Chapter 32
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临渊慕鱼 update:2022-07-22 17:49
“He’s one of us.” Shao Qing touched Er Dai’s head. Originally savagely staring at Yan Hanqing, after being touched by Shao Qing, the zombie’s expression within his eyes immediately softened.
It seemed as if it was a bit dejected.
Giving Er Dai a glance, Yan Hanqing pushed down the distrust within his heart. His intuition is usually pretty accurate and has saved his life countless of times. From just a moment ago, his intuition clearly told him that this pale complexioned youth who was dressed in women clothing was extremely dangerous.
Yan Hanqing trusted his intuition. But he couldn’t resist taking a glimpse of the cloak covered youngster, who was so thin he resembled a girl.
After returning, the sky had not turned light yet. Thus the group of them rested for a little while then began heating up some provisions. Once they started to heat up the provisions, Shao Qing’s heart suddenly jumped out in fright. Oh no! She had forgotten that Er Dai is a zombie and didn’t need food. A zombie’s digestive system was completely different from a human’s. A human eating raw meat would probably vomit, feeling sick and nauseous and a zombie eating hot food would also probably vomit and feel sick and nauseous.
If Er Dai didn’t eat, people would probably discover that something was wrong. However, if Er Dai did eat, would he be able to overcome nature? While Shao Qing was in this dilemma, the rations had already been heated up and Gu Panpan had already enthusiastically passed some over to Er Dai, wanting to put in extra effort to take care of Shao Qing’s cousin.
After Er Dai obediently nibbled on the rations, Shao Qing’s motherly instinct immediately flared up feeling her heart ache. How could Er Dai be so well behaved!
Er Dai quickly finished eating the rations. Subsequently when Gu Panpan tried to give him more, he simply kept waving his hands to say no.
Gu Panpan couldn’t hold back from speaking. “Why are you eating so little? Compared to a girl, you’re eating even less. You should eat more to take better care of your body.”
Er Dai stared at her blankly, his muscles rigid caused his fair face to have no expression whatsoever, he looked completely stupefied. Yet, this is an appearance based world. With Er Dai’s facial features being attractive, therefore even looking at his stupefied expression was rather adorkable.
Shao Qing unwilling to allow Er Dai endure any more of this torture, quickly pulled on Gu Panpan. “His stomach isn’t feeling well, if he eats too much he’ll puke, that’s why he’s so skinny.”
“That’s so sad……” Gu Panpan looked at Er Dai in a tender and affectionate manner causing Er Dai to shrink back a bit.
Having been living with a group of zombies until now, it was his first time to be in contact with living people besides Shao Qing. Therefore although it has been only a few minutes, it had already given birth to his urge to leave this area.
Passionate humans are so dreadful, wah.
If it weren’t for Shao Qing being here, Er Dai would have probably squeezed back into the flock of zombies. After eating breakfast, the group of people packed up and got ready to leave. Borrowing the leisure time they had before they headed out, Shao Qing dragged Er Dai to the back of the house and the two of them began puking for what felt like half a day.
Whatever that they ate was whatever that they puked out.
This could be considered to be one of the tragedies of being a zombie. There was completely no way to digest regular food. Unlike Xiao Baozi who could still absorb a bit of food that didn’t have any chemicals or additives within them.
Actually when they ate those food, they had schemingly chewed on it but in fact was unable to perceive any tastes at all. This is definitely worthy of being called a tragedy.
After leaving the house, they discovered that a majority of the flock of zombies have already dispersed, with only a few remaining near the cross country car wandering around.
But, those wandering zombies wouldn’t pose a problem to them. Since Er Dai’s arrival, Shao Qing had Er Dai carrying Xiao Baozi and wait within the car whereas they would be outside tidying up a few things.
After a simple clean up of some of the wandering zombies, Shao Qing and the rest once again hurried back on their journey. Because they were only able to travel during the day, they needed to hurry along at top speed towards their destination.
After the eruption of the apocalypse, the total population of the world had lowered significantly by two-thirds and this doesn’t even include the people who died from being eaten by zombies when they were trying to escape.
In fact, even in the present, every day there would be a large amount of deaths. Some would die from hunger, some would die because of zombies, and some would even die from the hands of other humans.
Especially in China where the population was rather concentrated, the mortality rate in comparison to the vast but sparsely populated Australia was higher by who knows by how much.
Therefore arriving at a remote location, there were practically no one, and the ones you would see were just wandering zombies.
Shao Qing sat in the front passenger seat, carefully observing the surroundings. Since the apocalypse, a lot of vegetation has transformed. Some had evolved to have attacking capabilities, some even developed benefits that are advantageous to human. For example, the breadfruit tree produced fruits that resemble the shell of a coconut.
Furthermore, the originally pharmaceutical vegetations resulted in them becoming even more effective such as being able to stop blood quicker. In other words, it had benefited many others.
Every time Shao Qing inspected a useful vegetation, she would get out of the car to harvest it. She also wanted to subdue her second plant summoning for her employment.
After all, the usefulness of these plant summonings were just incredible. Take a look at her mean eating flower for example. Its attack power was particularly strong, thus it was able to increase her strength by quite a bit.
Shao Qing was currently a rank 2, so she is able to subdue two plant summonings. In regards to her second plant summoning selection, she had an inclination towards one with medical properties or one that amplified growth. Although these types of plant summonings couldn’t really result in much against zombies, but it would be able to increase her importance as a member of the group.
The average zombie wouldn’t attack Shao Qing. That gave Shao Qing a heavy advantage, and also enabled her to not place zombies as her primary enemy.
Real soon, Shao Qing and the rest will have arrived at another town. This place was a country town and was originally classified as an especially prosperous town with a population that was even bigger than a small city. Merely, after the apocalypse, people died and the survivors fled for their lives, causing it to become desolate.
Reportedly it was said that some survivors in the vicinity had constructed a small scale survivor base. Shao Qing and the rest were exactly heading towards this base.
“Just right ahead not that far away, we could tend to our things. Afterwards we could even exchange some items for things we need. It would largely benefit us for the rest of the journey. Let’s go.” Gu Panpan excitedly spoke.
Many of the superhumans or ordinary citizens who travelled quite a distance from their own survivor base would choose to go to another survivor base to make some transactions for things that they might need and also rest at the lodgings provided by the survivor base for a while.
Those survivor base could also try to solicit them in staying, those were also one type of unwritten rules.
Shao Qing and the rest were planning on going to the survivor base to reorganize and then continue on their journey. After all, once arriving at the survivor base, they would be able to rest without worrying about the outside matters for a while.
In a while, Shao Qing and the rest were able to see the small scale survivor base. A not so tall wall using greenish blue bricks could be seen, giving Shao Qing and the rest the impression that it wasn’t just small but it appeared to be rather run down as well.
At the door there was a gatekeeper receiving the people who would like to enter. At a critical moment where zombies might have besieged the city, they would count on them to set off an alarm.
“That’s great, there will finally be hot water to bathe and hot filling meals to eat.” Gu Panpan was ecstatic but Shao Qing in contrast was calm and collected, lifting up her chin. “Let’s go over.”
Borrowing lodging was rather easy to deal with. Shao Qing and the rest all pulled out their symbol obtained from their survivor base, then was able to quickly obtain the right to enter the survivor base.
Once they entered the base, Gu Panpan’s expression became rather unsightly. “I don’t like this place.”
Volume 3 33 Digging three feet
The entire jungle was dead and silent, not as active as when they first came in. Shao Qing suspected that the place they stayed before and the place they stayed at now were not the same place.
The more silent it was, the more danger Shao Qing felt. She estimated the distance. They are now in the depths of the jungle and will soon reach the deepest zone.
“Let’s take a rest first. It’s already late.” The jungle was very dark even during the day because of the tall trees that covered the sunlight.
Shao Qing estimated the time. It was already the afternoon, so she took the group to start camping. They propped up a big tent that could fit the whole family, then went out to find food.
Yan Qiyue was left to watch the children. Shao Qing and Er Dai separated, one went east and one went west. One was in charge of finding firewood and wild vegetables, while the other was in charge of hunting wild prey.
Er Dai couldn’t recognize the different kinds of wild vegetables that could be eaten, so that task was given to Shao Qing. Although Shao Qing said that she was mainly looking for wild vegetables, she would also attack if she encountered some prey that looked delicious.
After reaching the inner periphery, it was difficult to encounter mutant animals, unless they took the initiative to find them, such as picking the nest of others…… yes directly attacking the nests.
No matter how deep they hid, they couldn’t avoid Er Dai’s rummaging. He was quite sensitive in this respect.
Shao Qing parted the grass, looking for edible wild vegetables and mushrooms and fungus that grew under the trees. As long as it was edible, she would not let go of it.
Bruising away a piece of grass, she found a bunch of mushrooms that looked delicious. She picked them up and stuffed them into the space. She was about to change places when she looked up and saw an area full of man eating flowers not far away.
What does it mean to break through iron shoes and find nowhere to get it*? This was it!
* when searching for something you can’t find it, but would find it later when not putting in any effort
It was a whole area of man eating flowers. There were some that were small where their tender flowers had not yet bloomed, while some had teeth and claws.
There were two types of man eating flowers. One type had no leaves, only a huge flower head, and were rather short. They would emit a foul odor to attract insects and small animals.
The other was like Da Hua and it would chase people to eat them.
The former were clumped together. They tend to be grouped together row by row, exuding a rich flavor attracting many prey.
The latter kind were the killers in the jungle. They would usually coexist with one or two such plants, never more than three or four.
Here there were the same kind as Da Hua, one after another. They actually grew in one area, contrary to the usual customs of this kind.
Looking up, they were full of gorgeous flowers, shaking their heads, waiting for their prey to come close. Don’t think they look languid, as soon as the prey was close, they would quickly become ferocious hunters and devour the prey.
Shao Qing didn’t dare be careless. When she was near, she summoned her vines first. The dense vines tightly surrounded her for protection.
As soon as Shao Qing was close to the man eating flowers, those flowers quickly raised their heads. Some flowers closer to Shao Qing even opened their petals, exposing the sharp spikes hidden in the petals.
Then they were turned upside down by the vines.
After Shao Qing entered the flower bush, she looked like she was surrounded from the outside. All the man eating flowers turned their head towards her, staring at her, as if they wanted to dissect her into pieces.
There were too many man eating flowers here, especially around the outer perimeters. Most were not of high-grade. Shao Qing felt that she should release Da Hua to let it eat happily.
There was a sweet taste in the air. Contrary to this taste, the thorns of the man eating flower appeared in the air. Those sharp thorns, like fangs, shone with cold light.
Da Hua was released by Shao Qing. As soon as it came out, it saw the dense man eating flowers in front of it and it immediately rubbed its leaves and petals together. Then it attempted to get into the flowers and enjoy its meal.
Those man eating flowers had their heads arrogantly erected, even if they were held by the vines, they were still unyielding against Shao Qing.
But as soon as Da Hua came out, the very arrogant man eating flowers were immediately terrified. One by one, the flower heads hung down, as if they surrendered.
Yes, they surrendered. They surrendered under Da Hua’s “authority”. Da Hua was a rank 6 man eating flower. Just based on its rank, it already crushed them. It can be said that amongst the man eating flowers, Da Hua was a well-deserved king.
All the man eating flowers hung their heads, however, there was one that stretched out its leaves in anger, thin vines drilled out from underneath the leaves. In the air, it seemed like a group of demons dancing.
Shao Qing’s eyes lit up immediately, a high ranking man eating flower! Da Hua was already at rank six, but it was only recently that its vines were born. So this man eating flower in front of her might even be higher than Da Hua by a bit.
Wasn’t Shao Qing looking for a high ranking man eating flower?
This man-eating flower should be the king of this man-eating flower cluster. Before Da Hua came, it was the well-deserved number one. But with Da Hua’s arrival provoking its status, it had become angry.
Da Hua was raised by Shao Qing, so it had become maverick. Not to mention if it was a man eating flower that was a little stronger than it. Even if the flower was of the 7th or 8th rank, it would still arrogantly provoke it.
It was like a child who was spoiled since birth. As soon as they felt the provocative message from another man eating flower, it immediately opened its thick petals.
The petals on Da Hua were particularly thick and large. The diameter of its entire flower head was almost one meter. The outer petals were half a meter long, while the inner petals were softer and shorter. The ones often pulled at by Shao Qing were the ones on the inner layer.
Da Hua was already big, but this man eating flower was even bigger. The fat petals were red with purple. The sharp spikes like mouthparts were also longer than Da Huas.
Da Hua was very dissatisfied. Since it followed Shao Qing, it always had the mentality that Shao Qing was the boss and it was the vice captain. How could it allow itself to be overwhelmed by another?
At once, the roots jumped over. The tender tentacles extended in the wind and turned into long vines that shot quickly towards the other flower.
The vines of the man-eating flowers immediately reached out, and in the air, confronted Da Hua. The man eating flowers around them all dropped their heads honestly, lying on the ground, trembling.
This was a battle between two kings. All they could do was just be on the sidelines and to shrink down carefully so as not to be affected.
The man eating flower was a bit higher ranked than Da Hua. It stands to reason that it was stronger than Da Hua, but behind Da Hua was Shao Qing who provided energy and power. Thus, the two flowers were at a stalemate.
Shao Qing calmly watched the two flowers beating each other up and down, then ordered Da Hua: “Don’t break it. You know I need it to provide me with corrosive liquid, if it breaks down, you will be the replacement and will be kept in the laboratory to provide corrosive liquids every day.”
Da Hua was so frightened that its petals flickered and it didn’t dare to be arrogant anymore.
Shao Qing took advantage of their fighting skills and released Guang Guang. As soon as the Guang Guang took root in the soil, it stretched out its leaves comfortably. Shao Qing found that it was going to upgrade.
At the moment of taking root in the soil, Guang Guang’s roots absorbed a plump source of energy and even passed it into Shao Qing’s body.
Shao Qing obtained a dagger and cut open the dense man eating flowers. She then found that the land below was red.
The sweet taste didn’t come from the flowers, but from the red soil. If you step on it, you can see red liquid oozing out of the soil, like blood.
Shao Qing was sure that this soil contained a lot of energy. It was able to support such a group of man eating flowers, and also allow a king to appear among them.
This was good stuff.
Shao Qing pinched a bit of the soil and twisted it within her fingers. The red soil was very fine, just like fine sand left behind after being washed away by water countless times on the beach.
After the soft soil was pinched, it left a light red color on Shao Qing’s fingers. It smelled very sweet.
The sweet smell that can be smelled with the nose was overwhelming. Shao Qing ordered Da Hua: “Extend your roots down.”
The unknowing Da Hua who was used to obeying Shao Qing’s orders did as commanded. When its root quickly plunged into the ground, in a moment, it felt like it was floating through the energy flowing into its body.
There was also a part of energy flowing into Shao Qing’s body. Shao Qing couldn’t help but release all of her babies. The roots of the vines, Qiu Tang, all of them plunged into the ground. Shao Qing had the illusion that she was about to be promoted to the middle of the sixth rank.
No, it wasn’t an illusion. If she stayed here with her plants for a while, it is estimated that she can really break through to the middle of the sixth rank.
The higher the level, the more difficult it was to break through. At her level, she was absorbing advanced zombie crystal cores every day, but her daily progress was only a little bit.
Shao Qing estimated that if there were no special circumstances, it would take her more than a year to break through to the middle of the sixth rank. But now? The period of one year was solved in an hour.
What speed is this?
Shao Qing was not willing to let Da Hua finish off the man eating flower. She wanted to move a small bench over, open some sunflower seeds and watch the show, while absorbing energy.
That would be awesome.
But after thinking about it, she gave up. This was because she had to go back to cook. The earth was important, the sky was important, but cooking was the most important. She couldn’t allow the big babies in her family to starve.
As Shao Qing raised her hand, countless vines flew out and bound the man eating flower tightly. At the same time, Guang Guang began to tremble. Specks of light slowly fell down, looking very beautiful.
But as long as these little light specks fell on the petals or leaves of the man eating flowers, the man eating flower would slowly become paralyzed, losing all its strength.
Even the largest flower was no exception.
Da Hua: ……
It just finished warming up!
It hasn’t exercised for a long time and finally there was a rival with a good balance, so it can finally fight a battle. But now it was finished off by the master.
It couldn’t tell whether it was sad or happy.
Shao Qing pulled the huge man eating flower out of the soil and it became more decadent as soon as he left the soil. Shao Qing tied it tightly to prevent its escape. Once she returned, she would give it to Yan Qiyue to allow him to squeeze out the corrosive juice in its body.
If it can be honest and obedient, Shao Qing might keep it to extract corrosive juice once more. If it was not obedient, it didn’t matter. Once all its corrosive juice in its body is squeezed out, she could let Da Hua eat it.
How can she waste it? =v=
The decadent man eating flower couldn’t help but tremble. It curled up its leaves. Without this flower, Da Hua was really the tyrant in this place.
It rushed up, picked a few good man eating flowers and swallowed each one directly. The remaining man eating flowers all lay on the ground pitifully, while expressing surrender and fear.
Shao Qing glanced at it and ordered Da Hua to take its little brothers to the side. She wanted to take away the soil.
Under the order of Da Hua, those man eating flower reluctantly obeyed. Of course, there was some disobedience, but they all became Da Hua’s food rations.
A bunch of man eating flowers pulled themselves out of the ground. They touched the ground with their roots. The leaves ran away holding the flower head. It was very funny to observe.
After they left, they stood in a row from high to low, tremblingly waiting for Da Hua.
Shao Qing flicked her sleeves, getting ready to dig three feet into the ground.
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