Rise of the Wasteland in Cultivation

Since Camp C-361 had been destroyed by the zombie horde, the streets near the ruins were silent in the early morning after the acid rain, and there was no sign of any scavengers.

At the site of last night's lightning strike, the tall, armored corpse still lay there, though it had been corroded beyond recognition by the acid rain. It seemed that even the most powerful bone armor could not withstand the corrosive chemicals.

Well, if this is considered a weakness, then it is indeed a weakness of the armored corpse, and also a weakness of almost all metals.

At that moment, two figures appeared on the street, both wearing black cloaks. They were the two Church of Light Punishers who had escaped the previous night.

Seeing that the powerful armored corpse had been killed, the two Punishers were clearly shocked and puzzled.

The liquid-like being crouched down and carefully examined the armored corpse. He noticed the fatal wound was the hole through the skull and exclaimed in surprise, "Huh, what weapon caused this?"

At this moment, the bronze figure also squatted down, stretched out a finger to touch the hole on the top of the armored corpse's head, brought it to his nose and smelled it, and said, "It doesn't look like a firearm."

The liquid man shook his head and said, "It's definitely not a firearm. Ordinary firearms can't break through the armored corpse's defenses at all. Hmm, there's a smell of burning. Could it have been struck by lightning? The lightning last night was a bit scary."

"If he was struck by lightning, the wounds shouldn't look like this," the bronze man said, refuting the liquid man's claim.

The liquid man said solemnly, "Could it be that Saintess Number Seven, besides awakening the ability of mind manipulation, has also awakened other powerful abilities?"

The bronze figure nodded and said, "Possibly, but these aren't the supernatural abilities His Holiness the Pope desires. A saintess should possess the ability to save all living beings, not this kind of destructive power. Only then can she be considered a true saintess and earn the worship of believers. As for that boy named Leng San, he can conjure plants out of thin air... if..."

"That's not a superpower, and those green vines aren't physical entities, but some kind of energy body." The liquid man immediately denied it. He had observed carefully that every time Leng San released the green vines, he would first throw out a piece of yellow paper, and the green vines that were conjured would disappear after being broken, leaving no physical object on the ground. It was obviously just an energy body.

The bronze figure nodded and said, "No matter what, we must find the Seventh Holy Maiden and that scavenging boy. When the Fourth Elder took the Seventh Holy Maiden away, she must have seen that the Seventh Holy Maiden was different from others. Moreover, she entrusted the Seventh Holy Maiden to that boy's care. I wonder what her intention was."

The liquid man hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, "It is said that before the Fourth Elder left, he had a fierce argument with His Holiness the Pope."

The bronze figure's expression darkened. "We only need to obey His Holiness the Pope's orders. Don't make unfounded accusations or meddle in other people's business!"

The liquid-like man hesitated, then the bronze man frowned and asked, "Yi Hua, did you see something last night?"

Yi Hua was the name of the liquid man. He stammered, "No...no."

"Really not? Last night when it was raining and thundering, you clearly left the building where we were hiding. With your liquefaction ability, you're not afraid of acid rain. You must have come back here to spy." The bronze man coldly questioned.

Faced with the bronze statue's serious gaze, Yi Hua had no choice but to reply, "Alright, I did see some things, very strange things, which I still don't understand."

"What strange thing? Tell me, stop keeping me in suspense!" the bronze figure urged impatiently, half of its face turning golden yellow, showing a faint tendency to become metallic.

Yi Hua whispered, "Gu Tong, I'm only telling you this, but you can't tell anyone else."

Gu Tong was the name of the bronze statue. He frowned and said, "This concerns the Holy Maiden, how could I not tell others? Tell me, what exactly did you see?"

The liquid man had no choice but to reveal what he had witnessed the previous night.

It turns out that shortly after the liquid man rescued the bronze man last night, acid rain suddenly started falling. Due to his special abilities, the liquid man was not afraid of acid rain, but the bronze man was, so the liquid man took the bronze man into a ruined building for shelter.

At this moment, thunder rumbled continuously, and bolts of lightning struck down from the clouds, all seemingly hitting the same spot—the very spot where they had just fought the armored corpse.

Naturally curious, the liquid man secretly slipped out while the bronze man was still recovering from his injuries, turning into a puddle of liquid and quietly sneaking back to the street where he had fought the armored corpse.

Just then, they witnessed the Golden Thunderwood attracting the heavenly lightning. Immediately afterward, the space was cleaved open by the powerful energy of the lightning, and the strange piece of wood, along with Leng San and Chen Xi inside the light shield, fell into the crack and disappeared.

The moment the crack opened, the liquid man clearly saw some green plants, and immediately realized that there might be a spatial interlayer here, because the temple of the Church of Light was located in a magical spatial interlayer, forming its own little world.

There is no nuclear radiation pollution in the small world. It has green mountains and clear waters and a pleasant climate. All those who did not believe in the Church of Light will eventually become fanatical believers of the Church of Light if they are fortunate enough to enter the small world where the temple is located.

Originally, neither the liquid humans nor the bronze men believed that the Church of Light could save this wasteland. However, after entering the temple once, they changed their minds, voluntarily joined the Church of Light, and became its henchmen—the Punishers.

However, after seeing Leng San and Saintess No. 7 fall into a small world, the liquid man's greed clearly overcame his faith. He wanted to possess this small world, so he pretended not to know and tried to keep it a secret.

However, the bronze man was not stupid. He noticed the anomaly and pointed out that the liquid man had secretly left the night before, and pressed him for answers.

Knowing he couldn't hide it any longer, the liquid man had no choice but to tell the truth. Fortunately, he and the bronze man were old partners and had a good relationship, so after recounting what he had seen and heard the previous night, he whispered, "Gu Tong, we can share this little world together. If we tell the church, we definitely won't get a share. Besides, that strange piece of wood is probably a remarkable treasure."

Gu Tong's expression changed, clearly showing that he was also tempted. In this post-apocalyptic wasteland, owning a small world would allow him to become a powerful ruler, the only one worthy of respect.

Gu Tong struggled internally for a moment, but in the end, greed triumphed over "faith." He said in a deep voice, "If the bishop asks about the whereabouts of Saintess Number Seven, how should we answer?"

Seeing that Gu Tong agreed to his suggestion, Yi Hua replied, "That's simple. You and I are no match for the armored corpses, so we have to flee. When we return, we will find that the armored corpses have been killed, and the Seventh Saintess and the scavenging boy have disappeared without a trace."

Gu Tong nodded and said, "That makes sense. If we tell the whole story and only hide the fact that there's a spatial interlayer, it seems like there are no loopholes at all."

Yi Hua smiled and said, "That's right. We'll find a way to enter the spatial interlayer and control that kid and the saintess. Then we'll have this small world."

Upon hearing this, Gu Tong felt a surge of emotion and cut off the head of the armored corpse as evidence, intending to take it back to report to the bishop.

…………

Meanwhile, Ye Wenrou and the others left Camp C-361 and drove a pickup truck, spending half a day to finally arrive at Camp C-444, located by the sea.

Although the bespectacled "dream thief" was killed by Leng San in his sleep last time, Camp C-444 remained as deserted as ever. The magnetic field here was abnormal, and people living here were prone to dreaming, so scavengers were unwilling to live here.

After Bi Lang and the others entered Camp C-444, Ye Wenrou went straight to the check-in counter. The staff member in charge of check-in had been replaced by a plump middle-aged woman.

"Big sister, is there a young man named Leng San who has checked in here with a little girl named Chen Xi?" Ye Wenrou asked as soon as she spoke.

The plump woman answered very decisively, "No!"

"We are friends," Ye Wenrou added.

"I don't care if you're friends or enemies. I said I don't have any, and that's it. Do you want to check in or not? Don't waste my time." The plump aunt seemed to be in a bad mood; it was unclear whether she was going through menopause or had started her period.

Just as Ye Wenrou was about to explode, Bi Lang reminded her, "Wenrou, the mistress couldn't possibly have gotten ahead of us. She'll probably join us here later."

Ye Wenrou thought about it and realized that if Xiao San was riding a Jialing motorcycle, it would be impossible for her to get through the dense horde of corpses. She must have broken through by some other means.

Ye Wenrou clearly had great confidence in Leng San, firmly believing that Leng San was still alive. However, Bi Lang and Zhou Chen were not optimistic, but in order to be considerate of Ye Wenrou's feelings, they deliberately did not mention the worst possible outcome.

So everyone rented rooms and settled down temporarily at Camp C-444.