The second rain of the apocalypse has arrived.
Ian Song stood alone atop the only fifty-five-story skyscraper in Huahai City, extending his Clairvoyant Vision outward in all directions.
Everywhere he looked, zombies lurking in the city's shadows emerged into the rain, opening their foul mouths and greedily absorbing the water.
This rain contained special components that triggered zombie evolution—harmless to humans, but no benefit either.
With a flicker, his figure vanished from the rooftop.
After the rain, Huahai City's zombies would once again enter a rapid evolution phase—a bad sign for survivors.
Since merging two enclaves, the Yanhuang Survivor Base's population had already surpassed nineteen thousand—still a long way from a million.
But something struck Ian Song as odd.
It had been a week since he captured the six Transforming-Gang martial artists from the Myriad Beasts Order, yet the sect hadn't made any further moves, almost as if they'd simply given up.
The base's senior council convened again, this time with a new executive joining: Simon Yan, the former leader of a 4,100-strong survivor enclave.
At this meeting, Ian Song issued two orders:
First: Base infrastructure. Zombies keep evolving, and right now the Haigang plant's walls barely stop ordinary zombies. A Tier-Three S-Type zombie can easily leap five or six meters—getting over the walls is no problem. That's why the walls must be made higher and thicker; in fact, we need real city walls.
Since the base population will keep growing, this round of wall construction will extend the perimeter five hundred meters beyond the original Haigang plant.
Second: Strengthening personnel. Evolution Crystals can quickly boost ordinary people to Dark-Strength levels, which seems powerful, but it's nowhere near enough for the future—because zombies keep evolving.
With that in mind, Ian Song compiled and disseminated a new cultivation method. Practiced to its peak, it could raise a fighter to the Innate First Layer.
Reaching Innate First Layer, plus the physical boost from Evolution Crystals, would let someone unleash ten thousand jin of force.
But it's a long process. Right now, Ian Song is still the only Innate-level expert in the entire base.
After the meeting, the whole base roared into motion like a machine.
Just like that, a month flew by.
A ten-meter-high, six-meter-thick encircling wall was completed.
Meanwhile, Zeke Guan and Helen Guo both broke through to the Innate Realm this month.
Coco Guan, Jason Long, Lillian Liu, and Boris Hu all reached the brink of breakthrough—any of them could step into the Innate Realm at any moment.
What surprised Ian Song most was his disciple Jewel.
With her Innate Spirit Body, she had trained for just over a month and already reached postnatal great perfection. So Ian Song began teaching her weapon techniques and movement arts.
Of course, throughout the month, hundreds of combat squads kept heading out on missions.
First, they brought back huge quantities of supplies for the base, and second, they rescued and absorbed over eight thousand new survivors—pushing the base's population past twenty thousand to over twenty-seven thousand.
Of these twenty-seven thousand, more than twelve thousand became warriors.
Every warrior had late Dark-Strength-level combat power.
Fifty li from the base, in an abandoned building—
A shadow flashed by, and Ian Song appeared.
Moments later, a big-headed zombie arrived.
"Corpse One greets Master!"
The J-Type Zombie knelt, bowing deeply to Ian Song with utmost respect.
This was the same J-Type Zombie Ian Song had enslaved at South China University. Now, it had grown into a Tier Eight zombie, commanding a horde of one hundred thousand, and had evolved the ability to speak. Ian Song had named it Corpse One.
The heavy rain a month ago had triggered rapid zombie evolution in Huahai City.
As a result, all one hundred thousand zombies under Corpse One's command were now Tier Four or above.
"Rise!"
Ian Song lifted his hand slightly.
"Thank you, Master!"
Corpse One bowed again, then respectfully presented three Evolution Crystals in both hands.
Seeing the three Evolution Crystals, Ian Song's eyes lit up. With a wave of his hand, he put them away—they were all Tier Six J-Type zombie crystals. If he consumed them, his spiritual power would likely increase by more than a hundred points.
"Have you investigated the situation in Huahai City?"
Ian Song looked at Corpse One and asked.
Corpse One replied, "Huahai City is now divided into five major regions. I occupy one of them!"
Ian Song raised his eyebrows: "Tell me about the other four regions!"
"Yes!"
As Corpse One described, Ian Song pictured a map in his mind: the vast Huahai City divided into five regions—east, south, west, north, and center.
The eastern district was Corpse One's territory. Besides the one hundred thousand zombies under his direct control, there were about eight hundred thousand unaffiliated zombies roaming the area.
The western district wasn't ruled by zombies, but by mutant beasts. Before the apocalypse, there was a huge zoo here with many fierce animals. After the apocalypse, these animals became mutant beasts and preyed on zombies. So, in the beast-ruled west, zombies were few—no more than one hundred thousand. As for the number of mutant beasts, it's still unknown.
The southern district belonged to another Tier Eight J-Type Zombie, also commanding a horde of one hundred thousand. This zombie had more elite fighters than Corpse One, partly because Corpse One spent time entrenched at South China University.
The northern district was the most mysterious, ruled by mutant plants. After zombies and mutant beasts came mutant vegetation.
These mutant plants fed on zombies and mutant beasts. So, in that zone, only plants existed—no beasts or zombies. Even with his hundred-thousand-strong army, Corpse One dared not enter the north.
Finally, the central district was different: it wasn't controlled by zombies, beasts, or plants, but was a large survivor base.
This survivor base was established by the Myriad Beasts Order.
Its population had reached fifty thousand.
After Ian Song captured the six Transforming-Gang experts from Myriad Beasts Order, they went silent, which puzzled him. He later realized they'd gone to Huahai City to build a survivor base.
The Myriad Beasts Order had prepared for eighty years and had deep resources—far greater than Ian Song's. They also discovered the secret of Evolution Crystals, so in just over a month, their base population reached fifty thousand.
At first, Ian Song considered sabotaging them, but after thinking it over, he decided not to.
He figured the Myriad Beasts Order wouldn't forgive him for what happened before, so sooner or later, they'd have to fight.
If he wins, he'll swallow up their base. If he loses, the Yanhuang Survivor Base will be annexed by Myriad Beasts Order.