Epoch of Twilight

After walking for half an hour in the morning, the ground started to get wet. There were lakes and streams everywhere in this area and even more puddles that were merged together. They continued to walk for another ten minutes, even when the ground started to become even more damp, as many places had been diffused with water.

The abundance of water had also helped the plants to grow extraordinarily strong.

Other than the sky-high trees, even the water plants on the ground had grown two to three meters in height. When they walked inside, it was difficult for them to find their bearings.

Inside these plants, there were poisonous snakes and insects everywhere, thus Luo Yuan never had the chance to stop attacking along the way.

These only posed a little inconvenience, but what was more troublesome was the groups of mutated insects with long sharp needles that occupied a radius of several kilometers of the road, darting about.

The mutated insects were about the size of a disc, and were only at a dark blue level. However, they moved in swarms and were connected like bees. If he killed one of them, he had to face an overwhelming attack from the entire army of insects.

Although it was not threatening enough to Luo Yuan, he felt disgusted to deal with them.

Of course, if he kept up with his momentum, this would not be a problem. However, the momentum did not come naturally, it would dissipate one’s spirit, sense, and will. Even if he had a strong will and sense, he could not afford to keep deploying them along the journey.

He reluctantly walked for a while, and finally had to jump from tree to tree, like the mutated woman.

He tried to cross the jungle via the trees several times before, but was not as skillful as the mutated woman who survived and lived in the wilderness. At first, he was somewhat awkward and his motions seemed somewhat jerky, but with amazing agility and control over his body, he was quick to learn any challenging movements. After a short while, he had soon gotten used to it, and was now even more nimble than the mutated woman.

Luo Yuan noticed that there were quite a lot of bird’s nests around. They had departed since dawn and the sky was now getting brighter. It was the time when the birds fly out for food hunting, resulting in a forest full of chirping and tweeting.

Suddenly, something black fell down from the sky. Luo Yuan was shocked, immediately leaping to another tree. Without the need to turn around to see it, he already knew what it was. He looked towards the front and witnessed the scene of numerous bird droppings descending from the sky like bombs. If he did not pay more attention, he would have been hit by the droppings.

These mutated birds were not like the regular birds before the apocalypse. Even the smallest mutated bird was as big as an adult-sized one. Averagely, the birds were five to six meters in height and weighed three to four tons. If they were hit by the droppings of these giant mutated birds, they would be drowned and showered by their feces.

However, both of them were very alert, so that the tragedy did not come to light.

...

The further they went, the more ponds they noticed. From the original wetlands, it gradually turned into a swamp, and finally, it led them to the direction of a lake. If it was a lake in front, it would be a huge one. They had been traveling for around half an hour since the first time they saw the dampness. With their speed, it had been more than 100 kilometers of distance traveled, but they had only managed to reach the outer ring.

Throughout the last two days, Luo Yuan had been traveling across Chuan Shu and even passed half of Gui Zhou, approaching Guang Xi. With the assistance of a compass and the terrain analysis of a satellite map, he had never gotten lost before. From his memory, there was no lake in this area on the satellite map.

Luo Yuan thought that the lake might have just been formed, or that it was still too shallow to submerge the trees, thus it was not picked up on the satellite map.

Since the apocalypse, temperatures spiked first, then the sea level began to rise and then, the climate changed. Plus, there were various seismic volcanic movements, which resulted in the change of terrain. Some of the original presence of rivers and lakes had disappeared, but there was also an emergence of new rivers and lakes in the area.

As he had expected, the water was getting deeper and the grass on the ground had gradually been replaced by water plants, with groups of mutated fishes swimming amongst the plants. It was close to noon now, and the glaring light shone through layers of leaves and shed numerous light reflections on the surface of the water. The colors kept changing, in accordance to the waves of the water.

Suddenly, there was something in the water which rapidly moved towards his direction. Both sides of the water were separated by an invincible force that raised the waves by about half a meter.

The mutated woman was chasing after Luo Yuan to the point of exhaustion. She was not as strong as he was. The journey of a thousand miles with Luo Yuan yesterday had consumed all her strength. In addition, she did not sleep well the night before due to the bad and unfamiliar environment. She could only run for a few hours today but was at the edge of giving up.

Her tired body and low spirits had made her less alert than before, and was unaware of the change in the water. Just when she jumped to another twig from a branch, she heard a loud bang when she was still mid air.

The waves were as tall as ten meters and held many threats and dangers in it. A ferocious ten meter-long mutated fish with a mouthful of sharp teeth had suddenly leaped into the air towards the mutated woman to bite her.

Things happened so quickly, so when danger approached, she felt an intense feeling of fear until her pupil contracted and body turned stiff. She could not react anymore.

At that critical moment when the mutated woman was almost bitten by the mutated fish, a broken branch fell onto the mutated fish like a spear. The branch hit the mutated fish directly on its head, smashing it into pieces.

The remaining kinetic energy thumped the headless mutated fish back into the water. The next moment, water suddenly simmered, and numerous whirlpools appeared. Blood splashed out from the surface of the water soon after.

In just a few seconds, all that was left of the previously fierce mutated fish were only bones.

"Are you alright?" Luo Yuan instantly jumped next to the mutated woman, completely disregarding the fact that she would not comprehend his question.

She did not respond; her body tightly holding a twig like a frightened rat, shivering in fear. She was still in immense shock from that near-death incident.

Luo Yuan caressed her head to comfort her. His touch gave her a fright and drove her to jump onto another branch before climbing to the top. She hid behind the tree and looked at Luo Yuan vigilantly.

Luo Yuan awkwardly withdrew his hand. He looked at her shocked and tired face and knew that she would not be able to continue the journey anymore. As compared to yesterday, her physical strength had obviously declined.

He had to work on an alternative solution, as it was extremely lonely to travel alone. Anyone who had a slightly vulnerable mentality would go crazy should they embark on a similar journey. Of course, he had a strong Will so it was still bearable for him. However, with the company of this mutated human, the journey was certainly a more enjoyable one.

"You wait here. I’ll be right back." Luo Yuan said and walked away.

Just as he took a few steps, the mutated woman followed him again. Luo Yuan quickly gestured to encourage her to stop and rest instead.

The mutated woman had a much higher intelligence than other mutated beasts. After several gestures, she finally understood and did not follow him anymore.

But she seemed to feel blue. She curled up and squatted on a branch like an abandoned kitten.

As the time passed, she was feeling more and more depressed. She ran to another branch and looked towards the direction where Luo Yuan headed to as if she intended to find a familiar face. However, she did not see anything except layers of leaves, akin to a dense green network.

Then, she looked towards the direction where they came from.

It was no longer a familiar environment. The nearest hill was very strange in her eyes. She was not sure how far she had come. What she knew was that she kept running since yesterday without stopping. They ran after filling up their stomachs; they ran after waking up from their sleep.

She had left her safe nest and the familiar environment. At this place, she felt extremely uncomfortable. She squatted on the branch and looked down at the waters below with a frightened face. There were many horrible monsters rapidly swimming in the water looking like they would jump up to bite her anytime. The more she thought about it, the more frightened she was, so she immediately climbed higher onto the highest branch to hide.

The feeling of fear and loneliness rose in her heart.

She suddenly wanted to go home. This was not a place she wanted to be in. Although the road was far, she should be able to find a familiar environment if she went in the direction of where she came from, back to her turf and reassuring nest. Inside the nest, there was a corner where she buried a lot of nice shiny treasures that she had collected, just like the necklace that hung around her neck.

A soft sound came from somewhere not too far away. She immediately kept vigil and arched her body slightly. She quietly sneaked onto a branch amongst a thicker bush of leaves. She could feel the creature moving at a very fast speed.

From the distance, it only took three blinks. It was coming towards her.

The mutated woman felt uneasy and quickly moved onto a thinner branch. This was the valuable experience she learned from surviving in the jungle. The thinner branch was able to withstand her lithe body, but any creatures larger in size could very well snap it in half. Even if she did meet a hungry mutated beast, she would jump further with the support of branch bouncing.

Unfortunately, before she climbed up to the top of a tree, the shadow had instantly appeared in front of her.

She was scared by the strong wind and immediately held on tight to a branch, and did not move. The next moment she blinked her eyes and finally saw it clearly. This was not an enemy, but the weird companion that had left before.

The fear and anxiety in her instantly dissipated. A kind of inner joy was rising from the bottom of her heart and spread throughout the body, the upper and lower body seemed to have become limp and numb.

She did not know if this was a surprise, but a joy of a high-intensity overwhelmed her.

She noticed that he was carrying raw flesh in one of his hands. She now finally understood that he did not leave her but went to hunt instead. She looked through the leaves and saw the rays of the sun on her head. This was really the time when the weird companion wanted to eat.

"Take it," Luo Yuan looked at the stunned mutated woman and threw an energy chip to her. He completely oblivious to the fact that there was such complex mental activity going on in her mind, and also totally did not realize that the mutated woman had a human-like structure of a brain herself too.

The mutated woman subconsciously reached out to take it. She looked and took a whiff of the little pill with a foul odor. By nature, there was a desire to make her swallow, and so she swallowed, obeying her instinct

Suddenly, she felt electrocuted. Her pupils rapidly dilated and shrunk, while her whole body instantly became red and burned up to a high temperature.

This was a level six energy chip from a mutated bird. It was killed by Luo Yuan at its nest. Although the level was not high, this was the best he could find in such a short time. Despite that, it seemed to be effective on her.

Not only was it effective, but the change was just about to begin. The genome of mutated humans was not as stable as that an ordinary human. After mutation, the genes of this type of creature had become extremely unstable, that it now made her not resemble a human, and could easily evolve like a mutated beast.

With her body turning red, her scales were also getting darker in color. After a while, new scales grew and the old scales dropped off from her body.

The newly grown scales was a shade lighter, and they looked denser than the previous ones, with no gap in between. From afar, she seemed to have normal skin like that of a human’s, but not covered with scales. But soon, the scales became darker and harder, before finally turning pale blue.

The change of the scales was just a little painful, but the next change brought about more sufferings until Luo Yuan could empathize the pain. He could hear the sound of her bone cracking and she was in so much pain until she kept ripping the bark apart under the tree, like a maniac.

Perhaps it was the energy chip that accelerated this evolution process without any buffer, or it could also be due to the lack of food intake that caused the evolution process to be an extremely short one. Her body did not enlarge like the other mutated beast, but contracted in size instead, during the evolution process.

She was originally around 170 centimeters in height, but now, she kept shrinking to about 10 centimeters. After half an hour, the fluctuation of her height finally stopped and maintained at about only 50 centimeters tall. The petite size reminded him of Wang Shishi, when Luo Yuan first met her.