Chapter 52: All That’s Needed Is the East Wind

The nights in the Crimson Territory were quiet and eerie. Without choosing to cut through the narrow paths of the laborer quarters, Chen Chong walked along the muddy main road toward the power station under the dim streetlights, using what little light he could.

As he passed by the sides of the road, Chen Chong occasionally felt faint gazes lurking in the pitch-black nooks and crannies, watching him like restless beasts seeking an opportunity in their hunger.

These were the gazes of the starving survivors with no work, barely clinging to life.

But Chen Chong held a gleaming blade in his hand, reflecting a cold, chilling light under the dim lamps. These peeping gazes would retreat as soon as they touched him, and Chen Chong arrived at the power station safe and sound.

The power station was brightly lit inside, the roar of boilers and motors echoing continuously throughout the factory building. As soon as Chen Chong walked into the Boiler Room, he found the skinny Old Xu already standing before the boiler, waiting for him.

“Foreman Xu,” Chen Chong greeted with a smile. “I’m here for the night watch. What should I do now?”

“Just call me Old Xu. Those five lazy men just got off work; you arrived a bit early.”

Old Xu’s hair was a messy bird’s nest. His cloudy eyes carefully sized up Chen Chong, seeming to know he was an Awakener with a somewhat special status in the territory. His attitude was fairly polite as he said:

“You’re the only one on night watch. The job is very simple. Do you see this pile of coal?”

Old Xu pointed to the cart of pitch-black coal beside him, then pointed to the five small boilers behind him and said:

“Every hour, add one shovelful of coal into the boilers. You can’t add too little, and you can’t add it all at once. The territory’s coal reserves are almost running dry now. How much coal is burned and how much electricity is generated are strictly controlled. If you waste coal, or if the boiler fuel runs out and the fire goes out, both you and I will be in serious trouble. Understand?”

Chen Chong nodded to show he understood. Old Xu grabbed the shovel, huffing and puffing as he scooped a pile of coal from the cart and delivered it into the boiler opening for a demonstration, muttering incessantly:

“That’s the amount. Remember it? You look like a smart person. Don’t think the night watch job is simple and let your guard down. You must be careful, and you definitely can’t be careless. If the power goes out at the General’s manor, getting whipped would probably be the least of your worries. I’m old; I can’t endure that suffering or that kind of disgrace.”

Seeing that Old Xu seemed to have no cunning and wasn’t difficult to get along with, Chen Chong chuckled and said:

“Old Xu, don’t worry, nothing will go wrong. But could you show me the electrical equipment and things like that? This is a power station, after all. I’m worried I might accidentally touch a place with an electrical leak and end up dead. Wouldn’t that be terribly unlucky?”

Old Xu thought for a moment, seemed to find it reasonable, and nodded: “Follow me.”

He led Chen Chong around the back of the boiler wall, in front of a few small motor sets enclosed by wooden fences. Old Xu pursed his lips and said: “I don’t need to explain this, do I? Generators. The boiler is burned just to make these move and generate electricity. If you’re tired of living, you can touch them a few times; I guarantee you’ll ascend to heaven immediately.”

Then he pointed to the thick electrical wires tangled and coiled on the ground: “And these wires. Some of the rubber insulation is old and hasn’t been replaced yet. If you don’t want to die, stay far away from them too.”

Finally, Old Xu brought Chen Chong to the innermost part of the factory building, in front of an electrical box as tall as a person, and grinned:

“Lastly, this thing is the transformer box. This is what regulates the voltage of the electricity from the power station before it’s sent through transmission lines to the General’s manor and the various factories. Don’t mess with this thing without a good reason. If you cause some accident that knocks out the territory’s power grid, you don’t need to think about just a whipping; just slit your own throat. Oh, wait—you’d already be a pile of charred remains before you even got the chance.”

This is exactly what I was looking for!

Knowing this was the device he could use to draw out electrical current, a barely noticeable flash of joy passed through the depths of Chen Chong’s eyes. But outwardly, he said:

“Old Xu, you can handle something so dangerous?”

“What’s this, nothing?”

Hearing Chen Chong’s question, Old Xu’s wrinkled old face was immediately full of pride:

“I’m not exaggerating when I say this old man was responsible for at least half the work of building this power station! Did you see those motors just now? I had people dig them out of the dirt and from other ruins, then reassemble and repair them. The establishment and maintenance of the power station and grid in the territory were all handled by me alone! Without this power station, more than half the factories in the territory wouldn’t be able to run!”

“In that case, Old Xu, your contributions to the territory’s development are indispensable.”

Chen Chong stared at the high-spirited Old Xu as if looking at a treasure, and said calmly:

“What did you do before? Were you an electrical engineer?”

“Before, I…”

At this topic, Old Xu, who had just been proud and self-satisfied, suddenly fell silent.

A trace of reminiscence flashed through his cloudy eyes. Not knowing what he was thinking, he sighed, seemed to lose interest, and said to Chen Chong:

“Alright, that’s enough idle chat. Time is about right. You go keep watch. If any situation comes up, come find me in my room.”

Without waiting for Chen Chong’s reply, Old Xu left.

This old man seems to have a story.

Staring at Old Xu’s hunched back, Chen Chong narrowed his eyes.

Now that the world had become a wasteland, civilization and order had collapsed. Most people Chen Chong had seen so far in these dark times carried a gloomy and frenzied air, especially everyone in the Crimson Territory. But this Old Xu was a bit different.

Nevertheless, the fact that this old man wasn’t hard to deal with and possessed the electrical knowledge he needed was a good thing for Chen Chong.

“Electrotherapy…”

Turning his head, Chen Chong’s burning gaze fixed on the transformer box that delivered electricity to the entire territory. His heart was excited and full of anticipation.

Now, everything was ready; all that was needed was the east wind!

…

The first night of night watch passed peacefully just like that.

Tending the boiler was extremely simple, requiring no technical skill at all. In the first half of the night, Chen Chong was cautious and did not practice Qigong. Only after midnight, when Old Xu, seemingly uneasy about the boiler’s condition, got up to patrol once, did Chen Chong confidently choose a blind spot to start meditating and cultivating. He also calculated that every time his True Qi completed over thirty full cycles within his body, it was time to add coal to the boiler.

The work that was grueling for ordinary people had no effect on Chen Chong at all. The meditation cultivation of the Ultimate Infinite Qigong was even better than deep sleep. Instead, he felt the long night passed in the blink of an eye.

Moreover, Chen Chong’s perception in his meditative state far exceeded that of an ordinary person. Any movement approaching within several meters of him would be immediately detected by him. Combined with the fact that he usually cultivated in a relatively hidden corner, it made him even harder to discover.

According to Chen Chong’s plan, this way he could cultivate uninterrupted during both the day and night, essentially using up the vast majority of his time without wasting any.

However, even so, with only two meals a day for nutrition and no Spirit Energy fruits for him to refine, Chen Chong’s cultivation efficiency was relatively slow. It didn’t show the rapid progress he had seen before.

For two consecutive days after that, Chen Chong maintained this step-by-step routine life: cultivating during the day, keeping night watch at the power station at night. He also used these few days to gradually close the distance between himself and Old Xu, finally becoming familiar with him.