My Apocalypse System Arrives 10 Years Early

Chapter 444: Chapter 296: The Vast Wildfire, Raging for 7 Days

The dust settled. The Exotic Beast was slain.

Everyone, including Li Xiang, breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Xiang walked around the battleground, gathering the scattered remains of the Exotic Beast and storing them in his system’s warehouse. The body contained the alien creature’s genetic code and held immense research value. Perhaps a genetic weapon could be developed to target this species.

Li Xiang had turned one in before, but he had no idea what progress had been made. He figured it wouldn’t be a quick process. A precious ”sample” like this absolutely could not be allowed to fall into the hands of other powers.

”Let’s rest for the night. We’ll clean up after sunrise.”

Seeing that everyone was exhausted, Li Xiang led the group back to the rock fortress they had built earlier. They split up into male and female quarters. Even Xu Xuan and Zhang Youyou had the good sense to take separate rooms.

After all, with everyone’s hearing being so sharp, things could get pretty awkward if a couple tried to get intimate at night.

Li Xiang had his own room. He drank a few mouthfuls of Spirit Wine to restore his stamina and Spiritual Power, then took out the Twenty-Fifth Tier Saint Tier Item from his system rewards to examine it.

”The Nether Abyss Spirit Summoning Mirror.”

Its pitch-black frame was carved with countless twisted tendrils, the tip of each inlaid with a grain-sized Dark Blue Crystal Stone. The mirror’s surface rippled with a dark purple hue, like a sealed vortex containing an entire nebula. Along the edge, eight blood-red Runes flickered in and out of existence with the energy’s fluctuations.

When Li Xiang’s fingertips touched the mirror’s edge, dozens of translucent Spirit Bodies suddenly surged out, swarming around him like a startled cloud of fireflies.

After some experimentation and research, Li Xiang learned the details. The Nether Abyss Spirit Summoning Mirror was incredibly powerful and possessed three Extraordinary Attributes.

The first was ”Sub-Body Control,” which could control up to fourteen puppets simultaneously, with the control range directly proportional to the user’s Spiritual Power. The second was ”Mimicry Replication,” which could perfectly imitate the bio-magnetic field fluctuations of any creature it had touched (72-hour cooldown). The third was ”Abyssal Resonance,” which could unleash the unique mental shockwave of a Twenty-Seventh Tier matriarch three times per day, trapping enemies in an Illusion Realm. Its power would increase with the user’s Tier.

Li Xiang had an enormous number of treasures on him now, far more than he could ever use personally. He decided to store it for now and use it later to reward meritorious subordinates.

A short while later, Luo Feifei called to tell him the hot water was ready and he should come take a bath.

It was a kind offer he couldn’t refuse, so he went.

The girls had all finished their baths, and now it was Li Xiang’s turn. As for the other men, including Xu Xuan, they weren’t offered such a luxury.

「The night passed peacefully.」

「The next day」

Under Li Xiang’s direction, the group cleared a quarantine zone along the perimeter of the Land of Demons. The area was huge—over two hundred kilometers in radius—and just clearing the firebreak took an entire day.

The ones who contributed the most were Li Xiang and Yaki Toto.

Li Xiang used his Earth Superpower to dig a wide trench, while Yaki Toto controlled the rainforest’s plants and various weeds. The others helped out as well, for instance by tossing trees into the ”burn zone.”

As night fell, Lei Xiaohui and Zhang Youyou went around setting fires.

Lei Xiaohui summoned her Ghost Fire Motorcycle, which blazed with fierce flames. Zhang Youyou wrapped her arms around Xiaohui’s slim waist, sitting on the back seat. The two girls zipped back and forth on their joyride, looking effortlessly cool.

The Ghost Fire Motorcycle could skim along at low altitudes, unstoppable by rivers or cliffs. Everywhere they passed, a single spark became a raging inferno.

Before long, a Sea of Fire was blazing, incinerating everything in the Land of Demons: the dead trees, rotting corpses, decaying leaves, putrid grass, and all manner of bacteria and pathogens.

While doing this, Li Xiang and his group also confirmed that no living people had entered the Land of Demons. Aside from the Blood-tooth Tribe hunters who had stumbled in by mistake, no other tribal warriors had trespassed.

Xu Xuan activated his Wind Superpower, fanning the flames.

The fire burned for days and nights without end. Even the few downpours that occurred couldn’t extinguish the massive wildfire.

This was because the rainforest had been ignited by the Spiritual Fire of Extraordinary Beings, not some ordinary Mortal Fire. The flames were incredibly potent.

Even when some areas were doused or the flames weakened, Lei Xiaohui and Zhang Youyou would immediately show up to stoke the fire again.

If this Land of Demons wasn’t purified by fire, it would likely cause endless trouble in the future.

As for the Black Water River within, Li Xiang used his Earth Element Divine Techniques to dam its flow, and the great fire boiled it completely dry. Afterward, Li Xiang planned to restore the riverbed and let fresh water from outside flow back in.

Everyone’s Battle Armor was also sterilized by the flames and then thoroughly cleaned.

A fire of this magnitude was naturally detected by the satellites of major powers and the relevant departments of neighboring countries, causing a global uproar.

NASA satellite imagery captured anomalous data showing the fire’s core temperature exceeding 3000°C. On Twitter, the hashtag #AmazonHellfire blew up.

American user @ConspiracyMaster: ”Solid proof the government is secretly testing weather weapons! The fire burning *through* a downpour is consistent with the properties of plasma!” (820k likes)

Brazilian Ministry of Environment: ”This is a terrorist attack on the lungs of the Earth!” (Image attached: A charred baby sloth hanging from a scorched tree stump.)

(The picture was just a random one they found online. If they had actually been to the site, they would have been horrified to find no living people, plants, or animals—only rotting corpses, dead trees, and a swathe of black miasma.)

Indian user @VishnuBless: ”Shiva’s dance of destruction has come to Earth! I suggest we immediately cast 108 holy stones into the Ganges River!”

On a Huaxian forum: ”Someone should check which firefighting equipment stocks have hit their limit up.” (Top comment)

European user @GretaX: ”Where is Fridays for Future? We need to surround the parliaments!”

Russia Today headline: ”America stages ecological crisis as a pretext to send troops to South America!”

Japan, 2ch: ”Burn it all down! Now *that’s* what I call going viral with flame bait!”

Congo Rainforest Monitoring Station: ”Seven days after the fire, new ferns are sprouting from the ashes—an incredible ecological recovery!”

This was, naturally, the masterpiece of Yaki Toto, the Rainforest Priest.

The vast amount of ash also made for excellent organic fertilizer. After being tilled by Li Xiang’s Earth Superpower, the land was now fertile soil, perfect for growing plants.

’What a shame the people here aren’t skilled at farming,’ Li Xiang thought. ’With such fine land, I’m almost tempted to start a farm myself.’

However, the primitive tribes here had their own unique way of life, and Li Xiang felt it was best not to interfere.

While the wildfire raged, more than a dozen small parties from primitive tribes, all clad in animal skins, appeared at the edge of the scorched earth. These dark-skinned visitors stood watching, holding their Stone Spears. When they heard Yaki Toto explain what had happened using ancient hand signals and guttural sounds, the leading Shamans blew a long, resonant note on their Bone Whistles—the highest signal of understanding among the jungle clans.

Afterward, several tribes extended invitations to the now-homeless Yaki Toto, asking him to join them.

After all, a man as strong as Yaki Toto, who was also a Shaman with the incredible ability to control plants, was a highly sought-after prize for any tribe.

When a female warrior from the Leopard Pattern Tribe, renowned for its bravery, publicly untied the Python Skin wrap at her waist, the crowd erupted in a deafening stomping of feet. Dozens of Javelins flew through the air and stuck in the ground around her—the most passionate mating declaration a daughter of the rainforest could make.

Of course, some tribal chiefs were wary of Yaki Toto and didn’t want him to join, fearing their own positions would be threatened.

For such a major decision, Yaki Toto naturally came to ask Li Xiang for guidance.

”Paya, the clans...” Yaki knelt on one knee before Li Xiang. The newly fastened string of crocodile tooth beads on his wrist rattled—a courtship gift from the female warrior.

Li Xiang thought for a moment, then advised Yaki Toto to choose a tribe he liked and join it. He also told him that in about eight or nine years, an apocalypse would descend upon the world. Li Xiang hoped that Yaki could become the leader here and guide the local people through the difficult times ahead.

Yaki Toto had been born and raised in the rainforest; he was accustomed to the primitive tribal lifestyle. Li Xiang certainly wouldn’t take him back with them. He wouldn’t adapt to life in China and would only feel lonely and isolated.

It was better for him to stay here and help prepare for the establishment of a new base in the future.

Li Xiang wasn’t one to put all his eggs in one basket.

Yaki’s pupils constricted into two vertical slits. He understood Li Xiang’s meaning. He prostrated himself, the newly placed Arrow Poison Wood Bud in his hair glowing faintly in the twilight. ”The star-patterns that Paya gazes upon shall never be extinguished. When you return, riding the ninefold Tide, the fiercest Anaconda shall coil itself into your footstool, and the sweetest Blood Wine shall be served to you from a Sloth Skull held in your palm.”

”Do well. Once you’ve established yourself, I will come back and provide support,” Li Xiang said, patting Yaki’s shoulder and helping him to his feet.