In a daze, Quan Xiaoyu found himself sitting on the bench in the park again. The cell phone in his pocket was vibrating incessantly with a “buzz, buzz.”
He had not yet come back to his senses when, out of habit, he answered the phone.
Li Shunwei’s voice came through the receiver.
“Xiaoyu, where are you? You really got lucky today. I happened to run into a wealthy man who was looking for antique furnishings for his new house. Your things were sold without a hitch. When are you coming to my place? I’ll tell you everything when you get back.”
Only then did Quan Xiaoyu regain a sense of reality.
The strange experience just now felt like a dream.
“Xiaoyu? Xiaoyu? Are you still there?”
Li Shunwei’s voice came through the phone again.
Quan Xiaoyu hurriedly answered, “Uncle Li, I’m here. I…”
He hesitated before continuing, “I still haven’t finished what I need to do. Could you help me turn all the money into some supplies? Food, drinks, daily necessities.”
Although he really wanted weapons, he also knew that in a country where even knives were strictly controlled, it was impossible for an ordinary person to obtain weapons.
“Xiaoyu…”
Li Shunwei hesitated to speak.
Did this child really understand what several tens of millions worth of supplies meant?
He was afraid that he truly did not.
Li Shunwei sighed and said, “How about this, Xiaoyu. You remember Uncle Li’s villa in the suburbs?”
Quan Xiaoyu gave an “Mm.”
“Uncle will have the supplies delivered to the villa. Once you’ve finished your business, come to my place and get the key and the rest of the money.”
“Okay. Thank you, Uncle Li.”
Quan Xiaoyu hung up the phone.
He had no objections to Li Shunwei’s arrangement.
He really did not have much concept of the value of those antiques or money. He also understood that obtaining and storing a large amount of supplies in such a short time would be extremely difficult.
Besides, after the apocalypse, how could such a huge amount of supplies be protected from other people’s coveting?
Li Shunwei’s villa was located in a luxurious villa community in the suburbs.
Each villa had a great deal of privacy, with few people around and strict security.
The villa itself was spacious and even had a fully equipped basement.
Because Li Shunwei often used it to store valuable antiques, the house had been designed to be exceptionally sturdy from the beginning.
Therefore, it was very suitable for surviving the chaos of the early stages of the apocalypse.
Quan Xiaoyu was not good at expressing himself, so he silently made up his mind.
As long as he could bring Li Shunwei and his son into the villa before the apocalypse arrived, they could wait until the most chaotic early stage had passed before making further plans.
As long as the supplies Li Shunwei purchased could fill the basement, it would be enough for the three of them to survive for quite a long time.
After making plans for the future in his mind, Quan Xiaoyu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
His head suddenly became dizzy and heavy.
Only then did he remember that he had been robbed here and lost a great deal of blood.
Blood?
Quan Xiaoyu reached up and touched his neck.
His skin was smooth and delicate, without even a trace of a wound, let alone any blood.
His head became increasingly heavy.
Quan Xiaoyu even felt that he might faint again.
He hurriedly stood up and staggered toward the exit of the park.
He managed to hail a taxi and, fortunately, did not faint before returning to the hotel.
After closing and locking the hotel room door, Quan Xiaoyu forced himself to walk into the bathroom.
He stood before the mirror and pulled down the clothing covering his neck.
Sure enough, there was no knife wound on his neck.
But there was a coiling-dragon tattoo.
This inexplicably appearing tattoo looked somewhat familiar.
Quan Xiaoyu thought hazily for a long time before finally remembering.
Wasn’t this the exact coiling-dragon pattern carved onto that jade square plaque?
Right.
The jade!
Quan Xiaoyu tugged at his clothes again.
It was gone!
The jade pendant that had been hanging around his neck had disappeared!
Far too many strange things had happened that day.
Quan Xiaoyu’s mind finally could not keep up with one bizarre event after another.
With a “thump,” he collapsed onto the bathroom floor and lost consciousness once again.
No one knew how much time had passed.
Quan Xiaoyu felt intense pain throughout his entire body.
In his daze, he seemed to hear that cold voice again.
“Master recognition complete. Purifying the marrow of the new master.”
Then came a heart-rending pain.
It felt as though every bone in his body were being smashed apart one by one.
The pain was so intense that he did not even have the strength to make a sound.
Even Quan Xiaoyu, who normally did not display much emotion, could not help cursing inwardly.
Damn your master recognition! Damn your marrow cleansing! Come out if you have the guts! I guarantee I won’t smash your head in!
If there had been someone in the bathroom at that moment, they would have witnessed an incredibly bizarre scene.
A young man lay on the bathroom floor, twitching slightly.
Yet his entire body was emitting a jade-green light.
The light gradually grew brighter until it completely enveloped him.
Then, the entire person vanished into thin air.
No one knew how long the pain continued.
It hurt until he became numb.
It hurt until he could no longer even feel the “pain.”
It hurt until his consciousness seemed to separate from his body.
When he opened his eyes and was finally able to move, he discovered that he was lying on the grass in the courtyard of that so-called “Dust Immortal Abode,” seemingly in exactly the same place where he had been when he left the last time.
He sat up, only to discover that his entire body felt as heavy as if he had been soaked in mud.
His clothes were drenched in sweat that had turned black.
Filth clung to his body like muddy water.
Quan Xiaoyu was immediately disgusted by himself.
He had a slight case of cleanliness obsession.
Even in the apocalypse in his previous life, he had never been this filthy.
He remembered the little stream outside the courtyard and hurriedly ran out.
Out of the caution he had developed in the apocalypse, Quan Xiaoyu instinctively reached out and tested the water.
It was ordinary water.
The stream was crystal clear, and it did not appear dangerous.
Only then did he pull off his clothes and jump in.
Fortunately, it was spring and he was not wearing much.
If it had been winter, he probably would have been disgusted to death.
However, although the filth looked frightening, it was not actually difficult to wash away.
As soon as he rinsed himself in the water, his skin became completely clean.
Quan Xiaoyu felt that something was wrong.
It was not until he thoroughly scrubbed himself from head to toe that he stared in astonishment.
His skin had become delicate and fair.
It was so smooth that it seemed to shine.
Against the clear stream water, it looked even more translucent and crystalline.
Looking at his reflection in the water, Quan Xiaoyu could not help cursing inwardly again.
He had cursed more in his heart today than he had in his entire previous life combined.
Who was that handsome young man in the reflection who looked as though he were only in his teens?
He was a twenty-four-year-old man.
Suddenly turning into a frail-looking teenager in his teens was something no one could accept!
Quan Xiaoyu was nearly driven crazy.
His facial features were still his own.
His appearance seemed to still be his own.
Even his height had not become shorter.
But damn it, he looked as though he had suddenly become ten years younger!
Yet even when Quan Xiaoyu himself had been in his teens, he had never been this frighteningly delicate and handsome!
For a moment, he felt as though his entire worldview had collapsed.
Damn this “master recognition”!
Come out if you have the guts!
In his entire life, Quan Xiaoyu had never been this flustered.
Not when he was thrown out of his home.
Not when he discovered that Jia Lunxu and Wen Tong were having an affair.
Not even when the apocalypse arrived.
The unknown and uncontrollable nature of all this left him with a trace of fear despite his anger.
Leave! Get me out of here!
Quan Xiaoyu thought with disgust.
The next second, his body appeared in the hotel bathroom.
He was completely naked.
The bathroom mirror reflected his face and body even more clearly.
After staring blankly at the mirror for a long while, Quan Xiaoyu let out a faint sigh and accepted reality.
He had already been reborn three years into the past.
What else could possibly be impossible?
He returned to the bedroom and rummaged through the luggage he had brought from home.
He took out a fresh set of clothes and changed.
After tidying himself up and taking his belongings, he planned to stay at Li Shunwei’s home tonight.
Then tomorrow, he would bring the father and son to the villa together.
Just as he was preparing to leave, Quan Xiaoyu glanced at his phone and discovered that it had run out of power.
At this moment, the hotel and even the world outside the window were eerily quiet.
Quan Xiaoyu immediately became alert.
He quickly connected his phone to a power source and turned it on.
There were more than thirty missed calls, along with several unread text messages.
Most importantly, the time displayed on the phone was [20170106]!
January 6!
Two days after the apocalypse had arrived!
Quan Xiaoyu went to the window and lifted a corner of the curtain.
The sky was a gloomy gray.
The earth seemed to have suddenly lost all vitality, taking on a bleak and lifeless color.
The city seemed to be shrouded in smog.
The streets were quiet and eerie.
Not far away, strangely shaped figures could be seen slowly wandering around.
Quan Xiaoyu knew that those were mutated humans—
Zombies!
The scene outside was unmistakably that of the early apocalypse.
Quan Xiaoyu was extremely familiar with it.
That meant that from the moment he had been in the park on the first day and had undergone that damn “master recognition” until now, nearly five days had passed!
During the period when he had been unconscious, the apocalypse had already arrived!
Quan Xiaoyu tapped on the unread messages.
The first few were from Li Shunwei asking where he was.
Later, they became increasingly anxious messages urging him to come home.
Finally, the messages turned into instructions.
Li Shunwei said in the messages that he had already purchased a large amount of daily necessities and stored them in the basement of the villa.
Since he could not get in touch with Quan Xiaoyu, he could only purchase things according to his own judgment.
He told Quan Xiaoyu to come to his house to get the key.
Later, the messages became urgent.
Li Shunwei seemed to have realized that something was wrong with the situation.
He told Quan Xiaoyu to move to the villa as quickly as possible.
If possible, he should come to their home and take Li Nan with him.
If he did not have the opportunity, he should go directly to the villa.
The villa had an emergency system that could be opened using a fingerprint and password.
He explained in detail how to open it in the messages.
He also stated that the password was a combination of Quan Xiaoyu’s father’s birthday and Li Shunwei’s birthday, while Quan Xiaoyu’s fingerprint was also one of the fingerprints authorized to open the house.
In other words, when the villa was built, Li Shunwei had already included the entire Quan father-and-son family as “owners” of the property.
The final text message had been sent at five o’clock in the evening on January 4, 2017—the moment the apocalypse erupted.
Quan Xiaoyu picked up his phone and tried calling Li Shunwei.
As expected, the call would not go through.
In his previous life, at the beginning of the apocalypse, all communications had been cut off simultaneously.
It seemed that some inexplicable magnetic-field interference had caused all communication signals to become disrupted.
The communication network humanity had spent decades building had been rendered useless overnight.
Electricity was still available at this time.
Water and electricity would not gradually be cut off until about a week after the apocalypse.
The development of events had exceeded Quan Xiaoyu’s expectations.
All his plans and the mental preparations he had made beforehand were now useless.
The most important thing for him at this moment was to get to Li Shunwei’s home, safely bring the two of them to the villa, and then have the three of them survive the most chaotic early stage of the apocalypse together.
Quan Xiaoyu tried using his supernatural ability.
Sure enough, because he had not experienced the events of his previous life—and because he had missed the initial outbreak of the apocalypse while trapped in that strange space—he had not obtained his fire-type supernatural ability.
After experiencing so many unexpected things, Quan Xiaoyu had become calm.
He did not even bother to feel disappointed about it.
Instead, he began searching through the room.
He had to find a weapon he could use.
Originally, he had planned to find a way to obtain a knife after receiving the money from selling the antiques.
Now, he could only make do.
As long as it could be used, that was enough.
There was nothing useful in the hotel room.
He could only forcibly dismantle a section of the bathroom’s water pipe and hope it would do the job.
Fortunately, the zombies in the early stages of the apocalypse were all very weak.
They were slow to react and slow-moving.
For someone like him, an experienced veteran, they were easy enough to deal with.
Once everything was ready, Quan Xiaoyu took a deep breath and pulled open the hotel room door.