Chapter 73: Everyone Gets a Share?
The people who had been following Zhan Yun’s group all along saw that the wolves’ attention had been completely drawn to Zhan Yun and the others, leaving no time to deal with them. They immediately turned tail and ran, not even bothering with their vehicles.
Most of these people were just ordinary civilians attached to ability user teams. Faced with such a large pack of mutated wolves, staying would only mean certain death. If they didn’t seize this chance to run, were they supposed to stay and die together with those people?!
However, the Zhan Yun group—whom they thought were doomed—showed not the slightest hint of panic. Zhan Yun counted the remaining wolves and said calmly, “Excluding Dongdong, three each.”
“No problem.” Cheng Qi grinned, lightning already gathering in his palm, while Cheng Jiao’s wind blades were ready as well.
A gigantic wolf with dark gray fur suddenly threw back its head and let out a long howl. Everyone immediately felt the ground beneath their feet soften as their legs sank into the mud. It was clear now—this was the wolf responsible for turning the land into such a quagmire.
Zhan Yun narrowed his eyes slightly. The moment he activated his gravity ability, the huge wolf was slammed to the ground, the immense pressure forcing a miserable howl from its throat.
At the same time, Zhang Shuoliang activated his ability, rehardened the soil beneath everyone’s feet, and restored their freedom of movement.
The scalding hot water released by Song Chengshu forced the wolves trying to approach to retreat, while Zheng Jiahe swung his golf club with fierce momentum—any wolf that dared rush in had its bones shattered.
At that moment, Su Ruizhe slowly took a dragon tongue plant out of his space. Gripping it in his left hand, he transformed it into an emerald-green longsword. This was a new plant-based weapon he and Zheng Jiahe had recently developed—once weaponized, it became incomparably sharp, capable of slicing through metal like mud.
Holding the hilt, Su Ruizhe swung hard at two wolves lunging toward him. In the next instant, both wolves were already beheaded, their warm blood splashing all over him.
Su Ruizhe: …
Looks like he’d better use this weapon less in the future.
Yu Dongdong, clutching the kitten and protected by the others in the center, was spotted by a wolf cub. Taking advantage of the others being occupied, it lunged at Yu Dongdong with incredible speed. The child saw a blur before his eyes and suddenly found himself staring into a pair of eerie green eyes. Frightened, he stumbled back, not knowing what to do.
Su Ruizhe broke out in a cold sweat and immediately thrust his sword forward, carving a deep, long gash into the wolf cub. Yet the cub was vicious beyond belief—despite its injuries, it still opened its bloody jaws and lunged toward Yu Dongdong, about to bite into the child.
“Meow!” Xiao Hei let out a soft, kittenish cry—not at all imposing—but with a single swipe of its paw, it slapped the wolf cub across the face, sending it flying through the air and crashing heavily to the ground.
Already gravely injured by Su Ruizhe, the wolf cub twitched twice after that blow and then went still.
“Awooo…” One wolf after another fell, until the last five wailed miserably and fled.
Everyone stared in stunned silence at the Xiao Hei kitten still nestled in Yu Dongdong’s arms. Xiao Hei squinted its eyes and licked its paw leisurely, quietly hiding its achievement.
A tiny kitten slapping away a wolf cub dozens of times its size—even an injured one—was still hard to believe…
Could it be that after Xiao Hei bit Zheng Jiahe last time and swapped bodies with him, it had also gained part of his abilities?
But Xiao Hei was just a cat. They didn’t have particularly high expectations of it. If it really did become stronger, that would naturally be a good thing; if not, it wasn’t a big deal either.
Su Ruizhe walked over and smiled as he patted Xiao Hei’s little head. “Good job. I’ll give you some dried fish when we get back.”
“Meow~” Xiao Hei let out a soft cry, as if it truly understood.
Looking at the wolf corpses scattered all over the ground, Su Ruizhe turned to Zhan Yun and asked, “Brother, do you think this wolf meat is enough to trade for that technology?”
Zhan Yun took a look. Although the wolves appeared thin, they were large—each one weighed at least seventy or eighty jin. All of them together definitely amounted to over a thousand jin of meat. With that much, they could trade for just about anything.
“It should be enough. Let’s clean them up and take them with us.”
Everyone began tidying up the wolf carcasses together, loading them one by one onto the vehicles.
“Wait a moment.” Someone suddenly spoke up.
They looked up to see that the people who had fled in panic earlier had actually returned, now standing nearby with greedy eyes fixed on the wolf bodies.
“What do you want?”
“These wolves—we should get a share too.”
“Oh?” Cheng Qi shot them a disdainful sideways glance. “And why’s that?”
“We lost quite a few brothers dealing with these wolves. Even if we didn’t contribute, we suffered for it.” Too embarrassed to claim they’d killed any wolves, the man tried to play the sympathy card in hopes of getting a piece of the spoils.
“Heh, a bunch of cowards who only know how to run—how do you even have the nerve to ask?” Cheng Jiao said mockingly.
“You bitch, what nonsense are you spouting—ah!” Someone couldn’t stand being mocked by a woman like that and was just about to start cursing when a sharp pain exploded across his cheek. He raised his hand to touch it and found it covered in blood.
“What did you just say? I didn’t hear you clearly,” Cheng Jiao said with a fake smile as she casually brushed back her hair. “Say it again?”
No one saw when Cheng Jiao made her move, but everyone knew—it had to be her.
The man broke out in a cold sweat, only now realizing that the entire group standing before him were all ability users…
“Shut up! If you don’t know how to speak, then get lost!” The man who had first spoken up to demand a share viciously slapped him across the face and shoved him to the back of the group. Then, putting on a flattering smile, he said, “That idiot doesn’t know how to talk. Please don’t lower yourselves to his level, brothers and sisters.”
“Hmph.” Cheng Jiao snorted coldly.
“Everyone, after all, our brothers lost their lives because of these wolves. No matter what, we did contribute something. Please, for the sake of our fallen brothers and their families… at least give us a little…” As he spoke, even he felt his face burning with embarrassment, but he forced himself to finish.
Zhan Yun hadn’t intended to bother with them, but considering that these people might be affiliated with the Wang or Hong families, and that the mission took priority, he thought it over. There was plenty of wolf meat anyway—giving them a bit wouldn’t really matter.
“That wolf over there—you can take it,” Zhan Yun said, pointing to the corpse of the wolf cub that Xiao Hei had earlier slapped away with one paw.
Although it hadn’t reached adulthood, it was still a mutated wolf. One whole carcass would weigh at least thirty or forty jin.
A stir immediately broke out among those people—probably because they felt the share was too small—but the man in charge stopped them. He could tell these people were not to be trifled with. They had wiped out an entire pack of mutated wolves with so few people—if they angered them, they might very well kill them too. In the apocalypse, after all, human lives were the cheapest thing of all.
Better to get a little than nothing at all. Thirty or forty jin of meat could be exchanged for several hundred round coins. Divided among the brothers, it would be enough for everyone to eat their fill for a few days—there was nothing bad about that.
“Thank you, thank you,” the man said hastily, calling the others over to load the wolf carcass onto their vehicle.
With their trucks piled high with wolf corpses, Zhan Yun and the others returned to W City Base.
At the gate, they had to line up again to enter the city. All teams that went out to collect supplies were required to hand over half of their haul upon reentry.
The personnel on duty at the gate had been switched again that day—this time it was said to be people from the Hong family. The group who had earlier demanded a wolf from Zhan Yun’s team were likely affiliated with the Hong family. They went up to speak with the guards for a bit, and those guards didn’t collect any supplies from them, letting them enter the city directly.
It seemed that the various factions in W City took turns guarding the city gates, and whatever they collected counted as their own income. No wonder teams under the Hong family didn’t need to hand over supplies—this was indeed a clever way to attract people and expand their power.
Zhan Yun had no intention of letting half of what they had worked so hard to bring back be taken for nothing. He stayed outside with Su Ruizhe and the others to watch the vehicles, while Cheng Qi and Cheng Jiao went into the city to find Guan Hong and hand over the goods as quickly as possible.
Cheng Qi and Cheng Jiao entered the city and found Guan Hong at the inn. They told him about encountering the mutated wolf pack and bringing back over a thousand jin of wolf meat, asking him to check with W City Base whether this meat could be used as the “fee” for learning the soilless cultivation technology.
Guan Hong immediately contacted the local garrison, which then got in touch with the Lu family. The Lu family notified the Wang and Hong families in turn, and only then was the matter finally approved.
Meat from mutated animals was valuable stuff—not only was it delicious, but the thick hides were also excellent. Made into fur coats, they would be perfect for keeping out the cold. With the summer heat already so intense, winter likely wouldn’t be easy either. Preparing early was never a bad idea.
Aside from the local garrison, each of the three families also sent representatives out of the city to receive the more than one thousand jin of wolf meat.
The representative sent by the Wang family was none other than Wang Xurong. Seeing the mountain of wolf corpses piled on the military trucks, he raised an eyebrow slightly. “You killed all of these?”
“That’s right,” Zhan Yun replied with a smile.
Wang Xurong’s gaze swept over the red badges on their chests, a flicker passing through his eyes. “You’re quite capable. Have you considered staying at W City Base? We can offer you the best treatment.”
At this, Guan Hong’s expression immediately changed. This Wang Xurong was actually trying to poach people from their base right in front of him?! He clearly didn’t take the Southern Base seriously at all!
But before Guan Hong could speak, Zhan Yun had already politely declined, “Thank you for your kindness, but that won’t be necessary.”
Having his olive branch so bluntly thrown back at him, Wang Xurong’s face instantly darkened. However, with people from the Hong and Lu families also present, he knew better than to lose his composure, so he said nothing more.
When the wolf corpses were unloaded and weighed one by one, the total came to more than fourteen hundred jin. That much meat, if converted into supplies, would be a huge sum—more than enough to pay for learning the soilless cultivation technology.
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