Apocalypse: I Can Upgrade Everything

Chapter 204: The Village on the Titan’s Spine

What lay before Chen Ye’s eyes was a village. A goddamn village perched on the spine of a titan.

If he had stumbled upon this settlement anywhere else in the wasteland, he would have had only one reaction: flee. He would have put as many miles between himself and this place as possible. But here, suspended between the earth and the heavens, the rules were different.

Chen Ye rubbed his eyes, the surrealism of the sight refusing to fade. These weren’t the reinforced concrete shells of the old world. Instead, rows of sturdy earthen houses rose from the ground.

The ground.

He knelt, his fingers brushing the surface. Soil. Actual, gritty dirt. He couldn’t begin to fathom the sheer logistics required to haul tons of earth onto the back of a living creature, but the evidence was under his fingernails. They had built a foundation on the back of a miracle.

The village was substantial. Densely packed figures moved between the houses, suggesting a population far larger than anything Chen Ye had seen since the Fall. Wisps of white clouds drifted lazily through the “streets,” giving the entire place the chilled, ethereal atmosphere of a mountain peak.

The Divine Elephant wasn’t just a beast; it was a mobile sanctuary. The roofs were a mosaic of the Apocalypse: some thatched with traditional straw, others patched with overlapping plastic sheets or jagged slabs of corrugated steel.

Beside him, Chu Che, Sun Qianqian, Iron Lion, and Ding Dong stood in stunned silence. Behind them, the survivors from their own motorcade were faring worse. Several had already slumped to their knees, tears carving tracks through the grime on their faces. They had spent months drifting, never daring to close their eyes in the same place for more than three days. To them, the sight of permanent earthen walls and a chimney puffing smoke was a miracle that broke the heart.

Some were already whispering, their eyes darting around as they calculated what it would take to stay.

A crowd of villagers gathered at the entrance, observing the newcomers with a mixture of wary curiosity and smug pride. However, when their eyes drifted to the massive slabs of smoked fish lashed to the trucks, the pride vanished. Throats bobbed. The people of Shenxiang Village were still mortals, and in the Apocalypse, meat was a god.

“Friends, why stand in the cold? Come, let us share a cup of tea,” the Big Head Village Chief said, breaking the spell.

“We would be honored, Chief,” Chu Che replied, finally remembering his role as Captain and stepping forward.

“Xiao Zheng, handle the logistics,” the Chief commanded, gesturing to a bespectacled young man who looked like a bureaucratic assistant. Under the assistant’s direction, the ordinary survivors were led away to find rest, while Xue Nan oversaw the parking of the vehicles in a central clearing.

Chen Ye and the elites followed the Chief into the heart of the settlement. The further they went, the more impossible it felt. The ground was leveled with professional precision. Near the village entrance, the land sloped upward into a prominent mound that resembled the elephant’s massive skull. Atop this rise sat a structure that looked remarkably like a temple.

“This is our sanctuary,” the Chief said, his voice dropping into a reverent register. “Every traveler who enters our gates must pay their respects to the Seventeen Grandpas and offer a stick of incense.”

“The Seventeen Grandpas?” Chu Che asked, his brow furrowing.

“They are our founders,” the Chief explained. “Shenxiang Village exists only because of their sacrifice. We bring our joys and our sorrows to them. If a couple wishes to marry, they must spend their wedding night within the temple to seek the Grandpas’ approval. When a child is born, we pray for their recognition. Even a new house requires their consent.”

As the Chief rambled, Chen Ye felt a cold prickle of suspicion. The cult-like devotion and the “wedding night” ritual set off every alarm in his cynical brain. This smelled like a classic horror-movie setup.

The air grew heavy with the scent of sandalwood and old ash as they approached. Villagers bowed to the Chief as they passed, their eyes gleaming with a strange, uniform intensity.

Inside the temple, the atmosphere shifted. The Chief’s kindly demeanor evaporated, replaced by a mask of severe, ritualistic solemnity. Even the sloppy Daoist and the monk stood at stiff attention.

Chen Ye looked up and froze. These weren’t ancient, bearded deities. Enshrined within the shadows were seventeen busts. They were disturbingly modern. One was a man in a sharp business suit; another was a youth wearing a tilted baseball cap; a third was a woman with a prominent lip piercing. There were elders, children, men, and women—a chaotic cross-section of pre-Fall society.

The Chief and his companions offered incense with practiced, mechanical grace. After the ceremony, he turned back to the group with a bright, sudden smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Thank you for joining us. I hope your stay in Shenxiang Village is… enlightening.”

They continued the tour. In the village square, a group of teenagers was actually playing basketball. A woman pushed a stroller past them, a quiet, domestic scene that felt more alien than the giant elephant itself.

There are children here, Chen Ye thought, his heart tightening. Children mean hope. Or at least, a future worth defending.

Finally, they reached the rear of the village. The earthen houses gave way to sprawling plots of green. Rows of vegetables and stalks of rice waved in the cool, high-altitude breeze.

“Professor Liu! A moment of your time!” the Chief called out to a white-haired man hunched over the crops.

The old man didn’t even look up. “I’m busy, you old goat! If it’s not life-or-death, piss off!”

Chen Ye blinked. This was the first person he’d seen who didn’t treat the Chief like a god.

“Forgive him,” the Chief chuckled, unbothered. “This is Professor Liu. Before the Apocalypse, he was a dean at an agricultural university. He later Awakened to the Botanist Sequence. This garden is his masterpiece. He has successfully stabilized seeds that can survive the current environmental corruption. We might be persuaded to trade a portion of them… if you have anything of equal value.”

Chen Ye looked at the verdant green rows, then at his own dirt-caked hands. A Botanist Sequence. In a world of fire and blood, the man who could make things grow was the most dangerous man of all.