728 Expand the Zombie Army

Lin Qiao waited until Xie Dong went ashore, then relaxed her grip on the energy sphere and went ashore as well.

By the time she came out, Xie Dong had put his clothes on. He stayed a couple meters away from the lake and waited for Lin Qiao. Soon, Lin Qiao came out of the water while being wrapped in dark mist. As she put her clothes on, the dark mist drilled into her palm.

"How's it going? Can you speak now?" Lin Qiao adjusted her clothes, then walked up and asked Xie Dong, who had turned around to avoid looking at her naked body.

Xie Dong turned back and looked at Lin Qiao as he slightly opened his mouth. "Yes…" His throat moved slightly, and then a voice escaped his mouth. His voice was dry and hoarse, not like the voice of a healthy man. However, his pronunciation was clear enough. Speaking was no longer a question for him.

"Congratulations!" Lin Qiao smilingly nodded at him.

"Thank you, Chief! Without you, I might have become an unconscious zombie. I'd either eat humans or be hunted," Xie Dong abruptly kneeled on one knee and dropped his head. His deep and dry voice expressed his sincere gratitude.

"What are you doing? Get up! Can't you just talk normally? Why did you get down on your knee?" Lin Qiao hurriedly made two steps sideways and then said to him with surprise.

"You gave me my second life. From now on, please give me any work that I can do for you. I'll do anything for you! Please let me stay with you!" Xie Dong finished his last sentence, then slowly stood up while looking at Lin Qiao determinedly.

Lin Qiao looked at him, feeling a little speechless. "Haven't you been working for me the whole time? Alright, we don't need this kind of ritual. If you want to stay, just stay… if you want to leave, just let me know. It's great that you are able to talk now. I guess can try it on the others."

Next day, a group of zombies left the base under Lin Qiao's leadership to collect energy nuclei. This time, Yun Meng stayed in the base. Lin Qiao brought Xie Dong, Lu Tianyi, Shen Yujen and half of her zombie followers with her. As for the other half, she left them to help Liu Jun with the farming work.

They headed toward West Lake District, where a lot of mutated plants might be found in the lakeside park and the forest area. Lin Qiao and her zombies drove an armed off-road vehicle to West Lake District. She didn't forget the large crowd of zombies that she brought to that area. Currently, the border between West Lake District and Upper City District was filled with zombies.

At first, she arrived where those zombies were gathered. Standing on top of a tall building, she whistled, then saw the crowd of zombies gather toward her. Before long, the roads and streets nearby were all filled with lower-leveled zombies.

Xie Dong and Qiu Lili stood by her sides, scanning those zombies with their eyes.

"Quite some of them have upgraded. Currently, about three-hundred of them are at level two and three. Only a small number of them are at level-four," Qiu Lili roughly counted the ones that flashed out of the slow-moving crowd or leaped onto high places.

Xie Dong was counting silently while making some notes on a notebook.

"Not bad! They have only been here for a short while. Those numbers are normal," said Lin Qiao blandly. She leaped toward a smaller building which had a roof that was wider than the other roofs and empty, leaving a few words for her soldiers.

"Get them up here and give them the drug."

Qiu Lili, Xie Dong, Jingyan, Song, Chong, and a few other zombies instantly swooped at those lower leveled zombies. Before long, they had gathered all level two-to-three zombies and brought them to the roof where Lin Qiao stood.

About two-hundred lower-leveled zombies crowded on that roof.

"Stand still, don't move!" Xie Dong was the first who failed to stand that messy crowd. He pulled a long face and shouted at those zombies with a dry voice.

Those zombies didn't react quickly to his instructions. The level-three ones made a little reaction while the level-two ones were completely confused.

Qiu Lili and brought over about ten level-four zombies, then ordered them to stand aside.

"Stand here, in two lines," she said.

Those zombies failed to understand her. Since they became zombies, they had forgotten what 'lines' meant.

Xie Dong dragged and pushed the crowd of zombies to put them in a rough formation, then went to Qiu Lili's side and made those level-four zombies stand in two lines.

"Memorize your positions. You will stand this way from now on," Qiu Lili said to those zombies.

Meanwhile, Lin Qiao took the drug out of her space, then handed it to Xie Dong, telling him and her other zombie soldiers to give it to those new zombies.

She turned and glanced at the zombie crowd which was still expanding. A huge number of zombies had gathered in that area, such that there was no space left between the buildings already. All of the ground was taken up by zombies; some higher-leveled ones had climbed onto the buildings and even trees.

Before, Lin Qiao left those zombies in that area without paying any attention to them, because she wanted them to upgrade themselves. That was, of course, a cruel process, but it was also how nature worked.

She and her soldiers spent a whole night in transforming those new zombies. After that, she put them into her space. Next morning, she led her troops to the next target.

…

Once Lin Qiao left the base, Wu Chengyue in Sea City Base received a message about that.

While smiling, he said, "I guess she's going to gather some nuclei and expand her zombie army. West Lake District is crowded by zombies. Quite some high-leveled ones will certainly emerge from that area. The ones that manage to break into level three or four will become a new force under her command."

"With that zombie army, the thousands of people in her base will have nothing to worry about," Xiao Licheng stood before Wu Chengyue's desk and said.

"As long as she is there, those people don't need to worry about anything. They'll always be safe, as long as they don't bring trouble to themselves. The second batch of Hades Base survivors are on their way to the new base, aren't they? How many of them have died?" Wu Chengyue's smiling eyes gave out a warmth as he asked.

"They left the base half a month ago. For all sorts of reasons, about a hundred and fifty of them have died so far," Xiao Licheng looked at the notebook in his hands while answering the question.

By 'all sorts of reasons', he meant natural disasters and human factors. The weaker people would be either left in zombie crowds or used as flesh shields.

"Apart from that, we also got some news from Earth Dragon Base. Some of Earth Dragon Base people tried to run out of their base and join All Beings Base," said Xiao Licheng.

The news about All Beings Base had spread across all bases long ago. People didn't know all the details, but had all heard about that base, and confirmed that it was real, not just some kind of tale.

"Earth Dragon Base? Emm… It's about the time. Hidden Cloud City Base has fallen, and no one is managing those survivors. Also, Hidden Cloud City Base had drained all the resources that belonged to Earth Dragon Base long ago. Earth Dragon Base people would die of illness, starvation, and coldness if they didn't try to find a way out," Wu Chengyue easily figured out the reason.

"How dare they go to the new base? Aren't they afraid that those Hades Base people might tear them into pieces?" Xiao Licheng said confusedly.

"I think they would rather lick Hades Base people's boots, because they don't want to die. Besides, the new base has its rules. They don't allow killing in the base. So, those Earth Dragon people would be protected to some extent if they joined the base. As for what might happen in the dark… that would be hard to say," said Wu Chengyue blandly.