Zhuo Dahong looked like he was one step away from outright calling Meng Jieshu ungrateful.
Yu Sheng quickly stepped in to smooth things over, explaining that Meng Jieshu didn’t mean it that way. He was just upset over Song Zhi and the others’ deaths and wasn’t deliberately targeting Sheng Ge.
Song Siyu also explained to Sheng Ge, “Miss Sheng, I’m sorry. We really didn’t mean it like that. I hope you won’t take it to heart. We still sincerely hope you can join us on this mission.”
In the end, she even pressured Meng Jieshu into apologizing to Sheng Ge.
The people in the room argued noisily for quite a while, yet Sheng Ge—the very center of the dispute—remained silent the entire time, standing calmly to the side as if none of this had anything to do with her.
Which made sense. Who was Grandma Grandmaster? She had once been the number one sword cultivator in the cultivation world and had lived for thousands of years. What hadn’t she experienced before? This tiny bit of friction simply wasn’t worth her attention.
Besides, regarding what happened back then, she truly had a clear conscience.
“What’s the mission this time? When are we leaving?”
The only thing Sheng Ge cared about was when she could go out and collect crystal cores.
“Uh…” The topic changed a bit too abruptly, but seeing that Sheng Ge genuinely didn’t care, Yun Yanwu stopped dwelling on it himself. “This mission is to head to C City and gather winter supplies.”
“You mean we’re entering the city this time?” Sheng Ge’s heart stirred as she remembered Yun Yanwu mentioning before that C City had tens of millions of zombies.
Tens of millions of zombies!
Didn’t that mean her crystal cores were basically secured?
“Yes, but only the outer areas.”
Thinking Sheng Ge was worried about the danger of entering the city, Yun Yanwu quickly explained, “Mainly because winter is coming soon, and the base doesn’t have nearly enough supplies for it. We have no choice but to enter the city and gather cold-weather materials. Otherwise, a lot of people are going to freeze to death.”
Ever since the apocalypse began, the weather had mostly stayed gloomy, so at first the changes didn’t seem too severe. But from November to March, the temperature would almost overnight plummet below negative thirty or forty degrees, and everything would be buried under ice and snow, making travel nearly impossible.
Last year, nobody had experience dealing with it, so quite a lot of people froze to death.
Now it was already close to October, and the deadly winter wasn’t far away.
But the base’s supplies were nowhere near enough. The nearby towns had basically all been scavenged already, yet they still fell far short. Left with no choice, the base had decided to send the Esper squads into C City to search for supplies.
And because the mission was extremely dangerous, it wouldn’t just be their squad going—several squads from the base would be moving together.
Yun Yanwu briefly explained the mission details to Sheng Ge, then told her the departure time would be early the morning after tomorrow.
Sheng Ge nodded. “Alright. See you then.”
…
After obediently finishing his cultivation practice for the day, Ah Bao realized that his Grandma Grandmaster still hadn’t returned.
At that moment, Xiao Huang started clucking again. Only then did Ah Bao remember he hadn’t fed it yet, so he grabbed some grain and poured it into Xiao Huang’s special bowl.
Xiao Huang walked over and pecked at the rice twice before immediately drooping onto the ground, refusing to eat anymore.
“Xiao Huang, why did you stop eating again? This is rice! It used to be your favorite food.” Ah Bao looked heartbroken as he stared at the chicken, which had barely eaten these past few days and looked visibly thinner.
Then he remembered that ever since leaving the Wuji Sect, Xiao Huang had always liked eating bugs.
Could it be that after getting used to meat, Xiao Huang no longer liked vegetarian food?
“Xiao Huang, it’s the apocalypse now. You can’t be picky about food,” Ah Bao lectured seriously.
Xiao Huang: Cluck cluck cluck—I want bugs~
“Ai, fine. I’ll take you out to find bugs to eat.” Ah Bao sighed. Xiao Huang was still the Wuji Sect’s chicken after all. As sect master, how could he fail to satisfy even such a small request?
So Ah Bao took Xiao Huang outside to hunt for bugs.
At the entrance to Area A, Brother Wei and his group, who had spent yet another night waiting there until they were practically collapsing from exhaustion, were still scratching their heads trying to figure out how to get inside. Then they saw an eight- or nine-year-old boy walking out carrying a small bag.
“Hey, Brother Wei, doesn’t that kid look like one of the people we’re waiting for?” one thug asked excitedly while tugging at Brother Wei.
Brother Wei glanced at Ah Bao. Captain Feng had indeed said there was a woman in white accompanied by an eight- or nine-year-old boy.
He still wasn’t completely sure whether this was the kid they were looking for, but better safe than sorry.
Besides, they’d been stuck here with no good ideas anyway. They might as well follow him and see. If this really was the boy they were after, they could simply kidnap him and use him to threaten that woman.
Thinking of that, Brother Wei immediately led his men after him.
Meanwhile, the Ah Bao walking ahead had absolutely no idea several people were tailing him. He was fully focused on finding a place with bugs.
But the base was mostly built with modern concrete structures, so places with insects were actually hard to find. After wandering around for a while, Ah Bao started heading into more remote alleyways.
Watching him go farther and farther into isolated areas made Brother Wei and the others both puzzled and delighted. They had no idea why this kid kept running toward deserted places, but the more secluded it was, the easier it would be for them to make their move.
After searching for quite a while, Ah Bao finally found a damp alley and dug up a few earthworms from the muddy corner.
“Xiao Huang, hurry and eat!”
“Hey, brat. Do you know a woman named Sheng Ge?”
Just as Xiao Huang was happily eating, Brother Wei and his gang swaggered directly into the alley behind Ah Bao without any attempt at hiding themselves.
Ah Bao turned around and immediately became alert when he saw seven or eight men dressed like street punks standing in the alley.
He instantly drew the Fanshuang Sword.
“Who are you people? What do you want?”
“Brother Wei, it’s definitely him! Captain Feng said the boy carries a sword with him.”
The group, who had still been uncertain before, immediately confirmed Ah Bao’s identity the moment they saw the sword in his hand.
Although none of them had seen clearly when the sword appeared in the boy’s hand, they no longer cared about that. All they could think about was that they finally wouldn’t have to keep camping out here getting fed to mosquitoes every day.
This was wonderful.
Brother Wei and the others were so moved they nearly cried.
“Brat, if you know what’s good for you, come with us obediently and lure Sheng Ge out for us. Otherwise, I’ll take your little life!”
The malice in the men’s eyes was completely undisguised as it landed on Ah Bao. Several Espers even deliberately displayed their abilities.
“In your dreams!”
Ah Bao looked calm on the surface, but inside he was already nervous. His swordsmanship had improved compared to before, but he still wasn’t strong enough to fight several Espers at once.
Unfortunately, Ah Bao was still young. What he thought was composed and expressionless looked completely like bluffing to Brother Wei and the others instead, causing them to laugh even more arrogantly.
“Look at this brat still trying to act tough, hahaha!”
“Since he won’t give up until he sees the coffin, there’s no need for us to be polite anymore. Get him! Catch him alive—that’s all that matters!” Brother Wei shouted.
At his command, several men charged straight toward Ah Bao.