After that, Chu Tian began living like a savage.
After the apocalypse, the characteristics and growth patterns of trees had undergone earth-shattering changes, making them useless for determining direction.
Most importantly, Chu Tian had no way of knowing which direction he was facing. The sky had recently been perpetually covered by a thin layer of haze, so he couldn’t use the stars to determine his position either.
Fortunately, the sturdy scales that had grown all over his body became a powerful advantage for his life in the mountains.
Many animals and plants had no interest whatsoever in someone covered in armor like him. As long as he didn’t provoke them, they simply ignored him.
Occasionally, he would encounter some large beasts that didn’t care about his scales either.
For example—a wild boar that was as tall as two people.
Its body was swollen as though someone had inflated it like a balloon. It had thick skin, and its two tusks were practically thicker and longer than elephant tusks.
Fortunately, Chu Tian’s mental ability had already reached Level 6.
After his physical strength recovered, he wasn’t afraid of it. Relying on his armor-like scales, he fought the wild boar to a standstill.
It was also through this experience that Chu Tian discovered that mental abilities had limited effects against mutated beasts, but against humans, they were an extremely powerful weapon. Against zombies, their effectiveness was second only to their effectiveness against humans.
Lost in the mountains, Chu Tian could only rely on his instincts to navigate through the wilderness, hoping that he could leave this place as soon as possible and return to the human world.
The mountain forests after the apocalypse were like a gigantic prehistoric Jurassic Park, filled with countless species that had never existed before.
Chu Tian’s state of mind gradually settled down.
At first, he had been anxious, shocked, and even afraid.
But slowly, his emotions began to calm.
Time seemed to pass more slowly here. Gradually, he found himself with the state of mind to appreciate this place, observe it, and study it.
During this period, the thing he had the most every day was time.
Aside from hunting for food, he could use all his remaining time to think.
And so, he came to several conclusions.
First was the function of those fruits.
Combining it with what Quan Xiaoyu had described before, the fruits should be capable of purifying viruses and converting the viruses into another form of energy.
This “other energy,” so to speak, could be thought of as something that catalyzed or awakened a certain kind of energy within the human body.
For example, after Quan Xiaoyu’s zombie virus was purified, it produced a fire-type ability.
The nature of an ability was related to the latent ability factor hidden within the body.
Take Chu Tian, for example.
After being bitten by the mutated beast, the fruit purified the virus in the mutated beast’s saliva.
Because the latent ability within Chu Tian’s body—the mental-type ability—had already been awakened, the energy instead shifted toward the ability of the mutated beast that had bitten him.
As a result, Chu Tian’s body mutated, causing armor-like scales to grow all over him.
Second was the water in Quan Xiaoyu’s spatial dimension.
That water was probably nourished by the light condensed by the fruit trees, so it carried a faint version of the fruit’s effects.
That was why they had previously mistakenly believed that the water in the spatial dimension had the ability to replenish their powers.
In reality, the real source of the effect was the fruits, not the water!
Chu Tian could almost imagine that if everyone in their group had eaten those fruits back then, that battle probably wouldn’t have ended so miserably.
Unfortunately, the answer had come too late.
And Quan Xiaoyu really was sitting on top of a treasure mountain without realizing it.
Thinking of Quan Xiaoyu, countless thoughts of him surged through Chu Tian’s heart.
He wondered whether that brat was doing all right.
Without him around, would that silly boy know how to take care of himself?
Would someone trick him?
After thinking about it for only a moment, Chu Tian decisively cut off his thoughts.
If he allowed himself to dwell on such longing for too long, it would destroy the rationality he had worked so hard to build.
Humans were social creatures, after all.
If they lived apart from others for too long, loneliness would gradually erode hope.
So, in order to keep himself from falling into despair because of loneliness, Chu Tian began hunting beasts and collecting their crystal cores.
From being covered in wounds and desperately fighting for survival at the beginning, he gradually became more and more adept.
As he fought, Chu Tian discovered that every aspect of his physical abilities was improving.
His eyes became less and less useful.
Relying solely on his mental power, he could “see” extremely tiny things from very far away.
Eventually, he began to master the beast-related portion of his power.
At the same time, his Level 6 mental ability finally reached its peak.
It was at this point that the place he had reached, although still covered in lush vegetation, gradually began showing traces of past human activity.
Chu Tian hacked through the plants.
Beneath the thick layers of branches and vines, he discovered a human building.
A residential house.
Chu Tian knew that he had returned to the human world!
He suppressed his excitement and agitation and began searching this place bit by bit for the remnants left behind after humanity disappeared.
First, he could use them to determine his location.
Second, he hoped to find something useful that could help him return to human society.
With nothing at all to his name, Chu Tian stayed there for three days.
He found some relatively intact clothes and put them on.
Then, using the beast-type ability he had not yet mastered very well, he caused half of the scales covering his body to recede, doing his best to make himself look like a human.
He also found an old, worn-out map and some expired compressed biscuits.
He certainly wasn’t going to complain about the food now.
He had already had enough of surviving on wild fruits and raw meat.
It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to make a fire.
It was simply too dangerous to make one in the forest.
The smell of cooked meat could easily attract large carnivorous beasts.
After nearly losing his life because of this twice, Chu Tian could only start eating raw meat like a wild animal in order to fill his stomach.
The location deliberately circled on the map finally allowed Chu Tian to figure out exactly where he was.
T Province, A City.
He had actually traveled this far from J City.
So Chu Tian rested there for another two days.
On the one hand, he wanted to collect more supplies from human society.
On the other hand, he was hesitating.
Three months had already passed.
Even if Quan Xiaoyu and the others were still alive, would they still be where they had been?
Would they have continued heading north?
Where were they now?
Because of these questions, he remained there for two days.
Then, while he was bored and casually released his mental power to scan his surroundings, he detected an extremely familiar mental fluctuation.
Quan Xiaoyu!
Chu Tian was instantly overwhelmed with surprise and excitement.
He jumped to his feet and sprinted toward that direction.
His mental power could now scan an extremely wide area, so he knew that there was still an entire mountain between him and Quan Xiaoyu!
“Don’t leave! Please don’t leave!”
As Chu Tian ran, he repeated those words silently over and over, terrified that if he missed this chance, he would never be able to find him again.
But halfway there, a black shadow suddenly pounced at him with an obvious attack.
Chu Tian had no choice but to stop and deal with it.
It was actually a high-level zombie!
After several exchanges, Chu Tian quickly detected the lingering aura of Quan Xiaoyu on its body.
That aura contained not the slightest trace of the smell of blood, which made Chu Tian somewhat suspicious.
It wasn’t until he recognized that this zombie was actually Xie Mingxuan from the church that he suddenly understood.
Chu Tian didn’t want to kill him.
At the same time, he discovered that the other party was also a Level 6 mental-type ability user.
However, Xie Mingxuan’s evolutionary direction was control, communication, and defense, so Chu Tian couldn’t do much to him for the time being.
But Xie Mingxuan seemed to have gone completely berserk.
He relentlessly chased after Chu Tian and refused to let go, as though he wouldn’t rest until he had eaten him.
Chu Tian had no choice.
He remembered the mutated green vines he had discovered a few days earlier.
Those things could move, but their range of movement was limited.
So after discovering them, Chu Tian had kept far away from their territory.
This time, Chu Tian lured Xie Mingxuan over there.
Originally, he had intended to let the green vines trap Xie Mingxuan so that he could quickly go look for Quan Xiaoyu.
But because he was so consumed by his longing and was distracted during the fight, he accidentally fell into the trap of the mutated vines himself and became trapped as well.
And then came the scene Quan Xiaoyu witnessed when he arrived.
“Actually, while I was in the mountains, I encountered that monster that bit me once more. But the second time we met, it was incredibly friendly. It treated me like one of its own kind.”
As Chu Tian spoke, he even laughed twice.
“Then it actually started sending out mating signals. It scared me so badly that I ran away as fast as I could. I looked absolutely pathetic.”
He hoped to describe everything as lightly and cheerfully as possible.
In truth, that part of his experience had been rather painful.
He didn’t want Quan Xiaoyu to feel sad because of it.
However, no matter how lightly he described things, Quan Xiaoyu could still pick out the unpleasant experiences hidden between his words.
Chu Tian’s hoarse voice, his mutated body, and the scars that had yet to fade from his body all silently revealed the suffering he had endured over the past three months.
When Chu Tian casually said, “I didn’t dare make a fire, so I had no choice but to eat raw meat,” it sounded so simple.
He had merely eaten raw meat.
But was it really just eating raw meat?
Chu Tian had never mentioned his family background, but Quan Xiaoyu could more or less guess a little.
Regardless of what kind of life Chu Tian had lived before the apocalypse, after the apocalypse began, he had quickly met Quan Xiaoyu.
He had never lacked food.
Could he really have adapted to a life of eating raw meat and drinking blood overnight?
Of course not!
For three months, he had been unable to find his way.
There had been no one to talk to.
Danger had been everywhere.
His nerves had been forced to remain tense because he had no other choice.
Loneliness.
Helplessness.
Despair.
How had Chu Tian endured it all?
Facing one extremely dangerous battle after another, he had to keep going even when covered in wounds.
He had escaped death several times.
What had Chu Tian been thinking during those moments?
Quan Xiaoyu didn’t know what kind of emotional journey Chu Tian had gone through.
But whenever he thought about it, a suffocating pain repeatedly struck his chest.
Quan Xiaoyu used every bit of his strength to force himself to calmly listen to Chu Tian’s story until the end.
But after Chu Tian deliberately ended his story with those lighthearted words, Quan Xiaoyu’s emotions finally collapsed completely.
Quan Xiaoyu held Chu Tian tightly, burying his face deep against his chest. His fingers dug into Chu Tian’s back so tightly that they almost sank into his flesh.
Chu Tian said nothing and simply let him hold him. He even raised his unharmed right hand and gently patted Quan Xiaoyu’s back, soothing his emotions.
The two of them remained locked in that embrace, no longer speaking.
Within the spatial dimension, this self-contained little world held only the two of them, tightly embracing each other.
There was no sense of time passing here.
No one knew how long it had been when a completely transparent fish shimmering with silver light suddenly leaped out of the water.
Smack!
Its body slapped against Quan Xiaoyu’s back before it fell back into the water and disappeared.
“Wow! They’ve gotten this big!”
Chu Tian cried out in surprise.
He still remembered that three months ago, when he had seen them, they had only been tiny fish fry about as thick as half a finger.
Now, the fish that had leaped out of the water was already as big as an adult’s palm.
When Quan Xiaoyu turned around, he had already composed himself emotionally.
His sharp eyes also clearly caught sight of the fish that had fallen back into the water.
“I never really noticed before. These fish are quite unusual.”
Quan Xiaoyu spoke softly, conveniently changing the subject.
He no longer wanted to think about those heavy matters.
Fortunately, Chu Tian had returned safely.
Regardless of what he had gone through, he was safe now.
To Quan Xiaoyu, that was the greatest blessing heaven could possibly have given him.
“Unusual or not, we’re making fish soup later.”
Chu Tian spoke enthusiastically.
Three months.
Only he knew what kinds of things he had been eating!
If his physical constitution hadn’t been comprehensively strengthened after his mutation, he might have died long ago with the body he had before.
As he spoke, he suddenly seemed to remember something and smacked his forehead in frustration.
“I’ve been so busy talking that I forgot to eat! No wonder I’m so hungry. Everything I look at makes me want to eat…”
“I’ll go find you something to eat.”
Hearing this, Quan Xiaoyu turned around and was about to climb ashore.
But Chu Tian immediately grabbed him.
With his lips pushed into a pout, he said somewhat aggrievedly, “No! I don’t want to eat processed food! I want a hot meal.”
After such a long time, he had finally found an opportunity to be willful, and Chu Tian was delighted.
This left Quan Xiaoyu stumped.
He only knew how to make a few simple things, and he needed a modern kitchen to do them.
Of course, he couldn’t bear to refuse Chu Tian.
So he could only blink and stare at the pile of supplies in the distance, foolishly trying to think of a solution.
Chu Tian suddenly burst out laughing.
He reached out and pinched Quan Xiaoyu’s cheek, sighing with feigned helplessness.
“Looks like I’ll have to rely on myself after all.”
With that, he pulled Quan Xiaoyu onto the shore.
He didn’t even bother putting on clothes and headed straight for the supplies.
Quan Xiaoyu had collected all sorts of things.
There was a complete mess of miscellaneous items, and because he had never cared enough to categorize or organize them, the two of them now plunged headfirst into the mountain-like pile of supplies and began rummaging through it.
Under Chu Tian’s instructions, they actually managed to find all the cooking equipment they needed.
A small gas stove, a small gas canister, a wok, a cooking pot, bowls, plates, pots and pans, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar—everything was there!
Looking at the complete set of supplies, Chu Tian couldn’t help smiling and sighing.
“Now we’ve got everything we need to live a proper life. It wouldn’t be bad to just live like this for the rest of our lives!”
Hearing him say the rest of our lives, Quan Xiaoyu inexplicably flushed.
Before Chu Tian could notice, he quickly turned his head.
“I’ll go find some more things.”
After saying that, he once again ran toward the mountain of supplies.
Because time was short, the food Chu Tian made was very simple.
He steamed and cooked fragrant rice together with sliced ham, and made a simple braised lean pork dish.
He himself ate with incredible relish.
Quan Xiaoyu, meanwhile, would take a bite of rice, then stare at Chu Tian as he wolfed down his food.
He felt that this moment was unbelievably warm and happy.
After the two of them completely polished off the food, Chu Tian still wasn’t satisfied.
So he pulled Quan Xiaoyu back into the river, saying that they should catch some fish and make soup.
“Are you sure they’re safe to eat?”
Quan Xiaoyu looked sympathetically at Chu Tian, whose face had just been smacked by a fish’s tail, and asked uncertainly.
“Didn’t you notice? This space forms a complete cycle of its own. The water nourishes the land, the plants growing on the land condense into a source of light, and that light in turn nourishes both the space and the water source. If the fruits are beneficial and harmless to humans, then the other things should probably be similar.”
Chu Tian rubbed his right cheek where the fish had smacked him.
This fish really knows how to pick its targets. It keeps hitting the one part of my face that isn’t protected by scales.
At the same time, he explained it to Quan Xiaoyu.
He had already figured out this answer while he was in the mountains.
Since Quan Xiaoyu had asked, he simply took the opportunity to explain it.
Though he still had no idea who exactly the owner of this spatial dimension was!
Quan Xiaoyu simply nodded.
“Oh.”
Then he dove back into the water and concentrated on catching fish.
After all, whatever Chu Tian said was what it was.
He just had to listen.
Those transparent fish didn’t seem to belong to any species he knew.
They were incredibly cunning and unexpectedly difficult to catch.
The two of them worked together and tried for a long time.
Aside from the number of times they had been smacked by fish tails, they hadn’t even managed to touch the tip of one of their tails.
“How about we just forget it?” Quan Xiaoyu suggested.
But by this point, Chu Tian had gotten stubborn.
He refused to believe it!
He was determined to drink fish soup today, no matter what!
So Chu Tian ignored Quan Xiaoyu’s suggestion and dove back into the water, determined to wear the fish down.
Quan Xiaoyu could only help him.
As they kept trying to catch the fish, the two of them gradually started having fun.
So, under the pretext of catching fish, they played around in the water for a while longer.
(The crab police got involved here, so use your imagination.)
In the end, they finally managed to catch one.
Only then was Chu Tian satisfied and able to stew it into soup.
After drinking their fill of fish soup, the two of them finally lay side by side on the grass, shoulder to shoulder and head to head, gazing up at the hazy sky above them.
At this point, Quan Xiaoyu sensed Xie Mingxuan calling for him and suddenly remembered that Xie Mingxuan had been out hunting for a long time.
Feeling guilty that he had almost forgotten Xie Mingxuan existed, he brought him back into the space.
As soon as Xie Mingxuan entered the spatial dimension and saw Chu Tian, he immediately bared his sharp teeth and snarled at him with extreme hostility.
But he made no other aggressive move.
After handing Quan Xiaoyu a beast core, he simply retreated back into the little wooden house.
“This is a beast core?”
Ignoring Xie Mingxuan’s hostility, Chu Tian looked at the thing Xie Mingxuan had handed Quan Xiaoyu and asked curiously.
“Mm.”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded.
He casually pulled over a backpack and put the beast core inside, then patted the bulging backpack.
“It’s all beast cores. He really likes eating these. He’s stored all of them here with me.”
Quan Xiaoyu smiled as he spoke, his tone gentle and indulgent, almost as though he were talking about a child.
“He’s pretty well-behaved. Sometimes he eats the beast cores he hunts directly, and sometimes he gives them to me to keep. Whenever he wants some ‘snacks,’ he comes to me and asks for one.”
“I never expected him to become like this.”
Chu Tian sighed.
He was reminded of that kindhearted, utterly selfless man from the church.
“Yeah. In J City, he was the one who saved us. Otherwise…”
Quan Xiaoyu didn’t finish the sentence.
Instead, he said, “I have a feeling he deliberately came looking for me.”
“He’s not so bad like this.”
Chu Tian said this because he always felt that the Xie Mingxuan of the past had been crushed beneath the responsibilities he had somehow imposed upon himself.
That was why he had been so selflessly good to the point of having no limits.
“This is pretty good. He seems quite capable of enjoying himself now.”
The conversation then shifted from Xie Mingxuan to the great disaster in J City.
Only then did Quan Xiaoyu remember that he still hadn’t told Chu Tian what had happened after they were separated.
So Quan Xiaoyu recounted everything that had happened after Chu Tian disappeared that day.
Chu Tian hadn’t expected so many things to happen afterward.
When he heard that nearly half of their teammates had died in that disaster, he was deeply saddened.
After several months of watching over and living alongside each other, everyone had protected one another.
How could they possibly have developed no feelings for each other?
Otherwise, Chu Tian wouldn’t have been so unwilling to abandon the team, even at the cost of his own life.
When he heard that Xiao Ziran was preparing to establish a temporary base, Chu Tian asked for more details.
Unfortunately, Quan Xiaoyu had left too early.
All he knew was the location of the base.
He didn’t know anything else about its current situation.
The two of them were still talking when Chu Tian’s body suddenly changed again.
The mutated beast genes within him that had previously been under control suddenly went berserk and became uncontrollable.
The scales that had mostly disappeared from his body suddenly spread wildly across his entire body once again.
Then the scales began falling off one by one on their own.
But when they fell away, they did not reveal Chu Tian’s original appearance.
New scales began growing rapidly.
The bronze-colored scales with a metallic sheen fell away, replaced by layer upon layer of glittering silver scales.
The new scales seemed thicker and sharper than before, giving off the feeling that anyone who touched them would immediately be injured.
At this moment, Chu Tian shimmered with silver light.
From a distance, he looked almost like a heavenly soldier clad in armor.
And all of this happened in barely a minute.
It happened so quickly that not only Quan Xiaoyu, but even Chu Tian himself, had no time to react to what was happening!
He had merely felt something strange happening in his body.
Then, when he came back to his senses, he was already covered in silver armor.
The process wasn’t painful.
In fact, he didn’t feel the slightest bit uncomfortable.
“Are you all right?”
Quan Xiaoyu was startled and immediately reached out to grab Chu Tian.
Chu Tian hurriedly dodged away.
“Don’t touch me! These scales can hurt you.”
Because the situation was so sudden, he shouted.
But immediately afterward, he felt that his tone had been too harsh, so he quickly softened his voice.
“Don’t worry. I’m fine. It looks like I’ve mutated again. These scales can hurt people, so don’t touch me for now.”