Apocalyptic Disaster: I Hoard Billions in Supplies and Kill the Saint

218: Side Story 6: The Counterattack of an Alien CivilizationThe Fire Seed barrier slowly expanded, like a seed taking root and stretching in the soil; the ecological restoration area had spread to a hundred meters around.

Temperatures stabilized, soil recovered, and microbial colonies were reborn.

The Civilization Sensing Grass had grown from one stalk to thirteen, each one like a tiny tower of firelight, maintaining order in this newborn zone.

But at 143 meters outside the barrier, a patrol member suddenly sensed a vibration underfoot.

The next second—the instruments blared a sharp alarm.

[Warning: Geopulse resonance anomaly]

[Pollution index surging, source unknown]

[Direction: Southwest boundary, Black Domain Fault!]

Lin Sui’s expression changed sharply; she quickly activated the barrier’s visual scan and zoomed in on the display area.

The result was—a dead, silent black fog slowly creeping up from the ground, as if ’something’ was trying to crawl out from underground.

Shen Qingyan explained in a deep voice: ’That is the Realm of Black Shadows... It is the experimental residue of a previous failed civilization that attempted to evolve itself into a collective consciousness God Body.’

’In the late Old Era, it once infected the mental networks of fourteen cities within three hours.’

’We originally sealed its consciousness core using spatial folding, but I didn’t expect... it would be drawn out here.’

Ye Nanxing understood: It was the landing of the Fire Seed that triggered the deepest echoes of this world—once light appears, darkness will rise.

She spoke slowly: ’This is not a natural mutant.’

’This is—consciousness pollution.’

’It didn’t come to destroy; it came to parasitize the Civilization Fire Seed.’

At the center of the barrier, Flame Born suddenly opened his eyes.

His breathing grew shallower, his body more transparent; his soul had been in a ’half-burning, half-extinguished’ state ever since the Fire Seed was connected.

And now, that mass of black shadow was attempting to infect the fire source.

He understood: This was the first time, after the Fire Seed was truly regarded as life, that it had encountered an enemy that didn’t want to extinguish it, but to corrupt it.

He slowly stood up, looked toward the writhing black fog core in the distance, and spoke softly: ’I haven’t finished delivering this fire yet.’

’You’ve burned the wrong place.’

Without waiting for orders, Flame Born stepped out of the barrier alone.

The next second, he burned the deepest First Original Flame remaining in his soul.

At that moment, his body was like a god descending—clad in raging flames, burning with flowing light; every step he took scorched red marks into the ground, and the spiritual energy in his hands transformed into a long spear, pointing directly at the core of the black shadow.

Shen Qingyan cried out in alarm: ’He’s performing self-destructive soul incineration—he’s going to burn himself up to protect the purity of the barrier!’

The black shadow surged like a tide, transforming into countless writhing humanoid shapes, all without features or emotions, but their paths all led toward—the fire.

Flame Born roared: ’Don’t touch my fire!’

He burned his remaining soul, his body transforming into a golden wall of fire, blocking the path between the Fire Seed and the black tide, forcibly intercepting the entire line of pollution advancement outside the barrier!

The sky turned red, and the ground cracked.

The Civilization Sensing Grass at the edge of the barrier collectively emitted a low-frequency trembling hum, like it was crying, and also like it was warning—civilization is under attack.

Ye Nanxing immediately activated spatial missile defense, feeding the erosion rhythm of the Realm of Black Shadows back into the geopulse, attempting to disrupt its synchronized infection frequency.

As she operated the controls, she looked back: Flame Born’s figure was now reduced to nothing but a faint spiritual flame.

He was dissipating, yet he smiled calmly: ’This is not burning out.’

’This is... planting fire.’

’If one fire dies, there will be another.’

’...But at least this one lived.’

When the last bit of Flame Born’s soul dissipated into the night sky, the Fire Seed barrier vibrated for a few seconds, then expanded outward by a full three hundred meters.

The Civilization Sensing Grass surged from thirteen stalks to thirty-seven, and on the ground scorched by that wall of fire, low-temperature self-healing mycelium structures actually began to appear—symbolizing the regeneration of the civilization’s soil, starting naturally for the first time.

Everyone remained silent.

Ye Nanxing gazed at the scorched earth, as if she could still see him turning back to smile just a moment ago: ’Don’t let it go out.’

She replied in a low voice: ’I won’t.’

In the center of the barrier, a black gold stele half a person’s height stood quietly.

There was no superfluous language on the stele, only a trail of fire: the final trajectory carved by Flame Born’s soul will before he burned away.

In front of the stele, the spiritual light of the Fire Seed gathered, generating a simple spatial inscription: [Soul of the Fire Guardian · Flame Born] [To protect civilization, he did not hesitate to burn himself away] [The fire here is guarded by him].

Ye Nanxing took off her command coat, knelt before the stele, and personally planted the first seed of the Sensing Grass into the base of the stele.

She said softly: ’What you ignited was not just fire, but the proof that humanity is still worth preserving.’

After Flame Born left, Ye Nanxing did not rest.

She sat cross-legged in the center of the barrier and opened the space system that had merged with the Fire Seed.

Her consciousness sank into the Global Ecological Sensing Layer, and all remaining human consciousness structures, life signals, and faint spiritual energy coordinates appeared on the virtual spherical map.

The hologram was like the brain of the universe, with thousands of star points flickering.

She tapped with a finger, and her voice resounded throughout the entire barrier command center: ’We are going to bring the people back.’

’No matter where they are, no matter how far.’

’Not a single one can be left behind.’

’The Civilization Fire Seed has landed; the people must return.’