Forbidden Zone of the Human Race

Another ten minutes passed before the Savage Sand Rat turned quiet, its ears drooping down in defeat as it lost its will to live.

Xiang Ning killed and buried the Savage Sand Rat before picking up his pickaxe and walking back to Uncle Zhao’s workshop. While beast corpses were valuable, the Savage Sand Rat was an exception and there wasn’t any market for it, even on the black market. If he carried it out, how could he even explain it? He would rather have one less problem to deal with.

Rather than being sad, he was ecstatic as he wanted to know how much were the spirit stones he mined.

Xiang Ning checked his Fury Points, happy that he had earned almost 3400 points. He was satisfied with Mountain-Splitting Slash being at the Assimilation level, so he invested in his Mental Power. A thousand Fury Points were immediately used up.

Mental Power: 30 [+]

When his Mental Power reached thirty, he felt the world and his mind turning clearer, as if he could grasp a strand of the power coursing through the world.

He then used another four hundred points in the Raffle.

Congratulations. You’ve obtained a new skill: Telekinesis (Upgradable)

Lucky!

But the subsequent three draws didn’t net him anything and he could only sigh.

He looked up the description for Telekinesis.

When Mental Power is above a certain threshold, the user can control inanimate objects by projecting the mind outwards. Requirement: 100 Mental Power

A simple description with just as much versatility as the Keen Observation skill, but it could be upgraded! Then he checked the requirements to upgrade it and was speechless.

Beginner stage: 500 Fury Points; Intermediate stage: 1500 Fury Points; Assimilation stage: 3000 Fury Points

He couldn’t bear to know how much it would cost for the Awakened and Peak Mastery stage. Staring at his remaining two thousand Fury Points, Xiang Ning decided to invest it all into his Mental Power. He now had fifty Mental Power, but felt the same.

He didn’t think much about it and continued running back toward Uncle Zhao’s workshop.

Uncle Zhao was smoking as usual until he saw Xiang Ning, then he frantically stood up. “Ning, did you enter the depths of the mine again? How’d you get so many spirit stones?”

“Sort of,” Xiang Ning sheepishly replied.

“Hey, I thought I told you if you needed money you could just ask me for a loan. The deeper parts of the mines are very dangerous. Don’t enter there again, understand?” Uncle Zhao said. He had watched Xiang Ning grow from a youngster into a fine young man, and he didn’t want him to lose his life in the mines. He understood how dangerous the deeper parts of the mine were and had seen many people lose their lives there.

“Yes, Uncle Zhao. So how much for the spirit stones?” Xiang Ning asked with a face full of anticipation.

Uncle Zhao sighed, then chuckled, “You rascal.”He opened a drawer to retrieve the money and Xiang Ning’s backpack.

“Eleven complete spirit stones for a total of thirty-three hundred dollars, but I kept two of them for you. You’re in high school now right? Your cultivation mustn’t fall behind, so keep these spirit stones to raise your cultivation, understood?” Uncle Zhao said as he handed the money and backpack to Xiang Ning.

Xiang Ning wanted to decline, but relented when he saw Uncle Zhao’s sincere eyes. “Thank you, Uncle Zhao!”

“Alright, hurry and go back now,” he sighed as he sent Xiang Ning off. “Your children have gone through so many hardships, brother Xiang.”

…

Xiang Ning went back home and saw Xiaoyu watching the crystal television as he entered the living room. She patted the couch, indicating she wanted him to sit beside her. He smiled as he sat beside her, but was interrupted just as he was opening his mouth.

Xiang Xiaoyu hugged him hard and he was flustered as he was figuring out where to put his hands. In the end, he gently patted Xiang Xiaoyu’s head and whispered, “What’s the matter, Xiaoyu? You can tell me anything.”

“I saw many people die,” Xiang Xiaoyu sobbed.

His brows furrowed. Many people died?

“Did you have a nightmare?” he softly consoled her.

Xiang Xiaoyu shook and only continued after a moment of silence. “I saw it on a live broadcast. Many people died in Tranquil City when beasts invaded.”

Xiang Ning relaxed his tense muscles and propped her up. “Xiaoyu, that’s why we must be diligent in our cultivation as humans, even though our current place is still very peaceful. Danger lurks everywhere.

“Not only Tranquil City, or the Federation, or the entire human race. If we don’t get stronger then the beasts will kill us all,” he said after a moment of thought.

Tranquil City, a city close to the wilderness, was originally the Guang Fu region in the Sea Pillar district. It was an important city that humanity had painstakingly wrestled back from the beasts, but no one knew why beast stampedes had been so frequent lately.

The last time Xiang Ning saw the news on the newly gifted crystal television was also a live broadcast from Tranquil City. The previous stampede was repelled by the Thor Mk. 3 Rail Cannon, but now another stampede had occurred.

He examined the footage and found that the outer wall was breached. That was impossible, as Tranquil City had many experts—and the rail cannon wasn’t something a normal stampede could force its way past, either.

The reporter, as if sensing Xiang Ning’s question, started speaking. “The reason the damage was more severe this time was due to this.” The camera panned toward a large hole. Its surrounding was censored, but Xiang Ning could still make out that it was blood and guts scattered everywhere.

But something caught his eyes.

“Is that a Savage Sand Rat?!” he gasped.

“As everyone can see, the current disaster was caused by Savage Sand Rats. According to our estimates, more than a hundred thousand Savage Sand Rats appeared and destroyed our roads, rendering our troops unable to reach the defensive line in time.”

Xiang Ning was intrigued by the news. A hundred thousand Savage Sand Rats was horrifying, but it wasn’t as scary as he thought. He had read before that a similar situation had happened once in the wilderness when more than ten million Savage Sand Rats invaded, and even tier seven martial artists had refused to step up.

He was now slightly worried that the Savage Sand Rat he had seen in the mines was part of the pack but broke away from it instead. But judging the caves just now, the probability of it was low, as Savage Sand Rats always cried for reinforcement. As no other Savage Sand Rats had appeared even after it cried for so long, Xiang Ning relaxed. As for why it was in the mines, it probably got lost there while it was digging around.

Xiang Ning’s analysis was somewhat true, but he still needed to be more careful the next time he went mining.