Thanks to the sudden appearance of Yu Zhenghong, the two opposing groups that had been at each other’s throats not long ago quickly turned hostility into peace after a brief battle.
On the way deeper into the base, Sun Zhixia took over driving.
Pang Cancan sat in the front passenger seat, chewing on a piece of beef jerky as she explained the backstory to Sun Zhixia:
“…He insisted on trading maps with us and even said he wanted to switch to an easier route. When that guy showed up just now, I thought he had been tracking us.”
“He wasn’t tracking you.” As she said this, Sun Zhixia’s fingers clenched tightly around the steering wheel.
A breath of suppressed frustration slowly escaped from her chest.
She smiled bitterly and said, “A few months ago, Yu Zhenghong was still a Tier 5 ability user. He was seriously injured and collapsed near the base. I was the one who picked him up.”
“When he woke up, a snowstorm was raging, so he temporarily settled down in the base.”
“He’s good-looking and well-spoken, so before long, I agreed to his pursuit.”
Before the apocalypse, the Sun family made their living from deep-sea fishing. The siblings had followed their parents out to sea since childhood, and their tanned skin was identical.
Most people in the world still saw fair skin as beautiful, and Sun Zhixia, being a girl, had been mocked by the opposite sex since she was young.
Having heard it so often, she gradually stopped caring. For a fisherman’s daughter, having a fit body and strong muscles was the key to survival. But when it came to relationships, she was well aware that her looks were not mainstream and wouldn’t attract most people’s affection.
It just so happened that Yu Zhenghong was a charming man with a silver tongue.
After just half a month together, he made Sun Zhixia mistakenly believe—
That he liked her.
That he liked her skin and her strength.
That he truly liked her as a person.
“Not long after, during a casual chat, I mentioned that there was a seagull hovering over the sea, suspected to have just reached Tier 6. It frequently caused trouble in the coastal area and brought a lot of problems to the base.”
“That must have been when Yu Zhenghong took notice. Two months ago, one day when Zhichun and I weren’t at the base, he stole my keys, took a boat out to sea by himself, and tried to hunt down that seagull for its Grade 6 crystal.”
Su Su sat in the back seat, holding Xiao Hei in her arms. Sun Zhichun sat on the other side, listening silently the entire time without interrupting his sister’s account.
“And then?”
“Then… it was my negligence, but it was also Yu Zhenghong’s greed. He only listened to half of what I said—the other half, I didn’t finish. That seagull had both wind and water abilities. Even though it had just advanced to Tier 6, its strength was extraordinarily powerful. Yu Zhenghong was no match for it at all.”
“He fought for a while before fleeing on his boat. Enraged, the seagull chased him into the coastal region, where its wind and water abilities created a small-scale tsunami that flooded more than half the base…”
At this point, Sun Zhixia’s eyes reddened.
Sun Zhichun also clenched his fists tightly.
That small tsunami had killed over a hundred ordinary people and more than a dozen low-tier ability users in the base.
If Sun Zhichun hadn’t returned early—if he hadn’t happened to have a water ability to barely contain the tsunami’s spread—the casualties would have been even worse.
If only Yu Zhenghong hadn’t fled so fast!
After recovering from the disaster, they had searched for him for a long time but found no trace of him.
Who would have thought that two months later, Yu Zhenghong would return on his own, leading a group of people under the pretense of “expanding the base together”—when in reality, he was just using his strength to try and seize the foundation that the Sun siblings had built?
Thinking back to that scene from two months ago, Sun Zhixia still felt immense pain.
“It’s all my fault…”
“Sis.” Sun Zhichun, who had remained silent for a long time, cut her off sternly.
“I’ve told you many times before—letting them in was a decision we both made.”
Su Su lifted her eyes and met Pang Cancan’s gaze through the rearview mirror.
No wonder Sun Zhixia had been so on edge when they entered the base.
So she had already suffered once before.
Su Su suddenly said, “He’s already dead.”
His corpse had been burned clean by Xiao Hei’s flames.
Recalling Yu Zhenghong’s miserable end, Sun Zhichun let out a cold laugh. “Serves him right.”
With that, the topic was closed. Perhaps it would take some time for Sun Zhixia to fully move on, but with the culprit already dead, it was only a matter of time before she let go.
The car finally stopped in front of a concealed vault.
Sun Zhichun first used a key to unlock the outer door, then stepped up to the retinal scanner inside.
Ding.
The metal door slowly opened, and with the lights switched on, the intricate apparatus was finally revealed in full.
At the very front was a silver-white chair, connected to a sealed containment chamber at the back by countless tubes and pipelines.
Pang Cancan made a sharp observation: “It kind of looks like the lie detector chair they use for interrogating criminals on TV.”
To be fair, it really did.
Now fully composed, Sun Zhixia whistled.
A half-bald eagle king suddenly emerged from somewhere and obediently landed on its master’s shoulder.
The python nestled in Su Su’s arms fixed its gaze on the bird and bared its fangs maliciously. “Hiss!”
“Screech—!”
The eagle king, startled, spread its wings and let out a sharp cry, the kind it used when facing an enemy.
“Xiao Hei!”
“Hei Bao!”
The two similar names collided midair, and both Su Su and Sun Zhixia froze at the same time.
The black snake’s eyes flickered between the eagle king and the female holding it, suddenly growing displeased.
Xiao Hei.
Hei Bao.
The latter had an extra “Bao (Treasure)” in its name, making it sound much more affectionate and pleasant.
For the first time, the black snake felt dissatisfied with its own name. Its molted, now partially bald tail coiled restlessly in the female’s embrace.
“Hiss—”
It lifted its head, seeking comfort. But unfortunately, the female paid no attention to this trivial matter—her entire focus was locked onto the bulky Energy Disruption in front of them.
Sun Zhixia took out a Grade 5 crystal and fed it to the eagle king on her shoulder.
The eagle swallowed it without hesitation.
A surge of energy flooded the battle pet’s body, causing it to let out a few uncomfortable cries.
This time, there was no need for Sun Zhixia to command it. The eagle king instinctively flew over to the instrument’s seat and obediently lay down.
Sun Zhixia stepped forward and attached over a dozen metal plates, each connected to a series of wires, onto the eagle king’s body.
“Brother, turn on the machine for me.”
Silently, Sun Zhichun pressed the Energy Disruption’s activation switch.
The silver-white containment chamber whirred to life. The most prominent red indicators on the front panel lit up one by one, as electric currents—or perhaps some unknown form of energy—flowed through the wires, into the metal plates, and into the eagle king’s body.
Its body trembled slightly, and its remaining feathers quivered subtly.
Before Su Su could voice her curiosity, Sun Zhixia explained:
“The researchers at the Northern Base told us that they discovered a special substance within the crystal stones. When subjected to high-speed collisions, this substance can shatter residual energy impurities left inside the body. Some of these impurities will be absorbed back into the tubes and stored in the energy chamber, while the rest will remain in the body and await natural metabolism.”
“This is how it works—it helps battle pets quickly eliminate energy impurities, reducing the risk of exploding from energy overload.”
Su Su discreetly released her ability.
A soft white light probed into the eagle king’s body, detecting that—the residual impurities from the crystal it had just swallowed were indeed being shattered and dispersed at a slow, steady pace.
Ding.
The red indicator turned green. The impurities in the eagle king’s body had been completely cleansed.
This machine really could eliminate the side effects of crystal absorption!
Suppressing her inner surprise, Su Su asked, “I remember you mentioned earlier that this can also be used on humans?”
Sun Zhixia shook her head. “We tried before, but the effects were minimal. As for the exact reason, only the researchers at the Northern Base probably know.”
Su Su fell into deep thought.
With the existence of this Energy Disruption, no wonder the battle pets at the Northern Base were far stronger than those in any other region.
They didn’t have to worry about dying from energy overload. As long as they had enough crystals, they could continuously push their battle pets to higher tiers.
Seeing that Su Su hadn’t responded for a while, Sun Zhixia asked again, “Do you want to let your battle pet try it out?”
Su Su lowered her head and looked at Xiao Hei.
“Do you want to give it a try?”
The black snake had already understood the function of the machine. It lazily curled up in the female’s embrace, showing complete disinterest.
Seeing this, Su Su made the decision for it. “Forget it, we won’t try it.”
Won’t try it?
Both Sun Zhichun and Sun Zhixia looked at her in surprise.
After a brief hesitation, Sun Zhichun finally spoke up. “You… do know about the side effects of consuming crystals, right?”
At the beginning of the apocalypse, perhaps no one realized it. But now, more than a year had passed, and countless ability users had exploded from crystal overload. The side effects of consuming crystals were already widely known.
Since the Energy Disruption was introduced, there were only a dozen units across the entire Northern Base. Many ability users, before advancing their battle pets, would clutch their crystals and seek out the machine for safety. Some who had over-consumed crystals even placed their last hope on this device.
The Sun siblings had paid a heavy price to acquire this unit. If Yu Zhenghong had known about its existence first, he would have seized it long ago.
So why were these two ability users in front of them completely unmoved?
Su Su nodded. “I know.”
“Then you—”
“I’m a little worried,” Su Su admitted frankly. “Xiao Hei has been with me since the beginning of the apocalypse. If anything were to go wrong with this machine… I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
“The Northern Base has tested it extensively, and Hei Bao has used it many times without any issues—”
Sun Zhixia was about to continue explaining when she caught sight of her brother subtly shaking his head at her.
She had no choice but to stop.
Su Su noticed this exchange and said apologetically, “I don’t mean to doubt you. It’s just that we’ve never been to the Northern Base before, so we don’t have that much trust in it or the machines it produces.”
This was an understandable reason.
When the Sun siblings had first heard about this machine, they hadn’t dared to let the eagle king use it recklessly either.
Sun Zhichun said, “It’s fine. You can take this machine with you. That way, when you need it, you’ll have it ready.”
Transporting such a massive machine on the road was a challenge in itself.
Su Su already had a general understanding of the machine’s effects. Besides, she possessed a similar ability that was even more effective. To her, this Energy Disruption was nothing more than a redundant tool.
After a few seconds of thought, she slowly said, “I’d like to discuss something with you.”
“What is it?”
“I’d prefer to leave this machine with you. I won’t take it.”
Sun Zhixia immediately refused. “That’s not right! We agreed to give it to you as an apology. There’s no taking it back.”
This was exactly what Su Su wanted to discuss. She said, “I’d like to shamelessly ask for a different form of compensation.”
A different compensation?
Sun Zhichun and Sun Zhixia both looked confused.
“A different compensation?” Did their base even have anything more valuable than this machine?
Well, they did, but those things were impossible to offer as compensation.
Under their expectant gazes, Su Su finally stated her purpose:
“I want the crystal from that Grade 6 seagull. I need you to take us out to sea to find it.”
Along the way, she had gradually realized that the average strength of the Northern Base was far higher than she had initially expected.
That meant the most urgent priority right now was to increase her own power.
But Yu Zhenghong had once coveted that same Grade 6 seagull, and in the process, it had brought disaster to this coastal city…
Would the Sun siblings agree to her request?