Epoch of Twilight

Zhao Yali quickly wiped her tears away and hung her head low to cover her flushed cheeks, intending to also avoid the judgemental stares from the rest.

“Do you have any superpowers now?” Cao Lin asked with curiosity and envy.

Feeling pressured from all the attention she was getting, Zhao Yali didn’t want to raise her head. She looked at her hands, clenched her fists and quipped, “I’m not too sure, but I feel a little stronger now, and there are changes to my skin.”

“Hmm, your skin is so much smoother now, similar to Luo Yuan’s,” said Wang Xiaguang in shock, while grabbing onto Zhao Yali’s hand.

Zhao Yali retracted her hand immediately; she was blushing.

Huo Dong and the rest sneakily glanced at Luo Yuan, wondering what his reaction would be. But alas, he had his best poker face on.

Looking at Zhao Yali’s disappointment, Luo Yuan comforted her.

“This is what everyone experiences after the evolution. It is not about superpowers. Your improved strength and skin shows that your body will gradually transform, but it will take time.

Evolution is usually well-hidden. When you’re looking for it, you will never find it. But when you’re not looking for it, you would chance upon it unexpectedly. It happened to me as well; not everyone is able to discover their superpowers the very moment evolution takes place.”

Zhao Yali felt a wave of relief.

Under the burning flames, the meat was roasted to a golden brown. Huo Dong and the rest got up and removed the mutated beast from the skewer, cut it up into more than 10 servings, placed them on leaves the size of hand-fans and served to everyone.

The roasted meat tasted bland as there was no salt, but its fragrance and tenderness made it a little more bearable.

While Luo Yuan was chewing his food, he was paying attention to his surroundings as the forest was at its most dangerous point at night. There were many predatory mutated beasts hunting for food at this time of the day. The impact caused by the falling aircraft had made all living creatures flee from their homes, but it has been a while since that happened. With the meaty fragrance emitting from the roast, it was certainly possible to lure predators closer.

In fact, there were pairs of devilish eyes with erratic glows surrounding them in the dark.

At one second, they could be spotted hiding behind the trees, the next second they were creeping onto the ground, some of them even camouflaging themselves between the lush leaves. The pitch-black darkness enabled the creatures to easily approach the group.

Fortunately, the creatures were small in size, possibly due to the environmental conditions of their habitat.

The flatlands in the Jiangnan province were not home for plants, as creatures were not restricted to roam around with the given space. But this was previously a deep forest before the apocalypse – plants were dense and the trees were deeply rooted into the ground, forming a thick, unventilated green web. If one was less superior, it was impossible for him to survive in such an environment.

Although the creatures were small, they weren’t necessarily weaker than their bigger counterparts. On the contrary, they were much stealthier and sneakier.

These creatures were usually fast and as swift as wind, and boasted high vigilance. They would disappear in a split of a second with just a slight movement, or in the presence of a bigger predator.

Before the apocalypse, the mountains were not damaged by flames like it was in Jiangnan. Because of that, the diversity of different species here was rich as they even had a proper food chain to boot! The competition was cruel and intense; those that survived had already possessed survival skills of its own.

Cao Lin noticed that the bonfire was diminishing. She stood up to dial up the fire, causing the flames to spurt a few feet high. The mutated beasts who were hiding in the dark took a few steps back with fear and hesitation in their eyes.

This fear was carved deep in their DNAs. With recurring forest fires, the fear was passed down through generations. Although the mutated beasts were now much stronger, the fear still lived on.

Considering the fear of fire in these creatures eyes, Luo Yuan was relieved. If all the mutated beasts were to attack them together, he would not be able to not protect everyone in his presence.

“I think the military base would send us our death notice, right? Not sure how my mother would react to that,” said one soldier.

“At least you still have your mother; I don’t have anybody,” another soldier sighed.

“It has been a long time since I last went home. It was also one of the enemy zones, perhaps no one had survived there too,” said another soldier.

“At least we’re still alive. So many of our mates died without their bodies found... that’s devastating,” a soldier said with pain.

To avoid distress in the team, such topic was prohibited from popping up in conversations. As Commander Xia attempted to stop them; he couldn’t help but to let out a sigh.

Seemingly affected by the soldiers, Huang Jiahui eyes turned red as she thought of her family. She hugged Chen Jiayi, and thought of her daughter who should be around the same age in a few years time.

The immature Zhong Chuqiang and Deng Chao felt envious of Chen Jiayi, who was in Huang Jiahui’s arms. They were quick to assume that Chen Jiayi was everyone’s favorite.

As dusk descended, strong winds blew, and the howls of the wolves amplified throughout the night.

Finally, a mutated beast lost its patience and slowly approached them with light steps as the wind blew. It had slender and light bodies like that of a deer, but with muscular limbs. It walked in silence, with their shadows barely visible, camouflaging itself well in the darkness.

Even Luo Yuan did not notice its movements. Only until it was twenty meters away, had he been able to sense their approach.

The beast paused and unleashed its final attack. The muscles of its body was fluid like mercury, and the sudden stomp caused it to move as far as twenty meters in mere seconds. Its target was Zhong Chuqiang, who was conveniently standing right in the middle.

This was a predator’s instinct, of carefully choosing those who could easily be tackled without getting themselves injured. Apart from those who were being carried, he was the weakest, making him an ideal victim.

From charging, stomping to landing, the entire attack took less than one second. Zhong Chuqiang felt a swift of wind behind his neck, and felt nothing else apart from goosebumps. He looked down, to see sharp teeth just about to sink into his neck.

Apart from Luo Yuan, nobody else noticed that this was happening.

He hit the ground hard and stood up unexpectedly. Jumping over the bonfire, Luo Yuan brandished the Zhanmadao from his waist.

The mutated beast opened its mouth filled with sharp teeth the second Luo Yuan stood up. The tip of the sword was stabbed through its chin to its upper jaw and eventually towards the back of its head. Its mouth was stuck onto the sword and it could not budge.

The mutated beast twitched for a little while, before its pupils slowly dilated.

It was only until this point that Zhong Chuqiang noticed what had just happened. He turned around and saw the mutated beast that Luo Yuan stabbed. Looking at the twitching mutated beast, he turned pale and sat on the floor.

Deng Chao who was just beside him was scared too, but his attention was on Luo Yuan, who he now exalted with high praise.

Luo Yuan retracted his sword, pulled out its skin and tossed it into the bonfire. “Please be careful everyone, this place isn’t safe.”

Everyone was scared and drenched with sweat, as they didn’t notice how near the mutated beasts were. Fortunately there was Luo Yuan, lest it could result in another loss of their teammates.

Since then, everyone was alert to every single movement. They kept checking the back from time to time. Although there was nothing most of the time, but that was able to scare off the low-level mutated beast who attempted to even get close.

The night descended, and when the first light began to illuminate the sky, the mutated beasts began to leave.

Apart from Luo Yuan, everyone else was exhausted as they were not well-rested at all throughout the night. It was even more tiring than a day’s worth of hard labor. It was not even time to rest yet. Everyone started to occupy themselves with cooking and collecting firewood, but they dare not stray off too far.

This forest had become extremely unpredictable and dangerous; there was nothing that they were familiar with during the apocalypse. Every step they took could be a trap. Before walking away from the forest, everyone had their pants camouflaged tight with leaves.

That of course, did not include Luo Yuan.

The forest smelled clear, albeit with a decaying scent in the morning dew.

There was a strange creature with gold stripes in the bushes, very attentive to its surroundings, extending its head from the cave. Its ears slightly flapped while listening to the noises around it. It flew up onto a branch of a tree, after making sure that it was the perfect time to move. It held the fresh buds of the leaves with its fluffy paws and gobbled them up quickly. Its speed was amazing, as within a few seconds, all the leaves on the branch were eaten up.

Noticing Luo Yuan getting close, the creature jumped a few times on the tree with its fur all standing up, hopped into the bushes and that was the last he saw of it.

Water vapor clouded the air, as it was located near the valley. While sniffing the moisture, Luo Yuan kept walking until he heard the sound of flowing water, from a few hundred meters away. There was a three meter-wide creek, with crystal clear water.

Amongst the fishes he spotted, there were quite a number species in the creek, with most of them about half a meter long.

This discovery had elevated Luo Yuan’s mood. While he was planning to make a spear to catch some mutated fishes before heading back, he heard a scream from far away. It sounded like Zhao Yali. His heart pounded as he quickly made his way back. Everyone was gathered around with fear on their faces.

Luo Yuan’s heart sank.