Chapter 367: Fierce Tiger Squad
The leader wasn’t particularly big or imposing. In terms of stature and appearance, he was unremarkable—just like any random passerby on the street.
But when he raised a hand to stop the others, none of the group dared take another step.
That display of authority made Lu Weiyi give him a second look.
In the silence, Li Zhuang’s group finally arrived. Seeing the metallic patches on Lu Weiyi and Xu Sa, he immediately understood the situation. Spotting the enemy, he discreetly signaled his teammates, and those carrying jammers silently attached them to their bodies.
“When the fight starts, use weapons,” Li Zhuang whispered to Zheng Jun.
Zheng Jun didn’t fully understand yet, but the opposing man had already begun questioning what happened.
“He didn’t even ask what was going on and tried to take advantage of me the moment he showed up. I was startled and lost control,” Xu Sa said with a look of false regret, glancing at the now very dead man on the ground. He bowed his head perfunctorily. “Really sorry. But maybe you should keep your men in check. There are plenty of good-looking people in the world—if everyone acted on impulse, there’d be no end to it.”
“You’re full of shit!” one of the men snarled, then turned to the leader. “Boss, I want to kill this pretty boy and avenge my brother.”
The man in charge didn’t say anything, his gaze continually assessing the group in front of him.
Seeing he didn’t object, the man immediately leapt from the group and charged at Xu Sa. At the same time, a raging fire dragon surged forward.
Liu Rui, who stood beside Xu Sa, casually lifted his foot a bit—and the fire dragon vanished instantly in front of the group. The searing heat still lingered in the air as the charging man closed the distance.
Before Liu Rui could make a move, Xu Sa stepped up, gripping his machete. He delivered a kick to the man’s chest, and as the man stumbled backward, Xu Sa’s blade slid along his arm. As the man hit the ground, blood sprayed in an arc.
“What just happened? Did you see him use any ability?”
“No, I don’t think so. He just had a knife—seemed like pure brute force.”
“But Old Fourth’s fire ability is ranked A—he’s one of the best in the base. And this is the second time he didn’t even get a chance to use his powers?”
“That’s… kind of eerie, isn’t it?”
As whispers filled the air, the leader glanced around. The surrounding voices instantly died. His gaze swept over the group, trying to determine who the real leader was.
Unfortunately, no one stood out based on position or aura.
Finally, Xu Sa spoke. “Is there anything else? If not, we’re leaving.”
The blood still dripped from his knife, and the scent had already begun attracting zombies. Their growls could be heard in the distance.
If this dragged on, it wouldn’t benefit either side. And if too many zombies showed up, the opposing group might try something underhanded. Especially since their team included C-rank ability users.
But walking away now would clearly look like a loss of face. The man understood this too, but not knowing the true strength of Lu Weiyi’s group, he didn’t want to act rashly.
“Boss, let me go.”
“Yeah, let me handle it.”
But those behind him clearly weren’t willing to let it go. One after another, they clamored to take action, unwilling to swallow their anger.
Wu Yue, seeing through the stalling tactic, scoffed. “If you’re gonna fight, just do it. If not, get lost. What’s the point of all this hemming and hawing—like a coward hiding in his shell?”
“You’re too blunt,” Xu Sa laughed. “Can’t you see he’s just waiting for the zombies to show up so he can use that as an excuse not to fight? Why call him out and embarrass him?”
The taunts pushed several people to the brink, but the leader remained unmoved. Realizing this couldn’t go on, Xu Sa gave a look to Li Zhuang.
“Retreat,” Li Zhuang ordered, pushing Xu Yi behind him.
Zheng Jun’s team slowly backed away, followed by Xiong Jie and Li Dongsheng. Although some on the other side wanted to strike, the leader held them back singlehandedly.
When Xu Sa and Liu Rui brought up the rear, one of them patted one of the nearby trucks. Lu Weiyi, catching the signal, quickly stored the vehicle in his space and followed them out.
Even after the group had left, the opposing team remained in place.
Sensing a large number of zombies approaching, Li Zhuang quickly picked a nearby building, both to avoid the undead and to keep an eye on the opposing force’s movements.
The surrounding area was open, so hiding wasn’t really an option. By the time everyone made it into the building, fleeing the scent-driven zombies, the other group had also left—heading off in a different direction.
“They just left like that?” Xu Sa was baffled.
“We don’t even know what just happened,” someone from Zheng Jun’s squad said. It was their first time in a real conflict with people, and watching Xu Sa take two lives so quickly left them stunned.
“A speed-type ability user snuck up, kidnapped Xu Yi, tried to steal our supplies, and even planned to take us down,” Xu Sa snorted, a flicker of malice crossing his face. He hated people who tried to take advantage of him just because of his looks.
Hearing him mention the enemy force, Wu Yue suddenly spoke. “I’ve heard of the Menghu Battle Team. Their leader is a guy named Meng Hu. Supposedly looks like a Mongolian brute—rough and bold. He’s got some decent power in the Pingjin base. But he’s got a little… kink.” He paused, glancing at the good-looking folks around him. “He likes pretty boys.”
“Word is, he’s got a collector’s obsession. If you want to work with him or get any benefits, you’ve got to bring him all sorts of beautiful men. He’s infamous for it in the Pingjin base. Our base actually considered working with Pingjin a while back, but when he made that demand, Zhuang Mingxu got pissed and immediately blacklisted them.”
“That guy earlier was probably their second-in-command. He must suspect we’re from the Yuebanwan Base.” Seeing that some of them still didn’t understand the implications, Wu Yue added, “Even though communication isn’t fully restored, it’s not completely down either. The news that our base has an SS-level ability user probably spread ages ago.”
“I didn’t say anything,” Xu Sa quickly distanced himself.
“You didn’t have to. There aren’t many nearby bases. Small ones wouldn’t dare be this reckless, and an inland base wouldn’t come out here just for snowmobiles. Just being here gave us away,” Wu Yue said helplessly.
“So they’re just… backing down?” Xiong Jie, who hadn’t been out in a while, still found it hard to believe.
“Who knows if they’ll try anything shady later. Stay alert,” Li Zhuang concluded, telling everyone to get food and rest.
The ambush didn’t delay their plans. They rested for the day and resumed operations the next morning.
Meanwhile, back at Yuebanwan, Gu Qingji was leading a team outside. After a few days, they transformed a nearby small grove into towering trees. When the earth-type ability users arrived, they transported the trees back to the base.
In an era where manual labor was the cheapest resource, countless people could be seen chopping down trees from dawn till dusk every day.
Due to last year’s sudden temperature drop, as soon as the temperature began to fall this year, Zhuang Mingxu immediately gave the order for the majority of the base’s manpower to be redirected to harvesting the fields. There were no more midday breaks; the public’s daily life began at sunrise and didn’t end until sunset.
The busy schedule left Gu Qingji only brief moments during breaks to think about Gu Qingyue. The longer they were apart, the more uncertain he felt about her safety, and he became increasingly silent.
“Have some water.” Da Liu, the only A-rank wood-type ability user in the cultivation team, handed Gu Qingji a cup. “Captain Gu, I feel like everyone still has some energy left each day. Why aren’t we continuing the accelerated cultivation?”
“Orders from above,” Gu Qingji replied, then shouted toward someone weighing bags in the distance, “Hey! What’s in that sack?”
“Captain Gu, it’s rice. It was grown yesterday and dried today. It’ll be stored together,” the person at the scales shouted back.
“All the rice being centralized?” Gu Qingji stepped forward and looked at the sack filled with husked rice stalks, frowning in doubt. “Is this already processed rice?”
“You only get rice after removing the husk,” Da Liu, who had followed him, explained. “Dehusking rice manually is very labor-intensive. I heard from Captain Li that since we currently have enough energy, crops needing dehusking will be cultivated for a few days in a row, then processed together using machines.”
Gu Qingji glanced at the report left by Li Dongsheng, which indeed divided the crop types on a rotating schedule every few days. Initially, he had thought it was just to vary the diet, but now it seemed there was more to it.
“Sorry, I didn’t ask clearly earlier.” After logging today’s harvest, Gu Qingji reviewed Li Dongsheng’s schedule. “So tomorrow should be corn?”
“Yes. Including today, we’ve cultivated rice for five days, which is enough for one round with the machine. What’s harvested today will dry tomorrow. We’ll apply for the rice mill, and everything should be processed the morning after. By afternoon, it’ll be ready for distribution,” Da Liu explained expertly, even telling Gu Qingji where to apply for machine usage permissions.
Once the harvest was fully stored, Gu Qingji checked and locked the doors. Night had already fallen.
“Sorry to keep you helping so late,” Gu Qingji said to Da Liu as they walked back together.
“In this hot weather, there’s not much to do after going back anyway.” Da Liu placed his hands behind his head, looking at the sky. In the dim afterglow, a stalk of grass dangled from his mouth, making him look quite relaxed. “But you—didn’t Captain Li explain things clearly before leaving? You don’t seem too familiar with the work.”
“I only took over temporarily and didn’t expect it to last this long,” Gu Qingji replied, then asked about past arrangements in more detail, gradually forming a clearer picture of what to do next.
The evening breeze brought a refreshing coolness. The two walked at a leisurely pace. The atmosphere was relaxed and disarming. Da Liu, being naturally talkative, made conversation easy and enjoyable.
Listening to Da Liu talk about the deeper purposes behind their daily tasks, Gu Qingji began to realize that every detail of Li Dongsheng’s planning was tightly coordinated—nothing was superfluous.
