I Am Cultivating in the Apocalypse

Chapter 761: Arrival at the Center of Six-dimensional Space

This inevitably sparked doubt and curiosity. It was as incredible as someone suddenly claiming to have found affordable replacements for oil and natural gas, which have always been essential energy resources.

Elder Zhang gave Jun Bao a stern look. "Don’t ask what you shouldn’t ask, and don’t try to know what you shouldn’t know." Then he turned and smiled at Jing Shu.

"I always knew you had plenty of good stuff, girl. Now, as long as you can create a medicine to suppress Ticks, you’d be the greatest contributor. You wouldn’t only save the lives of thousands of us but also open up this route, earning great merit for the migration of the citizens of Wu City. It’s not just about energy resources—even if it’s something more excessive, this lad would have to agree to it. Plus, once the route is open, there’ll be rewards from Xinlan and Sichuan as well."

Jun Bao nodded. "Hurry up and reveal the secret."

Jing Shu didn’t waste any more words. She took out bottles of black liquid from the black box and shook them with a chuckle. "This is the black energy we discovered together. All of you either turned in what you found or conducted research, but I’ve been storing mine. Moreover, I found quite a bit more of this black energy in the deep mountains, so I’ve got a good amount on hand right now.

From my experiments over the past few days, I found that it can effectively suppress Ticks, preventing them from coming close—even achieving a repellent effect. I suspect that its nature as a New Energy is the reason for these effects. However, the black energy can only repel Ticks, not kill them."

The black energy was effective, though not incredibly potent. After all, according to its classification, it was considered an energy source from a low-dimension space. Energy from a Six-dimensional space would be somewhat more powerful. However, when Jing Shu added a bit of Space Spiritual Spring, the effect was immediately apparent, achieving exactly what she claimed.

This suggested that Space Spiritual Spring might be an energy from an even higher-dimensional space.

As for the aftermath, well, this type of black energy was no longer produced. Even if the Imperial Capital still had a small amount, it couldn’t be used to test the validity of her claim. Besides, once the Ticks disappeared, where could anyone go to verify the remarkable effectiveness of her ’black energy’?

And besides, who could have imagined that this ’black energy’ wasn’t the actual black energy they knew?

After listening, Elder Zhang slapped his thigh hard. "Why didn’t I think of that? You’re the clever one, lass! Fight poison with poison—only a monster can defeat another monster! Only this dark New Energy can suppress these new species! The effect you’ve described is already excellent."

Jing Shu said humbly, "Well, you didn’t have these raw energy materials, so you naturally wouldn’t have thought of it. I only discovered it by experimenting with various things in my spare time..."

Looking at so much black energy, Jun Bao finally felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders. "Exchanging black energy for the New Energy here is very fair. I will also report your contribution, and there will definitely be other rewards."

Elder Zhang, already eager, began extracting the black energy to test it once more. Since it was only one primary raw material, he would need to add other auxiliary substances. He also needed to calculate how to maximize the use of the black energy—specifically, determining the minimum extraction amount needed to achieve the Tick-suppressing and repelling effect.

While working, Elder Zhang said, "According to that old man, as long as we find the energy center point where these Ticks reproduce and collect this New Energy, we’ll find the exit. Without energy support, the Ticks will naturally be no threat. We’ll be saved, and we’ll also have opened up this transport trade route, which will benefit the populace and save many lives in the future."

With the black energy provided by Jing Shu, the subsequent tasks became much easier.

Elder Zhang expedited his research and quickly determined the optimal ratio. He was astonished to find that the energy, when diluted a hundredfold, still had a repelling effect, and when diluted a thousandfold, it still retained a suppressive effect. This led to the development of two products.

One was a topical ointment. Once applied, Ticks would not approach for eight hours; even in close contact, the Ticks would flee. The other was a diluted spray that could be applied to vehicle bodies to prevent the ever-increasing number of Ticks from crawling inside.

With this double insurance, the large army marching this time finally felt truly safe.

Of course, no one cared about minor issues like looking as though they were covered in dark mud after applying the Tick repellent ointment. If it weren’t for the scarcity of the ointment—Elder Zhang had instructed them to apply it only to exposed skin—the group would likely have smeared it over every inch of their bodies, not missing a single spot.

With the Tick-repelling agents, the entire army hastened forward, yet as time went by, the convoy’s speed did not increase.

The further they went, the more alarmed everyone grew.

As they headed towards the coordinates given by the old man, the number of Ticks grew astonishingly large, thickly covering the entire road. Where there was once mud, the ground was now a pitch-black mass of Ticks, as if they had entered an ocean of Ticks. From a distance, it looked like waves were rolling, one after another.

The ’wave’ of Ticks crashed against the lead vehicle, threatening to overturn it. The massive convoy now resembled tiny boats in a Black Sea, inconspicuous and in danger of capsizing at any moment.

Jun Bao reacted quickly, reorganizing the single-file convoy into three vehicles abreast. The best tank vehicles forged ahead, crushing the Ticks to pave the way. The dead Ticks would cover the road, providing a slightly smoother path for the vehicles behind, but it wasn’t long before these corpses were swallowed by the surging Ticks below.

Even the command vehicle, where Jing Shu was located and which had the best equipment, was now wobbling. Sounds of THWACKS and CRUNCHES came from outside—some were Ticks striking the vehicle’s outer shell, others were the sounds of wheels crushing their bodies.

Despite having sprayed the potent repellent, many Ticks were still crushed and forced their way inside. Some were alive and scurried about, while others were dead, smearing sticky fluids everywhere. Consequently, these elite individuals began to divide the tasks: some continuously caught Ticks, others cleaned the sticky residue from the wheel crevices, and still others protected the food supplies from being overrun by Ticks.

Indeed, some had also begun researching how to consume Ticks. After all, in these times, food was King. With such an abundance of Ticks before them, it would be a disservice to their expertise if they didn’t figure out a way to eat them. The lack of meat and presence of only shells wasn’t a deterrent; as long as there was protein, there was hope. They considered juicing them, grinding them into powder, various methods of deep processing, and even pondered the risk of poisoning.

At that moment, everyone was most envious of the fat chicken. It was like a perpetual motion machine, a tireless black hole, even more diligent than a frog, and crucially, it was fast. Whenever an insect appeared, it would swiftly gobble it up.

Thus, the fat chicken was assigned the critical task of being stationed on the grain vehicle to specifically deal with the pests there.

The convoy moved slowly, frequently needing to stop for cleaning operations because the sheer number of Ticks caused numerous vehicle malfunctions. After countless hair-raising moments, the convoy, with Jing Shu in it, finally reached the center of the Tick sea.