Chapter 29

He Jin blinked, his sharp eyes swept over the beggar and his low-pitched voice carefully asked: "How familiar are you with the sewers? You know, if we go down and you can't remember the way and get us lost, you're likely to bring us to an even more dangerous place."

The beggar smugly wiped his tear-stained face, his tone was not as humble and timid as before and had a rare firmness and self-confidence to it, "I have lived there for two years. Don't mention the whole city, I wouldn't even get lost in the suburbs. I was there in the cold of winter, it was cool in summer, made a shelter against strong winds and I lived better there than above ground. If there wasn't a torrential rain and the pipeline getting blocked, drowning my two brothers, I would still be living underground."

He Jin saw his clear eyes and saw no signs of him lying. He nodded lightly and asked, "How long would it take to reach the military compound from here?"

The beggar thought about it and said with certainty, "The military compound is pretty far, it takes more than two hours to drive there and it takes about four or five hours to walk there."

"Alright, tomorrow, you will help us by leading the way. In exchange, we'll give you some food." He Jin said to the beggar and the other looked excited, thanking profusely for the food.

He Jin turned and said to the people around him. "We will leave at noon tomorrow. In the morning, we will go outside to collect some ropes, lights, food and water."

"Yes!" All the people shouted in unison, their eyes filled with hope.

"He Brother, Young Master Gong, can you let us follow you?" Gu Nan faintly whispered, Ma Jun heard his words and immediately nodded his head in agreement.

Previously, Gu Nan had overheard He Jin mentioning how the zombies' actions were getting more flexible. Seeing is believing and thus, he went to carefully observe for a while and, indeed, the speed of zombies was increasing. Sooner or later, the outer walls would not be able to obstruct the zombies.

Moreover, even masters like Young Master Gong was eager to leave instead of waiting for his father to come to the rescue. It was obvious that this was not a safe place to hide in in the long run. Gu Nan wanted to live and dared to negotiate. Ma Jun had no opinion about Gu Nan's decision and didn't mind following Young Master Gong. He felt a sense of security with him that he could not describe. [1]

He Jin raised his brows and stared at them coldly but didn't speak.

Gu Nan was humbler and cautiously offered: "The underground pipelines are complicated. Dark places could carry numerous hidden dangers. Two more people in the team will add two more pairs of eyes to help. At the military compound, if the army has not arrived yet and we have to stay there for a few days, Ma Jun and I can help keep watch. You can sleep for a few more hours in the night. And we can find food for ourselves, we will never bother you or Young Master Gong!" In the end, Gu Nan's eyes revealed his hopes.

The sentence "Can sleep for a few more hours in the night" caught He Jin's attention. When he thought about the child's small body, it was obviously in need of sleep and nutrition. His mind was hesitant and looked at the child. He asked, "Lixin, what do you think?"

Gong Lixin sipped his bottle of coffee and licked the coffee stains on his lips. The cat looked at the broken knife in Gu Nan's hand and slowly opened his mouth. "They have feet. If they decided to sneak behind our backs and follow us, we can't necessarily cut off their feet. Just let them follow." It was compensation for his reckless behavior. [2]

He Jin heard and agreed.

Gu Nan and Ma Jun both battled with their feelings, the soles of their feet suddenly feeling cold, but they still quickly bowed to the two and thanked them for the opportunity, their actions rigid before they returned to their corner.

Lu Yun had never seen Gu Nan stunned as long as he knew him. He went up to Gong Lixin's side and rubbed his shoulders. He mysteriously opened, "Young Master Gong, tell me honestly, did you fall over a cliff as a child? Have you eaten a special fruit? Or meet an old man with a hidden martial arts manual?"

Gong Lixin was stunned and looked at him with a strange expression before silently shaking his head. Hidden martial arts manuals? Of course! But all of them were in his past life and he intended to bury that information in his heart forever. He won't tell anyone.

He Jin mind though went back to when the child briefly mentioned something about ability users. Seeing that he didn't want to talk to others about it, He Jin didn't intend to disclose inform about it either. He only told Lu Yun and Wu Ming later, after they had separated from the child. The child didn't pay any special attention to it and hadn't thought about keeping it a secret either. He had also said that this knowledge would be public knowledge eventually.

At the thought about soon being separated from Gong Lixin, his heart inexplicably constricted. Lu Yun eyes were heavy. "It's better to be mentally rested to be able to think straight tomorrow. So it's better to rest early and get up energized tomorrow."

Lu Yun had always listened to He Jin's words. And seeing that Young Master Gong wasn't interested in talking about himself, he lied back down and went to sleep.

At the same time, under the same night sky, Lin Wenbo and Song Haoran had just finished killing for more than 10 hours straight in the training camp at the border of the A provincial capital.

The two men were bathed in blood and each ignited a cigarette as the darkness looked down at the bodies piled up into mountains on the training ground. In the middle of the sea of corpses, the soldiers who had not turned into zombies were grinding their teeth and shedding tears as they gathered the corpses to burn them at dawn.

"It's your first time murdering someone, and yet you still killed so many without hesitating. How do you feel?" Song Haoran blew out some smoke, turned his head and looked at Lin Wenbo's expression. He saw that his eyes were very clear and he let go of the worry in his heart. His first murder was in Daokan and he had already passed that obstacle. Since then, he had been invincible and his heart was as hard as iron. If you can't overcome this obstacle, one will end up dead in this new life.

"What you said is wrong. I was not killing people. It was zombies." Lin Wenbo didn't have the heart to keep on smoking and put out his cigarette as he answered coldly.

At first, he couldn't adapt, he wanted to vomit and couldn't stop sweating. But kill after kill, he slowly grew numb and there was no more feeling of discomfort. Because he knew that in the apocalypse, if one wanted to live, killing was the only way. He, Lin Wenbo, had never been a weak person. No matter how cruel he was, he would not hesitate to strive on.

Song Haoran heard him and gave a bitter smile as he nodded. "You're right. We're not killing people."

Lin Wenbo sighed as he watched the soldiers carrying the bodies. "Fortunately, Lixin and Xiangyi didn't follow us, otherwise they would have been frightened. Out of seven or eight thousand people, only two hundred were not killed. Even hell would not look like this."

Song Haoran glanced at him and flickered off the excess soot of his cigarette. He said: "You are wrong, I feel that by letting them see all of this and see the cruelty of the apocalypse, they will then be able to survive and become stronger."

Lin Wenbo shook his head and his voice was hoarse. "I'm different from you. I just want to protect them and keep them away from despair and pain. These negative things, I alone am enough to bear them."

Song Haoran heard this and no longer spoke. The two's thought on this matter was different, but in the end, it was all so that their loved ones could live a better life. No answer was right or wrong.

"Let's go. Let's get on the helicopter and go see Uncle Gong and Old Lin. It should be all right now. It's estimated that Uncle Gong has cleaned up the garrison camp. Lixin and Xiangyi should also be picked up." Seeing the helicopter resting on the tarmac in the distance, Song Haoran threw away his cigarette and strode forward. He was worried about the teenager who was still at the military compound. Although he knew that the military compound was safer than the military garrison, there was still a sense of anxiety in his heart.

The officers who lived in the military compound were all loyal subordinates of Gong Yuanhang and had already received that their family were protected. The people suspected of being infected were isolated in the courtyard and the patrolling guards were also changed with soldiers who had not been infected with the virus. Safety was in place.

In addition, Song Haoran also sent some officers over. Gong Father also informed them three days ago and believed it was good since their family will have time to prepare instead of having no other way. Anyways, every family would have closed their doors and windows and taken up a good weapon as they waited for the army to send helicopters to save them. They did not care about other things; survival could only depend on themselves.

The helicopter slowly lifted off and the training camp was getting smaller and smaller in their field of vision. The place where the column of light, projected by the helicopter, hit was stained with red blood and the strong scent could still be smelled even after having risen a few hundred meters.

Lin Wenbo stared at the fading ground and yelled. "So much blood, even if a river passed by, it still won't be cleansed."

Everyone in the helicopter was silent and the suppressed atmosphere made it hard to breathe.

At the same time, Gong Father and Lin grandfather had cleaned up the troops stationed in the battalion. There were 15000 people initially, those of whom a thousand people survived. One or two hundred of them were injured in battle and were isolated and mutated into zombies.

This was the most difficult battle that Gong Father had ever faced. The scent of blood flowing like into a river and the horrible deaths was hard to forget. But there were still many things that needed to be taken care of. Considering his children and the families of his loyal subordinates who were far in the suburbs, Gong Father dare not delay even a moment and immediately sent four helicopters to rescue them.

[1] AutumnBreeze: Ding Ding Ding! Another has joined the cult!

[2] Translator’s Note: Basically, he’s sorry for breaking the blade

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