Apart from a few low-level zombies that heard the noise and chased after their vehicle, nothing else unusual happened along the way.
The two of them reached the gas station in just an hour.
This gas station was much larger than the previous one and even had a small convenience store inside. After parking the SUV, the two got out and cautiously entered the station. As soon as she stepped out, Ru Jiao had already released her divine sense. Hearing some people talking inside, she raised an eyebrow but had no intention of meddling in other people’s affairs.
After dealing with the four or five zombies attracted by the sound of their vehicle, Ru Jiao stood guard beside a fuel pump while Lin Zhen refueled the SUV.
After keeping watch for a while and seeing no immediate signs of trouble, Ru Jiao pretended to inspect the surroundings. As she approached the other pumps, her hand casually brushed over their surfaces, and the gasoline inside was transferred into the large plastic barrels she had already prepared in her space.
This gas station also had diesel, which Ru Jiao collected as well. Once she had taken almost all the gasoline and diesel, she stopped and returned to Lin Zhen, who had just finished filling the tank.
Lin Zhen suggested checking the station’s interior to see whether they had any gasoline stored in barrels that they could take with them for emergencies. Ru Jiao naturally agreed.
The two of them, along with the wolf pup, headed inside. The first place they passed was the convenience store, which had been ransacked and left in complete disarray. Ru Jiao and Lin Zhen went in to search through it as well, managing to find a few unopened packets of snacks.
The main building of the gas station was a two-story structure with six rooms in total. Ru Jiao and Lin Zhen first checked the room on the far left of the first floor. When they opened the door, they found various pieces of equipment used at the gas station, but no stored gasoline.
It was not until they reached the last room on the first floor that they discovered stacks of gasoline barrels. Delighted, the two hurriedly loaded them into the SUV’s trunk. They managed to fit twenty barrels, then squeezed another two beneath the rear seats. Only when there was absolutely no room left did they stop.
While Ru Jiao and Lin Zhen were loading the gasoline, ten men were gathered in a room on the second floor, some standing and others lounging around. One particularly shifty-eyed man cautiously watched the two people downstairs through the window. He then reported to the bald, muscular man sitting in the middle of the room.
“Brother Biao, those two are loading gasoline into their vehicle… Tsk, that’s quite a big car. Judging by the looks of it, they probably have plenty of food inside.” As he spoke, he leered at Ru Jiao. “That woman may have her face covered, but she’s got a pretty good figure. She’d be perfect for the boss to have some fun with.”
The bald man was already tempted, but he remained cautious.
“Are you sure there are only two of them? Neither has an ability?”
“Absolutely!” The shifty-eyed man clenched his hands. “I’ve been watching them ever since they got out of the car. The two of them only used a knife and an iron rod to kill zombies. They clearly don’t have any abilities. That pretty boy even has a wolf pup in his bag. It can’t do much damage. Brother Biao, once you make your move, there’s no way they’ll escape!”
The bald man’s expression shifted uncertainly. He also walked over to the window and studied the situation below, letting his gaze travel over Ru Jiao before finally speaking. “All right. Since they’ll probably come upstairs to search the rooms later, everyone hide yourselves and wait for our prey to walk right into the trap!”
Brother Biao was so confident because he had awakened an ability. His physical strength was more than twice that of an ordinary person’s, and he had also gained a fire ability. Before the apocalypse, he had been involved in the criminal underworld. Now that the world had fallen into chaos, he felt that the time had finally come for Brother Biao to rule supreme! Besides, there were ten men on their side, while the two people downstairs, one man and one woman, were hardly a threat.
The men in the room grew increasingly excited, and some had already begun discussing how they would have their way with Ru Jiao.
Little did they know that Ru Jiao had already heard everything they said.
She gave a cold laugh. Since they had set their sights on her, they had better be prepared to die!
She pretended to brush against Lin Zhen and subtly indicated the room on the second floor near the staircase with her eyes. Lin Zhen gave a slight nod to show that he understood.
The two continued as planned and headed upstairs to inspect the rooms.
The sound of shoes against the floor grew closer before finally stopping outside the room where Brother Biao and the others were hiding.
“I’ll open the door.”
The sound of a woman’s voice made everyone inside rejoice. Brother Biao, who was hiding behind the door, was especially impatient.
Click!
The door opened with a faint sound, and Ru Jiao stepped inside. This was exactly the moment Brother Biao had been waiting for. Gripping his baseball bat, he swung it toward the back of Ru Jiao’s head. However, it was as though she had eyes in the back of her head. She ducked to avoid the attack, closed the distance between them, and without the slightest hesitation, drove the sharp knife in her right hand into his abdomen!
Thud!
Ru Jiao pulled out the knife and quickly retreated in disgust. Blood immediately sprayed out. Seeing this, the others flew into a rage.
“That bitch! I’ll kill you!”
A man with a spiky haircut charged at Ru Jiao with a machete, but she kicked him squarely in the stomach, sending him flying into the corner of the room.
The room fell silent for a moment. None of them had expected a woman to possess such strength.
Brother Biao lay on the ground, snarling furiously. “What are you afraid of? She’s just a woman! What’s there to be scared of? Everyone attack together! Let’s see how long she can keep acting so high and mighty!”
At his words, the others grabbed their weapons and rushed toward Ru Jiao together.
Lin Zhen had already moved to Ru Jiao’s side when she kicked the spiky-haired man away. Seeing the others charging at her with weapons, he used his iron rod to block one attacker and kicked another man who was trying to approach Ru Jiao.
Even so, seven men still managed to surround her.
Lin Zhen grew anxious, worried about Ru Jiao’s safety. His movements became less focused, and one of the two men he was fighting struck him across the back with a stick.
Lin Zhen grunted in pain and nearly fell. He turned around and swung his rod at the man’s head. The man dodged, and a small ice spike appeared at his fingertips.
Under the man’s control, the ice spike shot toward Lin Zhen’s eyes. Lin Zhen dodged swiftly and closed in on him. A silver ball about the size of a tennis ball appeared in his hand, formed from dozens of razor-sharp wind blades. Taking advantage of the man’s lack of preparation, Lin Zhen slammed it hard into his back.
“Ahhh!”
The man was struck by the wind ball and collapsed to the ground, his entire body convulsing. His clothes had been shredded, leaving countless wounds from the wind blades across his body. Blood covered him from head to toe, and the wound near his carotid artery was particularly deep. Blood gushed out in great quantities, and before long, the man drew his final breath.
The other man had not expected Lin Zhen’s ability to be so powerful and cautiously retreated. Lin Zhen appeared calm on the surface, but he knew perfectly well that his newly acquired ability was not particularly strong. This was the greatest power he could currently unleash. Afterward, he would have no energy left to use his ability again.
Keeping his expression unchanged, Lin Zhen slowly approached the man. Then, at a certain moment, he suddenly burst into action. The man failed to react in time, and Lin Zhen slashed a deep wound across his chest.
Blood continued pouring from the wound. Driven into a frenzy, the man swung his club, determined to teach Lin Zhen a lesson.
That was exactly what Lin Zhen wanted. He intended to make the man lose his temper so that anger would cloud his judgment. While dodging his attacks, Lin Zhen searched for an opening. After evading more than ten strikes, he finally accepted a blow to his shoulder and seized the opportunity to drive his knife into the man’s heart, ending his life.
After dealing with the two men, Lin Zhen hurried over to help Ru Jiao. These men had never stood a chance against her in the first place. However, since she was traveling with Lin Zhen, she wanted to assess his abilities. Fortunately, his performance had been fairly good. Ru Jiao pretended to struggle against the men’s attacks, and when Lin Zhen finished off the two men and came to her aid, she worked with him to “struggle” through defeating the remaining seven.
Now, only Brother Biao remained. He was curled up in a corner, clutching his abdomen where Ru Jiao had stabbed him.
Ru Jiao toyed with her knife and stepped directly on his still-bleeding wound.
“Ah!” Brother Biao cried out in agony. He had spent his life hunting geese, only to have one peck out his eyes! Now that all his men had been killed by these two, he had to beg for mercy if he wanted to survive.
Trembling all over, Brother Biao pleaded through his tears.
“Please, have mercy, beautiful lady! Sister, I was blind and offended you. For the sake of my brothers already being dead, please spare my life!” He shakily raised one hand. “All our supplies, including everything in the convenience store, are in the next room. I won’t take a single thing. You can have it all! I only ask that you spare me!”
Ru Jiao sneered inwardly, but put on a hesitant expression. “Well…”
Seeing that Ru Jiao seemed to be wavering, Brother Biao secretly rejoiced. Women were women after all, indecisive and soft-hearted. A few tears and a little begging were enough to make them relent.
With that thought, he made his expression even more pitiful, letting his tears flow without pause.
Ru Jiao seemed to be moved as well. She slowly lifted her foot, wanting to see what other tricks he had up his sleeve.
Seeing what Ru Jiao was doing, Lin Zhen also walked toward the doorway, making it clear that he would follow whatever decision she made.
Brother Biao was overjoyed. Hidden behind his back was a dagger in one hand, while the other was held palm-down as he secretly prepared to use his ability. The moment Ru Jiao lifted her foot and turned around, Brother Biao lunged at her from behind with the dagger. At the same time, the fireball he had been gathering in his other hand was ready to be thrown, aimed directly at Lin Zhen!
Ru Jiao’s brows are knitted tightly. She had not expected Brother Biao to possess fire ability! And they were inside a gas station! She could not afford to waste time and had to end the fight immediately. She struck the wrist holding the dagger with all her strength, knocking the weapon from his hand. With her other hand, she seized the wrist that was about to throw the fireball, then twisted it around and sent the flames straight back onto Brother Biao.
“No… No! How is this possible? Help me! Someone, save me!”
The tennis-ball-sized fireball landed on Brother Biao and immediately engulfed him in flames. Since he had concentrated all his ability’s power into it, the fire spread incredibly quickly.
Brother Biao staggered toward the two of them, but they had already left the room and firmly shut the door. A series of heavy impacts sounded from the other side, while thick smoke began seeping through the cracks.
“We can’t stay here.”
The two exchanged a glance and rushed downstairs. Ru Jiao followed behind, conveniently collecting all the supplies from the neighboring room. When they passed the room filled with gasoline barrels, she touched the door and took all the gasoline inside into her space as well.
The two quickly reached the SUV and got inside. Less than two minutes later, they were already driving away. As soon as Ru Jiao got into the vehicle, she slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The SUV shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, covering dozens of meters in the blink of an eye.
About three minutes after they left, a tremendous explosion rang out behind them.
Boom!
Ru Jiao looked into the rearview mirror and saw thick black smoke billowing into the sky as raging flames continued to burn. With no one around to put out the fire, and unless it rained, the blaze might continue for several days before finally dying down.
It was not until they had driven beyond the city limits that Ru Jiao finally relaxed her furrowed brows. At the same time, she regretted her earlier decision. When dealing with someone as treacherous as that man, she should have simply killed him outright. Why had she bothered waiting to see what tricks he might try? If the two of them had not escaped quickly enough, they would have had no choice but to flee into her space to survive! She was not completely heartless, and if it came to that, she would have had to bring Lin Zhen into her space with her, exposing its existence. That would have been a terrible trade-off.
Ru Jiao silently warned herself that from now on, whenever she encountered enemies or people who tried to ambush her, she would finish them off swiftly and decisively. She could not give them even the slightest opportunity to pull another trick!
Mercy toward one’s enemies was cruelty toward oneself!
The encounter had also shaken Lin Zhen. Although he had already lost his faith in human goodness after being betrayed and pushed into a horde of zombies, and had wanted to kill Yan Chi with his own hands, today was still the first time he had ever killed someone.
Lin Zhen stroked the smooth fur of the wolf pup in his arms. The world had changed, and it was no longer the world of his previous life, where strict moral standards and laws kept people’s behavior in check. The apocalypse was a world where the strong preyed on the weak. Showing mercy to an enemy was an insult to one’s own safety!
Before the apocalypse, Lin Zhen had been a promising young entrepreneur who had founded a publicly listed company. He was quick-witted and had faced countless setbacks, so he soon managed to overcome his discomfort at having taken human lives.
Ru Jiao, on the other hand, had already experienced such things in her previous life. Having lived through it all once before, she felt no discomfort this time. Instead, she was only reflecting on how she had failed to act decisively enough.
The two did not speak much about what had happened at the gas station during the rest of the journey. Following Lin Zhen’s directions, they arrived at the entrance of a villa at three in the afternoon.
Lin Zhen unlocked the gate using his fingerprint.
“The villa had been empty for a week before the apocalypse broke out. I have someone come here to clean it once a month, and the last cleaning was less than a month before the outbreak. No one should have been left inside.”
After entering the villa, he led Ru Jiao straight to a room on the second floor. As soon as he opened the door, Ru Jiao saw five or six cabinets standing inside, their shelves filled with all sorts of objects. The first two cabinets contained some of Lin Zhen’s antique jade pieces and other collectibles, while the remaining cabinets were filled with cold weapons.
Ru Jiao wandered among the latter cabinets and had to admit that Lin Zhen had amassed quite an impressive collection. There were all kinds of weapons, including sabers, spears, halberds, and hammers.
Her eyes lit up. She took down each weapon and tried it out, finding every single one to her liking. She almost wanted to take them all!
At that thought, Ru Jiao began considering whether she should reveal her space. However, her own space was simply too large, making that inadvisable. It would be better if she could find another, smaller space, preferably one she could reveal right under Lin Zhen’s nose.
Suddenly, Ru Jiao remembered the collection of gold and jade jewelry she had gathered from the shopping mall. She wondered whether any of the pieces might contain a space. But she could not possibly prick her finger and drip blood onto every single item. If only she could examine them with her divine sense…
Ru Jiao thought it was worth a try. Alternatively, she could wait until later, when she was away from Lin Zhen, and look for relevant information in the study inside her space.
After finishing her inspection of the weapons, Ru Jiao left the room. The villa was relatively secluded and had no zombies nearby. It also had a generator for electricity and some stored food. The two decided to rest there for a few days before returning to the city to gather supplies according to Ru Jiao’s plans.
Ru Jiao herself did not particularly care where they went. She had no one to worry about, and Lin Zhen was in the same situation. After their fight at the gas station, Ru Jiao had come to accept Lin Zhen as a companion. Therefore, she agreed to travel with him to A City.
It was worth mentioning that a survivor base had indeed been established in A City. Two weeks after the apocalypse began, a radio broadcast announced its existence to the entire country. Meanwhile, Z City, which was relatively close to S City, had also established a base three weeks after the apocalypse began. However, when these bases broadcast their announcements, Ru Jiao had been cultivating deep in the mountains and knew nothing about them.
At present, there were only three survivor bases in the entire country: the G City Base in the distant northwest, the Z City Base near S City, and the A City Base in the capital. The military forces, government officials, and other authorities from the remaining cities had all relocated to these three bases.
Lin Zhen took some usable ingredients out of the refrigerator and cooked a meal. The food turned out quite delicious. Both of them had gone several days without a proper hot meal, so they polished off everything he had prepared. After putting the dishes into the dishwasher, Ru Jiao went to stay in a guest room on the third floor, one room away from Lin Zhen’s bedroom.
After washing up in the attached bathroom, Ru Jiao locked the door and carefully checked the room for surveillance cameras. Only then did she slip into her space.
First, she took out the pile of jade jewelry and decided to examine it with her divine sense.
Picking up a jade earring, Ru Jiao carefully extended her divine sense into it, but found nothing unusual inside. She was not discouraged and picked up another jade ornament.
Her divine sense moved quickly. After examining more than a hundred pieces, she picked up a jade hairpin. As soon as her divine sense entered it, she discovered that this piece was quite different from the others.
There seemed to be a glowing orb inside the jade hairpin, and Ru Jiao was delighted. Holding the hairpin, she hurried to the study to look for information.
After searching through numerous books for quite some time, she finally found one titled An Introduction to Refining Spatial Artifacts.
The book explained exactly the kind of situation she had encountered with the jade hairpin.
Generally, when an artifact refiner made a low-grade spatial artifact, they only needed to find an object to serve as its vessel, add the necessary refining materials, and use their divine sense to assist in the process. This would produce a spatial artifact.
However, some objects naturally contained space within them, including jade. The older the jade and the better its quality, the greater the possibility that it would naturally possess a space. A piece of jade containing space would have a glowing orb inside, which could be detected by examining it with divine sense. A cultivator could establish ownership either by dripping blood onto it or by marking it with their divine sense. The specific methods were as follows…
After reading the explanation, Ru Jiao finally understood the situation with the jade hairpin. She used her divine sense to mark it and establish ownership. The space inside was not particularly large, measuring ten cubic meters. Furthermore, when a spatial artifact was claimed through a divine sense mark, the mark could be erased, allowing another person to establish ownership either by dripping blood onto it or by using their divine sense. Blood recognition was not nearly as convenient. Once an artifact had been claimed through blood, its ownership could not be changed unless its owner died, at which point the owner’s aura within the artifact would also disappear.
Ru Jiao spent three hours examining all the jade pieces she had collected, but none of the others contained space. As expected, such rare treasures were not easy to come by.
Lin Zhen had a collection of antiques, including quite a few pieces of jade that were old and valuable. Perhaps one or two of them might also contain space. Taking advantage of her divine sense, Ru Jiao openly extended it into the collection room to investigate. Sure enough, she discovered that two of the jade pieces contained spaces: one was a jade thumb ring, while the other was a jade pendant.
The glowing orb inside the jade pendant was larger than the one inside the thumb ring, which meant that its space was larger as well. Tomorrow, she would place the jade thumb ring and the jade pendant together and have Lin Zhen drip his blood onto them. Once he obtained a space, she could conveniently prick her finger and drip her blood onto the jade thumb ring as well, claiming a space of her own.