CH 88

Qin Yue’s sudden appearance gave everyone a big surprise. At that moment the people forgot all about being afraid, their focus turning onto Qin Yue, each of them questioning whether or not what he said was true. Every one of them wanted to know if Jiang Nian’s cultivation method could actually stimulate supernatural abilities. As for Qin Yue’s power, it seemed to be the same as Old Li’s lightning and thunder ability! It couldn’t be that this is all a ruse right?

Li Ming was so happy, he couldn’t help but tell them one by one that it was all true! They had never met Jiang Nian before today, nor did they know her personally, so how could it be a scam? Most importantly, they hadn’t even touched the threshold of awakening their powers before today, so how did they suddenly have a breakthrough after coming here? It was obviously all because of following Jiang Nian’s method!

As for how they even got here, it was all because of that chance encounter. The other people were surprised again, what do you mean by “chance encounter”?

It was a long story, so Li Ming told them the shortened version of how he had overheard Ren Yuan’s conversation and gotten the opportunity to learn from them.

In that case, everyone would have to thank Ren Yuan and Sun Hai for being two big mouths!

The two big mouths: “…”

Out of all of them, Old Li was the most shocked. Forgetting the pain in his body, he looked at Qin Yue with wide eyes and shouted, “You’re a lightning ability user too? That’s impossible!”

He saw Qin Yue spread open his palm in response, a power similar to Old Li’s appearing in his hand, right out of thin air. With a sudden flash of light, a lightning bolt struck Old Li! A crack immediately split the ground in front of him and made him take two steps back.

Yao Xiaoyue was equally shocked. This Qin Yue was really powerful, his powers had just awakened and he was already on the same level as Old Li. No wonder he would be called the Lord of Thunder in the future, he wasn’t one that could be easily messed with!

If she had known that Qin Yue could activate his ability so easily then she wouldn’t have hidden it! If she’d told Qin Yue earlier, it would’ve been her who helped him activate his psychic ability. She would’ve been the one Qin Yue was grateful to, and who would’ve cared about Jiang Nian then?

But now that Qin Yue had his powers, she was no longer of any use to him. Without her leverage, it will be even more difficult for her to get close to him.

As she pondered all these things, she saw a dozen men in green uniforms running towards them in neat rows, their guns in hand.

“You must come with us right now!”

But how could Old Li, Huo’zi, and his group surrender? They looked at each other, gave a wink to the youngsters behind them, and attacked the officers violently!

It was the end of the world, just who were you enforcing the law to?

The tussle ended with Old Li dead and Hou’zi having been trampled on and shot in the thigh.

When Meng Xun stood by and saw Old Li die, he didn’t feel bad at all, rather he was happy and thought he’d gotten what he deserved! He looked over at Jiang Nian once more, she looked as if she were standing in the sky. He then removed his gaze, pulled up his collar to cover his face, and walked away with his head bowed.

Now that Old Li was dead, the house he and his group had occupied would soon be taken over by someone else and the supplies they’d gathered, looted.

So Meng Xun had to get there before anyone made a move. Old Li was always grand, he brought along a big group of men with him wherever he went as his guards. But now most of his men had been captured by the police station, and there were only a few guards left.

When he got there he shouted, “Let’s all go and have a look! Someone at the petrol station has announced the method of cultivating supernatural powers, and someone has already cultivated thunder supernatural powers by this method!”

Meng Xun said a few more words and pretended to walk away. A few moments later, the five men who had been guarding the house ran out in unison, shouting at Meng Xun to stop and wait. They questioned him viciously: “You said someone announced the method of how to cultivate supernatural abilities? And that someone has already awakened lightning powers by using that method? Is that true? Think carefully, if you dare to tell a lie I will not spare you!”

Meng Xun replied, “Of course it’s true, everyone saw it. Even Old Lightning Li was there and he wanted to capture that master for himself. If you don’t believe me then go and see for yourselves!”

Many people nicknamed him Old Lightning Li in private because of how arrogant and domineering he was, all he knew how to do was unleash his lightning powers to oppress others.

“So what’s the situation now?”

“I don’t know…I was afraid I would get hurt in the fight so I ran away.”

“You are useless!”

The group looked at each other a few times and said, “Come on, let’s hurry and go help!”

They hadn’t yet activated their powers and having seen how powerful Old Li was, they naturally wanted to have them even more! How could they let go of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? If they were powerful, would they need to be watchdogs for others here? As soon as they thought of that, they eagerly ran towards the gas station. No one wanted to stay and watch the door anyways, so they didn’t care that the house would be left alone and just left.

When Meng Xun saw that the men had run away, he circled the outside of the house before taking the opportunity to climb over the wall and enter. He saw five or six young girls locked up in the room, all with cuffs on their feet and dressed in thin clothes while some only had a blanket, revealing patches of their skin. The girls looked at him with fear in their eyes and a panicked look on their faces.

Meng Xun took out the key that he had just stolen from those people and told them, “Old Li is dead, the monkey and the other dozen people have been arrested, and the ones who were watching the door just now are gone now because of me. Take this opportunity and run away!”

They just stared at Meng Xun, staying silent until the cuffs and chains on their ankles were unlocked. That’s when they started speaking excitedly as if waking up from a dream:

“Y-you…are you serious?”

“Those beasts of Old Li’s are dead?”

“…We’re free?”

Those pained and disbelieving eyes made Meng Xun let out a low sigh.

Jiang Nian was right, now that humanity was in such a critical situation, it was all the more important for humans to watch out for each other and tide over the difficulties together! Not like others who did things worse than animals for their disgusting and selfish interests!

That’s why he had to become strong!

After untying all of their chains, he found some clothes from outside and gave them to the girls: “Listen, the army is right next to here so after you escape, go and join them. Old Li collected a lot of things so all of you should take some. Once you join the army, you won’t be bullied anymore and you’ll be able to find a way to get back home. But hurry up because when the news of Old Li’s death spreads, this place will not be safe.”

Meng Xun finished instructing them and went to the warehouse where Old Li had stored his supplies. He took his ax and cut the chains with a few strokes, went in, and found that though this Old Li had not done much evil the past few days, the half of the warehouse was full of stuff. The place was filled with food, there were bags of rice, flour, oil, bacon, sausages, etc.

He opened up his backpack and filled it with canned meat, compressed biscuits, chocolate candy, and some other things. When it was full, he zipped it up, put it on his back, and made a move to leave when suddenly a woman in broad men’s clothes ran over to him. She spoke to him cautiously, “Thank you for saving us…can you tell me your name is, please?”

Meng Xun stared straight at her making the woman cringe, she then said in a panic, “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean anything else! I just want to thank you…”

Meng Xun slightly shook his backpack and said, “Saving you guys was for me, just done in passing, you must not put your hope in others to save you. Learn to live well by yourselves.”

The women did not make a move until Meng Xun was far away, then they hastily loaded their food and slipped out the back door.

They had finally climbed out of hell.

Now that they are free and alive, they would do everything they could not to die. They would surely come back for revenge but, for now, they would focus on finding a way back home to their families!

……

The class leader and Shen Ran were sorting out Jiang Nian’s worship gifts and separated them into piles. The stones and branches were placed in one, the gold and silver jewelry in another, and they had a pile for the food.

“What is all of this stuff? They’re not worth much anymore!”

The class leader remembered what Jiang Nian had said and told Shen Ran, “Don’t say that, Jiang Nian didn’t want anything in the first place, so she doesn’t care about what people gave or didn’t give. Jiang Nian just wanted to tell everyone what she knew, so that we could all get through this together!”

Shen Ran knew he was right and nodded, going back to arranging the gifts into neat piles.

Ren Yuan and Sun Hai did not dare to say anything this time. Jiang Nian was selfless and had a big heart, it was indeed them that were being petty…

“You two can take care of this food situation, just use my gifts.”

The class leader and his team of 20 people with them had gone to the school supermarket before they’d left, so they had brought a lot of food with them. But now, although they were not yet at the point of starvation, their food supply was quickly diminishing. Food was being consumed every day and there was no place to replenish the supplies.

Shen Ran said, “But sister Jiang these are gifts they gave to you, they are all yours, and none of us are allowed to take them!”

When Jiang Nian saw them refuse, she grabbed a few chocolates and biscuits in her hand and said in a benevolent manner, “Since you guys are following me, you will all have what I have. I’ve already taken my share, so take the rest and share it.”

Besides, her reputation was out now and spreading, how could any fewer worship gifts than this come in the future? They will be sending them out of admiration and filial respect after all!

The class leader and Ren Yuan were particularly moved, saying that Jiang Nian was a big fool. Who doesn’t see food as valuable nowadays? It’s the end of the world!

When Shen Ran saw that Jiang Nian wasn’t changing her mind, he went ahead and divided the sweets and biscuits and cigarettes into twenty-three portions. But when he saw that there wasn’t much left after doing that, he took his share and Jiang Nian’s share in his arms and ran to her saying: “Sister Jiang, this is your share and this one is mine, how about I give you all mine?”

Jiang Nian looked at the things in front of her and patted him on the head, this child was too easy to cheat and the adults here were easy to coax. She had taken the lion’s share and people still don’t know this! This must be the legendary “being sold and still helping to count the money”, right?

Shen Ran looked at Jiang Nian while smiling in a good manner, he then ran back to the class leader and followed him to distribute the supplies, letting each person know fiercely: “This is all from sister Jiang, you have to remember to thank her!”

It was hard to find a second person who would be as nice as Jiang Nian, not to mention she could easily look down on them with all the strength and power she had but didn’t. They were all quite grateful to her, she had given them the cultivation method and food, how could they forget that? Now they not only had tonight’s dinner, but also tomorrow’s breakfast, and enough that they could save some for lunch too!

They hadn’t even finished giving out the supplies when Zhang Lin came over with his men who carried two boxes of instant noodles, two boxes of biscuits, two boxes of canned beef and water, saying that they were all special gifts for Jiang Nian. The men said that they knew these gifts were too few, but that they had come over in a hurry and would make up for it when they got to the base. They explained that there weren’t too many supplies left since the soldiers had to eat as well as the ordinary citizens who had come to join them.

Zhang Lin said: “Jiang Nian, your cultivation method works very well. After I brought it back to share with the others, they said that they could sense the energy flowing in their bodies when they followed your method! This is a major discovery for people all over the world, we have already relayed your cultivation method to the imperial capital, and also asked for merit for you. I believe that after “Twelve Brocade Pieces of Altered Energy Cultivation” is popularized, more people will stimulate their Altered Energy and with our combined strength we’ll be able to survive this catastrophe!”

Jiang Nian: “This cultivation method doesn’t give people special abilities, it’s only the people with potential who’ll be the ones to stimulate their supernatural abilities early. So you guys shouldn’t get your hopes up too much.”

Zhang Lin froze and said, “Okay, I understand, it’s already great to have made such a discovery at this stage. On behalf of the organization, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Jiang Nian.”

“I didn’t actually do anything. But with this great disaster ahead, it’s all the more reason for us to stick together and help each other.”

Zhang Lin was impressed, it’s been the end of the world only ten days and he’d already seen many people fight for something little. There were only a few others who were as selfless and kind as Jiang Nian. When he first came here he’d thought Jiang Nian was trying to form a cult, were they really all sitting cross-legged in meditation to cultivate supernatural abilities? Turns out it wasn’t a joke, but the ancient practice of cultivating internal strength. Zhang Lin didn’t expect that her method would actually work!

His previous skepticism had turned into admiration.

Zhang Lin and the others once again gave a military salute to Jiang Nian and then assigned another team of people to patrol and guard the area around the gas station before leaving.

The goods received this time were not distributed like the others and were instead handed over to the class president and Shen Ran to be hidden.

The first thing Jiang Nian did after they left was take a look through the boxes, sighing deeply after seeing it was all food.

Qin Yue stopped by not too long after that, arriving with a couple of big boxes meant for her as well.

Qin Yue smiled, “We’d only sent two chocolates before which wasn’t enough to express my gratitude for all the help you have given us. Here are some more gifts to show my appreciation.”

Jiang Nian stretched her neck to look at the boxes and asked, “What did you bring?”

“Some packs of chocolate, biscuits, canned meat, rice, and noodles.”

“…Oh.”

“Well, that’s actually quite good…”

Jiang Nian said this while nodding her head, she was content enough with everything she’d gotten. Though she already had quite a few supplies stocked in her storage space, there could never be too much. And she would continue to teach at the altar tomorrow anyway, so could big gold ingots be far away? Of course not! There would be even more than today!

The next day there were even more people than there had been on the first, despite the fact that the method of training had already been passed around. Meaning these people could train anywhere, but they came here anyway.

There were no more gifts of dead branches and stones and there was a lot more food and so on, but the amount of gold given had decreased drastically…there was only a small handful left!