I changed the world.

“Of course, our Investigation Bureau is a very reputable organization.” Zhou Xilin smiled slightly and pointed to Ye Jianye beside him: “Officer Ye can be a witness.”

Xin Hao subconsciously glanced at Ye Jianye beside him, only to see Ye Jianye nod slightly at him.

After thinking about it again, he finally realized he couldn't fight city hall and sighed, "Okay, how do you need me to cooperate?"

....................................

***

Zhang Jing continued walking along the river. Walking along the river had one advantage: it greatly improved his sense of direction. The river served as a natural reference point, allowing him to adjust his route. At this moment, he was walking through a large patch of tall, mane-like grass. Just as he emerged from this dense thicket, he suddenly heard light, rhythmic footsteps ahead…

Zhang Jing stopped abruptly and turned to look for the source of the sound. He then heard a faint, indistinct voice calling out, "Help...help...help..."

The voice was somewhat muffled, but upon closer listening, it was indeed in the language of the Great Zhao.

Zhang Jing frowned, his vigilance rising rapidly. How could there be people from the Great Zhao here? Completely impossible…

In the blink of an eye, the other person had already walked towards him. Zhang Jing could see a figure moving about about sixty meters away.

Because of the fog, he couldn't see clearly what was in front of him, but with his current eyesight, he could clearly confirm that he wasn't mistaken; it was indeed a human figure!

A crackling sound came from not far away, where a fallen tree was burning. It looked like it had been struck by lightning and had been burning for quite some time. The entire tree was almost completely charred, and the flames flickered. The figure was passing by the burning tree and slowly walking towards Zhang Jing.

Zhang Jing glanced casually at the burning trees before looking away. He had seen this many times along his journey; it wasn't uncommon. However, now, watching the figure staggering through the flames, his unease only grew stronger…

This is a tall woman with long blonde hair and an absolutely stunning figure with a curvaceous bust and hips. She is completely naked.

She looked anxious and mumbled "Help..." as she staggered toward Zhang Jing, seemingly seeking help.

Two golden flames suddenly ignited in his eyes. Under the scrutiny of his secret technique, Zhang Jing clearly saw wisps of black energy emanating from the woman's body. A large mass of black energy gathered behind her, forming a blurry and eerie figure.

At that moment, the golden-red flames burning fiercely on the tree trunk nearby shone down on Zhang Jing and the woman, casting long, black shadows on the white, ash-covered snow beneath their feet…

It was an incredibly colorful scene... red flames, white ash, and a menacing black reflection, almost like an oil painting...

Yes, a grotesque reflection. The woman's reflection, cast in the firelight and dim sky, was not human, but the strange, grotesque shadow of a monster. In the firelight, the two shadows appeared as if a monster and a human were approaching each other, eerie and terrifying…

At this moment, the "woman" had come to within about twenty meters of Zhang Jing, and with her arms outstretched, she quickened her pace as if throwing herself into his arms, seemingly wanting to pounce on him...

"ban!"

With a low shout, the woman paused slightly, then screamed as her skin suddenly exploded...

Just then, a huge sonic boom rang out in front of Zhang Jing. Zhang Jing lifted his foot and flicked his right arm, then hurled the bone spear in his hand. The bone spear, which broke the sound barrier, arrived in front of the woman in an instant!

The woman's reaction was surprisingly quick. The instant Zhang Jing threw the spear, her body arched sharply, her spine bending backward like a large monkey...

However, due to the influence of the Qi restriction breaking technique, the forced breaking of the disguise caused it to stiffen for a moment, and the bone spear took advantage of this moment of stiffness to penetrate its shoulder.

At the very moment the attack succeeded, Zhang Jing, who had already thrown down his backpack, lunged at the monster with his longsword in hand. By now, he could clearly see the monster's true form: a bizarre, spindle-shaped head with several sharp horns on either side of its head; a fiery red body covered in pustules and fluid; unusually long arms that almost reached the ground; and sharp, enormous claws that clearly possessed immense killing power; and a thorny tail behind it.

The next moment, the longsword collided with the monster's claws. Amidst the howling wind, the two forces suddenly joined and separated. Zhang Jing leaped onto a nearby tree branch. He touched his ribs and found a claw mark there. The monster below had lost an arm; its left arm had indeed been severed by his sword.

With his left hand, clad in arm armor, he slowly drew a tactical dagger from his waist. This tactical dagger, which was more than 20 centimeters long, was made entirely of high-strength steel, with one side being serrated and the other side being a sharp blade. When held in his hand, it was like a short sword.

Zhang Jing gripped the dagger in his left hand with a reverse grip, a technique known as the "hidden grip dagger," designed for stealthy attacks. Wielding both weapons, Zhang Jing flashed forward, once again lunging at the monster.

Another series of intense collisions, almost simultaneous, followed as two figures shifted positions in the jungle, causing trees as thick as bowls to break and fall.

The intense battle didn't last long. With a dull thud, the monster, its head severed, swayed and fell to the ground.

With his hands covered in blood, Zhang Jing walked carefully to the monster and plunged his sword into its body. The monster did not move and seemed to be dead.

Zhang Jing raised his arms and looked at them. There was a wound on each of his arms. This was at the last moment of the battle. The monster's right arm suddenly exploded and split into five whip-like tentacles. Unable to dodge in time, Zhang Jing risked being grazed twice and rushed in to cut off its head.

A moment later, a white shadow flew out of the monster and entered Zhang Jing's chest. Zhang Jing took out the Demon Refining Pot and looked at it. He found that the amount of spiritual liquid this monster brought him was the highest so far, slightly higher than the first monster he had encountered in this world.

His hands and body were stained with blood, but fortunately, the river wasn't far away. Zhang Jing put his backpack back on and followed the sound of water to the riverbank. After walking for a while, he found a shallow spot. He carefully observed whether there was any danger in the river, and after confirming that it was safe, he squatted down to fetch water from the river to wash off the blood.

After cleaning himself up, Zhang Jing examined his wounds again. None of the three wounds were deep. Relatively speaking, the wound under his ribs was slightly more serious, which was an incision about ten centimeters long.

However, none of the three wounds hurt at this moment; instead, they felt numb and itchy. Zhang Jing's expression was serious. Clearly, the monster's attack seemed to contain poison or something else. Thinking of the pus and fluid on the monster's body, he felt a chill run down his spine.

Without hesitation, Zhang Jing took off his clothes, placed his backpack beside him, took out a metal kerosene-proof lighter, and a bottle of alcohol that had been prepared beforehand. Then he pulled out the tactical knife that had been cleaned from his waist.

He first cleaned the blade of the dagger again with alcohol, then lit a lighter and held the blade over the flame, heating it back and forth until it turned faintly red before stopping and turning off the lighter.

Then, Zhang Jing gritted his teeth and cut into the wound on his ribs...

With a groan of pain and grimace, he shaved off the flesh around the wound, making it look gruesome and terrifying. He then repeated the process, "enlarging" the wounds on both arms, cutting off a ring of flesh around the wound.

Afterwards, Zhang Jing removed the meridian-severing technique that had sealed the wound and stopped the bleeding. He then circulated his Qi to cleanse the wound while squeezing out the blood from the wound. In an instant, blood flowed like a torrent.

After draining a large amount of potentially contaminated blood, Zhang Jing wiped away the blood and then resealed the wound.

After doing this, Zhang Jing cleaned the wound with alcohol, then lit a lighter and slowly heated it over the wound. Even with his current strong physique, the pain was not reduced at all. Large beads of sweat kept pouring out, instantly soaking his clothes. Even so, he still endured it.

After completing all the steps, Zhang Jing let out a long breath. Given his physique, he was about to collapse. However, at this moment, he couldn't afford to relax even slightly. After all, who knew what new dangers might arise at any time?

Fortunately, this method was indeed effective. After a series of punches, the tingling and itching sensation on the wound had almost disappeared. Seeing that it was effective, Zhang Jing continued to circulate his Qi to cleanse the wound and force out the poisonous blood. After doing this three times, the strange tingling and itching sensation finally disappeared completely.

Zhang Jingqiang roused himself, took out the Demon Refining Pot, and took a sip. The moment the spiritual liquid entered his stomach, his mental state rapidly improved, and even his physical injuries began to heal. Scabs began to form at a visible speed, and soon, they had largely healed to the point where they no longer hindered his movement.

Zhang Jing felt relieved, took out a medical bandage from his backpack, bandaged himself up simply, put his clothes back on, and picked up his backpack again.

He glanced at his watch; it was 23:09 PM. If a day in this world was also 24 hours, then it was almost nightfall.

Recalling the world's nighttime scenery, Zhang Jing dared not linger and began searching for a campsite for the night...

This time, he was lucky enough to find an abandoned cave next to a small mound. The cave was not deep, just high enough for him to squat down, and slightly deeper than his height. Zhang Jing carefully examined it with a flashlight and found no strange smells, food scraps, feces, hair, or anything like that, indicating that this was not the nest of any creature.

Before setting up the cave, Zhang Jing found a spot not far from the cave, nestled against a mound and trees, sheltered from the falling ashes and snow. He dug a funnel-shaped hole about two feet wide, then placed a cup at the bottom of the hole. This cup was the lid of his kettle. He then took out a plastic sheet, measured it, folded it up, and partially covered the opening of the hole. He then weighed the plastic sheet down with small stones, deliberately making it concave, with the edge of the concave part aligned with the rim of the cup.

At night, the dew brought by the fog will condense into dewdrops on the plastic sheet, and then flow down the concave side of the plastic sheet into the cup below. In the morning, if all goes well, he will get some fresh water.

Of the two bottles of water he brought from this world, only one remains. Zhang Jing is unsure if he can successfully exit after reaching the first circular marker on the map. If not, he'll likely need to drink the world's water. Given a choice, he doesn't want to drink the river water; dew is a cleaner option, and he plans to try collecting some.

Hopefully it will be successful... After finishing the water collector, Zhang Jing carefully added a lot of coverings on top, then silently prayed in his heart, and then began to set up his cave.

Setting up the cave wasn't difficult. All you needed to do was gather plenty of branches, vines, and shrubs, tie them into bundles with dry grass, and arrange them diagonally against the entrance to conceal it. Additionally, you'd need to lay some dry grass inside as bedding. Before entering the cave, Zhang Jing deliberately found a spot far from the main cave and dug a hole to relieve himself. Of course, having not eaten or drunk properly for a while, he had nothing left to relieve himself. After filling the hole back in, he dashed into the cave…

Chapter Ninety-Four: Both Sides Suffer Losses

Dinner was, as usual, pitifully small. Zhang Jing used to eat very quickly, especially after starting his cultivation, which increased his appetite considerably. However, now he ate very slowly, chewing slowly, but even so, he still quickly finished a bag of compressed biscuits.

After dinner, the sky gradually darkened, and night began to fall...

After darkness completely enveloped the world, the terrifying scene from yesterday unfolded before Zhang Jing once again: a world completely stripped of its veil, with cracked ground, red steam and flames, withered plants, and then the figures of some horrifying monsters began to roam...

Fortunately, Zhang Jing's hiding place this time seemed to be more concealed than the previous night's. This was partly because the cave itself was relatively hidden. On the other hand, since he had anticipated that the night would likely be like the previous night, Zhang Jing had made sure to cover the cave entrance very thoroughly, and his guess proved correct.

Perhaps this abnormal phenomenon is the norm in this world, happening every night... This is truly a perverted world, Zhang Jing thought to himself.

The whispers, seemingly omnipresent, returned once more. He had his own way of dealing with them: counting his breaths to distract himself.

Just like yesterday, he spent the night on high alert...

The night passed without incident; around midnight, a monster even approached the cave entrance. Zhang Jing had his weapons ready, prepared to fight at any moment. However, in the end, the monster found nothing and left, and after that, nothing too dangerous happened…

The next morning, Zhang Jing crawled out of the cave. Although it was not yet fully light, the surrounding environment had returned to normal from its hellish state.

Unfortunately, the water collector's attempt failed.

As it turned out, the entire world suddenly "turned into hell" at night—a name Zhang Jing himself coined. Despite prior preparations, the shelter above the water collector, mostly composed of shrubs and grasses, underwent a dramatic transformation, creating numerous gaps in the shelter. Combined with ground fissures and cracks causing surface displacement, the entire water collector was eventually moved to pieces. The plastic sheeting and cups shifted, and the continuous "contamination" from the falling ashes and snow led to its complete failure…

However, it wasn't all bad news. The good news was that after a night of rest and teasing, Zhang Jing's three injuries from yesterday had basically healed, and the scabs had fallen off.

Zhang Jing knew that besides the significant improvement in his physique and the continuous stimulation of his wounds with Qi throughout the night, the greatest benefit of this liquid was probably the sip of spiritual liquid.

This Demon-Refining Pot is truly a treasure.

..........................................

***

There were no paths in the forest, but as Zhang Jing traveled through this environment for a while, he began to make some discoveries. He found that there were often "animal trails" here, which were paths formed by the squeezing or trampling of relatively large creatures as they walked.

Zhang Jing is now walking on a beast trail, a new trail he has just discovered. Judging from the fallen plants on both sides, he can guess that a rather large creature must have passed through here before.

Zhang Jing had already left the area near the river, and according to the distance calculation on the scroll, he should not be far from the location of the first circular emblem.

A rustling sound came from afar. Zhang Jing frowned and glanced in that direction. He could vaguely see a monster hanging on him from a distance. Zhang Jing had noticed it ten minutes ago.

It was a rather agile monster, resembling a bald ape with large hands and feet, its skin dry and dull, like a long-stored mummy, with sharp horns growing from its head to its spine, and it moved nimbly among the branches.

Clearly, it has its eye on Zhang Jing, but it hasn't found an opportunity to launch an attack.

Zhang Jing took off his backpack, put it aside, checked his location, and then disappeared in a flash.

About five minutes later, Zhang Jing returned to the spot with his blood-dripping longsword, and the monster never appeared again.

It was already noon in this world. Zhang Jing found a tree root protruding from the ground, sat down, took out a water bottle from his backpack, unscrewed the cap, carefully took a sip, and put it back in his backpack. Then he took out a pack of compressed biscuits and ate them.

After wiping his longsword clean, Zhang Jing took out the scroll and looked at it. The location of the circular emblem that marked his target was not far away. As he gradually became familiar with the forest environment, his travel speed also increased, so his overall speed was much faster than expected.

After traveling for about an hour, Zhang Jing opened the scroll again and was able to confirm that the location of the circular emblem should be nearby.

Several faint, whale-like calls drifted from not far away, long and drawn out. Zhang Jing could tell they were coming from a distance to his side. Judging from the sound, the creature must have an astonishing lung capacity and size...

He took off the backpack from his back, looked around, and lightly leaped onto the top of a giant tree that would take several people to encircle. After observing the surroundings, he quickly found his target.

Not far ahead, there was a huge obelisk-like structure, which seemed to be the direction from which the cry came.

Standing in Zhang Jing's position, the view was somewhat obscured by the tree canopy, but that was enough. Zhang Jing climbed down the tree, picked up his backpack, and groped his way in that direction.

Hidden in a patch of tall grass, Zhang Jing carefully observed the situation ahead through the gaps in the grass.