Upon reaching Qinghe County, Ye Fan was surprised to find that the Wall he had initially left behind was significantly damaged.

The Wall had been standing there for quite some time, riddled with numerous holes.

The zombies, with a spirit akin to water wearing away stone, had forcibly made the Wall tattered.

This left Ye Fan quite astonished.

Ordinary zombies found it very hard to damage the Wall; at the very least, they would need to be Iron Armor.

However, he examined the Wall and it didn't seem like it was damaged by the likes of Iron Armor zombies.

Because it looked as if something had corroded the Wall.

Traces of dark green liquid could vaguely be seen, and that appeared to be the main cause of the Wall's corrosion.

"What is this thing?"

Ye Fan carefully examined the surroundings and found that although the Wall was worn, it still blocked most of the bridge, with not many zombies making it across to this side of the river.

Originally, there were tens and hundreds of thousands of zombies crowding by the bridge, but now there were significantly fewer.

Perhaps due to the area's long lack of human presence, the zombies naturally began to disperse again.

Now, seeing people again, the zombies started gathering by the bridge once more.

The soldiers were adept at sniping zombies and immediately relied on the defensive structures left behind, taking their positions and starting to fight.

Ye Fan recovered the damaged wall; the intact parts were half-price recovered, only one-fourth for this.

The battle erupted.

Ye Fan did not focus on the battle situation; his gaze fell by the riverside.

He saw a zombie struggling in the river, climbing along the ice floes by the riverbank.

This zombie's skin was pale and swollen all over; who knows how long it had been soaking in the river water.

The zombie seemed to have ingested a lot of water, and its belly was extraordinarily large.

Unnaturally large, larger than those of pregnant women expecting twins in their tenth month!

It seemed as if its belly was filled entirely with water.

This zombie had been down there for a long time, stuck at a river bend, but the rapid current prevented it from getting up.

And now, with ice along the riverbank, the zombie was starting to try and leave the water.

Because Dark Clouds went to track the people who captured Teacher, Ye Fan summoned a War Hawk from the base again.

This one was female and had evolved to One-Star; Ye Fan named it White Cloud.

"White Cloud, fly up and see how many of those creatures are around."

White Cloud soared into the sky, and Ye Fan switched perspectives, discovering that just within Qinghe Town alone, there were at least several thousand of these zombies along the river.

"Could these waterlogged zombies be the culprits behind the Wall's corrosion?"

Ye Fan ordered the Sniper to aim at a big-bellied zombie that had already climbed ashore and shoot.

The requirement was to blow up its belly because it seemed like that was almost all it had left on its body.

The sniper's gunshot rang out, and the zombie exploded on the spot!

Bang~~~!

A large mass of dark green water erupted forth, like a water bomb, instantly covering an area of about twenty meters!

Wherever the dark green water landed, white smoke rose up.

The concrete buildings were quickly corroded under the green water's assault, a shocking sight.

The green water splashed onto other zombies, directly melting several holes into the body of the afflicted zombie.

"What do you call this? Bomb Zombie?"

Ye Fan's heart tightened; if during the siege by 300,000 zombies such zombies appeared and were thrown onto the city or the Wall as bombs, whether Dawn City could still be defended would be questionable.

Even if it could be defended, the casualties would be severe.

"This is a new variety of zombie, I wonder if other varieties have appeared?"

Commanding White Cloud to fly deeper into Qinghe Town, Ye Fan soon made a new discovery.

All over Qinghe Town, there were a dozen or so small and large meteorite craters.

Some authority's buildings had become ruins.

And around the edges of these craters, many zombies had gathered.

Ye Fan saw a meteorite crater surrounded by over a hundred zombies; those on the outskirts appeared to be physically robust, clearly stronger than normal zombies.

At the central area, Mutated Zombies began to appear.

Be it Iron Armor or Agile Zombies.

At the core of the meteorite crater, Quasi-King Kong Zombies and Crawlers started to appear!

It seemed like it wouldn't be too long before Level 2 Zombies started appearing in the wild.

These evolving zombies near the meteorite crater ignored the distant sounds of gunfire and artillery, focusing on their evolution.

Ye Fan also noticed subtle changes in some zombies.

Some zombies started developing protrusions on their heads, as if they were going to grow horns. Initially, their goal was to attack survivors or birds hiding in trees or high places, often hitting with their heads, leading to head mutations.

Some zombies' claws grew enormous, starting to dig holes in the ground, originally intending to find mice hiding underground, thus developing the skill of burrowing.

They undergo various changes for a myriad of reasons.

Just as White Cloud swept over the street, some zombies even tried to jump up and grab White Cloud.

Among them, some zombies could jump over two meters high!

And there weren't a small number of such zombies.

This strange direction of evolution made Ye Fan feel a bit uneasy.

The world is changing, and zombies are gradually becoming more diverse.

The survival ability of zombies is actually far superior to humans.

Their internal organs have mostly lost their functions.

According to Wang Huining, zombies only need a small amount of air to breathe.

They need a bit of moisture, mainly to maintain their brains; as long as their brain isn't destroyed, they won't die.

For them, eating is an instinct, but not an absolute necessity.

With just a little bit of food, they can survive outside for a month or even longer.

In the absence of food, they are like turtles, able to enter a state of suspended animation at any time to conserve energy.

When they need to wake up, they can awaken immediately.

Although a commander-type zombie like Wang Huining hasn't appeared in Qinghe, Ye Fan knows that day is not far off.

Once a commander-type zombie appears, they can definitely form a more terrifying force than Wang Huining with the increasing variety of zombies.

At that time, Dawn City will undoubtedly face a new challenge.

After making a round in Qinghe, Ye Fan realized that it would be difficult to eliminate the zombie horde in Qinghe during winter.

There are over two million zombies here, and the river water is gradually freezing.

Once the river water completely freezes, the zombies here can cross the river on the ice, making blocking the bridge useless.

Now it seems the river won't take more than a week to completely freeze.

"Within a week, kill as many as we can."

Dawn City directly borders the river on two sides: to the east is the Star River, and thirty kilometers south there's another river.

There are also rivers when heading northwest to Qinghe. If these rivers freeze, Dawn City's natural barriers will be gone.

By then, the Dawn Army might have to take a defensive stance.

The battle lasted from noon until 2:30 in the afternoon.

About thirty thousand zombies fell to the warriors' guns, and Ye Fan rebuilt the Wall to block the bridge here.

Jewelry collection was carried out swiftly.

Finally, Ye Fan had more than forty thousand Gold in hand.

The warriors were running low on bullets, so Ye Fan ordered them to retreat a bit to avoid attracting the zombie horde's attention and camp locally.

The logistics team began to prepare meals, planning to continue the cleanup once bullets were replenished the next day.

After eating, at around four in the afternoon, Ye Fan finally received Dark Clouds' request to switch perspectives.

It wasn't that Dark Clouds was slow, but the person they were tracking was moving slowly, and they had only just returned to their base.

Ye Fan switched to Dark Clouds' perspective and quickly saw the situation below.

Those people crossed the vast snowy plains, walking into the mountains.

In a valley in the Xing'an Mountain Range, he saw a cave entrance.

It wasn't a natural cave; the entrance was a cement structure, which looked quite old.

"Is this... an air-raid shelter?"

The entrance was large, with people coming in and out.

They were collecting some firewood, seemingly to prepare for winter.

There were some mountain motorcycles parked at the entrance, their means of transportation, as many mechanized vehicles weren't practical in such a mountainous area.

There weren't any defensive works; the cave mainly served as an entrance and exit, with some small windows for ventilation, resembling a giant beehive.

This should be their so-called Mountain Cave Base.

It's actually not far from the Dawn Army's city, less than eighty kilometers, but it's outside the radar range, so Ye Fan hadn't discovered it before.

At this time, the men escorting Wu Ting and Zhou Bingtian had just returned to the entrance.

"Teacher Wu!"

"Ah! Zhou Bingtian, you are injured!"

A few people at the cave edge spoke to Wu Ting and Zhou Bingtian, and Ye Fan immediately recognized the speakers as his high school classmates.

The once cheerful and outgoing classmates now looked as ragged as beggars.

Their clothes were tattered and dirty, and many weren't wearing cotton-padded clothes.

To combat the cold, they even had straw-woven items on themselves.

Malnourished and gaunt, these classmates truly portrayed hunger and famine.

The returning men glanced at these classmates and suddenly ordered, "From now on, each of Wu Ting's students must collect at least 500 kilograms of firewood per day! If they don't accomplish this in one day, we kill one person; if not in three days, we kill three. The killing stops only when there's progress in Wu Ting's research, or you'll watch all your students die!"

Wu Ting wanted to resist but after glancing at those students, she helplessly lowered her head.

"Take her to the lab; without progress, don't let her out."

Someone dragged Wu Ting away, while the wounded Zhou Bingtian was directly thrown to the ground.

No one else dared to watch; everyone kept to their tasks.

The classmates gathered around Zhou Bingtian, some girls unable to hold back their tears.

Seeing this, Ye Fan looked away.

If he hadn't encountered them, it wouldn't have mattered, but since he had, there was nothing more to say.

It's time for him to make his move.

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