Published: February 10, 2025
In the apocalypse, the world was at its end, yet the mountains and landforms still maintained their original appearance.
In this land, nourished by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, yellow and green seemed to be the unchanging themes.
Yellow represented the color of sand, which was best exemplified by the Rubha Desert.
Green symbolized vegetation, serving as the source and guarantee of life on this land.
However, what Ye Zhongming and his team saw now was somewhat too monotonous.
The landscape was filled with yellow; although there might be some variations in shade across different areas, the main color tone remained the same.
In Ying City, Cloud Port, and even Linhai, the world's hues were never this dull.
This desert was one of the top ten deserts in the world, which was normal according to reason, but in Ye Zhongming's heart, there was always a lingering unease, as if something significant was about to happen.
Ye Zhongming believed strongly in his intuition; at his level of evolution, equipped with the top-tier great thousand soul refining technique, intuition often sent him signals.
Yet, he still didn't know where this unease was specifically coming from in the desert.
On top of a dune, Ye Zhongming led his team to lie on the warm sand, looking down the slope to find hundreds of humanoid... sculptures standing below.
All of them were evolvers, and with keen eyesight, after careful observation, they discovered that these sculptures, wrapped in yellow sand, were actually zombies.
For some reason, they were covered in sand armor and stood completely still.
"Are they dead?"
Dai Zhi, another captain under Xia Bai, who held a position similar to Xiao Min, was now a five-star evolver. His battle beast was a white jade cordyceps, which, at its juvenile stage, already possessed two passive abilities: healing and skill amplification.
Dai Zhi was known for his resilient character, adept at handling situations and courageous in battle, gradually rising to the position of captain. He was now on the reserve list for the next batch of six-star evolution potion users.
"They're not dead."
Ye Zhongming sensed a trace of energy from those beings wrapped in yellow sand; they were clearly not lifeless.
But what were they doing standing there?
"Alive? Then why are they posing like terracotta warriors!"
Dai Zhi muttered, looking somewhat eager to try it out.
These were zombies from beyond the borders, and the cloud summit warriors had long been stirred by the desire to fight.
However, Ye Zhongming was not very interested; after all, he was here to exchange for Stardust Sand, not to hunt zombies.
The amount of magic crystal was negligible compared to everything in the Blue Secret Realm.
He and the cloud summit warriors couldn't stay here for too long; the sooner they returned, the better, as the situation in the Blue Secret Realm could change at any moment.
However, Ye Zhongming's lack of interest did not mean that these zombies were uninterested.
He was unsure how those creatures discovered him and his team, but at one moment, they all raised their heads towards the hiding place, and then the hundreds of zombies charged over.
Their speed was astonishingly fast!
Since these zombies were wrapped in thick yellow sand, he couldn't see the magic crystals on their foreheads and thus couldn't discern their levels.
But judging by their speed, Ye Zhongming and the cloud summit warriors were taken aback.
Zombies with such speed surely wouldn’t be low level!
They could be fifth-level or even sixth-level!
So many fifth-level zombies?
In the apocalypse, the combat capability of ordinary zombies was slightly stronger than that of ordinary evolvers, but weaker than elite evolvers.
The fighting power of elite evolvers was usually a bit weaker than that of elite zombies.
Although this pattern wasn't absolute, it was generally the case.
Despite the Xia Bai Squad being considered elite evolvers, these hundreds of zombies might also belong to the elite category.
With both sides having similar strength and numbers, such battles, even if victorious, usually came at a heavy cost, which was not what Ye Zhongming wanted.