Published: February 9, 2025
The horde of dried corpses began to appear in everyone's sight.
These corpses, which had been controlled by the Yama Tree and lingering outside, finally all emerged onto the battlefield, adding to the thickness of the Yama Tree's formation.
No one knew how many dried corpses there were in Linhai; it was a question that would never have an answer. Perhaps only the Yama Tree itself had a rough estimate of the number.
However, when these dried corpses began to appear before people, it brought an immense pressure, like a mountain.
Indeed, dried corpses lacked energy and vitality. They fought relying on their hardened bodies and a second circulatory system to remain alive. An evolver could easily deal with a dried corpse that was one level higher in life before death.
But when these individually weak beings appeared in groups, fearlessly confronting death, anyone would find it challenging.
Battles sometimes depend not only on strength but also on psychology.
Evolvers only have one life; they are bound to fear death. After surviving for a year in the apocalypse, they understood a principle: it’s better to confront a stronger opponent of their own kind than to face a weaker one when there are more than ten zombies.
Now, even though dried corpses were not as powerful as zombies, their sheer number caused everyone’s hearts to sink.
Ye Zhongming had no way to deal with this either. Since he chose to encircle and kill the Yama Tree, he had to take on significant risks. The dried corpses were within his calculations.
From another perspective, Ye Zhongming had never intended to eliminate these dried corpses; he only wanted to achieve the result of killing the Yama Tree. Once the Yama Tree was dead, these corpses would probably die automatically. As for before the Yama Tree's death... weren’t there plenty of cannon fodder?
Ruan Xiao began to think of seizing treasures for himself and spread the news to attract more survivors to explore here. He wanted these people to share the danger so he could take advantage of the situation.
Ye Zhongming had the same idea.
Despicable? Heartless? Perhaps, but maybe it can't be said that way.
Everyone who came here was aware of the existing danger. Linhai was sealed off, and the terrifying Death Vines outside had long been confirmed as a threat. Almost no one could get out on Feast Day; it clearly communicated to survivors that this was a desolate land.
But they still came, didn’t they? If that’s the case, what’s wrong with using them a bit?
Indeed, this didn’t align with the moral standards of peacetime, but now it was the apocalypse, a time when people die every day, and anyone could die at any moment. Utilizing all available conditions to maximize one’s own benefits is the law of survival and strength.
Ye Zhongming did not feel he was doing anything wrong; in fact, he believed this was a better choice for these people. Because once he succeeded, they might not die. But if left to their own actions, they would sooner or later become fertilizer for the Yama Tree.
Since that’s the case, what’s wrong with using them? On one side, they gain nothing and could lose their lives; on the other side, they could create conditions for Ye Zhongming while allowing some of them to survive.
This choice wasn’t difficult to make.
Of course, he could also have the Cloud Summit Villa people do this, but they were his own, weren’t they? Ye Zhongming couldn’t bear to lose these warriors he had carefully armed.
"It’s fine, let’s solve this all at once!"
The Yama Tree said something nonsensical at that moment. Initially, everyone was puzzled, but soon they saw a large human team entering from the parting dried corpses.
At the forefront were Mo Ye and the Ying City Coalition.
Ye Zhongming's brows furrowed.
Although he hadn’t cultivated the people of Ying City as attentively as the Cloud Summit Warriors, he had always kept them around to gain benefits. In Ye Zhongming’s mind, they were a reserve of warriors for Cloud Summit. When Cloud Summit faced losses and needed to replenish troops, that place would be the best option.