Chapter 233: Thunderstorm

As of now, Bai Lang, aside from seeing people ride horses, his only other means of transport is steam cars. "Why no internal combustion vehicles? Probably no oil?" Bai Lang, having modern knowledge, naturally has his own view on this. It's likely this world truly lacks petroleum fuel, perhaps undiscovered? Anyway, having coal but no oil is scientifically nonsensical.

Internal combustion vehicles can make the engine small yet powerful—but this world's steam engines don't seem to be pure steam engines either; at least the distortion Bai Lang can perceive in them is quite formidable. As for internal combustion engines… "Let me recall what this thing's structure is like? Cylinder piston plus crankshaft…"

Bai Lang was once a graduate of a 211 university; although he studied IT, which is now useless, during work he also came into contact with and gathered a lot of material, including internal combustion engine principle diagrams and the like. He can recall the structure of internal combustion engines and even picture a few internal combustion engine diagrams—but the problem is having the diagrams is useless; he can't build them.

Steam motorcycles do exist, but they're even more expensive than trucks; all transportation here is costly—except for horses and camels. In the end Bai Lang could only pull a handcart with his own two legs into the wilderness; the wilderness terrain is relatively flat, so the handcart can still reach many places.

If he uses Lightness Skill, the handcart might fall apart from overheated bearings, so he can only go a little slower. The handcart carries all of Bai Lang's current possessions—a one‑person small triangular tent, a mat, and a crude sleeping bag. Besides that, there's just a metal frame and some coal chunks—for heating food, of course, plus the matching cashew‑shaped picnic cookware.

Besides those, there are some spice and salt sets bought from the grocery store, and also drinking water sealed in metal buckets—most outdoor water sources in Steam Land are toxic, heavily polluted; even the rain there is basically undrinkable.

Since he's alone, what's loaded on the handcart is enough; the actual edible items—Bai Lang has a notebook, which lists the creatures of this wilderness that have been categorized, the vast majority of which are edible. Steam Land also has plenty of edible things; minus the mechanical parts, basically everything can be eaten.

Will the handcart break? Bai Lang feels that once he reaches Steam Land, whether it breaks or not is nothing to fear—there are so many machine monsters, and he can easily salvage bearings and such spare parts from them.

This time, Steam Land's greeting to Bai Lang is no longer green worms or coal‑bucket monsters, but troops of monkeys. These monkeys wear backpacks on their backs, hold weapons in their hands, and surround Bai Lang from all directions. "Rifles, flamethrowers, even kinetic blades! These monkeys are really extravagant." Bai Lang looks at these extraordinarily stout monkeys and almost laughs.

If he could still use the storm, these monkeys wouldn't stand a chance—he could kill as many as came. But he doesn't dare try the Wind Fist right now. Bai Lang casually dodged several attacks, and saw these monkeys begin to snatch his handcart and its contents in a very crude way. "Monkey bandits?"

Bai Lang tapped his toe, scratched his chin, and said, "Let me give it a try, just to be prepared." As he made up his mind, a fierce wind suddenly whipped up around him. The wind mingled with lightning, and large amounts of clouds were drawn into the sky. All this happened in just a few breaths, and every single monkey was sucked into the storm.

"Does this distortion mutation still seem controllable?" Bai Lang felt his true qi drawing the local world's vital energy, the situation when he displayed his innate martial art. Lightning flashing within the storm is a normal natural phenomenon, but the lightning suddenly locking onto Bai Lang and striking him is another matter.

The monkeys were swept into the wind; that wind contained countless wind blades that, in an instant, tore apart the monkeys' limbs, took away their flesh and skin, carried off the packs on their backs, leaving skeletons dancing in the wind, and then even the bones were ground to dust and blown away.

The ground also began to tremble; while Bai Lang dodged heavenly thunder, he felt the ground beneath him grow warm. He immediately ceased his technique: "Can't stop it? The world's vital energy is spinning on its own? Damn, I've got to run!"

Bai Lang grabbed the handcart and placed it on his head, then, carrying the handcart, he used Lightness Skill to run. With its basically insulated wooden frame, even if lightning struck Bai Lang it would only paralyze him briefly. An ordinary person would be blasted to ash, but Bai Lang merely glows all over.

The ground began to shatter, red light bursting out from below, accompanied by a piercing whistle, as scalding steam sprayed from the cracked earth—a geyser. "Does this mean there's magma down there?" Bai Lang cursed; the ground heaved like a sea surface. Though his Lightness Skill martial arts would normally let him ignore it, the lightning strikes make it troublesome—but in the end he came out unscathed.

Emerging from underground were not only geysers, but also sand worms larger than a bus. These sand worms aren't metal‑organic hybrids; they're simply creatures whose skin secretes burning mucus. Their huge mouths look like crushers and will devour anything edible.

"Not just one!" Bai Lang, relying on his keen foot‑sense, could dodge even the fastest‑erupting geysers, let alone sand worms. These sand worms appear only in this violent thunderstorm weather; perhaps there's some scientific reason behind it. The storm Bai Lang raised has ceased, but the spontaneous rotation of the world's vital energy has brought on a thunderstorm and downpour.

It's all Bai Lang's fault for gathering clouds and stirring the world's vital energy.

The rain poured, the wind wasn't strong but the thunderstorm was terrifying—black sky after black sky, lightning dragons dancing wildly; the lightning between heaven and earth was like a forest, and with the ground trembling, cold air above and scorching below, hence the torrential rain.

Bai Lang, with the handcart on his head, was like a big head—others have umbrellas, he has a big head, and his protective gang qi keeps rain from reaching more than a third of his outer clothing before it falls off—though this behavior in the distorted situation probably yields no good result, he just doesn't care now.

The luggage on the handcart is sadly ruined, soaked through; Bai Lang still has to dry it out—if the spices and salt weren't in waterproof sealed pouches, he'd have wasted his purchase.

Bai Lang burst out of the thunderstorm zone and saw those metal steam trucks and tanks actually advancing into the zone on their own, thus becoming a feast for the sand worms. These monsters can even chew metal; Bai Lang put down the handcart and watched, just three feet ahead, the sand worm bite a truck, its crusher‑like mouth grinding the truck away bit by bit—even a boiler explosion wouldn't hurt this monster. Bai Lang leaned on the handcart, enjoying the sunshine, while three feet away the thunderstorm's dark clouds, rain, and even spray reached him. "Should I think of a way to take a shot at him?"