135: Cape of Good Hope

Bidding farewell to the bloody and smoke-filled quagmire of the DRC, Jiang Yuan embarked on a new journey alone.

Without the "mortal" observer Lin Xia by his side, he no longer needed to worry about shocking anyone or suppress his use of technology.

The land rover defender was retracted into his space.

Jiang Yuan directly used the [Phantom Shuttle] for a suborbital jump.

Only half an hour later, when he stepped out of the hatch again, the humid jungle air was gone, replaced by extreme dryness and searing heat.

This was Namibia.

Home to the world's oldest desert—the Namib Desert.

And the land beneath Jiang Yuan's feet was called Sossusvlei, meaning "the end of the marsh." There was no water here, only endless, giant sand dunes reaching hundreds of meters high.

Because the sand was rich in iron, billions of years of oxidation had turned the entire desert into a mesmerizing rust-red color.

"Phew—"

Jiang Yuan stood on the ridge of a dune, gazing as far as the eye could see.

Within his field of vision, only three colors remained in the world: the deep blue of the sky, the pure white of the clouds, and the crimson of the earth.

The wind was strong, kicking up fine red sand that brushed against his face, feeling a bit itchy.

But Jiang Yuan felt an unprecedented sense of relief.

It felt like shedding a heavy set of shackles.

Here, there wasn't a soul for a hundred miles. He didn't need to pretend to be a tourist, didn't need to save anyone, and didn't need to judge anyone.

He was just a speck of dust in this world, free and unfettered.

"Since I'm already here, it would be a shame not to do something."

Jiang Yuan looked down at the seemingly ordinary black tactical boots on his feet.

The corners of his mouth curled up slightly as he lightly tapped the ground with his toe.

Buzz—

The gravity wave generator at the bottom of the boots activated instantly.

A ring of invisible pale blue ripples spread out beneath his feet. The soft quicksand that would normally swallow half a leg with one step now became harder than concrete under his feet.

Jiang Yuan didn't climb up on all fours, panting like an ordinary tourist.

He walked as if on level ground, hands in his pockets, leaning forward slightly against the wind, stepping toward the top of the highest dune known as "Big Daddy."

That was a vertical height of nearly four hundred meters!

If anyone had seen this through binoculars from a distance, they would have thought they were seeing a ghost—a human being strolling casually up a vertical wall of sand, defying the laws of physics.

Ten minutes later, Jiang Yuan stood on the razor-sharp ridge of the dune.

The gale howled, blowing streams of sand smoke off the ridge beneath his feet.

"Going down is where the fun starts."

Jiang Yuan took a deep breath, adjusted the parameters of the [Anti-Gravity Boots], setting the gravity offset to 80%, and activated [Fluid Glide Mode].

He took a leap.

He wasn't jumping off a cliff, but diving down a steep sand slope at a nearly 70-degree angle.

Whoosh—!!!

He didn't sink into the sand; instead, he was like he was standing on an invisible skateboard, surfing at high speed across the red sea of sand.

The sound of the wind exploded in his ears, and his adrenaline surged. A long trail of red dust pulled out behind him. The thrill of flying so close to the ground was a hundred times more exciting than any roller coaster.

He would sometimes weave in S-turns on the dune ridges, and other times leap over ten meters into the air, performing stunts that defied human ergonomics.

In this ancient desert, the sun was the only spectator.

Jiang Yuan went completely wild. Like a child with a new toy, he wantonly released his pent-up energy in this red ocean... until evening.

Tired from playing, Jiang Yuan slid down the final dune.

A corner that seemed forgotten by the world appeared before him—Dead Vlei.

This was a white clay pan that had been dry for nearly a thousand years. Surrounded by towering red dunes, the ground was cracked with countless white patterns.

Most striking were the trees standing in the depression.

These were several hundred Camel Thorn Trees that had died nine hundred years ago. Because the climate was extremely dry, they died but did not fall, nor did they rot; their trunks were scorched black by the sun, and their branches reached toward the sky like ghostly claws.

They were like a group of black sculptures frozen in time, standing quietly in this white graveyard, watching over the surrounding red sea of sand.

That beauty, where death and eternity intertwined, was enough to make any words seem pale.

Jiang Yuan walked to the base of the largest withered tree.

He wasn't in a hurry to find an angle for a photo like other Photographers.

He snapped his fingers.

Space folding opened.

An extremely large and comfortable white leather armchair, imported from Italy, appeared out of thin air on the cracked earth.

Next to appear was a crystal bucket filled with ice, chilling several cans of bright red Coca-Cola.

Jiang Yuan sank into the soft sofa and let out a comfortable sigh.

"Pshhh."

The sound of the tab pulling open and the fizzing bubbles was exceptionally clear in the deathly silent valley.

He tilted his head back and took a large gulp of ice-cold cola. The carbonated bubbles exploded in his mouth, the bone-chilling sensation instantly dispelling the desert heat.

By now, the sun was about to set.

The most spectacular moment of the day had arrived.

The last rays of the setting sun hit the surrounding dunes at an angle. The originally orange-red sand began to turn deep and intense in color.

As if it had been stained red with fresh blood.

Massive shadows swallowed the white Dead Vlei, while only the tips of the high dunes were still burning.

Black withered trees, white cracked earth, blood-red dunes, and the darkening deep blue sky.

Jiang Yuan huddled in the sofa, holding a cola can, quietly watching this apocalyptic and magnificent masterpiece.

It was terrifyingly quiet; even the sound of the wind had stopped.

Only the sound of his own breathing and the melting ice remained.

A vast, boundless sense of loneliness enveloped him.

But he didn't feel bad.

On the contrary, he enjoyed it.

At the heart of the oldest wilderness on Earth, witnessed by these withered trees that had stood for a thousand years.

He didn't need to be anyone's god, nor did he need to be anyone's savior.

At this moment.

He was just Jiang Yuan.

A free loner watching the sunset.

Leaving the silent red sea of sand in Namibia, Jiang Yuan drove the land rover defender all the way south.

Along the way, the scenery changed as rapidly as frames of film. From the dry, desolate desert to the craggy coastline, and then to the lush Garden Route.

Three days later.

A city with Table Mountain at its back and the sea at its front appeared at the end of his vision—Cape Town.

This was the last line of defense on the African continent and the most brilliant jewel of human civilization on the southern continent.

Further south lay the Roaring Forties, which had struck fear into the hearts of countless navigators, and the end of the world—Antarctica.

Jiang Yuan didn't stop in the bustling city; his wheels kept rolling, heading straight for the southernmost tip of the Cape Peninsula.

There was a famous name there: the Cape of Good Hope.

Although geographers would tell you that the true southernmost tip of Africa is actually Cape Agulhas, in the hearts of all travelers and sailors, the Cape of Good Hope is the sacred place that symbolizes "the end and the beginning."