Lu Yuan and Liu Yuan arrived at Xiling City around noon.
The entrance to the city was controlled by a squad of mercenaries wearing camouflage combat uniforms and armbands with lightning bolt symbols.
Liu Yuan drove up and a soldier carrying an assault rifle came up, saluted, and took out a QR code saying: "Entry fee, 2,500 for one car."
Lu Yuan in the back seat took out his phone and scanned the code. Just then the soldier took a look at Lu Yuan's car and hesitated before saying: "You two, although your car has been modified, I have to say the odds are against you going into the city at this time."
The sunglass-wearing Liu Yuan smiled and said: "No problem, our boss has money to burn, plus we're just going in to take a look around, nothing else in mind."
The mercenary nodded, and after the payment went through, he let Lu Yuan's car pass.
At the exit next to them, a long line of big trucks was queueing up to exit the city, loaded with food, medical supplies, bank safes and all kinds of valuables.
The convoys coming in from surrounding cities were looting the last valuables from this city of death.
Lu Yuan's off-road vehicle was the only small and medium sized car among the incoming and outgoing vehicles.
Seeing the long line of trucks queued up to exit the city ahead of them, Liu Yuan glanced at Lu Yuan in the rearview mirror and said: "Boss, it looks like you were right, this city did suffer a Spiritual Qi Storm."
Lu Yuan said nothing. He had a rough idea where Zhang Baobao's special ability came from.
The Spiritual Qi Storm was a unique phenomenon in this World of Spiritual Qi Resurgence. Whenever a Spiritual Qi Storm arose, the violent spiritual qi fluctuations would kill all fragile life forms in the surrounding area.
The Spiritual Qi Storm could also lead to many bizarre changes, such as the formation of Spiritual Qi Pollution Source Areas where the storm occurred, the resurrection of departed life forms, or the emergence of varying numbers of mutated life forms, among other things.
With his professional instincts as a doctor, Lu Yuan was able to determine at first glance that the girl was someone who had died once already.
Even if the dead returned to life, they would still carry the aura of death.
As for the old man who came to see him that morning pulling a cart, he had probably already left Xiling City before the Spiritual Qi Storm arose, thus escaping disaster.
The woman lying on the cart that the old man was pulling, on the other hand, had probably died on the way to see the doctor.
Lu Yuan pondered the sequence of events while Liu Yuan also wondered about it.
A complicated expression crossed her face. She said: "It seems that old man still had some conscience, at least he knew to take Baobao's mom around to see doctors..."
Lu Yuan looked troubled. Meaningfully he said: "Whether he has a conscience or not, we can ask Baobao when we have a chance."
Speaking of which, Liu Yuan grew worried thinking of Baobao's mother. She asked: "Boss, Baobao's mom is dead and gone. Can you really bring her back?"
Lu Yuan rubbed his temples and said: "It's not like I can manually generate a Spiritual Qi Storm. How could I have the power to resurrect the dead?"
"But I only need to resurrect Baobao's mother in her heart."
"Boss, you are so multi-talented!"
...
After driving around Xiling City for a bit, everywhere they saw people from finance consortiums and guilds from surrounding cities moving goods, as well as charity workers helping clear the bodies of the deceased.
This trip Lu Yuan simply wanted to verify his guesses and determine the source of Baobao's special abilities.
An hour later, the two drove their vehicle out of the city, following the long convoy of trucks like a dragon.
Back in 27 Region, Liu Yuan parked the car at the foot of a mountain.
Before their eyes, the high mountain was shrouded in mist and clouds. This was a Level 2 Spiritual Qi Pollution Source Area, also the team building location specified by Lu Yuan this time.
Level 2 meant that heterologous beasts with ability coefficients exceeding 1.0 but under 2.0 would appear.
By now, Lu Yuan had left footprints in practically every pollution source area in 27 Region.
Just as Liu Yuan was about to undo her seatbelt and get out of the car, Lu Yuan said: "Wait here, I'll be back in half an hour."
Liu Yuan was startled. She looked at Lu Yuan and asked: "Boss, would you please explain what you mean by 'team building'?"
Lu Yuan said lightly: "It's team building. Guarding team transportation is very important, you know?"
Liu Yuan: "..."
Seeing Liu Yuan's miffed expression, Lu Yuan reached out and rapped her head, consoling her: "Alright, come help me if I'm not back in an hour."
Liu Yuan rolled her eyes. "You said that last time too, but you were out in ten minutes. Boss, you're so fast!"
Lu Yuan's face darkened instantly. He scraped hard down the bridge of Liu Yuan's pert little nose and growled: "Such impertinence! Watch me dock your pay!"
Liu Yuan made a face at Lu Yuan: "Bleh!"
Seeing Liu Yuan's cute expression, Lu Yuan grinned. Waving his hand, he headed towards the Spiritual Qi Pollution Source Area up the mountain.
The Spiritual Qi Pollution Source Areas, also known as Spiritual Qi Pollution Zones, were areas humans could not survive due to the intense fluctuations in spiritual qi.
Each Spiritual Qi Pollution Source Area was home to large numbers of heterologous beasts. Over the years, Lu Yuan had left footprints in practically every pollution zone in 27 Region.
As Lu Yuan crossed the caution stone tablet at the foot of the mountain, he clearly sensed the surrounding air currents become violently turbulent. But even more violent than the air currents was the commotion coming from the dense mountain jungle.
No sooner had Lu Yuan set foot into the lush jungle than the entire tranquil mountain forest erupted!
Swish swish—
The first to react were the bizarre large birds with bat wings and sparrow bodies roosting on the branches. It was as if they had been frightened by something the instant Lu Yuan arrived. Flapping their wings frantically, they took off towards the mountaintop as if their lives depended on it!
"Caw—"
"Caw caw!!"
Piercing bird cries echoed over the jungle. The entire flock commenced a mass migration.
Next, Lu Yuan felt slight tremors through the ground beneath his feet.
"Roar—"
"Woof woof!"
"Awooo!"
All kinds of beastly roars arose one after another without cease!
Whether it was the mutated giant tigers or wolves, or the packs of heterologous dogs roaming the jungle, their originally ferocious, bloodthirsty cries now contained a hint of urgency and fear!
Boom!!
Not only did the birds in the sky commence migration, even the heterologous beasts in the jungle began fleeing helter-skelter.
The beasts all fled in different directions, but they shared one common trait—they were all sprinting away from Lu Yuan!
In the blink of an eye, within one minute, Lu Yuan stood dumbfounded as he sensed that within a three kilometer radius, the only breathing creature left was himself.
It was well known that beasts had very keen senses of danger.
The heterologous beasts mutated in the Spiritual Qi Pollution Source Areas even more so.