Chapter 79 - Returning To Hometown
When Qi Jingchen had just been reborn, he was too lazy to think about why he was reborn, but recently, he often would mull over it for a while.
Honestly, he quite liked Yu Xuguang’s dream of saving the world, but he always thought that it wasn’t possible to save the world by just relying on a few people…
The black fog permeating the world brought too much despair. He was a dark ability user, and the dark energy he could control was a much higher grade than the black fog. Probably due to this, he could sense that energy’s strength more clearly. In other words, it wasn’t that the energy was too strong, but that there was too much of that energy…
Under such a situation, even if everyone was reborn, perhaps they would still be helpless.
Qi Jingchen sighed. He honestly hoped Mu Yi wasn’t reborn. After all, Mu Yi’s mental state before her death was too terrible. Her rebirth wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing.
Mu Yi was once again shifted to the truck that Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen were living in.
She was much thinner, and her stomach appeared a little larger. At the moment, she was unconscious and seemed uneasy as though she had sunk into a night demon’s grasp, even mumbling in her sleep… Because of this, aside from the two of them, Qi An and the Xiaomao he was carrying, everyone else was made to leave.
“Big brother Qi, will Aunt Mu be reborn?” Qi An looked at the person lying on the floor curiously. Recently he had read a few novels with rebirth plots, and understood even more about his situation.
However, most of those rebirth novels had nothing to do with the apocalypse, and some were even about people from ancient times being reborn. He felt that it was very boring to read— Having to endure instead of getting rid of someone after being framed was just too stifling!
“Don’t know,” Qi Jingchen said, and simply sorted out the bed, spreading out the sleeping bag and lying down— Though he had become much healthier, his health still wasn’t as good as other people’s; he must take good care of himself.
Though Qi Jingchen only took off his jacket and wore pyjamas when he entered the sleeping bag, Nie Yi still extended a hand and constructed an ice wall to obstruct Qi An’s view. Seeing this, Qi An humphed a few times and secretly decided that he must seize the opportunity to be close with Qi Jingchen when Nie Yi wasn’t here— Though there wasn’t much meaning in doing this, he would feel as if he had the advantage!
Of course, he had to first coax Xiaomao to sleep.
Qi An always brought Xiaomao along; Xiaomao had heard of many of his matters that no one knew. Because of this, he was even more unwilling to let Xiaomao leave him… Now, he and Xiaomao were more attached at the hip than even Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen.
“Xiaomao, let’s sleep ba. Gege will tell you a story,” Qi An said.
Xiaomao obediently nodded.
Qi An, who dragged Xiaomao around so much that he even trained his muscles to be stronger, began speaking. “Gege used to be especially strong. Once when gege was playing outside, a mutated beast suddenly rushed towards gege. Gege…”
“Another time, gege found a very strong water elemental beast that wasn’t eroded by black fog. I wanted to catch it and eat its meat, but ended up bumping into a group that wanted to fight me over it…”
Listening to Qi An tell stories that were completely inappropriate for children, Xiaomao slowly entered the dreamworld. Right at this time, Mu Yi who had been unconscious suddenly opened her eyes.
Nie Yi had been keeping an eye on Mu Yi’s condition, and immediately looked over. Qi An, who had been drowsily holding Xiaomao, also opened his eyes immediately.
Mu Yi met Nie Yi’s gaze the moment she opened her eyes, and subconsciously shrunk back.
“What’s wrong with you?” Nie Yi asked with a frown.
“I’m very good,” Mu Yi said, then frowned again. “I seem to have had a nightmare&#k2026;” As she spoke, she clutched her head as fear appeared in her eyes.
In her dreams, she was hunted and fought with people. Those flashes of dreams seemed to be right before her eyes&#k2026; The dream version of her seemed used to all of this, but the present version could feel fear.
“Talk about your dream,” Nie Yi said.
Mu Yi trusted Nie Yi very much and swiftly spoke about it.
In her dreams, she had only seen a few fragments, but for some reason, she felt that everything was real right now… Moreover, in her dream, she unexpectedly saw Nie Yi and Qi An.
Of course, the two of them didn’t resemble their present appearances. Qi An wasn’t so tender and cute, while Nie Yi’s eyes were also filled with viciousness and seemed to have no warmth. It was only when he faced that person who bundled themself up tight that his expression would become a little gentler.
However, she didn’t know who that bundled-up person was…
“I… Could I have awakened to a prophetic ability?” Mu Yi suddenly asked. “I feel like everything then was real…”
“It’s not a prophecy,” Nie Yi said. Many matters won’t happen in this life anymore.
“That’s right, in fact, it’s not a prophecy. My child is still here…” Mu Yi touched her only son. Dream-her gave birth to a lovely son, but in the end, that child was killed together with her parents.
After that ne? What happened after that? Mu Yi shook her head. She couldn’t remember the later matters… that’s right, it seemed like someone had given her a skull and her husband’s keys, but that person wasn’t Nie Yi.
After Nie Yi listened to Mu Yi finish speaking of her dream, he examined her spiritual strength and discovered that her spiritual strength didn’t have the slightest trace of growth… Well, Qi An and Yu Xuguang had been reborn a month after Qi Jingchen and had only brought back only a small portion of their spiritual strength, while Mu Yi was late by another month. Naturally, there was nothing left.
Moreover, looking at Mu Yi’s situation… The ones who died before Mu Yi would probably also remember a few fragmented memories at most, and wouldn’t be reborn like they were.
After Nie Yi understood this, he looked at Mu Yi again. “We’re about to leave. Do you want to come with us, or stay behind?”
“I’ll go with you,” Mu Yi said.
“You’re pregnant; going outside will be very dangerous.” Nie Yi warned.
“I… Will I be a burden for you?” Mu Yi hesitated as well.
“You won’t burden us. You’re not the only family member in the team, but you have to pay attention to your own health.”
“I’ll go with you,” Mu Yi’s face was filled with determination and she quickly continued, “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Mu Yi had previously always been guarded by her parents while pregnant, and wasn’t allowed to do what she shouldn’t even after the apocalypse arrived. For a time, she also thought she was very frail. However, these days, she did everything on her own and discovered that in reality, she could do many things even while pregnant.
Also, when all was said and done, she was an ability user. Wasn’t it clear that General Sun wanted to turn his son into an ability user precisely because an ability user’s health was good?
Suddenly recalling her enemy, Mu Yi’s eyes were filled with hatred and only quieted down after a good while.
“Don’t mention it. Pack up your things, and go sleep over with Qi An ba.” Nie Yi pointed at the tent nearby that Qi An slept in. “If you have any more questions, you can ask Qi An.”
Like this, Nie Yi chased out a pregnant woman and a large child carrying a fast-asleep small child, then directly lowered the curtains.
“Aunt Mu, let’s go ba.” Qi An was a little excited. Though Mu Yi wasn’t reborn, she still remembered a few things. He could tell Mu Yi about what had happened when they were together in detail— Nie Yi’s last words were clearly allowing him to tell Mu Yi the whole story!
That night, Qi An told Mu Yi everything about their rebirth, and Mu Yi finally understood why she would suddenly have such a dream, and why Nie Yi and the others would help her.
The two of them chatted for too long and didn’t sleep the entire night. Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen, on the contrary, slept pretty well and it was only when they woke up the next morning that Nie Yi told Qi Jingchen about Mu Yi.
“I know.” Qi Jingchen nodded. Actually, he heard a little last night, but he was feeling a little unwell then, and was thus too lazy to get up.
Since Mu Yi’s matters were already settled, after staying for another day, they departed J City secure base. And when they left, aside from Mu Yi, they had two additional people— When General Sun was being replaced and they conducted another registration for the household register, a member of the Chenguang Team actually found their family in this secure base.
With a comrade finding their family member, the others in the Chenguang Team felt glad for them. Of course, some expressed worry as well— The team wouldn’t go to everyone’s hometown; did they still have a chance to see their own family?
However, if they didn’t follow the team, they couldn’t possibly return home just by themselves, not regarding the fact that they didn’t want to leave the team in the first place… Because of these various reasons, though some were very anxious, no one left. In the end, they could only vent their negative feelings on the zombies.
The following path became more difficult to travel. The fifth day after leaving J City secure base, they even encountered a level three zombie.
The level three zombie suddenly jumped out and ambushed their team, and the black water it spat out instantly killed off two regular people and an ability user in the team. Being caught off guard and having three people killed made Nie Yi’s expression turn cold— These people were the ones he spent effort to train!
Because of the appearance of level three ability using zombies, Nie Yi no longer hid in the truck and chose to sit on the top of the truck, so that he could observe the surrounding situation at all times.
Simultaneously, he noted down all the various situations during the journey. Some of these records will be left behind when they reach those larger secure bases.
During the journey, they passed through several secure bases. There were both large and small bases, and some of the people’s lives in the secure base were even worse than in the original W County secure base.
Nie Yi helped those secure bases out a little, and would also kill off those who tyrannically ruled over the secure bases. But aside from this, he didn’t do much.
What they should be glad for was that during the journey, they had unexpectedly helped four of the soldiers in the Chenguang Team find their parents, and Fei Xuelei was included among them.
Within the entire team, Fei Xuelei’s earth ability was considered the strongest, and his potential was also great. Naturally, Nie Yi valued him as well, and had even purposely detoured around to search for his family.
Fei Xuelei’s mother had already become a zombie, and though his wife and child were still alive, the situation was bad— When they found the wife and daughter, the pair were unexpectedly rummaging through the trash others had thrown away. The child had even picked up a chicken bone someone had discarded and chewed it into pieces to fill her stomach…
They emitted stench all over, and Fei Xuelei’s wife even had a high fever…
Seeing his wife and daughter in this state, Fei Xuelei, a man who had once supported a secure base, couldn’t help crying. Moved, he wanted to go over and hug his daughter, but in the end, the child avoided him, and was even completely wary of him— This young girl had long forgotten the appearance of her father. On the contrary, it was Fei Xuelei’s wife who burst into tears and threw herself into Fei Xuelei’s embrace.
This woman’s life had been awful, and she didn’t have slightly better clothes to wear during winter. Her body and legs were frostbitten, and she looked extremely pitiful. In the end, Nie Yi straightforwardly allowed them to enter the truck he and Qi Jingchen lived in.
Naturally, this was because he had found a better RV.
The RV was imported from overseas, and was of very high quality. The inner design was even better. After Nie Yi obtained it, he promptly discarded the previous truck, and was somewhat gloomy as well; gloomy that he had actually forgotten that there was such a thing as an RV.
During the summer, the truck was quite cool and was also convenient for them to run out to fight, but now that winter was here… It was best that those who couldn’t fight stayed in RVs.
Qi Jingchen’s living quality immediately rose to another level. The vegetables he planted were also moved from the roof of the truck into the RV due to the cold weather.
On this day, they were slowly advancing along a winding mountain road when it suddenly began snowing.
After the apocalypse arrived, the weather changed a lot; it was often alternating between hot and cold, but under the situation where the world was filled with zombies, everyone simply didn’t have the time to care for such trivialities.
But now… Qi Jingchen looked at the snow drifting down from the sky. The snowflakes surprisingly weren’t snowy white, instead having a trace of grey. His face instantly turned cold.
The snowflakes discomforted him greatly, and so he didn’t leave the RV and kept sitting on the large bed above the driving area, looking out through the window.
Originally, because of environmental contamination and various reasons, earth’s animals began to lessen. Later during the apocalypse, even more of the remaining animals died. Now, with the sudden decline in temperature, who knew how many animals could survive this winter…
Qi Jingchen’s mood was somewhat heavy, and he very quickly recalled that, even if they survived past this winter, the animals would end up as zombie beasts anyway, and felt that his worry was unnecessary.
And at this time, on a savanna in Africa he didn’t know of, a vulture was flying in the air. Suddenly, it began slowing down, and finally fell headfirst onto the ground.
This vulture died, but after a while, it jerked back up and flew into the air. However, it presently became thoroughly black, its movements were extremely stiff, so much that, not long after it was airborne, it rushed towards its own kind…
The matter that occurred in a distant place was something Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen didn’t know. At this time, they had already arrived at Qi Jingchen’s hometown.
The ‘droplet’ created by the convergence of ability in Nie Yi’s mind could no longer be called a ‘droplet’, and should be called a ‘waterball’. However, he had not reached level three yet. On the contrary, Zhang Zihai, Qian Mingfeng, and those excellent soldiers who began following him ever since B City Secure Base had now already reached level three.
“Why aren’t you upgrading?” Qi Jingchen saw that Nie Yi was deliberately suppressing his strength, and was somewhat confused.
“I realised that controlling myself from upgrading is beneficial to my spiritual strength,” Nie Yi said. After the ‘waterball’ in his mind turned a little bigger and solidified, he used his spiritual strength to continuously circulate the ‘water’ in the ‘waterball’… Like this, he—as expected—did not upgrade, while his spiritual strength upgraded through the process of controlling the waterball.
However, though he suppressed the speed of his ability upgrade, he couldn’t suppress it for long.
As the vehicles approached the hometown Qi Jingchen was familiar with, Qi Weiguo and the rest became increasingly excited. Right at this time, they heard a wolf’s howl from a distance.
Wolf? How could there be wolves in such a place?