Chapter 81 - 74: Dispute

Chapter 81: Chapter 74: Dispute

The next morning, Xu Mo woke up on schedule. The first thing he did was walk down a few steps and look toward the second floor.

The scene before him confirmed that his worries from the previous night had not been unfounded—murky, yellow water had completely submerged the first floor, its surface even rising slightly above the second-floorboards. More debris, washed in from the first floor and the outside world, floated on the water. The surface was calm, yet it exuded a deathly, oppressive stillness.

’Good thing I moved everything up last night,’ Xu Mo thought, relieved.

He walked up the stairs to the rooftop terrace. The post-rain morning air carried a bone-chilling cold and a thick, fishy smell of water. Spread out before him was a shocking, vast ocean.

The former streets, ruins, and single-story buildings of Cyan Pine Ridge Town were now mostly gone, replaced by a boundless expanse of murky, yellow water.

The water’s surface was not calm; it was densely covered with all sorts of miscellaneous objects: broken tree branches, tattered household goods, plastic trash of every color, and a large amount of unidentifiable debris.

These floating objects collided and piled up with the slow current, forming small "islands of trash" in some places. A few sturdier two-story buildings revealed their upper halves, like lonely islands in the water.

Farther away, the original undulations of the terrain formed faint outlines on the water’s surface. The entire world seemed to have regressed to a primitive, chaotic state. All traces of humanity in the small town had been mercilessly erased by the flood.

Xu Mo stood in the center of the rooftop, facing east. The clouds there were still thick, but he could faintly sense the sun’s presence behind them. He assumed his stance and began the "Qi Collection" practice of his Thirteen Grand Protectors’ Cross Training. Although the sunlight was weak, the vital essence of the morning sun could still be faintly stirred by his qi and blood.

After finishing his Qi Collection, Xu Mo decided to continue with his daily Pile Training and Power Control exercises on the relatively open rooftop. Standing on this lone island amidst a vast ocean, surrounded by post-apocalyptic ruins, he was completely focused, concentrating on his own tempering as if isolated from the world around him.

After his morning workout, Xu Mo returned to the landing on the third-floor stairwell and turned on the radio. The voice of a broadcaster from the Jiang City Shelter immediately came through, his tone serious: "According to the latest analysis from the meteorological department, our region will be mostly overcast today with intermittent rainfall. However, the atmospheric circulation patterns have not fundamentally changed. A new round of heavy rain is expected to begin tonight and last for the next two days, with an intensity potentially no less than yesterday’s. All survivors in all regions must make use of this brief window to reinforce their shelters, move to absolutely safe high ground, and check their reserve supplies..."

Hearing the broadcast, Xu Mo looked up and gazed at the sky through a broken window. Sure enough, the sky was still a hazy gray, with low, heavy clouds that certainly didn’t look like they would clear up anytime soon.

Xu Mo quickly assessed his current situation. The water was already past the second floor. He was on the stairwell landing between the third floor and the roof, which was high enough. The rope for his assault boat had plenty of slack, so even if the water level rose further, it wouldn’t sink the boat or snap the rope. As long as the building itself didn’t collapse, another round of rainfall posed little threat to him.

Just then, the content of the broadcast suddenly shifted, the tone becoming more urgent and cautionary: "Special emergency announcement! We are once again issuing a highest-level warning to all survivors who may be in or around the Luoxing Valley area! Luoxing Valley is situated in a basin between two mountains, with a wide expanse of water upstream. According to reports from reconnaissance helicopters and hydrological model calculations, with the continued heavy rainfall, the water level of the Jade Belt River, which flows through the valley, will continue to surge. The flood crest is expected to pass through the area within the next 24 to 48 hours. There is an extremely high probability that Luoxing Valley town will be completely submerged! Furthermore, the soil on the mountains in this region is loose. In a state of extreme saturation, the risk of large-scale landslides and mudflows is extremely high! I repeat, the risk is extremely high! All survivors still in the Luoxing Valley area, please evacuate immediately, right now, at all costs, to the tops of the mountains on either side! You only have one life, do not take any chances!"

The broadcaster’s voice was firm and unquestionable. However, shortly after this announcement ended, an agitated, almost hysterical male voice suddenly cut into the radio’s public channel, clearly using a different radio set: "Jiang City! Jiang City Shelter! Cut the fake sentimentality! What damn warning?! You sent a helicopter to circle over our heads several times! You knew damn well what our situation was! Why are you watching us die?! Why can’t you send helicopters to evacuate us?! You have planes, don’t you?! Didn’t you people in Jiang City say you would protect the people? It’s all lies! You’re just watching us wait to die!!"

This sudden accusation was filled with despair and rage. Xu Mo’s eyebrow twitched as he listened. He took out his map to check the location of Luoxing Valley; it wasn’t close to him.

Immediately after, a calmer but audibly restrained, official-sounding voice from the Jiang City Shelter channel responded: "To our compatriots in Luoxing Valley, please remain calm! First, the aircraft we deployed were light reconnaissance helicopters. They are not equipped for large-scale personnel transport and have extremely limited passenger capacity. Second, according to our prior intelligence, there are at least several hundred survivors in the Luoxing Valley area. This far exceeds the capacity limits of any single aerial rescue mission at this time. Most importantly, our shelter began repeatedly broadcasting warnings about the geological and hydrological risks in Luoxing Valley as soon as the Eternal Night ended, advising survivors in the area to evacuate on their own as early as possible! It was your own decision-makers who were stubborn, underestimated the risks, and possibly even blocked outside information, which led to your current predicament. Arguing about this now is pointless. Please organize your people and evacuate to high ground immediately! It is your only way to survive!"

The man from Luoxing Valley immediately retorted, his voice breaking up due to a poor signal: "Bullshit! You’re just making excuses! The past is the past... Now that you see the danger, why won’t you save us? You have the ability but you’re not even trying..."

The rest of his words were drowned out by a burst of loud static. It seemed the two sides had begun a more heated argument on the channel—or rather, a one-sided tirade from Luoxing Valley met with restrained explanations and warnings from Jiang City.

Xu Mo listened for a while longer, then shook his head helplessly and turned off the radio. The noisy "war of words" left him feeling a bit speechless.

The situation couldn’t be clearer. The leader of the Luoxing Valley survivors had clearly made a fatal mistake. Either they had underestimated the severity of the floods and geological disasters, or they had deliberately ignored the external warnings to maintain control over their settlement—or perhaps both.

Now, with disaster imminent, instead of seizing the last chance to organize their own rescue, they were trying to shift the blame to Jiang City, accusing them of watching them die. It was like climbing a tree to catch a fish.

’With all this time and energy to argue on the radio, they’d be better off mobilizing everyone to run for the mountains right now. Even if only one more person makes it out, it’s a win,’ Xu Mo thought to himself.

In the post-apocalyptic world, pinning all one’s hopes for survival on outside rescue was an inherently high-risk act, especially when clear warnings had already been issued.

This conflict, transmitted over the airwaves, was like a mirror, reflecting the different choices and mindsets of various groups facing a crisis in the post-apocalyptic world. There were lone wolves like Xu Mo, self-reliant and cautious in their planning. There were large organizations like Jiang City, trying to establish order but forced to make difficult choices with limited resources. And there were groups like Luoxing Valley, who made poor decisions early on, only to blame fate and others for their predicament later.

Xu Mo stopped paying attention to the argument, which was destined to be fruitless. The world outside was fraught with peril; he needed to remain vigilant and focus on himself.