355: Chapter 355 Her Mother Disappears

The Ark left the Southern Plains, crossed the storm-ravaged no-man's-land, and entered the edge of the Central Region.

The land outside the window had changed.

It was no longer the grayish-white land of the south, where one could occasionally see clusters of green, but a stretch of dead, ash-black.

The ground had split open with countless gashes, black smoke rising from the fissures, and the air was filled with the smell of sulfur and burning.

The energy from the rifts here was no longer a faint glimmer visible on the horizon, but real, visible black veins that crawled across the entire sky like blood vessels.

Energy storms erupted frequently.

The Ark's protective shield was struck by a psionic shockwave every few minutes, causing ripples to spread across its surface.

Qin Lin sat in the Bridge, watching the data on the holographic screen.

The energy consumption rate jumped from 2% to 5%, then to 8%, before falling back down.

He was not worried; the Lv10 protective shield was enough to withstand these.

But the scene outside the window made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

This land was dying—not slowly and imperceptibly, but violently and agonizingly.

Murong Xue stood beside him, looking at the ash-black land outside, not saying a word.

Her fingers gripped the hem of her clothes, her knuckles turning white.

Qin Lin did not ask what was wrong, because he knew the answer.

This was the Central Region; this was her home.

On the holographic screen, a 3D topographic map of the edge of the Central Region was slowly generating.

Mountains had been razed, rivers evaporated, and the plains were covered with huge craters, as if they had been struck by meteorites.

Those craters were not caused by meteorites, but blasted out by the eruption of rift energy.

Every crater was bottomless, its edges as smooth as tofu cut by a knife.

"Is this the edge of the Central Region?"

Han Yurou stood behind him, holding Qin Yue. Qin Yue was already three years old, wearing her hair in two little buns, her eyes bright.

Qin Lin nodded.

Han Yurou was silent for a moment, then said, "It's much worse than the south."

Murong Xue stood next to Qin Lin, watching the charred black land outside, not speaking.

The Murong Clan was in some direction within this scorched earth.

She did not know what it had become, but she knew she had to go and see.

"Qin Lin." Her voice was hoarse.

"Hmm."

"Can you take me to see my home?"

Qin Lin looked at her. There was a light in her eyes—not hope, but obsession.

"Alright."

The Ark turned and flew towards the ruins of the Murong Clan.

Qin Lin set a new course on the console.

The Ark turned and flew in a north-northeasterly direction.

The topographic map on the holographic screen changed rapidly, from plains to hills, and from hills to mountains.

The cracks in the ground became more numerous, and the building ruins became more dense.

Some ruins were large, covering dozens of acres; one could imagine how prosperous this immortal cultivation town had been before the apocalypse.

Now, nothing was left, only collapsed courtyard walls, shattered stone tablets, and bones buried by the wind and sand.

The Ark flew for several hours before Murong Xue's voice rang out again: "We're here."

Qin Lin slowed down, and The Ark hovered over a vast area of ruins.

But the Murong Clan was gone.

It hadn't just collapsed; it had vanished.

Where there should have been high walls, deep courtyards, pavilions, and terraces, there was now only a huge crater.

The edge of the crater was grayish-white, and the bottom was black and bottomless, like a gaping mouth waiting for prey to fall in.

Scattered around the crater were some rubble and debris, the only remaining traces of the Murong Clan.

Murong Xue stood by the window, looking at the crater, not speaking.

There was no expression on her face, but her tears flowed silently.

Drop by drop, they slid from the corners of her eyes, landing on the windowsill and splashing into tiny droplets.

Qin Lin stood behind her, not speaking.

At this moment, saying anything was useless.

After a long time, Murong Xue spoke, her voice as hoarse as sandpaper scratching against glass: "My father died in battle here, my mother vanished here, and my younger brother went missing here. I escaped, and I survived."

She turned to look at Qin Lin, her eyes red, but her gaze was bright.

"Qin Lin, if I find my family, can I bring them onto The Ark?"

Qin Lin looked at her and was silent for a moment.

He deliberately did not answer immediately, instead letting the silence linger in the air for a few seconds.

That silence was like a hand, gently squeezing Murong Xue's heart.

Her gaze shifted from anticipation to unease, and from unease to tension.

"Yes," Qin Lin finally said.

Murong Xue breathed a sigh of relief, but Qin Lin noticed that her fingers were still gripping the hem of her clothes.

"Do you have conditions?"

Her voice was very soft.

Qin Lin looked at her and did not deny it.

"The Ark is not a charity. Saving people is possible, but the resources on The Ark are not infinite. Everyone who comes aboard needs to contribute to The Ark."

Murong Xue lowered her head and looked at her hands.

Her fingers were slender, her nails neatly trimmed and painted with a faint shade of nail polish.

These were the hands of the Young Miss of the Murong Family, hands that had never known manual labor.

Now, these hands had killed, fled for their lives, crawled across the wilderness, and rummaged through rubble for food.

She raised her head and looked at Qin Lin.

"What if I can help you complete the 'Many Children, Many Blessings' mission? Then would you let my family onto The Ark?"

Qin Lin looked at her. In her eyes, there was no shyness, no testing, only a kind of desperate determination.

She was not bargaining with him; she was gambling, betting her own life for the lives of her family.

Qin Lin was silent for another moment, then nodded.

"Alright."

Murong Xue looked into his eyes, trying to find a trace of calculation, a trace of hesitation, a trace of a flaw.

She found none.

What she did not know was that both of the silences Qin Lin had just displayed were intentional.

The first silence was to make her nervous, and the second was to make her propose the condition herself.

This was a negotiation tactic he had learned from Li Ying.

"Never speak first; let the other party state the terms you want themselves."

Murong Xue had taken the bait.

"Deal."

Qin Lin reached out his hand.

Murong Xue looked at his hand, hesitated for a moment, and then reached out to take it.

Her hand was cold and smooth, with a few thin calluses on her fingertips, left by using a sword.

Qin Lin held her hand and did not let go, and Murong Xue did not pull it back.

The two of them just stood there in the center of the Bridge holding hands, neither speaking.

The crater outside the window cast a long shadow in the sunlight, like a silent witness.

"I will help you find your family."

Murong Xue nodded, pulled back her hand, turned, and left.

She walked away in a hurry, her steps quick, as if she were fleeing from something.

Qin Lin watched her back disappear around the corner of the corridor, his lips curling slightly.

He did not know if she had seen it, but he did not care.

Footsteps came from behind him.

Han Qing walked over, stood next to Qin Lin, and looked in the direction where Murong Xue had disappeared.

"You did that on purpose."