novelhk Chapter 188 Long-awaited
Chapter 188 Long-awaited
Xu Si lay on the car roof, letting the starlight fall. The cool night wind pierced through the [Cloak of Concealment], but it couldn't dispel the unfamiliar warmth in his heart.
He closed his eyes, and the star veins spread out silently, taking in every corner of the camp into his perception.
The little girl huddled in the back of the pickup truck, curled up to keep warm, and mumbled something that seemed to be talking in her sleep.
Tashan snored loudly, his stone skin glowing and shimmering, like a sleeping giant beast.
Chen Pei and Tang Jinxiu sat side by side on the roof of the RV, gazing at the starry sky like Xu Si. After a long while, they whispered to each other that they had almost forgotten what the starry sky was like after being in the Rain World for so long.
……
Everything was so real, yet so fragile.
The end times are like a rough piece of sandpaper, leaving everyone covered in blood.
But ironically, some untimely soft growths will appear where the wound has scabbed over.
Xu Si disliked this kind of softness.
"...So dramatic." He muttered to himself, turned over, buried his face in his arms, and fell into a deep sleep.
The star anchor slowly rotated deep within his consciousness, greedily drawing upon the long-lost power of the stars.
The cool, refreshing energy repaired the essence of the sequence consumed during the day and smoothed out the wrinkles in my mind.
A quiet night.
Xu Si woke up just before dawn.
Not far away in the pickup truck, Jiao Jiao smacked her lips, turned over, and rolled the blanket covering her up even tighter.
Chen Pei and Tang Jinxiu seemed to have not slept all night, still sitting side by side on the roof of the RV, looking at the first rays of dawn on the horizon. Xu Si knew what they were expecting.
The morning breeze rustled their clothes, and the two of them stood like two frozen statues.
You can't see the sun in a rainy world.
For a human being, it is truly unimaginable to be in darkness for months.
The fact that they didn't go crazy shows that they have a strong mentality.
Xu Si sat quietly on the roof of the car, watching the sunrise over the wasteland with them.
As dawn breaks, a pale white hue appears on the horizon, gradually tinged with light gold, and then a magnificent crimson.
On the horizon, a long-awaited, clearly defined, blazing, and eerie blood-red sun is struggling yet unstoppable as it climbs upward.
Xu Si remained lying on the roof of the "Nirvana" vehicle, quietly watching the sunrise over the east, feeling the extraordinary energy surging from the Star Anchor within his body.
Under the cover of "Star Pulse", he heard a long, trembling breath coming from the roof of a distant RV.
It's Chen Pei.
Then came a very soft sob, as if afraid of disturbing the tranquility of the moment, which was immediately suppressed.
Tang Jinxiu gripped his hand tightly, saying nothing.
Chen Pei and Tang Jinxiu only glanced at each other before reluctantly closing their eyes to savor the memory.
It no longer existed in their imaginations but regained its shape, temperature, and even—a blinding light.
The sunlight, like molten gold, spilled across the boundless, eerily flat wasteland.
The desolation and deathly silence, with the arrival of sunlight, reveal a cruel yet magnificent clarity.
It was only then that Xu Si realized how flat the wasteland was; the phrase "flat as a pancake" was the most fitting description.
Xu Si turned over, facing the direction where the blood-red sun was rising, his scarlet star-like eyes slightly moving beneath his eyelids.
He didn't get up, but simply let the gradually burning light seep through his thin eyelids, spreading a warm red hue across his vision.
There was a rustling sound coming from the camp.
The start of breakfast preparation.
When there was nothing else to do, everyone followed Li Miao and Shao Bing to practice fist and foot techniques and swordsmanship.
Tashan got off the bus, his eyes still half-closed, and muttered, "Damn it...it's finally sunny?"
Jiao Jiao was awakened by the sunlight streaming through the car window. She rubbed her eyes groggily and sat up, then exclaimed "Wow!" and rushed to the rear window, her face almost touching it: "The sun! It's the sun! Auntie! Look!"
"Don't look directly at it!" Su Su reminded her.
"It's okay, taking a look won't hurt!"
"Everyone, do not look directly at the blood-red sun!" Fu Xiaojian's car loudspeaker reminded everyone.
It was only then that they realized that after just a few days of not seeing the Blood Sun, this ominous creature actually made them feel an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Xiao Luo and Li Miao got out of the car. The boy's silver hair shimmered in the sunlight. He raised his hand to shield his eyes from the glare and gave a pure smile: "Brother Li, it's dawn."
Li Miao nodded, patted his shoulder, but his gaze unconsciously swept towards Xu Si's "Nirvana".
Wang Hu took Yao Yao to inspect the vehicle. The little girl excitedly pointed to the sun on the horizon and chattered away.
Wang Hu smiled and agreed, but his hands were meticulous as he checked the oil lines and tires.
Chen Pei and Tang Jinxiu then got off the car roof and silently savored the long-awaited sunshine.
Xu Si then realized that perhaps because they hadn't been in the sun for a long time, their skin tone was a pale, flushed white, unlike that of others.
Xu Si finally sat up from the roof of the car, stretched out a long yawn, his bones cracking softly. He hadn't seen this blood-red sun in a long time.
He jumped out of the car, paused for a moment, and then opened the packages he had collected the night before.
Jiao Jiao's package contained several sealed packets of biscuits, two cans of meat, and a small bag of fruit candies.
Xiao Luo's package contained a can of white rice, the kind that's pure enough to be steamed into white rice.
Fu Xiaojian gave him a few compressed biscuits and some dried meat, which were probably exchanged with other caravans.
He didn't make any pretentious refusal or say anything to thank them; he simply put them away neatly and quickly, with a calm expression.
"Are they all awake?" Fu Xiaojian called out, his voice carrying far across the vast wilderness.
"Get ready when you wake up, eat something, and we'll leave in ten minutes."
The convoy regrouped under the long-awaited blood-red sun. Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar faces in the convoy, Fu Xiaojian felt a surge of heroic spirit.
However, he didn't say anything encouraging; self-regulation is an essential skill for survival in the apocalypse.
The roar of the engine shattered the silence of the wasteland.
Xu Si sat in the driver's seat of "Nirvana," feeling the gentle and deep pulse of the steel beast beneath him—yes, gentle.
Despite its ferocious appearance, the sense of control that feels so natural and intimate is more comfortable than ever before.
He took one last look at the rearview mirror.
In the mirror, it was impossible to distinguish between the wasteland and the old homeland of Yanshi.
Everything they experienced seemed like a dream!
If he were alone, he might not be able to distinguish between reality and illusion.
With a light touch on the accelerator, "Nirvana" glided smoothly out of the car; the enhanced performance of the Conqueror after its rebirth seemed to be more than just a little bit.
The convoy was moving very fast.
On such unobstructed terrain, Fu Xiaojian increased his speed to over 80 miles per hour.
It's not that we can't go any faster, but we need to take care of the other vehicles in the convoy.
The wind howled outside the car windows, kicking up dry dust and leaving long trails of smoke behind the convoy.