The drive to the base was long, and since Shen Ye wasn’t much of a talker, Lin Xin’an and Jiang Jianxin were the ones who chatted the whole way.
As a composed Sword Cultivator, Jiang Jianxin wasn’t very talkative either.
Most of the time, it was Lin Xin’an rambling on about one thing or another:
“You know, to be honest, I became a member of the Doctor Department when I was nine.
I saw Shen Ye plenty of times back then.”
“Out of all of Blind Sister’s enforcers and puppets, Shen Ye was always the most useful.”
Shen Ye zoned out, saying nothing.
Jiang Jianxin, hands on the steering wheel, latched onto a different detail:
“You became a member of the Doctor Department at nine?”
‘Nine years old was elementary school age, a time when kids could barely even read, yet this guy was already working.’
Lin Xin’an himself didn’t think it was a big deal.
“It’s perfectly normal.
Most kids born and raised in the Superpower World awaken their Talents at three or four, and by seven or eight, they’re joining major factions and pledging their loyalty.”
Jiang Jianxin gasped in disbelief.
“That’s insane.
They start so young!
Kids in the outside world are still completely clueless at that age.”
Lin Xin’an scoffed, as if amused by her ignorance.
“How could people from the normal world possibly understand the hardships of the Superpower World?
The pollution zones all over the planet rely on Talent Users to clear and contain them.
And how many new Talent Users do you think appear each year?
A few tens of thousands?”
“The consequence of having too many pollution zones and too few Talent Users is that young superpower users have to rush to the front lines as soon as their Talents stabilize.
They join organizations at seven or eight, become leaders in their teens, and master their Talents in their twenties.
After that, they either become an elder, a deterrent to an entire region, or they go into seclusion, waiting for the next major pollution zone to appear.”
Jiang Jianxin couldn’t help but ask,
“What about the ones who are older?”
Lin Xin’an replied calmly,
“They’re dead.
Talent Users rarely live past thirty.
We always end up dying in some pollution zone.
That’s our fate.”
“Look at the people on the War Camp’s rankings.
The oldest is only twenty-eight or twenty-nine.
Anyone older than that is already pushing up daisies.”
Jiang Jianxin was stunned.
Lin Xin’an smiled, trying to lighten the mood.
“But now that the pollution zones have spread across the entire world, we might be able to change our fate.
After all, it’s no longer the responsibility of a small minority, but a crisis for all of humankind.”
Hearing this, Shen Ye, who had been staring blankly from the passenger seat, let out a rare “Mm.”
Jiang Jianxin reflected on this for a moment, then a thought struck her.
She asked in an odd tone,
“Er…
in that case, at my age, wouldn’t I be considered old and washed-up in the Superpower World?
A total underachiever.”
Lin Xin’an gave her a strange look.
“Why would you say that?
Didn’t you become a Sword Master at eleven?
You’re a bona fide child prodigy.”
Jiang Jianxin fell silent.
She felt like her entire worldview had been turned upside down.
The car drove through a torrential, waterfall-like downpour.
They passed one deserted city after another and encountered a good number of pollution monsters.
Most of the pollution monsters posed no threat, so Jiang Jianxin simply ran them over.
But sometimes, a more powerful, fully evolved creature, like a gecko monster, would block the road.
When that happened, Shen Ye would open his window and slightly raise his hand.
The shadows of the buildings on either side of the road would elongate into chains, instantly annihilating the creatures.
The journey was so effortless that Jiang Jianxin couldn’t help but remark,
“These monsters are way too easy to deal with.”
Lin Xin’an got straight to the point.
“It’s not that the monsters are weak; it’s that we’re strong.
In this car, we have the Bright Camp’s number three, the War Camp’s number six, and you, who’s completely off the charts.
Even a major faction from the Superpower World would have to think twice before messing with us.”
Shen Ye silently nodded in agreement.
The Survivor Base was built out in the wilderness.
After driving through the city for several hours, Jiang Jianxin reached the desolate wilds.
It was sunset, but the rain obscured any afterglow from the setting sun.
All they could sense was the encroaching darkness, draping the world in a black fog.
While the cities had been empty, the wilderness was suddenly filled with other cars.
It was clear they were all heading in the same direction—to Dawn Base.
Jiang Jianxin drove amid the sea of cars for a while.
Looking at the dense traffic and the half-meter-tall grass on the plains, she felt a growing sense of unease.
“Do you guys hear something?”
Lin Xin’an, in the back seat, was watching the convoy and the wilderness sink into the ever-deepening twilight when he suddenly spoke up.
Jiang Jianxin listened intently, but all she could hear was the hum of their own car.
“No.
Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”
Shen Ye, in the passenger seat, also looked confused.
But unlike Jiang Jianxin, he knew Lin Xin’an and was aware of his incredible ability to sense danger.
He asked in a low voice,
“Which direction?”
Lin Xin’an closed his eyes, seeming to sense something.
His previously relaxed expression grew grave.
Shen Ye turned his head slightly, waiting in silence.
He knew Lin Xin’an was using the spiritual power unique to the Bright Camp to get a more detailed reading.
After a few moments, Lin Xin’an withdrew his spiritual power.
He mulled it over, glanced at the now completely dark sky, and said to Shen Ye in a low, serious voice,
“Six o’clock.
Send out tendrils of Dark Night and have them sweep horizontally, two centimeters off the ground.
See if there’s a large number of things hiding in the grass, secretly tailing us.”
Just as Shen Ye understood him, Lin Xin’an knew exactly what Shen Ye’s power was capable of.
Shen Ye nodded and began to gather his power without objection.
WHOOSH…
WHINE…
A thick darkness surged in from all around, swirling around the car.
Thinner tendrils emerged from this vortex and snaked out in the direction Lin Xin’an had indicated, creeping forward just above the ground.
From the driver’s seat, Jiang Jianxin saw the thick, shadowy substance suddenly appear in the rearview mirror.
It was her first time seeing Shen Ye use his power on such a large scale, and she couldn’t help but marvel.
“So this is Dark Night?”
Unlike the whistling wind and screeching steel that accompanied her own attacks, Dark Night was silent.
Even its low hum blended into the moving air, becoming indistinct, leaving only a dull, muffled sound.
Lin Xin’an snapped his fingers and pointed at the pitch-black sky.
“His power is weaker during the day, so he can’t gather this much.
But now it’s nighttime, and the night belongs to Dark Night.”
“War-type abilities that evolve through an ‘Atmospheric’ path are all unstable like this.”
Jiang Jianxin heard an unfamiliar term.
“Atmospheric path?
What’s that?”
Seeing that Shen Ye was still silently conducting his search, Lin Xin’an had nothing better to do, so he continued his explanation for Jiang Jianxin.
“His sequence number is over two hundred, right?
That means his power is the result of the War Camp’s Mage Sequence ‘Mage’ ability mutating more than two hundred times.”
“For powers that have mutated this many times, a new ‘path’ is added for every one hundred mutations.
This path affects how the power manifests, how it functions, and its overall strength.”
Lin Xin’an gave an example.
“Take his ‘Dark Night,’ for example.
Its sequence number is 268, so it has two paths: ‘Atmospheric’ and ‘Shape Transformation.'”
He then pointed to himself.
“My ‘Mind Reading Technique,’ on the other hand, is number six.
It hasn’t mutated a hundred times, so it’s a pure ability, with no interference from any paths.”
Jiang Jianxin let out an “Oh,” surprised that there were so many subclassifications within Talents.
She nodded, only half-understanding, and turned her gaze back to Shen Ye, awaiting the results of his search.