AFTCKCTCKATD - Chapter 74

 Chapter 74

A Grand Alliance With All The Survival Teams Called In?

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In the county town.

Ji Yanqing sprinted into the alley between two buildings. As the enraged beast chasing him slammed into the structures, making them tremble, he screeched to a halt and charged back.

The Corpse King, its neck already bearing several bloody gashes, never expected him to dare charge back at it. It opened its mouth in a furious “ROAR!”

Ignoring the surge of killing intent, Ji Yanqing used the walls on either side of the alley as springboards, launching himself into the air. Harnessing his forward momentum and the power of gravity, he swung his axe with all his might, bringing it down squarely on the fox’s forehead.

The fox whimpered, its head spinning from the hit.

From the opposite corner of the street, Ji Le seized the opportunity, his mental power enveloping the creature and plunging it into a daze.

Ji Yanqing ran two steps across the immobilized Corpse King’s head, raised his axe again, and brought it down with full force on the gash he had made earlier on its neck.

CLANG!

With a pained cry from the fox, the axe bit into its spine, cracking it in two. The Corpse King struggled to get up as its body attempting to heal, but the damage to its spine was irreversible. Before it could rise, it collapsed completely.

BOOM… The ground trembled from the weight of its massive body.

Ji Yanqing slid down from its head, landing lightly on his feet. He looked at the fox, and once he was certain it was dead, he turned to Ji An and Ji Le in the distance. The two little ones were already scrambling toward him on their short legs.

Seeing them about to crash into him, he quickly sidestepped, dodging them. He was covered in blood.

Unable to get their hug, the two of them, cheeks flushed with excitement, looked at him expectantly. “You did very well,” he praised. Ji An had protected Ji Le, and Ji Le had controlled the Corpse King, saving him a great deal of time and trouble. The entire fight had lasted only two or three minutes.

At his praise, Ji Le reached for him. “Dad…” When Ji Yanqing had first learned they were Corpse Kings, he had been afraid of them. Now, he was praising them. Smiles bloomed on their faces. Does this mean Dad still likes us?

“Let’s go back and get cleaned up first,” Ji Yanqing said, dodging again.

Ji Le looked a little disappointed.

With his relatively clean left hand, Ji Yanqing stroked his head. Then he turned and patted Ji An’s fluffy head as well. Ji An hadn’t had much to do this time and was disappointed that he hadn’t been able to show off his strength. But at the touch, he raised his hands and covered the spot on his head where he had been patted.

“Let’s go,” Ji Yanqing said, taking one last look at the corpse before leading them out of the city.

It was dead, but the body should be enough for Lu Qing to study for a while.

With that thought, he left the city and was crossing the vegetable fields when a figure popped up from among the plants like a groundhog, scaring him so badly that he almost swung his axe.

“What are you doing here?” Ji Yanqing asked, his heart still pounding. The Corpse King hadn’t scared him, but Lu Qing nearly had.

“Is it done?” Lu Qing’s eyes were full of anticipation.

“Yes.”

“Where’s the body?” he asked eagerly.

“In the city, on the pedestrian street.” Ji Yanqing paused, then added, “Take a few people with you.” Although there were no more Awakened Zombies or Corpse Kings in the county town, there were still many normal zombies. Lu Qing lost all reason when faced with … subjects, and he didn’t trust him to go alone.

“It’s fine—” Lu Qing started, already running toward the county.

Ji Yanqing wasted no more words. He simply hooked the back of his collar with his axe and dragged him back toward the camp.

Avoiding the zombies in the fields and cutting through the forest, they returned to the camp in the mountains. Ji Yanqing had just released him when the entire camp turned to look at him.

“Is it done?” Lan Zi asked. Seeing him covered in greenish blood, they had all guessed, and the worry on their faces twisted into something else. Their Captain had really killed a Corpse King all by himself!

“It’s done. I’m going to go wash up.” He grabbed his backpack and took out a change of clothes.

Hearing his flat tone, the expressions on their faces grew even more colorful. Lan Zi’s lips parted, as if to say something, but in the end, she said nothing.

After finding a set of clean clothes for himself, he looked at the two little ones by his feet, who wanted to hug him but didn’t dare. He found them some clean clothes as well, intending to wash them at the same time.

It took over ten minutes to get from the mountains to the river. It was two in the afternoon, the hottest part of the day, and by the time he got there, the blood had already dried and stuck to his skin. The feeling was extremely uncomfortable, to the point of repulsion.

Stripping off his clothes by the river, he didn’t even care if there were insect eggs in the water. All he could think about was how to solve their water problem. The river was just too far from the county.

With these thoughts, he stripped Ji An and Ji Le and put them in the water. Having rarely been in water before, they were very uncomfortable with the feeling of floating and clung tightly to his hands the entire time. By the time they were washed and dressed, their faces were still a little pale.

Back at the camp, Ji Yanqing looked around but couldn’t find Feng Yimo. He asked Ji An and Ji Le, and after a moment’s thought, they both pointed behind the county.

He was just about to go look for him when Lan Zi and the other team leaders approached. He put down the towel he was using to dry his hair and looked at them.

“The most difficult part of luring the zombies is leading them on the road,” Lan Zi said. “It doesn’t require many people. Xia Shen Shu’s squad can handle it; the rest of us wouldn’t be much help. So, we discussed it and want to go out to find supplies tomorrow.”

“There are still several cities a bit farther out. If we’re fast, we can make a round trip in a day. We want to bring back the supplies from those cities first. Our own supplies are running low and will need to be replenished in two or three days anyway.”

“That’s a good idea,” Ji Yanqing agreed. They had to race against time.

“I’ll modify the speakers tonight,” Bai Haoxuan said. A normal phone speaker wasn’t loud enough to alert half a city’s worth of zombies, so they usually connected them to a PA system.

“Prepare two, just in case.”

“Okay.”

Ji Yanqing looked around the camp. “Where’s Lu Qing?”

“Need something?” a chipper voice came from right behind him.

Ji Yanqing jumped, not expecting him to be present- He thought Lu Qing would still be in the city.

“Came back to get something,” Lu Qing said, holding up a syringe.

Ji Yanqing rubbed the bridge of his nose. Lu Qing was getting more and more ghost-like lately.

“If there’s nothing else, I’m going…”

“How did the previous experiments go?” Ji Yanqing asked quickly.

Lu Qing stopped, his face grim. “I ran five batches of tests. The results were worse than I expected.”

“How so?” Lan Zi asked. Lu Qing’s experiments had been their great hope. If they didn’t work, they were truly helpless against the Corpse Kings.

“The blood and tissue I used before were inactive, and the three compounds worked well. But on a live subject, the cellular activity is too strong. The compounds had almost no effect.” He paused, then added, “Part of what makes Awakened Zombies and Corpse Kings so hard to deal with is their healing ability. Unless we can find something strong enough to overcome it, it’s unlikely to be effective.”

“However, when the Awakened Zombie was weakened, the compounds worked very well.”

The group didn’t bother asking why it was weakened; they focused on the information itself.

“So, they do have an effect, it’s just too weak?” Ji Yanqing asked.

“Yes. To have a lethal effect, we need something stronger, something that can affect them more directly.”

Ji Yanqing thought for a moment, then looked at Lan Zi, Li Pingsen, and Mo Xian. They were all looking at him. Their eyes met, and he knew they were thinking the same thing.

“Where is that field of flowers?” Ji Yanqing went to find the map. They still had the one from the beginning.

After finding the large map and several smaller ones and confirming the location of the flower field, they all breathed a sigh of relief. It was only a day or two round trip from their current location. Seeing the map, the four original members—Ji Yanqing, Lan Zi, Li Pingsen, and Mo Xian—felt a sense of nostalgia.

Sunward had started in the south. Although their current location was some distance from where they had begun, it wasn’t too far. Back then, they could only flee on foot, covering very little ground in half a month.

“I’ll go,” Li Pingsen volunteered.

“Be careful. Try not to let everyone get too close,” Ji Yanqing reminded him.

“Okay.”

“What?” Lu Qing was confused.

Hei Long and Bai Haoxuan, who had joined later, looked baffled as well.

---

After some explaining, Lu Qing remembered the flower field that Ji Yanqing had mentioned earlier on, the one that could make people lose control of their bodies, and his eyes immediately lit up. He was about to volunteer to go, but then he remembered the Corpse King’s body still in the city, and was torn.

They were back in the south now. Snow still fell at night, but the daytime temperatures were much higher than in the north, sometimes reaching over fifty degrees Celsius. If they just left the body, it would surely start to rot within two days.

“I’ll be back as quickly as possible,” Li Pingsen said, not just to Ji Yanqing and the others, but to Lu Qing.

Lu Qing, his face a mask of conflict, thought for a moment and said no more.

“Then we’ll set out tomorrow morning and try to be back before nightfall,” Lan Zi said, looking at Hei Long, Mo Xian, and Bai Haoxuan. They were the ones going to the nearby cities for supplies.

“Okay,” they all agreed.

“By the way, I’ve compiled the personnel list,” Mo Xian said, retrieving a stack of papers. “There’s a backup on the computer, too.”

Ji Yanqing had been wanting to reorganize the squads, but getting to know over eight hundred people, talking to them one by one, took time. It was only in the last few days that the team leaders had finally managed to list everyone’s details.

He took the stack and looked through it. Mo Xian was meticulous. He had recorded everyone’s name, age, gender, physical condition, and any special skills they possessed, then typed it all up and printed it out. The data for over eight hundred people was a thick, heavy stack.

That weight wasn’t just the weight of paper, but of lives themselves.

After flipping through for a moment, Ji Yanqing said, “When Xia Shen Shu gets back tonight, we’ll reorganize the squads. From now on, you’ll operate in your new teams.” Previously, with everyone on the road, the team had been divided into five squads for easier management, led by Xia Shen Shu and the other four. Bai Haoxuan, who had joined later, had a team of over two hundred people on his own.

Now, they needed not only combat squads for long-range supply runs, but also a garrison to stay at the paradise, to clean, build, and fortify it. Those with guns and skills would naturally be in the combat squads, while those without guns or in poor health would stay behind. Additionally, any talented individuals had to be put to good use.

“Okay,” they all nodded.

With the plan set, they dispersed again. Lan Zi’s group began to take stock of the convoy’s fuel and vehicles, preparing for their departure the next morning.

Ji Yanqing took the opportunity to go into the county again to look for Feng Yimo, who still hadn’t returned. He spent some time searching the entire county, even checking the mountains behind it, but found no sign of him. By the time he returned to the camp, it was already five in the afternoon, and Xia Shen Shu was back.

Luring zombies required speed. He had brought back several high-performance off-road vehicles. The moment they drove into the camp, they attracted a crowd, all gathered around, excitedly discussing which vehicle was better. Xia Shen Shu was so enamored with his new toys that he forgot to even ask about the “only child” he had entrusted to Ji Yanqing.

Ji Yanqing listened for a while, then went into a tent and sat down. He patted the drone beside him. “Seems like your dad doesn’t want you anymore.”

That night, they lit a fire in the forest and cooked dinner before the sun went down. During the meal, Ji Yanqing told everyone about the reorganization. They had already heard about it and were prepared, so no one was surprised. For many, it was a chance for a fresh start. Those who wanted a gun, or those who wanted to stay in the relative safety of the paradise, could now make their choice.

After dinner, everyone sat on the ground. Ji Yanqing and the team leaders climbed onto the roof of one of the trucks. Their team now numbered eight hundred and fifty people, with over six hundred and ten guns. Among them, about thirty were too old, too young, or injured and unable to move easily.

The first thing to be redistributed was the firearms. Some of the armed members had skills better suited for construction and would stay at the paradise. They also had to account for those who were unwilling to go out on missions. The team leaders already had a good idea of who these people were. When Ji Yanqing asked them to hand over their guns and stay, they all stood up without hesitation. Some were clearly reluctant—in this world, having a gun and not having one were two completely different things—but no one objected. In total, they collected over forty guns.

When he asked those who were armed but no longer willing to go on dangerous missions to stand, he had braced himself for a large number. After all, even a fool could see that staying in the paradise was safer.

But when he spoke, not a single person in the dark crowd stood up.

Seeing this, Ji Yanqing was momentarily stunned. He repeated himself. “Those of you with guns who are no longer willing to go on missions, please stand up.”

In the dim forest, heads turned, but still, no one rose.

He was at a loss. Just as he was about to ask a third time, a distinctly youthful voice came from the crowd. Gu Wenmo raised his hand like a schoolboy. “We’ll all follow the team’s arrangements. Now is not the time for comfort. We’ll all work hard together.”

Ji Yanqing, who had already guessed what was happening, felt a wave of warmth in his chest. “Alright. When the time for comfort comes, we’ll all enjoy it together.”

“Haha…” Laughter rippled through the crowd below.

Amid the laughter, Ji Yanqing took a deep breath and continued, “Next, I’ll call out a team leader’s name. Those with guns who wish to join their squad, please stand up. The leaders will choose. Each squad will have one hundred members.” He took the opportunity to officially name the squads. “First Squad, Team Leader Xia Shen Shu.”

Xia Shen Shu, already prepared, stood up and waved to the crowd. A group of people quickly stood, most of them from his original squad. He got down from the truck and moved through the crowd, quickly selecting his hundred members.

“Second Squad, Team Leader Lan Zi.”

The moment he spoke, another group of people stood up. Lan Zi had originally focused on building a sniper team, so her squad had been the smallest. After he disappeared, she had taken in more people to maximize their search efforts, but her squad was still the smallest. Almost all of her original members stood, but most of the others who rose were women.

Seeing their faces, so different from the men’s, Ji Yanqing was surprised, but not entirely. This world was far crueler to women than to men. It was no surprise they would want to stick together.

Lan Zi was surprised for a moment, then quickly made her selections. She didn’t refuse the women who had chosen her, but her expression grew more serious. There were no easy days in this apocalypse. If her squad was predominantly female, they would have to work harder than anyone else. The women she chose were equally serious, their faces mirroring her own resolve. They knew the cruelty of this world all too well.

“Third Squad, Team Leader Li Pingsen.”

“Fourth Squad, Team Leader Hei Long.”

“Fifth Squad, Team Leader Mo Xian.”

“Sixth Squad, Team Leader Bai Haoxuan.”

…

After everyone had been chosen, Ji Yanqing distributed the collected guns and divided the remaining several dozen people among the six squads. The combat squads were set. The rest were, by default, the garrison.

With the personnel decided, the six team leaders each took their new squads to a separate part of the forest to talk. Ji Yanqing didn’t participate. He watched for a moment, then, before the snow got too heavy, he went into the city again.

Over an hour later, he returned, still having found no sign of Feng Yimo. He asked Ji An and Ji Le, and they both pointed in unison behind the county. Looking in that direction, he felt a flicker of worry. That was the direction of the Devil’s City.

At the same time, a headache began to form. He would have to ask Lu Qing later if he had any medicine for treating the directionally challenged. If not, he would just find a rope, tie it around Feng Yimo’s neck, and leash him to his own waist.

With these grim thoughts, a restless night passed.

The next day, everyone was up before dawn. While they waited for the snow to melt, Bai Haoxuan helped Xia Shen Shu make some simple modifications to his precious off-road vehicles, welding iron mesh over the windows to ensure their safety. Before the outbreak, he had been a welder and repairman. It had been an unremarkable job then, but now it was a valuable skill.

After the modifications were done, and after Bao Haoxuan had confirmed that the PA systems he had modified the night before were working, the snow had melted enough for the vehicles to move. He, along with Li Pingsen, Lan Zi, Hei Long, and Mo Xian, led their respective convoys out to search for supplies.

Watching them leave, Xia Shen Shu’s squad began their operation. They drove a vehicle, its back loaded with a phone and a PA system, to an open, treeless area outside the city, then quickly returned to the forest.

Two minutes later, the phone’s timer went off, and a wailing, completely off-key voice shattered the morning calm. “The great river flows to the east…”

Hearing that familiar voice, the group in the forest, their nerves already taut, all froze, including Ji Yanqing. The next moment, they all turned to look at Xia Shen Shu.

Under their collective gaze, he turned and gave them a thumbs-up. Then, he didn’t forget to ask, “How’s my singing?”

Ji Yanqing’s face was blank. “Don’t sing … ever again.” He was afraid the zombies would get psychological trauma.

As Xia Shen Shu’s unholy wailing broke the morning silence, the county began to stir. First, the zombies in the vegetable fields, then those at the edge of the city, until figures began to emerge from the alleyways.

In less than three minutes, the vehicle was surrounded by a frenzy of clawing, biting figures, like vengeful ghosts facing eternal torment in the form of that damned wailing. The entire vehicle shook under their assault. The sound didn’t cover the entire county, but the commotion created by the zombies spread wider and wider. Five minutes later, the zombies around the vehicle were three layers deep, at least ten or twenty thousand of them.

Watching the dense mass of figures, the group hiding in the forest felt their scalps tingle.

---

Five more minutes passed, and the unholy wailing came to an abrupt halt. By the time the sound stopped, the zombies surrounding the vehicle were packed so tightly there wasn’t a gap between them, numbering at least thirty thousand. The silence didn’t immediately quell the commotion; more zombies were still pouring out from within the county. The group held their breath and waited.

Ten minutes later, the chaos gradually subsided. By then, the number of zombies that had been drawn out had reached over forty thousand. The sheer density of the horde was enough to make many of the onlookers’ faces pale with fear. Ji Yanqing’s expression was also grim. According to their plan, they only needed to lure out twenty to thirty thousand.

He looked at Xia Shen Shu. The dozen or so members of his squad had ashen faces—partly due to the unexpected surplus of zombies, partly due to sheer terror. Xia Shen Shu hadn’t brought his entire hundred-person squad, only a select group of a dozen or so in four vehicles.

“Let’s go,” Xia Shen Shu said, leading the way around to the other side of the forest. The mountains formed an arc, embracing a third of the county. He had parked the vehicles at the end of the closer mountain range.

“If anything goes wrong, prioritize escaping. We can figure out the rest later. Staying alive is what matters,” Ji Yanqing said. He knew Xia Shen Shu wasn’t a fool, but he couldn’t help but remind him.

Eight or nine minutes later, they reached the vehicles. Everyone got in, locked the doors, and confirmed the plan over the walkie-talkie. Xia Shen Shu’s vehicle took the lead, heading toward the open ground. The four vehicles drove a short distance from the end of the mountain range, rammed headfirst into the horde, and then immediately spun around and sped off.

The zombies, which had just quieted down, excitedly gave chase. The sound of tens of thousands of them running and moaning sent a chill down the spines of the group hiding in the mountains.

In less than five minutes, Xia Shen Shu and his team, along with every zombie on the plain, had disappeared over the horizon. Watching them go, the group in the forest looked at each other, their foreheads slick with cold sweat. With that many zombies, the slightest mistake would have meant certain death for all of them. They tried not to think about it, but the tension hung heavy in the air. Overwhelmed by worry, the camp fell silent, everyone sitting quietly, waiting.

Later, Ji Yanqing went into the city again, this time to the county government building, where he found a local map. The county was no match for a major city, but for a team of eight hundred, it was still a massive place. Besides clearing the zombies, they could ignore the rest of the debris for now.

He identified several residential complexes near the edge of the county that were a more suitable size. He decided to scout them later and choose one as their living quarters. The water problem also needed to be solved as soon as possible. The ideal solution would be to dig an underground waterway, which, if the generator and pump were well hidden, would be harder to cut off. But a three-to-five li tunnel was a massive undertaking.

Xia Shen Shu’s group returned at ten in the morning. The moment their convoy was spotted in the distance, the group in the forest, their faces pale with anxiety, leaped to their feet in excitement. Hearing the commotion, Ji Yanqing dropped his map and hurried to the edge of the trees. They had returned in a different set of vehicles—off-roaders, Xia Shen Shu’s favorite.

A few minutes later, the convoy drove into the forest, kicking up steam from the sun-baked earth. Before Ji Yanqing could ask, Xia Shen Shu spoke. “It went smoother than expected. The roads were wide for the most part. Those brainless things just chased our asses like crazy. We didn’t stop, they didn’t stop, and so it went. We ran into a little trouble entering the city, but it wasn’t a big deal.”

Ji Yanqing’s gaze swept over the group. Seeing that everyone was accounted for, he let out a breath.

“I think we can lure out the rest this afternoon, all at once,” Xia Shen Shu said.

Ji Yanqing looked back toward the county. There were only seventy or eighty thousand zombies in total. They had already taken care of half. “If you think you can, then go ahead,” he said. If they could clear them all today, they could go in and deal with the trapped ones tonight. Lan Zi and the others should be back before the snow started.

With the decision made, Xia Shen Shu’s group ate, took a nap, and then set out again. They had returned at ten, the hottest part of the day. By the time they woke up, it was past one in the afternoon, and the heat was no longer as oppressive.

They cranked the PA system to maximum volume and repeated the process. After luring every free-roaming zombie out of the county, Xia Shen Shu quickly drove off. And as if that wasn’t enough of a spectacle, he laid on the horn as he left, the ear-splitting sound echoing through the county and the mountains.

Watching Xia Shen Shu show off his flair for the dramatic, the muscles on everyone’s faces in the forest twitched. Ji Yanqing rubbed the bridge of his nose and focused his attention back on the map.

That afternoon, he went into the county. He scouted the few complexes he had chosen and selected one that was ideal in terms of both terrain and environment. It was on the forward edge of the county, close to the main road in and out, and not far from the national highway. Just outside, there were vegetable fields that could be used as a parking area. The complex was new, less than ten years old, with neat rows of apartment buildings. It was surrounded by a wall, with only a single main gate for entry and exit.

Having chosen their base, he took the remaining seventy-odd members of Xia Shen Shu’s squad and went in to begin clearing it. After dealing with the few zombies in the complex’s lanes, they began to go building by building, floor by floor, prying open doors and clearing them out. With so few people, the process was incredibly slow. From four o’clock until six, when the snow began to fall, they had only managed to clear two buildings. There were still eight left.

Seeing the snow falling heavier, Ji Yanqing had no choice but to lead them back to the mountains. When they returned in the darkness, Xia Shen Shu’s squad was already back. This time, they were all battered and bruised. Several of them were injured, and five were covered in wounds, looking as if they had been in a rollover. Xia Shen Shu was no better, with a bloody gash on his forehead. Doctor Wang was patching them up, and the group all wore various pained expressions.

“The commotion this morning made a lot of the zombies in the other city come out,” Xia Shen Shu said with an innocent look when he saw Ji Yanqing. When they had brought the first batch over, the zombies at the edge of that city had charged them before they even got close. They were trapped, and in the heat of the moment, he had ordered them to just ram their way through. It was the only reason they had escaped. But the unexpected situation had made them miss their safe house and escape route, forcing them to find a temporary place to hide. They had holed up in a building for over three hours, and only when the commotion had died down and it was getting dark did they manage to sneak out.

“…As long as you’re alright,” Ji Yanqing said. Just looking at their battered state, he knew it had been far from the simple story he was telling. He had many questions, but he swallowed them back. Situations like this would become more and more common. They had to go out for supplies frequently, after all.

“Lan Zi and the others aren’t back yet?” Xia Shen Shu asked.

Ji Yanqing, who had been in the city all afternoon, looked around, startled.

“Not back. Not a single one,” said Uncle Wang, one of the men in the camp, holding his granddaughter.

Ji Yanqing and Xia Shen Shu both frowned, a sense of unease growing in their hearts. None of them had gone far. Even the farthest destination was only a day’s round trip, unless something had happened to delay them.

“Let’s wait until tomorrow morning and see,” Xia Shen Shu said.

“Yeah,” Ji Yanqing nodded. Whatever had happened, they were too far away to do anything.

After Xia Shen Shu’s wounds were dressed, Ji Yanqing briefed him on the situation in the county. That night, everyone went to bed early.

The next day, Ji Yanqing led his men back into the complex. Xia Shen Shu and everyone else in the camp who could move followed. With over two hundred people divided into eight squads of more than ten each, they each took a building. Their efficiency soared, and by noon, they had cleared all eight remaining buildings.

After killing all the zombies, they transported the bodies to a corner of a distant mountain, piled them together, and set them on fire. The stench of burning zombie flesh was acrid, thick with the smell of rot. No one dared to stay nearby for long. Once they confirmed the fire had caught, they quickly left.

By the time they returned to the camp under the scorching midday sun, only the same people were there. Lan Zi’s group still hadn’t returned. The unease that had been simmering in Ji Yanqing and Xia Shen Shu’s hearts intensified. The others in the camp had noticed as well, and throughout the afternoon break, everyone kept looking out past the mountains.

After the break, just as they were preparing to clear the buildings around the complex, they finally spotted a convoy in the distance. A few minutes later, Lan Zi and her group got out of the vehicles. They weren’t injured, but their faces were grim, and they clearly hadn’t brought back much. They had left with two vehicles and returned with four, but had only brought back two vehicles’ worth of supplies. For over eight hundred people, that might last them a day or two. It was barely a drop in the bucket.

“What happened?” Xia Shen Shu asked.

Ji Yanqing also looked at her.

“The nearby cities have all been picked clean,” she said. “And I mean thoroughly. They didn’t even spare the small roadside convenience stores.” She gave a bitter smile. “When I realized the first city had been looted, I didn’t want to waste the gasoline, so I took my team to the next one. But that one had been searched too.”

Ji Yanqing and Xia Shen Shu, who had been worried about her and her squad’s safety, breathed a sigh of relief, but then their brows furrowed.

“Is it…” Xia Shen Shu had a suspicion, and the smile vanished from his face.

“It must be Huang Rongyue’s or Qin Yue’s people,” Lan Zi said, confirming his fears.

---

Xia Shen Shu looked at Ji Yanqing, whose smile had long since vanished. Ji Yanqing had known a war over resources was inevitable, but he hadn’t thought it would come so soon. After all, it would take time for all three teams to consolidate the supplies around their own bases. But now it was clear: Huang Rongyue and Qin Yue must have guessed he would choose a location between their two territories and had acted early, stripping the area clean.

They had no intention of giving Sunward a chance to develop.

They, too, had their own teams to feed, hundreds of lives, and not a single one of them wanted to die.

Ji Yanqing let out a long sigh, a bitter taste in his mouth. They had started too late, by at least half a month. In a race against the clock, half a month was enough for a great deal to happen. If this continued, they would never have a chance to establish themselves. They would be exhausted just trying to stay alive.

He looked at Lan Zi. “You should rest. We’ll talk after the others are back.”

She looked as if she wanted to say something, but held her tongue. She led her people to the side to rest.

The group hid in the forest for the two hottest hours of the day. Later, Ji Yanqing once again led everyone into the city. Knowing about the supply situation, their spirits were low, but the work still had to be done.

Around three in the afternoon, Hei Long and Bai Haoxuan returned, one after the other. The cities they had gone to had also been picked clean. Like Lan Zi, they had gone to other nearby cities to avoid wasting gasoline. Hei Long had brought back even less than she had, just a single large truck. Bai Haoxuan, however, had gotten lucky, returning with the most supplies of the three teams. He had found a food factoryI’ve been doing too much diet and nutrition research these days… Imagine what kind of processed food they’ve all been surviving off of all this time…. They’re all getting diabetus xD. Forget vegetable fields, they need to get some source of meeeeaaaaatttttt. But fr in an apocalypse I guess we’d all be appreciating how long processed food can actually last… creepy~ that had already been thoroughly looted, but on a whim, he had checked all the vehicles on the premises and found several semi-trucks, fully loaded and ready for shipment.

They drove all the trucks back, but even with this haul, their total food supply, including what they already had, would last less than ten days. As for Mo Xian, who still hadn’t returned, no one held out much hope.

He finally arrived the next morning. His squad had returned almost the same way it had left. When they got out of the vehicles, their faces were terrifyingly grim. Because they couldn’t find anything and didn’t want to come back empty-handed, they had pushed on, searching two or three more cities. There, they had run into Huang Rongyue’s people.

“After we spotted each other, I was still hesitating whether to make contact when they fired a warning shot into the air, alerting the zombies in the city… It all happened so fast. We have seventeen or eighteen wounded,” Mo Xian said, his face dark.

“Are they declaring war?” Lan Zi asked.

“What’s their alternative? We all starve to death peacefully together?” Xia Shen Shu’s face was smiling, but his eyes were not.

“But they can’t just…” Lan Zi couldn’t finish. They had been on good terms before, especially with Huang Rongyue.

“So what do we do now?” Bai Haoxuan asked. “Should we try to circle around behind them?”

“They’d probably just open fire on us directly,” Xia Shen Shu said.

As they were talking, a sentry from the edge of the forest ran back.

“Captain, Li Pingsen’s team is back.”

The team leaders exchanged a look and hurried toward the edge of the forest. Li Pingsen was in charge of the flower field. The others could fail, but he could not.

Reaching the edge of the city, they saw the convoy in the distance, and the bad feeling in their hearts intensified. They had left with two vehicles and returned with three, but the last one was being slowly towed by a long rope, as if it had broken down.

A few minutes later, the vehicles drove into the forest. The group quickly ran to meet them. The doors opened, and fewer than ten people got out. Seeing so few, their already grim faces turned ashen.

“Where are the others?” Ji Yanqing asked.

At his question, the dozen or so people who had gotten out had incredibly colorful expressions. They exchanged a look, said nothing, and led the way to the back of one of the trucks. The leaders immediately followed.

The doors were opened, and Li Pingsen’s men stepped aside, looking at Ji Yanqing’s group with complex expressions. Forgetting their strange looks, the leaders all peered into the truck.

What they saw made the worry on their faces freeze, then slowly twist into the same complex expression as the men beside them.

Inside the large truck, Li Pingsen and his men were lying on the floor like discarded rag dolls. Most of them couldn’t move anything but their eyelids. Hearing the doors open, the prone figures all swiveled their eyes in unison toward the entrance. The synchronized movement was both extremely creepy and somehow hilarious.

“Pfft…” Someone couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.

Inside, the immobilized Li Pingsen immediately looked aggrieved. Seeing that look on his rugged, one-eyed face, the group, who had been barely holding it together, broke. For a moment, laughter filled the entire camp.

“Haha…” Even Ji Yanqing couldn’t help but laugh. Seeing Li Pingsen like this, he was reminded of his own experience, which still gave him chills, but being a victim and watching someone else be a victim were two completely different things.

“What happened?” Lan Zi asked, laughing.

The ten or so who were still mobile all started talking at once.

“That stuff is too potent. The moment you get close, you’re done for. We tried everything, but nothing worked. In the end, we had to wear diving suits with oxygen tanks and use an excavator.”

“Even then, the driver didn’t last ten minutes.”

“We finally managed to load the stuff into the truck, thought we were safe, but not long after we started driving back, the driver was affected as well.”

“We tried everything, taking turns driving, wrapping ourselves up, but no matter what, no one could last more than ten minutes. In the end, we had no choice but to tie a rope to the truck and tow it from a distance.”

Ji Yanqing pointed at the increasingly innocent and wronged-looking Li Pingsen. “Then how did you all still end up like this?”

One of the men looked at him and said aggrievedly, “We calculated everything before we made camp last night. We were upwind. But this morning… the wind changed direction.”

“Hahaha…” Imagining the scene, looking at the man’s wronged expression, the group burst out laughing again.

Ji Yanqing couldn’t hold back either, a smile tugging at his lips. “Then how are you all okay?”

“…The wind changed back this afternoon. We were at the edge of the wind.”

This time, the entire camp erupted in laughter.

Amid the laughter, Lu Qing’s voice came. “Is this it?”

Ji Yanqing looked over. Lu Qing had already walked to the last truck. He was well aware of how potent these mutated plants were and didn’t get too close, instead craning his neck from five meters away. But he knew too little about it; five meters was not nearly enough.

“Don’t go—” Ji Yanqing started to warn him. Halfway through the word, he felt his tongue go numb. His scalp instantly tightened. He tried to do something, but it was too late. He pitched sideways, becoming another discarded rag doll as he landed.

“Dad?”

“Dad!”

At the same time, Lu Qing and several others who had curiously approached the truck also collapsed.

Hearing the thuds, seeing Ji Yanqing topple over, the group, who had been laughing moments before, froze. The next instant, those who could help rushed to help, and those who could retreat scrambled back. The ten or so who had already been through this multiple times quickly cut the rope and drove the two vehicles with the paralyzed people away from the one with the flowers.

Ji An and Ji Le, understanding what had happened, clumsily began to drag the much larger Ji Yanqing away. Ji An was very strong, but he was too small. Not wanting to hurt him, he and Ji Le struggled for a long time. By the time everyone else had been moved, they still hadn’t gotten him very far. Just as he was about to use more force, his own body went limp, and he collapsed into Ji Yanqing’s arms. Ji Le followed, falling on top of him.

Seeing this, others rushed to help.

Not long after, Ji Yanqing’s group was moved far away from the truck. The people from Li Pingsen’s truck were also moved and placed beside them. The space wasn’t wide, and the group, laid out together, couldn’t help but look at each other, an awkward flush on their faces. Especially those who had just been laughing at Li Pingsen. Seeing his gloating expression and hearing the laughter of the others who were fine, their own cheeks burned red.

Ji Yanqing looked at Ji An and Ji Le on either side of him, ignored the grinning Li Pingsen, and looked at Lan Zi, Xia Shen Shu, and the others nearby. Having been hit again, the three of them, who had been through this before, didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

At the same time, seeing Ji An and Ji Le lying in Ji Yanqing’s arms, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief. These flowers were indeed effective against Corpse Kings.

For them, this was the only piece of good news they had had in a long time, and the most uplifting.

---

Perhaps because Li Pingsen had only brought back a small amount, the effect was much shorter than before. After about two hours, the group slowly began to regain movement. Staggering to their feet like marionettes with cut strings, they all silently agreed never to speak of the incident again.

“Where’s… Lu Qing?” Ji Yanqing’s tongue was still thick.

“There.” Li Pingsen pointed with his foot to the back of the tree behind him.

Ji Yanqing, using the tree for support with one hand and Ji An’s shoulder with the other, peered around the trunk. Lu Qing was lying on the ground, his face flushed, with a beatific smile on his face, perfectly still and serene.

“Why isn’t he better yet?”

“He could already move a little while ago. The moment he could, he went right back to that truck to see what was inside. But as soon as the doors opened, he went down again,” Li Pingsen said, a dark look on his face.

Ji Yanqing looked at Lu Qing’s ecstatic expression and didn’t know whether to call him brave or just…

After another half hour of rest, once he had fully recovered, the first thing Ji Yanqing did was have the truck towed far away from the camp, deep into the forest. Seeing the truck disappear into the distance, and confirming that the camp was not downwind of it, he and the team leaders finally gathered again in one of the tents, seated around a table.

They exchanged a look, and the smiles gradually faded from their faces. Li Pingsen had heard what happened from the others and now knew the situation was even worse than they had thought. He rubbed his face, his expression full of worry. The others in the tent were the same.

“Our current supplies will last us eight days at most,” Ji Yanqing stated.

“We should be able to find a bit more in the county,” Xia Shen Shu offered.

“We’d end up with ten days’ worth, at best,” Ji Yanqing said, looking at them.

No one spoke. They all frowned, the silence palpable as they thought. Ten days might seem like a lot, but it was pitifully little. The surrounding cities had surely been picked clean. To avoid starvation, they would have to travel farther. There was no guarantee they would find anything, and doing so would consume all their energy, leaving them no time to clear out the county. Relying on the two hundred garrison members alone would be an incredibly slow process, and time was what they lacked most.

Ji Yanqing took a deep breath. “We started late. We have to admit that. From now on, whenever we go out for supplies, we could run into the other teams at any time. That’s also a certainty.”

Xia Shen Shu and the others said nothing, just looked at him, waiting.

“Next time you meet,” he said, his gaze sweeping over each of them, his tone firm, “show no mercy. They want to live, and we don’t want to die.”

No one spoke. Hearing his resolute words, they all let out a helpless sigh, a bitter look settling on their faces. None of them were killers. Huang Rongyue and Qin Yue probably weren’t either. But even so, it had come to this.

“…Is there really no other way?” Bai Haoxuan asked, though it wasn’t really a question. He just couldn’t accept it. He didn’t know these teams, had never even met the captains personally, but killing people and killing zombies were two different things. And killing a group of people who were also just trying to survive… and they wouldn’t just stand there and let themselves be killed. In the constant fighting, they would surely lose many of their own people.

“What other way is there? Every place has been claimed. Huang Rongyue is on the left, Qin Yue is on the right, Cradle is in front. We either kill the others and take their supplies, or we starve. There is no third option.”

“How about we just sneak over and take them both out, then move into their paradise? One big score,” Xia Shen Shu said with a grin.

Ji Yanqing shot him a look and ignored him. The idea sounded nice, but they weren’t fools. Their paradises would surely have lookouts. It was impossible for several hundred people to sneak in undetected. Besides, their settlements were a seven or eight-day drive away. By the time their massive convoy charged over there, they’d probably be exhausted before they even reached them. Their enemies would have the advantage of familiar terrain. Their chances of winning would be less than thirty percent.

“How about we just go to the Devil’s City for supplies? It’s full of Corpse Kings, so no one has probably been there. The stuff must still be there,” Hei Long said without thinking.

“Do you know how many Corpse Kings are in there? If it’s called a ‘city,’ there have to be at least two or three hundred. If we really provoke them, we won’t have to worry about supplies anymore. It would be a permanent solution, in a way,” Mo Xian countered.

Hei Long choked. “This won’t work, that won’t work. But then, what do you suggest?”

Seeing him getting agitated, Bai Haoxuan quickly intervened. “Alright, let’s not argue.”

“Who’s arguing? We’re trying to find a solution…”

“I’m trying to find a solution too.”

Just as they were about to really start fighting, Ji Yanqing’s voice cut in. “…The Devil’s City has been around for a while, right?”

The arguing group fell silent, confused by his sudden change of topic.

“To have reached the scale of a ‘city,’ it must have existed for some time. Its king was probably one of the first Corpse Kings. Why?” Li Pingsen asked.

Ji Yanqing suddenly grabbed the map and spread it on the table. Xia Shen Shu and the others exchanged a look and crowded around, but they couldn’t figure out what he was looking at.

“What is it?” Li Pingsen asked.

“The Devil’s City has been around for a long time,” Ji Yanqing repeated.

“Probably.”

“So no large survival teams have likely been there.”

“Probably… right…”

Xia Shen Shu and the others exchanged a look, a bad feeling growing in their stomachs. Ji Yanqing’s pale finger slid across the map, circling the area of the Devil’s City. Tong Yue’s map had roughly marked its borders, and he had copied them onto his own. They had avoided it when choosing their location, and in all their discussions since. But looking closely now, Ji Yanqing realized it covered more than a dozen cities. Their own region, with all three teams, only had about that many, and they had been picked over by countless survival teams.

“…So?” Lan Zi’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

“There have to be at least two or three hundred Corpse Kings in there,” Li Pingsen said, his mouth twitching, before Ji Yanqing could even answer.

“Two or three hundred, some of them possibly thrice-evolved. We have just over six hundred armed members in our entire team. Six hundred against two or three hundred Corpse Kings is pure suicide,” Mo Xian added, his own mouth twitching. The bad feeling was getting stronger.

Ji Yanqing looked down at the cluster of cities, his finger tracing over them again. Seeing his reluctance to let go of the idea, Hei Long quickly said, “I was just joking…”

Xia Shen Shu and Lan Zi exchanged a look. He can’t be seriously considering the Devil’s City, can he?

“A few hundred people certainly can’t handle it,” Ji Yanqing nodded lightly.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“But what about a few thousand? A few tens of thousands?” He looked up, his clear, dark eyes fixed on them.

The relieved group froze. Their entire team was only eight hundred people. Where would they get thousands?

Ji Yanqing just watched them silently.

Lan Zi was the first to understand. Her scarred face, already intimidating, twisted into a new expression. Xia Shen Shu was next. His face also contorted, and he tried to smile, but the expression was swallowed by the twist of his features. Is he serious?

“You mean…” Li Pingsen’s remaining eye was wide with astonishment.

“What? What?” Hei Long was completely lost.

“You… but… how…” Bai Haoxuan’s face shifted through a spectrum of colors—green, then white, then sheer shock.

Mo Xian was the last to speak. After a long pause, he finally managed, “They won’t agree.”

Ji Yanqing’s tone was still unhurried. “They will.”

No one could speak. Their faces were all twisted in disbelief. Has he finally gone mad?

His voice grew lighter. “They must agree.” He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it before.

“Not just Huang Rongyue and Qin Yue,” he said, a faint smile in his light tone. “We’ll call Equator and Cradle, too. And even Zhang Yang’s team…”

“The Devil’s City has at least two or three hundred Corpse Kings. Once the war starts, we’ll be hit first. Then Huang Rongyue and Qin Yue. Equator and Cradle won’t escape either. Even if Sunward manages to kill five or ten of them, what difference will that make when facing the remaining one hundred and ninety?”

“We’re all going to die anyway. Why not take a gamble and try to take them out before they take us out?”

“We’re all going to die anyway. Why don’t we all unite and take them down one by one?”

The muscles in their faces twitched violently. They had thought he was just talking about sneaking in for supplies. Take them out? Who was he going to take out? And unite? Unite what? A grand alliance of human survival? Did he have any idea how difficult that would be? Had he truly, finally gone mad?

“The flower field is effective against Corpse Kings. Other survival teams must have their own weapons by now…” His pale finger traced lightly over the area of the Devil’s City again.

If they could just end the war before it even began…

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