At night, Lin Qiao and Qiu Lili entered the space. Lin Qiao asked the latter to give water to the zombies who fought for her today, and then covered her own body with the dark mist before taking off her clothes and going down into the lake.
She swam to the bottom of the lake with a few energy nuclei held in her hands. Those were the nuclei of Yang Jianhua, Huo Wu, Liu Yu, and the zombie nuclei of some high-leveled zombies that she killed out there.
She pressed those nuclei on her belly one after another for Viney to absorb the energy. At dawn, Viney finally finished the absorption.
After absorbing the energy, Viney called Mama with a sweet voice, then fell into deep sleep again.
Lin Qiao's energy still remained in the old state, without changing at all. Maybe because she upgraded too fast earlier on, she now felt a little strange as she had absorbed a great amount of energy but sensed no sign of a breakthrough.
Next day, Lin Qiao, Duan Juan and a few young men drove out of the base.
Currently, Duan Juan could be considered as the temporary leader of this place. She had the power and administrative ability, so people were all willing to follow her.
They went out of the gate and saw large blood stains on the ground in the isolation area. Broken limbs were seen everywhere, and broken guts were rolling in the sands. Countless flies were humming all over the sky.
At that point, those zombies seemed less crazy than yesterday. They were shambling around and picking the body pieces off the ground.
A zombie picked up a hand and made two bites, then spat it back out and threw it away. It didn't taste good. Then, it picked up a human head and dug into the brain, finding it to be empty. So, it threw the head away as well.
Some zombies were still lying on the ground, digging and eating those dead bodies' internal organs.
When Lin Qiao and her people drove the car out of the base, the zombies before the car were startled. They were wandering leisurely in that area, but at the sight of the car, they turned and ran right away.
The few men in the car who were holding their guns vigilantly were so confused. When the car moved straight through the zombie crowd, they popped their eyes and watched those zombies flee away.
"Why are they running?" said a soldier. Earlier on, he was in the base fighting for Yang Jianhua under threat.
"Hahaha, you have no idea. We have a secret weapon!" said one of Duan Juan's people.
"What secret weapon can possibly scare zombies? It's so magical!" The man asked with a confused look.
"Ah, she's the secret weapon," Duan Juan's man pointed at Lin Qiao.
The others all felt a little speechless.
Duan Juan was driving as she asked Lin Qiao, "How are Deputy Chief and the others now? How are Great Captain and Mrs. Lin? They are just a few people, so I guess building a new base can be difficult."
Lin Qiao put an elbow on the frame of the car window on her side, then rested her head on her palm and replied, "Oh, they're good. They have food, and they can build the base. They're short-handed, so they borrowed people from Sea City Base. It's getting cold now, and there are more jobless people in Sea City Base."
Duan Juan glanced outside the window, hearing the roaring wind. The air temperature had indeed dropped greatly. Higher-leveled superpowered people were no longer afraid of coldness, because their energies would automatically adjust their body condition to adapt the weather.
"I see. But, they need to pay a high price for that, right? After all, they need to hire many people," said Duan Juan knowingly.
"They pay with food," said Lin Qiao, "They also provide food and accommodation. Their offer isn't lousy at all."
Duan Juan thought for a moment and suddenly realized that Hangzhou City used to be the most densely populated area in Zhejiang Province, meaning that that place should be a zombie city. Why did Lin Feng and Yuan Tianxing choose to build the new base in that area?
She asked curiously, "If I'm right, Hangzhou should be a zombie city, right? Why did Deputy Chief and the others choose to build the new base there?"
"Because that place is a zombie city. Think about it… That area is crowded by zombies, including quite a lot of high-leveled zombies. Normal zombie-hunting squads don't dare to enter the city, do they? The larger-scaled troops may enter the city, but won't reach the central area. So, a good deal of food and supplies must still be stored there," Lin Qiao looked at the front and answered her question.
"You're right. They did the exact opposite. So, have they collected a great amount of food and supplies," Duan Juan nodded. Suddenly, she thought of something else, so she asked, "Have you been helping them too?"
She thought about the facts that the zombie city was certainly crowded by zombies, and that this Miss. Lu here seemed to be good at controlling zombies. Yuan Tianxing and her people had been building a new base in a zombie city safely, which could mean that Miss. Lu had been helping them.
"Oh, I did do them a small favor," Lin Qiao nodded, but didn't say much about that.
"Thank you!" Duan Juan smiled.
"Again? Why are you thanking me for Yuan Tianxing and his people? They should thank me themselves," Lin Qiao glanced at her.
The conversation that happened between them made the few men in the car fall into silence. Earlier on, they only knew that Yuan Tianxing and Lin Family people were still alive, and had been building a new base in Hangzhou. They thought that the new base was located in a suburb area around the city, without a large population of zombies. But unexpectedly, they now heard that the new base was right in the middle of the city, which was full of zombies!
Suddenly, they felt that their Deputy Chief must have gone out of his mind. They couldn't believe that he chose to build the new base in a zombie city. But then, they recalled that the zombies they saw earlier ran away at the sight of their car, and felt less surprised.
This journey finally allowed them to taste the feeling of making zombies make way for them. All the zombies they saw on the way turned and fled at the sight of their car.
The car left the town and drove onto a highway. Not many zombies showed up on the highway, and only the abandoned vehicles jammed the road. In order to keep moving, people needed to remove those vehicles from the road.
As a result, the two hours' drive took them over three hours.
Upon arriving at the seaside, Lin Qiao had a strange feeling rising from her heart. The closer she got to the ocean, the stronger that feeling became.
She felt as if she had lost something in that place.
When she saw a cloud of dark mist at the front, that feeling seemed to jump out of her heart and urged her to go forward.
Duan Juan parked the car and said to her, "As you can see, the cliff is in one or two miles away. That place… that fire was left by our Chief after she detonated herself. She's gone, but the power of that fire remains. It has turned weaker by ninety percent, but still, we can't get closer to it. You're gonna have to complete the journey by yourself."
She was right. The power of that flaming area had decreased by ninety percent, but it was still dangerous for her, as she was only at level-five.