Chapter 312
Tang Yu’an exchanged for a medium-sized flying vehicle, drove the RV into its cargo hold, and adjusted the protective barrier’s range to ensure the entire aircraft was covered and hidden within it.
Meanwhile, Zhou Qi went to the control room, activated autopilot, and released mechanical insects to begin mapping the area.
Soon, their flying vehicle rose steadily into the sky, heading swiftly toward the location of Shanna and Bo’er.
Compared to traveling on foot, flying was undoubtedly much faster—it likely wouldn’t even take two months to reach their destination.
*
In this dimension, near Qingmu Fortress…
In the middle of the night, just as the refugees were drifting in and out of sleep, a loud rumble suddenly echoed through the area.
People woke in shock, looking toward the source of the noise—and saw that it came from Qingmu Fortress.
The southern gate, from which they had escaped, had collapsed. The figure of the Titan Gorilla loomed in the distance. Clearly, the fortress guards had failed to stop it!
“D-Do we need to keep running?”
“Probably not for now. We’re up in the mountains—as long as it doesn’t come this way, we’re safe.”
That said, returning to the fortress was now out of the question for the time being.
Fortunately, Qingmu Fortress had begun expanding its territory over the past two years, reclaiming much of the surrounding land and clearing it of mutated beasts.
The small mountain they were currently on was one such reclaimed area, so there was no immediate danger.
The only concern was food…
*
Chi Hao was also woken by the commotion. After confirming that the beast inside the fortress wasn’t pursuing them (at least for now), he didn’t go back to sleep. Instead, he began preparing for the day’s business.
To improve efficiency and ensure more refugees could receive food, Lan Yunqing suggested he first select a team of around 5,000 people to act as group leaders and handle bulk transactions.
Each of these 5,000 squad leaders would manage under 100 people, which would cover the entire refugee population.
With this setup, everyone could get food, and with hope for survival, chaos would be less likely. This would help maintain a stable trading environment.
Otherwise, if people went too long without food, robbery and other violent incidents were sure to break out.
Chi Hao only needed to conduct stable daily transactions with these 5,000 leaders. Even if each transaction was done in two or three rounds, he could easily earn over 10,000 points per day.
Chi Hao thought Lan Yunqing’s idea was excellent.
The only difficulty was: how to select those 5,000 team leaders?
That’s when Chi Hao set his sights on Mu Sheng.
Although their relationship wasn’t great, Chi Hao had to admit that Mu Sheng had far more connections in Qingmu Fortress than he did.
So, after deciding on the plan, he went directly to Mu Sheng.
When Mu Sheng heard the idea, he thought Chi Hao was delusional.
“There are at least two or three hundred thousand people here. Do you know how much food and water is needed per day?”
Mu Sheng stared at him. “You say you can provide it—how?”
Chi Hao smiled and said, “Ever heard of the God of Commerce Church?”
Mu Sheng shook his head.
He’d heard Chi Hao mention yesterday that his pillow was a divine artifact, a gift from a god.
But… how could gods possibly exist in this world?
“If not a god, then where did I get so much food from?” Chi Hao countered.
“You awakened a spatial ability and stocked up ahead of time,” Mu Sheng said confidently.
Chi Hao chuckled. “You’re giving me way too much credit.”
He didn’t try to force Mu Sheng to understand. Instead, he said:
“Just tell me—will you help or not? If you help me with this, I might be able to invite you into the faith when this is over.”
“Believe me, the power of the God of Commerce Church is beyond your imagination. You’ll definitely want to join.”
Mu Sheng was still full of doubt—but…
“You really can provide that much food?”
“What would I gain by lying to you?”
After a moment of hesitation, Mu Sheng finally nodded. “Fine, I’ll gather the people.”
*
So, Mu Sheng grabbed a quick bite and went off to organize people. Chi Hao didn’t rest either—he continued conducting trades with the refugees under the name of the Peace Trading Company.
While it was the perfect time for spreading the faith, the environment was still chaotic and unsafe. For now, it was better not to operate openly as a church.
Once the protective barrier was activated in the future, evangelism could begin in earnest.
Mu Sheng worked quickly. By the time the sun rose, he had gathered the 5,000 people as Chi Hao requested.
These squad leaders already carried materials for trade, so everything went smoothly and quickly.
Before a crowd of onlookers, Chi Hao really did begin producing food endlessly, providing what everyone needed.
Though each person received only enough to barely survive, the total amount was staggering.
People’s gazes toward Chi Hao began to change.
There was surprise, gratitude, but also greed and malice—though these darker feelings remained hidden beneath the surface… for now.
It was clear that as time went on, and Chi Hao continued to produce more resources, his situation would become increasingly dangerous.
Chi Hao sensed this too.
So he didn’t dare slack off, working with all his might to complete trades.
Thanks to his efforts, and the XP bonus from being a branch store manager, he reached Level 19 in just one day.
To reach Level 20, he still needed over 12,000 experience points.
But Chi Hao was already exhausted—each trade had to be done personally to gain XP, so none could be delegated.
After completing the last transaction, he collapsed onto his purple-red sleep pillow and fell into a deep slumber.
Only a few hours later, Chi Hao revived at full energy and resumed trading with the 5,000 squad leaders.
Even Mu Sheng was woken up.
Watching Chi Hao working so relentlessly, he felt something strange—but the strangest thing was still Chi Hao’s behavior.
Why keep doing the same trades with the same 5,000 people?
Why not just distribute all the goods at once and let them handle it?
Wouldn’t it be easier? Didn’t he get tired of personally conducting every single transaction? What was the point?
Even though he was the one who found these 5,000 people, he didn’t know all of them—let alone guarantee their loyalty.
After Chi Hao’s high-profile operations yesterday, the entire refugee camp had become tense with hidden undercurrents.
There were many awakened individuals among the refugees—most low-level, but even ants can kill an elephant if they gather in enough numbers.
Mu Sheng considered advising Chi Hao to keep a lower profile, but after thinking it over, he realized:
What’s the point in being low-key anymore?
He figured he might as well first consider what to do if a riot really broke out and someone captured Chi Hao.
Even if those people didn’t intend to hurt him, who could say what might happen in the chaos of a scuffle?
When the time came, would he choose to run, join in, or… continue helping Chi Hao?
While Mu Sheng wrestled with his thoughts, Chi Hao was grinding away like mad, racking up experience points and credits.
His experience points had never increased so quickly before, and he’d never had this many credits.
Unfortunately, the credits didn’t stay for long.
Feeding hundreds of thousands of people — even if he exchanged for the cheapest brown rice, 100 grams per person — would still cost hundreds of thousands of credits.
So the credits came fast and went just as fast. Luckily, he managed to exchange a decent amount for crystals.
As his proficiency increased, his trading efficiency improved. By evening…
[Experience maxed. Employee level upgraded to Lv20.]
Wahoo!
Finally hit Level 20 — time to open a shop!
Chi Hao quickly finished up the remaining trades. This time, he didn’t go one by one. Instead, he had the rest hand over their crystals and just dumped the supplies on the ground.
“Take what you need. I’ve got something to do, so I’m heading off!”
Chi Hao turned to Mu Sheng and asked, “How’s that house I asked you to build coming along?”
Mu Sheng rolled his eyes. He still didn’t understand why Chi Hao insisted on building a house.
But since there wasn’t much else to do, and there were plenty of idle hands on the mountain, he had found a few earth-ability users to build a small house for him.
Mu Sheng took him to the spot.
“Hahaha, not bad — you even gave me a yard like I asked!” Chi Hao looked at the newly built house and nodded in satisfaction.
He tossed Mu Sheng the promised crystals and then rushed into the stone house with great urgency.
Mu Sheng didn’t follow him in. Instead, he looked around.
At some point, a crowd had gathered behind them, led by the team leaders who had just received supplies — about a dozen or so.
They hadn’t gone to distribute the supplies. Instead, they had gathered a few thousand people and were now surrounding the house.
Under Mu Sheng’s gaze, they didn’t shy away at all. In no time, they had the stone house completely surrounded.
Because no fighting had broken out yet, and the supply distribution had been the center of attention, no one had noticed the situation here.
“Brother Mu, our target is Chi Hao,” the burly man in front said. “If we can control him, we’ll be living the high life in the wasteland. Why not… join us?”
Mu Sheng snorted.
He was a wood-ability user. Though his plants had offensive abilities, at least he didn’t have to worry about food.
“You’re not afraid the fortress will hold you accountable?” Mu Sheng asked.
The man scoffed, “The fortress is gone. What’s there to be afraid of?”
“Besides, how did those monsters suddenly appear in the fortress? Isn’t it possible the headquarters had something to do with it? They’re the ones who should be held responsible!”
“You don’t want to join us, that’s fine. But stay out of this. For old times’ sake, we’ll let you go. After today, we go our separate ways.”
He added, “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt Chi Hao. We just want to survive.”
In everyone’s eyes, the supplies Chi Hao had must be limited.
If he kept handing them out like this, they’d be gone in a few days. If they took what was left, it could last them a long while.
Mu Sheng sighed and glanced back at the silent stone house, feeling somewhat disappointed.
He had bought Chi Hao all this time — why was he still hiding in there and not making a move?
There were only a few thousand people now. With Chi Hao’s firepower, escaping might still be possible…
Just as Mu Sheng was about to leave, the tightly shut door of the stone house suddenly swung open, and Chi Hao stepped out, holding a plaque in his arms.
He didn’t seem to notice the tension outside and cheerfully hung the plaque above the door.
The plaque read: “Qingmu Grocery Store” — though the characters were a bit worn and broken, they were still legible.
Mu Sheng didn’t understand what Chi Hao was doing. This guy seriously wanted to open a store here?
“Well, well, what’s with the crowd?” Chi Hao said. “Here to trade?”
“Heh, yeah.” The burly man who had spoken with Mu Sheng earlier gave him a warning glare and began leading people toward the stone house.
Mu Sheng watched them pass by and couldn’t hold back anymore. He shouted, “Idiot, run!”
“Who are you calling an idiot?” Chi Hao folded his arms.
He looked at the people charging toward him. Of course, he was nervous — who wouldn’t be? But…
Yun Qing, his sister (Hong Li), and An An all said there would be no problem. So… there shouldn’t be a problem, right?
Sure enough, the next moment, the people who entered the yard suddenly stopped, then turned and walked back out.
They repeated this bizarre behavior — entering the yard, then walking back out — as if caught in a loop.
When Chi Hao burst out laughing, they snapped out of it in shock.
“What’s going on?!”
The crowd looked at Chi Hao in confusion and alarm.
Mu Sheng, seeing this, tried stepping into the yard himself and discovered he could pass through freely — there was no looping effect on him.
Chi Hao raised his voice and made a formal announcement:
“Let me introduce myself.”
“I am Chi Hao, of the Church of the God of Commerce!”
“All who are disrespectful to the God of Commerce, or harbor ill intent toward me, cannot enter the domain of the Church!”
