sbdcsierra Chapter 227 Brasov
Chapter 227 Brasov
Zhou Wangyue pondered for a moment on the other end of the terminal, then spoke: "Europe, one of the most populous continents fifty years ago."
"Most of it fell after the cataclysm. Now, the only human settlements there are scattered base cities and mercenary city-states. The Great Xia's sphere of influence cannot reach there."
"Once you arrive, you'll be in an unfamiliar place, so don't trust anyone easily."
"I will be careful."
"Okay, then go ahead."
Song Chen hung up the call and tucked the terminal back into his pocket.
He stood atop the Corpse Mountain, exchanged a few more recovery pills from the system shop, and popped them into his mouth, chewing as he looked down at the beast corpses beneath his feet.
Sirius's greyish-white fur, the Ice-spine Dragon Lizard's bone-white ice spikes, the Arctic Snow Bear's white fur, the Giant Ice Scorpion's dark blue carapace...
The corpses of strange beasts were piled up and covered the entire ice field, and the blood had frozen into layers of ice shells in the low polar temperatures.
The air was thick with the stench of blood and the burnt smell of psionic energy, which even the biting polar winds couldn't dispel.
He drew the Heavenly Blade and sheathed it.
Europe.
He recalled the descriptions of pre-Cataclysmic Europe in his geography textbook: colorful cities, ancient castles, cobblestone squares…
The Europe depicted in textbooks is someone else's history; now he wants to go and see for himself what the ruins, neglected for fifty years, look like.
He walked toward Europe, the pale sunlight of the polar region casting a long shadow behind him.
Two days later, in Eastern Europe, in the Carpathian Mountains.
Song Chen stood in the center of an abandoned city square, holding the head of a mutated lynx he had just pulled from a nearby alley, and casually tossed it on the ground.
The city is called Brasov. Before the cataclysm, it was a major tourist destination in the region, famous for its Gothic castle and old town with colorful walls.
It's still there, but it's so quiet it leaves you feeling empty.
The medieval buildings around the square are remarkably well-preserved; the exterior of a small Gothic building with yellow walls and red tiles is covered with dead vines.
The window glass is long gone, but the window frame remains; the dark, gaping windows look like rows of eye sockets without pupils.
The fountain in the center of the square has been dry for who knows how many years, and the bottom of the pool is covered with dried moss and a few gray weeds sprouting from the cracks in the stones.
The little angel sculpture at the top of the fountain has had half its head bitten off by some strange beast, but the remaining half of its face is still smiling, which is particularly eerie.
Clumps of grayish-green hard grass sprouted from the cracks in the stone pavement, some growing out of the gaps in the skeletons of strange beasts, stitching the bones together with the stone slabs.
He walked around the deserted city for about an hour, pushing open the door of every house to take a look.
In some houses, the furniture is still arranged as it was fifty years ago. On the dining table are knives and forks that have rusted into iron slag and pieces of porcelain. On the kitchen stove is a pot covered in ash.
The clothes in the closet are still hanging, but they'll break at the slightest touch.
The photos on the wall have faded to just blurry outlines. One photo shows a family of three standing in front of a fountain. Now the fountain is dry, and the child is gone too.
The corpses of strange beasts were everywhere.
The Sirius King's death order wasn't just effective in the Arctic. Over the past three days, Song Chen had fought his way from Greenland, across the Nordic ice sheet, and into the mountains of Eastern Europe, and the strange beasts that had been chasing him all the way were relentless.
There are polar snow bears and ice-spine dragons that have been chased down from the Arctic Circle, mutated wolverines and moose that have emerged from the forests of Northern Europe, as well as mutated brown bears, mutated lynxes, and mutated bison native to Eastern Europe.
The local beasts probably didn't know who the Sirius King was, but they heard the mental command and were pinned to the pursuit order, rushing out of the mountains and forests in waves.
Hundreds of local beast corpses now lie scattered across the square: mutated brown bears, mutated lynxes, two-headed eagles, and a pack of mutated wild dogs that seemed to have swarmed in from some abandoned farm.
The bodies stretched from the square all the way to the entrance of the old city hall, the blood mixed with the red blood, congealing into patches of ice on the stone pavement.
Song Chen walked to the steps in front of the old city hall and sat down.
The building retains its original appearance, with a pointed clock tower, arched stone windows, and gray walls covered in moss.
The last notice still posted on the notice board at the entrance of the city hall was faded beyond recognition, the paper wrinkled from being soaked in water, as if time had stopped fifty years ago.
In the past, these fifty years would have been fifty years of peace, during which technology would have advanced and cities would have expanded.
But in the city before him, fifty years had only resulted in vines climbing the walls, grass growing on the stone paths, fountains drying up, and strange beasts turning the square into a hunting ground.
He leaned against the doorpost and looked up at the clock tower.
The clock tower's hands stopped at a certain point in time, probably the moment the power went out on the day of the cataclysm.
This clock hasn't ticked in fifty years.
He looked away and opened the system panel.
Two days, from the time Sirius was killed until now, only two days.
The kill count has reached forty million.
He checked the numbers twice, then leaned against the goalpost and exhaled.
The Sirius King's death order turned all the land-based beasts into his automated food delivery service.
"Forty million."
"Old man, your last order was meant to have all the alien beasts on the land tear me apart, but you don't know I have a system. No one would believe that if I told them, but thanks anyway."
He spoke to himself, his voice not loud, but it echoed very faintly in the empty city hall corridors.
Song Chen scrolled to the S-level item section of the system shop. "Heavenly Fate Blood Pill, one for 500,000 kill points, 40 million kill points would be 80 pills, I'll exchange for it directly."
A large ball of pills brimming with spiritual energy appeared in his hand.
Looking at the Heavenly Fate Blood Pill in his hand, Song Chen was in a daze. He now had eighty pills of this level.
He calculated the time, then swallowed them one after another.
He sat on the steps in front of the city hall, swallowing as he looked at the monster corpses in the square, gradually covered with a thin layer of frost by the cold polar wind.
Three days ago, when he set off from Greenland, his Qi and Blood were at 17,000. After swallowing eighty Heavenly Fate Qi and Blood Pills today, I wonder how much he will reach.
Each time a pill was swallowed, the number on the system panel jumped.
One day later.
Song Chen glanced at the number on the panel: 36882
He was very satisfied with his nearly 37,000 units of Qi and blood.
He stood up, stretched his shoulders, and a series of dull, cracking sounds came from all his joints.
The flow of Qi and blood in the meridians transformed from a small stream into a mighty river, and the vortex of Qi and blood within the body expanded by a full circle compared to before.
As I drew the Heavenly Blade, the golden-purple arcs on its blade were denser and brighter than before, and the blade felt a little lighter in my hand.
He sheathed his sword, jumped down from the steps of the city hall, and walked out of the square.
There's nothing worth keeping in this city anymore.
He had a general idea of where to go next: west.
There are more strange beasts chasing him to the west, and the sea is to the east. The teacher said he can't go there.
The Black Sea lies to the south, so we can't go there either.
Let's continue west, through Transylvania, and see if the Danube is still there.