The gale howled on.

Activity density kept climbing. Shen Cong had only stood on the truck roof a short while before the concentration surpassed the Linyi City Oasis's — and it was still strengthening, at a perceptible rate.

"The storm's coming!"

Shen Cong had Antgod recall every Vajra Ant still out foraging, then gunned the truck toward the nearest hilltop. The three-core totem engine ran at third gear, full totem drive, and in the raging wind the Great Vajra drew in even more Activity — pouring from outside the truck into it, like liquid.

The V-shaped dozer blade cleared the way. Brute-force off-roading.

Moments later, the Great Vajra crested the nearest hill with unstoppable momentum. The hill stood about eighty meters, its slopes manageable; since the wind blew from the east, Shen Cong deliberately parked on the western face, then bladed out a level platform to set the truck on.

The Four-Legged Dragon refused to stay in her trailer. She hopped off on her own and, halfway up this nameless hill, dug herself a huge cave to shelter in.

Shen Cong had made every preparation for a torrential downpour.

Yet the night passed, the gale still screaming — and not a drop of rain fell. When the sun rose, the sky stretched cloudless for ten thousand miles. A perfect clear day.

Only the wind wouldn't stop. And the Activity density now stood at double the Linyi City Oasis.

"What on earth is going on? Where is all this Activity coming from?" Shen Cong stood at the hilltop, looking out over the Yimeng Mountains — barren-zone country, sparse trees — utterly baffled.

Since the apocalypse, the new world had seen torrential rains and heavy snows, and every rain or snowfall came with a rise in Activity density. But the rise was always bounded — it basically never reached Oasis concentration, let alone twice Oasis concentration. Today's windstorm had brought exactly that.

Eerie. Inexplicable.

But after standing in the wind a while, sifting it carefully with his nose, Shen Cong caught something laced through the gale: the salt-brine tang of seawater.

"The…