The figure fiercely battling the Red-Scaled Zombie was a slender youth, his soft leather armor dusty and crisscrossed with fine scratches, clearly bearing the marks of numerous prior fights. A faint, pale yellow tinge marked his arms and body, as if he hadn't eaten properly in ages.

At this moment, beneath the gaping, monstrous maw of the Red-Scaled Zombie, the color completely drained from his face in terror.

"Ugh..."

Suddenly, the Red-Scaled Zombie, its bloody mouth wide open, shuddered, and a raspy sound escaped its throat. The slender youth watched as a long, pale hand, as if delicately gripping a rose, gently held the zombie's throat, yet caused the flesh, interwoven with sharp red scales, to visibly collapse inward.

Ye Chen frowned, cast a cold glance at the Red-Scaled Zombie, and with a casual flick of his wrist, hurled its body away like a wad of trash, sending it soaring onto a broken piece of rock.

The Red-Scaled Zombie landed, but such damage was negligible to its body. It quickly scrambled back up, let out a roar, and charged back toward Ye Chen.

Pfft!

A streak of light shot out, piercing the zombie's skull in an instant, like a laser. Its body abruptly stopped, twitched, and then collapsed straight down.

Ye Chen retracted his finger, sparing it no further attention. He didn't even glance at the slender youth behind him, who stood frozen in stunned shock. Instead, he turned to address Bai Long and Zhuge Fan as they approached. "This Red-Scaled Zombie seems to possess 'rank' level strength."

Bai Yijun and Yue Ling hadn't grasped the implication, but Bai Long and the others were somewhat surprised. Calculated by the time they had been gone, this type of human zombie was the slowest evolving mutated creature. If even these zombies had reached a level exceeding one hundred, how terrifying must the other mutated beings have become?

Nevertheless, they were only slightly surprised.

With the current group assembled, they could sweep clean any location in the entire Ancient World, let alone the small realm of Earth.

Ye Chen closed his eyes, his spiritual power instantly engulfing the entire planet, extending even to the nearby reaches of outer space. He could even discern every minute speck of dust on the Moon. However, something strange occurred.

The entire Earth seemed shrouded by an invisible force that forcefully shielded Ye Chen's spiritual power, preventing it from covering the world. At most, he could only perceive a radius of NO0 meters around his body.

"What's going on?" Ye Chen opened his eyes, his brow furrowed.

"How is it?" Bai Long asked with keen interest.

"I can't see," Ye Chen murmured, his gaze fixed on the distant sky. "In the time we've been away, Earth has undergone changes unknown to us. A powerful and mysterious magnetic field is blocking my spiritual power, making it impossible to scout."

Bai Long looked astonished, then quickly attempted to scan himself. He soon arrived at the same result as Ye Chen and gaped, bewildered, "It's true! What kind of situation is this?"

The others all tried it themselves and found they couldn't detect anything.

Ye Chen frowned, pondering for a moment, then turned to face the slender youth. When the youth felt Ye Chen's gaze upon him, his heart involuntarily jolted. He felt an overwhelming sense of looking up at a giant, as if he had instantly shrunk into a lowly ant. His body trembled slightly, and he stammered, "Please, please, may I ask..."

Ye Chen raised his hand, interrupting him. He placed his palm gently on the slender youth's head and slowly closed his eyes.

A moment later, Ye Chen opened his eyes, his brow tight, and slowly lowered his hand from the youth's crown. The slender youth seemed utterly vacant, staring blankly into the void without focus.

Ye Chen looked at the expectant gazes of Bai Long and the others, and slowly said, "This person is merely a low-level member of a mid-sized conglomerate; he doesn't possess much information. According to what I gleaned from his mind, this location is the northeast border of a region called Youzhou. A large number of Red-Scaled Zombies have been appearing here recently, which is why this person came to hunt."

"The nearest location is a New Human Base City called Dawn Base City. This city is one of the three major New Human Base Cities in Youzhou, housing dozens of conglomerates, large and small. Beyond that, there is only information regarding some well-known and common monsters."

"How many prefectures are there in the entire world?" Bai Yijun mused, then asked the crucial question.

Ye Chen shook his head. "This person's status was too low. He grew up entirely in this territory. A few months ago, his wife cut off her own flesh for him to eat before she died. His strength was too weak; he lacked the means to leave this prefecture, or even to leave Dawn Base City."

A person, trapped their entire life in one city due to lack of power—this was undeniably tragic.

Bai Long and Yue Heng felt a surge of emotion and couldn't help but look at the slender youth twice. They hadn't expected his wife to be such a selfless person.

This was love.

The greatest love in the world is arguably maternal love.

Yet, the most precious love belongs to spouses.

Two people, unbound by blood, who firmly hold onto each other amidst this cold world purely because of mutual affection, warding off the external chill, and ultimately never leaving one another—that is the truest, most cherished love.

This love is as great as motherly love.

However, since the apocalypse, the world has grown cold, and such profound love has almost become extinct. Though desperately needed, few are willing to offer it.

This, without a doubt, is an even greater tragedy.

"Let's go. We head to Dawn Base City," Ye Chen turned and looked east. Under that mysterious magnetic field, not only was spiritual power blocked, but even spatial teleportation was impossible.

How could one reach a place the eyes couldn't even see?

Under Ye Chen's lead, the group flew swiftly toward Dawn Base City. Only the slender youth remained behind. Long after the group vanished, clarity slowly returned to his pupils. He looked around with confusion, then spotted the Red-Scaled Zombie lying ahead.

His eyes immediately cleared, shining brightly. He rushed forward with delight, exclaiming happily, "Fantastic, a headshot! What great luck!" Then, he squatted beside the Red-Scaled Zombie, pulled out a sharp, blackened dagger from his waist pouch, and began carving out the scales and the mutated flesh within the creature's body.

This genetically mutated flesh could trigger changes in one's own gene chain, thereby enhancing physical constitution.

Ye Chen's group flew suspended in the air, their speed swift. Before long, they spotted a majestic Base City dominating the plains ahead, surrounded by scorched, dark earth giving off wisps of intense heat.

"Did you alter that person's memory?" Bai Long asked Ye Chen.

"Mm," Ye Chen responded with a nasal grunt.

"As expected..." Bai Long wore an expression of having guessed correctly and chuckled slyly. "I knew it. Most people doing things like this would simply erase the target's memory so they completely forget meeting them. But with your underhanded nature, you surely modified his memories instead. Tell me, did you erase his wife from his recollection?"

"Why would I erase her?"

"Afraid of causing him pain every time he remembers her," Bai Long suggested.

Ye Chen glanced at him. "Your cultivation has reached this level; don't you understand karma? His wife's sacrifice bought him his life; he naturally must bear some pain. If his wife vanished from his mind, wouldn't that be far more tragic?"

"Just say you didn't change it. I knew you still had some humanity left."

Ye Chen shot him a sideways look, then turned his gaze to the Dawn Base City ahead. They didn't pause at the city gates but flew directly toward the soaring, magnificent central wall.

"Hey! Who are you people!" Several guards on the rampart shouted loudly upon seeing Ye Chen and the others.

"You're a bad person, so I won't tell you," Zhuge Fan replied with a grin.

The guards were nearly spitting blood from rage and shouted angrily. Naturally, Ye Chen and the others paid them no mind, continuing their flight straight past.

"If you come closer, we will open fire!" a guard warned.

Ye Chen and the group still paid no heed.

No longer hesitating, they quickly drew the military's latest AT-type laser machine guns from their waists. Beams of laser fire, like light rays, erupted instantly, slamming toward Ye Chen, who was at the front.

Ye Chen didn't even blink. The lasers, upon reaching close proximity, were automatically isolated by a spatial barrier and vanished without a trace.

The city guards were stunned speechless. One who reacted quickly immediately pulled the alarm bell and activated his communicator, rapidly contacting the military headquarters inside the Base City.

Ye Chen and his group flew directly toward the rampart, ignoring the guards frantically signaling the military.

The guards watched, dumbfounded. They had never witnessed such bizarre behavior. Normally, under such circumstances, people would swiftly eliminate the one sounding the alarm, yet these individuals seemed utterly unconcerned.

Under the gaze of these guards, Ye Chen and the others swiftly entered the Base City. Following the map etched in the slender youth's memory, Ye Chen headed straight for the tallest, most magnificent structure in the city center—the residence of the Base City Mayor.

The Base City's response time was remarkably fast. Shortly after the alarm sounded at the gate, Ye Chen's path was met by torrents of troops pouring out of the alleys between the major buildings, resembling an ant swarm. Countless high-powered machine guns were aimed at the group, and even military attack helicopters had been deployed.

"Stop immediately, or you will be dealt with lethally!"

A voice boomed from a loudspeaker on an attack helicopter.

Ye Chen frowned.

Boom!

The loudspeaker exploded violently.

The cheek of the man holding the speaker was blackened like a sunflower seed.

This sudden, unexpected development startled everyone. Then, a tall, imposing young man with eyes sharp as knives stepped out from the crowd and shouted loudly, "Fire!"

He wore no speaker, yet his voice resonated like rolling thunder across the entire field.

As his command rang out, the numerous machine guns on the ground unleashed fire like fiery snakes. Shell casings rained down like fleas, and some soldiers wielded rocket launchers or similar heavy ordnance, though their power was thousands of times greater than conventional rockets.