The Yimeng Mountains were not one mountain but two ranges — the Yi Mountains and the Meng Mountains — an old revolutionary heartland and a famous scenic region. The stretch the Qinglan Expressway threaded through belonged, roughly, to the Yi range.

This was barren-zone land.

But under the Activity stimulus the gale had carried in, green saplings were shooting up everywhere in swaths, like regrowth after a wildfire.

The Snail Traveler threaded through the mountains; the Core-Totem Great Vajra pushed on along the expressway. As they advanced, the scenery between the peaks grew deeper and deeper, the trees thicker and thicker — the land had, to all appearances, crossed from barren zone into newly minted abundant zone.

"Checking against the map, this should be Shiqiao Town — and it's already abundant zone… If I judge by the footprint of a large Oasis, then Laiwu City up ahead ought to be one."

The sky dimmed toward dusk.

The Snail Traveler halted its advance and began grazing on the surrounding woods — everywhere it passed, the trees were swept away clean, as if by vacuum cleaner. It wasn't the pagoda tree; it was only a snail, and a snail needed a normal daily rhythm. Tonight, evidently, it would dine here and settle in to rest.

Shen Cong checked the sky, then his mechanical watch. "Ten more kilometers to Yiyuan County. Better to camp in the county ruins — keep some distance from the Snail Traveler, in case it wanders over in the night and eats the Great Vajra too."

On reaching the Yiyuan County ruins, Shen Cong noticed that the raging gale had — at some point he couldn't name — stopped.

The wildly climbing Activity density had begun a slow decline.

For Shen Cong, whose night vision made midnight into noon, with the Third Eye assisting besides, finding a suitable open patch to park and camp took no time at all. The Four-Legged Dragon curled up in her trailer, ready for sleep. The Vajra Ants scattered to forage. And Shen Cong lit a fire and got dinner going — tonight's menu:…