binnovel Chapter 204 Yiwu City
Chapter 204 Yiwu City
After quickly taking cover, everyone suppressed their breathing to avoid being detected by the enemy. A short while later, a group of zombies arrived from afar. The leader rode a zombie horse, followed by two neat rows of zombies, quickly passing by where Li Chenglong and his group were hiding.
Li Chenglong watched the group of zombies walk into the distance from the third floor of a building before calling everyone to his location. As soon as the investigation team arrived, Wang Ruyan exclaimed in surprise, "Did you all see that just now? Were those really the zombies we fought before? They were so orderly; anyone who didn't know better would have thought they were an ancient army advancing and retreating in perfect formation."
Xu Qingming said calmly, "The zombie leading the pack riding the zombie horse is a level 8 zombie, and the zombie horse he's riding is a level 7 zombie beast. The two rows of zombie soldiers following behind are also level 5 and 6 zombies." Lu Mingyuan recorded this information in his notebook, then took out a miniature camera and took several pictures of the zombie tracks. Lu Zhenhua said, "This alone is enough to prove that zombies have truly developed intelligence."
Ye Kai added, "In the past, although the zombie attacks were led by high-level zombies, they were not very organized. Now they are so orderly. No wonder the Southeast Military Region suffered such heavy losses." After everyone had expressed their opinions, Li Chenglong said, "We haven't been here long, and we already have a level 8 zombie. Judging from the situation, it's just a patrolling zombie. Everyone must follow orders, pay attention to safety, and not act rashly."
After speaking, they went downstairs one by one and continued towards the center of Yiwu City via a side path. The direction the group of zombies had gone was towards the center, and Li Chenglong felt there was definitely something going on there. It was already noon, and the midday heat in July was intense. Even for those with supernatural abilities or awakened individuals, while they might not mind the heat, the constant vigilance and high concentration required were extremely taxing on the investigation team.
Li Chenglong glanced at his watch on his left wrist; it was already 12:30. He then said, "Let's find a place to rest and have lunch. We'll continue our exploration this afternoon when it's a bit cooler." Everyone nodded in agreement.
After searching for more than ten minutes, the group finally found an abandoned hotel. The first and second floors were severely damaged, but the third floor was generally intact. Best of all, aside from some dust, it wasn't stained with blood like other areas and was relatively clean. Li Chenglong led the investigation team to clean three rooms and threw some miscellaneous items into the hallway. Then, Li Chenglong distributed food to everyone, telling them to go back to their rooms and eat whatever they could find, then rest well and make plans for the afternoon.
In addition to the food, Li Chenglong also gave each pair of girls a watermelon. These watermelons were grown in the natural area of the spiritual energy space, and each one weighed at least eight or nine pounds, so they tasted excellent. Since there were three girls, it was difficult to divide them among themselves, so Li Chenglong simply picked three relatively smaller ones and gave them to them.
Li Chenglong and Xu Qingming shared a room. They ate and chatted, summarizing recent developments. Xu Qingming was quite surprised to learn that Li Chenglong could produce 1500 tons of Dawn Rice per month using his spiritual energy space. If it weren't for the fact that high-grade Dawn Rice couldn't be grown in ordinary environments, he would have already bought some seeds from Li Chenglong. Last time, they bought a batch of ordinary Dawn Rice seeds from Dawn City and tried planting them, finding the yield quite good, reaching over 800 jin per mu per month.
To this end, his father Xu Limin, his second uncle Xu Fumin, and Wei Jing and his son Wei Huasheng specially formed a group of water-based ability users and established the Dawn Rice Irrigation Team, responsible for irrigating the Dawn Rice with water infused with supernatural energy. Not only their Feiyun Base, but also Heijin City and Qianyun Base purchased a large number of seeds from Li Chenglong, preparing to develop their own Dawn Rice industry. Yesterday at the Qingshui Base, Sun Qingpeng also expressed his intention to purchase seeds. Li Chenglong currently doesn't have any Dawn Rice seeds in his spiritual energy space, but he said that after this mission is over, he will have someone send some over to the Qingshui Base.
The three female soldiers shared a room with three beds, which was just enough for them. They had all cleaned the room thoroughly. Wang Shuang put the disposable lunch boxes from their meal into a bag and threw it into the trash chute at the end of the corridor. Returning, she excitedly took out her dagger to cut the watermelon. Wang Ruyan couldn't contain her excitement any longer: "The watermelons in your Shuguang City are truly delicious! To be honest, I'm from Xinjiang, and our melons and fruits are exceptional. I've eaten countless watermelons, but the taste of those from Shuguang City is unparalleled. I haven't forgotten them since I had them a few days ago."
Wu Ruilan cut her watermelon in half and scooped it out with a spoon, saying, "I haven't eaten watermelon since the apocalypse last year, I've been really craving it. Mmm, this watermelon is delicious." She then happily began to eat. Wang Shuang smiled and said, "Captain Li treats us like his own brothers and sisters. He shares everything good with us. The high-grade Dawn Rice we eat is grown in Captain Li and Captain Yun's psionic space, as are these fresh vegetables and fruits. Our Dawn City now has over 10 people, and we've completely achieved self-sufficiency."
Wang Ruyan also said, "You have your own large tracts of land, your own warehousing bases, your own light and heavy industries, as well as your own schools, hospitals and other facilities, and even a well-connected intercity bus network. If I hadn't come from outside, I really wouldn't believe you're living in the apocalypse." The three women chatted for more than an hour before finally taking a break.
At 3:30 PM, Li Chenglong woke everyone up and urged them to hurry towards the city center. After an hour of careful travel, they arrived at the edge of Yiwu's city center. Just as Lu Mingyuan was about to move forward, Li Chenglong grabbed him, saying, "Something's not right. Let's go to a higher place to take a look before deciding whether to go."
The group found a 15-story office building and carefully made their way up floor by floor. Reaching the 14th floor, Li Chenglong felt it was about time and found an office with a good view. As soon as they entered, their expressions turned serious. The city center had been completely transformed. The original skyscrapers had all disappeared, replaced by many strange buildings, and numerous enormous zombies were carrying building materials inside. If they had to describe what those buildings resembled, they looked like the dark, medieval castles from horror movies, or perhaps Dracula's lair.
Rows of castles stood side by side, with zombies constantly moving in and out. Some were carrying building materials, while others were the same zombie hordes Li Chenglong had just seen. Li Chenglong activated his True Dragon Eye and conducted a broad scan. Although he no longer possessed his psionic form, when he fully activated the True Dragon Eye, faint golden markings would appear on his left cheek, and his left eye would turn golden. The others looked at Li Chenglong with some surprise, except for Wang Shuang, who was intently watching the buildings in the distance.
A moment later, Li Chenglong deactivated the Eye of the True Dragon: "There are over ten thousand zombies in this large building complex, along with several hundred zombie beasts and zombie birds. Although the numbers aren't large, there are two level 10 zombies and five level 9 zombies. I think since we've achieved our investigation objective, we should leave now." The others exchanged glances and nodded slightly: "That's for the best."
As they spoke, the investigation team quickly descended the stairs, preparing to retreat. Before they had even gone 500 meters, they sensed a tremendous surge of energy emanating from the buildings behind them. Immediately, a zombie with bat wings rushed towards them. Before it even got close, it spat out a dazzling laser beam from its mouth, shooting it towards the group.
Li Chenglong swiftly drew his Dragon Emperor Sword, turned, and slashed: "Sky-Splitting Dragon-Phoenix Slash!" Dragon and phoenix energy shot out, clashing with the laser. The two energies exploded in mid-air, creating waves of energy. Taking advantage of this chaos, Li Chenglong led his investigation team at breakneck speed towards the distance.
After retreating for thirty kilometers, the group finally stopped to rest. Lu Zhenhua, panting, said, "Captain Li, what level was that bat-like zombie? It seemed really powerful." Li Chenglong smiled faintly, "It was one of those two level 10 zombies, and the weaker one at that. It's a pity we were only investigating this time, otherwise we really wanted to kill it and get the high-level crystal."
Everyone was dumbfounded. Lu Zhenhua thought to himself, "This is too fierce! When I encounter this kind of zombie, I can only run for my life, and this guy actually wants to kill me." What they didn't know was that killing this level 10 zombie was a piece of cake for Li Chenglong, but for their safety, he gave up.