Chapter 321 - 163: Riverbank

Chapter 321: Chapter 163: Riverbank

Three days had passed since Xu Mo left Luochuan City.

Three days, three hundred kilometers.

The numbers on the odometer ticked steadily upward: 650 to 700, 700 to 800, 800 to 900. He had traveled a thousand kilometers since leaving Jiang City.

The Dandelion Plan’s total route from Jiang City to Ming Pearl Port was 3,500 kilometers—but that was a theoretical figure. In reality, the path Xu Mo had to travel was far longer than a straight line. The 3,500-kilometer total was the most conservative estimate.

Xu Mo looked up from the odometer, his gaze falling on the road ahead. The road stretched straight into the distance, flanked by barren farmland and the occasional abandoned house. It was sweltering, and heat waves shimmered up from the pavement, distorting the distant scenery until it looked like he was seeing it through water.

Xu Mo took one hand off the steering wheel and reached for the car radio on the passenger seat. He had rarely used it before. In the post-apocalyptic world, radio signals were rarer than clean drinking water. Most of the time, turning the dial through all the frequencies only yielded the hiss of static.

But last night had been different. Xu Mo had spent the night in an abandoned farmhouse. Before sleeping, he casually turned on the radio, wanting to see if he could pick up any signal. He turned the dial slowly, and a monotonous, dull hissing sound came from the speaker.

Then, music suddenly rang out.

It was brief, lasting only for a moment, but Xu Mo was certain he had heard it. It was man-made music, not static, not interference, but real, genuine music being broadcast by someone.

The moment he heard the music, Xu Mo’s fingers froze on the dial, and he quickly tried to turn it back.

But the frequency was gone, leaving only the crackling hiss of static.

Unwilling to give up, Xu Mo repeatedly fine-tuned the dial around that frequency, but he never captured any music again. In the end, he had to abandon the effort.

All morning, Xu Mo had been driving while fiddling with the radio from time to time. He kept turning the dial back and forth around that frequency, each twist filled with anticipation, but each attempt yielded only the hiss of static.

Xu Mo guessed that the broadcaster might have limited power and only sent out a signal at a specific time at night. Many small survivor settlements did that in the post-apocalyptic world. They were busy trying to survive during the day and only had time at night to turn on their radios, hoping to hear news of other survivors or simply play some music as a small comfort—a reminder that they were still alive.

Of course, there were other possibilities.

Perhaps the signal came from a large shelter, like Jiang City, with a stable power supply and a 24-hour broadcast. Maybe he couldn’t find it again because he had remembered the frequency wrong. Or maybe it was just a random atmospheric disturbance, and what he’d heard wasn’t a human signal at all.

Xu Mo’s fingers turned the dial gently, listening to the hiss coming from the speaker.

’But what if?’

’What if it really was a survivor settlement? What if they could provide some useful information? What if their route intersected with the Dandelion Plan? Any one of those possibilities was worth his time to investigate.’

But by noon, Xu Mo still hadn’t managed to find the signal again.

Turning off the radio, Xu Mo refocused his gaze on the road ahead.

The silhouette of a gas station appeared up ahead. It was a small station, with two rows of pumps standing crookedly under an awning. The door to the adjacent convenience store hung wide open, revealing a pitch-black interior.

Xu Mo slowed, pulled into the gas station, and parked in front of the convenience store.

He did a quick search. The pumps were bone dry, and the convenience store shelves were completely empty. Even the back warehouse had been turned upside down.

Xu Mo came back outside, stood under the awning, and surveyed the area.

In a corner of the gas station lay several skeletons, scattered across the ground and bleached white. There was a human skull and a few leg bones that may have belonged to a zombie—it was hard to tell from their shape. They simply lay there, unburied and forgotten.

Xu Mo gave them a single glance before looking away.

There was nothing to dwell on. Such remains were all too common in this world, found everywhere from the ruins of cities to the fields of the countryside and the sides of highways. They had once been people, with names and stories. But now, they were just piles of unburied bones.

Xu Mo looked up at the sky. The sun hung at its zenith, scorching the earth. The air was distorted by the intense heat, making the distant scenery tremble slightly, as if viewed through a flowing layer of water.

Although Xu Mo was barely affected by the temperature thanks to his Iron Bone Realm cultivation, he still returned to the car, picked up his canteen, and took a few sips.

The weather had been ridiculously hot ever since he left Luochuan City. He wondered if the heat was why he had barely encountered any zombies these past few days.

After a short rest, Xu Mo returned to the car, started the engine, and drove out of the gas station.

Not far ahead, there was a town.

The name marked on the map was blurry and illegible. He could only faintly make out the character for "Liu." ’Willow Town? Liuhai Town?’ he mused. ’Doesn’t really matter.’

According to the map, the town wasn’t large. Going around it would add more than ten kilometers on a dirt road of unknown condition, so Xu Mo decided to drive straight through.

He stepped on the gas and accelerated toward the town.

The town was quieter than Xu Mo had expected. The streets weren’t wide, flanked by low-slung bungalows and the occasional two-story building. Most of the doors and windows were open, revealing pitch-black interiors. The road was scattered with all kinds of debris and trash that was mangled beyond recognition.