50: Wu Qian, come and take a shower together.

The pungent smell of burning pierced his nostrils like needles. Before Su Chen could savor the relief of escaping death, he was pulled back to reality by a sizzling sound from the roof.

The bus, which had been traveling smoothly through the void, was now emitting a series of tooth-aching metal peeling sounds.

The steel plates, claimed to be able to resist outer gods, were actually thinning and denting visibly under the wash of the acid rain, like frosting meeting heat.

The edges of his retina seemed to be covered with a layer of unwashable coal ash, turning dark in waves.

Su Chen looked down at his fingertips; that eerie layer of deathly gray was spreading along his knuckles.

Yang Energy Value: 12%.

This number was like a blood-red warning light, dancing frantically in the depths of his consciousness.

Truly, whatever one fears most is what arrives.

Su Chen propped himself up on his sore knees and pulled the "Bus Structure Diagram" left by Zhao Wanting out from the gap under the driver's seat.

Although this girl had become an Artifact Spirit, she was still quite thorough in her work.

His finger traced across the rough blueprint, finally pressing firmly on the red dot in the rear cabin labeled "Emergency Water Tank."

If he wanted to survive the acid rain, just hiding wasn't the way.

Although his Sacred Yang True Qi was almost depleted, its essence was high-dimensional energy. If he could transform the ordinary water purification device into a resonance purification chamber... but this thing needed a guiding anchor point, an interface that would allow this broken bus to recognize and accept the "Sacred Yang Frequency."

"Cough, cough."

A faint sound of chalk scraping rang out in the silent carriage.

Qin Ya had walked to the rear cabin at some unknown point. Her signature white shirt was soaked with cold sweat, revealing a somewhat disheveled intellectual beauty.

She didn't speak, but silently cut three strands of hair from beside her ear.

Su Chen watched as she crouched down and used a piece of broken chalk to outline an extremely complex formation on the rust-covered floor.

That was the Master's Soul Sealing Formation; he had seen a similar configuration during the Lin Family's exam assessment.

This teacher was quite clever, intending to use her "Invigilator" authority to patch his plan.

Qin Ya looked up at Su Chen, her eyes reflecting an unprecedented determination.

She pointed at the three strands of hair, then at her own throat.

Stripping away the masters soul thread meant she would temporarily lose the right to "speak" in this world.

Su Chen understood her gaze.

In this post-apocalyptic world where everything demanded equivalent exchange, this kind of trust was so heavy it made his eyelids twitch slightly.

As the hair was embedded into the hideous crack in the water tank, a faint but resilient golden light flashed and then vanished.

The water tank, which had been on the verge of collapse, actually managed to maintain its shape under the corrosion of the acid rain.

"Zzzt— Zzzt—"

The low-quality broadcast in the carriage suddenly emitted a burst of static, and Zhao Wanting's somewhat distorted voice spread to every corner.

"Warning! The surface contamination index of all personnel has reached the critical value. Complete decontamination certification within 2 hours! Otherwise, forced purging will be executed!"

These words were like dropping cold water into a deep fryer; the girls who had been cowering in their seats instantly exploded into a commotion.

"Lin Mengyao goes first! She's the one Su Chen designated, everyone else wait your turn!"

Chen Wei was holding a rusted temperature gun she'd dismantled from under a seat, blocking the narrow entrance to the shower area like a guardian deity.

Behind her stood five girls who were usually submissive, but now each of them had fierce looks in their eyes.

On this bus with only a one-square-meter shower stall and nearly empty water storage, showering wasn't for cleanliness; it was for survival.

"Why? We're classmates too!"

Someone protested in a low voice.

"Because she can restore Su Chen's health, can you?"

Chen Wei's single sentence shut the other person down.

Su Chen watched this farce with cold eyes.

An egoist never stops this kind of class division, because it helps him filter out useless trash.

He stood up and clapped his hands.

"Everyone shut up. We're starting the 'clinical validation' now."

Su Chen's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unquestionable coldness.

The noisy girls instantly quieted down, their gazes all shifting toward him.

Lin Mengyao's current condition was very poor. Having previously forced a blood pact using poison had caused foul Yang Energy to accumulate in her meridians, and faint blue-purple veins were visible on her fair neck.

She walked obediently to Su Chen. Although her eyes still held the reserve of a cold campus belle, her violently trembling eyelashes betrayed her inner turmoil.

Without any unnecessary words, Su Chen directly gripped her wrist and placed his other hand on the back of her neck.

The moment they touched, a surge of scorching Yang Energy rushed into Lin Mengyao's body like a bursting dam.

"Ugh..."

Lin Mengyao let out a suppressed groan, her body involuntarily leaning back, pressing tightly into Su Chen's embrace.

Pervasive mist rose around the two of them. It wasn't ordinary water vapor, but the foul impurities being forcibly expelled.

Su Chen could feel the lovely body in his arms gradually changing from stiff to soft.

Under the domineering fluctuations of the Sacred Yang Divine Body, the originally blocked Yang Energy began to flow along its path like a docile stream.

The data board on his retina began to scroll frantically.

"Lin Mengyao loyalty +5%."

"Loyalty increase detected, purification initiated."

The originally turbid water flow, upon passing through their overlapping bodies, was actually filtered by some kind of magnetic field, condensing into seven fist-sized, deep-blue water droplets floating in the air.

"Oh my god... look at Tang Yurou's hand!"

An exclamation interrupted Su Chen's thoughts.

Tang Yurou, who had been in the corner with the back of her hand festering due to contact with the acid rain, was now staring at her wound in disbelief.

A drop of the holy water had just splashed onto the back of her hand, and the blackened, rotting flesh was actually falling off at a visible rate, with tender new flesh instantly scabbing and growing.

"pH value 7.03, rich in unknown peptide chains, the rate of cell regeneration has increased by nearly four times..."

Li Sisi pushed up the broken frames on the bridge of her nose.

Her finger moved quickly across a palm-sized notebook, her voice carrying a distinct tremor from excessive excitement.

This was a miracle!

Or rather, this was the only hard currency in this desperate world—the hope of survival.

"Su... Su Chen, applying for the second round of testing!"

The athletic girl, Wu Qian, suddenly stood up. Her already short sports tank top tightly constricted her chest, and her eyes flashed with a near-fanatical desire.

"I can help too! I can be responsible for reinforcing the outer shell!"

On the other side, the usually quietest arts representative, Zheng Lin, was lowering her head and handing over a bar of plant ash soap that emitted a light fragrance.

Her cuffs were still stained with some fine yellow powder.

"This is a slow-release formula I ground using ginkgo leaves I collected earlier. It can work with your... your field to reduce physical exhaustion."

She didn't dare look into Su Chen's eyes as she spoke, her earlobes turning blood-red.

"Hum—"

The carriage vibrated.

Zhao Wanting's voice rang out again, this time with less mechanical feel and more human-like cunning.

"Resonance protocol has been upgraded to 'Symbiosis Module'."

"Commander, the next purification can connect three people simultaneously. However, due to the crowded energy path, it may produce some... special physiological sensory loads."

Su Chen felt the Yang Energy value in his body rise back to 19%. Although the spore phantoms in his vision hadn't completely disappeared, that feeling of weakness had lessened considerably.

He clenched his fist, feeling the residual warmth in his palm.

These girls were starting to actively gravitate toward him; this was good.

In the apocalypse, things people actively reach out for always have more cohesive power than things passively given as charity.

The pure white void outside began to fluctuate violently, and a sound like teeth grinding came from deep within the chassis.

The level of acid rain corrosion had upgraded again. The entire bus let out a wail in the void, as if it would fall apart at any moment.

Su Chen turned his head, his gaze sweeping over those faces full of expectation mixed with timidity, finally stopping on Wu Qian's long legs.

"Wu Qian, come here."

His tone was calm, but the profound meaning revealed in his eyes caused the air in the entire carriage to instantly freeze.