Chapter 192: 171, I Have a Portrait_1
Gradually, the building quieted down, and all the skeletons stood by, filling the courtyard.
Wu Heng, along with Li Yahong and several skeletons, got off the vehicle and went over.
Firstly, from a corner of the wall, he retrieved the censer.
Then he walked straight into the yard.
The bodies had been chopped into a mess, their faces in death were incredibly gruesome.
It was basically impossible to tell which was the long-haired leader and which were the ordinary underlings.
The flesh and blood were blurred, barely recognizable as human shapes.
Wu Heng glanced down at the bodies.
Then, along with the others, he entered the building behind.
The entire building was filled with all sorts of disarranged daily necessities, looking like a chaotic warehouse.
But there were considerable collected supplies.
Grains, oils, flours, as well as a large amount of mineral water and snacks.
It seemed that the majority of the loot from the village had been scoured by these people.
No wonder they all looked so well fed.
They still had the energy to rob everywhere.
“Let people search here, everything that can be taken should be loaded onto the truck, we’ll rest here tonight, and leave when it’s daylight tomorrow morning,” said Wu Heng as he looked around.
This food was not a small harvest, it could support the base for a long time.
Li Yahong nodded and immediately went to assign people to start moving supplies from here.
Qiangzi and others got off the vehicle and began to move the stuff.
Li Yahong came back and said, “They said they would prefer to stay in the vehicle, it’s cleaner than the building.”
“Alright, let’s stay in the vehicle for now!”
“Okay!”
Everyone began to get busy.
After they had cleared out this place and checked the conditions of the vehicles again under the cover of darkness.
Everyone went back to their respective vehicles to rest.
…
The next day dawned.
The convoy left the village and followed the same route back to the market outside the village.
They began to continue scavenging for supplies in the shops on both sides.
Li Yahong, Qiangzi and others started to scour the knitting shop and a small supermarket, their costs around the village were low.
The stores also had a considerable area.
Some of them had retail areas in front and small warehouses directly behind.
The amount of supplies was no less than searching in the city area, they moved everything into the vehicle.
Wu Heng, along with several skeletons, entered a rural credit society.
Blood stained everywhere, with some financial product leaflets sticking to it.
He roughly located the warehouse.
He took out the bronze key, opened the door directly, and walked in.
When he opened the safety deposit box, inside were paper documents, cash, and some paper things that looked like commemorative coins.
He didn’t know what they were for.
He found two 10 grams gold bars.
He put away the gold bars and continued to search in the upstairs offices.
In two of the rooms, he found some tea, liquor, cigarettes and held them in his hands as he went downstairs.
Upon seeing Wu Heng coming out.
Li Yahong gave a few instructions and walked over, saying, “There are a few warehouses, it might take until noon to finish moving.”
Wu Heng handed her the cigarettes and liquor, saying, “Try to move as much as possible, if that’s not enough, come back again.”
Even if the supplies could be moved out, these bodies that littered the ground would still need to be transported back.
These were all his sources of troops.
Supplies were to maintain the survivors’ lives, but troops were the fundamentals for him.
“Okay!” Said Li Yahong in agreement.
The two stood together and chatted about other things.
…
Meanwhile, in the central gathering area of the village.
There was a flurry of footsteps!
A man hurried back, entered the base and then rushed to a room without a break.
He pushed open the door and gasped, “Yang Zhi…, Yang Zhilong, they….”
Yang Zhilong was the leader of the shelter in the north.
The people from the two places had fought numerous fights over the issue of supplies, causing death was a common occurrence.
But clearly, the other side had more men, and they were always at a disadvantage.
Upon hearing Yang Zhilong’s name.
The people in the room all stood up, gripping their weapons tightly, their faces serious.
“Are they attacking us?” one of them asked.
“No, not that, their gathering place… it’s gone.”
“Gone?” Everyone frowned, understanding the meaning of his words.
“Yes, it’s gone. The doors were wide open, half the wall was torn down in the houses inside, and there was nothing left… no people either,” the messenger struggled to explain.
The faces of those listening were filled with confusion.
A shelter was gone in one night?
How is that possible?
“Zombies?” someone wondered.
The messenger shook his head, “It doesn’t seem like it, I didn’t get close, I just took a distant look through the open door.”
“Stop guessing, let’s go and see for ourselves.”
A few people grabbed their weapons and called a few more people in the yard.
After leaving, they quickly headed to the gathering place in the north.
When they arrived, they were even more astonished.
Indeed, the entire area was deserted.
There was nobody on the once heavily guarded walls, and there were dark traces that had been burnt by fire.
The gate was left open; durable iron plates were covered with sunken holes.
It looked like it had been pierced by artillery.
Everyone’s eyes bulged, seeing it firsthand was more of a shock than hearing it.
Indeed, it didn’t seem like zombies had attacked.
“Let’s go inside and look.”
A few people with a fearful heart entered the building and began to inspect carefully.
The inside was deserted and part of the building had collapsed.
“The supplies are all gone, nothing has been left.”
“If the supplies were taken, then it definitely wasn’t done by zombies or mutated zombies.”
The group discussed quietly.
At the same time, they were trying to recall what had happened the previous day that could have led the northern gathering place to face such a disaster.
“Could it have been the people who took Aunt Yang away?”
The rest of the people also thought of this, their eyes widening even more.
“Did we… make a better choice when we left with them?”
“Stop thinking about it, let’s search here, see if there’s anything useful left.”
“Okay.”
The people dispersed and began to search the rooms.
It wasn’t necessarily just about food supplies.
The motorcycles in the yard and the leftover weapons could all be reused.
…
As dusk approached.
The convoy, loaded with various supplies, returned to the prison.
Everyone came out enthusiastically to greet them, and then started to actively unload the supplies from the vehicles.
Wu Heng returned to the office building where he lived.
He handed over the six newly acquired level one corpse cores to several alchemical skeletons.
The alchemical skeletons respectfully accepted them and sealed them in the organ jar.
Zzz~!
The walkie-talkie rang, transmitting Li Yahong’s voice.
“I’ve arrived.”
Wu Heng told Basen, who was beside him, “You bring her in.”
Basen went downstairs and when he came back, he brought Li Yahong with him.
Li Yahong seemed to have applied light makeup and was lightly fragrant, standing there with her gaze evading.
“You’re looking for me, huh!”
“Yeah, this is for you.” Wu Heng took out a bottle of the strength potion and handed it to her.
Li Yahong’s eyebrows raised, she took it in her hand and curiously inspected it.
“What’s this?”
“Didn’t you say last time that you wanted to take the corpse core? This is a potion developed using the corpse core. You don’t have to worry about any virus in it.” Wu Heng sat down beside and explained.
A corpse core potion without side effects?
Such technology probably hadn’t even been developed by the main station, right?
With the potion in her hand, Li Yahong found it hard to believe.
“Afraid I’m trying to harm you?” Wu Heng joked.
“No, just a bit surprised.” Li Yahong opened the bottle cap and directly tilted her head back to drink.
Her throat rolled as she swallowed the whole bottle of potion.
And the next second.
Li Yahong’s body began to turn red, and she started to tremble slightly in place.
This scene also startled Wu Heng.
He immediately came forward and supported her.
“Alchemy One,” Wu Heng called out.
Alchemy One came over from the adjacent room.
He checked Li Yahong’s condition, then turned and left.
Wu Heng was stunned, just about to comment on his attitude.
Li Yahong’s symptoms began to disappear at a visible speed, and her entire person returned to normal. She was still leaning against him, not standing up.
Wu Heng asked, “How do you feel?”
Li Yahong said, “My muscles are aching a bit, feels like I just ran three thousand meters in school, it hurts so much.”
“It’ll get better gradually, this means your muscles are improving.”
“Did I awaken my superpower?” Li Yahong asked.
Wu Heng looked at her, “Do you feel that you’ve become stronger in any particular aspect?”
“I don’t feel anything.”
“This is a level one corpse core, the chance of awakening a superpower is low. You should first adapt for some time, and perhaps when you have the chance to take a level two corpse core in the future, you might be able to awaken it,” Wu Heng said.
Li Yahong looked at him cautiously, “Thank you, I feel like you’ve treated me better than my own father.”
“Cough~! You can call me that in private.”
“You~!” Li Yahong raised her hand in a hitting motion, but ultimately put it down, “It depends on your ability then.”
“Rest well after returning. Tomorrow, a convoy will be arranged to transport all the corpses back.” Wu Heng said.
“Okay, thank you.” Li Yahong stood up.
Wu Heng nodded, “By the way, the matter about the potion can’t be told to anyone. You can’t tell your subordinates either, or there will be big trouble.”
“I know.” Li Yahong nodded, thought for a moment and asked, “Is it necessary to talk about the corpse core?”
“The corpse core can be mentioned. You can just say that you’ve taken it regularly and luckily succeeded.”
“Okay, I’m going back first. The vehicles need to be checked again tonight.”
“Mm, alright.”
On her way out, Li Yahong walked over, quickly kissed him on the face, then turned around to run.
At the door, Wu Heng stood watching her retreating figure dwindling.
He returned to Lundham City via the boundary door.
…
The next day.
Lundham City, Association dungeon.
“Captain, Lord Captain, please, have the association let me out. I have nothing to do with this.”
Just as he walked into the dungeon.
From one side of the cage, there came a mournful wailing and crying.
The once glorious and domineering leader of the ‘Scorpion Gang’ was now > disheveled, his body covered in weeds.
He had been locked up for three days now.
He seemed to have lost a lot of weight.
Wu Heng sat down on a wooden stool outside the iron cage, looked at him and asked, “Haven’t you thought of anyone during these days?”
“It must be that another gang framed me. It has to be.”
“What results has your investigation yielded?” Wu Heng continued.
Keeping a person like this locked up was of no use.
But he couldn’t just let him go.
At least not before the results were clear.
The captive sat down on the mat beside him and said, “I had my subordinates question the people who were watching that day, one by one, but there are no results yet.”
Creak~!
At this moment, the dungeon door was pushed open.
A guard brought in a conspicuously gang-member looking man.
Seeing Wu Heng sitting there, the guard greeted him, “Captain Wu Heng, this person is a member of the Scorpion Gang. He’s come to see the prisoner.”
“Mm, leave this to me.” Wu Heng said.
The guard nodded and turned around to leave.
The gang member stood cautiously by the side.
He didn’t speak for a while.
The leader in the cage said, “What is it, speak up.”
The subordinate said, “Boss, we went house to house asking about that day’s incident, but most…”
“Why are you babbling so much, just say it.” The boss scolded.
The subordinate swallowed all the incessant babbling.
He immediately said, “One after another people were identified, and finally we discovered a suspicious person who doesn’t live near our area.”
“What does he look like? Do you know?” The Scorpion Gang boss continued to ask.
“Had someone draw a sketch based on the description.” Saying this, he took out a scroll.
When opened, there was a drawing of a middle-aged man with a square face and long beard.
Scorpion Gang’s boss looked at it, his eyebrows furrowed, “I’ve never seen him before.”
Wu Heng also took a look.
But suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.
After carefully distinguishing the sketch, his eyebrows furrowed immediately.
Anel, the captain of a team in Black Stone Town.
He had come to Lundham City too?