Although Canglang had lost a lot of blood, it was still moving almost as fast as before. Shen Yu pushed his snowmobile to its limit and only just caught up.
During the little ice age, even the south spent more than half the year blanketed in snow and ice. Feng Qing and Yan Yun were both pretty good on snowmobiles, but they still couldn’t match Shen Yu, who’d lived in the north ever since the apocalypse began.
Feng Qing and Yan Yun fell far behind, but luckily the route was fairly flat, and Canglang instinctively avoided danger. They managed to keep up, just barely, without having to abandon their snowmobiles and teleport.
Shen Yu’s mental power reached the scene first. Sure enough, just as he’d expected, the injured Yi Han and the branch sticking out of his chest stood out at once. Plenty of people were gathered around, but no one was willing to help.
The tree Yi Han had brought down in his final moments, the fruit still on it, and the corpses of the mutated beasts that had accidentally been summoned to help him had all been stripped of everything edible. These were the people who called themselves righteous, the protagonist top and his crew.
Shen Yu couldn’t understand how people with such warped values could be so favored by the world. The protagonists didn’t have to be kind, but they shouldn’t be this disgusting.
Canglang caught the scent of blood and began howling from a distance. When the group heard it, they instinctively started backing away, retreating in good order.
They’d left behind only the inedible mutated beasts and the enormous mutated tree. They’d even dragged away the huge mutated cow, yet left Yi Han where he lay, still breathing. The nerve of people like that, talking about justice. It was laughable.
Of course, there was little morality left in the apocalypse. The fact that they hadn’t finished him off was already a kindness. That was why Yi Han, with no other choice, had been forced to strike a deal with the protagonist top, Gu Feng.
After the apocalypse, a kind of contract known as a fair contract had emerged. Before death, a person could offer up the crystal core in their body in exchange for a deal with someone else, allowing that person to fully acquire their ability.
The human body had a protective mechanism. When a person died, the crystal core inside them vanished, unlike the cores found in plants and animals, which could be kept.
The fair contract had also been discovered by chance. If someone willingly offered their ability before they died, the deal was only complete once the recipient fulfilled the contract.
In the book, Yi Han had been on the verge of death and could feel Canglang dying too. Naturally, he’d worried about Zaizai’s safety. With no other options, he’d used the contract to bind someone to help rescue his son.
Shen Yu couldn’t bear to imagine how desperate Yi Han must have been then. Yi Han wasn’t much better off now. A branch from the mutated tree had pierced his heart and lungs. Even half-conscious, he was coughing up blood, one mouthful at a time.
Shen Yu’s heart ached. Canglang began whimpering softly, too. When Shen Yu had strapped Zaizai to his back, he’d covered the child’s face, afraid he’d see this.
Zaizai couldn’t pull the scarf away himself, but he could sense Canglang’s grief, and he started crying too. Children were sensitive to these things.
Yi Han was still conscious enough to respond. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Shen Yu. Hearing Canglang and Zaizai, he finally relaxed. If Shen Yu had arrived any later, he would have made a fair contract with someone.
When he’d been fighting for his life, that group had stood by and done nothing. He hadn’t expected them to help. In a situation where survival was already a long shot, he could only send Canglang back with Zaizai. He’d never imagined Canglang would run into danger, too.
“You…”
“Quiet.”
Yi Han had barely started to speak before Shen Yu snapped at him. Feng Qing and Yan Yun had arrived by then, and without waiting for Shen Yu to say anything, they began treating Yi Han with the crystal cores Feng Qing had brought.
The deal covered two full treatments. No matter how badly the patient was hurt or how many crystal cores it took, the patient wasn’t supposed to pay for them. That was a matter of principle. Besides, if the patient weren’t seriously injured, why would they have asked Feng Qing to come all this way?
Feng Qing had prepared himself before setting out. He’d have to replace the level-three crystal core he’d used to treat the dog earlier. Since he couldn’t be sure he’d brought enough, he’d used it for the time being.
He’d already thought of that while treating Canglang. He’d guessed there would be another patient waiting for him, possibly someone even more badly hurt. That hadn’t been hard to figure out.
The protective gear on the mutated dog couldn’t have been fastened by the dog or the child. An adult had to be with them. And if the dog was hurt that badly, there was no need to wonder how badly the adult had been injured.
Yi Han was indeed much more seriously hurt than Canglang. Feng Qing used nearly three level-three crystal cores before he finally healed him. That showed just how severe the injuries had been.
Level-three crystal cores weren’t common. Not many people could produce several at once, and Feng Qing and Yan Yun were both heavy users. Saving up three level-three cores had been no easy feat.
Shen Yu knew their supply was limited, so he’d taken out another four level-three cores ahead of time, just in case. They were the last ones he had. Even he had only managed to save six.
That was why, when he’d made the deal with Feng Qing, he hadn’t offered to cover all the crystal cores used in treatment. He was afraid he wouldn’t have enough.
And that was why Shen Yu had had Canglang lead the way. Yi Han was in such critical condition that he didn’t dare waste crystal cores on guesswork.
Feng Qing and Yan Yun were exceptions. Most ability users could only absorb crystal cores one level below their own at most. Shen Yu was already level four, so crystal cores below level three were useless to him.
When Yi Han’s breathing grew steadier, Shen Yu hurried to find a patch of ground nearby where the snow had been trampled firm during the fight. Then he took the apocalypse cabin out of his spatial storage.
The apocalypse cabin was a type of prefabricated dwelling developed by ability users. Its design was based on a simple single-story house, but the heating inside used technology developed after the apocalypse.
Shen Yu’s cabin looked much the same on the outside, except for its unusual floor-to-ceiling windows, which made it easier for Canglang to come and go. It also used crystal cores and spirit energy for heating.
After the apocalypse, a special gas had appeared in the world. People called it spirit qi. Humans, animals, and plants could absorb it, and it could also be used in everyday life.
Vehicles modified after the apocalypse ran on spirit-qi circulation systems, as did home heating systems. But spirit qi had to be stored before it could be used, and it was easily depleted, so it needed to be continually replenished.
And not every material could absorb spirit qi and function that way. The materials were extracted from mutated plants and were extremely rare.
His family had certainly been extravagant in this regard. They had this cabin, as well as a fully furnished little villa. Even the cabin’s furniture had been custom-made. When he could afford it, he didn’t like to settle for less.
Shen Yu admitted as much, but he didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty. It wasn’t just a question of what they’d contributed. He and Yi Han had found and brought back the materials themselves. The people at the base had only processed them.
They’d traded their surplus materials, including the spirit-energy materials, to the base. You could say they’d exchanged materials for labor. By that reckoning, his family had come out behind.
He liked the comforts of life, but he and Yi Han had never shirked their responsibilities.
Shen Yu would have preferred to keep his family together at all times, carrying their home with them in his spatial storage wherever they went. But circumstances hadn’t allowed it. Once you took on responsibility, it wasn’t so easy to put down.
Like this trip. He hadn’t wanted to be away from Zaizai for so long. It had taken nearly twenty days just to reach Changfeng Base, and that was with the roads in fairly good condition.
If the roads had been worse and forced them to take too many detours, it could have taken a whole month. But the base was running short on salt, so he’d had no choice but to make the trip.
Yi Han had suggested taking Zaizai with them, but Shen Yu had thought the journey would be too hard on him. They’d finally settled down. Why put the child through that? He’d refused. And look how that had turned out.
Shen Yu thought it was better to be selfish when it came to staying alive. His family of three wouldn’t play along as disposable plot devices anymore. From now on, their only responsibility was to survive.
After setting up the cabin, Shen Yu went to help Yi Han. Yi Han had been healed, but he had the same problem as Canglang: he’d lost too much blood and was dizzy and light-headed.
Feng Qing was exhausted, too. If Yan Yun hadn’t been supporting him, he would have sat down right there in the snow. Even with crystal cores, two major treatments in a row had taken a toll on him. His mental power was nearing its limit.
Shen Yu had wanted to carry Yi Han. He might have looked frail, but he was quite strong. But there was no way Yi Han, who was still conscious, would let himself be carried. What would that do to his pride?
“I can walk.” As he spoke, he used Shen Yu’s support to get to his feet. He could walk, though his head felt heavy and he could barely tell where his feet were landing. Luckily, the snow along this stretch had been packed down, so it wasn’t hard to walk on.
Shen Yu didn’t insist. He helped Yi Han into the cabin, while Yan Yun simply scooped Feng Qing up and carried him inside. Who’d want to stay out in the cold when they could rest indoors?
Shen Yu’s spatial storage was always packed with all kinds of supplies for the base, so the cabin was only a little over ten square meters. It had one room and a washroom, with no kitchen.
The washroom didn’t have plumbing, either. It had a toilet that had to be emptied by hand, and no shower. Luckily, Shen Yu was fastidious, and there were no unpleasant odors in the washroom.
The cabin had been in his spatial storage for the past two days, so it hadn’t been able to keep circulating and storing heat. They had to use crystal cores to warm it first. In half an hour, they could switch to spirit-qi heating.
Crystal-core heating worked much faster. In just over ten minutes, the cabin was already warming up. Shen Yu helped Yi Han take off his bloodstained clothes and put them in his spatial storage.
After the apocalypse, many supplies couldn’t be replaced. Even though the clothes had several tears, Shen Yu had no intention of throwing them away. If they ran short on clothes, they could mend them and wear them again.
They weren’t short on clothes now, but who knew what the future would bring? Even though his spatial storage held enough clothes to last his family for decades, he never wasted anything.
Shen Yu’s spatial storage had awakened at the very start of the apocalypse, and it had been enormous from the beginning. There had been plenty of disasters, but supplies hadn’t been scarce yet, and he’d stocked up on a lot.
After he joined Zhang Chenggong’s team, the space for his family’s belongings had been squeezed down to a tiny corner. Still, he hadn’t thrown away the useful things, especially after Zaizai came along. He’d stocked up on plenty of baby supplies, too.
Those supplies were one reason Zaizai was always so clean and fresh-faced. Other families’ babies didn’t get to use face cream and body wash.
People in the apocalypse had no skincare products. Aside from those with particularly rare or powerful abilities, most people had terrible skin.
Feng Qing went without saying. He was a healing-type ability user, and no one with that ability had bad skin. Shen Yu had good skin to begin with, and after he unexpectedly ate the life fruit, everyone agreed his skin was even better.
Zaizai had been conceived because of the life fruit, but he hadn’t inherited Shen Yu’s skin. Shen Yu and Yi Han had put a lot of effort into keeping him fair and soft-skinned.
Once he’d finished taking care of Yi Han, Shen Yu set Zaizai down. The child had stopped crying as soon as Canglang had calmed down. All the upheaval had worn him out, and he’d fallen asleep.
When Canglang ran back with Zaizai, the goggled protective hood he’d been wearing was gone. His little face was streaked with tears, and the cold wind had nipped it badly. Red lines had already appeared across his skin.
Zaizai was a little ability user, but a child’s skin was still too delicate. It was easy for him to get frostbite, so Shen Yu and Yi Han had always been especially careful. This time, though, he’d suffered.
The frostbite would be all right. With care, he’d recover. But emotional wounds weren’t so easy to heal. Shen Yu wouldn’t let the protagonist bottom get away with this. The protagonist top’s people would pay, too.
The chosen one couldn’t be killed, so Shen Yu would find another way to deal with him. Now that he knew the plot, he refused to believe he couldn’t find a way to get revenge.