After a simple wash-up, the three of them sat around the table. The breakfast Ding Longyun prepared consisted of bread, milk, and fried eggs.
Ding Longyun ate a piece of bread and said, "After we finish eating, let's clean up the monsters' corpses outside. There are quite a few bodies left from last night; we should move them all to the roof and pile them up together."
Su Li nodded. "It's strange, though. These corpses don't seem to rot easily. Otherwise, given the non-freezing temperature, the stench if they did rot would be unimaginable."
Ding Longyun said, "I noticed that too. I suspect it's related to the Spiritual Source. It must be that the Spiritual Sources changed the monsters' constitution so that their bodies don't decompose even after death."
"That's a possibility," Su Li thought. "After cleaning up the bodies, I want to upgrade and modify the raft. It's still too small right now."
Ding Longyun asked, "Are you preparing to go to the Purple Wind Building?"
"Yes," Su Li confirmed, not hiding his intentions. "The three of us staying here isn't a long-term solution. The safest course of action right now is to quickly find a large gathering place, and the Purple Wind Building is a suitable choice."
He had an even bigger plan in mind: to find a place with plenty of people and resources, where they could amass enough labor and materials to build a sturdy, large ship and find a way to reach dry land or an unflooded city.
Ding Longyun agreed. "Alright then, once we clean up the corpses, we'll start on the raft."
The three moved into action. With their current strength, transporting the corpses was easy. They quickly moved all the bodies of the Spiritual Source Beasts up to the roof and piled them together.
"I wonder what kind of monster would be attracted if we threw all these corpses into the water at once," Ding Longyun speculated curiously, looking at the large pile of bodies on the roof.
Su Li suggested, "Why don't we try it?"
Ding Longyun jumped in alarm. "Are you crazy? You'd actually consider doing that?"
Su Li had only been joking. Seeing Ding Longyun's agitated reaction, he laughed. "Then we won't try. Let's go modify the raft."
Returning to the 30th floor, Su Li noticed that the water level had risen significantly again. Their feet were submerged in the water, which was now over their ankles.
"It looks like the water level is rising faster than I thought," Su Li frowned slightly, a renewed sense of worry rising in his heart.
"It looks like it won't be long before the 30th floor is completely submerged," Ding Longyun shook his head and sighed.
Su Li looked at the raft moored outside the balcony. It was constructed from five wooden doors and bound together with ropes. It looked quite sturdy.
"Su Li, how do you plan to modify it?" Ding Longyun leaned against the balcony, looking at Su Li.
Su Li explained, "This raft is too small. My ideal is to eventually build a big ship. I remember seeing a movie once where someone built a floating man-made island by slowly stacking wood and earth."
Ding Longyun commented, "A man-made island? Your ambition isn't small."
Su Li said, "With water everywhere, if we build the raft large enough, it's not impossible, is it? Of course, that's just a future idea. We're far from that step right now."
"Speaking of doors, there are over 20 units here. There are plenty of doors. Should we start moving all the unused wooden doors over now?"
Su Li nodded. The three began working together. Although Xu Xuehui was small, she was already a Level 2 Spiritual Source Wielder and could exert 500 to 600 jin of force. She could easily lift several wooden doors simultaneously.
Ding Longyun and his companions had already opened the doors of these apartments. Now, Ding Longyun and Xu Xuehui began dismantling the wooden doors and cabinets in these apartments and moving them toward the balcony.
Su Li gathered up the iron nails, iron wire, and rope he had collected and set them aside. He first laid the five doors flat, nailed planks onto them, and tightly wrapped them with iron wire and rope, constructing another sturdy raft.
Su Li then carefully lifted this new raft. He lowered it along the balcony and into the water, placing it alongside the first raft. He then used iron nails and planks to securely join the two rafts together.
With two rafts joined, the area immediately doubled, and the structure finally began to take shape.
"Once this raft is waterlogged, the surface will be damp. I want to reinforce it with another layer to create a double-layered raft. That way, we won't get our shoes and socks wet when we're on it," Su Li said, looking at the doubled raft and offering his idea.
Ding Longyun countered, "That seems too much trouble, and it'll add weight. You're not seriously still thinking about turning this into a mobile island, are you? It's just a simple water transport tool. Maybe we'll be lucky and find a real boat, and then we can just abandon this."
"Speaking of which, those fishermen who lived on boats or people who worked in shipyards must be lucky. They don't have to fear any size of flood," Ding Longyun lamented, full of emotion.
"I agree. If we had a large ship right now, the situation would be completely different." Su Li knew that attempting to cross three kilometers of water to the Purple Wind Building on this makeshift small raft was risky. A large ship would be much safer.
"But relatively speaking, the bigger it is, the safer it is," Su Li decided to continue enlarging the raft. In his opinion, the raft was still too small.
"People." Xu Xuehui, who was standing by the balcony, suddenly pointed into the distance.
"People?" Su Li and Ding Longyun were startled. They both looked out across the water where she was pointing.
Over the water, looking into the distance, they could vaguely see a faint mist rising, and visibility wasn't great. They could indistinctly make out some blurry shapes—those were the buildings exposed above the water. Beyond that, where could she have seen people?
"You saw people? What kind of people are they?" Su Li thought of Xu Xuehui's enhanced eyes. Her vision was better than his and Ding Longyun's. She had even predicted the Advanced Corpse Beast's third arm earlier. Her sudden claim of seeing people must have a basis.
"Three people," Xu Xuehui gestured. "Alive."
At her confirmation, Su Li and Ding Longyun immediately became excited.
"Are you saying there are three people? Are they in the water or on a boat? What's the situation exactly?" Ding Longyun urgently called out.
Xu Xuehui remained calm and unhurried. She quietly said, "They're on a raft, and they're coming this way."
"What kind of people are they? Can you see them clearly?" Su Li took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.
This time, Xu Xuehui paused before answering. "Adults. Men." She looked troubled, unable to provide more descriptive details about their appearance.
(End of Chapter)