Su Han had thought that Zhu Xiong, like himself, had only brought back a few people, but unexpectedly, it was an entire construction crew, over thirty strong, more than half of whom were Contractors.
According to Zhang Dahai, these were all people from some construction teams and subcontracting companies under him.
In the post-apocalyptic world, many people had transformed into creatures like flesh corpses, but at the construction sites, almost everyone's hand was either on steel rebar and shovels or hammers and pliers—everyone was armed.
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In the early stages of transformation into monsters, indeed many were overwhelmed and killed in panic, but once they regained their composure, a group of hardened construction workers, muscles brimming and with weapons in hand, managed to kill quite a number of the creatures.
With everyone being either friends or fellow townsfolk, their unity was strong, and with some of the smaller leaders organizing, a small team was formed.
They took over a building with its frame already erected, making use of barricades and other tools to protect themselves.
After more than a month, this many had survived.
Zhang Dahai hadn't lied; the boy hadn't really withheld wages and still had some prestige in front of these people. Plus, with the number of people and strength Zhu Xiong's group had brought, they smoothly incorporated this group.
They were all people who made their living on the construction site, mostly honest and straightforward, simply seeking to survive.
Now that such a strong team was formed, naturally, no one opposed.
Once Zhang Dahai organized them, roughly sixty people got to work together, cleaning out the monsters from the Nanwan Residential Area construction site, then the steel rebar, cement, dump trucks, and excavators were all brought back like ants carrying food.
When Su Han returned, Yan Meiyu was busy registering these people and assigning living quarters, activating villas number 8, 11, and 12.
Seeing Yan Meiyu occupied, he didn't bother to ask about the current situation. After instructing Xu Wenqian and the others to report for duty, he headed back to villa number 9.
The Human-faced Tree had taken root between villas number 9 and 10, extending its root system just as before.
Compared to before when its roots could only stretch about three hundred meters, the extent of its roots had now experienced significant growth, reaching approximately four hundred meters.
Although still insufficient to cover the entire villa area, several villas on the side of Yunling Lake nearby were already within the coverage area.
The Radiance of the Lamp Tree shone bright, the fog gradually dispelled, making everything much clearer.
Compared to the previous few Lamp Trees, its illuminated range was undoubtedly much wider.
After dealing with the Human-faced Tree, Su Han, controlling the Demon Spider Warrior, arrived where the steel rebar was.
The steel rebar had been completely unloaded, piled up on the open ground outside villa number 9.
The tens of tons of steel rebar might sound like a lot, but when stacked up, it didn't seem particularly conspicuous.
The Demon Spider Warrior's Intermediate Metal Control activated, and then about two tons of steel rebar were extracted.
Within ten meters in front of the Demon Spider Warrior, the metal continuously compressed and reshaped, gradually forming two cubic-shaped prisons.
After reaching Intermediate Metal Control, both its ability to control and to strengthen metal had improved somewhat, and the reshaping process was much faster.
With the commercial street almost cleared, if they didn't head over soon, who knew if someone else would beat them to it and start a fight, which would just waste time.
"Here, this is for you."
Not long after Zhu Xiong had left, Bai Qilan handed Su Han two sketches.
One was a simple map of Yunling Lake, with red crosses marked on three bays; the other was a hand-drawn diagram of a hand crossbow.
Su Han was somewhat surprised as he asked, "What's this?"
"A map of Yunling Lake. The marked places are where Half-Fish Monsters are most active; I suspect that one of them is their nest."
Bai Qilan pointed to a bay near Yunling Mountain on the map and said, "This spot is the most likely, but there's no way to actually go and investigate."
"As for the hand crossbow, I had Sister Kailing draw it. Your Angel Envoy can control metal, so with a blueprint, you should be able to make crossbow arrows, right?"
Bai Qilan looked at Su Han, waiting for his answer.
"I can," Su Han said.
Hearing Su Han's affirmative reply, Bai Qilan's lips curved into a smile, and she said, "That makes things much easier. As long as we make the crossbow arrows and combine them with the Intermediate Corpse Poison that Meiyu is concocting, we can definitely create bait to lure and anesthetize the Half-Fish Monsters that get attracted."
Bai Qilan's plan was succinct: use high-level monster flesh as bait at three locations to lure Half-Fish Monsters and Fish Monsters ashore.
Then, people would ambush and attack with poisoned crossbow arrows, which would paralyze them.
This idea had already been tested using two captured Half-Fish Monsters, and Yan Meiyu's Rot Poison had proven quite effective.
However, Su Han couldn't help but smile and said, "The crossbow arrows can be used for camp defense, but for this school of fish monsters, we don't need to go through all that trouble."
Bai Qilan looked at Su Han in astonishment and asked, "What do you plan to do?"
"Anglers may need to chum the water for fishing, but we can just scoop up the fish."
If it were yesterday, Su Han would indeed choose the baiting method, but now it was unnecessary.
The vines of the Human-faced Tree had further extended in length, and their number had increased.
Although Yunling Lake was not small, as an artificial lake, the longest diameter was only about four hundred meters, and the nearside was just two hundred meters away.
This distance was completely manageable for the Human-faced Tree to do the fishing, and together with the paralytic toxin of the Man-eating Vine, it was entirely capable of dealing with the swarm of fish monsters.
Moreover, it wasn't just about Yunling Lake—if the Human-faced Tree continued to grow, eventually the entire Shanhu Villa would inevitably be under its protection.
At that time, if there was any sign of trouble, the roots and vines could strike, capable of handling most problems.
The only drawback was that they might have to control how often they used the Human-faced Tree in the future, and that was it.
Bai Qilan's mouth hung open in surprise for a moment; she had actually forgotten about the vines of the Human-faced Tree.
Then she said, "If that's the case, then things are much simpler. I'll go tell people to get ready right now."