TL: Moonlit
Miao Bo disregarded the obstacles and walked straight over. The others could only follow quickly, all on high alert and ready to fight at any moment.
Seeing that Miao Bo personally came, the four captives shouted for him to go back and gather more people for revenge.
Wen Qingling was annoyed by their shouting, “Aren’t you afraid of attracting a horde of zombies? Should I send you into the zombie horde to wake up your brains?”
“Doctor Wen, let me handle this. Don’t trouble them,” Miao Bo stopped in his tracks. At this moment, he was only a dozen steps away from where Wen Qingling was sitting on the roof of the off-road vehicle.
Wen Qingling sat cross-legged on the roof, saying, “I’m afraid it’s not possible. We are reasonable people. We came here to reason with you in the first place. But before we even reached the base, someone wanted to harm us. Do you think a ‘Grotesque’ can take us down?”
Miao Bo inwardly mocked himself. If he had known it was them who were coming, there would have been no need for this setup. He would have personally come to talk to Wen Qingling. It was indeed their design that came first, and it wasn’t entirely justifiable, but…
“Doctor Wen, don’t take offense. This is just one of our defensive measures. After all, we’re guarding a granary. We have to be cautious about everything,” Miao Bo said. “As you’ve said, a ‘Grotesque’ poses no threat to you. But it’s true that our design was not honorable, yet it was in response to your enmity. We are retaliating.”
Wen Qingling pondered, “So you’re saying we were in the wrong?”
Miao Bo replied, “Whether you’re right or wrong, Doctor Wen, you can judge for yourself. Your people were sneaking around in Yue County and were expelled by our base’s personnel. Then someone released the corpse wolves to attack us. The injured and infected individuals are still lying in our base. Now that we see you again, isn’t it fair for us to seek revenge?”
Wen Qingling contemplated, “It sounds reasonable.”
Xiong Shu shouted loudly, “Nonsense! You heartless people want us to die in Yue County? Should I wait to be killed without fighting back?”
Wen Qingling nodded, “Xiong Shu is right. Is the Yue County base considering tyranny as righteousness?”
Miao Bo forced a bitter smile, “Doctor Wen, is there any misunderstanding about the Yue County base?”
Wen Qingling replied, “It might not be a misunderstanding. It’s widely known that the Yue County base is extremely exclusive, not allowing outsiders to set foot in Yue County. Otherwise, there would be no return. When Xiong Shu collected supplies and came to Yue County, he was pursued by your people. Their counterattack was indeed their mistake, but should they obediently wait to be killed? Honestly, how many outsiders have the Yue County base killed since the apocalypse?”
Miao Bo’s expression stiffened. Although these were just rumors, they knew it themselves that they were true. Almost no one who entered Yue County could leave alive unless they had strong power. The people of Yue County couldn’t do anything about them and had to let them go. Just like Xiong Shu and the others, if they didn’t have the ace card of the corpse wolves, they might not have returned.
“Everyone who enters Yue County deserves to die! They covet the granary, so they deserve to die!” one of the bound captives shouted.
Wen Qingling widened his eyes, “Entering Yue County means coveting the granary?”
Captive 1 said, “Who doesn’t know about the granary in Yue County? If they didn’t come here for the granary, why else would they come? They steal, we kill. What’s wrong with that? And you, aren’t you here for the granary too? Since we both want to steal the granary, why pretend to be good people?!”
Captive 2 added, “Anyone who covets others’ things deserves to die!”
Wen Qingling rested his cheek on his hand, looking relaxed. “I came here to reason with you. The granary in Yue County doesn’t belong to you. It’s national property. You have been occupying public resources until now, and I won’t say anything about that. After all, there’s no government anymore. According to the law of the jungle in the apocalypse, whoever seizes it owns it. If you have the ability to guard it until now, then it’s your strength. But please don’t take it for granted that it’s your own thing and whoever steals it deserves to die. Who knows if today it’s your thing, and tomorrow it might be ours?”
The captives laughed coldly, “So, you’re here to steal the granary too!”
Wen Qingling replied, “Yes, we’re here to steal the granary.”
The captives surveyed the surroundings and sneered arrogantly, “You guys think you can steal the granary with just a few people? Don’t dream! Let me tell you the truth. The base in Xu City once organized over a thousand people to steal the granary, and they all ended up here. You guys, with just a dozen people, dare to arrogantly claim you want to steal the granary? It’s truly laughable!”
Wen Qingling sighed lightly, “Indeed, a dozen people might be too many. To deal with you, we only need one person.”
The captives burst into laughter, and the survivors from the base who came to rescue them also laughed. Miao Bo, however, couldn’t find it in himself to laugh. Since Wen Qingling said it like that, it was possible that they truly had the capability.
Miao Bo pondered who the person Wen Qingling was referring to could be. Could it be that Wen Qingling was just a decoy, and the real person who intended to steal the granary had already attacked the base? But that couldn’t be right. There was surveillance at all the entrances to Yue County, and the base couldn’t be unaware of anyone entering. Today, the people who came were only these, no one else. So who exactly was it?
Wen Qingling still sat on the roof, looking very relaxed. Miao Bo tried to find Xiao Hen… Where was Xiao Hen?! Miao Bo suddenly realized that Xiao Hen had already left at some point, but he didn’t notice when he left!
Miao Bo suddenly thought of something, turned around, and wanted to leave, but he found that he couldn’t. The street they were on was completely surrounded by a horde of zombies. The place was crowded with zombies, except for half of the street in front of them, which was clean and didn’t have a single zombie.
The survivors from Yue County Base, who came to rescue them, also saw the current situation and gathered together, tense and on guard. “Deputy Squad Leader, we are surrounded by zombies!”
Miao Bo wasn’t blind, of course, he saw it too.
Wen Qingling said, “Since you’re here, don’t rush to leave. Let’s chat a bit, shall we?”
“Fool! We are already surrounded by zombies, aren’t you afraid of death?!” The survivors from Yue County Base had lost their composure.
Wen Qingling said, “Isn’t Yue County your home? Aren’t the zombies in Yue County also your family? Why don’t you negotiate with them and see if, as part of the same family, they can go easy on you?”
The people from Yue County Base were going crazy. What kind of lunatic had they encountered?!
Miao Bo raised his hand to stop his own people from speaking and faced Wen Qingling. “What do you want?”
Wen Qingling asked, “Are you a local of Yue County?”
Miao Bo replied, “I’m not, but my mother is from Yue County, and my grandparents are all born and raised here.”
Wen Qingling remarked, “Wow, the census seems strict. Is that enough?”
Miao Bo knew that the zombies surrounding them were definitely related to Wen Qingling. Wen Qingling’s mental power was much stronger than his own, and if it wasn’t for Wen Qingling’s intervention, he wouldn’t have been able to detect Xiao Hen’s departure.
Wen Qingling asked, “Fang Shenlong is also from Yue County?”
Miao Bo’s pupils contracted. He deliberately didn’t let Fang Shenlong come here because he didn’t want Wen Qingling and the others to know that Fang Shenlong was still alive. Was Wen Qingling pretending or did he really know?
Miao Bo took a gamble. “I don’t know. I haven’t been with him.”
Wen Qingling looked at him with his dark, clear eyes. “It’s not fun to lie.”
Miao Bo stared at him and remained silent.
Wen Qingling said, “Oh, forgot to tell you, when you guys came, Fang Shenlong was following you the whole time. It seemed like you didn’t want to bring him along, so I stopped him. Right now, he’s trapped by the horde of zombies.”
Miao Bo’s calmness disappeared in an instant. He quickly stepped forward and said, “Wen Qingling, don’t touch him. He has never done anything harmful to you. You had no grievances with him before. Don’t treat him like this!”
Wen Qingling asked strangely, “Indeed, there were no grievances before, but now that we’ve come to steal the provisions, aren’t you the enemies?”
Miao Bo forced himself to calm down. “Fang Shenlong is not from Yue County. He can stay here because of me. He lost the Ling City Base and also lost a hand. He’s been very depressed. I didn’t feel at ease leaving him alone outside, so I requested the leader to let him stay…”
Wen Qingling said, “He’s still an enemy, isn’t he?”
Miao Bo remained silent.
The people from Yue County Base anxiously said, “Deputy Squad Leader, don’t waste time talking to him. He’s just trying to scare us, saying that one person can deal with all of us. Do they think our Yue County Base is just made of paper? Even if we open the gates of the base for him to enter, let’s see how he can seize the provisions alone!”
“That’s right! Blowing one’s own trumpet, but not afraid of breaking one’s own teeth. Since we are all trapped here, it’s better this way. Deputy Squad Leader, give the signal and let the people from the base come to support us. We can combine our forces and surely eliminate them!”
“Everyone, shut up!” Miao Bo shouted angrily.
They didn’t understand how powerful Wen Qingling was, but Miao Bo knew it very well. Leaving aside everything else, the fact that Wen Qingling could control the horde of zombies was the most terrifying ability. No one wasn’t afraid of the zombie virus, and survivors had no chance against a horde of zombies.
“Is it Colonel Xiao?” Miao Bo looked up at Wen Qingling. “Has he already gone to the Yue County Base?”
Wen Qingling stretched lazily. “Guess.”
Miao Bo almost cursed. Was there a need to guess? A living person suddenly disappeared from right in front of him, who else could it be?!
Initially, when Xiao Hen and the others had contact with the high-ranking officials of the Ling City Base, both Fang Shenlong and Miao Bo knew that Xiao Hen and the others were very powerful. Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t use their abilities, especially Xiao Hen. He rarely used his ability, and even if he did, no one could tell.
Spatial abilities were common, but spatial manipulation abilities were not so common. Few people had this level of insight. Miao Bo and Fang Shenlong had speculated on Xiao Hen’s ability more than once. Combining Wen Qingling’s words with Xiao Hen’s various behaviors in the past, even if Miao Bo didn’t consider spatial manipulation abilities, which were rarer than psychic abilities, he still had to guess so.
Miao Bo took a deep breath. If Xiao Hen really was a spatial manipulator, the provisions would definitely be lost. Even if the entire base’s people guarded the provisions, it would be useless. Spatial manipulators possessed the ability to store things in space and had the power to appear and disappear at will. It was estimated that the provisions would be emptied, and no one in the base would know. It was no longer possible to go back and report the situation. Should they hope that Xiao Hen’s spatial storage wasn’t enough and leave some food for the Yue County Base?
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