Rise of the Wasteland in Cultivation

Leng San and Chen Xi returned to their original residence, packed their belongings, and then moved to their new home, a ten-square-meter container, five times larger than their old one, which also had a separate small bathroom.

That way, Chenxi won't have to squeeze into that smelly public toilet. This spendthrift girl has OCD, and maybe even autism. Leng San is worried that something might happen if she goes to the public toilet.

Ever since discovering Chenxi's purification abilities last night, Leng San has been treating her like a little princess, even willing to pay several times the rent to move into this independent container with a bathroom.

Of course, the ultimate goal of doing this is to make it easier for Leng San to cultivate.

Leng San roughly calculated the monthly cost of living and felt immense pressure. At this moment, Chen Xi had already opened the can of yellow peaches and was slowly chewing them with gusto. Her bright red little mouth smacked her lips, and she even took a small sip of Grade A clean water. Her movements were very elegant and pleasing to the eye.

But no matter how refined or pleasing to the eye it is, one bite costs several contribution points, which is painful!

"What a waste of money!" Leng San couldn't help but mutter to himself again, forcibly suppressing the urge to go forward and taste a yellow peach.

As the saying goes, it's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. Leng San worried that after trying it, he would never be able to drink those unpalatable synthetic nutritional supplements again. He already had a spendthrift daughter at home; if he were to become extravagant as well, life would be unbearable.

bang bang bang...

The container door was suddenly rudely knocked on. Leng San opened the peephole and saw that it was the buck-toothed scavenger. He didn't want to pay attention to him, but the latter kept knocking on the door, which was very annoying.

"Brother Bao, what's the matter?" Leng San opened the door, frowning and asking unhappily.

The buck-toothed man was stunned for a moment before he realized that this was the first time someone had called him that.

The buck-toothed man's gaze swept past Leng San, then swept over Chen Xi, who was eating canned yellow peaches. He couldn't help but swallow hard and said, "You're living a good life, aren't you? You're even eating canned fruit now, and you've moved to a bigger house."

"Is there something you need?" Leng San repeated impatiently.

The buck-toothed man sneered unhappily, "Our boss sent me to ask you if you'd like to join our Viper Scavenging Team. If you want to join—five hundred contribution points!"

"Will you give it to me?" Leng San asked back.

Bucktooth rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Are you dreaming? It's your joining fee for our Viper Squad. You gave our boss five hundred contribution points, understand?"

—Bang!

Leng Sanfen slammed the door shut. "Are you kidding me? You want to pay 500 contribution points to join your team? I don't know who's dreaming. I'm a Tier 1 Gene Enhancement Warrior now. I'm lucky to have joined you guys. And you still want to charge me a membership fee?"

Bucktooth, having been turned away, angrily cursed, "Leng San, don't be ungrateful! Countless people are eyeing you now. Joining our Viper Squad will at least save your life. If you don't join, you definitely won't survive three days. You'd better think it over!"

"Get lost," Leng San said casually through the peephole to Bucktooth.

Bucktooth could only leave grumbling. Back at his lodgings, he embellished the story and reported to their leader, Viper, "Boss, that kid Leng San is incredibly arrogant. He refused to join our team and even told you to get lost!"

Viper was around twenty-five years old. His eyes were strangely vertical, like those of a venomous snake, sending chills down one's spine. He stroked his chin and grinned maliciously, "That kid Leng San got cocky after picking up a few corpses. He doesn't even respect our Viper Squad?"

"Boss, what's the point of recruiting a weakling like Leng San into the team? I could strangle him with one hand. Let's just take care of him when he goes out, and save ourselves the trouble."

The speaker was a large, short man with a wide, horizontal build and a full beard; his nickname was Black Bear.

Besides Bucktooth and Black Bear, the Viper Scavenging Team has two other members, both female twins, around eighteen or nineteen years old. They weren't bad-looking to begin with, but one was blind in her left eye and the other in her right. Their names are also quite interesting: the older sister is called Zuo Dan (Left Single) and the younger sister is called You Dan (Right Single). They have dark makeup, act in a thuggish manner, and wear black eye patches, giving them the look of female hooligans.

The older sister, Zuo Dan, sneered, "Black Bear, what do you know? If we don't recruit that kid into our team, how are we going to squeeze all his contribution points out of him?"

"That's true!" the black bear muttered.

Originally, the Scavengers' Alliance would give each registered scavenger an IC card, similar to a bank card, with contribution points stored on the IC card. To use it, you just needed to swipe the card. However, it was later discovered that scavengers were killing and stealing IC cards from each other, and some even used hacking techniques to recharge their own cards with contribution points. So, the IC card was later canceled and replaced with biometric identification, which stopped this bad trend.

In addition, this has another advantage: when a scavenger dies, the remaining assets in his or her account can be directly transferred to the alliance, which is another considerable income.

Therefore, if Viper wants to get the contribution points from Leng San's account, it can only do so by getting Leng San to transfer the money voluntarily. Otherwise, even if it kills Leng San, it won't get the points and will only benefit the alliance.

The viper stroked its chin, its vertical pupils opening and closing like a lizard, but it was actually deep in thought.

He had thought that Leng San would join his team without hesitation, since life was more important than 500 contribution points, but he did not expect Leng San to be so tough and refuse directly. Could it be that this kid has something to rely on?

In fact, besides Viper, there were quite a few scavengers who wanted to rob Leng San at this time. Leng San was all alone, without any help, and carrying a large sum of money, making him an ideal target for robbery.

However, what no one knew was that in just one day, Leng San had spent all of his more than 1,000 contribution points, and now only a pitiful 30 contribution points remained in his account.

After settling Chenxi in, Leng San instructed her to stay in the camp and not wander off before shouldering his backpack and heading out to scavenge. Given the current cost of living, he had to work incredibly hard; otherwise, he simply couldn't afford to support that little darling.

As soon as Leng San stepped out of the camp gate, he saw a number of scavengers lingering there, all casting ill-intentioned glances at him.

Clearly, these scavengers were all waiting for Leng San, this "fat sheep," to appear. Some even openly grinned maliciously, saying, "Look everyone, who's here? What a plump lamb!"

The scavengers around them immediately burst into arrogant laughter, including the two brothers riding the Jialing motorcycle.

These brothers were notorious thugs at Camp C-361, reportedly having slaughtered five scavenging squads. That's how they earned their Jialing motorcycle.

"Leng San, our boss is calling you!" Bucktooth waved to Leng San smugly.

Leng San frowned slightly and walked up to Viper, who was now wearing sunglasses that concealed his eerie vertical pupils.

"Little San, it's quite dangerous for you to be alone right now. How about joining my Viper Scavenging Team? I'll protect you from now on, and I guarantee no one will dare to touch you!" Viper smiled and reached out to pat Leng San's shoulder.

Leng San slightly shifted his body to the side, dodging Viper's hand, and shook his head, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, Brother Snake, but I think it's fine to be alone."

Viper had assumed that under such pressure, and since he hadn't mentioned an entry fee, Leng San would readily agree to join. He was surprised that Leng San still refused, and feeling embarrassed, he removed his sunglasses, revealing his snake-like vertical pupils, and sneered, "Young man, don't get too cocky. One person may walk fast, but a group can go far. Do you know the consequences of leaving this camp today?"

Leng San didn't answer, but simply walked away. If it weren't for Chen Xi, he would have considered joining, but now, cultivation was naturally the priority. Joining the scavenging team would mean being somewhat constrained by his teammates, making cultivation inconvenient.

Viper flew into a rage and cursed, "Damn it, you're asking for it! If you manage to return to camp alive before sunset today, I, Viper, will twist my own head off."

Leng San frowned and said, "It's not worth it. Snake Brother should keep his head and eat."

"Hey, this kid's too arrogant." Black Bear roared like a bear, "Boss, I'll tear him apart right now." He was about to pounce on him.

Just then, a stern warning blared from the loudspeaker on the camp's watchtower: "Warning! No disturbances within 100 meters of the camp! Warning! No disturbances within 100 meters of the camp! Violators will be killed without mercy!"

As soon as he finished speaking, several heavy machine guns mounted on the watchtower automatically turned, their dark muzzles aimed at the scavengers in front of the camp gate.

The black bear felt a chill run down its spine and froze in place, too afraid to move.

Viper warned menacingly, "Listen up, everyone! Leng San is from my Viper team. Nobody's allowed to touch him. Anyone who does is going against Viper!"

Viper's words were not meant to protect Leng San, but rather to threaten the other scavengers. Leng San was his prey, and only he could touch him, not the others.

Wow, that's incredibly domineering!

However, the Viper Scavenging Team does have the right to be domineering; their strength ranks among the top five in Camp C-361.

So when Viper said that, most of the scavengers left silently. Even the Jialing motorcycle brothers sneered, twisted the throttle, and drove off.

A smug glint flashed across Viper's face as he sneered, "Leng San, this is your last chance. Either join Viper's team, or be hunted down by Viper's team!"

A cold glint flashed in Leng San's eyes, and a murderous intent arose in his heart. In the world of cultivation, he was a powerful overlord at the Great Perfection of the Golden Core stage; when had he ever been threatened by such a wretched snake?

Since you're courting death, then I'll grant your wish. It'll serve as a warning to others, so the other scavengers won't keep causing trouble!

Watching Leng San walk away without looking back, Viper was almost furious. His vertical pupils narrowed into slits, truly as venomous as a snake!

"If you won't listen to reason, you'll have to suffer the consequences. Everyone grab your weapons, but don't kill him all at once. I'm going to torture this kid to death today!" Viper snarled.

"Hehe, I like it!" The one-eyed twin sisters licked their dark lips and said almost in unison, their eyes filled with a perverse excitement.