On the way back, everyone still couldn’t help discussing the circumstances of that group of people.
“Somehow, I suddenly feel that the apocalypse isn’t quite so cruel and indifferent after all,” Quan Xiaoyu said. Those determined faces, each one filled with the desire to protect someone, still lingered in his mind.
Although he hadn’t interacted much with them, he had nevertheless felt a warmth in his heart. “I just hope that if Yuning ever meets people like them, things will turn out differently for her.”
They had both been neighbors who saw each other every day. On one side was absolute evil, and on the other, absolute goodness. Both were good girls, and both had turned into zombies, yet their fates had been completely different.
Chu Tian drove in rare silence. After a long while, he reached over and rubbed Quan Xiaoyu’s head. “When we get back, I’ll talk to the doctor and see if there’s any possibility of bringing them to the base.”
Sighing over things wasn’t Chu Tian’s style. Finding a way to solve the problem was what mattered.
“Speaking of which, it’s strange. There wasn’t a single ability user among all those people,” Bai Mingxi remarked. He had sensed this from their behavior and mannerisms, and before leaving, he had quietly sought confirmation from Chu Tian.
“After all that trouble, we finally encountered an evolved zombie, only to find out that it had evolved purely in intelligence. Its overall combat strength seems even weaker than that of an ordinary Level Four zombie.” Bai Mingxi shook his head regretfully.
“Actually, the emergence of supernatural abilities represents the invasion of the virus. Those of us with abilities have already been altered by the virus. Perhaps those ordinary people who haven’t developed abilities are the ones who remain purely human?” Chu Tian didn’t directly respond to Bai Mingxi’s remark. Instead, he proposed a hypothesis.
This wasn’t his area of expertise, either. It was merely a guess.
“I’m suddenly thinking about B City,” Chu Tian said.
Quan Xiaoyu’s heart skipped a beat. He knew that Chu Tian’s home was in B City, and his family was there, too. He even had a vague idea about Chu Tian’s background.
Yet, hearing Chu Tian say this so suddenly today filled him with an inexplicable sense of fear. If Chu Tian’s family was still alive, would they accept his existence?
And if they didn’t, what would he do?
“I miss home, too.” Hearing Chu Tian say this, the homesickness Bai Mingxi had suppressed for so long suddenly surged up inside him, and his mood instantly sank.
In truth, none of them knew whether their family members were still alive. They had struggled northward all this time, encountering countless difficulties along the way. Gradually, they had gained companions they could trust and fight alongside, and with those companions had come responsibilities.
Now, they couldn’t simply leave everything behind and walk away whenever they wanted.
“That’s not what I meant.” Chu Tian did miss his family, too, but he was the one who needed to remain the most rational. “B City was once the nation’s capital. With so much time having passed since the apocalypse began, they must have conducted relatively in-depth research in this area. The more things we encounter and the more things we discover, the more mysteries we find. Now, I actually feel that I’m becoming more and more ignorant. Perhaps B City has the answers.”
Although Chu Tian said this, the slightly sorrowful mood still spread to everyone. Even Li Nan thought of his own father. The people in the vehicle fell silent as they sped forward.
This silence lasted for half an hour, until Bai Mingxi noticed that the vehicle was heading in the wrong direction. Only then did he exclaim in surprise, “Xiao Tian, you’ve gone the wrong way!”
At his words, Chu Tian smiled. “No, we aren’t going back just yet.”
“Then where are we going?” Bai Mingxi asked, looking bewildered.
Chu Tian sighed. “We’ll find a secluded place, then everyone will enter Xiaoyu’s space. You and Xiao Nan can try leveling up.”
Following Chu Tian’s answer, the vehicle soon drove into an abandoned roadside auto repair shop. Five minutes later, the people, the vehicle, and the two little creatures on the roof all appeared together inside Quan Xiaoyu’s space.
The two little creatures had visited once before, so the place wasn’t unfamiliar to them. In fact, they seemed to like it very much.
The moment they entered, they excitedly leaped off the roof and charged straight toward the pond. With two splashes, they plunged into the water.
Chu Tian looked at them in surprise. “Whether it’s a cat or a tiger, aren’t they supposed to be afraid of water? Could it be because they’ve mutated?”
Naturally, no one else had an answer to a question even Chu Tian couldn’t explain.
However, Quan Xiaoyu quickly noticed something. “Maybe it’s because they like eating your kind!”
As soon as he said this, everyone turned to look. Sure enough, less than two minutes later, the two little creatures raised their heads, each with a fish in its mouth. They swallowed their catches in one big gulp before diving back into the water.
Bai Mingxi gave Chu Tian a somewhat sympathetic look. “How about asking Xiao Nan to call them back? After all, they’re your kind. I was wondering why they kept diving into the river last time. So this is what they were up to.” Although he said this, his tone was full of schadenfreude.
Chu Tian couldn’t even be bothered to roll his eyes at him. He had initially wanted to stop them, but after thinking it over, he realized there were still plenty of fish in the river, so he let them be.
After a moment’s thought, he said to Li Nan, “Once they’re full, have them help catch some fish for us. I can’t very well bring myself to attack my own ‘kind,’ can I?” The last sentence was directed at the other two, and his tone was thoroughly self-deprecating.
Bai Mingxi immediately slapped his thigh and laughed so hard he doubled over. Quan Xiaoyu wasn’t quite as exaggerated. He merely smiled at Chu Tian and said, “Get them ready. I’ll go pick some fruit.”
With that, he turned and walked away, his shoulders still trembling slightly as he went.
Chu Tian secretly glared at Quan Xiaoyu’s back and thought to himself, If there weren’t other people around, I’d have you in my arms and deal with you right this instant.
As for Xie Mingxuan, he retreated into his little house as usual and refused to come out again.
“What do we need to prepare?” Bai Mingxi asked Chu Tian blankly.
Chu Tian immediately broke into a malicious grin and enunciated each word. “Take. Off. Your. Clothes!”
“Fuck! Pervert!” Bai Mingxi immediately crossed his arms over his chest to show his firm refusal.
Even Li Nan looked a little embarrassed and gazed at Chu Tian pitifully.
Chu Tian promptly smacked Bai Mingxi on the head. “I’ve known you since you were a kid! What part of you haven’t I seen? Why are you pretending to be some chaste maiden? Take off your clothes and get your ass into the river!” he scolded with a laugh. Then he pointed at Li Nan. “You, too. Go wait in the water.”
“Could you keep your voice down? Why does that sound so weird? Don’t let Xiaoyu hear you, or he’ll think…” Bai Mingxi continued muttering complaints under his breath. When he saw Chu Tian’s foot flying toward him again, he hurriedly shut his mouth, grabbed Li Nan, and ran toward the river with him.
In fact, over the past month, Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu had taken advantage of the space and gradually figured out the safest way to level up.
The river water was closely connected to the fruit trees. By soaking their bodies in the river and then eating the fruit, they could level up and break through their limits in the safest possible manner.
And so, two hours later…
Bai Mingxi swung his right hand and unleashed a spatial rift. The wooden stick they were using for the experiment instantly lost half of its length. A moment later, the missing half appeared out of thin air, leaving the stick split into two pieces.
Bai Mingxi was thrilled. He immediately asked Quan Xiaoyu to bring him all kinds of objects to test on. Iron pots, stainless steel knives, even tables and chairs—he tried them all. Only after testing everything did he confidently and proudly announce his conclusion:
He finally had combat power!
He was no longer a non-combatant!
He no longer had to stay far away from the battlefield during fights and accept nothing but his teammates’ one-sided protection!
Bai Mingxi’s excitement was written all over his face.
Li Nan’s upgrade, on the other hand, was mainly reflected in his healing abilities. His healing power had become more abundant and potent, but there were no signs of mutation.
As for his ability to communicate with animals, since only Xiao Yu and Xiao Ning were currently available, his connection with them had simply grown closer. There were no other special developments.
As for the fish in the river, they lacked sufficient intelligence to communicate.
Even so, Li Nan was very happy. He knew that as long as he continued to grow stronger, his value to the team would keep increasing.
Chu Tian didn’t dare let the two of them level up too quickly all at once. They still needed to take things slowly. Otherwise, if any side effects appeared, it would be troublesome.
Thus, after their upgrades had been assessed, Bai Mingxi and Li Nan were immediately sent off by Chu Tian to squeeze the fruit into juice and bottle it.
Meanwhile, Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu began studying the fish that Xiao Yu and Xiao Ning had helped pull out of the water, trying to figure out how to process them into something practical that they could bring back with them.
After finishing their business in the river, the two little creatures charged into the fruit grove on the opposite bank and turned their attention to the fruit.
Everyone was busy with their own tasks, so no one paid them any mind.
Later, Quan Xiaoyu suddenly had an idea. “What if we use the water from the spring behind us to boil the fish into a broth, then add fruit to remove the smell? Or what if we add the fruit right from the beginning and boil everything together, like making soup?”
They had all eaten the fish before. It wasn’t particularly fishy, but it still tasted somewhat like fish. What would happen if they boiled it together with the fruit? In some places, people added medicinal herbs to soup, not only to remove unpleasant odors but also to bring out the herbs’ beneficial properties.
Chu Tian’s eyes lit up as he listened. He had clearly overthought things and gotten himself stuck in a rut, overlooking the simplest solution of all!
The two immediately put the idea into action and began their first experimental batch.
It was a success. An enormous success!
After being boiled together with the fruit, the broth was strained to remove the fish bones. Once it cooled, it gradually formed a translucent, pale-green gel that was quite beautiful to look at.
In this form, not even a ghost could tell that it had originally come from fish.
The group happily bottled the substance as well.
Everything was ready, and they should have headed back. However, Bai Mingxi and Li Nan hadn’t enjoyed such a comfortable and peaceful life in a long time. Li Nan was reluctant to leave, while Bai Mingxi shamelessly refused to go.
The two little creatures were equally reluctant to leave their little paradise.
Chu Tian was helpless. Fortunately, they had accomplished everything they had set out to do, and there was nothing particularly urgent waiting for them. So he let everyone stay and play there for three days.
During this time, the only one who suffered was poor Xie Mingxuan. As a result, Quan Xiaoyu had recently taken to letting him out early every morning and didn’t see him return until very late at night.
The surrounding area consisted entirely of former human settlements. There weren’t many mutated animals around, and none of them knew what Xie Mingxuan was doing out there.
Three days later, the people and the two beasts finally reappeared in the auto repair shop together with their vehicle.
The vehicle headed toward the Dawn Base.