The rain lasted for seven days before stopping. When the sun came out, two rainbows appeared in the sky, their seven colors distinct, like an archway leading to heaven.

Luo Ning pulled An Xiaoruo to stand on the roof of the car, marveling at everything. Lu Xinghe also sat beside them, looking up. The post-rain breeze blew through their hair, a rare moment of comfort in this apocalyptic world.

Two more days later, the car ran out of gas and they had to walk. Luo Ning packed up the food and clothes on her back, while Lu Xinghe carried the radio and some weapons. Both of them were carrying a lot of things.

"The map is no longer usable; we'll have to rely on the compass and luck from now on." Lu Xinghe took out his compass to determine the direction.

Luo Ning silently calculated in her mind that even traveling 100 li a day, it would still take more than 40 days to cover 4,000 li, and there was a high possibility of encountering other dangers along the way. Therefore, the actual arrival time at the base might take three or four months or even longer. She wasn't afraid of the hardship, but she was worried about An Xiaoruo's health. The child was only seven years old and already malnourished. She didn't know if she could endure the long journey.

Fortunately, An Xiaoruo was very strong. She never complained about the hardship or fatigue along the way and followed them for a month. They didn't encounter many alien species on the road. Lu Xinghe gradually became less wary of Luo Ning. He could see that she really wanted to send An Xiaoruo to the human world.

"What do you plan to do after you get us to the base?" he asked.

Luo Ning didn't answer immediately, but looked at him mischievously: "After you return to the base, will you send someone to kill me?"

Lu Xinghe paused for a moment before replying, "If you endanger humanity, I will."

Luo Ning nodded and smiled, "Yes, you are a qualified soldier. After I send you back to the base, I will stay far away. If we meet again by chance, we will go our separate ways."

Although she was smiling, she spoke sincerely. Lu Xinghe looked into her eyes, which were still a cold, deep blue, but he no longer felt uncomfortable as before.

"Let's go first. Whether we can get back to the base alive is still unknown," Lu Xinghe muttered. Although his voice was still cold, it lacked his usual pickiness.

Luo Ning always felt that he was very lucky, lucky to have met her, a good-tempered mutant. If it were any other mutant and he was still so arrogant, he would have been eaten several times over long ago.

After Lu Xinghe finished speaking, he felt the ground shaking, and Luo Ning felt the same way.

"Could it be an earthquake?" she wondered, looking at the ground to see if cracks were about to appear.

But Lu Xinghe looked north, his face pale: "It's not an earthquake, it's a resonance."

"What do you mean?" Luo Ning was a little confused.

Lu Xinghe pointed ahead: "We may have encountered a beast tide."

Luo Ning looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a black ribbon-like object on the horizon moving rapidly toward them.

"Run! What are you standing there for?" Luo Ning grabbed An Xiaoruo with one hand and pulled Lu Xinghe's arm with the other, running perpendicular to the beast tide. When the beast tide came, don't think about how to hide; only running can save your life.

Luo Ning was originally very fast, and it wouldn't have been difficult for her to outrun the beast tide if she were alone. However, she was now carrying two humans, and although Lu Xinghe was also fast, it was still not enough to outrun the surging beast tide.

She felt this wasn't working, so she let go of Lu Xinghe's arm, threw off her backpack, and ran forward quickly with An Xiaoruo.

Lu Xinghe watched her departing figure, his heart sank, and then he laughed self-deprecatingly. So she hadn't lied to him. Indeed, they had gone their separate ways.

He threw off his belongings and ran as fast as he could, determined not to give up until the very last moment. But he was, after all, human, made of flesh and blood. In the face of a creature like the alien that had evolved its physical abilities, he was insignificant. Soon the beast tide was near him, and he was almost touching the edge of the tide.

The leading mutants of the beast tide were fast animals like wolves, leopards, and deer. Although Lu Xinghe could temporarily fool these mutants because of Luo Ning's blood, their trampling power was enough to turn him into mincemeat.

When the alien horde was still more than ten meters away from him, he opened all five bottles of inhibitors in his hand and sprayed them out. The blue liquid inexplicably vaporized upon contact with the air and dispersed with the wind towards the aliens in the beast horde. The aliens running at the front suddenly stopped as if they had been paused. The aliens behind them did not have time to stop and crashed hard into the aliens in front, causing them to fall over in an instant.

The inhibitors at the base were indeed effective, paralyzing the viruses in the alien bodies and rendering them inactive. However, the appearance of Du Ming and those humanoid aliens that day made him realize that the inhibitors must have some kind of side effect.

Moreover, the large animal-type mutants in the beast tide were not affected by the inhibitors; they trampled over the bodies of the smaller mutants and charged forward.

Lu Xinghe ran forward with all his might. His body had not recovered well since his last injury. The intense running caused his lungs to ache terribly, and his mouth and nose were filled with the taste of blood. His respiratory tract and lungs were damaged, and his vision had become blurred.

But hope lay ahead; he was only a dozen meters away from the edge of the beast tide, and he had to run.

In his blurry vision, he seemed to see Luo Ning's figure. She ran towards him like a snow-white rabbit, moving extremely fast, her ponytail stretched into a straight line.

Give me your hand.

He heard her shouting, and he reached out to her forcefully. Then he felt himself being held by her warm hand, and his body was lifted into the air. When he came to his senses, he found himself being dragged along by her, almost off the ground.

Finally, the two rolled forward together, and the beast horde roared past them, as if pursuing some kind of fanatical faith, so that they didn't even notice the most delicious food right next to them.

Luo Ning gasped for breath. The continuous running had pushed her body to its limits, and her chest was in excruciating pain. Just as she was about to touch her chest, she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Breathe through your nose, not your mouth." Lu Xinghe supported her: "Your lungs are injured, you can't breathe too fast anymore."

Luo Ning did as he said, and her body gradually calmed down. The pain in her chest finally subsided. She saw that although Lu Xinghe's face was terribly red, his breathing was even more stable than hers. Compared to her, he was the one who was different.

"Where's Xiao Ruo?" Lu Xinghe looked around anxiously, but didn't see An Xiao Ruo anywhere.

Luo Ning led him to a hillside where An Xiaoruo stood unharmed. Upon seeing them return, she cried and hugged them, saying, "Waaah, Mommy and Uncle, you're finally back."

Lu Xinghe saw that An Xiaoruo was covered in blood, but she had no wounds. So the blood must have been smeared on her by Luo Ning to protect her. He looked at his own hands, which were also covered in red. So the reason he felt her hands were warm earlier was because she was bleeding.

Her blood, her very being, were surprisingly warm.

"Why did you come back to save me? You would have died in the beast tide too. Aren't you afraid of dying?" the boy asked, his voice trembling with suppressed fear.

Luo Ning replied, "Of course I'm confident in my speed, but did you think I abandoned you? Did you feel a pang of sadness, like you were being abandoned?"

The boy was a little embarrassed: "I wouldn't think that much about it."

Luo Ning smiled brightly.

"What are you laughing at?" Lu Xinghe asked her, but the corners of his mouth also turned up slightly. Laughter is contagious, even though they were surrounded by a surging tide of beasts.

Luo Ning shook her head: "It's nothing. Let's go, find a place to rest, and then think about how to fill our stomachs."

All their supplies had been reduced to rotten mud in the beast tide. They were now back to square one, and everything had to start all over again.

But this time none of the three were discouraged, because they all felt that they had someone to rely on.