The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 96 Number One is Hard to Find

"No, that's impossible. No one has ever sold a number less than twenty years old. No amount of money could buy immortality!"

"Then forget it. I'd rather die than wait twenty years."

Daji said, "You can buy an account first and come back in twenty years."

“Guest, this won’t do. Once you leave here, the number will be gone.”

"Isn't registering a number just about registering a name or biometric characteristics?"

"Yes and no. After registration or change of registration, you still have to show up in Qiongshan once a day to confirm."

Where is Qiongshan?

The waiter exclaimed in surprise, "You come here and don't even know where Qiongshan is? The place you're standing right here is called Qiongshan?"

"What? Isn't this place called Changxi?"

"Oh my god! That was decades ago, and this place has long been renamed Qiongshan. Where are you from?"
Didn't you see the ethereal mist that enveloped us when you came, making it seem like we were in a fairyland?
"That's right, calling it Changxi again would be inappropriate."

"Of course it's inappropriate, and the Changxi River has long since dried up and become a main road."

Yu Qing asked, "Is the fog this thick here every day now?"

"Since the Sixth World War, it has been the same every day of the year, 360 days a year. It has never changed, whether it is sunny or rainy."

"I'm curious, where did this fog come from? And even the Changxi River has dried up; there's no water source here."

"Who knows? After World War Six, purple fog first appeared over Qiongshan, then white fog appeared, and it grew more and more, lingering all day long. Eventually, it spread to the surrounding areas, growing larger and larger, expanding from inside the city to outside the city, accumulating more and more."

The waiter's explanation cleared up most of his doubts about the "Changxi Crater." Apparently, the water in the crater flowed into fissures deep in the earth's crust, where it was vaporized by the high-temperature lava and emerged from one of the openings here.

Ironically, the Long Creek crater, originally created to destroy life here, instead produces dense fog, becoming a banner for promoting immortality.

The number of people who come here seeking immortality far exceeds Yu Qing's imagination. The waiters even claimed that a quarter of the world's population comes here in search of a path to immortality.

Of course, the waiter's words may not be credible and are likely exaggerated or untrue. But Qiongshan may indeed have successfully attracted the curiosity and longing of most people on Earth.
To be fair, Yu Qing was one of them. He admitted he was a little itchy to join in.

After finishing his meal absentmindedly, Yu Qing had already decided to stay there for a few days.

Meanwhile, Yao Dan and the others were still on their way to meet them. During the wait, Yu Qing decided to learn more about life here. He told Daji and the others to wait in the car, while he took Chang'e to experience the medicinal bath again.

Humanoid beauties were, of course, not allowed to enter, so Chang'e waited outside. After entering the bathhouse, Yu Qing was basically convinced that a quarter of all life on Earth had come to Qiongshan.

Yu Qing originally wanted a private room to enjoy some peace and quiet. However, the waitress, a humanoid woman, shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, we don't have that kind of room." Yu Qing said, "Then what's the best spot? One where there aren't too many people."

"Then it's only VIP."

So Yu Qing bought a VIP seat. Little did he know that the so-called VIP treatment meant simply standing face-to-face with a bunch of monsters in a pool. The density was truly terrifying.

As for the regular seating area, you'd never guess—it's basically standing in baskets suspended above the bath. Is this supposed to be a medicinal bath? You just get to smell the steam from the medicinal broth.

Yu Qing stood motionless in the pool, with a bunch of hanging baskets swaying above him, and beads of sweat from the people inside dripping onto him from time to time.

But there's no other way. People who are queuing up here to seek immortality need to find a place that can prolong their lives, so that they don't end up kicking the bucket after they've been called.

Yu Qing regretted it less than two minutes after entering the pool. Soaking in the so-called medicinal soup, so close to all sorts of strangely shaped people, he even felt like he was a piece of meat being cooked in a large pot.

He thought to himself, "I've become a piece of meat that jumped into the pot to be eaten, damn it."

What disgusted and embarrassed him even more was that several burly men were extremely excited, and some parts of their bodies were shamelessly bulging.
Beside Yu Qing were several emaciated old men who could barely stand and were only kept from collapsing by those around them. They were probably the ones most eager to get their turn in line and achieve immortality as soon as possible.

But one of the old men fainted. Someone nearby checked his breathing and exclaimed, "He's dead!"

Then several humanoid figures squeezed in, lifted him on their heads, and carried him out.

An elderly man standing next to him said with a sob in his voice, "He was so pitiful. He had been queuing here for fifty-three years, and it was only nine days until it was his turn. I never thought he would die like this!"

Another elderly man proudly said, "My number will be called in five days. It's finally my turn!"

Another elderly man sighed, "I still have about half a year to go. I've been forgetting things lately, and I'm afraid I won't remember this by then. You must remind me from time to time."

"Yeah, you really have to hold on, don't let that damn humanoid carry you out."

In such an environment, it's hard not to feel a strong desire: that more people on Earth die quickly. Of course, it's only fellow Daoists who die, not this humble Daoist, for this humble Daoist seeks immortality.

But Yu Qing's trip to the medicinal bath wasn't in vain. He overheard many interesting stories and anecdotes about Qiongshan from the people around him. There was a fifty-two-year-old man here who had come seeking the elixir of immortality since he was three years old. Over the years, he had lived off the money he earned when he was twelve by selling the number he had taken in line for.

This piqued Yu Qing's keen interest in Yunxian Pavilion. He really wanted to see what kind of place it was that was worth waiting for nearly a century.

What fascinated Yu Qing even more was the rumor that Yunxian Pavilion housed a hundred of the most beautiful women in the world. What did this have to do with the elixir of immortality? Were those pills made one by one by their jade-like hands?

This might be a deceptive trap deliberately set by Yunxian Pavilion. But you have to admire how their strategy worked. There's no shortage of naive people in this world.
Everyone who has no worries about food, clothing, and shelter will obediently fall into that bewitching trap. Even if you tell him it's a bewitching trap, he won't believe you and will think you're trying to trick him into making way for you.

(End of this chapter)