in succession, the personnel losses among the stationed forces, mostly consisting of young and strong men, were quite minimal. They even managed to bring back substantial resources.

Despite Pengcheng being flooded by the deluge, law and order had not been disrupted and, on the surface, the security seemed quite solid.

The office building which housed the West City District Command Post, where Dong Tianyu's parents currently resided, was undoubtedly safe. Thus, Dong Tianyu felt assured about his parents living there.

It wasn't that Dong Tianyu didn't want to take his parents to his cave mansion. But the truth was, if his parents lived there, they would probably find it hard to maintain their social connections as they could at present.

If they moved into the cave mansion, his parents would surely face certain limitations in their activities. Even if there were no others on the Nameless Mountain, his parents would find it hard to leave, equating to them being confined by Dong Tianyu.

So, living here seemed safer under the Officials' jurisdiction, and they could maintain their circle of friends. Therefore, Dong Tianyu was not in a hurry to have his parents reside in his cave mansion.

Dong Tianyu didn't stay overnight after finishing dinner, but prepared to head back directly. After all, there was still another round of closed-door cultivation he had scheduled for the night and he didn't want to waste that opportunity.

His parents were safe here, so Dong Tianyu had no worries.

Just as Dong Tianyu was preparing to leave, he suddenly heard someone screaming from behind, "Brother, wait! I would like to discuss something with you!"

Dong Tianyu, curious, turned around to see who was calling him.

A young man in a loose T-shirt was waiving at him in the distance, trying to get Dong Tianyu's attention as he hurriedly ran over.

This young man stopped about three meters from Dong Tianyu, and while taking heavy breaths, he said, "Brother, I...have something...I'd like to discuss with you."

Seeing the man catching his breath, Dong Tianyu felt no amusement and instead asked sternly, "Who are you, and what do you want with me?"

If they hadn't been on the first floor of the office building, and if other survivors hadn't been nearby, Dong Tianyu wouldn't have bothered to deal with him.

"Sorry brother, I was a bit hasty...let me introduce myself first. My name is Ye Liuyun, I used to run a platform for luxury goods, and now I do something similar. I wanted to ask you if there's anything you need, or something you might not need at the moment."

The man introduced himself in quite grandiose terms, though in plain language he was just a middleman. But Dong Tianyu was curious about how he knew Dong Tianyu had goods to offer.

To Dong Tianyu's query, Ye Liuyun didn't play coy but pointed at Dong Tianyu's clothes before pointing to what other survivors were wearing.

Dong Tianyu followed Ye Liuyun's finger and suddenly understood the reason.

Even though Pengcheng was flooded, and frequent rain prevailed, the temperature hovered around 20 degrees Celsius, so most people wore minimal clothing.

However, even though people wore little, the clothes that most people wore were clean and neat.

However, observant people could tell that, although clean, the clothing of the survivors gave off the impression of secondhand clothes. This impression is hard to express in words, but it was the feeling one got at first glance.

But the clothes Dong Tianyu wore gave off a different feel. At first glance, everyone could tell he was wearing new clothes.

Over a month had passed since the flood had engulfed Pengcheng, and anyone still wearing new clothes at this time was unlikely to be worried about food and drink.

So Ye Liuyun guessed Dong Tianyu must have high-quality resources. After all, at this time, new clothes were not something you could simply buy if you wanted to.

But while Ye Liuyun was good at reading people, Dong Tianyu didn't lack anything at the moment and thus, didn't want to deal with him.

He dismissed Ye Liuyun casually, "I don't have any goods, nor do I need anything in particular, you don't need to waste your time here."

Hearing Dong Tianyu's words and seeing him turn around to leave, Ye Liuyun rushed up to him and whispered, "Brother, I happen to have..."