So, after Li Nan finished using the crystal core and fell unconscious, Quan Xiaoyu was thoroughly startled. This had never happened before when someone used a crystal core.
A purified crystal core would not cause a person to mutate. Usually, when someone fell unconscious after using a crystal core, it meant one thing—an ordinary person had awakened an ability.
However, Li Nan was already an ability user.
Quan Xiaoyu knew that his so-called dual-type ability actually existed because of his space. His true ability was only the fire element. Moreover, even in his previous life, there had been very few people who possessed dual-type abilities.
Lu Zhongxia and the doctor examined the unconscious Li Nan and both said that he was fine. He was merely unconscious and had a slight fever, but there was nothing serious wrong with him.
Quan Xiaoyu stayed by Li Nan’s side for an entire day and night. When Li Nan woke up and they discovered that he had gained a new ability, Quan Xiaoyu was the most shocked of all.
Everyone else was rather calm. In their eyes, Quan Xiaoyu was already a dual-type ability user. They had seen it before, so they were no longer surprised.
As for the new ability, after Quan Xiaoyu explained to Li Nan what Beast Speech could do, Li Nan was actually delighted.
Being able to control beasts meant that he was about to gain combat ability. He would no longer be the person who hid behind everyone else and needed others to protect him. When necessary, he could also protect the people who mattered to him!
At that moment, he became even more certain that this was the best gift Yu Ning and Xiaohua had given him!
Back to the present.
After finally catching the two little ones, Li Nan hurriedly stuffed them back into the vehicle.
The first destination on everyone’s itinerary, J City, was already within sight. According to Ouyang Jing’s prediction, they would be able to reach it by tomorrow evening.
Everyone had been rushing along the road for ten days. Along the way, they had also collected some necessary supplies. Although Bai Mingxi had publicly revealed the secret of his space after that battle, he had still kept some details about the size of the space and the supplies stored inside it to himself.
Besides, in the apocalypse, no one would ever complain about having too many supplies. So whenever they could collect something, they collected as much as possible.
Now that they were almost at their destination and had made another huge haul today, Xiao Ziran decided that everyone should turn in early and set up camp here for the night.
At the moment, everyone was munching on some dry rations as snacks. Meanwhile, someone had already prepared a huge pot of steaming instant noodles, and the fragrant smell drifted far into the distance.
The moment everyone smelled it, they were already practically drooling. It had been a long time since they had eaten anything hot and fragrant. After ten days of eating dry rations, they were practically sick of them.
Before long, the entire huge pot of noodles had been swept clean. Not a single scrap remained. They were practically ready to lick the pot clean.
The two little ones, Xiaoyu and Xiaoning, had been locked inside the vehicle by Li Nan. They could smell the delicious food from inside, but no matter how much they scratched and pawed, they simply couldn’t get out. They clung to the car window and gazed pitifully at everyone outside.
Quan Xiaoyu was currently sitting on the roof of the vehicle, looking into the distance. He actually wasn’t supposed to be on watch today, but Chu Tian and the doctor had gone to discuss something, while Li Nan, after locking the two little rascals away, had also been called over by Lu Zhongxia to study his new ability.
Bai Mingxi had found someone on Ouyang Jing’s team who was also highly skilled with machinery, and the two of them were currently working together on the communications device.
That left Quan Xiaoyu with nothing to do.
Since he was idle anyway, he simply jumped onto the roof of the vehicle to help keep watch.
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they began packing everything up.
Just then, Quan Xiaoyu suddenly stood up.
A moment later, they heard him shout, “Everyone, pay attention! Someone’s coming.”
He said people, not zombies.
Sure enough, not long afterward, they could hear the faint rumble of automobile engines in the distance.
Upon hearing this, everyone quickly finished packing and silently returned to their vehicles. They didn’t rush to get inside. Over the past ten days, they had encountered other people several times, so they already had some experience handling situations like this.
Encounters between humans couldn’t exactly be called friendly, but under normal circumstances, people wouldn’t deliberately start a fight either.
Unless, of course, some people were deliberately trying to rob them of their supplies or had some other motive.
Everyone had learned how to protect themselves through these encounters.
The best approach was simply for each side to mind its own business and not interfere with the other. If they encountered someone relatively friendly, they could exchange some information with each other.
But those were matters for Xiao Ziran and Ouyang Jing to handle.
“Xiaoyu, can you see what kind of people they are?” Zuo Li ran over and asked Quan Xiaoyu. In the middle of speaking, he let out a burp. He had clearly eaten quite a lot of instant noodles just now.
“I can only see the convoy. There are quite a few people. I can’t tell anything else. They’re too far away.”
Quan Xiaoyu jumped down from the roof, the samurai sword he never went anywhere without held in his arms.
“Hopefully we don’t run into anyone looking for trouble,” Zuo Li muttered.
Then he turned toward everyone and shouted, “Everyone, stay alert! If we run into troublemakers, fight if you can. If you can’t, run!”
On the other side, as soon as Quan Xiaoyu had shouted his warning, someone had already gone to inform Xiao Ziran and the others, who were discussing matters inside one of the vehicles.
Hearing this, Quan Xiaoyu smiled, folded his arms across his chest, and leaned against the vehicle while staring toward the direction from which the convoy was approaching.
Actually, at first, Zuo Li had always kept his distance from Quan Xiaoyu.
The brutal way Quan Xiaoyu had suddenly attacked that day without a word had genuinely frightened him.
Then he discovered, Holy crap, this vicious guy was actually a dual-type ability user.
The fireball that he had thought belonged to Chu Tian that day had actually come from this kid.
After that, Zuo Li tried his best to avoid dealing with Quan Xiaoyu.
But as time passed, he gradually realized that this guy wasn’t the vicious kid he’d imagined him to be at all.
In fact, his personality was rather gentle.
Since they had set out, Zuo Li had never once seen him lose his temper or get into a fight with anyone.
Sometimes, whenever he could help someone, he would silently lend a hand. Once he finished helping, he wouldn’t say anything and would simply walk away.
Other than Chu Tian, Li Nan, and Bai Mingxi, he rarely spoke with anyone else.
Eventually, everyone realized that this guy, who looked extremely difficult to get along with, probably just wasn’t good at interacting and socializing with people.
In reality, he was actually quite mild-mannered.
As for what had happened that day, it was probably because that person had nearly gotten Chu Tian killed, which was what made him lose control.
Come to think of it, those people really were annoying—like cockroaches, they were simply unpleasant to deal with.
So, once Zuo Li got over his initial fear, he began actively trying to interact with Quan Xiaoyu.
Quan Xiaoyu didn’t think there was anything strange about it.
However, recently, Chu Tian had started giving Zuo Li some rather strange looks.
The thick-headed Zuo Li, however, hadn’t noticed anything wrong at all.
Everyone was highly alert, quietly placing their weapons within easy reach.
Although the two women on the team were busy cleaning up the pots and dishes after the meal, they were also very alert and stayed within areas where their teammates could protect them at any moment.
About ten minutes later, the lead vehicle of the convoy was already faintly visible.
Xiao Ziran, Chu Tian, and Ouyang Jing had also gotten out of their vehicle.
They all walked over to Quan Xiaoyu’s side.
There were quite a few people in the convoy, and they looked utterly exhausted from their journey.
The condition of the lead vehicle alone made that obvious. Dust almost completely covered the body of the vehicle, leaving it black and yellow and making it nearly impossible to tell what its original color had been.
Almost all the vehicles were swaying and rattling as they moved, looking thoroughly battered and worn down by the journey.
Once the other convoy drew closer and noticed that there were people here, the entire group headed straight toward them.
The people on this side appeared completely indifferent to the situation.
Those who should be sitting sat.
Those who should be standing stood.
Those who wanted to chat chatted.
Those who wanted to rest rested.
Yet beneath this apparent nonchalance, every single person was secretly gathering their strength and remaining on guard.
The other group soon approached and stopped not far away.
Several people jumped out of the vehicles.
The moment those people showed their faces, everyone on this side froze.
Oh! They’re all familiar faces!
Everyone was extremely surprised to see them.
The grueling battle from ten days ago, the one that had brought them frighteningly close to death, was still vivid in everyone’s minds.
Back then, those people had fled first. Based on their estimated speed, they definitely should not have been able to escape the encirclement of Yu Ning’s zombie horde.
Everyone had assumed that they would be wiped out.
Yet unexpectedly, they had actually managed to hold out until Yu Ning withdrew the zombies.
Therefore, everyone was extremely shocked by their appearance.
That’s right.
The people who jumped out of the vehicles were none other than Lei Shi, Jia Lunxu, Wen Tong, and Yuan Shaohua.
It seemed that the two groups had ultimately joined together.
After getting out of the vehicles, the few people walked straight toward Xiao Ziran and the others, basically ignoring everyone else on the team.
They were all old acquaintances and knew very well who was in charge here.
The few people approached with unfriendly expressions.
Xiao Ziran was thoroughly fed up with these people, but he had no choice except to steel himself and deal with them.
While inwardly sighing that cockroaches really were not so easy to kill, he also began calculating the probability that he could wipe them out if a fight broke out.
Sure enough, the moment Jia Lunxu opened his mouth, he began accusing them.
He accused them of running away by themselves back then without informing them, lacking humanitarian spirit, and so on.
Yuan Shaohua was naturally indignant as well.
During that battle, three of the six ability users he had left had died.
With J City right in front of them, even if his father doted on him, he would probably have a hard time explaining the loss.
Naturally, he placed the blame for this on Xiao Ziran and the others, who had stopped him back then.
Xiao Ziran let out several cold laughs, treating everything they said as complete bullshit.
He simply waved his hand impatiently, as if shooing away flies.
“What does your life or death have to do with us? Captain Lei wasn’t trying to be some kind of savior? If that’s the case, then isn’t sacrificing a few people only natural?
“Come to think of it, how is it that everyone else died, yet you people still have the nerve to be alive?
“What happened to saving people?
“Do you know something? Every time I see you people, I get such a terrible headache I feel like my head is about to explode.”
His words showed absolutely no regard for anyone’s dignity.
He tore away the last shred of civility between them right then and there.
An extremely sinister look was hidden in Jia Lunxu’s eyes.
Originally, they had only intended to take advantage of the opportunity to extort some supplies from them.
Because of the presence of all those ordinary people who contributed nothing to production, their supplies were being consumed at an extremely rapid rate.
During that battle, two-thirds of their ability users had been lost.
Meanwhile, half of the ordinary people who had hidden behind the ability users had survived.
In order to uphold Lei Shi’s ideals, they had taken in quite a few more people along the way, most of them ordinary people.
The supplies inside Wen Tong’s space could only support them for a few more days.
Today, they had smelled the fragrance of instant noodles coming from this direction from far away.
They had originally come here specifically because they wanted food.
Only after getting close did they realize that they had run straight into their old enemies.