Should he board the Clown Train or not?

Li Xuan's eyes flickered as he fell into deep thought.

Analyzing just the information about the Clown Train alone, the benefits after boarding included enjoying hot water, safe shelter and food, and early exposure to Martial Arts.

Martial Arts was a product of the third version. Learning Martial Arts in the second version and continuing to practice until the third version would put him far ahead of others in progress.

And these were just the most basic benefits. Tianniu Island might have something extraordinary about it, otherwise why would the Clown Train stop at Tianniu Island?

Random stops?

Not necessarily.

The Clown Train could travel between worlds—would it stop at an ordinary place?

Li Xuan made his decision—go! Board the Clown Train!

Then, he looked at the second piece of information.

【Earth Dragon】

Seeing this information, Li Xuan felt excited inside.

Information about the Earth Dragon!

Previously, all the information he obtained about the Earth Dragon was related to the end of the version—simply put, surrounding and eliminating the Earth Dragon at version's end. He couldn't see information about the Earth Dragon during the first version and early second version, so he couldn't accurately determine the Earth Dragon's location.

'View information!'

【Earth Dragon: Originally a Chinese alligator. Before the apocalypse, due to congenital weakness and smaller size than its siblings, it was ruthlessly abandoned, surviving alone in the wild. During the first version, the Chinese alligator accidentally burrowed into an underground river, evading extreme weather tests, surviving by eating small fish and insects. At version's end, while traversing the underground river, the Chinese alligator encountered R City's Exploration Team and was unfortunately captured.

R City's Exploration Team planned to trade the Chinese alligator for Supernatural Characteristics, thinking its meat could be exchanged for Supernatural Characteristics. However, they were rejected by the Transformer codenamed 'Sky Wolf'. On their return journey, they were ambushed by Sky Wolf, leading to a fierce battle between both sides. The Chinese alligator seized the opportunity to escape, luckily finding an underground cave, barely surviving until the second version.

When the great world transformation descended, the nearly starved Chinese alligator's bloodline underwent extreme mutation, awakening extremely pure Dragon Blood within its body. From the depths of its bloodline emerged an SS- grade supernatural ability—Dragon Vein Furnace, evolving into the Earth Dragon!

Dragon Vein Furnace/SS-: Devours high-quality flesh and blood, refines own bloodline, increases potential ceiling!

Note: When the Chinese alligator mutated, its body lacked nutrition, affecting its bloodline ability. The flawless Dragon Vein Furnace is SS grade.】

SS-grade supernatural ability!

Not an attack-type or element-type ability, but an incredibly heaven-defying ability that enhances one's own bloodline potential!

No wonder the Earth Dragon was so powerful—it first killed a same-level mutated beast, and while severely injured, could still kill same-level ability users, causing heavy casualties among the ability user team!

In the second version, what was most important?

Strength and potential!

Potential represented the ceiling, and the Earth Dragon could raise that ceiling. Given time, it had the opportunity to become an Epic-grade lifeform, touching the realm of deities.

And such a powerful Earth Dragon actually had a flawed bloodline ability!

If the Earth Dragon could survive to later versions, relying on the Dragon Vein Furnace ability, it could continuously advance, becoming increasingly powerful and terrifying!

The Earth Dragon's ability differed from most supernatural abilities—it was a heaven-defying ability that could be used continuously across many versions!

"Because the Earth Dragon's ability is special, can its Heart Blood enhance ability levels?" Li Xuan murmured inwardly.

Fusion! He must fuse with the Earth Dragon! Seize the Earth Dragon's genes!

R City

When Li Xuan stepped onto the land of R City, he felt momentarily dazed.

Even though only about a year had passed since the apocalypse outbreak, it felt like a very long time had gone by, and he felt a sense of nostalgia for his hometown.

"I never thought we'd return here one day," Yun Xiuzhi sighed emotionally.

Li Xuan looked up toward the location of Yuefu Residential Complex, where he had a house with an unfinished mortgage.

He might never go back there.

"Let's go, first join R City's Official Base and wait quietly for the right opportunity."

"What if Huo Shuangshuang discovers us?"

Huo Lingling interjected, "I'm not her real sister anyway. Didn't Li Xuan say that in the original future, when she learned my true identity, she abandoned me? I don't acknowledge her."

"Let's go, search for some food and Xia Country currency along the way."

"Xia Country currency? What's the use?"

"It might come in handy, gather more."

The two people and one bird hurried quickly through the wind and snow. At this time, the heavy snow had just started, and the ground temperature hadn't completely bottomed out yet, being relatively warm and suitable for travel.

Along the way, they discovered a bank, broke in, forcibly opened the vault and safety deposit boxes, and took the Xia Country currency.

By the time they reached R City's Survivor Base, they had over six million in Xia Country currency, all stuffed into a giant travel bag. It was extremely heavy, but fortunately Huo Lingling had great strength—she could carry two travel bags on her back and hold two in her hands without her movement being affected at all.

The guarding soldiers stopped the two, looking them up and down with a friendly, not hostile, attitude.

It wasn't that the soldiers' quality was particularly high, but that Li Xuan and Huo Lingling clearly weren't ordinary. Firstly, Li Xuan had clean clothes and a lean, strong build. Huo Lingling was also very clean and exceptionally beautiful. In the apocalypse, beautiful women were attention-grabbing treasures—malice automatically gathered around beautiful women. Without strong abilities, one could only watch their woman be taken by other men, suffering endless humiliation.

From any perspective, these two weren't ordinary people. Would they trouble Li Xuan and his companion? That would be seeking death!

They had survived until today by using their brains—those without brains who offended people randomly had long become Zombies wandering the streets.

"You two, entering the base requires checking your backpacks and examining your bodies for injuries," the soldier said.

Li Xuan knew this was normal procedure and nodded, "You can check the backpacks, but can we skip the body check?"

The soldier said 'understandingly', "If bitten by a Zombie, infection turns you into a Zombie within half an hour at most. You can wait here for half an hour, then we won't need to check your bodies for wounds."

"We'll wait half an hour," Li Xuan said.

"Alright then."

Huo Lingling released her grip, and the soldier stepped forward to take the travel bag. Although the travel bag looked large, he estimated it wasn't heavy, since Huo Lingling, a young girl, could lift it easily.

"Let me take the backpack first," the soldier said.

"It's very heavy," Huo Lingling warned.

The soldier waved his hand, male pride surfacing, "I'm very strong. My friends have always said I'm as strong as an ox since childhood."

Huo Lingling released her grip, and the soldier's arm rapidly sank, his steps staggering, almost falling.

?

The soldier was puzzled—what was going on? Why was it so heavy?

This couldn't be right—a young girl could carry it, but he, a strong man, couldn't?

The soldier exerted force with his arm, the travel bag moved slightly, but still wasn't lifted.

Gulp~

The soldier swallowed saliva, looked up at Huo Lingling, recalling how she had easily carried the backpack.

Was this beautiful girl in front of him actually a monster in disguise!

Even world weightlifting champions might not have such strength!

The soldier didn't take the backpack but opened it on the spot, his entire body freezing completely.

"What money?"

"Xia Country currency."

???

The other soldier also froze, looking at the stacks of Xia Country currency in the travel bag, racking his brains but unable to understand why Li Xuan and Huo Lingling would carry a bag of money—wasn't it heavy?

The soldier beside him opened another backpack, taking everything out.

Bottled water, canned meat, chocolate, candy, compressed biscuits...

There were many items, all good things in the apocalypse, considered strategic supplies.

After inspection, the soldiers very conscientiously put everything back into the travel bags, mainly because Huo Lingling's displayed strength was too exaggerated.

"Miss, your backpacks," the soldier said with a smile.

Huo Lingling extended her slender arm, her fair, tender skin showing no muscle lines, looking no different from a delicate beautiful girl who couldn't even tie a chicken. Yet she could easily lift the heavy travel bag, even single-handedly, appearing completely effortless.

The soldier's mouth twitched slightly. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he truly wouldn't believe a woman could have such strength.

"Have you been to other survivor bases? The rules are similar—no killing, can't randomly take others' food and water, don't force women to do that kind of thing. Of course, with your food supplies, you wouldn't need to force them—they'd actively attach themselves to you," the soldier advised.

"We've been to others. We're not here to cause trouble," Li Xuan said.

"Brother, which base were you with before? Or were you an Independent Individual? I need to do a simple registration here."

"I joined the Black Bear Survivor Base, a non-official survivor base. Was an Independent Individual for a long time. My home is in R City, so I returned," Li Xuan said with a smile.

The soldier recorded everything, giving Li Xuan a thumbs-up, "Non-official bases are very chaotic. Being able to live there and bring back a beautiful woman—truly impressive."

"Not bad, they were all quite friendly."

The soldier completely didn't believe it, guessing they were friendly to Li Xuan but fierce to others.

The backpack inspection took nearly ten minutes. Li Xuan and Huo Lingling waited at the base entrance for twenty minutes before formally entering the survivor base.

As the two figures gradually disappeared, one soldier rubbed his chin, "Really strange those two."

"A bit strange, but there are plenty of strange people in the base. Two more isn't a big deal. After all, which Independent Individual who survived until now isn't special?" the other soldier said.

If the two hadn't had so much food in their backpacks, the soldiers would have thought they were crazy.

Why would anyone still keep Xia Country currency nowadays?

After Li Xuan and Huo Lingling entered the base, they hadn't gone far when a fierce-looking strong man blocked their path.

The fierce strong man looked lustfully at Huo Lingling, "Friend, three packs of biscuits—lend me your woman for three minutes? This price is very reasonable, enough to have other women for a whole night."

Li Xuan glanced at the fierce strong man, "As you wish."

The fierce strong man thought Li Xuan was cowardly, laughing even more happily, planning to take Huo Lingling for three days with three packs of biscuits, then return her after he got tired of her.

"Turns out you're a coward. I thought you had some skill bringing a beauty around," the strong man mocked.

"Beauty, come with me."

Huo Lingling smiled like a flower, "Li Xuan was speaking to me, you misunderstood."

"What misunderstanding? Come with me." As the fierce strong man finished speaking, cracking sounds emerged.

Huo Lingling's hand speed was extremely fast, instantly grabbing the fierce strong man's forearm, twisting it like a towel, very easily twisting the strong man's arm into a spiral shape.

Muscles twisted and tore, bones broke into over a dozen pieces, blood vessels exploded, bone spurs pierced through the skin, blood splattering everywhere.

Ahhhh!

The fierce strong man screamed, kneeling on the ground, his entire body drenched in sweat, looking at his spiral-shaped arm with immense fear.

Li Xuan didn't even glance at the fierce strong man, looking around and noticing many people present. He immediately said, "I want to acquire a large animal! Edible! Alive! Anyone who catches one can exchange it with me for one Supernatural Characteristic!"

These words shocked everyone present, their hearts trembling with astonishment.

Where did this important figure come from, actually using a Supernatural Characteristic to buy a live animal, just to eat meat?

Too extravagant!

In the crowd, many people's eyes lit up, feeling very tempted.

Killing mutated Zombies was very difficult, with slight carelessness leading to infection. Finding a live large animal was different—the difficulty was also not low, as most animals were either infected or eaten by Zombies, making them extremely scarce. But compared to hunting mutated Zombies, it was countless times safer!

The exploration team codenamed Vulture was one of them.

The team consisted of seven members, six men and one woman, all Transformers—including flying pigeons and quails, aquatic snapping turtles and black fish, and land-based water buffaloes, wolf dogs, and black horses.

They belonged to the elite among many exploration teams, always wanting to obtain Supernatural Characteristics to embark on the path of evolution.

But they couldn't defeat mutated Zombies that could control other Zombies, so until now they hadn't obtained a single Supernatural Characteristic.

"Brother Liu, will he really take out a Supernatural Characteristic to exchange for meat, just to satisfy culinary desires?" the round-faced girl asked seriously.

Brother Liu was the Vulture team's captain, a Black Horse Transformer. He licked his dry lips, casually grabbing a handful of snow and stuffing it into his mouth, "I haven't seen him before, but judging by his clean appearance and the capable, beautiful woman beside him, it might be true.

Look at that beauty—good figure, good skin, full of vitality. You can tell she's never gone hungry, protected very well by him. I suspect it's not him who wants to eat meat, but that woman.

Once a man decides on a woman, he'll find ways to let her live well. I'm sure he's a responsible man, so he's serious, not deceiving people."

"Captain, how do you know he's responsible?"

"Intuition, it's intuition between men!" Brother Liu said seriously.

The others' faces showed a trace of envy.

"But where are there live large animals in the apocalypse?"

"There are, just very few in cities. There must be some in mountain forests."

"We're too far from the mountain forests here."

Brother Liu said gravely, "I know a place with an underground cave containing an underground river. Let's go search there—maybe we can find large animals. If not, we'll catch more small fish and ask if he'll exchange. Fish meat is still meat."