Chapter 1 - The Last of Humanity

TRIGGER WARNING: This novel has a suicidal protagonist, so PLEASE read at your own risk. I will add more trigger warnings IF I see anything possibly triggering or suggested by a reader.

The whole world was overcast with gray, and there was no sign of bright colours.

If it was only one place that was like this, then it would have counted as nothing, but now the whole of Earth was like this.

The sun was still in the sky, but the original red colored light was filtered through the grey skies, in the end there was only the faint impression of a grey circle.

If the Earth still had plants, they would have died because the sun had been hidden. Fortunately, those various plants had become extinct much earlier.

No, they weren’t completely extinct. On the Earth’s highest mountain, there was still a small piece of grass the size of a fingernail.

This kind of grass before the end of the world was an extremely common and extremely unremarkable grass, and it was commonly used to make lawns. It could be found everywhere, but the people who knew its name was very few. People were used to stepping on them, while never closely looking at them.

But now, it has become Earth’s last plant, placed in a transparent, crystal jar, stretching its body out to bring the last hint of green to the world.

A man wearing a thick black robe held the crystal jar as if it was precious, bringing warmth to the plant inside. He stood at the nearest place to the sun and basked under it. The way he looked at it was as if he was looking at the world’s most precious thing.

It actually was really valuable, because the plants that were far more beautiful and taller than it had already mutated or became extinct.

The man in the black robe stood quietly in the highest place in the world. He used the black robe to wrap himself in an airtight manner. His whole demeanor felt lifeless, like this world, but the area around him was very clean. Gray fog rolled on and on, but it couldn’t penetrate his surrounding of one meter radius, as if a transparent barrier had blocked it out.

It really was a barrier, or more commonly known as a domain, which only ability users of level seven and above could use.

The black robed man stood there for a long time, motionless, staring at the crystal jar in his hands, up until there were signs of movement from below, only then did he finally turn his neck and watch from a distance.

A faint trace of bright red broke away from the fog and rushed towards the black robed man.

That person was attacked by many black plants, but they were all pushed back by the fiery red domain around him. They couldn’t hurt him, much less slow him down.

The domain around the black robed man made a sweep with several waves, and in the next second, the black plants retreated.

“Lord, I’ve returned.” His hair was cut without care, and he had a thick beard on his jaw, brimming with mature appeal, this man supported his own domain to walk towards the black robed man. His clothes were ragged, cutting a sorry figure, but he had been carefully protecting something in his bosom.

The black robed man ignored him, turning his head to continue looking at the crystal jar in his hands.

“Lord, I’ve found some food!” The man supporting the red domain, or what was considered the fire domain, completely didn’t care about the indifference of the black robed man. He sat down near the black robed man, letting both their domains squeeze together as well, then took out the thing in his embrace. It was a few cans. This type of cans were produced in some bases after the apocalypse, but those bases with the capability to produce these cans had been destroyed at least five years ago, so these cans definitely had already expired.

“These cans were cared for very well, so even though it had expired, it is still edible.” Using the flame domain to shield himself from the surrounding infectatious gray fog, the fire ability user extended the chapped hands holding the cans, wanting to put them in the black robed man’s domain, but suddenly realised his hands couldn’t reach out at all, and a dim sadness appeared on his face.

“You can eat it ba.” The black robed man finally spoke. His voice was hoarse, yet had a peculiar sense of charm.

“I’ve already eaten,” The fire ability user smilingly said, “You eat a bit ba.” He spoke while opening a can, then his facial expression stiffened— inside the can, there was only a black substance left.

Evidently, this can had already been contaminated by those wretched black substance.

The fire ability user was already used to running into these kinds of matters. After a pause, he started opening the cans after that, up until he had already opened all the cans, only did he find a perfectly fine can. “I just knew it, the cans I found in that heavily fortified laboratory, how could all of them be spoilt?”

He smiled in an unconstrained manner, then offered that sole uncontaminated can to the black robed man.

“Half each.” The black robed man concisely said.

The fire ability user didn’t object, but smiled and said, “Okay, but I’ve already eaten, so I’ll eat my portion later.”

The black robed man stared at the fire ability user for a while, then finally ate half the can under the expectant eyes of the fire ability user. Although this can of food wasn’t contaminated, it had long expired, so the taste could be said as dreadful, but the black robed man was used to eating all kinds of disgusting food. Even at this time, he had eaten the food without a change of expression, then wanted to give the remaining half to the man.

“I’m running out of energy to support the field, so it’s better to put it with you ba.” The fire ability user said, shrinking his domain to be closer to the black robed man’s domain’s side.

The black robed man looked at him again for a moment, then his domain suddenly enlarged, encompassing his.

The fire ability user brightened, then dispersed his own domain to sit next to the black robed man. “Lord, it’s still you who treat me the best.”

The black robed man didn’t speak this time, and the fire ability user was unconcerned, saying, “Lord, you sit down too ba, isn’t it tiring to stand all the time?”

The black robed man slowly sat down, and the fire ability user was delighted, speedily leaning on the black robed man’s body. At the same time, his words increased. “Lord, the two of us really are amazing, now we’ve become the last two people alive. Those people had scolded us at the beginning, saying that we wouldn’t die a good death, but in the end they’ve all died, and we’re still alive.”

The fire ability user completely did not hope for the black robed man to respond, but the black robed man had precisely responded: “En.”

Hearing this reply, the fire ability user broke out into a smile. He suddenly said, “Qi Jingchen, I’m really happy to have met you.”

It had been a long, long time since the black robed man had heard someone else call his name, but he still did not react at all.

“Qi Jingchen, there’s now only the two of us in this world, if we don’t talk, it really would be too lonely, so please talk to me.” The fire ability user spoke again, previously he had still called the black robed man ‘Lord’ deferentially, now he was repeatedly using his name familiarly.

“Talk about what?” The black robed man asked.

“Do you still remember my name? Let me hear you say it a few times.” The fire ability user said with a smile.

The black robed man turned to look at the fire ability user, following which a hoarse voice came out. “Nie Yi.”

“Qi Jingchen, you say, why did the world change to become like this? If I knew that the world would become like this, I would have properly enjoyed life, I absolutely wouldn’t have diligently worked overtime everyday just to make the company bigger.”

“Well, I can’t say that. If I hadn’t worked hard enough, I wouldn’t have lived to this day. Now I’ve somehow managed to become second in the world.”

“I really am happy to have met you. That time when I thought I was going to die, it was you who saved me…” Nie Yi spoke endlessly, the gray fog around them had already become much denser, and now it had become a sheet of black— The sun… had set.

“It was you who saved me.” The black robed man said.

“At that time if I hadn’t saved you, you wouldn’t necessarily have died, but if you hadn’t saved me, I really would have died. At that time, I had nothing… when you saved me, I had thought, there are still good people in this world. I must not let you die.” Nie Yi said.

The black robed man was silent.

“Qi Jingchen, tell me about your life before the end of the world ba, I have already told you about mine a long time ago, shouldn’t you tell me yours?” Nie Yi laughingly said.

Right now the sky had thoroughly darkened, but Nie Yi was the person the black robed man was most familiar with, and by merely thinking, he could visualise Nie Yi’s current expression.

He was silent for a moment, then abruptly said: “There isn’t much to say about my previous life.”

“How could there be nothing to say? I really want to know!” In the darkness, Nie Yi’s face blossomed into a large smile— the world’s strongest ability user’s name and appearance, it had always been only him alone who knew. This feeling really was amazing, but it was such a pity, he still hadn’t found out about Qi Jingchen’s life from before.

The black robed man was quiet again, then said: “When I was very small, my parents had divorced. Both of them did not want me, so my grandparents had given me up for adoption to the Qi family in the village…”

The black robed man had never liked discussing his past history, and after experiencing the ultimate pain and suffering during the end of the world, he wasn’t even willing to tell other people his name. But at this time, he slowly spoke about his experiences, the pain and despair he had suffered, all of them were brought out.

After the end of the world, he became known as the world’s most sinister man. The most circulated news of what he had done was attracting zombies to destroy a large security base, and also single-handedly killing about half the expert ability users at that time, over a single night.

Afterwards, he stood on the opposite side against humanity for a period. Countless people had tried to massacre him, but he was too powerful, in addition to that, his ability could completely disregard zombie attacks, so much that he could control the dark ability of the low level zombies. Therefore, no one could hurt him at all. Later, many people, for strength, for protection, or for family members, assembled at his side. At that time, his side was bustling with liveliness.

Unfortunately, when all was said and done, there was only him and Nie Yi left.

When all the animals had lost their rationality and became zombie beasts that only knew how to attack, when all the plants were no longer green but a strange black with toxins, when no one in this world could create water besides the water ability users of rank five and above… How could humanity continue to survive?

Seeing the people by his side become fewer and fewer, seeing every piece of land in this world become contaminated with black, it truly was hard to bear.

His strength was really strong. He could keep up the energy field, so that all the dark energy would be blocked out, but a small area could be maintained.

Before, he stayed at one place for a long time to have some vitality, and by his side he kept shelves planted with flowers and plants. But later, a strong ability user from the opposing security base had self destructed before him, so everything was destroyed.

Now he only had the grass in his hands, and by his side there was only Nie Yi.

Even if it was Nie Yi, he would also die sooner or later…

The black robed man closed his mouth. The person beside him was entirely leaning against him, and had also…. stopped breathing.

In this situation where everything was already contaminated, the only place that could still preserve a bit of food, it was probably the research facilities of those large secured bases. How could there not be powerful zombies at those kinds of places?

He could control zombies, but he was limited to low levelled ones. Those powerful zombies could hurt even him, so how could Nie Yi face them without paying a price?

The black robed man touched the man leaning on his body, and sure enough, on his body he could feel multiple large wounds.

When Nie Yi first came, he hadn’t discovered this. But when Nie Yi came closer to him, entered his domain, he immediately knew Nie Yi was injured.

He hadn’t said anything, because at this stage, there was nothing but death, so what’s the difference between saying and not saying? And he had no way of saving Nie Yi.

Nie Yi probably also knew this, so that’s why he would ask so much… Only, without even waiting for him to finish speaking, Nie Yi had already died.

In fact, for him to know Nie Yi, he also felt that it was very good. If he didn’t have Nie Yi, after he had taken revenge for his extreme grudges, perhaps he would have died.

Living, truly had no meaning at all.

But, Nie Yi wanted him to live, and had even left him half a can of food.

The black robed man shifted Nie Yi’s body, put him on his legs, then used his domain to keep Nie Yi’s protection airtight— keeping this man by him, would prevent him from becoming a zombie because of the dark energy outside.

Two days later, the black robed man ate the remaining can that had become increasingly disgusting, then drank some water that had been prepared by Nie Yi with his water ability.

Ten days later, the black robed man poured in the slightest bit of water into the crystal jar in his hands, then thoroughly sealed up this jar.

“I’m going to die. I hope you can live a few more days…. Even though it’s hard… really hard…” The black robed man used his skinny, almost just skin covering bones, hands to put the crystal jar on the ground, slowly closing his eyes.

Not long after, the grass in the crystal jar had withered.

After the end of the world, many scientists wanted to create a sealed off ecosystem for humans to survive, but they all failed. How could the grass in this crystal jar continue to survive?

On Earth, since then, there was no living beings.

The author has something to say

The opening of a new novel~

Baobao’s Note

Thanks to discord users Soulless and THISBRO for helping discuss cultivation terms with me!!!

Hi! So for the updates, I want to post the retranslations first, but if you guys want to see the continuation from tamwryn, I’ll try to either A) post the retranslation and update on sundays B) post the updates on sundays and put up the retranslations when I’m free.