Dragon Transformation in the Apocalypse

Chapter 34 Leaving

After the group finished eating, Han Xiaoling and Cao Yuechan went to play again, while Jiang Hui went to the kitchen to clean up. Only then did Shen Menghua tell Li Chenglong everything about the Apocalypse Base.

Currently, the Apocalypse Base has over 4000 people, mostly from Linhai City, with a small portion being refugees from other areas. There are two groups leading the base: one is the original Linhai City leadership, but their number of superhumans is small, so their influence is dwindling; the other is Lei Bao, a former prominent local businessman, and his men. Lei Bao has a history of involvement in organized crime and is known for his ruthless and cunning methods, having dealt with many who refused to do business with him through various means. After becoming a superhuman, he rallied a large resistance force in Linhai City. Later, when a zombie outbreak occurred in Linhai, he joined forces with another group from Linhai and fled here, gradually building the Apocalypse Base.

Shen Menghua paused and then said, "Lei Bao and Ma Tiancheng, the former mayor of Linhai City, issued regulations for the Tianqi Base. For example, entering the city requires paying crystal stones, and each day within the city, one white crystal stone must be paid. These are manageable for us adults, but they are a bit harsh on the elderly and children, who have almost no source of crystal stones. This has resulted in a particularly high crime rate in the Tianqi Base, with fraud, theft, and even human trafficking occurring everywhere." Li Chenglong hurriedly asked, "Don't the people above care?" Jiang Hui came out of the kitchen at this moment and said with a wry smile, "Many of the criminal gangs in this base are now Lei Bao's men. With so many crystal stones paid to him every day, how could he possibly care? The reason I brought you here to Sister Shen is because Sister Shen's place is already the safest place on the outskirts."

"People on the outskirts are living a very hard life. Yuechan and I are barely making ends meet. Many people can't even afford one meal a day because they have to pay a white crystal every day. Some people only earn one or two crystals a day, and after paying, they have nothing to eat. Ma Tiancheng used to give out some emergency rations sometimes, but now he doesn't anymore," Shen Menghua continued. Jiang Hui poured some water for Li Chenglong and Shen Menghua and sat down: "Actually, that's nothing. Lei Bao is a volatile person. He'll fly into a rage and kill people if you're not careful. A few days ago, I heard that the owner of a barbershop on the inner perimeter accidentally shaved a few extra hairs, and Lei Bao ordered his men to beat the owner to death. He also kidnapped the owner's woman and daughter. I don't know what happened to the woman, but I heard that the girl was only 14 years old. The next day, she was found naked and dead in the sewer. Many people went to see what happened, but I'm too scared to go. There are too many things like this."

Li Chenglong slammed his fist on the table and roared, "It seems this Apocalypse Base is all show and no substance! I saw quite a few people outside hoping to come here, but it's no different from hell!" Before Li Chenglong could finish speaking, they heard two girls cursing outside. The three of them rushed out to investigate. They saw the group of people who had been chased away earlier leading a group of men to the gate, one of them groaning while clutching his bleeding arm. Jiang Hui immediately whispered to Li Chenglong, "Brother Li, these are Lei Bao's men. Looks like we're in trouble today." Li Chenglong didn't speak, only facing the group with a cold expression.

Han Xiaoling and Cao Yuechan saw the people come out and immediately ran over. Han Xiaoling whispered to Li Chenglong, "Brother, those guys came over and tried to take us away. Yuechan and I fought them off, but they went and called for backup." The leader stepped forward and cursed, "So, it's you again, Shen Menghua! My brother was injured and came back to report, and I didn't want to pursue the matter because you still have some influence. I didn't expect you to let people hurt my brother again. How are we going to settle this score today?" Before Shen Menghua could speak, Li Chenglong attacked. Actually, Li Chenglong had already thought in the house that whether it was for the later occupation of Linjiang City or for the liberation of the ordinary people here, Lei Bao's gang had to be eliminated. Li Chenglong charged straight at the leading Level 3 ability user, knocking the burly man out of his wits with two punches. With a light kick, the man's chest caved in, and he coughed up blood, clearly beyond saving. The henchmen beside him were speechless with shock, never expecting that the leader of the outer perimeter would be taken down in just a few moves.

"Get lost! And don't forget to take this piece of trash with you when you leave." Li Chenglong kicked the already dead burly man in front of his gang of henchmen, who immediately hoisted the corpse and ran away. Jiang Hui immediately stepped forward, clapping and saying, "I knew Brother Li was exceptionally skilled. I didn't expect even the top superhuman on the outskirts, Da Niu, couldn't withstand two moves from you. I'm sticking with you now, I'll definitely do my best for you in the future..." Shen Menghua, however, was worried and hurriedly said, "Xiaolong, you should quickly take Xiaoling and Yuechan and leave. Now that you've killed Lei Bao's right-hand man, he'll definitely come in person soon, and you won't be able to leave. After you leave, I'll be the only woman left, and we've met a few times before when we were doing business together. I don't believe he can do anything to me."

Li Chenglong shook his head: "No, let's go together. Sister-in-law, you go pack your things right away. We're leaving tonight. Jiang Hui, what are you going to do?" Jiang Hui smiled and said, "It's come to this, I can only go with you. Otherwise, if you leave and I stay here, given Lei Bao's temper, he'll definitely grind me to dust. Please wait a moment, my rented room is only about 200 meters away." After saying that, Jiang Hui hurriedly walked out. Shen Menghua wanted to say something more, but Yuechan had already pulled her to pack her things. Han Xiaoling skipped around, saying she wanted to help. Although it had only been a short while, she had already become good friends with Cao Yuechan, who was close in age to her.

Meanwhile, Li Chenglong remained calmly seated in the hall. He knew that with such a commotion today, Lei Bao would definitely come, and sure enough, thirty minutes later, the sound of brakes came from outside. Li Chenglong went out and saw four or five vans parked next to the small restaurant. Dozens of people got out and surrounded the restaurant. He immediately activated his True Dragon Eye and discovered that the lowest level among these people was a Level 1 ability user, but the strongest was the person sitting in the Hummer in the back. "Level 6 ability users, no wonder they can dominate this base," Li Chenglong thought to himself.

At this moment, the people in front lined up on both sides of the road, shouting in unison, "Please get out of the car, Commander!" After shouting three times, a Hummer slowly drove up, and a man respectfully opened the door. As the door slowly opened, a burly, middle-aged man with a face full of menacing features and dyed blond hair stepped out. After getting out of the car, the man saw a man standing in front of the small restaurant. He was at least 1.8 meters tall, with a strong physique, handsome features, but extremely sharp eyes. Just standing there, he gave the man a sense of awe that went straight to his heart. Lei Bao was surprised and uncertain, wondering when such a formidable person had arrived at his base.

"Did you kill my people?" "Yes."

"Why did you kill him?" "He disrespected my sister-in-law and then tried to harm my sister."

"What do you plan to do?" "Leave this place with your men. Anyone who tries to stop you will die!"

The two exchanged a very brief conversation, after which Lei Bao said, "You have half an hour to get out of here. There's no room for someone like you." He then got into the Hummer and drove off. His underlings, seeing this, quickly followed suit in their van. The onlookers pointed and whispered, wondering why their base leader had left so abruptly, without even uttering a threat, as if he'd been intimidated by the man before them. In their eyes, this man, aside from being handsome, didn't even possess the imposing presence of a level-one ability user.

Jiang Hui squeezed through the crowd, giving a thumbs-up and exclaiming, "Brother Li, I'm truly impressed! You actually managed to repel Lei Bao! A level four ability user who argued with him was crippled in just a few blows, but today he just slunk away like that." Li Chenglong smiled slightly and went inside. Shen Menghua and the others were looking out the window, shocked to see Lei Bao gone. Cao Yuechan ran over and said, "Big brother is amazing! You actually scared Lei Bao away!" "Big brother, that's not right. You should call me uncle," Li Chenglong corrected. The little girl tilted her head, a little puzzled: "But Sister Xiaoling calls you brother." Before Li Chenglong could speak, Shen Menghua said, "Calling you brother is fine. Lao Cao is 8 years older than you, and I'm 10 years older than you, so calling you brother isn't wrong." Li Chenglong didn't say anything then, and immediately asked, "Sister-in-law, are you all packed? If you are, let's go." Shen Menghua said, "I'm all packed. Let's go. Also, if you don't mind, just call me Sister Shen. I don't want people to know about our relationship and give me preferential treatment when I go to your place. I still want to be self-reliant." Li Chenglong nodded, and then, to the astonishment of the three people, he packed their luggage.

Just as the group was about to leave, a car pulled up in front of the gate. A man got out and said respectfully, "This is a car sent to you by our boss, Lei Bao. We wish you a safe journey." After saying that, the man ran off in a flash. Li Chenglong carefully checked the car and found no explosives or signs of tampering. He then drove the car with the group towards the outskirts of the city.

The vehicle had just reached the modified city gate when it was surrounded by a group of heavily armed men. At that moment, Lei Bao's loud laughter echoed from the gate tower: "You're very capable; even I can't fathom your strength. But these few—two level-two and two ordinary people—can they withstand our barrage of fire?" Li Chenglong coldly asked, "What do you want?" Lei Bao shook his head: "Nothing much. They can leave by car, but you have to walk." He spread his legs on the gate tower as he spoke, and his henchmen below and beside him burst into laughter. Li Chenglong paused for a second, then said, "Alright!" He instructed Jiang Hui to drive, while he slowly walked through the city gate. At this point, both Lei Bao and his henchmen were laughing hysterically. As soon as they left the city, Jiang Hui sat in the passenger seat, and Li Chenglong stepped on the gas, quickly leaving the Apocalypse Base.

Inside the car, Shen Menghua said, "I'm sorry, it's all our fault for dragging you down and making you suffer their ridicule." Han Xiaoling also said angrily, "Next time we come, I'll definitely beat them up." Li Chenglong smiled faintly, "It's alright, Han Xin suffered the humiliation of crawling between someone's legs back then, this is nothing." However, at this moment, Li Chenglong finally made up his mind to attack the Apocalypse Base and decided to use it as a springboard to gradually occupy Linhai City as the location of his Dawn City.

It was already past six o'clock in the evening when the group set off. To prevent any unexpected incidents while driving at night, Li Chenglong found a deserted village, chose a clean courtyard, parked the car, and then took out some clean bedding to distribute to them: "The weather is still a bit cold, but this is all we have for now, please bear with us." Shen Menghua immediately said, "What are you saying? This is already very kind." After saying that, she led Cao Yuechan and Han Xiaoling to the room next door to sleep. Li Chenglong also brought them two candles, because the rechargeable lamp had run out of power, so they had to use candles instead. In case they got hungry in the middle of the night, he also brought them some snacks.

Shen Menghua made the bed and invited the two girls to sleep. However, the two girls were full of energy and didn't want to sleep at all, so they started chatting on the bed. As they chatted, Shen Menghua suddenly asked, "Xiaoling, isn't Captain Li your biological brother?" Han Xiaoling shook her head: "He is my biological brother." Shen Menghua shook her head: "No, firstly, you don't look alike, and secondly, although Captain Li seems to care about you, it's not the same as a biological brother's affection." Han Xiaoling then told her how she lost her parents and how Li Chenglong rescued her. Shen Menghua hadn't expected this girl to have gone through so much pain and quickly comforted her. Han Xiaoling smiled and said, "I'm not sad anymore. Although my brother isn't my biological brother, he's really good to me. He prepared a place for me to shower, gave me dry clothes, and cooked for me. From now on, he's my biological brother. And he said that when I return to the base, he'll let me meet my sister and sister-in-law."

Shen Menghua asked curiously, "Sister and sister-in-law? Captain Li has a younger sister, and even a wife? No wonder I saw a ring-like pattern on his ring finger just now." Han Xiaoling nodded, "Yes, every time my brother talks about his sister-in-law and sister, he always has a happy smile on his face." The girls chatted like this for a long time before slowly falling asleep.

On the other side, Li Chenglong and Jiang Hui were chatting by candlelight. Li Chenglong asked curiously, "Jiang Hui, why did you follow me? You know Lei Bao is the lord of a city, with so many superhumans under his command. I'm obviously weaker than him." Jiang Hui straightened his slicked-back hair and chuckled, "I overheard most of what you and Sister Shen were saying, even though I was cooking in the kitchen. I immediately felt that following you would definitely be more promising than staying at the Apocalypse Base. Putting aside everything else, the Apocalypse Base really doesn't treat people like human beings. You might be alive and kicking today, but tomorrow you'll probably be dead in some ditch. Besides, I was seen with you guys today. If I don't leave, I'll probably be dead tomorrow too." Li Chenglong nodded and said, "You'll be glad you made that choice in the future. Okay, go to sleep early. I'm going to do another patrol."

After saying this, Li Chenglong walked out of the house, jumped to a high place, and used the Eye of the True Dragon to scan a wide area. This wide-area scan could only detect whether there were people, animals, or zombies; it couldn't detect specific attributes. Then he killed a few zombies that were relatively close before slowly returning to the house.