"All that digging finally paid off."
Qi Suian gazed at the map in his hand. It was ancient and tattered from the passage of ti.
Yet, a single glance at its markings and careful preservation revealed that it had once been soone’s most prized possession.
The map had various markings on it, showing that its previous owner had migrated a long way. They had even drawn a flag at the location of the Northernmost State.
Considering these clues, it was highly probable that their destination was the Northernmost State Mantle Sanctuary.
Qi Suian had found this map by quite literally digging for it—on a skeleton in a collapsed basent, about five ters underground.
Based on his examination, a sudden cave-in had trapped the person, leaving them to suffocate to death.
"I’ve got the map, but... how am I supposed to tell which way is which?" Qi Suian muttered in frustration.
’Reading tree rings, using the sun... none of the old tricks work here.’
’And as for relying on the magnetic field or a compass?’
That was even more useless. Due to the sun’s mutation, the magnetic field of the entire Horizon Realm had long since devolved into chaos.
He had tried making a makeshift compass with a puddle and a leaf, only to get three different directions from three different puddles.
All he had managed to do was confirm his own location, not his orientation.
"AI Core, record the map for now," Qi Suian said. It was the only thing he could do.
Actually, there was another way: he could use the landmarks on the map for confirmation.
’The rivers would have dried up long ago in this heat.’
’So I’ll have to use the mountains as anchor points.’
As for the Gobi Desert and other deserts he had passed through, they were formations that appeared after the apocalypse. On this old map, the area was surrounded by cities; there was no Gobi Desert or any other desert to be found.
A hundred years is long enough for a desert to swallow a city, but not long enough to level a mountain.
[Data recorded. Calculating optimal route... ]
"Huh? How can you be calculating the optimal route already?" Qi Suian blurted out, stunned.
’Doesn’t it need to be confird first? How does the AI Core already have the data?’
[All terrain and geographical features encountered during hunts are recorded. By comparing that data with the new input, a rough area can be deduced. Combined with the completed map, the location of the Northernmost State Mantle Sanctuary can be calculated.]
The AI Core replied.
Imdiately, a virtual projection of a new map materialized in Qi Suian’s field of vision.
"Not bad, not bad at all." Qi Suian studied the clear map. While it was mostly based on the old one he held, it was still far better than knowing nothing.
He had thrived in the Profound World, moving like a fish in water, precisely because the AI Core gave him an information advantage.
And now, he had finally recovered a small fraction of that edge.
[Coordinates calibrated. Estimated ti of arrival at the Northernmost State Mantle Sanctuary: eighteen hours.]
It was an "estimate" because the route would likely cross human dead zones, such as deserts and the Gobi Desert.
The temperatures there were too high, forcing the Tai Sui God to take detours instead of flying in a straight line.
So, while the estimate was eighteen hours, the actual journey would take much longer.
And it would likely be fraught with danger.
’It’s a long way, crossing more than half of the Horizon Realm.’
’Then again, for a place so far away to still be known, is this Mantle Sanctuary guaranteed to be a good thing?’
Even a direct flight with the Tai Sui God would take eighteen hours. An ordinary person would probably die from the heat long before they got halfway there.
It was like a carrot on a stick, offering nothing more than a sliver of hope.
If it was just false hope, that was one thing. But he worried it might be bait for a trap.
But whether it was a trap or not was irrelevant to Qi Suian. He had to go either way.
A hundred years had passed. Even if there were still people alive in the Mantle Sanctuary, at least one generation, if not more, would have co and gone.
But in Qi Suian’s view, it was more likely that everyone inside was long dead.
’Perfect. It’s not like I’m a good person, either.’ Qi Suian wasn’t worried about them being bad news. After all, since the apocalypse began, he’d killed, burned, and committed every cri imaginable to survive.
’To think I used to be a law-abiding 996 wage slave who wouldn’t even dare run a red light.’
Now, while he might not kill without a second thought, he certainly didn’t blink when the ti ca to act.
It was all for the sake of survival.
Other people got to ’live’; at the very least, they weren’t actively trying to get themselves killed.
But Qi Suian was different. He was just ’surviving’. If he didn’t push himself to the absolute limit, he would be deader than dead.
So what if he could be revived by ’Death Recast’? Special zombies could revive too, and they could even devour others to evolve, but they still ended up dead.
Revival was just a tool, not a trump card. Relying on it was a surefire way to get killed. After all, there were ways to target even the life force of the supposedly immortal Pillar of Flesh and Blood·Profound God.
Let alone soone like him.
So, even though he knew many of the things he did were wrong, he did them anyway for his own sake.
He didn’t care if the dead hated him; he hated the apocalypse, too.
Without the apocalypse, who knows how good his life could have been? With his decent job, million-a-year salary, and company benefits, marrying a beautiful, fair-skinned woman with long legs would have been a piece of cake.
But alas, there were no ’what ifs’.
"Let’s go," Qi Suian said softly.
The Tai Sui God imdiately took flight, following the preset route toward the Northernmost State Mantle Sanctuary.
This ti, since it didn’t need to search for a suitable Desolate Beast for fuel, its speed was back to normal.
But it hadn’t even been flying for an hour when the AI Core issued a high-energy alert.
[WARNING: High-energy lifeform · High-temperature heat source detected seventeen kiloters ahead.]
Before Qi Suian could even ask, the AI Core projected an image from its reconnaissance network.
It was a roiling, crimson cloud.
At least, that’s what it looked like from the outside. A further analysis from the reconnaissance network revealed it wasn’t a real cloud at all, but a colossal swarm ford by countless insects clinging to one another.
A single insect’s heat signature was around one hundred degrees Celsius—fairly standard for a Desolate Beast.
The problem was the sheer number of them. They also seed to possess so kind of hive-mind ability, allowing the swarm to gather and function as a single entity.
Qi Suian suspected the internal temperature of the collective mass was at least a thousand degrees.
The thought made Qi Suian’s skin crawl.
’If that crimson cloud spots , it’s over.’ Qi Suian knew the "high-energy lifeform" the AI Core had warned him about was the entire swarm, not any single bug.
The swarm stretched for several kiloters.
The closer to its center, the more severely the air distorted from the intense heat.
’It’s a good thing Desolate Beasts can survive just by basking in the sun, without food or water. Otherwise, this one crimson cloud alone would be enough to wipe out all the natives of the Horizon Realm.’
The swarm was still expanding. Since it could draw enough heat from the sun to survive, it was naturally in a state of rapid, constant reproduction.
The Tai Sui God gave the swarm a wide berth. Qi Suian would have to have a death wish to even think about charging in.
Anything the AI Core designated a "high-energy lifeform" was definitely not sothing he could afford to ss with right now.
’What about just overloading the Floating Cannons to wipe it out?’
He could, but there was no point.
He wasn’t so "survivor" who would get a reward for killing a Desolate Beast.
If he could sohow turn the crimson cloud into fuel for the lting Furnace, then he might have considered it.
But he wasn’t crazy. This was not sothing he could afford to covet.
If he let greed cloud his judgnt, he wouldn’t have survived this long.
The Tai Sui God’s wide detour went unnoticed by the swarm.
Or perhaps the swarm simply didn’t care about a tiny speck moving far along its periphery.
The swarm didn’t seem particularly aggressive, but perhaps that was only because Qi Suian hadn’t trespassed on its territory.
Once he was a safe distance away, Qi Suian finally let out a breath of relief.
But he hadn’t gotten far when another high-energy alert sounded from the AI Core.
A falcon, as large as a passenger jet, dived straight into the crimson cloud, tearing a massive chunk out of the swarm on impact.
"Whoa... is my plot armor kicking in?" Qi Suian wondered as he watched the scene unfold. The AI Core, anwhile, piloted the Tai Sui God into an ergency landing, finding a safe place to hide.
A falcon’s eyesight is no joke.
Even if he wanted to flee the battlefield, he couldn’t do it now. He had to wait for the chaos to subside.
The battle between the two high-energy Desolate Beasts had officially begun.
Though the falcon had torn off and devoured a huge chunk of the swarm, the act seed to galvanize the cloud, which began to surge and envelop its attacker.
"Do you think they’ll cripple each other, leaving to pick up the spoils?" Qi Suian asked.
[The probability of mutual destruction is less than ten percent. The falcon has a seventy percent chance of victory.]
[There is another possibility: the swarm is being fard by the falcon, which returns periodically to harvest it.]
"I doubt it’s that smart," Qi Suian said, observing the falcon. Even though it had the upper hand, it was already covered in wounds.
But the more injuries it sustained, the more ferocious it beca.
Under this onslaught, the swarm was torn to shreds, no longer able to put up a fight.
By the ti the falcon had eaten its fill, a considerable number of insects still remained, but they were no longer a cohesive force and not nearly as terrifying as before.
The scattered remnants only spanned about twenty or thirty ters in total.
Their collective temperature had dropped as well, and the AI Core no longer classified the remnants as a high-energy lifeform.
[Object of opportunity detected. Proceed with acquisition? ]
The distance was too great for Qi Suian to see, but the reconnaissance network had detected sothing and reported back to the AI Core.
"Go get it! Why the hell not?" Qi Suian agreed without a mont’s hesitation.
He didn’t know what it was, but it wasn’t every day that a powerful Desolate Beast like that falcon ca by. How could he possibly let its "kind gesture" go to waste?
The Tai Sui God shot toward the center of the scattered swarm.
As he drew closer, Qi Suian finally saw what it was.
It was a creature resembling a firefly larva. Its body radiated intense heat as it was held aloft by several other insects, thrashing about as if trying to rally the remnants of the swarm.
It looked completely different from the other insects in the swarm and had no wings, rendering it flightless.
But Qi Suian could tell that this strange creature was undoubtedly the core of the swarm.
If he captured it, the swarm would beco a thing of the past, with no hope of ever reforming.
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