Quick Travel to the Clouds

Chapter 637 The Apocalyptic Old Lady 6

The first signs of "superpowered individuals": like stars scattered among the crowd, few in number but attracting attention.

A caregiver in his early twenties stood near the door. His bare arms and forearms had a metallic grayish-white sheen. He held a steel pipe that he had bent by hand during the cleanup. He looked somewhat bewildered, but his taut body showed that he was ready to fight at any time (metal hardening).

Another young medical student leaned against the pharmacy counter, holding a glass container that had been turned over. She stared at it intently, and occasionally a ripple, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, would appear around the rim of the container, subtly distorting the air.

She is trying to control this strange and peculiar power (weak sound waves/force field).

In the shadows of a corner, a taciturn man dressed in a pharmacy clerk's uniform had an unnaturally deep purple palm print, and the surrounding air seemed to carry a slightly unsettling toxicity (poison gland secretion?).

There were also a few people whose auras were clearly different, some were agile beyond ordinary people, some had eyes as sharp as an eagle, and some had abnormally hot body temperatures, but their abilities had not yet been clearly displayed or they did not want to reveal them.

They all subconsciously maintained a subtle distance from ordinary people, but their gazes would eventually fall on Yun Chu—the source and benchmark of power.

The original six people, including Ma Yong, Su Xiaoman, and Li Jianguo, now seemed like the extended arms and legs of Yun Chu.

They were scattered in key positions within the crowd, serving both to help maintain order and as a buffer zone between the newly arrived survivors and Yun Chu.

Ma Yong, along with several other equally strong-looking young men, stood guard behind the outer perimeter barriers, keeping watch on the outside.

Su Xiaoman and Li Jianguo weaved through the crowd, quietly reminding people of the precautions, and handing out small packets of compressed biscuits and bottled water to the elderly and children.

Wang Caixia and Zhou Weiwei helped look after the pregnant woman in pain in the corner;

Liu Jing, holding a pen and paper, counted the names of the people, whether they had any special abilities, and the supplies under the dim light.

The lobby was relatively quiet.

There was no crying, no shouting, only low sobs, suppressed groans, the weak breathing of the elderly, the soft murmurs of children in their sleep, and the rustling sounds of people tearing open wrappers and unscrewing water bottles.

Having witnessed the screams of life and death, the silence now feels even heavier, as heavy as the sea before a storm.

Yun Chu's gaze, like the most precise scanner, slowly swept over the faces of the hundred people gathered together.

She sensed 107 different heartbeats—some loud, some faint, some steady, some chaotic—beating through her mental network.

She could clearly distinguish the fear, dependence, awe, pain, confusion, and those few gradually awakening, unstable, and faint energy fluctuations mixed in the air.

"It's all cleaned up." Her voice was soft, as calm as ever, yet it clearly pierced through the heavy silence, reaching everyone's ears.

These five words seemed to possess immense power, instantly easing everyone's tense nerves.

Yes, "it's been cleaned up"—the demons within this hospital building have been temporarily eliminated, giving them a breathing space, a small area where they can briefly lick their wounds, assess the situation, and decide their next move.

All of this was accomplished by this nearly sixty-year-old woman with flowing silver hair, who seemed to still have the lingering warmth of battle, in just two hours with swift and decisive action.

Her fingertips twitched unconsciously, a faint arc of electricity flashing between her fingers before dissipating into the lingering smoke and blood in the air.

Ahead lies an even more vast, more brutal, post-apocalyptic wasteland, utterly overturned by the unknown red moon.

***

Liu Jing put down his pen, looked up, and saw that his forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, which glittered faintly in the dim light of the emergency flashlight.

He carefully folded the paper with the scribbled writing, and instead of immediately announcing the result, he quickly walked through the crowd to the side of the silver-haired figure, deliberately lowering his voice:

“Boss Li…” His voice carried a mixture of barely suppressed excitement and apprehension, “The preliminary count is complete. There are twenty-one people who have initially shown signs… Their characteristics vary, and their abilities differ as well. The list is…”

"No need." Yun Chu didn't even turn her head, her voice still calm, cutting him off.

Her mental perception had already conducted a meticulous scan of everyone during the cleanup and after the reunion. These twenty-one "anomalies," like dazzling sparks on a black screen, were reflected into her consciousness map much faster than Liu Jing's pen and paper.

Liu Jing's statistics are more of a formal confirmation and record.

Liu Jing was taken aback, then swallowed his words, nodded silently, took a step back, and carefully tucked the list into his pocket.

Just then, Yun Chu slowly turned around.

The movements were slow, yet carried an undeniable weight, drawing the weary, fearful, and expectant gazes of almost everyone in the space.

Those 107 gazes, like heavy threads, wrapped around her.

Her gaze swept over the faces that had just recovered from their shock and were filled with dependence, and over the confused yet vaguely ambitious eyes of the "newcomers" who had just acquired supernatural abilities.

Finally, that icy gaze pierced through the cracks in the temporary barrier, casting its way into the ruins outside, shrouded in the glow of the red moon and filled with unknown growls.

"This building is temporary." Her voice, though not loud, was like a cold pebble thrown into a still lake, each word clearly creating ripples that penetrated everyone's ears.

The air in the lobby seemed to freeze.

People instinctively held their breath, even the low sobs temporarily ceased, leaving only the uneasy swallowing sounds and the rustling of fabric.

The child's bewildered eyes widened in his mother's arms.

“The smell of blood will attract more, bigger things.” Her statement was brutal and direct, without the slightest concealment, as if stating an imminent, unchangeable fact. “Outside, it’s much bigger and infinitely more dangerous than here.”

A faint, barely suppressed sense of terror and despair, like a cold water snake, silently spread through the crowd.

Ma Yong gripped the handle of the fire axe tightly, his knuckles turning white; Su Xiaoman subconsciously moved closer to the elderly people holding children in the innermost circle; Li Jianguo's Adam's apple bobbed.

“A text message notification: There’s a national security base in the city center, called Dragon Shield.” Yun Chu’s voice was devoid of any emotion, as if she were stating a predetermined location.

It was as if a glimmer of light had suddenly appeared in the darkness! "Safe Base," "National Establishment," "Dragon Shield"—these words carried a powerful magic, instantly igniting countless eyes that were on the verge of being extinguished.

Hope, longing, and unbelievable ecstasy flashed across their weary faces, especially in the ordinary elderly, weak, sick, and disabled, whose cloudy eyes suddenly ignited with a glimmer of light.

However, Yun Chu's next words were like a tempered ice blade, abruptly suppressing the newly ignited flame of hope:

"I will go."