Chapter 581 - 360: Kanna’s Journey

Chapter 581: Chapter 360: Kanna’s Journey

Li Xiang returned to City No. 03 to handle a number of his own affairs. Although Jiang Cai’Er presided over most of the city’s business, as the most powerful man on Earth and her husband, there were still many matters that required his final say.

For instance, the formation of the Earth Vein Passage Envoy team.

The list Shen Wenqian sent over contained more than five hundred people—over three hundred from China and more than two hundred from other countries. This was already an elite group that Shen Wenqian had pre-screened; all were Tier Four or higher, possessed clean backgrounds, and had no criminal records.

As for those below Tier Four, they were encouraged to focus on their Cultivation, as there would be more opportunities later. As the work developed and the workload grew, the team would inevitably expand or need to bring in fresh blood to replace any losses.

In addition to a high salary, there were very attractive benefits and a comprehensive support system for injury and disability. A substantial death benefit was also provided for anyone killed in the line of duty, which would go to their family or a designated beneficiary.

Some candidates might no longer have living relatives, but they might have partners or close friends.

Li Xiang conducted video interviews, speaking "face-to-face" with each candidate. Even though it was online, the current network technology made it nearly identical to a real face-to-face meeting.

Almost every candidate was thrilled during their interview. After all, they were personally meeting the "big boss," and they felt greatly honored. To them, Li Xiang was a god, a veritable super-idol.

Li Xiang’s style had always been down-to-earth. Instead of a formal interview, he chatted with each person like an old friend. By asking indirect questions, he learned about their family situation, background, Cultivation journey, Superpower type and its general parameters (especially the speed, depth, and early-warning capabilities of their Earth Escape), their future aspirations and plans, their personality, and their overall attitude toward the world.

Admittedly, the work was incredibly time-consuming, but it was also essential.

In the end, 468 people passed the interview stage.

The successful candidates were naturally overjoyed, but Li Xiang informed them there was one final test: they had to make their way to City No. 03 on their own. In the future, City No. 03 would serve as their headquarters.

If they couldn’t reach City No. 03 safely on their own, they clearly weren’t cut out for the job.

This was naturally easier for those who were closer, which seemed somewhat unfair. A candidate already in City No. 03, for instance, essentially got a "free pass." But in many cases, luck is a form of strength.

Furthermore, while it was a test, it was also an opportunity to show off. A few candidates from very distant places, like North America or Western Europe, were actually eager for the challenge and began preparing for their journey. After all, the more difficult the task they completed, the stronger the impression they would make on the boss. Upon arrival, they might even be immediately entrusted with significant responsibilities.

Thus, there are two sides to every coin. Li Xiang, for one, genuinely admired these optimistic individuals.

Li Xiang scrolled through a lot of fan mail, randomly picking a few to answer. There were far too many to reply to each one personally; he simply couldn’t handle it. He wasn’t Jiang Cai’Er, after all.

Jiang Cai’Er wouldn’t look at this email account, either. Many of his fans were women whose letters were purely expressions of adoration, and reading them would only displease her. So, she adhered to the principle of "out of sight, out of mind."

’Huh? Kanna?’ Li Xiang suddenly noticed a very special email. It was from a girl from India. The message was very long, and her Chinese wasn’t perfectly fluent, but it immediately captured his attention, compelling him to read it word by word.

In truth, translation software was so advanced now—not to mention Li Xiang possessed the Creation Lotus—that he could have understood it even if she had written in her native Indian language. The fact that she had chosen to write in Chinese was a clear sign of her dedication to learning it.

Li Xiang hadn’t forgotten the shared history Kanna mentioned. ’So it’s that little girl,’ he thought. ’She’s all grown up now, and a Tier Five Earth Element Transcendent at that.’

’This girl has had a tough time,’ Li Xiang mused. ’I wonder how far she’s gotten with her people? How many of them are left?’ He decided to go and find her. As it happened, he was already planning a trip to see Erin in Europe, so he could take a detour through India.

Li Xiang figured she would most likely travel through Assam State, enter Northern Myanmar, cross Yunnan Province, and finally reach City No. 03. He also considered the possibility she might get lost and take a long detour. After all, traveling in the wilds now meant no satellite navigation and almost no one to ask for directions. One could only rely on a compass and the relics of the peaceful era.

With the landscape shrouded in black fog and visibility severely limited, the chances of getting lost were extremely high. Even Li Xiang, who knew the world like the back of his hand, had been to every country on Earth, was intimately familiar with its geography, and possessed both the Nine Nether Falsehood-Breaking Gaze and the Earth Vein Perception Ability, still sometimes took small detours.

Fortunately, he was so fast that detours cost him very little time.

...

Kanna’s planned route matched Li Xiang’s guess perfectly. Although crossing the Himalayas would have been more direct, the mountain range was simply too massive, and it was teeming with Exotic Beasts.

Although she could use Earth Escape, her Cultivation was low, so she couldn’t stay underground for long and needed to surface for air periodically. Furthermore, she had more than twenty of her people with her—all of them ordinary humans, including infants. Beyond the Himalayas lay the Tibetan plateau, which was even colder, had thinner air, and where food was even more scarce.

She had now crossed into China’s Yunnan Province.

She dug a temporary Shelter in a hidden valley for her people to take cover in while she went out to find food.

While using Earth Escape to move through the permafrost, Kanna’s fingertips brushed against several hard, curled shapes. She cleared away the ice shards to reveal seven or eight frozen wild rabbits, the frost patterns on their fur indicating they had been lying there for months. She brought this unexpected bounty back to the temporary Shelter, and for the first time in a long while, a glimmer of light returned to her people’s listless eyes.

Kanna gathered some dead, frozen pine from the valley, chopped it into pieces with an axe fashioned from an Exotic Beast tooth, and built a roaring bonfire inside the Shelter. Her people huddled around the flames for warmth as the fire licked at the rabbit meat they had skewered on bone shards. Dripping fat sizzled and popped, sending up tiny sparks.

"Eat," she said, handing out the browned chunks of meat.

The meat was stringy and dry, and stomachs long unaccustomed to such fare cramped painfully. Outside, the howling wind abruptly died. Kanna’s ear twitched. A sickening, crystalline scraping sound was seeping through a crack in the cave wall.

"The fire! Put it out!" she yelled. An earthen-yellow halo erupted from her palm, and a wall of rock and soil rumbled down, smothering the embers. At the same instant, three spectral blue shapes smashed through the sheet of ice sealing the cave’s ceiling! Jagged, crystalline bone spikes protruded from their spines. Their claws scraped against the rock without a sound, and the phosphorescent light dancing in their eyes reflected on the crowd’s ashen faces. The man at the front had no time to scream; a cloud of icy mist erupted from his open throat. The breath of the Ice Claw Soul-Devouring Beast had flash-frozen his flesh and blood into a translucent sculpture. As it shattered, his final, silent cry was suspended in the air.