Chapter 561: Might as well join this big force!

The scenes happening in the satellite village naturally wouldn't be known on Tianmayu. All they could do was strictly defend. As the art of war says, to attack, one must first defend; to defend, one must first be solid.

Zhong Xiaoshan led people in meticulously checking for potential oversights. Meanwhile, in the Emerald Cold Pavilion, two people had already woken up from their comas: the wounded Liu Tianji and Ke Zhiyu, who had been transported back by Tachibana Mai.

"Little Liu, you... how are you feeling?"

Duan Wuhu looked at Liu Tianji, who was tied up tightly on the bed, a strange expression on his face. He asked from a distance of four or five meters.

Beside him, Fu Weijun sat in a wheelchair. He wanted to move closer, but the wheelchair was held by Duan Wuhu and couldn't move. Xie Yanshan stood by the wall, frowning, clearly deep in thought.

"I... I..."

Liu Tianji spoke, his voice hoarse and clearly different from his previous voice. He could also feel something was wrong; otherwise, the three of them wouldn't be standing two fathoms away.

"My eyes, the way I see things is different. Black and white. Everything I see has become black and white."

Liu Tianji didn't know that his eyes were already different from before, as if a layer of fogged-up mosaic had been added over his original pupils.

"Dr. Fu, am... am I better? I feel like I have a lot of strength in my body. Will I not turn into a zombie?"

Liu Tianji asked nervously.

Duan Wuhu didn't answer Liu Tianji's question but looked at Ke Zhiyu and asked: "Little Ke, what about you?"

"My... my feeling is similar to Brother Liu's, but my head hurts so much, it hurts..."

The expression on Ke Zhiyu's face was indeed not as relaxed as Liu Tianji's.

"Except for Qiu Hui, Yu Jiaohua, Guo Fenfang, and the four sent back last night, the concentration and dosage of the blocking fluid injected were the same, but only these two woke up. Individual differences are very obvious."

Fu Weijun held a notebook, recording data related to the treatment.

Xie Yanshan nodded thoughtfully and sighed: "It's a pity there's no way to further study the relationship between individual differences. I checked Yu Jiaohua earlier; her vital signs are already very weak. I estimate..."

Yu Jiaohua hadn't chosen to cut off the bitten part. After injecting the blocking fluid, unlike Qiu Hui, who had woken up halfway, her current condition was not optimistic.

The ones who reacted best were Liu Tianji and Ke Zhiyu. Not only did they wake up, but they also hadn't turned into zombies, though there were some changes in their appearance. As for other changes, it was still unknown.

"Little Liu, Little Ke, I'll ask directly: do you have any feeling of losing consciousness? Can you control your bodies autonomously?"

Seeing that the two researchers were ignoring the patients, Duan Wuhu had to take the initiative to ask if they could be untied and get a definitive answer.

Liu Tianji and Ke Zhiyu looked at each other, then looked at Duan Wuhu and nodded.

"Brother Duan, have we... have we successfully resisted the zombie transformation?"

Liu Tianji asked with slight excitement.

"For now, it seems so!"

Fu Weijun suddenly chimed in, turning to look at Liu Tianji's gray pupils: "Based on current reactions, your blocking was very successful. However, we cannot lift the restrictions yet. We need to observe for another day or two. I hope you can understand."

"Really?" A happy smile appeared on Liu Tianji's face, and he nodded vigorously: "Understand, understand, understand, I understand completely. Heavens, I'm really saved. That's great. Thank you, thank you all."

"Thank you, thank you all..."

Ke Zhiyu's head still hurt, but he didn't forget to thank Fu Weijun and the others along with Liu Tianji.

"No need to thank us. We are also crossing the river by feeling the stones. Strictly speaking, you are just..."

"Alright, alright, let them rest. Let's go, let's go check on the other patients. That, Little Liu, Little Ke, if you have any needs, just call out. We always have someone on duty. Lie down, lie down and rest."

Duan Wuhu knew very well what ghost talk Fu Weijun was about to say, so he hurriedly interrupted and pushed him away.

"Rest, we'll have someone bring you some food in a while. It's fine now."

Xie Yanshan was slightly more humane than Fu Weijun. He walked to the bedside to help Liu Tianji and Ke Zhiyu lie down before leaving.

"Actually..."

After Xie Yanshan closed the door, Liu Tianji whispered: "I can feel that my strength is greater than before. What about you? Do you have any special feelings too?"

Ke Zhiyu, who was lying on the bed trying to suppress his headache, heard Liu Tianji speak, turned his head, and revealed a strange expression: "I'm the same. I feel energetic and full of vitality."

"Is there a possibility that we weren't controlled by the zombie virus, but gained some benefits that only zombies have? Haha."

Liu Tianji lay on the bed, and thinking of this, he couldn't help but laugh.

"Brother Liu, you're really optimistic..." Ke Zhiyu was infected by Liu Tianji's laughter and also squeezed out a smile.

In the next room, Fu Weijun nodded and said: "They have unknown changes. We need to continue observing, at least until we report to Mr. Zhang before making plans."

On the mountain, people on Tianmayu were busy with their respective duties, and it was just as lively in the satellite village at the foot of the mountain.

Deciding to go up the mountain together, Meng Changwei didn't dawdle. He organized the combat personnel and brought weapons—eighteen people in total. Leaving some brothers and a few aunts and young wives to continue tidying up in the village, they set off with the Flying Wolf Gang.

On the road out of the village, the thirty-person team was unusually silent. Everyone was calculating things in their hearts, and no one spoke.

"Eh? Boss, there's movement over there. It seems... there are cars!"

Just out of the village, the terrain was open and the view was good. Skinny Monkey was the first to notice some cars flashing out from behind the buildings that had been blocking their view from the south.

The group stood their ground immediately, each person wearing a different expression.

The Flying Wolf Gang members looked at each other, secretly thinking, *We can't be this unlucky, right? We just made up a lie that Zhang Su kicked the bucket, and now Zhang Su is back? *

The Daciaobao Township people were vigilant, not only against the Flying Wolf Gang but also against the convoy driving from afar.

From the dozen or so cars initially seen, it slowly became twenty, thirty, the number kept increasing, as if there was no end...

"In the middle of nowhere, besides Tianmayu, there's probably no one else who could have this kind of formation. Zhang Su, are you considering explaining this to me?"

Meng Changwei took a step back and looked at Zhang Su beside him. A micro-submachine gun was already in his hand, and the safety was off—or rather, it hadn't been on since they left the village.

Even the boss had a gun out. The tense atmosphere spread instantly, and the two sides separated into two groups, looking nervous. Only a middle-aged man with inconvenient legs walked slowly, and eventually just stood between the two groups. "This... Old Meng, don't, don't misunderstand!"

Cold sweat broke out on Zhang Su's back. Their Flying Wolf Gang had only two guns in total: one shotgun belonging to Xie Guangfa, and one musket, and neither had any bullets. Meanwhile, half of the other side's combat personnel were equipped with weapons, and as far as he knew, they had plenty of ammunition.

If a conflict broke out, his side would be dead or injured.

"Then tell me, what did I misunderstand? Isn't this Boss Zhang's convoy? Hmm..."

Meng Changwei pointed toward the provincial highway. As a result, after he finished speaking, even he was a bit confused.

Seeing Meng Changwei's strange expression, Skinny Monkey followed his gaze and quickly understood the reason.

Thirty or forty cars would have been easy to explain, but as time passed, it was like counting trains at a crossing when you were a kid—there was simply no end in sight. In just this short while, the convoy had stretched out for hundreds of meters, with at least a hundred cars, and they still hadn't seen the tail of the convoy! "Oh my, this is truly a misunderstanding, Boss Meng. Look, there are probably a hundred cars here. This, this, how the hell is there even a tank? How could this possibly be Boss Zhang's convoy!"

Following Skinny Monkey's words, the hundreds-of-meters-long convoy on the provincial highway finally emerged completely from behind the buildings, moving majestically toward the north. There were all kinds of styles and types of vehicles. The beat-up box truck leading the way wasn't very imposing, but the tank bringing up the rear was quite domineering.

Tanks weren't rare; Meng Changwei knew Tianmayu had one—they had gotten one from the Green Dragon Legion back then. But that was a heavy tank, and the one in the distance was clearly a light tank. Although he wasn't a military enthusiast, the two differed by nearly twenty tons. Just by looking at the size, he could tell they weren't the same thing, even if he only had one eye left.

Even if Tianmayu had somehow gotten a light tank later, there were just too many cars on the road. Just driving one car each would require a hundred people, and every car roof was tied with zombie corpses. This was clearly a large survivor camp migrating!

"In my opinion, this absolutely cannot be Tianmayu's convoy."

Seeing the majestic convoy, Zhang Su secretly breathed a sigh of relief. His thinking was similar to Meng Changwei's—he thought this should be some large force relocating.

"Looking at the direction the convoy is coming from, it should be Qincheng. It couldn't be the Righteous Path Society from Tang Cheng, that's several hundred kilometers away, it's too far. Could it be... something happened in Qincheng?"

Someone from Daciaobao Township asked. This was the first reaction of most people.

Meng Changwei frowned, slowly put the gun back into the holster, and shook his head to indicate he didn't know.

"Instead of going to grab territory from those few groups at Tianmayu, why don't we find a way to join this larger force? Old Meng, what do you say?"

Zhang Su saw Meng Changwei put away his gun out of the corner of his eye, and the tense atmosphere eased instantly. His mind became active again.

This suggestion was instantly approved by quite a few people, not just the Flying Wolf Gang, but even some from Daciaobao Township secretly agreed.

The defensive conditions of the satellite village were worrying, as everyone could see. If there was a better place to go, they shouldn't give it up.

Meng Changwei listened carefully. Zhang Su had said "grab territory from those few groups," and he secretly pondered that it shouldn't be a lie if it slipped out inadvertently. It seemed something really had happened on Tianmayu.

How could he know that this was Zhang Su's superior quality: to deceive others, one must first deceive oneself. Only then could the lie look more real! There was no time to think carefully about what happened on the mountain; the choice that needed to be made was right in front of them.

"You say it easily. Such a large force, at least several hundred people, would they just accept survivors casually?"

Meng Changwei looked at the convoy slowly approaching from afar, a look of hesitation on his face.

"So what if it's a big force? No matter how big the force is, isn't it still made up of people? We have so many people, each one capable and strong. Any survivor camp would welcome us. Let's go, Old Meng, shall we go up and ask about the situation first?"

Zhang Su tried his best to invite Meng Changwei, or rather, wanted to drag the people of Daciaobao Township along, because the Flying Wolf Gang was too shabby to be worth looking at...

Now, the twelve remaining members of the Flying Wolf Gang could all pick up weapons to kill zombies, but they basically had no supplies and no decent weapons. Their dress and appearance were particularly miserable—pure refugee style. The people of Daciaobao Township were different: they had weapons, supplies, and were dressed much more decently! Meng Changwei looked at the massive convoy slowly approaching, the uniform speed of movement, the orderly tied-up zombie corpses. Through some car windows without tint, he could see the inside was packed tight, proving that whether it was people or goods, the carriages were filled to the brim.

Regardless of the armed force, just in terms of supplies, number of people, and discipline, this convoy was impeccable. Even the Green Dragon Legion and Tianmayu he had dealt with before, or even the large forces in the Shanhai District, couldn't compare!

The feeling of being inferior made Meng Changwei hesitate. He turned his head to look at his own brothers, only to see them all nodding. The meaning was clear: *Let's go. *

"Let's go, go up and ask about the situation!"

Meng Changwei made up his mind and waved his hand. Everyone followed him forward.

Before things completely fell apart, the Flying Wolf Gang would still listen to Meng Changwei's command, provided it didn't harm their own interests...

"Oh? Boss Meng and the others are here?"

On the tank, Zhang Su was talking to Zhong Xiaoshan.

"Yes. Not long after we finished breakfast this morning, they arrived. I counted roughly, there are over forty people, mostly male. I didn't open the gate and arranged for them to stay in Village No. 1."

"Over forty people? I remember Meng Changwei told me back then that they only had that many people. Did they abandon their original camp to come to us?"

Zhang Su felt a bit suspicious. Like Absolute Justice and Niuyazi, suffering heavy losses and then fleeing together was understandable. If the camp wasn't in danger, why relocate?

Soon, Zhong Xiaoshan answered Zhang Su's doubt. Her voice sounded inside the tank: "Hmm... Tachibana Mai said it shouldn't just be the people from Daciaobao Township, or maybe there are people from other camps. In short, the situation is a bit complicated. They also have disagreements internally."

"Sakura said that?"

Zhang Su frowned. If someone else said it, it would be based on inference, but Tachibana Mai's words were different. After all, she had abilities beyond ordinary people, so the credibility was relatively high.

"Fine, Xiaoshan, I know..."

"Big Brother, damn it, a group of people came out of Village No. 1, they aren't our people!"

Zhang Su hadn't finished talking to Zhong Xiaoshan when the walkie-talkie used for contact within the convoy rang. Zhao Dezhu's shouting was very loud.

"We ran into them. Xiaoshan, you first..."

"No, Big Brother, it seems to be Meng from Daciaobao!"

Before he could finish his closing sentence, Zhao Dezhu's voice sounded again.

Zhang Su simply couldn't be bothered to reply to Zhong Xiaoshan. Hearing Zhao Dezhu's shouting, she also knew what was going on, so she picked up the walkie-talkie and gave the order: "Everyone stop!"

*Pfft, sss, creak creak... *

When the order to stop was conveyed, all vehicles hit the brakes. Suddenly, all kinds of strange breakdown sounds, accompanied by the friction of some brake pads and the sound of car frames unable to bear the load, played on the provincial highway like an alternative symphony.

The convoy, which stretched for nearly two miles from beginning to end, stopped steadily. Meng Changwei and his group, who were walking carefully on the ridge of the field, were so scared they didn't dare to move on the spot. Car head to car tail, car tail to car head—this convoy, which you couldn't see the end of even if you twisted your neck, looked like a single entity in their eyes.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 562 =====