177: On the Brink of Death

Yuan Qiu crouched on the edge of the circular boulder, past memories flooding his mind, causing him great pain.

Hunted by numerous families, the Reptilian Clan was nearly wiped out.

A race of hundreds of millions was reduced to fewer than tens of thousands, all hiding beneath the Heavenly Abyss.

"I'm curious about one question," Tang Ruyi asked, crossing her arms.

"Is it... Absolute Zero?"

Tang Ruyi nodded.

He gave a bitter smile, shook his head, and said, "True Absolute Zero is very difficult to achieve. Our clan used super artificial intelligence to calculate it; I fear it's only possible to achieve at a Level 3 civilization."

"Then at that time..." Tang Ruyi pondered.

"In that situation, it was utter chaos. How was our clan supposed to explain it?"

"However, in terms of scientific research on Absolute Zero, our clan did indeed make major breakthroughs, leading all the families at the time."

Although Yuan Qiu's voice was not loud, his words were full of pride.

"My Tang Family once helped your Reptilian Clan. Now, my friends may have fallen into the Heavenly Abyss, and I would like to ask for your help in finding them."

Tang Ruyi was not very interested in Absolute Zero; having woken up after sleeping for tens of thousands of years, she was extremely averse to sleeping again.

"Alright."

Yuan Qiu didn't waste any words, returning to the hibernation chamber, where a 'beep-beep-beep' sound rang out.

"Creak!" "Creak!"

The hibernation chamber extended several metal platforms of varying sizes, on which were placed battle suits, firearms, and detection equipment.

He put on the battle suit, placed his sidearm at his waist, and was followed by two saucer-shaped drones.

Exiting the cave, the saucer drones activated their scanners and sped off towards the north and south directions of the fissure.

"Ding."

Two small circular holes appeared on the shoulders of the battle suit, projecting the images fed back by the drones into mid-air.

The images on the display kept changing, and Xu Jingzhe's heart tightened along with them.

The fissure of the Heavenly Abyss was wide and long, stretching for unknown miles, and with the radiation interference so severe, he was worried that the detection equipment wouldn't have enough range.

Sure enough, after the two aircraft had flown for several hundred miles, the projected scenes began to become unstable, flickering from time to time.

Continuing to fly for about fifty miles, the signal was lost.

"The Heavenly Abyss is so long; our clan only explored a small portion back then, ultimately choosing to hide in the area with the densest radiation."

"Your friends might not be in this area," Yuan Qiu said.

Xu Jingzhe frowned tightly. Judging from the signs of fighting on the edge of the Heavenly Abyss, the place where they fell should be nearby, and Ye Zi and Dilisi were severely injured.

If they wanted to survive, the two of them must have reduced prolonged movement to conserve the energy within their bodies.

The saucer drones searched left and right, covering a total distance of three hundred miles.

Under normal circumstances, two severely injured people could never have traveled that far.

"Could they be hiding in a cave running east-west?" Xu Jingzhe asked.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Qiu's expression changed, and he said seriously, "That is the hibernation ground for my clansmen. If outsiders intrude without authorization, they will activate the sleeping people, and the two of them could be attacked."

"You might be... overthinking it," Tang Ruyi said indifferently.

"What do you mean by that?" Yuan Qiu was confused.

"I have been to the caves where your clansmen sleep; almost all of them are dead. The nutrient solution in the hibernation chambers has run out, the energy stones have cracked, and there is no sign of life."

"What!" Yuan Qiu was shocked, his gray pupils contracting sharply.

He disregarded Xu Jingzhe and the other, hurriedly running to the nearest crossroads and entering a stone cave.

Suddenly, his whole body went cold, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

The temperature here was the same as the outside, normal room temperature; there was no Absolute Zero here.

The hibernation ground of the clansman closest to the main chamber had lost the coverage of Absolute Zero, so one could imagine the state of other areas.

Yuan Qiu fell to his knees, roaring up at the sky, tears of blood streaming from his eyes.

Why? Why?

The Absolute Zero technology was clearly very mature, and the entire Reptilian Clan had sacrificed so much for it; how could this happen?

After a long time, Yuan Qiu finally recovered from his grief.

The current Reptilian Clan was effectively extinct; of the hundreds of millions of people, only a pitiful few hundred remained.

With neither technology nor numbers, wanting to develop again was nothing more than a pipe dream.

"Let's look for them. I estimate they are likely hiding in one of the caves," Tang Ruyi said.

Yuan Qiu rose from the ground, his brain feeling dizzy. Back then, the Tang Family had helped the Reptilian Clan a lot, and they owed quite a debt of gratitude.

He just didn't expect to have to repay it tens of thousands of years later.

The circular probes flew back, entering cave after cave to search for Ye Zi and Dilisi.

"Beep-beep-beep!"

Suddenly, the circular probe emitted a piercing alarm sound.

Xu Jingzhe's spirit was roused, his eyes widening like copper bells.

Yuan Qiu reopened the projection, seeing Ye Zi and Dilisi huddled together.

Both were severely injured, especially Ye Zi, whose body seemed to be cracking, and her chest showed no signs of rising and falling.

In an instant, Xu Jingzhe's eye sockets turned blood-red, as if they were about to bleed.

"In that cave," Xu Jingzhe said, his voice terrifyingly grim, his fists clenched tightly.

"Cave number 22-21, follow me." Yuan Qiu felt the sharp killing intent emanating from the two of them and didn't dare to delay.

The killing intent on Tang Ruyi was entirely triggered by sensing the killing intent on Xu Jingzhe.

She really regarded Xu Jingzhe as the first friend she had made since waking up!

Arriving in the cave, a pungent smell of blood filled the entire space. Xu Jingzhe rushed over, but his outstretched hand trembled and he pulled it back.

He was afraid that if he wasn't careful, he would shatter Ye Zi's body.

On the other hand, Dilisi, because she was wearing a vibranium battle suit, had no visible external injuries yet.

With tears in his eyes, Xu Jingzhe looked at Yuan Qiu; Ye Zi's current body could not support long-distance travel, and one wrong move could cost her life.

Yuan Qiu sighed, stepped forward, and crouched beside Ye Zi.

He slightly opened his right hand, and the life detection function built into his battle suit began to scan Ye Zi's bodily data.

"The heart is severely damaged with many cracks. The kidneys, liver, spleen, and stomach all have severe wounds. There are multiple broken bones, with several places nearly pulverized..."

Yuan Qiu's brows gradually furrowed; various data points far exceeded the red line.

To put it bluntly, Ye Zi was already dead.

It was just unknown why she was still hanging on by a thread; it was this thread that supported her faint, almost non-existent breathing.

After checking Ye Zi, Yuan Qiu dared not reveal her condition, worried that the person before him would go berserk. He began to check Dilisi, moving his palm onto her body.

"Crack!" A crisp sound rang out.

The battle suit at his palm cracked directly, which shocked him, and he said, "She..."

"She has a vibranium battle suit on, I don't know the level." Xu Jingzhe took out four fruits picked from the New Realm from his space and handed them to Yuan Qiu, saying, "Is there any way to let them both absorb these?"

Yuan Qiu's expression was very ugly; he felt pained by the damaged battle suit, but he could only hold it in—who told them the Reptilian Clan owed the Tang Family a favor?

Taking the fruits, he looked at Xu Jingzhe with some surprise. What a rich fluctuation of life energy, and it also contained various elements; these were rare treasures.