The target had vanished.
In that moment, carried away by a sudden blizzard, the pair—a tall man and a smaller figure—disappeared without a trace.
Under the veil of wind and snow, very few noticed their escape route. Even if someone did, there was no way to stop them.
In a sense, this was bullying on a dimensional level.
Outside the sand table, Lin Tuo's hand had not even lifted very high. Once his avatar broke free of the encirclement, he casually placed himself and Hua Xi somewhere else, then switched his consciousness back inside.
"Safe now."
When Hua Xi finally heard Lin Tuo's voice again, she loosened her grip, opened her eyes—and was shocked to find herself in a completely unfamiliar area.
From her perspective, she had only felt the howling wind in her ears. Then her feet seemed to step on some strange "soil," her body rose slightly, then descended again.
It felt as though some unknown force had pulled them, carrying them through a brief displacement.
An experience unlike anything she had ever known.
"You…" Hua Xi blinked, looking at Lin Tuo, wanting to ask—but in the end, she held back. Only the doubt and curiosity in her eyes deepened.
Lin Tuo had no intention of explaining. He only said, "Alright, let's keep going."
The western mountain range wasn't very large. A few hours later, Lin Tuo's trace was captured once more. Combined with his earlier "disappearance," many speculated this was some kind of ability.
Yes, perhaps a power allowing short-range teleportation.
"But does such a thing really exist?" Many were doubtful.
After all, while some evolutionaries did develop extraordinary powers, most were tied to bodily functions—enhanced senses, extreme eyesight, even the ability to sense weather changes. Teleportation, however, was almost unheard of.
Yet, the doubt hardly mattered.
The hunters of the Doomsday Floaters only knew that the joint encirclement of the three factions had utterly failed, and the mysterious powerhouse's rating had been elevated to something unprecedented: SS-level.
This failure did not dampen the determination of the wasteland powers. On the contrary, it only hardened their resolve to kill Lin Tuo.
A controllable powerhouse could be recruited. But if one's strength was so vast as to be uncontrollable, then there was only one safe solution: elimination.
And yet, to their growing frustration, the mysterious man seemed to possess foresight. Every time, he evaded their traps with almost perfect precision.
Sometimes leaving ahead of time. Sometimes "teleporting" away.
After several failed attempts, not only did they gain nothing, they even delayed their own expeditions into the Great Western Continent.
Ironically, they discovered that thanks to Lin Tuo's relentless hunting—wiping out countless high-level mutant beasts—their own exploration progress had sped up by many times.
It was, undeniably, a bitterly ironic situation.
In this tense atmosphere, another day passed.
Lin Tuo, keeping to his rhythm of body-tempering and eating, finally killed a snow bear. As he climbed a peak, he realized that there were no more enemies ahead.
Under the dim sky, light snow was falling.
Before him stretched a chaotic valley. Beyond it, only one last mountain remained.
And beyond that mountain… was the endless, dark ocean.
The Endless Sea.
The very edge of the continent.
"We've reached the edge of the continent…"
Wrapped in thick cotton, rifle on her back, Hua Xi was deeply shaken as she stared at the sea. This was her first time seeing an ocean.
"If I'm not wrong, that mountain should be a laboratory."
Through his scope, Lin Tuo observed the peak ahead. Its summit, base, and sides all bore traces of human construction. Most obvious of all was the massive, ruined antenna on top.
"It should be," Hua Xi said, her voice heavy. "Legend has it, the Mad Emperor triggered the Catastrophe here, in the last mountain by the Endless Sea."
For a while, they were silent. Lin Tuo exhaled, feeling the fatigue of constant battles and body-tempering. Then he said:
"Let's go check it out."
With "teleportation," the two reached the Great Western Continent Laboratory in just over ten seconds.
The entrance was halfway up the mountain: a half-sealed metal gate.
When Lin Tuo and Hua Xi—one tall, one small—stood before the massive gate, they both fell silent.
The door was austere, without plaques or markings. Only a white jade statue remained nearby.
It had been damaged in the ancient explosion.
The statue was broken in half, its upper body toppled into the snow, still clutching a teaching staff.
It was a statue of the Sage Lin, but its face had been deliberately defaced, the features erased.
Through Hua Xi's stories, Lin Tuo had already learned that after he left, the King of Chi had commissioned statues in his honor, preserved for over a century.
Until the Mad Emperor, in his final years, destroyed them all, forbidding anyone from venerating the Sage.
And yet—here, one remained.
"Did he want me to see this with my own eyes?"
Lin Tuo gazed at his own statue, such thoughts rising unbidden.
He shook his head, then raised his hand and smashed it completely, before forcing the metal gate open. It was already near collapse, and tore apart with little effort.
"Let's go inside," he said, stepping forward.
The corridor opened into a vast laboratory hall.
Thirty years had passed, yet much of it still resembled its old state. Instruments lined the hall, corroded and rusting. Some areas had partially collapsed.
Hua Xi followed nervously, scanning her surroundings. Suddenly, she stepped on something and gasped.
"They should be the researchers who died back then."
Lin Tuo looked at the scattered bones on the ground, his expression grim.
Signs suggested chaos had erupted here long ago. Judging by the twisted positions of the corpses, their deaths had been agonizing.
"They must have been the first humans struck by radiation."
Lin Tuo sighed inwardly. Oddly enough, facing those who had doomed civilization, he felt little anger. Only a heavy silence.
A few steps further, his eyes fell on a special set of remains.
This skeleton wore a bright yellow royal robe—still faintly colored despite the decades.
It was an old man's body, seated by the wall. Above was a shattered window, overlooking the sea. Even now, the sound of waves could be heard.
In his withered hands, he held a dark green metal box with rotten wires trailing.
On it were the words: Detonator.
The Mad Emperor.
The man who destroyed the Chi Dynasty, built a new empire, and unleashed the end.
Clatter.
As Lin Tuo approached, the vibrations made the corpse collapse completely. The box slipped from its grasp.
Rolling free, a square dark green seal clattered across the floor.
Lin Tuo's eyes narrowed.
The inscription confirmed it: the legendary extraordinary artifact that could influence minds—the Imperial Seal.
It was here.
Yet its surface was fractured, edges chipped, its luster dim. Evidently, the Catastrophe had dealt it irreversible damage.
Lin Tuo hesitated, then picked it up.
And at that instant, the virtual panel of the Evolution Sand Table flashed before his eyes.
A line appeared that he had never seen before:
[Special item detected. Would you like to analyze it?]
Startled, Lin Tuo wondered: the sand table could do this too?
"Analyze," he willed.
A brief progress bar flickered.
[Analysis complete.]
Knowledge flooded his mind. The Sand Table's report read:
Type: Natural mineral extraordinary artifact (likely altered by repeated Ether tides, gaining spirit and special abilities).
Grade: Low
Condition: Severely damaged, on the verge of collapse
Ability: By consuming Ether, can affect the minds of all life within ten meters, inducing a hypnotic-like state. Duration and range vary with Ether consumed.
Side Effects: Causes mental instability in the wielder—amplifying obsessions, paranoia, loss of reason, madness… Long-term use is not recommended.
"You… what's wrong?"
In the hall, Hua Xi saw Lin Tuo frozen with the Seal in his hand. Her face showed concern as she approached cautiously.
"Ah, it's nothing."
Lin Tuo returned to himself, gave her a reassuring smile, and looked at the Seal again with quiet wonder.
"I'm just… a little surprised."
(End of Chapter)