He had never had someone draped over the shoulder like this before. If someone had done this in the past, he would have definitely found it sticky and annoying.

But with Shen Lan, aside from feeling a bit speechless, he didn't feel the slightest bit of irritation, just a little uncomfortable, like the slight awkwardness he felt just now when he bumped into Shen Lan's chest.

"Never went to school." Shen Lan, who had been running naked in the dinosaur world for too long and had even discarded part of his memory, was talking nonsense.

Xia Chuan deeply felt that those with a sense of shame could never win against the shameless, so he didn't bicker with him anymore. He just raised his hand to grab the arm hooked around his neck and tried to pry it off a couple times, but that arm was as immovable as if it were cast in iron, physically proving that the earlier statement about being "seriously injured against the wall" was bullshit.

"Can you let go?" Xia Chuan said irritably, "This posture is very tiring for the legs."

He regretted saying this as soon as the words left his mouth, because not only did Shen Lan not let go, he even very considerately bent one leg and propped it behind Xia Chuan's knee, helping to take some of the strain off, his movements extremely rogue-like but his tone very sincere as he asked, "Are we even now?"

Xia Chuan: "..."

He realized that if he continued to dwell on this idiotic question, he and Shen Lan would definitely end up in a situation where one was foolish and the other crazy, so he admitted defeat and said helplessly, "Yes, we're even, now let me stand up straight!"

Shen Lan, having successfully "apologized", immediately withdrew his claws and leg with a carefree and smug expression. He walked sideways a couple steps in the cave, circling from behind Xia Chuan to the front.

Xia Chuan, holding the flashlight, accurately bypassed this human-shaped obstacle and shone the light on the cave passage behind them. The black shadow that had nearly crashed into him earlier had disappeared without a trace, and he didn't know if it had hidden in another corner or scurried out through the third fork.

If he wasn't mistaken, that shadow was a small avian dinosaur, and judging from its appearance, it seemed to be the one that had been roosting outside the cave along with Yaya and the Pyroraptor. Now that a meteorite had fallen outside, he didn't know if Yaya and the others who had originally been there were still alive...

The two returned to the fork where everyone else was staying, only to see Dennis and Protruding Ears, two people who had only known each other for less than half an hour, actually huddled together, head to head, muttering and mumbling, who knows what they were communicating about.

Next to Dennis, Professor Linton was pulling the slightly plump woman and the blond little boy aside, explaining the situation here in detail. The two, one big and one small, were very cooperative, well-behaved and serious, allowing Xia Chuan and Shen Lan to breathe a sigh of relief.

As the two walked into the fork, they turned off their flashlights, and the bit of light from Dennis and Protruding Ears's hands was revealed. Only then did they discover that the thing they were holding on their knees was the oscilloscope that Dennis treasured.

Xia Chuan remembered that when this precious box detected new wave information, it would make a "zz zz" sound, but all along the way as they fled, right up until they temporarily settled in the stone cave, the oscilloscope hadn't made any more noise. To the point that as soon as Dennis had a moment to rest, he began to fiddle with it, seemingly wanting to adjust it to be even more sensitive.

"What's this? You know how to use it?" Shen Lan walked over leisurely and pointed at the slightly glowing screen of the box, asking Protruding Ears.

Protruding Ears raised his head and nodded very humbly, "A little, a little." After being humble, he said to Xia Chuan, "Can I borrow the flashlight for a moment? We'll take this thing apart and modify it a bit."

Xia Chuan glanced at Dennis and, seeing that he had no objections and instead looked eager to try, handed over the flashlight with a simple reminder, "Be careful."

But he only said this casually. He didn't know what kind of personality Protruding Ears had, but he did know a bit about Dennis. Dennis definitely treasured this oscilloscope more than Xia Chuan and the others did, and if they hadn't discussed a reliable idea, he definitely wouldn't act rashly.

"What if we think positively?" The woman who had been listening to Professor Linton ramble suddenly spoke up.

Xia Chuan turned his head to look, exchanging glances with Shen Lan and Professor Linton. Even Dennis, who had been burying his head in the oscilloscope, raised his head at the sound, "Actually, I've tried to think that way, but it didn't do any good."

"Right?" Professor Linton said, "I've also thought about it, carefully imagining it several times in my head, thinking that there was no meteorite impact, no tsunami, no volcano, the world was warm and beautiful, the dinosaurs were living in peace and contentment... But obviously, the result was the same as Dennis'."

Xia Chuan hesitated for a moment before adding, "I also--"

Shen Lan decisively concluded, "Alright, it seems everyone has thought about it, it just doesn't work at all."

"Why is that?" The woman thought for a moment and then said, "Could it be that we're not thinking concentrated enough, there aren't many people, so the impact isn't big enough to reverse the current trend?"

The blond little boy Allen, nestled in her arms, listened with a half-understanding and was very supportive, vigorously nodding his head with two "mm-hmms".

"It's possible..." Professor Linton didn't immediately deny her guess, "Before, we were almost always on the run, our lives were in danger, let alone finding a place to sit down and meditate together. Now it's quite suitable. So why don't we--"

"Give it a try?" Dennis stopped what he was doing with his hands, and even Protruding Ears lowered the flashlight and raised his head, with a look of "I'll do whatever you say".

In the current situation, things couldn't get any worse, so everyone took the attitude of a dead horse being treated as a live one and, leaning against the corner of the fork, put down what they were doing and actually closed their eyes and began to meditate in earnest. Even the little boy was very cooperative, closing his eyes without crying or making a fuss.

This meditation lasted a long time. Long enough that the little guy, curled up, had already begun to doze off, his head nodding back and forth, swaying in all directions before finally "plonking" down into his mother's arms, completely dead asleep.

Startled by this bit of movement, everyone opened their eyes one after another. The little boy's mother kept apologizing, "We've been on the run and haven't had much rest, Allen is terribly sleepy."

Professor Linton waved his hand, indicating that it was not a problem: "After thinking it over, there are only a few scenarios, and it's been a long time. As for whether it's useful or not, we'll know once we take a look outside."

At this point, they realized that their imagination was indeed quite poor. The scenes that kept appearing in their minds were nothing more than lush vegetation, fertile soil, and various ancient creatures living freely among them. They couldn't come up with anything better.

Of course, under the current special circumstances, a lack of imagination was not a bad thing.

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Lan and Xia Chuan stood up decisively and strode out, turning into the third fork in the road and heading straight for the not-so-spacious cave entrance. When they reached the entrance, Shen Lan stretched out his arm and accurately blocked Xia Chuan's body, then poked his upper body out of the entrance and looked around.

"How is it?" The cave was so narrow that Shen Lan's body completely blocked it. Except for a little weak light leaking in, Xia Chuan couldn't see the scenery outside at all.

Shen Lan clicked his tongue and didn't answer immediately. After a good while, he withdrew his upper body from the narrow entrance and said, "It's hard to say. Indeed, no new meteorites have fallen within a radius of tens of meters during that long period of time just now, which is much better than before. As for the strange sight in the sky... the smoke and dust are too thick to see through. But since the little guy has been honestly not thinking wildly, I think there should have been a change."

"So there has been some improvement?" Xia Chuan asked.

"Yes." Shen Lan nodded, then shook his head, "But not much improvement."

Blocked by Shen Lan's arm, Xia Chuan couldn't poke his head out to look. He could only take a rough glance from the angle visible inside the cave. "Indeed, if there was a big improvement, this fog should have dispersed."

None of the beautiful meditations would include this unsightly and breath-disturbing dust fog. Even just standing by the cave, Xia Chuan felt that the air he breathed in was so dirty that it was disgusting, and it scratched his respiratory tract, as if he was going to cough earth-shatteringly in the next second.

After taking a general look at the situation, the two of them didn't linger at the entrance any longer, but strode back to where everyone else was. They told Professor Linton and the others about the scene they saw, which brought thoughtful expressions to their faces.

"Although the effect is small, it shows that we can influence and stop this destruction, right?" Dennis said, "If we try a few more times, maybe the effect will be greater. And these people who are unconscious, when they wake up, we can educate them. If everyone thinks together, the impact may be much greater."

What he said still made sense, and Shen Lan and Xia Chuan didn't object.

"If we could really restore the outside to its original state just by thinking in our minds, that would be great..." Professor Linton sighed, although he felt in his heart that it didn't seem that simple.

Dennis nodded in agreement, "Yeah, if it really works, we might as well collectively think that stepping out of this cave is the exit, so we can hurry back. We wouldn't have to work so hard on this oscilloscope..." Although he said this, his hands didn't stop, and he and Protruding Ears carefully adjusted the black box.

But... is it really that simple?

Xia Chuan looked at the end of the fork in the road and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Why don't you get some more sleep?" Shen Lan raised his hand and patted Xia Chuan's shoulder, "It seems you haven't had a good sleep?"

"Oh, it's okay." Xia Chuan replied casually. With Shen Lan there, he slept much more soundly than that time by the sea. It was just out of habit that he couldn't sleep through the night without any vigilance.

But Shen Lan didn't think of his quirk. He just thought sleeping against the stone wall was uncomfortable. So he simply moved closer to Xia Chuan, then patted his muscular leg, "I'll lend it to you as a pillow."

Xia Chuan: "..."

Seeing that Xia Chuan had no intention of moving, the overlord's bad habit acted up again. He poked Xia Chuan's waist with his index finger.

Taking advantage of the moment when Xia Chuan's body trembled, he grabbed him and pressed him down on his leg without asking, and then, quite unscrupulously, held Xia Chuan's wrist with one hand, covered Xia Chuan's eyes with the other, and said decisively, "Don't move. When we go out, you'll still have to drag your ass and be a burden. How can you not sleep!"

Ever since he met this 30-ton lord, Xia Chuan felt every day that he was going to die young.