After finishing her preparations, she walked out of the room.
“Let’s go.”
A trace of astonishment flashed through the depths of Shen Xingchen’s eyes.
If Yun Xingwan had been a rusted but deadly divine sword before putting on this combat uniform, then at this moment she was like the calm surface of the sea.
Under clear skies and gentle winds, the sea appears still and motionless, yet beneath that calm lies immense and surging power.
That vast and boundless aura, along with the overwhelming might that seemed ready to swallow the heavens and earth, gave this uniform a soul in an instant.
Still as tranquil, moving like a raging storm.
This kind of brilliance had nothing to do with beauty alone. It was a presence, a presence that could look down upon all things in the world.
Even Feng Changlan, standing beside Shen Xingchen, was so shaken and stunned that he momentarily lost his composure.
He had never seen anyone wear a uniform so beautifully.
Yun Xingwan noticed the two of them staring at her and awkwardly smoothed her sleeves.
At last, she looked like a proper person.
“Cough…”
She lightly coughed once, jolting the two dazed men back to their senses.
Feng Changlan was so frightened that his whole body trembled.
“Divine grandmother, are you alright?”
He had not forgotten that when she coughed once the night before, nothing within a radius of ten miles survived.
“I’m fine. Let’s go get the delivery first.”
Under Shen Xingchen’s lead, the three of them left the experimental zone and met up with Yun Dequan and Liu Chunhua, who had been waiting outside.
Liu Chunhua’s eyes lit up. She circled around Yun Xingwan twice, her face full of joy.
“Old man, look at our daughter. Once she puts this on, she looks just like an eighteen year old girl. So pretty!”
“Yes, pretty. My daughter is beautiful!”
Yun Dequan echoed her immediately.
Looking at how happy her parents were, the coldness between Yun Xingwan’s brows instantly faded, replaced by a gentleness.
“Dad, Mom, this is the work uniform issued by Commander Shen. They said I just arrived, so they arranged clerical work for me. It’s basically sitting in an office and typing on a computer and stuff!”
She smiled as she lied.
For her parents, having a stable job meant more dignity than anything else.
“That’s good! Typing on a computer is good. It does not tire your brain!”
Yun Dequan beamed with joy.
This was the apocalypse. Everyone was expected to fight.
Their daughter did not have to go to the front lines like a son would, and she could still spend time with them from time to time.
“Daughter, your body has only just started to improve, so do not push yourself. Look at how much you have been through over the years, you look even older than me.
If there is any heavy work, call us and we will do it for you! Or just be a little lazy and let the young people do more first. Once you are better, you can help them later!”
Listening to Yun Dequan’s nonstop chatter, Shen Xingchen’s mouth twitched slightly.
Let the young people go fight monsters?
That probably would not work.
“Don’t worry, Dad, Mom. I’ll go do some work first and come home for lunch at noon.”
“Alright. What are we eating today?” Liu Chunhua asked happily.
“We had noodles yesterday. Today I want dumplings.”
“Oh, oh, sweetheart, is cabbage filling okay? Meat is scarce in the apocalypse.”
Liu Chunhua looked a little troubled.
“Mom, just prepare the dumpling wrappers. Commander Shen said the base has meat. After I finish working, they’ll issue us some.”
“Oh, that’s great! Mom will prepare right away.”
The couple thanked Shen Xingchen before leaving with the two guards.
The smile on Yun Xingwan’s face faded. The chain binding the stone coffin on the ground sprang up on its own and fell into her hand.
She dragged the coffin along.
“Let’s go.”
Inside the top level surface defense command tower of Ninth Base.
Dark clouds roiled across the screens, lava surged wildly, and red alarms blared again and again.
“Beep… beep… Alarm, alarm. The red defense line is still one hundred kilometers away, eighty kilometers away…”
On the main screen in the center, a red point symbolizing the Hell Red Eyed Demon King was closing in at terrifying speed.
It was one of the most dreadful nightmares on all of Blue Star.
Three years ago, it had shattered a Huaguo base with a single punch, leaving no survivors inside.
No one knew why it had disappeared after that.
Now it has appeared again.
At the front lines, Commander Li Shengli stood atop the defensive wall and roared into his wrist device.
“Activate every shield, activate every missile, prepare the liquid hydrogen bombs!”
“Soldiers, behind us is our homeland, behind us are our loved ones. We cannot retreat. Even if we die today, we must bite off a piece of flesh from these beasts!”
“Yes!”
The soldiers’ eyes were firm.
They knew full well that ahead lay a bottomless abyss, a road to death.
But they were not afraid, and they would not retreat.
They were soldiers.
Protecting others was both their duty and their mission.
Ding.
The elevator at the top level of the command tower opened, and heavy metallic footsteps followed.
Yun Xingwan walked out dragging the stone coffin.
The fierce wind howled over the rooftop, yet her white hair behind her did not move at all.
She quietly looked at the tide of monsters rapidly approaching from the distance.
What an extravagant display. Wind and fire everywhere, with no concern for the flowers and grass by the roadside. They really had no sense of public decency at all.
Shen Xingchen followed behind her. Although he had already been tempered by ten years of war, the moment he saw that black mass surging toward them, his heart still tightened.
A suffocating sense of death relentlessly squeezed at his chest.
Too many. They were everywhere.
A tide of monsters of this scale had already completely surpassed the limits of what humanity could resist.
It was like an ant facing a grown human being.
With just one finger, an entire kingdom could be destroyed.
“Miss Yun!”
He looked at Yun Xingwan nervously.
Could she really do it?
He did not dare be certain, but right now, she was the only hope.
“Please!”
He gave her a standard military salute.
His voice carried pleading, hope, a little discouragement, and even a trace of despair.
It was not that he did not believe in her.
It was simply that this kind of overwhelming tide of monsters had appeared for the first time.
Yun Xingwan curved her lips into a smile and patted his shoulder.
“Little friend, does the base have many refrigerators?”
Shen Xingchen was speechless.
Yun Xingwan saw that he did not answer, so she asked again.
“Does the base have many refrigerators?”
“No, but there are cold storage rooms.”
Yun Xingwan frowned slightly.
“How many people are in the base?”
“One hundred and twenty thousand.”
Shen Xingchen lowered his head heavily.
When the base was first built, there had been more than three hundred thousand people.
Over the years, the weather had become unpredictable, and monsters and zombies had ravaged the land. The soil here was no longer suitable for growing plants.
The amount of food humans could eat kept decreasing. They could only grow a little underground, and most people survived on nutritional fluid just to stay full.
Under these extreme living conditions, people died of illness, starvation, and battle…
Yun Xingwan nodded.
One hundred and twenty thousand. That would be enough.
“Do you have scallions, ginger, garlic, Sichuan pepper, and star anise?”
“Yes, but not much!”
This time, Yun Xingwan was satisfied.
Ding.
Suddenly, the elevator doors behind them opened, and Feng Changlan ran over anxiously.
“Miss Yunn, no good. This monster tide is coming for you. You should…”
As he spoke, he had already seen the rolling tide of monsters on the horizon.
So frightened that even his words began to tremble.
When Shen Xingchen heard this, a trace of shock also flashed in his eyes.
“Miss Yun, the visitor is clearly hostile. You should hide…”
No matter what, he still did not want her to be in danger.
But before he could even finish speaking, Yun Xingwan had already dragged the stone coffin and stepped into the air.