A technologically powerful nation: The national treasure is actually myself.

"The power of the ancient ruins has begun to affect the city!"

"The last line of defense has been breached."

What should we do next?

Those who received the news were thrown into panic.

Although being caught up in the ancient ruins is not necessarily fatal, there is still a chance to survive as long as you follow the rules.

But nobody wants to take the risk!

What if I'm the one who's unlucky?
Originally, the power of the ancient ruins would not affect the city, and everyone could rest assured.

But now, the ancient ruins are starting to invade the city, which makes it impossible not to panic.

Because no one knows how long the ancient ruins will invade, or how many cities they will invade.

People continued to evacuate from Xizhou City, fleeing to other cities in an attempt to escape.

Inside the Zhao family, everyone was worried, but they did not evacuate Xizhou City immediately.

Because the cost of evacuating the entire clan would be far too high.

The cost of evacuating from Xiwu City to here was astronomical, and the Zhao family would find it difficult to afford further evacuations.

In fact, it's not just the Zhao family that's like this; most other families are the same.

Few families can afford the cost of multiple clan-wide evacuations.

Putting everything else aside, the cost of transportation alone could bankrupt a large family.

Of course, there is no fog outside Xizhou City yet, and the ancient ruins do not seem to have appeared. You can choose to travel outside the city and evacuate on your own.

But no one dared to take the risk.

Because the ancient ruins don't appear in a fixed place, nor do they have to wait for the mist to slowly spread from Xiwu City to this place.

Instead, it could appear anywhere at any time.

If you're unlucky, you might be swallowed up by the ancient ruins in the next second.

The elders of the Zhao family gathered together, including Zhao Yuan, to discuss countermeasures.

Lin Yang was also invited over, but he barely spoke.

“Right now, it’s not realistic for the whole clan to evacuate. We can only send out another batch first, and then figure out a way to deal with the rest.” Zhao Xiongshan, as the head of the family, spoke first.

His meaning was simple and direct.

That meant selecting the elite members of the family and some elders to continue evacuating to other cities, while the rest stayed behind to leave it to fate.

If you get caught up in the ancient ruins, your fate is in the hands of fate.

This is also what most families do now.

Elders Zhao Huoshan and Zhao Chen had no objections.

In the end, Zhao Yuan made the decision, deciding to follow this method once a thin fog began to appear outside Xizhou City.

After the discussion, Lin Yang asked Zhao Hu about the latest situation in Xiwu City.

“According to those who stayed there, the fog is not spreading quickly, and it has only covered one-tenth of Xiwu City so far. However, the fog is persistent and does not dissipate even when it sweeps people into the ancient ruins. This is the most serious problem,” Zhao Hu said with a frown.

In the past, when ancient ruins appeared, the mist would dissipate after people were caught in them, and people could still live normally in the places shrouded in the mist.

If the fog doesn't dissipate now, the area covered by the mist will be no different from a restricted zone, which is very troublesome.

"Could it be that the power of the ancient ruins is also gradually recovering and strengthening?" Lin Yang wondered.

Zhao Hu shook his head: "That's hard to say. No one knows the situation of the ancient ruins. We can only wear special items to minimize the impact of being involved in the ancient ruins."

As he spoke, Zhao Hu seemed to remember something and suddenly said, "Oh right, the prices of all sorts of rare items are starting to skyrocket. If I had known, I would have bought more earlier and made a fortune."

"At a time like this, you're still thinking about getting rich?"

Lin Yang was both amused and exasperated, and then asked:
"Have you specifically inquired about the situation in the Inner Palace? Everyone is now retreating towards the Inner Palace. If the Inner Palace is also invaded by the Ancient Ruins, then there will be no way out."

Zhao Hu immediately said:

"We are definitely paying attention to this. So far, we haven't heard of any places in the inner palace being invaded by the ancient ruins. But Brother Lin Yang, to put it bluntly, with our numbers, we can only evacuate a few more times at most. We have no chance of evacuating to the real inner palace, so there's no need to worry too much about the situation there."

Lin Yang was speechless.

He understood what Zhao Hu meant.

On the Primordial Ancient Continent, under normal circumstances, those below the Nirvana Realm can only move between different cities using teleportation arrays.

Although Nirvana Realm cultivators can travel in the wild on their own, they can only cross a few prefectures at most by themselves.

Because walking in the wild for a long time increases the probability of encountering various dangers.

The most direct danger is swarms of leeches in the wild.

Therefore, traveling on the ancient continent in the early Yuan Dynasty was very difficult.

As for the Yuanhe Realm, it is not qualified to cross too many prefectures.

This is why, after Lin Yang arrived in Xiwu City, not only did the Zhao family not expect him to return, but Lin Yang himself also did not think about returning to the Far East Prefecture.

If they were to evacuate now, given the Zhao family's strength and resources, they could at most support a few elite clan members and disciples to evacuate a few times.

Any more, and we'll have to evacuate by traveling through the wilderness.

But that would also double the risk.

They face the threat of being hunted by the serpents, and also the emergence of ancient ruins.

Therefore, even with Zhao Yuan present and Lin Yang possessing strength comparable to the Yuanhe Realm, it would be difficult for them to truly evacuate to the inner palace region.

Therefore, instead of focusing on the situation in the distant inner prefecture, it would be better to pay attention to the situation in the nearby prefectures.

At most, they could only evacuate to a few nearby mansions.

Whether the inner palace was invaded by the ancient ruins or not is actually not of much concern to them.

Even if the inner territory wasn't invaded by the ancient ruins, they wouldn't have the strength to escape that far.

This is a very harsh fact.

Thinking about this, Lin Yang suddenly felt that his luck seemed to be a little bad.

When I was in the Far East Prefecture, just when I was finally settling down in the prefectural army, that terrifying and ominous ancient ruin appeared.

Having finally escaped that ancient ruin and arrived in such a remote place, just when they were about to settle down in Xiwu City, they were suddenly invaded by this even more bizarre thing called the Ancient Ruins.

I haven't had a single day of peace!
They're either running for their lives, or on their way to run for their lives.

Seeing that Lin Yang's expression had become somewhat unnatural, Zhao Hu comforted him:

"Brother Lin Yang, you don't need to be too pessimistic. Although you may not be able to escape in the end, there is still a good chance of survival if you are caught up in the ancient ruins. As long as you are lucky and don't get caught up in that kind of projection world where you are sure to die."

"...Luck? Better?" Lin Yang's expression became even stranger.

With his luck... is there any chance it can improve?
The fact that I survived being caught in the ancient ruins last time can only be described as a stroke of luck; I just happened to run into Yu Qing, and that projected world wasn't fatal either.

If you were lucky last time, the same luck shouldn't happen twice.

Lin Yang didn't want to be dragged into the ancient ruins again. After a pause, Lin Yang asked, "What's the current mortality rate for those from Xiwu City who have already been caught up in the ancient ruins?"

"The latest news indicates that the direct mortality rate is approximately 50%, but of the remaining 50%, more than 30% are still trapped in the ancient ruins. Only 20% have successfully escaped the ruins, but of those 20%, more than half were immediately swept back into the ruins and died again..."

As Zhao Hu answered Lin Yang's question, his expression also turned somewhat unpleasant.

That's what makes ancient ruins so terrifying.

Even if you successfully escape the ancient ruins, you may still be drawn back in, and there is no time limit for this.

Furthermore, the mist over the ancient ruins continues to linger, meaning that even if one manages to exit the ruins, the mist could easily pull them back in, creating a vicious cycle.

Lin Yang was at a loss for words.

The rules for recruiting people into the Ancient Ruins are completely unclear, and there is no time limit. In other words, the mechanism for recruiting people into the Ancient Ruins has no cooldown period.

Even if you get out, you can be immediately pulled back in, until you die in the ancient ruins someday.

This is what makes the ancient ruins so despairing.

Because no one can guarantee that they will live forever.

The only way is to stay as far away as possible and avoid getting involved in the ancient ruins.

Lin Yang didn't talk to Zhao Hu any longer.

Because after only a few words, both of them would get very upset.

Lin Yang continued to gather the information he wanted about the ancient ruins and spirit communication arrays within Xizhou City.

Although the system can unlock the corresponding information modules as long as one's cultivation level is raised to a sufficient level.

However, he was unsure at what level of upgrades would unlock those modules.

Moreover, improving one's cultivation level is too difficult, and the current situation is very critical. He wants to obtain as much information as possible as soon as possible.

Perhaps we can find some ways to increase our chances of survival after being caught up in the ancient ruins.

During this process, Lin Yang encountered Yu Qing again.

"Fellow Daoist Yu Qing?"

Lin Yang saw Yu Qing in a chamber of commerce that specialized in selling all kinds of information and intelligence.

When Yu Qing saw Lin Yang there, he couldn't help but smile: "Fellow Daoist Lin Yang, are you also here to gather intelligence?"

"Yes." Lin Yang nodded; there was no point in hiding it.

Yu Qing seemed to consider it for a moment, then suddenly said, "Fellow Daoist Lin Yang, how about we share the information we have?"

Lin Yang was slightly taken aback, but then said, "That would be the best!"

To be honest, Yu Qing was a bit hard to understand.

Previously in Xiwu City, Yu Qing traveled to and from Bixia City for trade all by himself.

In Xiwu City, Yu Qing also did not seem to have joined any family forces.

However, his cultivation level improved quite quickly.

When I first met Yu Qing, Yu Qing was in the late stage of Nirvana Realm.

He has now reached his peak, and there is even a faint trend of breaking through to the Supreme Yuan Realm.

Although on the surface, Lin Yang broke through to the peak from the mid-stage of Nirvana Realm in the same amount of time, which was faster than Yu Qing.

Lin Yang not only had a large amount of supplies obtained from the corpses in Baichi City, but also the support from the Zhao family, plus he was already close to breaking through to the late stage of Nirvana Realm.

In addition, he had almost no bottlenecks in his cultivation, which is why he reached the peak of the Nirvana Realm so quickly.

But no matter how you look at it, Yu Qing doesn't seem to have anything special about her.

There's nothing special about his physique.

Yet she was able to cultivate so quickly, which is enough to prove that Yu Qing is no ordinary person.

Of course, most importantly, there was a feeling about Yu Qing that Lin Yang couldn't quite put his finger on.

After all, as a rogue cultivator, even at the Nirvana Realm, one shouldn't have many resources.

But Yu Qing's performance was extraordinary.

Anyway, he felt that Yu Qing was an unusual person.

In addition, Yu Qing had saved him once before in the ancient ruins.

Therefore, Lin Yang is quite looking forward to Yu Qing's proposal to exchange intelligence.

Perhaps Yu Qing has more detailed information than he does.

The two arrived at a restaurant and ordered a private room.

Yu Qing was very efficient; as soon as he sat down, he tossed a jade slip to Lin Yang:
"Fellow Daoist Lin Yang, here is some information that I currently know."

Lin Yang was a little surprised: "You're giving it to me so readily? Aren't you worried I won't give it to you?"

Yu Qing smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. It's not some super secret anyway. Even if you don't give me the information you know, I won't lose much."

As he spoke, he looked at Lin Yang with a half-smile:

"Besides, I don't think Fellow Daoist Lin Yang is that kind of person."

Lin Yang didn't say anything upon hearing this, but smiled and took out the jade slip containing the information he had compiled and gave it to Yu Qing.

Then the two stopped talking and began to watch.

Before long, Yu Qing spoke again, smiling as she said:

"Fellow Daoist Lin Yang, it seems your methods of gathering intelligence are not very sophisticated. This information can basically be obtained by spending money. At most, it's just a matter of spending more money. I've suffered a small loss this time."

Lin Yang was a little embarrassed: "Ahem, judging from the information you gave me, Fellow Daoist Yu Qing, you really lost out this time. I did buy my information back in Xiwu City, but your information is much more detailed. I'm the one who benefited this time."

Yes, that's right.

The information recorded in the jade slip that Yu Qing gave him was clearly quite confidential and not something that could be easily obtained by spending money.

For example, some of the information about ancient times was something he had spent money on in Xiwu City but hadn't been able to obtain.

Yu Qing definitely suffered a loss in this intelligence exchange.

Yu Qing smiled and said, "Never mind, it doesn't matter. After all, it was my idea to exchange intelligence this time, so there's no question of who's at a disadvantage."

Lin Yang said seriously, "This time, I owe you another favor."

Yu Qing waved his hand: "Let's not talk about that. What are your plans next, Fellow Daoist Lin Yang?"

Lin Yang pondered for a moment and said, "Based on the information you provided, Fellow Daoist Yu Qing, our situation is not optimistic. It seems that there were precedents of large-scale spread of ancient ruins in ancient times. It seems that there is no better way than to hide at present."

Yu Qing said, "Theoretically, that's correct, but simply hiding isn't a solution. We can't run very far. Given the current spread of the ancient ruins, it's just a matter of time before we get caught up in it."

"What does Fellow Daoist Yu Qing mean?" Lin Yang's heart stirred, feeling that Yu Qing's words seemed to have a hidden meaning.

Yu Qing smiled slightly, but did not answer Lin Yang's question immediately. Instead, she asked, "Fellow Daoist Lin Yang, if I may ask, how many times can you currently use the teleportation array to leave?"

Lin Yang was taken aback, then his gaze sharpened slightly, and he said, "I don't quite understand what Fellow Daoist Yu Qing means." (End of this chapter)