Chapter 350 – Homecoming!
Translated by: Kun
Edited by: Ulamog, Dedition
[Book 3: The South]
Yue Zhong was currently resting in bed, and Ming Jiajia was kneeling by his side, carefully carving out the Mutant Beast meat, placing it on a plate for him to eat.
Ming Jiajia looked at the bandaged leg, her eyes darkened slightly: “I’m sorry Master! Jiajia is useless! Jiajia didn’t manage to protect Master.”
When they were facing that terrifying Type 2 Mutant Giant Crocodile, the Shadow Wolves that Ming Jiajia summoned could not do a single thing against it. Her battle ability was dependent on those summoned Shadow Wolves, and they couldn’t even do anything, much less herself.
“There’s no need to blame yourself, you’ve already done your best!” Yue Zhong ruffled her hair, and consoled her. When Yi Shuixiong had tried to revolt earlier, Ming Jiajia, Wei Ningguo and the 20-other survivors had not hesitated to stand by his side, providing that he had not yet failed as a human being.
When Ming Jiajia felt Yue Zhong stroking her head, she was like a little kitten that was petted by her owner. Her eyes wrinkled, as she broke into an extremely comfortable expression, looking extremely cute.
When Yue Zhong looked at the cute Ming Jiajia behaving like a kitten, the heavy feelings in his heart were swept away.
Wei Ningguo pushed the door open and entered. Discovering Yue Zhong comforting Ming Jiajia, he spoke out: “Boss Yue! Did you want me for something?”
Hearing Wei Ningguo’s words, the little Ming Jiajia jumped up like a startled rabbit and bolted away from Yue Zhong’s side, her entire face flushed red, as she sat at a corner and lowered her head.
“Could Boss Yue be a lolicon?” Wei Ningguo saw that Ming Jiajia’s reaction was so dramatic, and his gaze on Yue Zhong turned stranger, as he thought to himself silently.
After the apocalypse, society norms and order had collapsed, there were all sorts of characters who displayed their personalities under the absence of moral codes and laws. Wei Ningguo had come across several people with authority that had lolicon tendencies.
Another man came in, his age about 32, height of 1.6m, a clean shaven head and a muscled body. As he bowed, he saluted Yue Zhong and said: “Leader! Were you looking for me?”
This clean-shaven man was one of the survivors that Yue Zhong rescued from the hands of Li Guangyi. His name was Wu Yin. He was also appointed as a squad leader by Yue Zhong. He had trained harder and more diligently than others, and earlier, he had led the other soldiers to suppress the soldiers of the Freemasons.
Yue Zhong waved his hand, and 2 bottles of Snake Birth Fruit juice appeared. He passed them to Ming Jiajia as he spoke to the men: “Your performance today had satisfied me! This is a medicine that can allow a person to become an Evolver! Drink this, and after a day, you guys will become Evolvers!”
Evolvers!! When Wei Ningguo heard this, his face instantly changed, and a storm raged on within his mind. Evolvers were the apex existences amongst humans. When he was under Wuyan Hong, he had only come across 6 Evolvers. It could be seen how rare they were. Every single Evolver was a frightening existence, and they possessed battle capabilities far surpassing Enhancers. When all else is equal, if an Evolver were to face off against an Enhancer, the Evolver definitely had the advantage.
Wei Ningguo immediately swore fealty to Yue Zhong as he exclaimed loudly: “I’m willing to serve Boss Yue till the day I die!!”
“Wu Yin definitely won’t fail to live up to boss’ expectations!!” Wu Yin also couldn’t suppress his own excitement as he loudly pledged, his heart overwhelmed with ecstasy. He had already heard about the prowess of Evolvers to some extent: as soon as one became an Evolver, although one wouldn’t be unrivalled under the heavens, one would still possess huge power and superiority that normal people would find it hard to strive for.
Yue Zhong waved a hand, and Ming Jiajia subsequently handed the two bottles of Snake Birth Fruit juice to Wu Yin and Wei Ningguo.
Wu Yin and Wei Ningguo both rapidly opened the glass bottles and drank all the juice in one mouthful. They had followed Yue Zhong for some time now and knew that he wouldn’t harm them.
After the two had gulped down all the Snake Birth Fruit juice, it wasn’t long before the juice’s medicinal strength began to take effect. The two peoples’ bodies began to feel feverish, and they instantly fainted onto the floor.
White Bones, who had been standing by, then came over and promptly snatched up the two, before throwing them onto a bed at the side to let them evolve by themselves.
Ming Jiajia watched the two people who were currently unconscious and glanced towards Yue Zhong, asking curiously,
“Master! Why don’t you bestow a bottle of evolution elixir upon Zheng Minghe? He is much more capable than Wei Ningguo!”
Zheng Minghe’s ability was not ordinary. His leadership, charisma and decisiveness were all far above that of Wei Ningguo. Apart from having great strength, Wei Ningguo couldn’t compare with Zheng Minghe if he assumed leadership.
Ming Jiajia saw that Yue Zhong had let Wei Ningguo undergo evolution rather than Zheng Minghe, and she couldn’t help but feel slightly baffled.
Yue Zhong remained silent for a while before saying lightly, “Zheng Minghe still needs to be observed for a period of time!”
Zheng Minghe’s capability couldn’t be doubted, but Yue Zhong didn’t know if his dedication was heartfelt or not. If Yue Zhong let him evolve, it would truly be dangerous if Zheng Minghe then conversely backstabbed him. After all, Zheng Minghe had been a member of the Freemasons: Yue Zhong’s methods of subduing the Freemasons had been slightly too extreme, which was demonstrated by the armed rebellion of the ex-Freemasons fighters.
Ming Jiajia nodded in a half-understanding way.
After resting for one night, the huge vehicle fleet immediately set off early the next morning after breakfast, driving towards the border with Guangxi. Their army could only have the opportunity to expand within the borders of China.
In the Vietnam region, Yue Zhong found that it was truly too difficult to recruit reliable helpers. At the same time, most of the Vietnamese frontier’s weapons arsenals had already been opened by Li Guangyi and Wuyan Hong. He couldn’t obtain any weapons or equipment, making it very hard for him to be able to defeat Wuyan Hong’s troops.
After leaving the small village, they marched for a few more hours. Ming Jiajia’s Shadow Wolves finished off a dozen Mutant Beasts before Yue Zhong and the rest finally found a highway, beginning to move towards the northeast.
On a small hillside covered with weeds, four men holding large axes lay prone in the underbrush. One of them, a man who seemed slightly small in stature and figure, was holding a crossbow as he stared rigidly at an area of open land in the distance, where there was some maize placed.
There were quite a lot of bird species in this region; through the hunting method of simply waiting idly, these survivors had already hunted down quite a few sparrow type birds. However, if their luck wasn’t so good and the maize attracted some larger Mutant Birds or an entire flock of normal Mutant Birds, then they could only return empty handed.
“Don’t move! Put down your weapons! Surrender immediately, or I’ll directly shoot you!” A towering voice suddenly sounded out from behind the hunters, and six warriors suddenly appeared.
The six warriors instantly pounced forward and subdued the four who were holding axes.
The leader, whose figure was tall and sturdy, shouted out loudly in the Zhuang dialect, “Who are you people?”
Wu Yin’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, and he spoke with some uncertainty in Chinese, “You people are Chinese?”
Wu Yin had spent most of his time living in Vietnam, so whilst he could understand Mandarin, he couldn’t quite understand a dialect like the Zhuang type.
The robust man called out loudly in slightly broken Mandarin, “ I am Chinese!!”
“Then good! Come with me to go see the boss! Our boss has something to ask you!”
Wu Yin waved and the warriors quickly escorted the four men to Yue Zhong’s location.
“Who are you people? Where is this place?” Sitting on a wheelchair, Yue Zhong watched the four sturdy men being escorted over and asked lightly.
The four men looked left and right, and a hint of alarm flashed past their eyes as they saw the warriors holding AKs surrounding Yue Zhong. Three of the captured men’s gazes instantly fell onto the sturdiest-looking man’s body.
That man was watched by his companions for quite a while. Only then did he summon his courage and say to Yue Zhong,
“I am Wang Hualiang, a person from Dong Ping Village. Those three are Yao Hong, Shen Ming and Luo Qiang! This is Jing Xi County’s Dong Ping Village.”
“JIng Xi County!! We’ve finally returned!!” Upon hearing those three words, Yue Zhong let out a slight sigh of relief inside his heart. They had finally returned to their home country.
Only upon returning to China did Yue Zhong and his party feel a little more safe. Vietnam was Wuyan Hong’s territory, meaning that he had an enormous advantage there as someone Vietnamese. Within China, however, that sort of home advantage belonged to Yue Zhong’s side; at least he would now be able to recruit many Chinese subordinates, and wouldn’t be at a loss to enlist troops anymore.
Yue Zhong directly tossed a slice of cake to Wang Hualiang and asked, “Are there any large-scale gathering places in Jing Xi County?”
In this apocalyptic world, a slice of cake was even more precious than gold. Upon receiving the cake, a hint of excitement shone past Wang Hualiang’s eyes. He hesitated for a while before saying, “In Long Teng Town there’s a person called Chen Liang who’s organised a large-scale gathering place. However, I advise you not to go there, for that Chen Liang isn’t some good person. Luo Qiang is precisely someone who escaped from there, so he knows quite a lot!”
Yue Zhong directly tossed a slice of cake to Luo Qiang and said, “Tell me everything you know!”
Luo Qiang saw the cake in his hands and couldn’t help but lick his lips, before nodding his head and spilling the beans, telling all the information he knew about Long Teng Town to Yue Zhong.
Long Teng Town’s Chen Liang was a brutish hoodlum before the apocalypse. Afterwards, by some great fortune, he managed to awaken and became an Evolver.
It wasn’t long before the town was recaptured by the nearby governmental forces, and Chen Liang managed to make his way into the base. Relying on his abilities, he quickly became the sole tyrant of Long Teng Town. Two months ago, Chen Liang schemed and killed off most of the official military officers, killing all those who opposed him and thus forcefully seizing control over the entire Long Teng Town.
After seizing control, Chen Liang spent his days in a drunken stupor, viewing all the survivors under him as animals and regularly killing people. In Long Teng Town, apart from Chen Liang and his confidants, everyone else lived like walking corpses. Luo Qiang didn’t want to live like this, and so he fled out of the place.
“Long Teng Town!” Yue Zhong muttered to himself for a while, before asking Luo Qiang, “In Long Teng Town, how many warriors and guns are there? What is Chen Liang’s ability? How many experts does he have under him?”
Luo Qiang hesitated for a while before smiling bitterly, shaking his head as he said,
“I do not know any of this!”