dkrc Chapter 1936 The meaning represented by the first sequence, Bai Xuan's whim
Chapter 1936 The meaning represented by the first sequence, Bai Xuan's whim
Chapter 1936 The Meaning Represented by the First Sequence, Bai Xuan's Sudden Inspiration
"The freshly slaughtered second-grade iron-backed wild boar has the tenderest ribs, which are full of spiritual energy."
"Buy this to make soup for the kids, and I guarantee they'll gain strength in a month. Look, it's so fresh."
A burly man with a booming voice waved a large piece of rib still dripping with blood in his hand, shouting energetically as he hawked his wares.
His stall was already surrounded by a crowd. Housewives were carefully examining the meat, strong men were weighing the different cuts and their prices, and restaurant buyers were negotiating prices in bulk.
Next to it was a stall selling mutated bison meat. The stall owner was a taciturn middle-aged man, but his knife skills were superb. He was slicing pieces of deep red, jewel-like beef tenderloin, with marble-like snowflake patterns, into even, thin slices. A sign stood beside him:
"Mutant barbarian beef, rich in blood and qi, is the preferred choice for martial artists, strengthening muscles and bones."
The price is high, but there are many inquiries, mostly from men and women with a fierce aura who have clearly awakened physical enhancement abilities.
Further away, there were stalls selling mutated beast leather, bones, tendons, and even certain special parts.
These materials are the basic raw materials for manufacturing armor, weapons, and medicines, and they also attract a lot of attention.
The crowds were dense and shoulder to shoulder.
The sounds of hawking, bargaining, cutting, and heavy vehicles passing by mingled together, creating a noisy yet vibrant atmosphere.
People's faces rarely showed numbness or fear of the changing times; instead, they displayed a focused dedication to making a living, as well as joy and anticipation for the "harvest."
The children chased and played among the stalls, seemingly already accustomed to the smell of blood in the air and the strange animal carcasses.
The patrolling members of the Spirit Bureau were fully armed, their serious gazes sweeping across the market, maintaining basic order, and occasionally checking the goods to confirm they were dead, in order to prevent accidents.
After experiencing the initial terrifying chaos and tragic sacrifices of the spiritual energy revival, China's response strategy has been constantly adjusted.
As the impact of the second spiritual energy tide gradually subsided and a preliminary defense system was established, the official "Spiritual Energy Bureau" began to systematically slow down its control over the "wilderness areas" surrounding the city.
They encourage and regulate the power of the people.
Awakened superhumans, as well as ordinary people who are physically strong and courageous but not yet awakened, can form or join civilian mercenary groups after passing the review and basic training.
The Spirit Bureau will even provide these civilian forces with weapons and armor, and regularly release information on hunting areas and missions that have been preliminarily explored and whose risks are relatively controllable, ensuring the safety of these "pioneers" to the greatest extent possible within a controllable range.
The authorities were able to concentrate more elite forces on tasks such as clearing out high-risk areas and dealing with large-scale beast tides.
Gradually, this model of official guidance and grassroots leadership has formed a virtuous cycle.
Hunting, gathering, and exploring the wilderness gradually became important ways for many people to support their families, acquire cultivation resources, and even seek opportunities to change their fate.
The market in front of us is a microcosm of what was created under this policy.
Of course, there are also limits to the scope and objectives of civilian mercenaries.
They primarily hunt large numbers of "out-of-sequence" mutated creatures that pose a relatively manageable threat, such as wild boars, bison, wolf packs, and even certain mutated insects and plants that have been enhanced in size, strength, or certain specialized organs.
The materials from these organisms are the primary source of daily consumption for the general public and the needs of low-level superhumans.
Once a mutated creature's strength crosses the threshold of the "sequence," even if it's only the lowest third sequence, its danger level and hunting difficulty will increase exponentially, making it impossible for ordinary civilian teams to handle.
Fortunately, the Reiki Bureau clearly marks and regularly monitors the activity areas of known sequence-level mutated creatures, and civilian teams usually voluntarily avoid these areas.
The air was thick with the stench of blood and the clamor of the crowd; focused faces haggled over prices at the stalls; children ran and laughed amidst the remains of a colossal beast.
Behind all this lies the lessons and experiences gained at the cost of countless lives, and the arduous reconstruction of order amidst chaos.
The deceased are gone, but the living must carry on with their memories and hopes for the future.
In this era of spiritual revival, old common sense is constantly being broken, and new possibilities seem to be emerging.
Some even harbor a faint but undeniable hope that as long as we keep becoming stronger, stronger than we can imagine, stronger than we can rival or even surpass mythology, then bringing the dead back to life may not be entirely impossible.
It is this hope, like a glimmer of light in the darkness, that sustains many people and gives them a reason to keep going in this cruel new world.
Amidst the crowd, a figure strolled leisurely through the bustling market.
She was a tall and graceful woman, casually dressed in a dark combat uniform that allowed for easy movement, yet her stunning curves were undeniable.
Her fiery red hair wasn't tied up; it was simply draped over her shoulders, swaying slightly with her steps. In the dim light of the market, it resembled flowing lava, dazzling and eye-catching.
She had a languid look on her face, like a cat that had just woken up in the afternoon, lazily sweeping over the surrounding stalls, ignoring the smell of blood and the noise in the air.
However, the attitude of the people around her was completely different from her own lazy and casual demeanor.
As she walked by, everyone—from the stall owners shouting their wares to the mercenaries carefully selecting materials while squatting on the ground, to the members of the Reiki Bureau maintaining order—involuntarily stopped, turned to the side, or looked up, their eyes filled with undisguised respect, and even a hint of fanaticism.
"Lord Huo Yu!"
A burly man who was dissecting an animal carcass looked up, his face smeared with blood, but he grinned, revealing a sincere and awe-inspiring smile.
At a nearby stall, a middle-aged woman who was haggling with a customer turned around upon hearing the noise, immediately put down her work, and said enthusiastically:
"Lord Huoyu, you've come to inspect?"
"Greetings, Lord Fire Feather!"
Several teenagers, who had been chasing and playing, immediately stopped when they saw her, straightened their little bodies, and greeted her loudly with bright eyes.
A chorus of respectful greetings rose and fell as she passed, converging into an invisible wave of sound.
People's attitude was warm and natural, as if her appearance was the most natural and reassuring thing in the market.
Huo Yu, however, was somewhat troubled and helpless about this.
She stopped, raised her hand to rub her striking red hair, and said to the people around her with a hint of helplessness:
"There's no need to address me like that, 'sir,' it sounds really awkward."
"This is China, we don't follow this kind of thing here."
Upon hearing this, everyone burst into laughter.
Huo Yu, one of the earliest awakened and most powerful first-order superhumans in China, is one of the pillars that supported the country to stand firm in the apocalypse.
In popular parlance, she is more often referred to by another title – "Emperor Yan".
At the same time, she is also the guardian deity of Hangzhou.
As mentioned before, every first-tier superhuman is a vital asset to the nation.
Even though China has the most first-tier cities in the world, the number is only a dozen or so. However, this number is quite small compared to the number of cities in China.
When the spatial coordinate system was not yet perfect and the first-tier strong forces could not quickly mobilize to support the whole country, a first-tier person stationed in a certain place meant that the place had obtained the highest level of security guarantee and was a symbol of "absolute security".
Their very existence is a stabilizing force for people's hearts and a line of defense against massive beast tides.
Fire Feather is not only in the first order, but also a particularly special existence among them.
Her special ability belongs to the "summoning" category, which allows her to communicate with, command, and even create powerful elemental life forms related to fire.
This ability has an unparalleled advantage when facing a beast tide.
One person can form an army.
The city of Hangzhou, under her command, has never experienced a true city defense crisis and is the most stable city in southeastern China.
Therefore, the importance of Huo Yu to the people of Hangzhou is self-evident; their respect for her comes from the bottom of their hearts.
Huo Yu declined the stall owners' enthusiastic gifts and invitations, simply waving her hand casually, and continued to stroll leisurely through the bustling market, as if she were truly just browsing a vegetable market.
She stopped in front of a stall selling mutated bird feathers and claws, picked up a crimson feather with a metallic sheen and examined it against the light;
He then sniffed the dried mutated herbs at another stall filled with a strange medicinal fragrance; and even watched with great interest how a craftsman carved ornaments from mutated animal bones and teeth.
She enjoyed the noisy, vibrant, and energetic atmosphere.
The air was filled with the unique stench of mutated creatures, the sweetness of fresh flesh, the bitter aroma of herbs, the smell of sweat, dust, and the odor of various cooked foods, creating a complex and intense "market smell".
An ordinary person might frown upon first arrival, but for Huo Yu, the smell was as familiar as breathing.
Countless wars had made her accustomed to environments far more foul than this.
However, she doesn't come here often, since she also needs to cultivate.
Even though she possessed exceptional talent and was blessed by the heavens, and her body would constantly absorb spiritual energy from the world even without actively cultivating, she dared not slack off in the slightest.
With other scroll kings around, Huo Yu naturally wouldn't let his guard down.
This time it was a bit of a relaxation.
Feeling a bit tired from walking around, Huo Yu turned out of the bustling slaughter and material area and came to a relatively clean area on the edge of the market with a stronger sense of everyday life.
There are many breakfast stalls here, and the food they sell is different from what you find elsewhere.
There are steamed buns and dumplings made with artificial starch mixed with a small amount of mutated grains; pancakes made with egg liquid from mutated poultry that have been domesticated and have laid eggs; and thick soup made with processed mutated animal bones.
There were even vendors selling skewers of meat from unknown small mutant beasts, sizzling and dripping with oil, sprinkled with coarse but uniquely fragrant spices that made mouths water.
Although these things can be found outside, they are nowhere near as fresh as what you find here.
Huo Yu walked familiarly to a porridge stall.
The shop was small, with only four or five low tables, but it was kept quite clean.
The proprietress was a nimble middle-aged woman who was deftly stirring the thick, pale green rice porridge that was simmering in a large pot.
"Aunt Li, the usual, a bowl of vegetable porridge, two vegetarian buns, and a side of pickled vegetables."
Huo Yu sat down naturally at an empty table, her voice carrying the languidness unique to mornings.
"Oh my, it's Miss Huoyu! It's been quite a while since you last visited!"
Aunt Li looked up and saw it was her. Her face immediately lit up with a surprised and warm smile. She quickly ladled out porridge and got steamed buns while chatting away.
"The steamed buns were freshly steamed this morning, using the 'ground root vegetable' that we just discovered in the back mountain. They're sweet and refreshing, please try them!"
"busy recently."
Huo Yu smiled and took the steaming bowl of porridge and steamed buns.
She didn't rush to eat. First, she picked up the porridge bowl and sipped the slightly hot vegetable porridge. The warm porridge slid into her stomach, bringing a comforting warmth.
"A bowl of plain porridge and two vegetarian buns."
The voice was not loud, calm and even a little too bland, but it made Huo Yu, who was holding the bowl of porridge, pause slightly.
The voice came from across her desk, and before she knew it, a figure had naturally taken up a seat there.
Aunt Li was completely unaware of anything amiss. With her usual friendly smile, she replied, "Okay, just a moment," and quickly ladled out porridge and steamed buns, placing them in the same coarse earthenware bowl and on a dried lotus leaf. She then presented the bowl to the man, adding a small dish of pickled vegetables before turning back to her work.
Everything around was as usual, and no one even glanced at the table, as if the person sitting opposite Huo Yu was just a wisp of air.
That's precisely why something seems off.
With Huo Yu's strength, even in a relaxed state, no one could sit down so naturally, yet she was completely unaware.
Moreover, this is her place. No matter how approachable she is, ordinary people would never dare to sit across from her, let alone the people around her who seem to be influenced by some force and ignore her.
Huo Yu slowly raised her head, her gaze falling on the person opposite her, and then her eyes widened suddenly.
"Bai Xuan?"
That's right, sitting opposite her was Bai Xuan.
But why is he here?
"I just came here on a whim to have breakfast."
Bai Xuan naturally saw through Huo Yu's thoughts and explained in a calm tone.
It was a whim, and it truly was a whim.
After all, he doesn't need to eat. Even if he did, the dishes in the group shop, which come from the world of Little Master, are far more delicious than those in the real world.
But occasionally, I'll have this thought: to come to a place I used to know and eat some familiar food.
This sounds a bit strange, since only two years have passed since the spiritual energy revival, but the events that have occurred in these two years give the illusion that many years have passed.
So I came here.
"."
"You really are easygoing."
Huo Yu couldn't help but complain after hearing Bai Xuan's words.
Although they didn't know Bai Xuan's current strength, it was definitely far beyond their comprehension.
She remembered that this guy had the ability to create a parallel world at will a long time ago; now it was probably even more terrifying, and he had long since reached an unknown level.
It's quite rare to see such an ordinary person act like this in him.
(End of this chapter)