Chapter 55: Yin and Yang
Because she had just used a massive amount of resources to upgrade the Yellow Springs Road Guide, Lin Huai was running low on the basic supplies needed to push her vehicle to Level 5. For now, she had to rely on Jiangzhehu Inheritor’s new crafting service to help her gather those basic materials quickly.
As for the rare emeralds, she was still ten short. She would have to find a way to hunt those down herself.
Suddenly, a crisp mechanical female voice chimed inside the cabin:
[Yellow Springs Road Guide upgrade complete. Re-calibrating with vehicle systems…]
[Yellow Springs Road Guide and Armored Spirit Vehicle successfully synchronized. Please restart the engine to activate.]
Lin Huai eased on the brakes, turned off the ignition, and hit the start button again.
Vroom!
[Yellow Springs Road Guide activated. Remaining daily quota: 80 kilometers. Road conditions: winding mountain path ahead. Environmental hazard: Level 2 Acid Rain. Roadbed: stable with no current forks. Obstruction detected 50 meters ahead: Roadblockers. Defense grid armed. Golden Light Cannon locked on target. Ready to fire. Do you wish to engage?]
Lin Huai looked through the reinforced windshield. Fifty meters ahead, a small cluster of low-tier monsters was milling across the asphalt. Wasting cannon shells on small fry like that wasn’t necessary at all.
Still, the fact that the upgraded road guide now offered auto-targeting and automated defense controls filled her with delight.
Lin Huai commanded, “Engage the vehicle’s Yang energy barrier and ram straight through.”
[Understood. Yang energy shield engaged. The vehicle is currently running in dual-shield escort mode. Would you like to deactivate the Green Jade Evil-Suppressing Yin Shield to conserve Yin energy?]
“Keep it active,” Lin Huai replied smoothly. “Leave the Yin shield running at all times.”
The jade coffin’s protective shield drew natural Yin energy directly from the surrounding air, requiring zero Yin crystals from her inventory. There was no need to turn it off.
Her hearse was evolving into a supreme Yang-attribute war machine, making it a heavy consumer of Yang energy crystals.
Her jade coffin, on the other hand, was an extraordinary Yin artifact. Far from burning through her Yin crystals, it steadily refined and produced them on its own, making it an irreplaceable treasure.
With Yang guarding the road and Yin resting on top, this perfect balance between light and dark made Lin Huai more confident than ever that she could reach the very end of the highway.
With the glowing barrier up, Lin Huai stepped on the gas and plowed directly through the horde, instantly crushing five or six minor ghosts beneath the heavy wheels.
She let out a light laugh. It looked like she would easily keep her number-one spot on the monster-slaying leaderboard again this month.
Once past the roadblock, Lin Huai lowered the Yang shield to conserve energy and accelerated down the open lane.
Meanwhile, a carefully planned stir was brewing in the public chat lobby.
[Information Office Director]: Fresh dungeon intel for sale! Only 100 underworld coins per tip—come and get it while it’s hot!
[Painful Referee]: What kind of intel? You haven’t even told us the topic, so how are we supposed to buy?
[Information Office Director]: It’s a zone-wide dungeon open to every single survivor—a real chance for ordinary players to turn their fortunes around! Private message me with payment for details!
[Big Fatty]: Ahhh, take my money! I passed on the last rumor, and a friend who bought it managed to level up twice in a single day!
[Painful Referee]: Count me in too, then…
Behind the wheel of his battered compact car, Tchaikovsky Driver read the sales pitch. Remembering the parting advice Boss Bone Ash had given him earlier, he had a strong feeling this paid tip was about the exact rally race she had mentioned.
After hesitating for a moment, he decided to buy a copy to make sure.
[Information Office Director]: Welcome, dear customer! Looking to buy the latest scoop?
[Tchaikovsky Driver]: Yes. What’s this new dungeon you mentioned in the main chat?
[Information Office Director]: Payment first, please, dear.
Only after the transfer of one hundred underworld coins went through did the seller send over the details.
[Information Office Director]: The moment one thousand players within our district cross the 10,000-kilometer mark, a special racing dungeon will unlock automatically—a true vehicle rally competition!
Tchaikovsky Driver’s heart skipped a beat. It was the exact same event Boss Bone Ash had talked about.
[Tchaikovsky Driver]: I already heard about the race from Boss Bone Ash. It tests top speed and handling, right? Do you have any deeper details?
[Information Office Director]: Add a little tip, dear, and I’ll share more.
He gritted his teeth and wired over another hundred coins.
[Information Office Director]: Here’s an insider tip: the tournament is divided into three tiers: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Since you’re driving a Level 1 ride, dear, I strongly advise sticking to the Easy track.
Tchaikovsky Driver typed a quick thank-you and closed the window, practically shaking with excitement.
Before being pulled into this hellish game, he had been a professional rally driver. This tournament was his golden ticket to rise to the top!
Without a second thought, he committed his stockpiled resources to upgrading his car, funneling every spare component into engine acceleration and high-performance racing tires. Within half an hour, his modest compact hatchback had been transformed into a sleek, aggressive race car.
Meanwhile, another advertisement dropped in the main lobby, sparking an immediate frenzy among the survivors.
[Jiangzhehu Inheritor]: I have an active crafting workbench and am taking on long-term blueprint processing orders. Fair rates, fully negotiable—send me a private message!
[Sounds Good Is a Good Head]: Crafting service? How do we know you won’t just steal our blueprints and run?
[Edamame Doesn’t Eat Pineapple]: This scam is a bit too obvious…
[Preserved Egg Match]: Are you two blind? Look at her username! That’s Jiangzhehu Inheritor from the Elite Squad, personally backed by Boss Bone Ash!
[Edamame Doesn’t Eat Pineapple]: Um… but what if Boss Bone Ash takes our blueprints too?
[Sounds Good Is a Good Head]: I’m not doubting the big boss, but entrusting your lifelines to a stranger tests human nature a bit too much…
[Left and Right for Men]: You two are completely paranoid. Boss Bone Ash is the number-one player across the entire server! What kind of legendary blueprints doesn’t she have? Why on earth would she care about your low-tier junk?
[Man on Top of Man]: Well said! Anyone from the original Zone 444 knows what kind of person Boss Bone Ash is.
[Grass Don’t Float]: Exactly! Everyone in 444 knows the Boss never exploits her people. She wiped out the tyrants and saved all of us!
[Tchaikovsky Driver]: I can vouch for Boss Bone Ash with my life! Earlier today, I found a high-tier cursed chest that I was terrified to touch. The Boss came in person to crack it open and saved my life in the process. She could have easily left me to die in the rain and walked away with the loot, but she saved me and still offered to honor our fifty-fifty split!
[Tchaikovsky Driver]: That was an advanced chest, loaded with blueprints and rare materials! Yet she didn’t try to take it all for herself. She has iron principles and real integrity. If you have blueprints, go for it!
[Flying Dog Hair]: With Boss Bone Ash backing the deal, that’s more than enough guarantee for me. I’m placing an order right now!
Voice after voice chimed in across the chat. The survivors who trusted Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice easily drowned out the few doubters. Almost overnight, Jiangzhehu Inheritor’s blueprint crafting service became the hottest business in the entire zone.
