At night, Lin Qiao waited in the living room, where Xie Dong showed up with some files from All Beings Base that needed her signature. Without saying anything, he put the files and a bagful of zombie nuclei on the tea table, then moved to the side.
Lin Qiao dropped the book and first put the bagful of nuclei into her space.
She asked Qiu Lili and the other few strong zombie kings and queens to collect those nuclei for her. For the things that were not convenient for her to do, she asked Qiu Lili to do them for her.
Then, she picked up those files and started reading.
Those files were about the construction work in Base Number Two, the background information and number of the people who joined the base recently, and the report about the rat ground and those underground creatures found near the zoo.
Seeing the detailed report about those underground creatures, Lin Qiao paused briefly, then narrowed her eyes and carefully read it.
What caught her attention the first was how strong those creatures were. Over twenty of them were at level-seven, able to boost up their strength without losing control, good at hunting, only active at night, and in favor of eating living preys… All these clearly told Lin Qiao that those creatures could be an immense crisis.
Over twenty level-seven mutated beasts had emerged from one group. So, how powerful was the group in combination? Those creatures were able to boost their strength, which could almost be seen as a temporary upgrade. If they attacked a human base at night, what would happen?
Lin Qiao couldn't help but furrow her brows and think about it. Those creatures were way too close to All Beings Base. They might not be trying to expand their territories yet, but they liked eating living animals. That meant that once they ate all animals around their nest, they would want to go to further areas to look for food.
'Did Lin Feng mention the other entrances to that cave?' she asked.
"No. He didn't find the second entrance," Xie Dong started talking, his voice emphasizing his presence.
Lin Qiao thought for a moment with a frown, then wrote down some words on a piece of paper. Meanwhile, she said, 'Tell Lin Feng to search for the second entrance. Release an announcement in the base and collect information about those creatures from all the hunters in the base.'
She had a feeling that those creatures wouldn't stay in that one area. They had eaten up all living creatures around the entrance of the cave within just a few days. They were way too aggressive. They lived underground, and the surface of the earth was only their hunting field. When they emptied one area, they would certainly want to move to a new one.
She wrote the announcement down on the paper and signed her name on it, then tore if off from the notebook and handed it to Xie Dong.
"Yes, ma'am," Xie Dong took it over and said.
Meanwhile, Lin Qiao kept reading the report. The light was off, but the darkness caused her no difficulties in reading.
At that moment, an inspiration suddenly hit her. She thought of that huge group of mutated rats that not even mutated cats could conquer. It would be perfect if those fierce underground creatures could be drawn to those rats.
However, the rats were over a hundred miles away from those creatures. Besides, those creatures lived underground, and probably wouldn't want to leave their nest.
Lin Qiao pondered briefly, then gave up on that idea. That huge group of mysterious creatures lived underground. People still knew too little about them. She had no idea how to lead them to the rats. Besides, they only come out at night. It would be highly dangerous for people to approach them at night.
Xie Dong fell into silence again as Lin Qiao failed to come up with any good idea about those creatures. She didn't have enough information about them yet, so she could only leave that problem for later.
She handed Xie Dong the files that she had read and signed yesterday, and told him to bring those back to All Beings Base. Then, she threw the files in her hands into a small space within her space.
Currently, she had been using a few small spaces like utility rooms. The area near the small spaces had become the playground for the zombies who lived there, and a part had been turned into farmland by Lu Tianyi. The other side of the lake was where the mutated animals lived.
Recently, the fruits and vegetables that Lu Tianyi harvested in the space weren't shipped back to All Beings Base. The space couldn't keep them fresh unless they were soaked in the lake water. There was a new harvest every single day, and those fruits and vegetables couldn't be air-dried in the space. Therefore, Lu Tianyi asked Lin Qiao to do something with them. It wasn't convenient for Xie Dong to bring them all the way back to All Beings Base, so Lin Qiao gave them to Wu Chengyue as a payback for letting her stay in his place.
Xiao Licheng took a large batch of fruits and vegetables from Wu Chengyue's place every two or three days, and Wu Chengyue's fridge was always full.
After spending a month in Wu Chengyue's place, Lin Qiao finally found that Wu Chengyue's vibe was really growing weaker.
Wu Chengyue had found out about that too. Every morning, he didn't want to leave the bed. That feeling never occurred to him before, but it was growing stronger and stronger lately. He was pretty confused about that.
He didn't know what caused that. He didn't use his power lately, so he hadn't been absorbing any nuclei. Was it because of that?
Wu Chengyue checked himself up from head to toe, but still found nothing unusual.
One morning, Lin Qiao put a hand on her belly and asked Viney, 'Viney, you said that you made me stay together with him because you need to absorb his energy. His energy is growing weak indeed. How have you doing that?'
She never felt Viney absorbing any energy from Wu Chengyue.
Viney responded, 'I did it when he was sleeping. Mama, you focused on absorbing energy every night, so it's normal that you didn't know.'
Lin Qiao finally understood how it happened.
Viney absorbed Wu Chengyue's energy at night while she was absorbing energy for herself. She couldn't have felt it indeed.
Lin Qiao had been absorbing zombie nuclei every single day during the past month. Viney only took thirty percent of the energy that she absorbed. But still, the energy in her nucleus was growing at a very low rate. She hadn't even regained ten percent of the energy that she used to have.
It was already not bad for Lin Qiao though. The nuclei that she absorbed lately were mostly at relatively lower levels, about three to five. Only a few were at level-six. She hadn't had any level-seven nucleus recently, because except for Qiu Lili, the other zombies weren't able to get any level-seven nucleus.
After hearing what Viney said, Lin Qiao folded her arms and looked at Wu Chengyue while scratching her chin gently. In her eyes was a peaceful look.
She had lived there for a month. For some reason, she had grown fond of watching Wu Chengyue cook. That made her feel at peace. So, every time he was in the kitchen, she would lean by the door and watch him prepare the food smoothly and intently.
In the recent couple of days, Wu Chengyue didn't do anything to her but talk. Gradually, Wu Yueling no longer got frightened when Xiao Yunlong and Xiao Licheng showed up. She still wouldn't let those two come near her though.