Chapter 268: Fog Shadow Xilan

"No. 03: Iris-like Star Ring, photographed before the crash of the Harper Space Eye. The Angel Project speculates it is some kind of interstellar creature hidden in dark matter cloud clusters. Because of the lack of existence basis, it is not listed as related to anomalous biological phenomena for the time being. Awaiting repeated observation, retaining number."

"Creature No. 04: Unknown Sea Abyss Creature in the Pacific Ocean, first discovered in the Pacific Ocean, Black Ocean Abyss on July 11, 2069, form unknown, observed body size over 13 kilometers, once triggered the Boer Island tsunami..."

"Mom, why would these things appear on Blue Star..." Looking at the Phoenix Society's Anomalous Entity Illustrated Guide, Shasha's eyes seemed to have lost their light, and she couldn't help but say.

Chen Sixuan sighed and said: "These seem even more desperate than zombies and darkness."

Seeing this, Dalou was also full of surprise. Brother Huo, who was always arrogant and confident, seemed to have completely lost his temper at this moment, standing on the side and clicking his tongue. Only Ding Junyi remained calm.

In her view, the fear of death was the same. Even from her materialistic scientific perspective, facing an abyss monster and facing a zombie that could kill her seemed to be no different; both were the destruction of the flesh.

"It's not to the point of despair. At least humanity hasn't died out yet," Lin Xian looked at the depressed atmosphere of the crowd and couldn't help but speak: "Now we have just escaped from death. As long as humanity hasn't died out in this world, there is still hope."

Lin Xian's words wiped away some of the oppression in everyone's hearts. Chen Sixuan nodded and said: "Hmm, humanity can also manufacture hundreds of thousands of tons of Sky Cities and hundreds of millions of tons of equivalent weapons. We are not without a chance to defeat these monsters."

Kiki sat on the swivel chair, her gaze constantly sweeping over the Anomalous Entity Illustrated Guide. At this time, she suddenly said "Eh":

"So not every anomalous entity will have anomalous blood essence~"

Her words attracted everyone's attention. Ding Junyi raised her glasses and leaned over at this moment, looking at the content inside:

"According to over 1,000 experiments on C-level and B-level anomalous entities by the Nightwalker organization, the reason why anomalous entities generate blood essence and accumulate blood essence concentration is directly proportional to the scale of the anomalous entity hunting humans..."

"Sure enough, blood essence is human blood..."

Ding Junyi's face turned cold, she took a breath and said: "Sure enough, I had speculated before that the human experiments on the 7th floor of that Foundation laboratory might be experimenting with using humans as 'rain-dew collection and filtration devices' to collect dark power and then feed it to anomalous entities to generate blood essence."

Once these words were spoken, everyone was shocked!

Chen Sixuan covered her mouth directly, and the others' faces changed drastically.

"Really?!!!" Kiki widened her eyes and looked over.

Lin Xian frowned deeply upon hearing this: "You mean to say that the stronger the ability user or evolutionist swallowed by an anomalous entity, the higher the level of blood essence generated?"

If it were true, it would be simply too terrifying. Raising humans as blood food—this could no longer be called anti-human...

Who knew that after he finished speaking, he found that everyone else was looking at him with astonishment.

Ding Junyi put her hands in her pockets, looked at Lin Xian and said: "I just inferred roughly based on those experimental contents, but your idea seems to be much more terrifying than this."

Lin Xian was speechless, thinking to himself, wasn't I just following your words?

"Alright, let's look at what everyone is most interested in," Kiki glanced at Lin Xian quietly, then continued to call up the third item in the Fire Book information packet, which was also what everyone was most concerned about at the moment.

Abilities.

Previously, everyone's understanding of abilities still came from the early data Kiki obtained from the Angel Project. Currently, Lin Xian only knew that the ability users in the team should have all reached the evolutionary level. No one was clear about the details. Here, only Brother Huo was obsessed with developing different skills for abilities. Besides that, Kiki and Dalou were almost growing wildly, with no direction at all.

Of course, Brother Huo's direction couldn't be counted as a direction; his skills all relied on pondering and naming. As for how to improve strength, currently, Lin Xian knew that besides the energy converted by the Hell Black Chrysanthemum, it seemed there was only relying on combat experience left.

III. Abilities

From this latest ability intelligence released by the Phoenix Society's Nightwalker organization, currently, the Phoenix Society has collected and summarized over 100 types of abilities, divided into more than ten major categories. And the Nightwalker organization has divided them into S, A, B, C, and D levels according to the specialty, potential, and threat of the abilities.

Among them, monster-form proliferation, limb mimicry, giant limb transformation, etc., are rated as D-level, which is the most common ability type at present.

Sequentially upwards, more than ten categories such as beast-form, blood-qi, corpse-dissolution, water-travel, metal skin, etc., are rated as C-level. Lin Xian understood it carefully. Judging from the ability description, Dalou should be a blood-qi ability, strength enhancement, accelerated physical recovery, and strength will further increase with blood loss, but the disadvantage is that it puts great pressure on heart, lung, and spinal cord regeneration.

And among the B-level abilities, many are ones Lin Xian has never seen before: magic-form, earth-stone, evil-bone, monster-eye, and all flying-oriented abilities are basically defined as B-level.

A-level abilities currently recorded include wind-type, water-type, super-body, resonance, sound-wave, laser, spirit, speed-force, object-control...

In this, Jiang Yun's wind-type, Li Guangwen from the Sun-Chasing fleet seems to belong to resonance, Abai's laser, and Qian Dele's speed-force—Lin Xian has seen all of these.

Finally, there is S-level. In this, telekinesis, fire, thunder, and light—four types that look very powerful—are all within Lin Xian's expectations. Only one item made him somewhat stunned.

Evil Desire.

He specifically paid attention to the introduction of this ability and was surprised to find that they had actually encountered this ability!

It was the green-haired woman who could operate the zombie tide in the Black Crow quartet they encountered when they first entered Hengshan Pass.

"Wow, that woman is actually an S-level ability user!" Kiki couldn't help but say at this moment.

"Being able to control the zombie tide, the threat is extremely great," Shu Qin looked at Lin Xian and said: "With the power of one person, she almost wiped out so many of our fleets. This kind of ability is indeed not simple."

Lin Xian and Chen Sixuan nodded upon hearing this. Speaking of which, that night was indeed dangerous, the mighty zombie tide army was like an avalanche.

And that girl's ability level was not high. One could imagine how terrifying it would be if such an ability were allowed to grow.

"But we have two S-level ability users on our train."

Shasha aimed her gaze at Lu Xingchen: "Brother Huo, you are an S-level ability user, do you have anything to declare?"

"Hmph~"

Lu Xingchen gave a disdainful cold snort: "This Venerable is the Fire God descended to the world, how would I care about this ranking dispute."

After speaking, he couldn't help but add a sentence: "However, this list ranks fire-type before wind, thunder, rain, and light. This Venerable is very satisfied..."

"Then you are still ranked behind me~" Kiki got into the spirit.

Lu Xingchen waved his hand: "That should be sorted by the first letter of the pinyin, it doesn't count, it doesn't count."

Dalou frowned upon hearing this and said: "Seems... makes sense."

"Fart!" Shasha slapped her brother: "Brother, how did you calculate that? That light should be in front."

"Exactly," Kiki said with a giggle.

"Stop arguing, all of you."

At this time, Chen Sixuan couldn't help but intervene: "Didn't it say so? It's just a list, not a ranking. Why argue about this? If you have this time, it's better to hurry up and understand how to upgrade abilities."

As soon as Chen Sixuan spoke, she had the tone of a teacher, which immediately made these people stop struggling.

Lin Xian held his forehead helplessly. At this moment, he noticed that his mechanical ability was not on the Phoenix Society's ability directory. Besides that, there was one other person, and that was Director Ding.

Plant ability, it sounds like it is as unpopular and strange as his mechanical ability, but the space for development is huge.

He even felt that the plant-type had more potential than his mechanical-type.

Now he understood why the Phoenix Society was so interested in his ability. The rarity was even higher than Kiki's telekinesis-type. Since there was such a directory, it was very likely that Kiki was not the only telekinesis-type ability user.

And Lin Xian also discovered that for the so-called same ability type, different results would even develop according to the ability user themselves, which was indeed somewhat intriguing.

Chen Sixuan's words made Lu Xingchen and Shasha stop arguing, and everyone immediately turned their attention to the improvement of abilities in the information packet.

"Uh~"

"Seems there is no way to improve either."

Kiki sat with her legs hugged, constantly flipping through with the mouse, but found that there was no content more detailed than the previous Angel Project, and even the grading of ability users was exactly the same, with no big difference.

For all ability growth, it was summarized by the Nightwalker organization into two points.

I. The ability user's mental strength is enhanced, able to resist the increasingly strong dark invasion power in the body.

II. Absorb more dark invasion power and be able to maintain its balance.

The so-called absorption is actually experiencing the dark night, which is called passive absorption.

And killing anomalous entities and swallowing blood essence are both called active absorption, but because the risk is extremely great, there are cold dark reagents, as well as the balance method of basking in the sun and drinking vegetable juice.

Besides that, there was nothing else.

"Seems there is no very effective way~" Kiki hugged her chest with both hands and said: "Dark invasion has side effects no matter what."

"Actually, there is a key issue."

Lin Xian's face was slightly stern: "If humans cannot shield the power of dark invasion, then it means there is only one road left, which is chasing the dawn. At least to improve abilities, this road must be taken."

Ding Junyi looked at him: "Are you trying to say that the Federation's Underground City project will lose its meaning and popular support because of this unavoidable problem?"

"Yes."

"But it's hard to say," Kiki turned around: "What if they can produce a lot of vegetable juice~"

"Then in this way, will their ability users become even more powerful instead?"

"Mathematically correct, but theoretically difficult to achieve," Ding Junyi said directly: "Unless the human body's 'metabolism' of this dark power has exceeded the balance value, or human means can completely suppress the dark invasion power, so that humans can fully adapt to living in the polar night, and will become stronger and stronger. But now it is obviously impossible to do."

"Yes, if we could not be afraid of the polar night, we wouldn't even have to run away," Shu Qin said at this moment: "However, the Federal Dawn City probably has their response strategies and won't just sit and wait for death."

Lin Xian weighed the cold dark reagent in his hand and then said: "Absorb the darkness, assimilate the darkness. Those Snow Demons dare to come out to attack in the wind and snow, which shows that these anomalous entities are also adapting to the dawn. So, survival of the fittest, we humans must also speed up the progress."

!

"Do you want to try this?" Chen Sixuan looked at the green liquid and couldn't help but frown slightly.

Ding Junyi responded at this moment: "As for vegetable juice, some can be rationed out at present."

Some green plants and vegetables in Carriage No. 4 had already grown quite a bit. Even out of a scientist's rigor, Ding Junyi had conducted observations on the separate compartments she catalyzed with plant abilities, mainly worrying that there might be any differences.

"This kind of thing, it really is a bit..." Lin Xian also looked at it with a heavy gaze.

The Heterostructure Rubik's Cube could sense the power of dark invasion from it. Lin Xian was a bit hesitant, and he also forgot to ask Zhou Wuer whether this thing could only be used by ability users, or if even genetic enhancers like Chen Sixuan and Shu Qin could use it.

At this time, Dalou stood out and said: "Brother Lin, why don't you let me try? I have strong recovery ability and can carry it!"

"I think you're just greedy, brother," Shasha gave him a white look: "Ten first-level blood essences per bottle, how many boxes of canned food can that buy? Such a valuable thing is being used for experiments!?"

Dalou scratched his head awkwardly. In fact, he was just simply worried about the invasive power of this thing, and didn't think much else.

Lin Xian thought for a while, shook his head and said: "Trying it doesn't matter, but since the Nightwalker organization in Xilan City now has equipment to test ability users, I think it's better to use it after we understand it. At least we can know what changes it has on abilities. Drinking it now can only rely on feeling."

"Also right~" Kiki also agreed: "I really want to see if my strength has broken through the Diamond level now."

Lu Xingchen lost his sleepiness upon hearing this and said loudly: "Interesting, this Venerable feels it is very necessary to test it."

Lin Xian smiled helplessly upon hearing this. His Mechanical Heart had a perfect growth progress, which he didn't worry about. He was mainly very curious about his new skill rewards.

Now Lin Xian was very glad that he had risked swallowing that nuclear-powered turbine engine in the night at Qingshui Town to obtain the Gravity Lens. This skill had saved his life three times already. Although the energy consumption was high, thinking about it now, it was simply super worth it!

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

The joint train broke through the wind and snow, rushing in the dark night.

The rescue fleet, the Emperor Project team, plus the investigation corps that came to support from Xilan City, the steel torrent composed of hundreds of combat vehicles rushed through the snow layer and headed towards Xilan City.

Lin Xian rested for a few hours, his energy recovered quite a bit. Taking advantage of the gap, he hurriedly manufactured some ammunition for supply in case of crisis.

Not long after, bursts of thunderous momentum suddenly came from the blizzard. Dense gunfire and explosions woke up many passengers on the joint train who had already fallen asleep. They picked up the weapons by their pillows one after another. Dealing with disasters anytime and anywhere seemed to have been engraved in their blood, making people unable to distinguish between day and night.

"All survivor fleets, Longshan No. 1, *Infinity*, I am He Zhen, Commander of the Seventh Investigation Corps. We are about to arrive in Xilan City. Reconnaissance report: Xilan City is currently being attacked by anomalous entities, with medium intensity. There will be covering fire to clear the way for us. Everyone, don't be nervous, we are entering the city directly!"

He Zhen's voice made people's blood boil. It could be heard that the defense troops in Xilan City were no longer strangers to such dark night monster tides, which made many people's raised hearts settle down a bit.

"It seems Xilan City belongs to a defensive city, the entire city should be safe."

On the *Infinity*, hearing Commander He's words, Shu Qin said in surprise.

"Should be."

Lin Xian was also excited in his heart. Along the way, they had never been to a city that hadn't been captured by zombies and anomalous entities. This was very surprising. No wonder listening to what that Nightwalker postman Zhou Wuer said, he still wanted to find him in the city. It looked like Xilan City was still maintaining some kind of urban operation under the protection of the Phoenix Society.

Chen Sixuan nodded: "I once heard my father mention that Xilan City was originally an industrial heavy city built on iron ore. The city is not big, but it has a nuclear-defense-level city defense system. It was originally built by Dragon Country as a northwest defense fortress before the Federation was established. And this place is related to multiple oil and natural gas energy transport hubs, with great strategic significance. There are even full production lines for heavy tanks and mechas."

Kiki had a lollipop in her mouth, her fingers tapping on the computer, and very quickly called up a city layout map.

"Although this city is not big, it is built against the mountain. Although Fengluan Mountain is only over 1,000 meters above sea level, it is already considered the largest mountain peak in this grassland Gobi. Tsk tsk~ This city actually still retains war walls!"

"That was built in the last century..."

"There is also a very famous Duojia radar array here, which is also an antique from the last century. With a radar power of over ten trillion, once started, the radar of the entire Yunjiang Plain will be interfered with, but it has become a tourist attraction."

"I remember there were many heavy industrial bases here before the Apocalypse Day, the population was very small, and not many people came for tourism."

"Look quickly, everyone!"

At this moment, the image in the observation and aiming system on the roof of the Infinite became increasingly clear, and the outline of a towering mountain peak appeared in the field of view; at the same time, beneath the wind and snow, the visibility grew wider and wider, and a steel city that looked entirely cast from reinforced concrete began to reveal its formidable presence.

Boiling Snow Demon tides appeared from all directions, but they were all moving in the direction of Xilan City. In the picture, one could see huge war walls surrounding this industrial city, and many heavy artillery pieces were firing from the rear, with fire and smoke shaking the sky!

On the snow-covered mountain peak in the rear, radar towers and a large number of searchlights shone under the city, giving people a cold and heavy sense of oppression.

The first thing the joint train approached was a large oil refinery outside the city. Huge oil pipelines were covered with wind and snow, like blood vessels extending from the earth. A large number of Snow Demons and monsters were shuttling and roaring among them, and many had already rushed towards the fleet. At this time, the support troops of the Investigation Corps began to fire.

Boom, boom, boom!

At this time, huge explosions burst in the Snow Demon tide like heavenly thunder. A giant thermobaric bomb exploded a few kilometers away from the fleet, lifting a white hemispherical shock wave that swept over and collided with the joint train fleet. All vehicles and trains felt a sudden side tilt, and the shock wave made everyone's ears ring for an instant.

"It's support artillery and bombing troops, don't panic!!"

"Entering the city soon!"

Bang, bang, bang!

On the city wall behind the oil refinery, dozens of large-caliber rail artillery pieces fired in unison, setting off chain explosions in the galloping Snow Demon tide!

Boom, boom, boom!

Toot!!

The power of large city defense base weapons was far from what the vehicle-mounted weapons of the joint train could compare to. The so-called caliber is power. The Great Wall-50 base rail artillery array, the Iron Curtain defense anti-aircraft system composed of anti-aircraft missiles/electromagnetic guns/close-in defense guns, hundreds of heavy firepower artillery towers, plus a main force of the Interstellar Military Investigation Corps, and the special terrain of Xilan City, completely deserved to be called a sturdy fortress that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Under the cover, the joint train rode the wind and snow, rushed into the outer city along the Xilan mining line from the rail station. Under the heavy defense lines, the Snow Demon tide behind had disappeared, the wind and snow gradually stopped, and a heavy city under the mountain range appeared in everyone's sight.

The large buildings in the city were shrouded in darkness at this time, but the further they went inside, the more countless lights lit up in the city center and various streets. They were all kinds of fleet camps, and some people even temporarily moved into some buildings to avoid the wind and snow, making some streets look brightly lit. At this time, many eyes in the city were looking towards this joint train riding the wind and snow. When the *Infinity* and Longshan No. 1 drove past the passenger transport tracks on the outskirts of the city and began to enter the Xilan City rail terminal, they saw even more end-of-the-world trains parked on the spare and branch tracks.

These trains were of all kinds, some carriages still had lights on, and some were covered with thick armor plates, airtight.

And the waiting room was crowded with people, with all kinds of tents and floor mats everywhere.

On the platform, armed guards of the Investigation Corps could be seen everywhere, and from the moment they entered the city, Lin Xian and the others saw at least dozens of various types of mechas.

Besides the "Iron Guard 3" military assault types on the front line, Guardian 2 and Guardian 3 light assault types, there were also the T8-Z Vulcan military assault types that Lin Xian and the others had, and even Destroyer heavy military assault types.

And there was no shortage of mechas like the Alpha Star special industrial type used for material handling in the city, as well as various types of drones, etc.

Most of these belonged to the Phoenix Society, all with unified mechanized painting, and some belonged to survivor fleets, having undergone strange modifications.

The difference from entering Yubei City before was that the firepower upgrade and iteration of many survivor fleets here were already very high, and more large and special vehicles began to appear. Fleets of over a hundred vehicles combined by small nuclear devices could only be called medium-sized fleets. Lin Xian and the others even saw a large square parked full of a large fleet group with the same painting, called the Arctic Wind Alliance.

"In this city, I'm afraid there are 50,000 people," Chen Sixuan said looking out the window.

"According to the time, today is already the 29th. The evacuation time announced by the Xilan City Phoenix Society is the 31st. This is already very late, almost at the edge of the tidal coverage of the No. 5 Star Abyss. Why don't these fleets leave in advance?"

The Phoenix Society chose to evacuate at the last moment to wait for more survivors rushing to Xilan City. The time had been announced, so the official organization would certainly not leave in advance before the end.

However, survivors actually had a choice. They could completely obtain replenishment and rest in Xilan City and then head east in advance to catch up with the dawn center.

Lin Xian said in a deep voice: "Although they are afraid of the group hunting effect, they understand better that following the main force is the safest."

Shu Qin nodded: "Certainly some people will leave in advance, but most are more willing to follow the Phoenix Society. In the apocalypse, people will be more conformist and dependent, so they would rather wait until the last day to evacuate."

Lin Xian looked at the city under the wind and snow. Above the sky, aircraft flew past from time to time, and the tactical searchlights on the distant city walls flickered, bringing an extremely rare sense of security to the city.

"Two more days... hope everything goes well."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 269 =====