Chapter 173: The Ruins’ Survival Law Is a Better Fit for the City

A thick, high wall separated the Federation from the Ruins, with only a single gate serving as the entrance and exit.

The wall was nearly thirty meters high and covered in something resembling a high-voltage electric fence.

Its battlements were lined with a dense array of weapons and surveillance cameras.

A considerable number of people moved in and out of the Ruins. The soldiers at the checkpoint verified their identification but didn’t inspect the supplies they carried.

‘This must be a Federation rule. Otherwise, any gains from the Ruins would be exposed, and the powerful would surely not be pleased.’

However, just past the checkpoint, many people were buying Star Beads, and the prices they offered weren’t low…

Most of the soldiers on duty at the gate were armed with guns, though some used melee weapons. Li Ye couldn’t discern their Combat Power.

With his Spiritual Power and Divine Power suppressed, Li Ye could still clear the thirty-meter-plus wall with pure physical strength, but doing so would cause too much of a commotion.

After all, there were cameras on the wall.

If they were high-speed cameras, his image would be captured no matter how fast he moved.

‘Unless absolutely necessary, I’m not going to take that risk. Slowly integrating into this world through He Xu and the others seems like a good plan…’

After watching He Xu and his group enter the gate, Li Ye observed the flow of traffic and the strictness of the inspections for a while longer before quietly returning to the mist.

He Xu’s group had said that experts at Tier Seven or above didn’t need protective gear to move freely in the Ruins.

But among all the people Li Ye observed, every single one wore a protective suit without exception. ‘It seems the people of the Federation are extremely wary of the Ruins…’

…

While waiting for He Xu and the others to return, Li Ye observed the fighting styles of those exploring the Ruins.

They used skills as well.

These included buffing skills for their companions, skills to slow down Mutant Beasts, and healing-type skills…

‘They must be from a Cultivation Technique unique to this world.’

People entering the Ruins not only dug for Star Beads but also dissected the carcasses of Mutant Beasts, taking back things like bones or meat.

Most of the meat they brought back was from herbivores.

To be precise, it was meat from *former* herbivores, as even the herbivores in the Ruins had been forced to eat meat.

As for carnivores, they mostly took the bones and special organs like eyeballs, penises, and claws…

‘As expected.’

‘People in any world were devoted to the idea of “like strengthens like.”‘

The part about herbivores eating meat struck Li Ye as strange.

The food chain was completely broken. According to scientific reasoning, no animals should have been able to survive in the Ruins long ago, yet they all seemed to be thriving…

‘These Ruins are truly bizarre!’

…

About four hours later, Li Ye returned to the previous waiting point.

He Xu and the others rushed back, panting. Seeing Li Ye still at the same spot, they all let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.

But when they saw Qiu Feipeng on the ground, a trace of helplessness and fear still flickered across their faces.

Because Qiu Feipeng’s head had, after all, been smashed open, his white brain matter a complete, jumbled mess.

Rongrong couldn’t help but retch a few times, but she didn’t blame Li Ye. She couldn’t expect someone who had lived in the Ruins for eighteen years to obey them completely after meeting them just once.

He Xu forced himself not to look at Qiu Feipeng’s corpse and handed over a protective suit. “Ash, put this on.”

Li Ye obediently took the protective suit.

He was just about to put it on when Rongrong came over. “Wait,” she said. “Let me put some makeup on you. Your face is a little too handsome; you’ll be spotted instantly at the checkpoint. And this long hair has to be cut, too.”

“Okay,” Li Ye nodded, letting her do as she pleased.

Rongrong stood before him, applying the makeup. As she worked, her face turned red involuntarily, and her breathing grew a little ragged.

“Why is your face red?” Li Ye asked.

“You’re too handsome,” Rongrong said, glancing at him. “You should probably cover your face when you go out from now on. Otherwise, you’ll attract a horde of investigators even if you do nothing at all.”

“Rongrong has a point,” the young man with the baby face smiled. “I suspect Ash’s genes were modified from the moment he was born. Otherwise, how could someone so perfect exist?”

“I wish I was the one who got my genes modified!” another girl said sourly as she prepared the tools to cut Li Ye’s hair. “This hair is so smooth and silky. I’m so jealous.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Li Ye feigned ignorance.

“You’ll find out later,” Rongrong smiled. “Right, from now on, your name isn’t Ash anymore. It’s He Fei. We’ll figure out a way to get you new identification, and you can change your name again then.”

“Okay,” Li Ye nodded. “From now on, my name is He Fei.”

“My name is Liu Rongrong,” Rongrong said. “You already know He Xu. The one cutting your hair is Yang Qi, the one with the round face is Chi Wenjie, and the last one is Hou Ran. Remember our names. The checkpoint won’t check, but just in case, don’t get them wrong.”

“I know,” Li Ye nodded again. He had been tailing them for a while and had already memorized their names.

Once everything was in order and the Erhu was wrapped in cloth, He Xu and the others led Li Ye back to West River City.

As they passed through the checkpoint, He Xu and his friends were so nervous they were stammering, while Li Ye, in contrast, was perfectly calm, his breathing steady.

…

“Ash, you were amazing.”

Emerging from the checkpoint, Liu Rongrong patted her chest to calm her nerves. “You have no idea how scared I was that you’d blow our cover!”

‘If anyone was going to blow our cover, it would have been you guys. You didn’t even notice that your hearts were all pounding like drums, or that the checkpoint guards had already changed shifts.’

Li Ye was speechless for a moment before he felt compelled to point out, “Your heart rates are too fast. The way a couple of the soldiers were looking at you was off. And they’re still looking this way.”

“…” He Xu and the others instinctively wanted to turn and look.

“Don’t look back,” Li Ye said. “When you’re hunting, it’s best not to make eye contact with your prey. You need to make the prey ignore your existence to increase your chances of success.”

“Xu, they haven’t found us out, have they?” Chi Wenjie’s, the baby-faced one, face paled as he stammered.

“…” He Xu was quite embarrassed. He never imagined they would be the ones to give themselves away.

Li Ye observed his surroundings.

Skyscrapers stood in dense clusters, cars drove on the ground, and in the sky were vehicles resembling a rail transit system. It looked like a modern city.

He sniffed the air. It was normal.

The cold, sinister, oppressive feeling of the mist in the Ruins was gone, but the flow of his Spiritual Power and Divine Power was still sluggish. This place was also covered by the Rules of the Great Dao.

Li Ye’s behavior was consistent with his assumed persona, but He Xu and the others were already in a full-blown panic.

“Xu, what do we do?” Chi Wenjie asked. “Will they find out about Ash?”

“How should I know? Let’s go. We’ll leave this area first and then figure something out,” said He Xu.

‘A bunch of idiots.’

‘They don’t know how to solve problems, only how to run from them.’

Li Ye took a Desert Wolf’s Star Bead from his pocket and said, “Find a place to sell this, and no one will suspect you anymore.”

“…” He Xu froze.

“Brilliant!” Hou Ran looked at Li Ye in pleasant surprise. “How did you think of that?”

“When I’m hunting and encounter a Mutant Beast I can’t defeat, I’ll toss some of my prey to lead it away,” Li Ye said, giving him a look. “I’m just not familiar with your rules. I’m not an idiot.”

Instead of being helpful, they needed a “wild man” to solve their problems for them, and using a survival tactic from the Ruins at that. He Xu’s face flushed with shame. He sheepishly took the Star Bead from Li Ye and turned to ask about prices at the vendor stalls.

Prompted by Li Ye, he was finally a bit smarter. When the vendor asked, he said that by a stroke of luck, they had happened upon the corpse of a dead Desert Wolf.

There were always a few lucky Ruins explorers who stumbled upon the corpses of Mutant Beasts…

When He Xu took out the Desert Wolf’s Star Bead to make the sale, the soldiers who had been watching them awkwardly averted their gazes.

A Desert Wolf was a Tier-Four Mutant Beast. For a few college students who hadn’t graduated yet, it might be a good find, but it wasn’t valuable enough for the soldiers to risk anything over.

“Let’s go!” After selling the Desert Wolf’s Star Bead, He Xu returned in high spirits. “Let’s go. We’ll split the Star Coins when we get back. This will be enough for our nutrient solutions until graduation.”

With that, the group cheerfully left the checkpoint area.

Aside from a few envious glances, no one paid them much mind.

In the eyes of the other Ruins explorers, they were just a few kids who’d gotten lucky.

Besides, finding a Desert Wolf’s bead wasn’t necessarily a good thing for them, because it would encourage them to enter the Ruins with a gambler’s mentality.

And a gambler’s mentality was a cardinal sin when exploring the Ruins.

…

“Ash, we owe you big time,” Liu Rongrong said excitedly. “Otherwise, we would have been in huge trouble.”

“Mhm. I’ll be relying on you from now on,” Li Ye said alertly, looking around and observing the environment. “This place is so strange. It’s completely different from the Ruins.”

“The air is better than the Ruins, right?” Liu Rongrong took Li Ye’s hand. “Come on, let’s get you a place to stay first, then get you some good food. After eating so much raw meat, you’ll definitely fall in love with Federation cuisine.”

“I don’t eat raw meat. I cook it before I eat it,” Li Ye said, giving Liu Rongrong a strange look.

“…” Liu Rongrong froze for a second, then said with a blush, “Right, right, you don’t eat raw meat. My mistake. But you’ve never had Federation cuisine, have you!”

“No,” Li Ye nodded, playing along. He pointed at a car and asked, “What is that?”

When Li Ye started asking questions, Liu Rongrong and the others finally regained a bit of their confidence and scrambled to answer him.

“That’s a motor vehicle. Energy Bars provide their power. In the Federation, everything needs energy.”

“And energy costs money—the Star Coins Xu was talking about earlier. But Star Coins have to be stored in an identification document, which you can’t use yet…”

The group chattered away, explaining all the new things in the Federation to Li Ye.

Li Ye quickly came to understand the structure of this world.

It was similar to Earth, just with a different fundamental energy source. Earth used electrical and magnetic energy, while this place used something called Energy Bars.

Energy Bars could be mined directly.

The people of this world generally cultivated Star Power, which could be used to temper their bodies. At a certain age, they needed to light their Life Star.

After a Life Star was lit, they would randomly awaken some Star Skills—the skills Li Ye had seen people using in the Ruins. Different Life Stars would awaken different skills, such as support, offense, healing, and so on.

The purpose of Star Beads was to help increase one’s Star Power and raise the level of one’s Star Skills…

The number of lit Life Stars determined their strength. The strongest Tier-Nine masters had as many as three hundred and sixty-five lit Life Stars.

He Xu and the others had between 10 and 30 lit Life Stars, classifying them as Tier Two Star Masters.