Global Evolution

Chapter 136: Exile

Translator: Letty Editor: DarkGem

Solutions of different colors were injected into Qing Shui’s body from the needles.

If Chang was here, he would realize he recognized some of the solutions, though most of them would be foreign to him.

The injection didn’t take long. They were soon finished, followed by the ordered withdrawal of the needles, which hid back in the ceiling, as if nothing had happened. In the silence in the room, Qing Shui’s eyes reflected the great pain that he was suffering.

"Ahhhhh!"

His body quivered involuntarily. His skin turned red upon the injection of the solutions. His veins dilated and emerged on his forehead and temples.

"Urh...." His muscles wriggled as they expanded. Even the bones crackled.

Qing Shui repressed his trembles and flicked the trigger on the other side with his remaining consciousness.

Right after he did so, his index finger extended an extra inch. He was roaring, laughing, whining, until a thirty-centimeter titanium alloy shield rose up from the bottom of the surgical bed, enclosing him and silencing his howling.

No one would ever know what happened in here.

On the same day, at noon. Chang and his group reached the periphery of Xin Xiang.

"Here it is, our first stop." Yin Qing said softly, her eyes remaining on the map. The city was just as broken as Kaifeng.

"We made it." Jing stood beside Chang.

Xin Xiang was no different from other cities, with trees growing tall and weaving together, forming a corridor hovering over the streets. "This place brings back the memory when we were in Kaifeng four years ago. It was impossible to survive after leaving the military base."

"Time flows by without us realizing it, it’s already been four years... Xin Xiang seems to be more damaged than Kaifeng; I wonder how many people survived." Chang walked into the empty green corridor, but the clones didn’t follow up.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Qing Shui..." The clones faced the south. "Something went wrong with him."

"What has gone wrong?" Though Chang had prepared for Qing Shui’s death, he was still in shock of the news. He hustled. "Is it the Willow?"

"No." The clones closed their eyes. "We think he just broke himself... He basically reconstructed himself by breaking his genome and rebuilding from scratch. It was such a massive change that we can sense from even here."

"What is he trying to do?" the clones wondered among themselves.

"I don’t know. This feels strange, but also powerful. Perhaps it’s his final plunge."

"It can be, but... what if he can’t make it before the Willow comes," Qing said in doubt.

"Well, I guess it’s a fifty-fifty chance between life and death. What will he turn into eventually?" Shui asked Shui Qing.

"Don’t ask me! He is such a nut, and I simply can’t peak into his mind."

"Nuts, nuts!" Shui repeated.

"What nuts! Hey, why aren’t you keeping up?"

Zhizhi shouted to the clones while walking up from the back. She pinched Qing’s ear when she saw them having stopped.

"Can you not stop in the middle of nowhere? Do you know it’s dangerous?" Zhizhi shouted. "What if you get left behind? We can’t always look for you!"

Zhizhi was anxious as if she was their mother. She kept lecturing them, "Even if you don’t get lost, but what if something attacks you?"

"We’ll solve it by ourselves." Qing patted off Zhizhi’s hand. "We don’t need to be taken care of anyways."

"You are just as stubborn as your father!" Zhizhi was triggered, and she could no longer control her rage, pinching Qing’s ear again. "I was trying to do good for you! Otherwise, I wouldn’t even bother to care."

"We don’t need you to care for us." Qing flicked away her hand again. "What a rowdy woman you are."

"You!" Zhizhi was pulled away from Qing by Chang when she wanted to refute.

"Zhizhi, just leave them alone." Chang comforted both sides. "Next time, just keep up with us."

"Hum." Qing nodded, though he didn’t even look at Zhizhi.

"You!"

Zhizhi stomped a few times to vent out her anger. She dashed to the front. "Qing Shui never fails to make me angry! Every single time! Even with his clones!"

...

Although Xin Xiang was desolate, Chang sensed that humans were still thriving in this city. They were probably not even the first who arrived in Xin Xiang after what happened.

A group merged from the other street and its leader initiated a conversation.

"Hey bro! Did you just arrive?" The group knew that Chang was also a fugitive, judging by his outfit and appearance.

"I did." Chang stopped as he wanted to get some news of Xin Xiang. "Have you met any locals yet? How long have you been here?"

"A little more than half an hour? The locals are gathered on the west side, and I just heard about this from a passerby. And that person told me that the locals started panicking as well. It seems like someone from Zhengzhou told them about the Willow half an hour ago."

"I see." Chang nodded. "Can’t blame them, they must have seen the migration earlier and become concerned."

"Anyways, I think we should check the city out together. After all, the bigger the group, the safer we’ll be." The other group was small, with only three people. Apparently, they were a family, and the one who spoke was its head.

"Yep, we shall go." Chang followed them, but he also secured a hand on his handgun.

In four years, mega cities became independent states one after another; he had no ideas what small cities had become. Yin Qing guided the whole group to the west side with her navigation skills. There they saw troops and markets, as well as cultivated fields in the urban area.

"Not a lot remains," Chang concluded, judging from the city’s scale.

More than 75% of the population had vanished, and the city had shrank into a town. There were stores on both sides of the street, but the amount was limited due to lack of resources. The trading had returned to its primitive form - barter. The commodities were mainly food and weapons, and all currencies were abandoned.

Though there were patrols in the town, it seemed like an organized mess. The government was no longer an authority figure.

Some newcomers were wandering on the street, and some of them were stopped and questioned by residents.

"Things aren’t too bad here. I’ll supplement some water and food." Chang closely observed the residents; they were panicking mildly, but they hadn’t gone crazy yet. So he left by himself and asked the rest to stay where they were. He went into a store and exchanged for some water and food with a sophisticated pistol.

Even if Chang wanted to carry more food and water, the size of his backpack limited the amount he could afford to have, so he had to constantly resupply. For long-term consideration, he decided to preserve the hard tacks that Qing Shui had given him, and feed his group with the food that he just had gained from the trade.

Chang didn’t return until he collected all the information that he wanted to know.

"How’s everything?" Zhizhi asked first.

"Neither bad nor good. The citizens are worrying. They don’t know why the migration occurred, and they don’t want to leave this comfort zone. Most of them are waiting and seeing." Chang stuffed the food into his backpack.

"Should we tell them what happened?" Yin Qing asked.

"I don’t think that’s a good idea. There will be someone in charge here telling the truth to the locals. They’ll leave when they feel they need to. Spreading the information we know isn’t wise because very likely we’ll be treated as liars. We don’t want to get into trouble with the military personnel here," Chang said in almost a whisper.

"True," Zhizhi said. "Should we leave immediately then?"

"We’ll leave now, before the people from Zhengzhou arrive. Don’t forget that there will also be a migration of land animals, so we have to march as long as we can before things get difficult."

"So be it." Yin Qing nodded in agreement.

The group packed up after the discussion. They left the town quickly, before anyone started to pay attention to them.

The journey was still peaceful as the fright brought away most of the animals in the jungle. All they needed to be careful about were the immobile plants.

A day after the group left Xin Xiang, millions of citizens arrived here, pushing the city into a panic without any effort.

"Did you hear that a monster is coming from the south? It can destroy a city in a blink of an eye!"

The arrival of the news sowed fear in every corner of the city. None of the people hesitated anymore. They packed, they rioted, but in the end, they all migrated like the flying animals had done.

Meanwhile, in Zhengzhou, the ultra thick titanium alloy shield was broken apart from within. A being sat up.