Published: February 10, 2025
Standing amidst the firelight and wails, Xia Lei wore a calm expression, while Park Soo-young beside her bit her lip, her eyes filled with confusion.
The team did not head straight back to Cloud Summit but instead made a large arc on the road leading to the villa, along which there were several small human strongholds.
This was one of them.
This was already the fifth stronghold attacked by Xia Lei's combat team. All evolvers who dared to resist were killed, and the terrified evolvers were coerced to advance with the team.
Now, the number of coerced survivors had exceeded two thousand, and it was said that there were more than fifteen similar strongholds ahead.
Under normal circumstances, Park Soo-young would have stopped Xia Lei from doing this, even though she was the highest-ranking person at Cloud Summit aside from Ye Zhongming.
Although Cloud Summit Villa shared the same brutal path as those in the apocalypse, everyone, including Park Soo-young, had blood on their hands from varying numbers of lives taken.
But that was passive killing, targeted at enemies. Park Soo-young's mindset had changed and she didn't mind that.
However, these people had done nothing to provoke Cloud Summit and were suffering from unwarranted disaster.
This made it difficult for Park Soo-young to accept.
Yet, she did not intervene because she understood that Sister Lei was doing this for Cloud Summit, albeit with cruel methods.
Indeed, Park Soo-young knew that in the apocalypse, there were no innocent people. Perhaps those who appeared sorrowful and aggrieved now had stolen from other humans yesterday, robbing them of their wealth from their corpses.
She remembered what Xia Lei told her after the team attacked the first stronghold: "If you were me, would you do the same?"
Park Soo-young thought for a long time and realized that even if she felt reluctant, she would choose the same path as Xia Lei.
Choose Cloud Summit to survive, while others perish.
Since that was the case, she tried to convince herself not to be entangled in her emotions, but she always found it hard to calm down. Park Soo-young felt that she was still too soft-hearted.
Soon, the team finished the sweep of this stronghold and began moving towards the next one. It wasn't far; after walking for two hours, they arrived, but encountered a little trouble near that stronghold.
A small group of about a hundred zombies roamed along the path they were taking. Xia Lei observed for a while and ordered the team to rest, then selected one person from the captives and took him away alone.
No one knew what she was going to do, but when Xia Lei returned and commanded the team to move forward again, they passed through that area and saw zombie blood splattered everywhere, creating an extremely bloody scene.
How this situation came about was a mystery to everyone.
But everyone knew that it was related to Xia Lei and the person she took away, who never returned.
Thus, the team grew more silent.
……………………………………………………………………
When Ye Zhongming opened his eyes, he felt a huge shadow pounce towards him. He instinctively reacted, raising his hand to block it while pushing off with his feet, sending the shadow crashing away.
In fact, when his hand touched the shadow, Ye Zhongming already knew who it was, and his subsequent actions became much gentler, even taking protective measures.
The huge shadow was thrown away but did not become discouraged; its body, quick as lightning, charged back. This time, Ye Zhongming did not resist and let it press down on him, then his face was licked by a big, wet tongue.
This shadow was none other than the earth yellow pill, which had completed its evolution before Ye Zhongming.
Looking at the purple crystal on Big Yellow's forehead, Ye Zhongming realized that this guy had finally grown into a member of high-level mutated life. From now on, as long as it didn't encounter a nine-star evolver, the earth yellow pill could hold its own in battle.