Rise of the Wasteland in Cultivation

On the morning of July 6th, in Wasteland Calendar Year 21, Leng San shouldered his backpack and prepared to set off to scavenge. He didn't throw away his old woven bag; he folded it up and stuffed it into his backpack. This thing had a large capacity and was very useful for carrying small items.

As Leng San straddled the Jialing motorcycle, Chenxi reached out her little hand and grabbed the rear rack. Leng San said somewhat helplessly, "Let's stay home. It's inconvenient to have you with me."

Chenxi remained unmoved, still holding onto the rear rack of the cart. Leng San had no choice but to back down, saying, "I'll scout the route first today, and then I'll take you next time."

Chenxi closed her eyes.

What do you mean? You don't want it?

Leng Sanzheng was a little confused. Chenxi opened her eyes and looked at him, then closed them again, seemingly a little anxious.

Leng San suddenly realized, and reached out to affectionately touch Chen Xi's delicate and fair forehead. Only then did the latter smile broadly, and her eyes curved into beautiful crescent moons.

A ray of sunshine seemed to shine into Leng San's heart. He smiled and said, "Stay at home and be a good boy. Don't run around. I'll buy you something delicious when I get back." After saying that, he started the engine, twisted the accelerator, and drove out of the camp gate.

"That kid Leng San has finally gone out to scavenge. He actually managed to stay in the camp for three months without leaving."

"Hehe, if you had a beauty like Chenxi hidden in your house, I'm afraid you wouldn't want to go out."

"Bullshit, that can't fill your stomach. You're always thinking about those low-class, pathetic things. You're so pathetic."

The scavengers watched Leng San speed away, feeling both jealous and wary, and couldn't help but whisper among themselves.

The lion naturally paid no heed to the sounds of ants, and Leng San drove his Jialing motorcycle straight onto the ring expressway.

In the past, he wouldn't have taken this route because it was too far. Now that he has a motorcycle, he might as well take a longer route. After all, the area within dozens of miles has been frequently visited by scavengers, making it difficult to find valuable supplies. If he wants to get a good harvest, he has to go to a more distant place to search.

Before Leng San closed down, it was right between spring and summer. Now it is early autumn, but Shenzhen is located on the southern coast, and the weather is still scorching hot.

Driving on the overpass, the wind blows in your face, and abandoned vehicles can be seen everywhere on the road. Most of them are just iron frames, and any useful parts have been taken apart by scavengers.

Leng San nimbly weaved through the abandoned vehicles. Occasionally, he would encounter a few lone zombies, but he would simply speed past them, too lazy to waste his energy and time to eliminate them.

After driving for about fifty kilometers, Leng San finally exited the highway. In front of him was a dense cluster of buildings, with no office buildings, only self-built houses of ten stories or less, which he guessed used to be an urban village.

Leng San slowly rode his motorcycle into the village. All the trees lining the road were withered and dead, not a single patch of green to be seen. Apart from the sputtering of the motorcycle engine, there was a deathly silence all around. The entire village seemed to have existed in solitude for tens of thousands of years, so desolate that it was suffocating.

However, the dense array of shops lining both sides of the street silently testifies to the area's former prosperity. Urban villages—the preferred place of refuge for 996 workers!

Leng San first drove around the village to make sure there were no major threats before parking and turning off the engine in front of an eight-story building, intending to try his luck by scanning the building.

It's clear that the ground floor of this building houses a hair salon, and next door is a foot massage parlor, with the sign "Xinxin Foot Massage" still faintly discernible. A blurry photo of a scantily clad female model serving customers foot baths is pasted on the glass door, accompanied by the following text: "Trees have roots, people have feet; deep roots make lush foliage, healthy feet lead to longevity. Xinxin Foot Massage, pampering your feet." Below that, inconspicuous small print reads: "This shop offers root bath services!"

At that moment, a zombie dressed in a suit staggered out of the foot massage parlor. It wasn't wearing shoes, and the rotting flesh on its feet had peeled off, revealing the bones.

Leng San pulled out his dagger and flicked it casually. The dagger pierced the zombie's forehead with lightning speed, and the zombie instantly collapsed to the ground as if it had been electrocuted.

With Leng San's current strength, he's not even afraid of mutated zombies, so killing ordinary zombies like this is a piece of cake.

Leng San retrieved the dagger, wiped it clean, and went inside the foot massage parlor to search it. Unfortunately, he found nothing; miscellaneous items were scattered everywhere, suggesting that scavengers had already visited the place. So, Leng San decided not to waste any more time and immediately drove away from the urban village, heading towards a nearby industrial park.

The industrial park in front of us is quite large. I estimate that most of the migrant workers from the former urban villages now work in this industrial park.

The security booth at the entrance of the industrial park had long since rotted and collapsed, with only the barrier gate still stubbornly standing.

Leng San drove straight around the barrier and into the park. At that moment, the watch on his wrist emitted a sharp alarm.

Leng San frowned. The nuclear radiation here was actually above the standard. He quickly glanced down at his watch and found that the display was red, but the level of radiation was not too high, only 120 millisieverts.

After the nuclear war, humans have generally adapted to the radiation environment. As long as the radiation level does not exceed 100 millisieverts, they can survive normally. However, if the level exceeds this value, they will experience discomfort.

Leng San was about to drive away, but then he thought that since the nuclear radiation here was too high, other scavengers would definitely not dare to enter. Who knows, he might be able to find a lot of high-value supplies inside.

With this in mind, Leng San changed his mind and continued driving into the park. He was a level two gene-enhanced warrior, so he could withstand this amount of radiation. Moreover, he was a cultivator at the first level of Qi Refining. At worst, he could expel the radiation absorbed by his body when he reached the second level of Qi Refining.

However, after entering the park, Leng San realized that he had been somewhat presumptuous. Before he had gone far, he encountered the skeletons of seven or eight scavengers, some of whom were wearing radiation protection suits, indicating that they had come prepared.

Clearly, these people shared Leng San's thinking: that the radiation levels here were too high and no scavengers would dare to come, so they all risked coming in to pan for gold, only to lose their lives here.

Why did these guys all die here? This dose of radiation shouldn't have killed them all immediately; at most, it would have increased their risk of cancer, and some of them were even wearing radiation protection suits.

This was clearly abnormal, and Leng San immediately became cautious. Although he was not afraid of this excessive radiation, he still took off the radiation protection suit from a skeleton and put it on himself, just in case.

Fortunately, the radiation levels here seemed quite stable, remaining around 120 millisieverts with minimal fluctuations. Leng San drove his Jialing motorcycle to a building, turned off the engine, and planned to search from there.

The automatic glass door to the lobby on the first floor was shattered. Leng San walked straight in, and a horrifying scene immediately came into view. Scattered bones were piled up like a small mountain on the floor, some of them still fresh and showing signs of being gnawed.

The area was littered with guns, grenades, daggers, machetes, and even a rocket launcher and a light machine gun. These weapons alone were probably worth tens of thousands of contribution points.

However, Leng San was not excited by this. Instead, he cautiously drew his Desert Eagle and listened carefully to the sounds around him. If he was not mistaken, this place should have been occupied by a mutated beast as its lair, and this beast was not weak. The scavengers who entered this place had all become its food.

Leng San's hearing was already exceptionally developed, and after the second-level gene enhancement, his hearing became even more sensitive. Yesterday, he broke through the first level of Qi Refining, and his hearing was enhanced again. Now, even the slightest sound within a hundred-meter radius cannot escape his ears.

The sound of breathing!

Leng San listened carefully for a while and finally caught the sound of breathing. It should be coming from the sixth floor, and there were two breathing sounds, which meant that there might be two mutated beasts.

As Leng San hesitated, the even breathing sounds upstairs suddenly stopped. Then, a rapid clattering sound came from the stairs. Clearly, the mutated beast upstairs had woken up and was rushing up the stairs at an astonishing speed, reaching the second floor in the blink of an eye.

Leng San was taken aback. This speed was too fast. Even a level two gene-enhanced warrior probably couldn't outrun it. Wild beasts naturally have an advantage over humans in running speed.

Since we can't run away, let's fight!

A flash of red light appeared before my eyes, and two... no, it should be one, because the monster had two heads, but only one body. It was neither dog nor wolf, with a mouth full of fangs, no hair, only disgusting tumors and slime. Let's call it a mutated two-headed dog for now.

The mutated two-headed dog was frighteningly fast, leaping more than ten meters in a single bound, and pounced directly on Leng San from the stairs. Disgusting saliva seeped from its mouthful of fangs, dripping down in a stream.

boom……

Leng San raised his hand and fired a shot, instantly shattering one of the mutated two-headed dogs' heads, sending blood and flesh flying as it fell from the sky. The remaining two-headed dog tried to escape, but Leng San instantly shot off the other head, leaving it completely still.

That's it?

Leng San was a little surprised. This mutated two-headed dog looked quite scary, but apart from being a little fast, its strength seemed to be just so-so. No matter how fast you are, you can't outrun a bullet.

Of course, this only applies to a level-two genetically enhanced warrior like Leng San. If an ordinary scavenger were to encounter a mutated two-headed dog alone, he would probably be bitten to death before he could even fire a shot.

This mutated two-headed dog was covered in tumors and slime; it was disgusting. Leng San didn't dare to eat its flesh, so after killing it, he didn't look at it again and began to collect his spoils.

The ground was littered with weapons; countless scavengers had died here, and now they all benefited Leng San.

Leng San packed the smaller weapons into his backpack and the larger ones into a woven bag, filling the whole bag to the brim. This trip was definitely worth it!

After collecting all the weapons, Leng San continued his sweep of the buildings.