With a thought, a region of his body could manifest silver armor, covering his skin with formidable defensive power, so strong that even the Dragon Rhinoceros Sword struggled to cut through. The only drawback was its extremely short duration, lasting only an instant. This required Su Li to practice and master the timing, activating it precisely when an enemy's attack was about to strike his body—too early or too late, and it would be ineffective.
This demanded a high level of skill from the user.
Now, the Purple Wind Building had a total of four Level 6s, six Level 5s, and twenty-two Level 4s, marking a significant boost in overall strength.
Finally, everyone was exhausted, their stamina drained. They withdrew from the floating island and returned to rest. The night's hunt was over.
Jin Sixing, Ling Tian, and Wang Xiaofei, who had just broken through to Level 5, were promoted to reside on the thirty-sixth floor—a right and honor earned through their own strength.
The next day, after waking up and having breakfast, Su Li summoned Ding Longyun, Gong Xiao, and Xu Xuehui. He decided to head to the thirty-two-story building where they had previously lived to retrieve the supplies left there and bring them back to the Purple Wind Building.
Qi Mengyu wanted to join them, mainly to see where Su Li had lived before and to get some fresh air. She had been cooped up in the Purple Wind Building for days. Now a Level 4 Source User, and with Su Li and the others accompanying her, the trip was perfectly safe, so she wanted to go out and explore.
Seeing the longing in her eyes, Su Li agreed.
The five of them boarded the massive wooden raft that Bai Wenwei and his team had built, leaving the Purple Wind Building and heading toward their target three kilometers away.
This giant raft was made by combining several ordinary rafts, measuring five meters wide and ten meters long, with a total area of fifty square meters. It was constructed from two layers of wooden doors and a large amount of timber, reinforced with many ropes and iron wires for stability. Su Li nodded in approval, knowing that Bai Wenwei had put thought into building it.
Such a large raft was more than sufficient for transporting supplies and had strong load-bearing capacity, but maneuvering and controlling such a giant raft was no easy task.
Ding Longyun entered the water as usual, pushing the raft slowly from behind.
Su Li, Gong Xiao, and Qi Mengyu took up wooden oars. Su Li stood on the right, the two women on the left, and together they rowed, setting the raft in motion.
Once moving, the raft picked up speed. Everyone was busy, except for Xu Xuehui, who was leisurely cracking sunflower seeds.
It had rained heavily the day before, and the temperature had dropped noticeably. A cool breeze blew across the water's surface, but Ding Longyun, swimming in the water, felt nothing of it—instead, he grew more excited.
Having reached Level 6, he had further strengthened his lungs. His longest breath-holding time had now reached an astonishing twenty-five minutes. With his lung enhancement, the power of his "Air Missiles" had also increased. Combined with the upgrade, the explosive force of his "Air Missiles" was now half again as strong as before.
"At this rate of evolution, I feel like I could really live entirely in the water," Ding Longyun laughed.
Gong Xiao smiled. "I think it's possible that a batch of humans might evolve to live in water."
"This great flood might be another kind of 'Cambrian Explosion,'" Qi Mengyu said. Having reached Level 4, her vision had improved, and she no longer needed to wear glasses. Still, she habitually reached up to adjust them while speaking before realizing they were gone.
"What's the Cambrian Explosion?" Ding Longyun asked curiously.
Qi Mengyu explained, "The Cambrian Explosion refers to a major mystery in paleontology and geology—the Cambrian radiation. Based on fossil evidence, before the Cambrian period, life existed mainly in single-celled forms. But during the Cambrian, life suddenly evolved from single-celled to multicellular forms. The morphology and diversity of life underwent a dramatic leap in that short period, with a massive emergence of multicellular organisms, including the ancestors of almost all modern animal groups. This explosive evolutionary event is called the Cambrian Explosion, and to this day, there's no satisfactory explanation for it."
She had been a middle school teacher before, so her knowledge was extensive. Su Li had a vague idea of what she was talking about but had never delved into the specifics.
Ding Longyun, hearing this for the first time, found it strange. "Is that so? That's really odd, isn't it? Isn't it just like now? The flood suddenly appeared, and then countless bizarre monsters popped up out of nowhere, and no one can say where they came from."
Qi Mengyu hummed in agreement and continued, "The discovery of the Cambrian Explosion posed a widespread challenge to Darwin's theory of evolution. According to Darwin, species evolve through gradual changes. But the Cambrian Explosion was sudden, as if tens of thousands of species appeared overnight. Because of this, it's often used to support the idea of divine creation. Current molecular biology can't adequately explain this phenomenon. It's very similar to what we're experiencing now."
Su Li chimed in, "So, does that mean something like this might have happened on Earth in the distant past? Species appearing overnight? Hearing you say that reminds me of an article I read about ancient floods. Many cultures around the world have similar legends of a great flood wiping out humanity, leading some to speculate that a global flood might have occurred in ancient times, which is why these flood myths exist across different peoples."
Ding Longyun said, "That does seem a bit odd, including how suddenly this flood came and the strange Source Beasts appearing in the water—it's really hard to explain with common sense..."
Just as he said that, Xu Xuehui, who had been cracking sunflower seeds, suddenly called out, "People!"
"Where?" Ding Longyun quickly looked at her.
Xu Xuehui pointed ahead. "Our place. Several people, moving supplies."
Everyone exchanged puzzled glances. Su Li asked, "Xuehui, you mean people are at our old place? They're moving our stuff?"
Xu Xuehui nodded at him and added, "Two rafts."
Ding Longyun understood and immediately grew angry. "Damn it, who's got the guts to touch our stuff?"
Gong Xiao rolled her eyes at him. "We've been gone for two days. People from elsewhere probably thought it was unclaimed and decided to take the supplies. That's normal."
Though Gong Xiao's explanation made sense, Ding Longyun still felt indignant. He always considered the supplies in that building as his hard-earned collection, his property, not to be touched by others. Now that someone was taking them away, he couldn't bear it.
He immediately sped up, kicking hard in the water to push the raft, charging toward the distant thirty-two-story building.
"Xuehui, how many people are there?" Su Li could only see the three floors above water from afar, not the people.
"Three, four, five... seven in total." Xu Xuehui counted for a while before getting the exact number.
"Seven people." Su Li nodded and said nothing.
Gong Xiao glanced at Ding Longyun. "Brother Ding, don't get angry. Let's see what's happening first when we get there. It's best to avoid conflict."
Qi Mengyu added, "Yeah, there are seven of them. We need to be careful."
Ding Longyun snorted. "If they're reasonable and return our stuff, I won't make trouble for them. But if they're not, or refuse to give it back..."
He looked at Su Li and Gong Xiao. "What do we do then?"
Su Li remained silent. Gong Xiao hesitated, took a breath, and said, "We'll decide when we get there."
Now that Su Li, Ding Longyun, and Gong Xiao had all reached Level 6, especially with Su Li present, the group wasn't afraid despite knowing seven people were moving the supplies. They just hoped to resolve things peacefully without conflict.
As the raft drew closer to the building, they could finally see two rafts moored on the water beside it. One was already piled high with goods, while the other was about half full. Several people were busy moving the last remaining supplies up and down the building.
Ding Longyun's eyes widened as he recognized the supplies as his hard-earned collection. A surge of anger welled up inside him, but he forced it down. He thought Gong Xiao was right—they had been gone for two days, and others might have assumed the supplies were abandoned. It wasn't entirely their fault.
On the fully loaded raft stood two people, smoking and chatting. They had already noticed Su Li and his group approaching from a distance.
With such a massive raft, Su Li and his companions were hard to miss.
On the balcony of the thirty-first floor stood a young man, seemingly in his early twenties, wearing a denim outfit, an afro hairstyle, a thick gold chain as big as a pinky finger, and a cocky expression. He was chewing on a toothpick, sizing up the five people on the approaching giant raft.
"Interesting. Five people, three of them women. These two guys sure are lucky bastards, huh? Pfft." He spat out the toothpick as he spoke.
"But women aren't much in a fight. The real threats are probably these two men. Even if they're both Level 6, so what? We still outnumber them by one." He muttered to himself, shaking his head with a dismissive look.
"Xue Ge, we've almost moved everything. Should we leave now, or wait for these people to come over?" A short man in his twenties, barely 1.6 meters tall, walked up behind him with a fawning expression.