Chapter 77: Out on a treasure hunt, looting the entire city of gold, jewels, and jade.
12:00 PM.
It was the hottest time of the day, with the outdoor temperature approaching 75 degrees.
The blinding sun beat down on the melting asphalt road, and the heat waves distorted the shadows of the high-rise buildings.
In this kind of hellish weather, even the flies had all died off.
The bulletproof armored vehicle, however, was like a steel behemoth, rampaging through the deserted Financial Street.
"Boom!"
With a sharp, serpentine turn, the armored vehicle sent a roadside barrier flying and came to a steady halt in front of the headquarters of the city's largest national reserve bank.
Lin Xingwan pushed open the car door and jumped down.
She was wearing a specially made heat-insulating suit, looking at the dilapidated landmark building before her.
Once upon a time, this was the heart of the city's wealth.
Now?
The glass doors were all shattered, the lobby was a mess, and banknotes were scattered everywhere, trampled into the black mud like waste paper.
In The Apocalypse, a ton of hundred-dollar bills couldn't even trade for half a moldy steamed bun.
But for Lin Xingwan, the things inside this underground vault were priceless treasures.
"Where is the mysterious armed force Huo Yuan mentioned?"
Lin Xingwan scanned the lobby, but didn't see a single living thing.
"They probably died from the heat." Huo Yuan walked over, carrying a black tactical backpack, his tone casual.
He walked to the elevator shaft leading to the underground vault and glanced down.
It was pitch black, and a strong, foul stench mixed with the smell of blood surged up.
Huo Yuan frowned slightly.
He pulled a flare from his waist, flicked the ring open with his thumb, and threw it down.
"Sss—"
The blinding white light instantly illuminated the elevator shaft, which was over a dozen meters deep.
The scene at the bottom was nauseating.
Over a dozen corpses wearing high-quality tactical vests were piled up in a tangled mess, their states of death extremely gruesome.
Some had their necks twisted directly, while others had large, bloody holes gouged out of their chests.
Several automatic rifles with empty magazines were scattered on the ground.
"It seems someone beat us to it and cleaned up this so-called 'mysterious armed force'."
Lin Xingwan leaned over to take a look and clicked her tongue.
"Being able to tear apart fully armed mercenaries with bare hands—this isn't something an ordinary person could do."
Huo Yuan's eyes were cold and sharp, his hand resting on the holster on his thigh.
"Mutated creature." He spat out the four words.
The extreme heat, combined with the catalyst of rotting corpses throughout the city, meant that the animals that had survived had long since begun to mutate.
"Whatever it is, if it dares to stop me from getting the gold, I'll kill it regardless."
Lin Xingwan wasn't afraid; instead, she was a bit excited.
The two of them followed the stairs of the emergency exit and snuck all the way to the perimeter of the vault on the third underground level.
The smell of blood was even stronger.
The vault's heavy main blast door was tightly shut.
But on this alloy door, which was claimed to be impenetrable even by missiles, there were strikingly deep three-fingered claw marks.
The claw marks had torn directly through the ten-centimeter-thick steel plate.
"What terrifying bite force and claws." Huo Yuan stepped forward and touched the rolled metal edges of the claw marks, his voice low.
The monster had clearly wanted to break in, but had ultimately given up.
"It couldn't get in, but we can."
Lin Xingwan took two steps back, making room for Huo Yuan.
Huo Yuan pulled several pieces of high-energy C4 explosive that looked like modeling clay from his tactical backpack.
He skillfully stuck the explosives onto the weakest load-bearing hinges of the blast door and inserted the detonators.
"Stand back."
The two hid behind a load-bearing wall.
Huo Yuan pressed the remote control.
"Boom—"
A dull, deafening roar echoed through the underground space, shaking dust from the ceiling that rained down.
The alloy door, weighing dozens of tons, was blown inward and crashed heavily onto the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Golden light.
The blinding golden light instantly pierced through the dim basement.
When the dust settled, Lin Xingwan walked forward.
The entire vault was as large as two basketball courts.
Inside, hundreds upon hundreds of iron boxes were neatly stacked.
Through the gaps where the boxes had been blown open, one could see gold bars stacked as neatly as bricks!
"We're rich."
Lin Xingwan's eyes were shockingly bright, and her breathing even quickened.
Without any hesitation, she fully unleashed her Mental Power!
"Swish, swish, swish—"
Dozens of tons of gold, as if sucked up by an invisible giant dragon, instantly vanished into thin air.
In the empty vault, not even a single thread of gold remained.
"Satisfying!" Lin Xingwan clapped her hands, feeling that the space in her mind clearly had a sense of fullness.
But this wasn't enough.
"Let's go, to the Antique Street!"
The two left the bank without stopping and drove straight to the city's most famous Liulichang Antique Street.
The shops here had long since been smashed by survivors.
But those people only looted food and drink, while the priceless jade and emeralds were treated like shards of glass and scattered all over the ground.
Lin Xingwan was like a ruthless vacuum cleaner.
She swept from one end of the street to the other.
Valuable imperial green jade raw stones, top-grade mutton-fat jade bracelets, and even several half-person-tall Hetian jade Guanyin carvings.
As long as the stones had spiritual energy, regardless of quality, they were all swept away by her mind.
The space greedily devoured these jade pieces.
Lin Xingwan could clearly feel that the layer of white mist blocking the space's upgrade was churning violently.
"Just a little more, just the last bit!"
She gritted her teeth and turned to look at the tallest building in the city center—the Provincial History Museum.
"Go there!"
The armored vehicle let out a roar and charged toward the museum.
The museum's jade exhibition hall was on the top floor.
Because the security system was completely powered down, the two easily broke through the exhibition hall's tempered glass.
Any single item taken from here could have fetched an astronomical price of over 100 million before The Apocalypse.
Ancient jade from the Shang Dynasty, jade cicadas from the Han Dynasty, jadeite cabbage from the Qing Dynasty.
Lin Xingwan collected them frantically.
When she walked to the deepest part of the exhibition hall and saw a palm-sized, pitch-black piece of ancient jade inside a bulletproof glass cabinet.
She froze.
The jade had no carvings, yet it emitted an ancient fluctuation that made one's heart palpitate.
"This thing..."
Lin Xingwan reached out and smashed the bulletproof glass with a punch.
The moment her fingertips touched that black ancient jade.
"Hum—!!!"
An energy of terrifying intensity surged along her arm and, like a nuclear explosion, crashed into her mind!
The entire space seemed to experience a magnitude-10 earthquake!
After absorbing this black jade, the indestructible boundary of white mist instantly collapsed and shattered!
"Ugh!"
Lin Xingwan let out a muffled groan of pain.
The massive influx of information and the shock of the space's upgrade made her brain dizzy, and her body fell forward uncontrollably.
"Wanwan!"
Huo Yuan was quick-witted and agile; he grabbed her waist and pulled her tightly into his arms.
"What's wrong? Were you ambushed?"
Huo Yuan's voice was distorted with tension; he raised his gun with one hand and scanned the surroundings vigilantly.
He thought it was a sneak attack by a mutated creature hiding in the shadows.
Lin Xingwan leaned against his chest, panting heavily.
A few seconds later, the dizziness faded, replaced by an absolute sense of power, a feeling of controlling everything!
She opened her eyes suddenly.
In the depths of those originally clear fox-like eyes, a faint golden stream of light flashed, and feelings of wild joy were almost overflowing.
The space had not only upgraded to its final, fourth form.
Moreover, it had unlocked a new, heaven-defying ability!
Lin Xingwan grabbed Huo Yuan's thick arm.
She looked up at the man's handsome face, which was filled with worry, and a wanton smile lifted her red lips.
"I'm fine."
Her voice was filled with irrepressible excitement and trembling.
"Huo Yuan, close your eyes, come with me!"