Shen Feng, as the Lord of Yuzhou City, was already a de facto regional overlord. Every move he made was closely watched. Even a casual remark from him would be recorded as part of his success quotes, making him an unparalleled achiever in the eyes of others. When he led six thousand soldiers downstream to participate in disaster relief, many people reacted to this.
Among them, General Xie of Rongcheng, upon hearing of Shen Feng's actions, immediately slapped the table and laughed, saying to those around him, "I told you Shen Feng could be brought into the fold, didn't I? I was right! Even though he occupies Yuzhou, he still saves people and helps the world. Such a person should be decisively accepted!"
General Xie was stationed in Rongcheng and could not leave freely. His soldiers were also busy hunting mutated beasts, so he was powerless to assist with the disaster situation in Jingxiang. However, as soon as Shen Feng departed from Yuzhou, General Xie immediately responded.
The train between Rongcheng and Yuzhou was now operational, a change brought about by Chang Jianyi's return from Rongcheng. Rongcheng's supplies could also reach Yuzhou swiftly.
Rongcheng urgently allocated a batch of tents, which were sent to Yuzhou via train and then handed over to Shen Feng. The disaster victims found it difficult to find shelter in the mountains, and it was constantly raining, leading to countless cases of fever and colds. Tents were of utmost importance at this time, providing shelter from wind and rain.
Meanwhile, in Jiucheng, Dong Chao returned and found the base leader Xue Ba. Although he failed to bring back reinforcements, he had initiated trade with Yuzhou. As long as there was grain and zombie corpses, they could exchange for firearms, ammunition, and even evolution bases!
Dong Chao couldn't understand why Yuzhou needed zombie corpses. "Could it be that they are really making canned food to supplement their subordinates' protein intake?" he muttered to himself, fiddling with his prayer beads.
Xue Ba scoffed upon hearing this. "Nonsense. Those who were caught making rat meat cans in Yuzhou before were punished and sent to mine. Do you think they would make zombie cans? I think it's for experiments, perhaps to crush them into fertilizer."
Dong Chao nodded, thinking his boss saw things more clearly.
However, Dong Chao then had another question: "This is strange. Why would Shen Feng go to help with disaster relief? It's a thankless task, consuming his strength for nothing. Isn't he just asking for trouble?"
In Dong Chao's opinion, Shen Feng leading his men to help with disaster relief was completely exhausting and unrewarding. He would gratuitously take in a group of disaster victims, only to waste food to support them without any short-term return. It would be better to let these people fend for themselves and focus on developing his own事業. This was what a formidable figure should do.
Xue Ba looked at Dong Chao, then at the prayer beads in his hand, and couldn't help but frown. "What are you using Buddhism for? Is it just to spoil the mood at critical moments? Shen Feng is probably acting out of conscience."
"Conscience, how much does that cost per pound?" Dong Chao said with a smile, fiddling with his prayer beads. "Brother, you know me. I like to appear compassionate to the world in front of people, and act wantonly behind their backs. Acting with two faces is the only way to deceive the world."
Dong Chao openly admitted at this moment that he was a deceiver. No matter how compassionate he had seemed to the world before, it was all an act. In reality, he didn't care about the suffering of others.
In fact, Dong Chao's disguise did work. Because Lin Yue witnessed him deliberately saving people outside Jiangyang City, Lin Yue formed a preconceived notion and treated Dong Chao as an unreasonable do-gooder. From this perspective, Dong Chao's disguise had deceived many, including Lin Yue.
Xue Ba picked up a bottle of evolution base jelly and murmured, "It's a pity I'm not an ability user. Otherwise, I would have taken Jiucheng by now and wouldn't have to look at others' faces. However, I heard that if you have an ability user's head, you can transfer their abilities. Is this true?"
Xue Ba was determined to take Jiucheng as soon as possible to establish a base. Then, he would find a way to assassinate an ability user and secretly transfer their abilities to himself. Only then would he truly succeed, prosper, and no longer be a mortal.
In the South China region, Wang Aoye's underground market had also been successfully established. Civilian organizations began trading in secret, with weapons and food being transacted through the underground network. His established underground website also attracted more participants.
Wang Aoye sat in his luxurious office. The desk and chairs were made of rosewood, and the carpet was an expensive imported item. The heavy rain in Central China did not affect him. Although it was also drizzly in summer, he was by the sea, and disasters like floods were still too far away from him.
Wang Aoye looked at the intelligence in his hand and muttered to himself, "Shen Feng is leading soldiers to help with disaster relief? Remarkable. He seems like an idealist. Let him be busy. Anyway, he's in Yuzhou, and I'm in the Southeast. We don't interfere with each other. It's just a pity that I can't get evolution bases."
Wang Aoye's biggest concern at this moment was evolution bases. He had several ability users under him, all of whom were third-tier ability users, but they had all encountered an evolution bottleneck and could not break through no matter what. Without evolution bases, it was likely that all his subordinates would be stuck at the third tier.
At this moment, Wang Aoye also began to doubt, "How does Shen Feng have so many evolution bases to trade? Even the Yanjing Laboratory doesn't have such a large supply. Could he have other methods for producing evolution bases? Why haven't I encountered such good fortune?"
Although Wang Aoye was only the lord of a small city, he had actually become the uncrowned king of the Southeast region by monopolizing underground trade. He also had over four thousand soldiers under his command, and in terms of combat effectiveness, they were among the elite of civilian organizations.
Wang Aoye's biggest annoyance was the laboratory. While others' laboratories were thriving, his own laboratory had failed to research anything, which was truly frustrating.
Wang Aoye heard that Shen Feng had a large supply of evolution bases, reportedly produced by the laboratory, as it was observed that the laboratory frequently transported evolution bases outwards. Wang Aoye had also established his own laboratory but had not researched anything. Despite being laboratories, the gap was immense.
In Yanjing, Li Keyi couldn't help but show a proud expression upon hearing about Shen Feng's actions. She knew she hadn't misjudged Shen Feng; he was always a kind-hearted person.
"Shen Feng, Shen Feng, you're just a good person, but there are too few good people nowadays," Li Keyi sighed in her heart.
Li Keyi let out a long sigh and then continued to research extraterrestrial elements. In the South Pacific, the meteorite that caused the doomsday was still lying quietly at the bottom of the sea. If they couldn't understand the magnetic field around the meteorite, they wouldn't be able to salvage it, and the doomsday wouldn't end.
At present, Li Keyi continued to review documents and papers. The more critical the situation, the more important it was to understand the mysteries of the meteorite. The meteorite had only fallen to Earth for a year, and the Earth was already in chaos. Only by salvaging the meteorite could the doomsday be ended.
"The magnetic field couldn't have appeared out of nowhere. It must be caused by the meteorite itself, and humans and ordinary animals cannot approach this area," Li Keyi said to herself, looking at the documents. "So, how can we approach the meteorite? How can we resist the influence of the magnetic field?"
Li Keyi was speculating about what means could be used to approach the meteorite, but the current information was scarce. Even the warships that had gone to the meteorite sea area could not be contacted and were still floating at sea. No news could be transmitted. Satellites could see the ships, but they could not be remotely controlled.
Yuzhou Prefecture, although spanning the north and south of the Yangtze River, had more flat land in the north due to its terrain, with a part of it even being on the Sichuan plains. Conversely, the south was entirely mountainous. Therefore, both in terms of population and economy, the north of the Yangtze River surpassed the south.
After the doomsday descended, Yuzhou fell into Shen Feng's hands after several twists and turns. However, Shen Feng only cared about the northern region of the Yangtze River and was not very concerned about the southern region. After recapturing the southern areas, he simply relocated the people from the south to the north, leaving the deep mountains and old forests.
After all the people from the south migrated north, few remained in the mountains, and mutated beasts in the mountains were rapidly breeding.
"Ah, help! Help!" a young man ran out of the mountains. His clothes were tattered, indicating he had lived in the mountains for a long time. His emergence from the mountains was out of desperation.
The young man rushed into a small town, his birthplace, begging for help. He didn't want to die.
However, when the young man rushed into the town, he found nothing. Both zombies and humans had disappeared. There were many scattered debris on the ground, and faint black and red bloodstains could be seen on the ground, suggesting that the town had also experienced a battle.
Seeing the many bullet holes on the wall, Li Han felt a glimmer of hope. "Does this mean the zombies have been cleared out?"
"Help! Someone! Mutated beasts are coming, save me quickly!" Li Han shouted loudly, hoping to find companions to save him.
Li Han had fled into the mountains when the zombie outbreak occurred a year ago. He survived by eating wild fruits and drinking stream water, successfully evading the crisis brought about by the zombie outbreak. He had thought this was his most brilliant decision, but a year later, his thoughts changed. While there might not have been zombies in the mountains, there were endless mutated beasts!
Behind Li Han, countless mutated beasts rushed out. There were wild boars as large as elephants, rats as big as wild boars, and even cats and dogs that looked like tigers and leopards. These mutated beasts charged out of the forest and headed straight for Li Han.
Li Han was still shouting in the street, hoping someone would rush out to save him. However, all the townspeople had gone to the north bank of the Yangtze River, and there was no one in the town. Li Han wanted to seek help, but ultimately, no one appeared.
Suddenly, Li Han was pounced on from behind by a mutated cat, which bit his neck. Instantly, blood gushed out, Li Han's consciousness blurred, and he fell to the ground and died.
Li Han couldn't understand why the mountains were also so terrifying. Since the zombies were entrenched in the cities, the mountains should have been peaceful. But he couldn't comprehend why there were so many dangers in the mountains, and he had no opportunity to ponder this matter.
After mutating, the mutated beasts stayed in the mountains and wilderness for a long time. The reason was simple: cities were filled with hundreds of thousands of zombies. Once zombies formed a horde, it was a disaster of world-ending proportions. Mutated beasts were not foolish; they all stayed in the mountains to develop slowly. After a year of breeding, the number of mutated beasts in the mountains and wilderness had gradually increased.
Suddenly, a giant mountain demon rushed out of the mutated beast pack. The so-called mountain demon was actually a golden snub-nosed monkey.
The mutated golden snub-nosed monkeys that appeared here did not have golden and fluffy fur like the Sichuan golden snub-nosed monkeys, nor did they have thick red lips like the Yunnan golden snub-nosed monkeys. Instead, they had white fur on their cheeks and black fur all over their bodies. They were Guizhou golden snub-nosed monkeys, which were particularly ugly and looked fierce.
As the saying goes, when there are no tigers in the mountains, the monkeys become kings. In the southern region of Yuzhou, this situation had occurred, with ugly golden snub-nosed monkeys becoming the leaders of a group of mutated beasts.
Guizhou golden snub-nosed monkeys possessed simple intelligence. Upon arriving at the human town, it did not want to return to the mountains.
The mutated animals in the mountains were increasing, and the food available in the mountains was limited. If they continued to stay in the mountains, these mutated beasts would starve to death due to lack of food. After a winter passed, the number of mutated beasts had surged. With no food in the mountains, they had to descend the mountain to find something to eat.
The Guizhou golden snub-nosed monkey looked at the town and discovered the road leading north. It immediately pointed its finger northward, leading countless mutated beasts to charge out.
The monkey's intelligence told it that there was food in the north. To survive, they had to go north.
Thus, countless mutated beasts emerged from the mountains and advanced towards Yuzhou. This was a loosely formed group because most of these animals were omnivores. If they couldn't find wild fruits, they would eat the mutated animals around them. Dogs wouldn't eat their own kind, but they would still eat mutated cats if they caught them.
After the golden snub-nosed monkey pointed the direction for the other mutated animals, countless mutated beasts charged towards Yuzhou like wild horses that had broken free of their reins.
In Yuzhou, Chu Chaoyan and Chang Jianyi remained in the City Lord's Mansion to handle official business, awaiting Shen Feng's return after the disaster relief. The matter of resettling the disaster victims kept the City Lord's Mansion busy every day, forcing Chang Jianyi to recruit more staff.
The two of them were completely unaware of the impending crisis in Yuzhou.