Chapter 47 - 43: First Encounter

Chapter 47: Chapter 43: First Encounter

The next morning, at the crack of dawn.

Xu Mo stood on the rooftop platform punctually, facing east. He circulated his qi and blood, carefully capturing and guiding the wisps of Rising Sun Purple Qi, which were brimming with infinite life force.

Unlike usual, Xu Mo’s senses were sharper today. The warm current flowing into his qi and blood felt clearer and more active than before. After stepping into the Cowhide Realm, it wasn’t just his physical body; his perception and absorption efficiency of energy also seemed to have improved slightly.

After finishing his Qi Collection, Xu Mo didn’t immediately move on to his subsequent strength training as usual. Instead, he did something urgent—he carefully peeled off the signs he had placed on several key "doors" nearby, signs like "Taste-Testing Welcome," "Pharmacy," and "Emergency Food Storage," and put them away properly.

These signs were his greatest secret and his trump card; he couldn’t let any outsiders notice anything unusual. Although these survivors might not understand the mystery behind them, any detail that could potentially cause complications had to be nipped in the bud.

Once he had done all this, Xu Mo returned to the simple yet sturdy training room on the first floor and began his immutable daily cultivation. Pile Training, body conditioning, Power Control, and Cold Weapons practice—he executed each one meticulously. No matter how the outside world changed, increasing his own strength was always the number one principle of survival in the apocalypse.

Time slipped by quietly as Xu Mo focused on his training. By a little after three in the afternoon, the winter sun cast a lazy warmth, sending several mottled columns of light through the cracks in the barricaded windows and onto the dust-covered floor.

Just then, Xu Mo, who was drenched in sweat and immersed in his training, suddenly froze.

He heard something!

It wasn’t the wind, nor the sound of sliding snow, but human voices. And the CRUNCH of feet on packed snow, along with the faint rustle of someone rummaging through debris.

The sounds came from the other end of the street, about a hundred meters from his small, street-facing building. After entering the Cowhide Realm, Xu Mo’s five senses, including his hearing and vision, had been significantly enhanced. In the dead silence of the small town, a commotion of this level was as clear as a stone dropped into a calm lake.

’They’re here.’

Xu Mo knew this was inevitable. He slowly stopped his training, and the surging qi and blood in his body gradually calmed. He didn’t rush out. Instead, he went up to the second floor, walked to a window, and peered outside through an extremely well-hidden peephole.

At the end of the street, he saw three figures—two men and a woman—cautiously making their way along the side of the street, searching door to door. They were all wearing bulky winter clothes and carrying backpacks, but the flatness of their packs suggested they had found very little. One of them held an iron rod, occasionally tapping at the snowdrifts or abandoned items on the roadside, as if to test the path or make noise to flush out any hidden dangers.

Xu Mo took a deep breath, his gaze turning sharp and calm. He knew there was no hiding. Rather than waiting for them to search his building and be forced into a confrontation on his own "doorstep," it was better to reveal himself and meet them on the relatively open street, where he would have more freedom to advance or retreat.

He took off his sweat-soaked training clothes, quickly wiped himself down, and changed into a set of dark gray combat fatigues with a lightweight stab-proof vest over them. He slid his sharp Mountain-Cutting Saber securely into the sheath on his back. Finally, Xu Mo picked up the well-maintained, gleaming AK-47 assault rifle, which radiated a cold, metallic feel. He checked the magazine, chambered a round, and switched on the safety, his movements practiced and smooth.

After all that, Xu Mo took one last deep breath, gently moved aside the barricade reinforcing the entrance, pushed open the heavy wooden door, and stepped outside. He stood there, silently waiting for the three survivors to approach.

...

「On the other end of the street.」

"This goddamn place has nothing!" Big Bull, the one with the scar on his face, jabbed impatiently at a collapsed shelf with his iron rod, kicking up a spray of snow and dust. "Wang is really something else, making us waste our time like this."

Zhao Ming, who wore glasses, adjusted his frames and scanned their surroundings warily. "Wang has his reasons," he said in a low voice. "It never hurts to be careful. What if we missed something? Besides, confirming an area is safe is also part of the objective."

The only woman in the group, Sun Xiaoyun, said nothing. She just tightened her grip on the hatchet in her hand, her hawk-like gaze sweeping over the pitch-black windows and broken doorways. Her intuition told her this town was too quiet. Besides them, there didn’t seem to be any other living things, which in itself was abnormal.

"I still say it’s a waste of time," Big Bull grumbled, walking toward the next building, a relatively intact two-story structure facing the street. "After we finish this street, if there’s still nothing, let’s head back and regroup. The sooner we leave this shithole, the better."

Zhao Ming nodded. Just as he was about to say something, his gaze unintentionally swept toward the street ahead, and his body suddenly stiffened.

"Wait!" he hissed, his voice tinged with a barely perceptible tension.

Big Bull and Sun Xiaoyun immediately looked in the direction he was pointing.

There, a few dozen meters ahead, a person was standing silently in the middle of the street. It was impossible to tell when he had appeared.

The man had a straight, tall posture, standing about five-foot-ten. Among the sallow and emaciated crowds of the apocalypse, he looked remarkably well-proportioned and solid. He wore a set of well-fitting, dark gray combat fatigues with a dark vest of indeterminate material over it, giving him a clean and sharp appearance. His face wasn’t strikingly handsome, but his features were well-balanced, and his brow held an air of composure.