Chapter 123: The Age of Great Strife Is at Hand

Gu Sha continued piloting his aircraft after hanging up the phone. He did not care whether the high-ranking officials of Longzhou believed him or not. To him, it was simply a matter of knowing about a future catastrophe and, as a human being, choosing to provide a warning if he had the ability to do so.

He had no interest in being a savior, but he also could not ignore a simple act of courtesy. As for whether they believed him or took precautions, that was none of his concern.

However, it was clear that the high-ranking officials of Longzhou placed a fair amount of trust in Gu Sha. After all, while many considered him a man of poor moral character, he had never once joked about his actions or words. Someone capable of saying they would drop a nuclear bomb and then actually doing so possessed a high level of credibility.

That very day, the official global forums issued a Level 1 warning, with the topic instantly overshadowing the news of Gu Sha being a global bandit.

This piece of news led to a rather unique experience for Gu Sha during his "robberies." In the past, whenever he visited any continent, the high-ranking officials would greet him with long faces, wishing they could rub his face in the dirt. This time, however, upon arriving at Huazhou, he was received with great enthusiasm by the leadership. They even arranged for a world-famous actress from before the apocalypse to serve him tea and pour his water, with clear implications that she was available to warm his bed.

Gu Sha stated that he was not that kind of man. If they kept being this enthusiastic, he, a notorious bandit, would almost start to feel guilty about performing his professional duties.

In the end, the other party revealed their true motive: they wanted to verify the authenticity of the "Crimson Descent" scheduled for five months later. Upon receiving Gu Sha’s confirmation, these officials felt a shameful sense of gratitude toward this heinous global bandit deep within their hearts.

They were still somewhat skeptical, of course, but their inclination to believe Gu Sha was far stronger. Primarily, it was because Gu Sha’s reputation for integrity was impeccable. When he said he would bomb someone, he bombed them; when he demanded a certain amount of loot, he took exactly that much, never asking for more or causing extra trouble. As long as the continent he named handed over the corpse cores and mutant bones according to his requirements, his visit would remain peaceful. Sometimes, if he felt like it, he would even help clear out the local zombies. When Gu Sha took action, he was unstoppable, often achieving better results than a fully armed division deployed in full force.

Given the high credibility of this global bandit, almost every continent—except for a stubborn few—began emergency preparations. Continents contacted one another to establish mutual aid agreements; some smaller ones relocated, while the larger, more powerful ones provided full reception.

A massive, global state of alert had begun.

All continents were actively preparing military defenses and mass-producing protective gear. During this process, strangely enough, Gu Sha, the global bandit despised by everyone, began to see his reputation cleansed. His public perception climbed rapidly, and a "Gu-fan" community even emerged on global forums, boasting a significant number of members.

When Gu Sha learned of this, he was left completely stunned. The world was truly a strange place.

Regardless of how the world changed, however, Gu Sha continued to work diligently at his craft, acting like a model worker, running across the globe and pouring out his hard-earned sweat—by carrying nuclear bombs to commit robberies!

Because of Gu Sha’s global warning, the various continents became remarkably harmonious, achieving an unprecedented level of closeness that fully demonstrated that humanity was one family, working together to create a shared home. For a time, things became quite peaceful, and through their joint efforts, there was even a glimmer of hope for recovery.

Gu Sha, like a global superstar, had his itinerary tracked by countless people. When he went to cities to conduct his robberies, he was even welcomed by fans, with many running up to take photos as souvenirs.

However, in early April, the global bandit Gu Sha suddenly went missing, only posting a short status update on the global forum: "Work finished, retiring to live in seclusion. May humanity recover its home soon."

This message caused a massive sensation on the forum, though it was soon overshadowed by the pressure of the impending global catastrophe. As the time drew closer, all continents fell into a tense silence. Many debated the truth of the situation. On the forum, quite a few joked that if the Third Crimson Descent really occurred, Gu Sha would truly be deified, but if it did not occur, he would go down in human history as the first demon to have toyed with all of humanity.

Whether he was a god or a demon seemed destined to be verified very soon.

By this time, Gu Sha had successfully broken through to the second stage of the Extraordinary War Emperor and the second stage of the Ability War King. Afterward, he cut off his internet access and traveled to the Taihang Mountains in Longzhou.

In the future visions Gu Sha had seen, the Taihang Mountains were the first blessed land to trigger global competition after the world’s transformation. Because the mutations in the Taihang Mountains were among the most intense, they possessed abundant resources and, most importantly, contained a secret strategy for unlocking the mystery of the "Domain Lord."

Over the past few months, Gu Sha had used his foresight many times. In those future visions, he had explored quite a few blessed lands, but only in these Taihang Mountains had he obtained a secret strategy.

However, that strategy was different from the "Qi-Induction Technique," which could be practiced simply by knowing the chants; this strategy required studying the runes within it, which was why it was known as a "Secret Art."

In fact, Gu Sha did possess an ancient secret strategy already—the inscriptions he had obtained from a small blessed land on Ghost Island. Through high-intensity study during his many future-sight sessions, he had become proficient in ancient scripts and had naturally translated those inscriptions. They were merely the daily records of an ancient cultivator named Dan Wenzi. Only one fragment of the inscriptions mentioned a strategy called the "Yang-Pointing Technique."

The name "Yang-Pointing Technique" sounded impressive, but it was actually just a minor spell used to convert source energy into light for walking at night. This was quite useless; it might be helpful for ordinary people, but for the current Gu Sha, there was no difference between day and night, and he had no need for such illumination spells.

However, through the fragments of those inscriptions and what he had learned from his visions of the future, Gu Sha had come to understand the secret of the Domain Lord: it involved using specific secret strategies to refine all the genetic locks within one’s body and fuse them into a unique entity known as the "Life Wheel."

Once the Life Wheel was condensed, one could master the power of a domain and become a legendary Domain Lord.

After arriving at the Taihang Mountains, Gu Sha settled into a small, abandoned town occupied by zombies and mutant beasts at the foot of the mountains. Relying on his memories of the future, he slowly reconstructed a map of the Taihang Mountains, all while quietly waiting for the Third Crimson Descent to begin.