The cities flooded by water, led by Rencheng, gradually began to clear, and the areas where Xin Xiaoru collected water started moving closer to the coast.
As they traveled, encounters with heavy rain became rarer, and in many higher-elevation areas, the floodwaters had already receded, leaving behind rotting sludge mixed with corpses and debris.
Zombies trapped in the sludge were quickly dispatched by He Guying.
Song Weiyu, the autistic child who had never spoken and always clung to Xin Xiaoru, seemed to have adjusted a bit. Familiar with the RV space and He Guying’s team, she began fighting zombies herself.
At the same time, the group clearly noticed the differences between ability users of the same type. For example, He Guying, no matter how precisely he trained his abilities, could not sense the flow of water elements inside humans or zombies, let alone manipulate them. Song Weiyu, however, could.
She effortlessly controlled the water elements inside zombie heads, and when she noticed Xin Xiaoru needed crystal cores, she directly confined the head explosions around the cores. After exploding, the cores remained perfectly intact and glittering in the air, much to Zhao Changyue’s delight.
“This is so convenient! We don’t even have to reach in and dig!”
Late January.
For ten consecutive days, Xin Xiaoru and her group did not encounter heavy rain. Some areas still had light, continuous drizzle, but it was no longer systematic. In contrast, in the extra-dimensional hotel in Youzhuang, Xin Xiaoru noticed that the water demand there had decreased.
Water was still being collected daily, but not at the previous full-throttle pace. The flow was controlled by the local team and had already slowed.
It was time to return.
By now, the first batch of crops in Youzhuang had been grown under great difficulty.
The yield wasn’t high. Wheat was slightly better, averaging 800 jin per mu. Other grains, like soybeans, produced only about 300 jin per mu, roughly half of pre-apocalypse levels.
However, beans naturally yielded less per mu, and fewer people planted them. The optimal crops varied depending on soil, so everyone was feeling their way forward.
Xin Xiaoru didn’t collect the soybeans directly. Instead, she let the growers exchange them for higher-yield grains, which they could then use to pay rent.
If some people didn’t want to trade, she used the collected grains to make the exchanges. Once the others had enough, she took part of the exchanged grains as rent.
To make exchanges easier, Xin Xiaoru brought a large batch of now-worthless currency from Yicheng and set up a small “market,” roughly establishing rules for grain trading.
Rather than a market, it was more like a non-profit transfer station. For example, scarce soybeans were bought and sold at 10 currency per jin. Growers could sell 600 jin from two mu of soybeans for 6,000 currency and then use that 6,000 to buy wheat from Xin Xiaoru.
In this transfer station, wheat was priced at 3 currency per jin. Residents could sell wheat to the station or buy it at the same price. A soybean grower could exchange 6,000 currency for 2,000 jin of grain, earning roughly the same income as someone who planted staple grains.
The station appeared to have lost 2,000 jin of cereals and gained 600 jin of soybeans, a seeming loss. However, beans are highly nutritious, rich in fat, protein, and trace elements, essential in the apocalypse. After eating millet and flour for a while, Youzhuang residents needed beans to supplement nutrition and would definitely buy them.
To buy things, people needed money. They would exchange the cereal grains they had saved for cash, then use the money to purchase soybeans. In this way, the market transfer station created a dynamic balance, allowing everyone to take what they needed according to their own requirements.
Of course, the transfer station had another extremely important function, it acted as a warehouse.
The RV had upgraded to Lv5, gaining a new 100-square-meter, 10-meter-high extra-dimensional warehouse. Xin Xiaoru placed it at the transfer station. Whether it was rent collected or food purchased from the residents, everything was stored in this extra-dimensional warehouse, and once a week she would open the market, taking food out for trade and transactions.
Grains stored in the warehouse didn’t go moldy or get infested with insects; whatever went in would come out in the same condition. Even if stored for ten years or more, it would still be fresh when eaten.
If the Youzhuang residents trusted the transfer station, they could exchange all remaining grains for money after paying rent, then buy only the amount of food they needed weekly or monthly. If they didn’t trust it, they could find their own ways to extend the storage life of their grains.
To manage the food, Xin Xiaoru appointed three people who were already somewhat familiar, brought over from the fertilizer factory. One was Guan Naiqing, a heavily injured patient she had saved, a speed-type ability user. The other two were a middle-aged mother and daughter, Liu Guanyue, 51, and Liu Xiqiu, 31.
They had a 6-year-old ability user child named Fangfang, a power-type user, who had trained with the Youzhuang ability user children for a long time, serving as a small backup for the mother and daughter.
Guan Naiqing and the mother-daughter pair managed the market transfer station together. They had the ability users for security, and Liu Xiqiu and her mother were skilled accountants, efficient and precise in their work. Even in farming and raising chickens, they were meticulous. Xin Xiaoru felt completely confident entrusting the transfer station to them.
During peak harvest times, Xin Xiaoru would send additional food and money down to hire trusted workers, such as her own child Fangfang, or other ability user children, who were also excellent helpers.
Thus, the market transfer station was initially established.
“There’s one thing to clarify,” Xin Xiaoru said at a gathering of everyone. “All trade is limited to Youzhuang. No one outside may spend money at the transfer station or buy from any of you. Outside currency is worthless. If you sell your grain to outsiders at higher prices and then use large amounts of money to buy grain back in Youzhuang, trust me, it will not end well for you.”
Everyone shivered and quickly promised not to trade externally.
Hearing about the transfer station, the Yicheng base wanted to discuss joining it, but Xin Xiaoru refused.
She was already managing 130 people in Youzhuang, constantly thinking and worrying about potential problems. With so many people in Yicheng, she feared she couldn’t control it.
“The rent I collect can be used to trade with you,” Xin Xiaoru said. “The surrounding hills need to be cleared. I want to cut a large isolation zone and then burn it to prepare for farming. I want to use grain to hire some labor from you.”
The Yicheng base agreed immediately.
Youzhuang’s food supply was self-sufficient, with even some surplus, whereas Yicheng did not have that luxury.
High temperatures and drought had ruined much of their food. Facing several more months of hunger, they had to survive on simple vegetables and the fat reserves accumulated before the apocalypse.
Interestingly, people who were slightly overweight before the apocalypse, regardless of gender, now had better energy than those who had been very thin. Of course, excessively overweight people suffered due to their weight burden, so their condition was poor. Moderately plump and sturdy individuals were best suited for survival.
The Lv5 RV’s 100-square-meter alternate space was now used as a warehouse. The next goal was 0/1000 five-star hotel reviews. At the current growth rate of over 30 per day, the RV could reach Lv6 by early March.
Xin Xiaoru planned to continue prioritizing storage space. This time, she had 300 square meters, which was extremely convenient whether used as a warehouse or carried along to collect supplies on the move.
With her plans set, Xin Xiaoru continued her work in a good mood.
February in Yicheng was still very hot, but a fine drizzle fell from the sky. Apart from fertilizing on schedule, the daily workload of watering the crops was greatly reduced.
New hills had already been cleared, and the residents of the hundred-person hotel finally began taking their second plots of land.
After one quarter, everyone had gained experience. Each person needed to cultivate two mu of land, or at least one and a half mu, to sustain themselves. One mu’s yield would pay the expensive rent, while the remaining one and a half mu would be planted for personal consumption.
If they wanted staple food, they had to plant it. If they wanted an easier approach, they planted less staple food and more fast-growing vegetables. Vegetables that matured within a month grew surprisingly fast in the hot, drizzly weather. A few dozen square meters were enough for daily consumption. Any extra vegetables from the remaining plots could feed livestock, chicks, ducklings, and piglets all thrived.
By early March, the new residents of Youzhuang were on track. Ability users had also learned the training system at Yicheng base and returned to Youzhuang to continue their life and training. They might go to Yicheng for a week or two to exchange experiences, but the rest of the time was spent continuously fighting zombies, leveling up, and standing guard.
Everything was stable and thriving.
However, rumors began circulating among ability users outside.
Those without large bases or organized groups often wandered, scavenging supplies, stealing water, and competing with bases for energy. Many conflicts broke out, some of which involved Youzhuang. At some point, someone started saying that Youzhuang was the best land across a large area of the province. Whoever controlled this fertile land could farm and survive.
Those who knew the inside story would mention Xin Xiaoru’s RV and water pipes. Those who didn’t know didn’t care whether it was true, they just wanted a broad, fertile piece of land.
Powerful ability users had already claimed mountains as their own or established bases on farmland that was already being cultivated. These territories were earned through real battles; outsiders could covet them, even commit sabotage, but could never truly take over. Youzhuang was no different.
Since the apocalypse, Youzhuang had largely avoided attacks because of its remote location and the difficulty of farming the mountainous land. Even friction occurred only when outsiders came to fight zombies and collect crystal cores.
From these skirmishes, outsiders noticed that Youzhuang rarely seized emergency resources like canned food or gasoline, but instead accumulated many tools. This proved that Youzhuang was well-managed and didn’t worry about food or clothing.
If that was the case, why not just seize Youzhuang and take over its fertile land?
Hearing that there were many ordinary people inside, who couldn’t fight zombies and might die from magnetic storms or other disasters anyway, outsiders figured it would be easier to take the land than deal with the inhabitants.
As a result, unrest began to appear near Yicheng.
Xin Xiaoru, not being a ability user, was heavily reliant on the RV when traveling. This made her a significant target, and she couldn’t gather much intelligence about these developments.
Meanwhile, the other ability users in Youzhuang went out daily to fight zombies. During longer stretches of four or five days of continuous zombie hunting, they occasionally ran into other ability users and overheard rumors, which they would immediately report back to Xin Xiaoru.
Xin Xiaoru made a thoughtful “Hmm” and, surprisingly curious, asked, “Those two adults… could they actually take on one of our ability user children?”
It’s important to remember that with RV escort, any ability user, even a child with a weak sense-based ability and almost no combat power, could use their enhanced physical abilities to kill several zombies, then retreat back into the RV to recover before heading out again.
After finishing the zombie kills, they could burn the corpses, and with the help of the air wall to control the fire, turn the remains into ashes and crystal cores. Everyone could collect a decent number of cores this way.
A weak olfactory-type child could get seven or eight cores per day, hand over five as rent, receive a bonus of two, leaving four or five cores for themselves daily, far more than what independent ability users could get.
The reporting party nodded in agreement.
Those who went out solo, leaving the RV group, did so purely to train and gather the resources they wanted. Gathering crystal cores alone was much less efficient than working with a group. With so many zombies and limited time, even if you killed them, there was barely any time to collect the cores.
And when you tried to pick up a corpse, thieves or spies might have already taken the opportunity to snatch the loot while you were distracted.
The only advantage of solo work was that all resources collected were entirely yours. Whether clothes, shoes, hygiene products, or shampoo and body wash, you could take whatever you needed without being restricted by the main group. That’s why people occasionally went out hunting on their own.
Youzhuang had a total of 40 ability users: 27 were rescued child users, and only 13 were adults. Xin Xiaoru reviewed everyone’s abilities and existing relationships, took out a sheet of paper, and organized ten teams of four ability users each, ensuring at least one adult per team.
Teams with flight- and speed-type abilities took turns manning the four watchtowers. Any suspicious activity triggered the alarm.
The mountains were quiet, so the piercing alarm could be heard from far away. Combined with smoke signals from the watchtowers, everyone could roughly determine the location of an enemy attack.
Xin Xiaoru, an ordinary human disguised as a ability user, was actually the least capable fighter among them. The four ability users permanently stationed in her RV were He Guying, Song Weiyu, a child with earth-type abilities, and a child with metal-type abilities.
Three long-range attackers, plus one earth-type defender, ensured the RV could safely fly while continuing to fight.
Over the next few days, outsiders still saw Xin Xiaoru’s RV roaming outside, killing zombies as if unaware, but the ten ability user teams had already been well-trained together.
All that remained was a real, head-to-head battle.