Chapter 127: Strength Enhancement

"You guys sleep first, I'm going out for a smoke!"After saying this, Chen Ye put on his clothes and walked out of Classroom 3, Grade 4.

As soon as he stepped out of the classroom and entered the corridor, a cold current hit his face, instantly refreshing his entire spirit.

He casually lit a cigarette and held it between his lips.

It wasn't that Chen Ye was being considerate, smoking outside because Chu Che and Iron Lion were in the room.

Rather, Chen Ye wanted to see what effects the upgraded Death God Blood Tears actually had.

There was absolutely no privacy inside the room.

Everything he did would be seen by those two.

Iron Lion wasn't much of a concern—the guy was simple-minded. Even if Chen Ye openly displayed his Upgrade System, Iron Lion probably wouldn't realize what it was.

The troublesome one was Chu Che.

That guy was as sharp as a monkey—if Chen Ye showed even the slightest clue, Chu Che could probably figure out eighty to ninety percent of the truth.

It was better to avoid this guy.

Just in case they turned against each other in the future.

Next door was Classroom 4, Grade 4, where Ding Dong and Sun Xixi were staying.

Just then, Chen Ye saw a short, small, dark object floating toward him—with no head!

In that instant, Chen Ye felt all the hairs on his body stand on end.

What the hell...

Didn't Wu Jianshan say there were no Anomalies here?

What the hell is this?

Chen Ye exhaled a puff of smoke, which quickly spread through the corridor.

"Chen Ye!"

A clear voice came from the headless thing, startling Chen Ye.

"Damn, what the hell are you? How do you know my name?"

"Chen Ye, you bastard, smoking again! You'll smoke yourself to death sooner or later!"

"Lit...tle Fish?"

"Hmph!"

Only then did Chen Ye see clearly—this wasn't any Anomaly at all.

The reason it had no head was because Little Fish was wearing a long down jacket that completely enveloped her entire body, not even leaving her head exposed.

Little Fish kicked open the door to Classroom 4, Grade 4, snorted coldly, glared at Chen Ye, then wobbled into the classroom.

"Bang!"

The classroom door slammed shut violently.

The scattered snow outside the door was shaken into disarray and panic.

Chen Ye: "..."

This little girl, so small in stature, but with such an arrogant expression.

He could still hear voices talking inside the room.

"Little Fish, who's outside?"

"Who else could it be? Chen Ye, standing outside smoking. He'll smoke himself to death one day!"

"Hehe... he won't smoke himself to death. His ability is smoke control..."

Excited voices from survivors also came from downstairs.

For the first time in six months, they could sleep in a building. For these people, tonight was destined to be an exciting night.

Zhou Xiaoxiao hid under the blanket, uninterested in participating in the dormitory chatter, just staring fixedly at the snow outside the window.

Her mind alternated between images of her sister, then Chen Ye, and occasionally her parents would appear too.

In another room.

Of the four brothers from Deer City, only the Boss and Fourth Brother remained.

Fourth Brother was He Laosi, whose incredible thieving skills made him extremely popular among the survivors now.

As for the Boss...

The Boss's surname was Gao. Before the apocalypse, people called him Boss Gao, someone who could make the ground shake with just a stomp of his foot locally.

His imprisonment back then was just because he'd grown too arrogant and did something that provoked universal condemnation.

Later, it was posted online, causing public outrage.

Going to prison was just a formality—even if sentenced, he could get out later.

At most, it would be just serving time on paper.

Such operations were all too common.

Ordinary people just didn't know about them.

But before he could get out, the apocalypse broke out.

After the apocalypse, the world had changed, everything from before vanished into nothingness.

The once high-and-mighty Boss Gao was now just an ordinary survivor struggling to stay alive.

Here, nobody knew him.

All his previous power and status had been reset to zero.

Now, Boss Gao just wanted to live quietly, staying as far away from that devil as possible.

Of the four brothers, two had died at that devil's hands.

Boss Gao had no thoughts of revenge whatsoever.

He just wanted to live quietly, taking it one day at a time.

Now, the last thing Boss Gao wanted to see was anyone who had known him before.

The once powerful man was now humble as dirt.

...

After that little episode, Chen Ye finally looked around.

Finding a suitable place to cultivate really wasn't easy.

Most places were exactly what they appeared to be.

Wu Jianshan had previously said not to go to the fifth floor.

Chen Ye didn't plan to challenge Wu Jianshan's authority, nor was he particularly curious about the fifth floor.

But he hadn't said anything about not going to the rooftop.

Gently exhaling a puff of smoke, the smoke formed into the shape of a staircase before his eyes.

Amid the swirling snow, Chen Ye stepped onto the smoke-illusion staircase and walked up to the fifth-floor rooftop.

The teaching building of Rong City Second Elementary School was the tallest structure on campus.

The rooftop was already covered in thick snow.

The smoke pushed aside an opening in the snow, and Chen Ye sat cross-legged on the ground, eagerly examining the upgraded Death God Blood Tears.

[Item Name: Purified Death God Blood Tears.]

[Effect: Excellent for enhancing the strength of low-level Sequence Superhumans. A rare auxiliary cultivation medicine!]

[Review: This medicine is obtained through purification of Death God Blood Tears. No side effects, high safety, no risk of contamination. Long-term use may develop drug resistance.]

Inside the transparent glass bottle, two drops of blood-red Death God Blood Tears shimmered with an eerie glow under the blood moon.

As if possessing life itself.

It looked quite strange.

But trusting the System, Chen Ye unhesitatingly dropped the two purified blood tears into his mouth.

The moment they entered, Chen Ye felt powerful energy coursing wildly through his body, an intense stimulation rushing straight to his head.

Within seconds, Chen Ye's face turned bright red, with wisps of steam rising from his head.

Like the feeling of eating betel nut for the first time.

He quickly activated the Observing the Blood Moon Breathing Technique.

The essence of the breathing technique was to adjust the frequency of supernatural power within the body to achieve assimilation and absorption of energy.

Blood moon energy was energy.

Death God Blood Tears energy was still energy.

As long as it was energy, it should be absorbable.

The facts proved Chen Ye's guess correct—the energy from the Death God Blood Tears was slowly being absorbed by Chen Ye...

...

After Chen Ye left the classroom, Chu Che also started putting on his clothes.

Iron Lion looked confused: "Captain, are you going out for a smoke too!"

"Get some rest early, I have some business to attend to outside!"

Iron Lion muttered: "One after another, all so mysterious, really!"

Chu Che didn't answer, left the classroom, and returned alone to the vehicle.

The vehicle was empty at this time.

Captain Chu found the Eavesdropping Radio, turned it on, and began tuning and searching frequencies.

"Zzzz... zzzz..."

The radio emitted bursts of static, sounding quite chaotic.

...

On the rooftop, Chen Ye opened his eyes, exhaled a long breath, his eyes filled with exhaustion.

Checking the digital watch on his wrist, it was already 3:30 AM.

He hadn't realized so much time had passed.

But Chen Ye's heart was still excited.

The purified Death God Blood Tears had given him too many pleasant surprises.

He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, then slowly exhaled.

Thick smoke spread around the snowy rooftop, covering an area of about twelve to thirteen meters in diameter.

The size of the smoke mist created by one exhale had become Chen Ye's most intuitive standard for judging his strength improvement.

Within the smoke, several wild wolves struggled into existence from the mist.

These wolves were simulated based on the Breeder Sequence member who had escaped from the camel train.

Although their strength couldn't compare to the wolves raised by that Breeder Sequence, they were quite useful and could be replenished if lost.

He hadn't used them in battle before mainly because he hadn't encountered suitable opponents.

If he encountered ground-based Anomalies, he believed these simulated smoke wolves would be very effective.

Against something like the Eight-Limbed Human Face that floated directly in the air, the simulated wolf ability was basically useless.

Previously, Chen Ye could only simulate five wolves simultaneously at most.

But now, Chen Ye could simulate six wolves at the same time.

The improvement in supernatural power also provided some benefit to smoke simulation, though not as directly obvious as the smoke mist improvement.

These two abilities had different directions and types anyway.

But this rate of improvement already excited Chen Ye greatly.

If things continued like this, and he could get some more Death God Blood Tears from Wu Jianshan, he might even advance directly to Sequence 2.

Each sequence advancement granted several innate abilities of that sequence level.

Like the Nicotine Tolerance, Smoke Mist, and Smoke Simulation he gained when advancing to Sequence 1.

Smoke Simulation and Smoke Mist still had plenty of room for improvement.

As his sequence advanced, these abilities would gradually unleash their proper power.

Chen Ye was originally a person of ordinary aptitude, unable to comprehend the Flying Sword Technique with just a little cultivation like the Pink-haired Girl who had eaten the Demon Fruit.

But Chen Ye was satisfied nonetheless.

Plus with his two Wonders, his survival ability had already been greatly enhanced.

Returning to Classroom 3, Grade 4, he only saw Iron Lion sleeping soundly on the bed.

Captain Chu Che had disappeared without a trace. Cursing the old schemer under his breath, Chen Ye also returned to his own bed to rest.

Soon he fell into a deep sleep.

"Ah~~~~"

As dawn began to break, while Chen Ye was still sound asleep.

An extremely piercing scream tore through the silence of Rong City Second Elementary School!

It also jolted Chen Ye awake.