64: First meeting with Ye Hongyu

"Click."

The restless purple crystal core was precisely pressed into the slot, fitting perfectly.

The diesel engine, which had been merely humming, sounded as if it had been choked by the throat, and the noise stopped abruptly.

Immediately after, an ear-piercing, low-frequency buzzing sound rose from deep within the chassis, like a sleeping giant adjusting its breathing.

The dashboard on the center console instantly spiked off the charts, and the originally dim, yellow interior lights were dyed with a layer of eerie electric blue.

"Hold on tight, this time it's a launch start."

Su Chen lightly tapped the accelerator with his toe, and this behemoth didn't have the slightest bit of clumsy sluggishness; instead, it surged forward with an eerie sense of lightness, as if it were sliding on ice.

The front of the vehicle slammed into the remaining pile of floating stones, and this time, there was no sense of resistance.

The thunder force field attached to the surface of the vehicle acted like countless invisible high-frequency scalpels, instantly pulverizing the hard granite into powder.

This bus, although still a primary mobile fortress, was already comparable to an intermediate one with the augmentation of the thunder light!

The moment it rushed out of the canyon, the view suddenly opened up.

The rain had stopped at some point, and the sky remained that oppressive leaden gray.

At the edge of the horizon, a ten-thousand-ton ocean-going freighter, broken into two, stood towering.

It was like a stranded steel whale, lying across the dried-up riverbed.

Around it, rusty shipping containers, scrapped vehicles, and makeshift shacks were densely piled up.

The name of this area flashed on the map—Ghost Market.

It was five hundred meters from the entrance.

Three modified pickup trucks, welded with collision spikes and mounted with heavy machine guns, blocked the road in a 'pin' (triangular) formation.

The black muzzles pointed at the bus, while several men with cigarettes in their mouths and tattoos all over their bodies were listlessly wrapping barbed wire around the roadblocks.

"Stop! Shut off the engine! All males, get out and put your hands on your heads!"

The leader was a sturdy, shirtless man with a mohawk, a hideous scar stretching from the corner of his left eye to his chin; his nickname was Brother Leopard.

He held a large megaphone in his hand, his voice blasting out like a broken gong.

"Which deity doesn't know the rules? To enter the market, you must first verify your 'qualifications.' If you don't have qualifications, leave the vehicle and the women, and get lost!"

Su Chen was somewhat surprised; it seemed this apocalypse was even stranger than he had imagined.

Not everyone had been teleported into a survival bus; this Ghost Market was the best proof.

Su Chen took a deep breath, didn't shut off the engine, but only lowered the window by a slit.

The air was filled with the mixed smell of engine oil, rotting trash, and low-quality tobacco; this was the unique 'smell of life' of the apocalypse.

"Lin Mengyao, Qin Ya, Chen Jie."

Su Chen tapped his fingers lightly on the steering wheel, his voice flat.

"Get on the roof, show your weapons, and just let people see our 'assets'."

Since the other party wanted to verify 'qualifications,' then he would teach them a lesson.

In this world, clean and beautiful women were the hardest currency.

And beautiful women who possessed combat power and obeyed him absolutely were the absolute proof of strength.

As the hydraulic hatch opened, three beautiful figures appeared on the reinforced rooftop platform.

Lin Mengyao wore a tight-fitting black combat suit that outlined her breathtaking S-shaped curves, and the compound crossbow in her hand glinted with a cold light under the gloomy daylight.

Qin Ya pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses, her mature and intellectual temperament forming a sharp contrast with the modified shotgun in her hand.

Although Chen Jie was petite, the fanatic look in her eyes—ready to pounce and tear out an enemy's throat for Su Chen at any moment—was actually the most chilling.

The most critical thing was that they were too clean.

In this apocalypse where one had to calculate radiation levels even when drinking water, these three women looked as if they had just walked out of a beauty salon.

Their skin was fair and translucent, their hair was smooth, and they even carried the faint scent of shower gel.

The group of guards below, who were originally full of ferocity, stared straight, with drool almost dripping onto their gun stocks.

Brother Leopard's eyelids twitched wildly.

He knew the goods.

To be able to afford such top-tier beauties in the apocalypse and keep them obedient as bodyguards, the person sitting in the car was definitely not an ordinary powerful outsider.

They were at least a Tier 2 Awakened One, or even a ruthless expert at Tier 3 or Tier 4!

In this apocalypse, all humans who entered had slowly figured out the rules of the apocalypse.

Although there were countless monsters here, it also gave them the opportunity to grow.

Everyone could enhance their own strength through various means.

According to the current rules of the apocalypse, strength could break through to at most a Tier 9 Awakened One.

And judging by the current progress of the apocalypse, if a human could break through to a Tier 1 Awakened One, they were considered to have a little bit of strength.

By Tier 2, they were considered to be emerging talents.

As for Tier 3 or Tier 4, those were regional powerhouses!

The bus door opened slowly.

Su Chen walked down with one hand in his pocket.

He was not fully armed; he was only wearing a simple white shirt, which made him appear out of place with his surroundings.

"Are you in charge?"

Su Chen's gaze swept over Brother Leopard and finally landed on his slightly blackened lips.

"You are quite heavily poisoned; have you been feeling cold in your Dantian recently, and your lungs feel like they are being soaked in sulfuric acid?"

Brother Leopard shuddered, almost dropping the megaphone in his hand.

"You... how did you know?"

This was the aftereffect of long-term exposure to acid rain mist.

Most people in the market had this problem and could only rely on toughing it out; if they couldn't, they just waited for death.

Su Chen didn't speak; he just raised his right hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and compressed the Sacred Yang True Qi within his body frantically.

Soon, a ball of energy, only the size of a grain of rice but shining with brilliant golden light, condensed at his fingertips.

This was not some miraculous elixir; it was purely high-concentration 'extreme yang qi'.

For those eroded by the sinister acid rain, this thing was the best antidote.

"Open your mouth."

Before Brother Leopard could react, Su Chen flicked his finger.

That bit of golden light shot into Brother Leopard's mouth like a bullet and melted upon contact.

The next second, Brother Leopard felt as if he had swallowed a piece of burning red charcoal in his abdomen.

But this burning sensation was not painful; instead, it instantly dispersed the cold, damp energy that had been entrenched deep in his lungs and internal organs.

He coughed up a mouthful of black blood violently, but he felt unprecedentedly relaxed, and even his breathing became smooth.

"This... this is..."

Brother Leopard's eyes widened, and he touched his chest in disbelief.

"Yang Yuan Powder, I refined it myself."

Su Chen bluffed, but his face wore the expression of an unfathomable master from outside the secular world.

"This is just a greeting gift; I don't like being pointed at with guns, understand?"

Ancient martial artist? Alchemist?!

These two terms exploded in Brother Leopard's mind instantly.

In the apocalypse, there were many who could fight, but those who could cure illnesses and refine medicine were living ancestors!

"Understand! I understand perfectly!"

The ferocity on Brother Leopard's face instantly melted into fawning wrinkles, and his waist bent like a large shrimp.

He trotted to the roadblock and kicked away his subordinate who was still in a daze.

"Are you blind? Hurry up and clear the way for the Master! Whoever dares to scratch the Master's car paint, I'll peel their skin off!"

After clearing the roadblock, Brother Leopard respectfully took out a black gear badge stained with oil from his pocket and handed it to Su Chen with both hands.

"Master, this is the 'Black Iron Gear.' With this, all transaction taxes in the market are waived, and you can enter the core area at will! I am Brother Leopard; you can just call me Little Leopard."

Su Chen picked up the badge with two fingers, tossed it into the car window, and turned back to get in.

"Thanks."

The bus roared and drove into the market.

In this settlement filled with chaos and filth, Su Chen's steel behemoth, which was so clean it reflected light, was like an alien spacecraft.

On both sides of the street, countless tattered survivors poked their heads out of shacks, their gazes mixed with awe, jealousy, and naked greed.

Su Chen sat in the driver's seat, observing all this coldly through the one-way bulletproof glass.

Suddenly, his gaze paused for a moment as he passed a three-story shipping container.

A woman was standing there.

She wore a high-slit cheongsam as red as blood, which appeared particularly striking against the dusty, ruinous background.

Her legs were long and fair, and she was carelessly swirling a glass of liquid that could have been red wine or blood.

She did not show a greedy expression like the others; instead, she held binoculars, staring fixedly at Su Chen's driver's seat, the corners of her mouth curling into an arc as if she had seen interesting prey.

Ye Hongyu.

One of the big shots in this market.

Su Chen withdrew his gaze and did not stop.

He felt a very dangerous aura from this woman.

He tapped the car navigation, and the cursor representing the 'Special Treasure Chest Point' was flashing crazily.

The location pointed directly to the deepest part of the market, the mechanical graveyard that was considered a forbidden zone by the people of the market.

The bus had been upgraded to primary for some time; if he wanted to upgrade to an intermediate fortress, then this special treasure chest resource point was the key.