Rise of the Wasteland in Cultivation

Deep in the ocean, at the headquarters of Wanhua Gene Group.

The bald, slovenly old man roared angrily, "Useless! Two superhumans couldn't even catch a scavenger! Look at what she brought back! Rotten tomatoes, rotten potatoes, rotten carrots... everything's rotten, soaked in acid rain, the cells are completely lifeless, utterly worthless for research!"

The blonde, blue-eyed secretary said helplessly, "Doctor, please calm down. Something unexpected happened. They encountered a powerful armored zombie, and one of them was killed."

The bald, slovenly old man coldly said, "That's no excuse. Failure to complete the mission is failure to complete the mission, and punishment is necessary. Bring her in; I need a superhuman for human experimentation, so she'll do!"

The blonde secretary hesitated, "Isn't that a bad idea? Jiang Qin is a B-level ability user. The doctor needs to conduct human experiments. We can find a D-level ability user to do it. Even if an accident happens, the loss won't be too great."

The bald, slovenly old man said coldly, "Enough nonsense. What I need is a B-level ability user; a D-level user isn't qualified."

"Maybe we should ask the boss..."

The bald, slovenly old man roared, "What the hell are you asking? Even if I wanted an A-level ability user to do my experiments, he'd have to obediently send him over."

The blonde secretary had no choice but to say, "Alright, Doctor, please wait a moment." Then she walked toward the shielded door of the laboratory.

"Wait a minute!" The bald, slovenly old man called out to the blonde female secretary, shouting, "I don't care what methods you use, you must bring that scavenger boy here to see me. I need to obtain his technology for growing crops in the Gray Zone."

The blonde secretary smiled and said, "Don't worry, Doctor. Leng San's facial recognition data has been sent to branch offices all over the country. As soon as that scavenging boy appears in the public eye, he will be found very quickly."

The bald, slovenly old man's expression softened slightly, and he waved his hand, saying, "Go and call that B-level ability user in."

The blonde secretary passed through ten security gates before leaving the laboratory area. She immediately dialed a number labeled "Boss" using her smartwatch, and a deep, magnetic male voice came through: "What is it?"

"The doctor wants to use Jiang Qin, a B-level ability user, for human experiments," the blonde female secretary whispered.

"Say yes." The man said only three words before hanging up.

The blonde secretary shrugged and walked straight to Sister Qin, who was waiting in the lobby. Sister Qin was clearly a little uneasy and asked, "Lady Alice, what did the Doctor say?"

The blonde secretary shook her head and said, "Unfortunately, you messed up the mission this time. None of the samples are usable and have no research value. The doctor is very angry. So you have to be punished. Go find the doctor and accept your punishment."

Sister Qin trembled, a look of fear appearing on her face, and pleaded, "Lady Alice, could you please intercede for me?"

The blonde secretary said helplessly, "I've already pleaded for you and consulted the boss, but it's no use, so... don't even think about resisting."

Upon hearing this, Sister Qin trembled even more violently, her face turning deathly pale. The blonde secretary comforted her, "Don't be nervous. Although the doctor's experiments occasionally fail, overall the success rate is quite high. Go ahead, perhaps you'll find it a blessing in disguise?"

Sister Qin could only walk helplessly toward the laboratory's shielded door; who knew what that damned old madman was going to do to her now.

…………

There are no seasons in this fragmented space, and the temperature remains consistently around 25 or 26 degrees Celsius. Time seems to stand still. If it weren't for the daily sunrise and sunset, and the alternation of night and day, you wouldn't even feel the passage of time.

Leng San initially searched for an exit from this space, but to no avail. Eventually, he gave up and focused solely on cultivation each day. During the day, he cultivated the "Thunder God Technique" in the small world, and at night, he entered the spiritual world of dawn to cultivate his divine sense.

Such days are undoubtedly extremely dull and tedious. Seeking immortality and cultivating the Dao is a long and arduous process, and it is inherently a very boring thing.

Fortunately, Chenxi was used to being alone since she was a child. She never disturbed Leng San when he was cultivating. She would tend to the crops every day, and when she was tired, she would go back to Leng San's side to lie down for a while and stare blankly at the blue sky and white clouds.

To the young girl, such days were peaceful and happy, at least she had someone by her side. Especially in the oppressive and eerie mental world, with Leng San by her side, she could sleep soundly.

As the saying goes, time flies when one is cultivating in the mountains; a thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye. Unbeknownst to him, Leng San had already been cultivating in the small world for two full years.

One day, a sudden gust of wind swept through the small world, causing the tall corn to sway violently. Chenxi, who was picking corn, turned around in surprise and looked at Leng San, who was meditating by the pond.

In the past two years, Chenxi has grown much taller and is now a graceful twelve-year-old girl. Her skin is still as delicate as if carved from jade, and her bright red lips are like peach blossoms in March. Her dark eyes and eyebrows are like beautiful crescent moons.

By the way, Chenxi's eyesight has fully recovered after three months of rest. It was indeed temporary blindness caused by overuse of mental energy.

At this moment, the spiritual energy in the small world surged wildly toward Leng San, as if a strong wind had risen.

There was no way around it; the area of ​​this small world was simply too small. Leng San had only broken through to the third level of Qi Refining, yet it had already caused such a huge commotion.

At this moment, in Leng San's spiritual sea, spiritual energy was surging and constantly washing over and tempering his body and meridians, while expelling impurities from his body.

After circulating his spiritual energy through his body for eighty-one cycles, he finally regained his composure. His spiritual sea and meridians expanded by a factor of two, and his physical strength increased once again. At this moment, Leng San's cultivation officially entered the third level of Qi Refining.

Previously, Leng San spent about a year breaking through the first and second levels of Qi Refining. This time, it took him two years to break through to the third level of Qi Refining, which seems to have taken even longer.

This is perfectly normal. As the level increases, the time required to break through each level also increases, sometimes exponentially.

Leng San was able to break through from the second to the third level of Qi Refining in two years, which is already thanks to the small world. If he had relied solely on the spiritual energy purified from Chen Xi, it would probably have taken more than twice as long.

At this moment, Leng San did not open his eyes, but he could clearly "see" the fish swimming in the pond, and even a small ant hiding in the grass. The feeling was extremely mysterious.

That's right, Leng San's divine sense can now be projected outwards. Within a radius of ten meters, as long as he sweeps across with his divine sense, everything is reflected in his mind, and it is even clearer than seeing with his eyes.

Normally, cultivators can only release their divine sense when they reach the fourth level of Qi Refining, but Leng San's spiritual power is significantly stronger than that of cultivators of the same level, so he can release his divine sense at the third level of Qi Refining.

This is all thanks to the extra practice he did every night in the spiritual world of dawn. As the saying goes, you reap what you sow, and Leng San's extra practice has yielded the rewards he deserves.

At this moment, a graceful young girl appeared within the range of Leng San's divine sense scan. He opened his eyes and immediately saw the girl with a joyful expression, bright eyes, and a charming appearance, like a little fairy.

Oh, it was only then that Leng Sancai suddenly realized that the little girl had grown taller and her clothes were no longer suitable. The skirt, which had almost dragged on the ground, was now revealing half of her fair legs.

"—Brother!" Chenxi ran over happily, holding a handful of corn, and called out sweetly.

She sensed Leng San's advancement in cultivation immediately, because her inner world had already reacted in advance.

The lone lamp shone brighter, illuminating an even wider area, and the sapling—let's call it the Tree of Life—grew two inches taller, constantly releasing glimmers of life.

As a result, Chenxi's purification ability became significantly stronger, and she was able to release more spiritual energy.

At this moment, Chenxi was naturally very happy, and the little girl was used to giving Leng San a warm hug when she was happy.

Well, she has never been able to break this habit. Leng San has tried to correct her many times but failed. Moreover, every time she tries to correct her, the little girl gets upset and ignores everyone until Leng San gives her a hug, at which point she becomes happy again.

At this moment, after hugging Leng San, the little girl pointed to the corn on the ground.

Leng San laughed and said, "Okay, I'll grill it for you right away."

The little girl immediately ran to pick two big, red tomatoes, washed them clean with water from the pond, and then gave them to Leng San.

This little girl has come up with a new way to eat; she dips grilled corn in ketchup.

Soon, Leng San found a pile of dry firewood, made a hand seal, snapped his fingers, and an arc of electricity appeared out of thin air, striking the pile of firewood with a crack, and the firewood immediately burst into flames.

This is the basic lightning spell – Arc Lightning.