The Return of Cambrian Period Volume 1 Chapter 14 9 Jan 23, 2020

The two men walked for two kilometers and finally got out of the lush bushes. They found themselves at the border of the city. Although this place used to be residential and commercial areas, it was now covered by overgrown plants. The entire city no longer had any trace of human. It looked like a city that had been abandoned for many years.

Who could believe that these changes happened within only three or four days.

Cong Xia sighed heavily. Looking at this city where he had lived for three or four years, he was quite upset.

The two of them entered the city. They wanted to look for food, if they couldn't then at least some water was also fine.

All the shops along the street were destroyed. Rotten food was everywhere inside and outside of the broken display windows. The weeds grew from the cracks of the floor tiles looked even taller than human calves. They had the feeling of walking in a primeval jungle.

They searched several stores and found nothing to eat. Instead, they found a few bottles of mineral water. Cong Xia also quickly found a pair of sports shoes. This shoes brand used to be easily worth over a thousand. In the past, he had always been hesitant to buy them. Now, no one picked them up even they were free. It seemed that apart from food, right now, everything else was not in shortage. Unfortunately, the scarcest one was also the most essential.

In order to find food, the two men rummaged through all shops on several streets. Before them, these places had been rummaged by hungry people, so they found absolutely nothing.

There was no other way, Cheng Tianbi began to use the military knife to pry open the trunks of the cars. There were many abandoned cars on the street. Maybe some people would put some emergency items in the trunks of the cars. The standard emergency kit should have vacuum-packed compressed biscuits.

They pried open more than sixty cars in the morning and eventually found an earthquake emergency kit in the trunk of a car. There were water, medicine bags, flashlights, raincoats and many more things inside. What delighted them the most was that there were indeed three packages of compressed biscuits inside. These three packages of compressed biscuits could provide enough energy for an adult to live for five to seven days.

Cong Xia picked up those packages of biscuits as if he was holding some rare treasures. The two men sat down on the side of the road, he carefully opened a package, broke the biscuits and handed the largest piece to Cheng Tianbi. He himself took a small piece and cherishably ate it piece by piece.

The compressed biscuits had no flavor, but it could fill the stomach pretty well. The stomach was basically almost full after a bottle of water following by eating the biscuits.

It took them not even a minute to finish a package of biscuits. It couldn't be saved for later after being opened anyway.

There were two remaining packages of biscuits. Cong Xia carefully put them into the jacket's inner pocket. These would be their ration for the next two days. Cheng Tianbi glanced at him.

"Are you full?"

"Yes, I'm full."

"Let's find a hardware store, we need some tubes."

"For what?"

"Collect gasoline."

Cheng Tianbi looked at the abandoned cars on the road.

"Whether the plane can take off or not, or it is still waiting for us or not, we still have to go to the airport to have a look."

The distance straight from here to the city center was still seven or eight kilometers. There were not too many cars on the road. If they left from here, they should be able to drive all the way to the airport. Cong Xia nodded.

"You're right, it's our last hope to leave here. I don't know what's going on in other places, but Beijing is the capital and it's the place where most resources of the country are gathered. It must be much easier to survive over there compared to this place. Moreover, my uncle is still waiting for me."

The two of them first found a Mercedes Benz off-road on the street. After Cheng Tianbi started the car engine, they found that the car had enough fuel to run for thirty or forty kilometers. Cong Xia said.

"This should be enough, the airport is only more than 20 kilometers away."

"Who told you we're going to go to a civilian airport."

"Hm? Which airport will we go to?"

"A hidden military airport, you wouldn't know it."

"How far is it from the city?"

"One hundred and twenty kilometers."

"That's really far."

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The two men finally found a hardware store and pried open the shutter door. Inside, they found some tools, plastic cans and tubes.

Cheng Tianbi carried them and walked to the side of a car, pried open the fuel cap, put the tube in, sucked the other end of the tube with his mouth, then put the other end into the plastic can. The gasoline flowed along the tube. They changed two cars until a can was filled.

Cheng Tianbi felt so hot that he was sweating all over his body at this moment. He took off his camouflage coat and wore only a white shirt. Cheng Tianbi's build was exceptionally perfect. He was close to 190cm tall. His muscles were compact. He had slender waist and long legs. The sweat rolled along his sturdy chest made him look extremely sexy.

Cong Xia looked at his own thin body, then looked at Cheng Tianbi's body. He felt so envious, he couldn't help but say.

"You have a very nice body."

Cheng Tianbi looked at the thin arms under Cong Xia's sleeves.

"Your body is not good, find time to practice."

"Can I become like you if I practice?"

"No, you are too short."

Cong Xia was upset.

"You might as well not mention it."

With one hand, Cheng Tianbi lifted up a plastic can that was more than 30 pounds and filled with gasoline and went to the next car. Cong Xia followed him with a tube and two empty plastic cans in his hands. Looking at Cheng Tianbi's healthy body, there was adoration in his eyes.

Any man would hope that he was powerful, strong and had a sturdy body, especially a nerd like Cong Xia. Cheng Tianbi fitted the image of a strong man in his mind extremely well. He was tall, handsome and courageous. The tough guy in the movie was nothing more than that. He made him envious and longing for at the same time.

Cheng Tianbi didn't know his thoughts, he only felt that after he met Cong Xia, he talked more. It was not that he did not want to have conversations, but at first a weak chicken like Cong Xia did not catch his eyes, their living environment was also too different, he didn't know what to say.

But after a long time of contact, he could see the unexpected courage in Cong Xia. His gentle personality also made people unable to treat him in a harsh and cold manner.

In short, this man was not as weak and useless as his imagination. On the contrary, he was very interesting sometimes.

The two men cooperated to fill the fuel tank of the off-road car. In addition, they stored three cans of gasoline in the car in case any accidents happened on the road. Most importantly, if the road led to the departing plane could not be gone through, they must decide on their next destination. They either went back to the city to discuss more or headed to another city.

When they were ready, they put some of the supplies moved from the store into the car and planned to leave by car.

Just then, a car across the street headed their direction and stopped next to them. Cheng Tianbi took his gun, moved his hand behind his back and looked at the car coldly.

Four or five young men and women jumped out of the car, all were holding iron bars in their hands. They didn't look like good people. A man who was the leader knocked the iron bar on the ground.

"Brother, where are you going?"

Cong Xia was not afraid of these people, he did not only have a gun, he also had Cheng Tianbi, so he was somewhat acting like a fox exploited the tiger's might.

[Note: 狐假虎威 (the fox exploits the tiger's might) is a Chinese idiom. It means that someone use the powerful connections they have with someone else to intimidate/bully other people.]

"Out of town."

"Out of town? It is the same everywhere, you'll die regardless of where you go, might as well stay at home and enjoy a few pleasant days left."

Cong Xia frowned and said.

"What do you want?"

"I want to see what good things are hidden in your car, let us have a look a little bit."

"Why should we let you have a look?"

The leader showed a ferocious expression.

"Shut up. Leave the food behind, we don't need other things. I have already given you a chance and if you don't take it, I'll beat you until your face looks like the persimmon donuts."

[Note: Persimmon donuts are a type of snacks in China. They look red/orange, soft and are made from ripe persimmons.]

When the man had just finished the sentence, there was a gunshot and his big toe was hit. Everyone at the scene was stunned. The man screamed out loud and fell to his knees, causing a loud bang. Cheng Tianbi looked at them coldly.

"Get lost."

A fat man behind the man whirled the iron bar. He shouted out loud and ruthlessly slammed the ground. The solid concrete floor between them was completely cracked. The cracks extended at least five or six meters.

Such strength!

The fat man shouted.

"Even if you have a gun, I'm not scared of you. Don't think that we can be bullied easily, I'm a mutant!"

Cheng Tianbi pointed the gun at him.

"You're really not afraid of guns?"

The fat man looked at the pitch black barrel of the gun. His fat body shivered. He was only bluffing just now, although he did evolve and his strength became unparalleled, but he was still an ordinary person just three days ago. It didn't make him immune to weapons, how could he not be afraid of guns. A woman pulled him.

"Fat brother, forget it, let's go."

[Note: And... The addressing is back 😑 胖哥 (Fat Brother) 胖 = Fat, 哥 means older brother or someone who is male and older. It doesn't mean to insult the person though.]

The fat man hesitated for a while, then pulled his injured companion on the ground up.

"Let's go. Let's go."

"Hang on."

Cheng Tianbi walked several steps closer.

"I have something to ask you."

There was cold sweat on the fat man's forehead.

"What do you want to ask?"

"You said you were a mutant."

The fat man didn't want to answer him, but when he looked at the gun, he gulped down his saliva.

"Yes, didn't you see just a while ago? That was the ability that I evolved."

"Are there a lot of mutants like you in this city?"

"Not many. Currently, I know that there are just four, including me."

"All are supermen? "

"No, three supermen, the other is a weird one. His body hair becomes very long and the hair can be used as needles."

"Are there any other irregularities in humans?"

The fat man thought for a while.

"It doesn't seem to be so."

"What about the plants and the animals in the city?"

As soon as the animals and the plants in the city were mentioned, the fat man's face changed immediately.

"They all went crazy. They grew crazily, there is simply no chance for human to survive."

"Tell me more. Tell me every thing you know."

The fat man sighed.

"In the past three days, all the plants and animals that I could see had mutated. The most common mutation is increasing in size, but the degree of mutation varies. Some can threaten human. Some remain being the food for humans. For example, there is a large pine tree in the center of the city, which has reached the height of a ten floor building. As soon as a living thing passes, the pine needles will be released from the tree and pierce the living thing, turn it into a hedgehog. It then rots and become the pine's nutrients. No one dares to approach it within a few hundred meters. There are also mice in the city, most of them have become bigger. Some are even half the size of humans. They will attack whenever they see people. Several days ago when we escaped the city, we were chased by a praying mantis. Its body was as big as my wrist. Its head was not very big, but its speed was abnormal. A person's throat was cut with just a single slit, the skin on the neck still looked intact. Two of us died before the praying mantis was finally killed. Two of us were injured but they also did not last until today, they both died."

Sadness and fear were visible on the fat man's face. Cong Xia felt his scalp numb. He asked.

"So, according to your observation, humans evolved the least."

The fat man sighed.

"Not just the least, I also feel like human evolution is not very useful. Take me for example, although my strength has become greater and better than ordinary people, but when facing those crazy animals and plants, I'm still not at big advantage. I can still be torn apart by any mutated cats or dogs at any time."

Cheng Tianbi nodded.

"You may go."

The fat man took his group, got in the car and left. The two men also got in the car and headed to the highway.

They remained silent inside the car for a really long time. Cong Xia sighed.

"I didn't expect the city had become like that."

Cheng Tianbi didn't say anything, but Cong Xia could understand his heavy mood.

A mantis killed four people... It was like a joke three days ago, but now it was a bloody fact they needed to face. Cong Xia continued.

"Just like you said, the direction of human evolution is not only controlling the energy of the five elements, but also evolving self physical capability, such as that guy who is very strong and the man with excessive hair growth."

Cheng Tianbi nodded.

"Evolved people, the more the better."

"Yes, the more the better. If human's physical capability is also a common evolutionary direction of human evolution, then maybe there will be people who can see things that are thousands miles away or walk very fast as if they are flying etc. Maybe human beings can become stronger again."

With heavy feeling in their hearts, the two men sped all the way to the destination that they put their hope in.