The accompanying healing ability user realised something and quickly stepped forward to treat him.
But simple healing had limited effect on an ability riot. Even the healing ability user’s own energy space was chaotic, let alone treating someone else.
All their efforts were only psychological comfort, better than nothing.
The healing ability user clearly realised this too, and their face turned ashen.
The technical staff who had come for the exchange included not only Jing City personnel, but also D City personnel. Everyone had gathered to discuss technology together, and now they all felt a shared sorrow.
On the other hand, the people from Butterfly Garden who had come to receive them were a little confused. For a moment, they did not understand the situation. After asking someone familiar from D City, they finally realised: “Ah? Right, ability riots are a thing.”
That one sentence drew the attention of everyone in the vehicle.
The Jing City ability user asked, “You don’t have this illness?”
The Butterfly Garden ability user replied, “We used to, but I’ve been in Butterfly Garden for a year. I haven’t had ability-riot problems in a long time.”
The despairing Jing City technical team instantly perked up.
The vehicle heading toward Senyu Community drove even faster.
When they arrived, Cao Bingqing and her husband had people open the gates to welcome the guests. After learning the situation, they made an emergency registration and had the unconscious ability user taken to a warm guest room to lie down.
The house’s white light flickered, soothing every injury and pain in the unconscious ability user’s body.
Ten minutes later, the ability user’s breathing gradually stabilised, and they slowly opened their eyes.
Fu Erdie learned of this through the telegraph and let out a huge breath of relief.
Luckily, when the incident happened, that friend had not been far from Butterfly Garden. Otherwise, help would have been out of reach, and something would definitely have gone wrong.
The house’s soothing effect on energy spaces was relatively limited. It was not like treating external injuries, which could be healed in a few minutes. Since the Jing City ability users would be staying here for a long exchange, the house could help stabilise them a little every day. They would improve bit by bit, and by the Spring Festival, even the most severe ability user could fully recover.
This speed was actually much faster than Fu Erdie using ability push-pull herself. But Fu Erdie did not need to rush back now, and even if she did, she would not be able to smoothly use her push-pull ability. After all, except for her close friends, no one else could trust her that much.
The Spring Festival of the fourth year of the apocalypse arrived as scheduled.
Fu Erdie did not go home. Instead, she and Building Seven ate a lively reunion dinner with meat in An City’s snowy weather.
The meat was fresh chicken and fish sent from Butterfly Garden. Apparently, Butterfly Garden’s indoor temperature could now be maintained at around ten degrees with the reorganised electricity supplied by the generators. The mutated but edible chickens, ducks, and sheep were also growing well under special care. Some had even hatched many new chicks and ducklings.
A few restless plant cubs brought the food over and then shamelessly stayed in Building Seven, refusing to leave.
Fu Erdie was very happy. She stroked the mutated tomato of who-knew-which generation that had run over and did several rounds of push-pull for them to remove their fatigue.
It was a New Year’s Eve dinner rich in meat.
Besides the fresh frozen meat sent from home, there were also sausages and cured meat sent by D City Base and the local An City Base.
These meats were some of the few meat products they could offer. Especially for An City Base, five jin of meat had practically been saved from between their teeth. Even the base leader was so thin he looked like skin over bones and could not eat more than a few jin of meat in a whole year.
Fu Erdie thought for a moment and returned five jin of fresh duck meat. She also sent over corresponding crop seeds according to An City Base’s population.
An City Base’s situation was somewhat similar to Jian City Base’s. Both were ruled by ability users and had no ordinary people.
However, An City Base was relatively better in one respect. After learning Butterfly Garden’s requirements for acceptance, their reaction was not especially intense. There was even a hint of probing.
The attitude of a base manager could represent many things. At the very least, An City Base’s leader was more open than Jian City Base’s leader. Compared with the guilty things he had done, the fact that the base was starving and freezing was more urgent.
Fu Erdie estimated that if this base still struggled after receiving more food, they might try letting her use her ability to screen them.
In the world of ice and snow, Fu Erdie, Sang Wenhao, and the others did not go out to fight zombies, so life felt very relaxed. They usually practised abilities, taught the plants in Building Seven more human language, and lived comfortably.
By the end of February, Fu Erdie received two things at the same time: An City Base’s request for testing, and the information gathered by the two ability-user teams sent out.
The team that went to Miao Province Base found nothing unusual. They tried entering the base and discovered that it was simply surviving normally: fighting zombies every day, clearing newly mutated zombies inside the base, taking shifts to rest, and taking shifts to guard the city walls in all directions.
There was infrastructure, but not much. There were no large operating power plants. What they had were supermarket-style diesel generators used for necessary communication and other electricity needs.
He Xuan’s team, however, had a rather dangerous experience.
They first went to Ning City Base in the east, which was closer to Qing City Base.
Ning City was coastal, and a large area had previously been flooded.
Later, when the temperature plunged and the ice-snow period began, the water level dropped, but many ice shards, ice floes, and even ice mountains formed by the wind constantly slamming and piling ice together made the road to Ning City Base especially difficult.
By the time they crossed countless hardships and reached the area around Ning City, Tan Haoge and Xin Nuo, who had originally come from the hellish Qing City, became instantly alert. They stopped the group from continuing forward and instead found a place to hide for a while.
The dandelions could help conceal their scent, and the snowstorm sealed off the small rural bungalow where they hid. For a while, it blended into the surrounding snow-white mountain body and was almost impossible to see.
The seven members of the team had mostly not known one another before setting off. Out of trust in Fu Erdie and Butterfly Garden, they chose to trust these unfamiliar teammates and wait patiently.
And this wait lasted an entire month.
A month sounded harsh, but it was actually not especially hard to endure. After all, they had intelligent plants for cleaning and food, and Tan Haoge’s fire ability for warmth. Once they hid, there was no wind, rain, or hail battering them, so they were rarely comfortable.
They just had something weighing on their minds, always wanting to gather more information. So even in comfort, they were not at peace.
One month later, through the wind, snow, and ice, they saw a large group of zombies being led over. The zombies staggered into the relatively flat valley where the villagers lived. There were endless, densely packed zombies. No one knew if there were tens of thousands or millions of them. They were being drawn by some kind of force and stopped there blankly. Then the person leading the zombies took a zombie torso from a suitcase and let it gnaw on the unmoving zombie horde.
At this point, what else could the group fail to understand?
This mountain forest was where Ning City Base fed zombie kings!
However…
Ning City was downstream, with many plains. If they wanted to feed zombie kings, they could absolutely find a more open place. Why insist on feeding them here?
The group looked at one another and continued suppressing themselves, quietly observing.
Every time the zombie king ate one zombie, its limbs quickly grew back. But the ability user guarding it naturally would not allow the zombie king to grow properly. Every time a little regrew, it was chopped off. Even though this was being done to a zombie, the scene was still unusually bloody.
That ability user’s mind was clearly already somewhat twisted. Looking at such a bloody scene, he accepted it easily and laughed strangely. His perverted laughter spread throughout the whole valley.
Tan Haoge and Xin Nuo were silent.
In Qing City, they had long since become used to this.
But the others, who had never truly witnessed the process of raising a zombie king, grimaced and suppressed the urge to retch.
Another half month passed, and the zombie king finished eating all these zombies.
But then a new ability user led over a new batch of zombies.
And so another half-month feeding began.
Fortunately, after this batch of zombies was eaten, they did not bring any more. Instead, they took the zombie king away.
“What do we do? Follow them? Or report directly to Butterfly Garden?”
After discussion, the group decided to report by telegraph first.
However, as soon as the telegraph machine was assembled and connected to the specific frequency, He Xuan, who was wearing headphones and in charge of sending the telegram, heard a sharp, high-frequency shriek coming through the headphones.
The telegraph machine crackled. Just before it was about to be destroyed, He Xuan immediately cut the power and quickly put the machine into her backpack.
“This place is dangerous. Run!”
Everyone immediately understood.
Captain He Xuan’s luck-based warning mechanism had sounded the alarm!
The group made an immediate decision and fled according to He Xuan’s instincts.
They had just rushed out a hundred metres when the small bungalow covered in ice and snow, where they had lived for two months, instantly turned into ruins.
A huge monster, as large as five elephants, descended from the sky and smashed a large section of the village houses.
The monster had an elephant’s body, a chicken’s head, a snake’s tail, and… human facial features.
There were no obvious rotting areas on its body, but from its pitch-black eyes, they could initially judge that this was a zombie.
He Xuan took the measuring device from her pocket and casually measured it.
It was actually sixth rank!
They no longer cared about hiding and ran desperately.
The elephant-shaped zombie was not especially fast, but while moving, it emitted high-frequency noise.
Some frequencies were too high for human ears to hear, but they still caused dizziness and slowed people down unconsciously.
Some frequencies were lower and within the range of human hearing, but people wished they could not hear at all.
That sharp, piercing vibration and screech made their brains go blank, their ears bleed, and their eyes turn red. Forget hearing—even their vision was greatly affected.
But perhaps because of Captain He Xuan’s luck buff, after they passed a mountain with the wind behind them, the wind direction suddenly became chaotic. Going downhill was still with the wind, but the road behind them, where the elephant-shaped zombie climbed uphill, suddenly became against the wind, and it was a very strong headwind within the chaotic currents.
Its body became unstable, and it actually slipped on the mountain slope.
He Xuan continued fleeing. After running day and night for two days, they finally dared to rest a little.
However, when they took out the telegraph machine again and connected the power, they had only sent the beginning of two characters when that explosive warning sounded again. The elephant-shaped zombie, which had clearly been shaken off far behind them, descended from the sky again.
Clearly, it had some kind of mechanism linked to the electromagnetic waves of the telegraph machine. Within a certain range, it could instantly teleport to the source location of the telegraph.
The telegram Butterfly Garden received from He Xuan was sent while they were fleeing.
Fu Erdie immediately replied, telling them to lead the zombie to Ning River, follow the river upstream, and head toward An City. Safety came first, and unless absolutely necessary, they should not send more telegrams.
After replying, Fu Erdie immediately set off. She took Building Seven to the Ning River beside An City. The river surface was now frozen, covered with a thick layer of snow, connected into one vast white expanse with the surrounding land.
Under Fu Erdie’s guidance, Succulent used its smooth fleshy leaves as feet.
Spider Plant remained the most agile cub. It extended its leaves diagonally forward from the roof, stretching them very, very long, clearing the snow and obstacles from the ice ahead.
Pothos extended many huge green leaves densely from the first floor, holding against the ice surface like paddles. With one strong push, the whole Building Seven slid out over the ice like a curling stone.
Curling stones needed someone to clear the path so they could slide smoothly and far. Spider Plant was clearly especially good at this.
Its clearing movements were so fast they almost became afterimages, sweeping flat everything ahead, even the raised chunks of ice and large ice shards.
The other plants also extended their branches, leaves, and roots as much as they could to clear the obstacles ahead.
Boss Pothos continued applying force, constantly paddling with the green pothos leaves, giving Building Seven forward momentum.
In this way, the plants of Building Seven cooperated more and more smoothly, more and more tacitly, and their speed also grew faster and faster.
Sang Wenhao tried to imitate Spider Plant by extending a metal frame from the rooftop toward the road ahead on the glacier, rigidly clearing the path.
However, the metal was too hard, and the screeching sound of it scraping against the ice was unbearable. So Sang Wenhao gave up.
Millet, however, was inspired and took over Sang Wenhao’s clearing task.
Millet had always been the hardest among all the plants in Building Seven. But its growth and shaping speed were relatively slow. After twenty minutes, it finally formed a huge clearing frame.
Millet’s stalks curved into a square shape, opening the road straight ahead. The other plants filled the panel inside the square frame, blocking the snow and debris outside the panel.
Building Seven slid down along the relatively smooth ice surface, with the panel clearing new ground ahead.
Once enough snow and debris piled up, Pothos would quickly push the clutter to both sides, then continue forward and continue piling more.
Pothos and Succulent also constantly adjusted their positions, increasing the speed.
In this way, the huge Building Seven slid rapidly across the ice surface as if skiing down a dedicated track.
Snow-covered cities, villages, and vast ice plains passed before them one by one, carrying a trace of beauty amid ruin.
Fu Erdie looked at the scenery outside and sent meaningless telegraph signals.
She was not transmitting information. She was testing the monster’s pursuit range.
Perhaps once she reached a certain position and entered the monster’s sensing range, it would switch pursuit targets, abandon He Xuan, Xin Nuo, and the others, and pursue Building Seven instead.
After sliding over winding ice for a whole day, the ability fluctuation detector suddenly lit up red.
The sky was already dark. Fu Erdie activated x-ray vision and looked into the pitch-black sky. Sure enough, a huge elephant-shaped zombie descended from above and charged straight toward Building Seven.
Building Seven was very fast and had just passed a bend. The elephant-shaped zombie smashed into the ice where Building Seven had just passed.
The ice surface shattered, opening a large hole. The elephant-shaped zombie and Building Seven both sank into the river.
The plants in Building Seven sealed the doors and windows and freed up internal space, letting the building float toward the river surface. At the same time, Pothos stretched its branches and leaves toward the bottom of the lake, wrapped around the elephant-shaped zombie’s head, and, with Fu Erdie activating Cen Xiyang’s vacuum ability, caused an instant inward explosion. The elephant-shaped zombie’s head was crushed flat, and the crystal core inside was taken out.
However, the elephant-shaped zombie did not die. The monitoring device was still sounding the alarm.
And it was still sixth rank.
As if to verify this result, a sharp, high-frequency, high-energy sound wave attacked everyone’s brains. Even though Fu Erdie was one rank higher than the elephant-shaped zombie, she still experienced a brief moment of tinnitus and dizziness.
Fu Erdie was about to continue using Cen Xiyang and Han Zhi’s abilities, but discovered that her close friends’ energy spaces were in chaos.
The sound wave attack did not only attack the brain and cause sluggishness and dizziness. It could directly affect energy spaces too?!
Fu Erdie’s gaze sharpened. She pushed and pulled with Succulent and Pothos, helping them rapidly recover their state and retreat from the water toward shore.
Compared with humans, plants had stronger resistance to sound wave attacks. Once on shore, Fu Erdie could use the dandelion’s wind ability.
At that moment, far away on the eastern coastline, a man with completely white eyes curled his lips.
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