It’s still unclear how the negotiations are going on Han Ya’s side, but Wen Le believes that those who have gone out will definitely not miss this opportunity to make as much profit as possible. After all, their food didn’t come from nowhere. While the main purpose is to appease the Tibetan military district and prevent them from acting rashly, they can’t just keep supporting them for no reason, right?!

Wen Le is emptying and organizing four containers in the space, arranging enough ice to keep the slaughtered livestock fresh enough to be transported to the Tibetan military district. As for how to preserve them once they arrive there, he believes that the military district will be able to handle it. Then, based on the list sorted out by Han Ya, he is organizing the items that will be sent out in the space.

The amount of goods being donated this time is huge, and the two large warehouses in the base may not be able to hold them all. When the other party’s transport vehicle arrives, Wen Le will directly transfer the sorted goods from the space to the vehicle.

The work inside the space was carried out only by Wen Le and Xiao Wen, and it took them nearly six days to complete it.

Calculating the time, Han Ya and the others should be almost back by now.

After stretching their muscles a bit, Wen Le pulled Xiao Wen out of the space and into the conference room.

Although there were almost half fewer personnel in charge of the conference room than before, the work of the others was still being carried out in an orderly manner. The two of them first looked at the location of the convoy on the display screen. From the screen, they could see that the majority of the team was already on their way back and, barring any unforeseen circumstances, they should arrive the day after tomorrow.

“Staff Officer Li, how is the progress on your side?” Xiao Wen asked Li Ran as he regained his composure.

Li Ran waved the folder in his hand and walked to the corner of the conference table, and Xiao Wen and Wen Le followed suit and sat down.

“This is the production volume of the past few days, take a look,” Li Ran said as he opened the folder in his hand and handed it to Xiao Wen. “We arranged for three groups of personnel to rotate shifts from the beginning, so we can ensure uninterrupted production for twenty-four hours in the entire arsenal. Our production volume has reached the maximum limit of the highest machine.”

Xiao Wen looked at the data in his hand and nodded.

“Have the produced ammunition been transported back?”

Li Ran nodded, “Two days ago, the engineering department had already installed tracks in the tunnel between the base and the arsenal. Starting from the day before yesterday, the boxed weapons have been transported directly from the tunnel to the base, which can save fuel consumption for ground transportation. It is expected that with one more day, the reserved weapons can be transported completely, and then we can use the current production line for transportation. However, there is one thing that needs to be reported to both of you.”

Xiao Wen looked up, signaling him to speak directly.

“Wasn’t it decided six days ago to add heavy weapons production? The exploration team has been put back into nearby geological exploration. But to be honest, if heavy weapons production is really urgently needed, building another underground arsenal would be too time-consuming. Even if we dig day and night non-stop, it would take at least a month to build another arsenal like the one currently running. But if we put it into use now, one month is enough for us to reserve a batch of heavy weapons.”

Xiao Wen frowned, understanding that Li Ran’s suggestion was well-intentioned, but the conditions did not allow for early production.

“I understand what you’re saying, but even if we expose the machines directly to the surface for production, the temperature difference in the Tibetan area cannot allow the soldiers to work for twenty-four hours, let alone the temperature here will damage the life span of the machines. After the underground arsenal is built, the temperature and humidity settings are strictly according to the requirements in the data.”

Li Ran nodded. He had also been struggling with this issue earlier.

“WenShao’s food reserves. Since we can support tens of thousands of soldiers in the Tibetan military district, our base, which has less than 10,000 people at most, should not be a problem, right?”

Wen Le was taken aback, and he nodded in response to Li Ran’s gaze.

Li Ran smiled and continued, “I just happened to pass by the agricultural greenhouses and indoor pastures.”

Wen Le raised an eyebrow. The agricultural greenhouses and indoor pastures were located at the back of the base, so it was quite difficult to happen to pass by them.

Just as they were thinking about it, Xiao Wen and Wen Le widened their eyes and looked at Li Ran.

Seeing their expressions, Li Ran nodded affirmatively, “Although we previously built these two places to achieve self-sufficiency within the base, it’s obvious that we have more urgent matters to attend to now. As long as Wen Shao has enough food reserves to support the base’s survival, grazing and farming aren’t necessary. Moreover, when we built these two greenhouses and the base warehouse, we already installed temperature and humidity control instruments. We can completely produce weapons directly in these three locations.”

Xiao Wen and Wen Le exchanged a glance, thinking it over and completely affirming the feasibility of Li Ran’s proposal.

“I remember the agricultural greenhouse had just harvested, and it probably hasn’t been planted again. I’ll go take a look now. You guys arrange for the technicians to plan and place the machines that are about to be put into production based on the sizes of these three locations as much as possible.” As he spoke, Wen Le got up and prepared to leave.

“Wen Shao, wait a minute!” Li Ran quickly called out to Wen Le.

Wen Le looked at him in confusion.

Li Ran smiled bitterly and explained, “Now that it’s decided, we have a problem to solve first.”

Xiao Wen vaguely thought of where Li Ran was going with this. “Are you referring to the power supply?”

Li Ran nodded. “Yes, it’s the power problem. Our current power generation equipment supports both the internal operations of the base and the machine production of the underground weapons factory, and it’s already close to saturation. If we add more machines, our power generation equipment is likely to break down. So I think we should first find technicians to solve this problem.”

Wen Le nodded. “You guys take care of this. Don’t worry about the power generation equipment. When we were at the weapons factory, I happened to collect a lot of independent heavy industry type generators that can be directly installed.”

After getting confirmation from Wen Le, Li Ran finally felt relieved. He wasn’t worried about Xiao Wen and the others using the greenhouse and warehouse to produce weapons, but he was concerned that Wen Le didn’t have the necessary power supply for weapon production.

Leaving the meeting room, Wen Le immediately went to the farmland greenhouse and indoor pasture, calling Zhao Lei, Zhao Xiaogang, and Qi Rui.

He explained his intentions, and they confirmed that Zhao Lei had not yet started a new round of planting, and the farmland greenhouse had just finished harvesting all the crops and could be put to immediate use. As for Zhao Xiaogang and Qi Rui, as long as Wen Le put the livestock into the space, there would be no problem.

Wen Le brought the three of them directly to Xiao Tao, who was responsible for the allocation of labor and points exchange within the base. He arranged for non-military personnel in the base to quickly collect the mixed black soil layer from the surface of the two greenhouses. The black soil suitable for planting in the space was limited, and as the base gradually expanded, large-scale farming in the Tibetan area was inevitable. Therefore, the soil layers that could already be used for planting crops could not be wasted. Once the two greenhouses started producing weapons, a layer of cement would have to be laid on the surface. Otherwise, when the large machines started running, displacement would inevitably occur. For those who were not very familiar with weapon and ammunition production, everything had to be done carefully.

With many hands, the work was quickly completed. Except for the Ministry of Defense personnel who were busy producing in the arsenal, everyone else was involved in the repair of the two greenhouses. Just as Han Ya and the transportation truck from the Tibetan Military Region arrived at the gate of the base, the new power equipment and newly installed heavy weapons production line had already been completed and passed the trial run. They were now ready for official use once the transportation truck from the Tibetan Military Region left.

Han Ya led the highest commander of the Tibetan Military Region on this operation into the base. Xiao Wen and Wen Le, who had received the news, were at the gate with Yan Wei Guo to greet them.

“Commander Zhang? I didn’t expect you to come in person.” Seeing the arrival of the visitors, Yan Wei Guo’s expression froze for a moment and he stepped forward to greet them.

The elderly man, who was also in his sixties and standing beside Han Ya, smiled and saluted Yan Wei Guo.

“Last time when Zhao De Yang came back, he said he saw Bai Yang. I guessed you must be here too, so as soon as the leader spoke, I applied to come and see you, my old comrade-in-arms!”

“Hahaha, aren’t we old comrades-in-arms! Back in the day, we served together and fought against enemies together! Come on, let’s catch up first. Let me introduce you. This is our highest leader in this small base, Xiao Wen. Xiao Wen, this is Zhang Zhifeng, the commander of the 631st Division of the 11th Group Army in the Tibetan Military District.”

Hearing Yan Wei Guo’s words, Zhang Zhifeng’s heart stirred, but he still smiled calmly without revealing anything.

“Hello, Commander Zhang. I am Xiao Wen.” Xiao Wen stepped forward and shook hands first.

Zhang Zhifeng shook hands and nodded, “Hello, I’m Zhang Zhifeng. You’re a good young man!”

Xiao Wen’s lips twitched, and his steady face pulled a smile that was invisible to others.

“You’ve come a long way. Come in and rest for a while. Since the two commanders are old comrades-in-arms, you can catch up.” Xiao Wen stepped aside to make way.

Zhang Zhifeng stepped aside and walked into the base with Xiao Wen and Yan Wei Guo.

Wen Le had been standing in the crowd near the back and was not noticeable. When the three men entered, he turned his head and glanced at Han Ya.

Han Ya returned a discreet glance and then continued to smile at the two strangers in military uniforms beside him. Then Lin Yan, Bai Yang, and several staff members who had gone out with them earlier welcomed the guests into the base.

Yin Chengyang followed directly after Mo Yan, afraid that he would report to Wen Le in detail in front of everyone.

Wen Le also returned to the base with the crowd, but did not go directly into the courtyard. Instead, he stopped in a relatively hidden place.

After a moment, Han Ya also flashed to Wen Le’s side.

“How did it go?” Wen Le asked.

Han Ya waved his hand. “Give me a bottle of water first, I’m thirsty to death.”

Wen Le smiled and handed him a bottle of mineral water. Han Ya drank most of the bottle before he recovered.

Wiping his wet chin, Han Ya said, “The talks went quite smoothly. As soon as they heard that we could support them with some food, they didn’t stubbornly hold onto their weapons. The military region is probably facing a very serious food crisis internally. So, the tanks, armored vehicles, and fighter planes that I requested didn’t need much bargaining and were far above my previously estimated minimum line.”

Wen Le widened his eyes. Although he guessed that Han Ya wouldn’t miss this opportunity, “Tanks and armored vehicles? Although we lack oil, as long as we get enough fuel, these two types still have considerable destructive power. But fighter planes? The global satellites are down now, what’s the use of this fighter plane? It can fly, but besides flying above our own base, what’s the point?”

“Because they are useless, compared to tanks and armored vehicles, fighter jets are easier to acquire. It may not be useful now, but it’s already been a year since the end of the world. Do you think our country will never be able to contact satellites again?”

“That’s not the case right now.”

Han Ya shook his head. “The situation in the Tibetan military region is probably similar to what we guessed. Do you think they can still offer us anything to exchange for our food? Don’t take things for nothing. Instead of giving away our food for free, we might as well trade for some fighter jets. Once the satellite is back, we won’t have any air combat capabilities at the base. Their subordinate military region in Tibet has an air force, you know!”

Wen Le wiped his forehead. “Let’s just not take things for nothing then!”

“Do we still give them the supplies according to the previous list?” Wen Le asked.

Han Ya nodded. “Don’t worry for now. The tanks and transport trucks for the fighter jets will only arrive tomorrow. Tonight, I’ll invite everyone who came to the base, and when there’s no one around, you can find an opportunity to put the supplies into their transport truck. When those big guys arrive tomorrow, they can just deliver the supplies to the base directly, and then we can take the remaining supplies out of the warehouse and put them back into the original vehicle.”

After listening to Han Ya’s words, Wen Le remembered that there was something Han Ya didn’t know yet.

“We can’t use the warehouse,” Wen Le explained when he saw the doubt in Han Ya’s eyes. “After you left, we made some modifications to the farmland greenhouse, indoor pasture, and two warehouses. The new batch of heavy weapons production lines have been installed, and as soon as they leave, we can start production.”

After Wen Le finished speaking, Han Ya widened his eyes and quickly analyzed the situation in his head, understanding the reasons. However, he felt a headache when he realized that he had originally planned to use these three places to place the big guys they had traded for.

“I didn’t expect us both to have our eyes on these three places!” Han Ya smiled bitterly.

Wen Le thought about the things that would be delivered tomorrow and understood the meaning of Han Ya’s words. He shrugged and said, “It’s okay, we can deal with it when the stuff arrives. If it doesn’t work, we can just put it outside the base. Building on the ground is much faster than underground construction.”

Han Ya nodded, acknowledging that it was the only option.

To avoid unnecessary attention and exposure of the base, all the people from the Tibetan military district who came this time were arranged to stay in the soldier dormitory building led by Yan Wei Guo’s troops. They were closely monitored by the base soldiers and even their meals were personally delivered by the soldiers.

On the other hand, Zhang Zhifeng and the other three military officers were arranged to stay in a small courtyard. The rooms in the courtyard that belonged to Yin Chengyang, Han Ya, Mo Yan, and Zhou Quan were cleared in advance for them to use. Yan Weiguo and Bai Yang accompanied them for their meals in the courtyard.

The other side was also well-behaved. After Xiao Wen and the others arranged everything, they followed the schedule without causing any trouble.

The food served in the soldier dormitory was exactly the same as that of the base soldiers, with two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, rice, steamed buns, and soup. The food within the base was always provided in unlimited quantities, so not only were the main dishes and soup unlimited, but also the meat dishes were not scarce, such as braised pork, braised beef, and other similar dishes. The soup was either a clear bone broth or fish soup. Until they left, the soldiers from the Tibetan military district who came to the base were envious of the base soldiers who were clearly used to such food.

In the small courtyard, Zhang Zhifeng and the others started their feast as soon as they arrived. The table was set to the same standard as that of a pre-apocalyptic hotel banquet, with everything from the sky, the earth, and the water.

When all the dishes were served, Zhang Zhifeng took a deep breath and sighed at the sight of the king crabs and lobsters on the table. Yan Wei Guo and the others pretended not to notice and happily filled his cup with wine.

---

Without any stops along the way, the entire convoy returned to the base at the fastest speed possible. It wasn’t because they were worried about any actions from the military district in the Tibetan area, but rather because it would take at least two days to travel from the base to the salt lake at the fastest speed, and there were still many issues that needed to be discussed before they left.

After returning to the base, Han Ya had Mo Yan arrange the team that was robbed, while he and several other key personnel went directly into the conference room to quickly discuss the Tibetan military district’s intentions with the base’s defenders, Yan Wei Guo and Lin Yan.

Due to its location in the sparsely populated Tibetan region, the military district there suffered the least damage compared to the other major military districts in the inland areas after the start of the apocalypse. In this situation, there was no other reason for them to negotiate with Xiao Wen’s base except for the arms factory that they had snatched.

“It seems that our neighbor is not doing well either!” Yan Wei Guo snorted.

Xiao Wen and Wen Le glanced at each other, and even a blind man could see the gloating in Captain Yan’s eyes.

Han Ya suppressed the smile in his eyes and cleared his throat. “It’s normal to not be doing well. Although there is no threat from zombies here, there is also no place to replenish supplies, whether it’s food or other materials. They have to enter the city to obtain them. Although the nearest city, N City, has fewer zombies compared to inland cities, it still lacks the accumulation of supplies. Not to mention, just the food alone is enough to make them go crazy. And if they want to obtain food, they must have a large amount of weapons and ammunition to support them entering the inland areas. I don’t think the Tibetan military district, no matter how much weapons they had stored before, could allow them to squander them at will. After all, it has been a long time since the apocalypse started, and they have already done well to survive until now!”

Yan Wei Guo smiled. “It’s not just food and weapons. The amount of gasoline consumed every time they enter the inland areas is not a small number. I think they have reached a point where they have exhausted all their resources, no matter what kind of material it is.”

Everyone nodded in agreement with their analysis. If they were not forced to do so, the Tibetan military district would not have been so easy to talk to after suffering such a big loss at the weapons factory.

“Do they really want to negotiate with the Apocalypse Base?” Yan Wei Guo sighed.

Han Ya nodded, “Their biggest possibility should be to hope that we can share some weapons, and both parties can send troops to obtain grain or oil together.”

Wen Le leaned on one hand and rolled her eyes, “They think too highly of themselves. With weapons in our hands, we can totally go out and obtain the supplies ourselves. Why should we give them away for no reason? If we help them get stronger, we will be in danger.”

“Indeed,” Yan Wei Guo nodded. “If they cannot offer enough benefits to match our weapons and ammunition, we absolutely cannot give them any benefits for nothing. Of course, I don’t believe they have anything that can exchange for weapons, so this negotiation is completely unnecessary.”

“Even if it’s not necessary, we still have to go,” Xiao Wen shook his head. “We don’t have to give them everything, but we should try not to push them into a corner. Although they have used up a large portion of their weapons while gathering resources outside, each military district is equipped with heavy weapons, which are not easily depleted. If they really have to attack our base with all their might, it won’t be good. Even if we manage to escape, we will both suffer.”

Xiao Wen’s words made sense. If the other side was really desperate, they wouldn’t just sit there and wait for death. They would fight back, and it would be a gamble to see who would come out alive.

“So we have to give them weapons?” Bai Yang asked angrily. “After all the trouble we went through to steal back our machines, we have to work hard to produce weapons for them too?! That’s ridiculous!”

Yan Wei Guo clenched his teeth. Bai Yang was straightforward, but he didn’t expect him to be so narrow-minded. How come he couldn’t think of a better solution?

Han Ya concealed her smile and explained, “Unless it’s a matter of life and death, I don’t think the Tibet Military District will want to suffer along with us. They need resources to survive, but guns and ammunition cannot be eaten or drunk. They need weapons and gasoline, mainly to support their acquisition of food and other necessities for survival. The military district is quite large, and there are many people to feed, so the consumption of food must be considerable. We don’t want to give them weapons because we’re afraid that they’ll get too strong and turn their guns against us. Therefore, we can’t give them weapons, but we can still provide other kinds of aid to show our friendly attitude.”

“Other kinds?” Bai Yang suddenly realized and chuckled.

Xiao Wen and the others had their eyes on that big piece of fat in the military district. Even if the other side did not turn on them, it would still hurt to see so many soldiers starve to death.

They had been waiting for the base to become stronger before they could swallow up that piece of fat, but now the other side was coming to them before they were ready.

Compared to their initial plan of conquering by force, it would be better to slowly erode the will of the Tibetan military region.

“Since that’s the case, we can’t let them misunderstand that our base is a military base when we go to negotiate this time,” Han Ya said, looking at Yan Wei Guo.

Yan Wei Guo waved his hand. “We came for you in the first place, and we rely on your food. If we hadn’t met you, very few of us soldiers would have survived. So there’s no need to worry about face. It’s better if you make it clear directly. With us as an example, it will be beneficial for the recovery of the Tibetan military region. With our precedent, they won’t resist too strongly. Similarly, with our support, they’ll have to think twice about rebelling after the merger.”

Xiao Wen and Han Ya smiled gratefully at Yan Wei Guo.

To be fair, Yan Wei Guo really didn’t care about reputation. They were a group of people who had survived through repeated struggles. What’s the value of reputation compared to a few bowls of rice? They can survive now without worrying about food and drink, and they won’t face life and death again in the short term, which they couldn’t even ask for on the road before. They could have earned a good reputation for their actions during the zombie siege in F City, but what did they get in return?

They were soldiers, but they were also human beings!

Now that they had preliminarily decided to provide food support, Han Ya asked Wen Le to record on paper. They needed to analyze how much food to send and what kind, as well as other materials to support them.

“Captain Yan, how many soldiers do they have in the military region now?” Han Ya thought about it and still didn’t know much about the several military regions.

“At least tens of thousands,” Yan Wei Guo thought carefully before speaking.

Xiao Wen was stunned, and Wen Le blinked his eyes. Han Ya almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.

Except for the few officers sitting under Yan Wei Guo’s command, everyone’s expression was not very good.

“More than ten thousand? Or at least?” Han Ya trembled his fingers and asked uncertainly.

Yan Wei Guo nodded. “If their mutation rate is similar to our military district after two mutations, there should be around 160,000 to 170,000 people now.”

“How many people did they have before the mutation?” Han Ya asked further.

“The configuration of the Tibetan military district was 280,000 people.”

“So many?!”

Yan Wei Guo chuckled. “What did you think? Don’t forget how long the border line he is responsible for is.”

“But back then, there were only 60,000 to 70,000 people in the X city military district where you were stationed. How come they have so many more than you?”

Yan Wei Guo looked at the several confused children in front of him, feeling both amused and exasperated.

Even Bai Yang and the others shook their heads helplessly. They had no idea what they were talking about when they kept targeting the Tibetan military district!

He really didn’t know whether to say they were bold as a calf, or simply crazy!

“You guys, you guys! I thought you knew what you were doing when you kept staring at the military district next to us. It turns out you were fearless because you were ignorant!” Yan Wei Guo sighed, “The X city military district is just a sub-military district. There is one army group stationed in X city. The Tibetan military district has four army groups under it. These four army groups must be integrated to form the complete Tibetan military district.”

The so-called “as if separated by mountains,” although Xiao Wen and his friends were engaged in some illegal activities at that time, with just a few people, they could not possibly provoke a military region, so they had almost no knowledge of the various military regions.

“Shouldn’t those four army groups be stationed in different places?” Wen Le asked.

Yan Wei Guo shook his head. “Originally, they were stationed in different places, but at the beginning of the apocalypse, the Tibetan military region must have gathered its troops and settled here. The places where their four army groups are stationed are all in sparsely populated areas along the border. Even if they wanted to gather in the Central Plains region, it would be impossible. Not only are there countless zombies between them, but they also have to protect the survivors.”

Wen Le looked at Xiao Wen and the others, and everyone fell silent.

Han Ya tried to smile, but it was a bit stiff.

“It seems that we not only need to speed up the production of the newly built small-scale munitions factory, but we should also start producing heavy weapons and equipment.” Xiao Wen tapped the table.

Although he had always known that this neighbor was not easy to deal with, he didn’t expect that their numbers alone would be enough to trample them several times over.

Yan Wei Guo thought about it and looked at Han Ya.

Han Ya had already come back to his senses from the shock, and his brain was starting to work.

“It’s appropriate to invest in production, but there’s no need to be too hasty. After all, the things they need, we can carry with us. Even if they really attack, don’t expect to gain anything. I just thought about taking the food directly to the salt lake and giving it to them, but that’s not possible now. It’s best to let them come and get it themselves. After knowing their numbers, the amount of food we give them will definitely not be a small sum. Let them come and see the scale of our base, and they will have doubts about where our food comes from. In addition, when Wen Shao directly emptied the munitions factory, it proved that we have enough space to take the supplies they need and run away. In this way, they will have to seriously consider their plan to take over our base. Even if they are capable, they cannot catch us unawares on the vast grasslands. We have a small number of people, but it is easier for us to run away, and leaving them an empty city is definitely not what they want.”

Yan Wei Guo nodded his head, and Xiao Wen and the others also agreed with Han Ya’s statement.

“Is the food you’ve stocked up enough, Wen Shao?” The idea is good, but the premise of all this is that Wen Le really has enough food to feed the tens of thousands of people. Otherwise, they would be in real danger.

Wen Le nodded his head. Not to mention that there is already a considerable amount of food grown within the space after the apocalypse, but before the apocalypse, he had collected and stored nearly 100 million yuan worth of food. The amount of storage was terrifying to Wen Le, but it could still support the consumption of tens of thousands of people. In addition to the special nature of planting within the space, as long as he and Xiao Wen work hard, the food supply will continue to increase. Not only food, but the breeding of livestock on the grasslands also increases exponentially. Even if they don’t eat grains and just eat meat, it is enough to make the tens of thousands of people vomit!

“You can negotiate the price with confidence. I can afford to feed not only one military district, but also a few more,” Wen Le said boldly.

The other few people were speechless. They had too much idle time on their hands, why bother feeding people who might become enemies?!

However, this was enough to once again raise Wen Le’s preciousness in everyone’s hearts.

Yan Wei Guo and a few other military officers looked at each other, really not understanding where Wen Le got so much food from.

But as long as there is food, it doesn’t matter where it comes from.

Afterwards, Han Ya and Yan Wei Guo called the logistics officers who had been responsible for logistics in the army, and began to discuss the amount and types of food to be prepared, as well as other necessary military logistics supplies.

They roughly listed a checklist and asked Wen Le to carefully compare it with the supplies in his space and make adjustments accordingly.

Looking at the list in his hand, Wen Le hesitated for a moment, considering the items stored in his space.

“What’s wrong?” Han Ya asked.

Wen Le hesitated before speaking, “I have more meat than vegetables stored in my space.”

“Not enough vegetables?” Han Ya took the list and prepared to make changes.

Wen Le shook his head, “There are enough vegetables, but there is too much meat in the space, and it takes up too much space.”

The onlookers, including Yan Wei Guo, who had not left, looked at Wen Le strangely. Although the base had a ranch, the reproduction of animals was far behind the speed of vegetable planting and harvesting, so they thought it would be better to leave more meat.

Xiao Wen, on the other hand, remembered the geometrically multiplying livestock in Wen Le’s space and agreed by nodding to Han Ya, “Reduce some of the other items appropriately and add more meat. If we continue like this, there won’t be any space left for other things.”

This statement was a bit inexplicable, but Han Ya immediately remembered the live domestic animals and poultry that Wen Le had taken out before, and with the association of Xiao Wen’s words, he immediately realized it. However, he was shocked by his own conclusion.

Wen Shao had actually managed to breed livestock in his space?!

However, this question was not appropriate to ask at the moment. He closed his mouth, took a deep breath, and continued discussing with the soldier in charge of military logistics beside him.

After receiving the final confirmed list, the team split into two groups.

Han Ya, Lin Yan, and several staff members under Yan Wei Guo were responsible for the negotiations.

Yin Chengyang, Mo Yan, Bai Yang, and another military officer were responsible for security.

The base was left under the care of Xiao Wen, Wen Le, and Yan Wei Guo.

As they left, the large force of nearly two thousand people who had previously gone out to receive them remained stationed at the base, ready to defend and retreat in case of a sudden attack by the military district in the Tibetan area.

After resting for a night, Han Ya and his team left the base and headed for the salt lake. If they arrived early enough, they could collect salt on-site and have a few space ability users carry it back.

After Han Ya left, Xiao Wen and Wen Le, together with a trusted team of soldiers assigned by Yan Wei Guo, cleared out a warehouse and slaughtered the livestock. If they wanted to limit the food supply of the Tibetan military district, they couldn’t give them live poultry to breed themselves. Although it was troublesome, it was safer.

As they looked at the lively livestock, not only the others, but even Yan Wei Guo’s gaze at Wen Le was exceptionally profound. Wen Le didn’t explain and just smiled at everyone’s eyes.

Yan Wei Guo had finally figured it out. Wen Le was simply unfathomable. Not to mention Xiao Wen and the others, even if others had Wen Le as such a powerful and mysterious backing, they couldn’t guard their territory with peace of mind. Even if they didn’t aspire to rule the world, it would still be much easier to dominate one region compared to others.

---

At the beginning of the construction, Xiao Wen and Han Ya had already assigned the newly built military factory to the military side out of absolute trust. Not to mention that the matter of the military factory was originally told to them by Yan Wei Guo, but the time they spent together was enough to make the suspicious Han Ya and Lin Yan let go of their guard against Yan Wei Guo and his soldiers.

Distrust no one, but don’t be suspicious of the people you use.

So Yan Wei Guo directly notified the military factory to immediately start operation. Han Ya arranged for Yin Chengyang and Mo Yan to prepare for the defense of the base and be prepared for the worst. Even if the two sides started fighting directly after going out to meet each other, they would not be caught off guard.

At the same time, Bai Yang had already gone out to gather all the soldiers in the base. He selected eight hundred people, as well as local Tibetans, to follow the orders of Yan Wei Guo and Lin Yan, and cooperate with Yin Chengyang and Mo Yan to guard the base. The remaining soldiers, along with non-military supernaturalists, left the base with Xiao Wen to prepare to bring the last team back.

The convoy drove out of the base, with Bai Yang as the commander sitting steadily in the command vehicle. Han Ya was turning back to discuss the worst-case scenario with Xiao Wen and Wen Le.

Since the missing team stopped halfway, it meant that the number of enemies intercepting or discovering them would definitely not be too small. Otherwise, according to Han Ya’s earliest warning, any non-base military personnel discovered in the Tibetan area should be eliminated to prevent future troubles.

It was hard for Xiao Wen and his team to imagine why those members who often went out to collect resources and were fearless in the face of danger would stop and stay put with only twenty people facing two hundred enemies. Regardless of everyone’s inner struggles, what needs to happen will happen, especially when it was Xiao Wen and his team who were going to meet the enemy this time.

As they watched a row of black dots appearing faintly on the horizon, Han Ya took a deep breath.

As they walked, the four of them discussed back and forth, thinking that there was little chance of a fight breaking out when the two sides met. No matter how strong the other side was, they couldn’t just pull out one or two thousand people to intercept the small team of only twenty people. On their side, they had nearly two thousand people to support them. Moreover, since they had been in control of the factory for so long, if they knew there was another base in the Tibetan area, even a fool could guess that those machines were in their hands.

As they expected, it wasn’t until Bai Yang ordered all the vehicles to stop two hundred meters away from the other side that they opened fire.

Han Ya nodded silently. Since they didn’t directly attack, it meant there was still room for communication, which increased the possibility of getting the captured team back.

After the convoy stopped, Bai Yang didn’t make any arrangements and just waited quietly.

Indeed, they were waiting. One soldier who had been assigned to the command vehicle with Han Ya was adjusting the frequency of a communicator according to the record. At this moment, everyone was grateful that the communication channels within each team had been recorded when they left the base, or they would never have been able to contact those trapped inside by the enemy.

After the frequency was adjusted, Han Ya didn’t immediately contact the other side. After all, they didn’t know if the team and vehicles had been controlled. They could only wait for the three vehicles to contact each other since they were on the same frequency, and they could receive the communication once they did.

Soon, a faint voice could be heard from the communicator, and a clear voice followed in the next moment.

“Xiao Yu, what’s the situation now? Damn it, these bastards have blocked my car tightly. I can’t see anything. I should have applied for a big truck earlier.”

“Humph, now you know what it’s like to envy others? Let me tell you, if you guys had given me the big truck, your Xiao Yu would be standing on top of the world now, looking down at all the other vehicles~ Hahaha!”

“Okay, okay. If I gave you a fishing rod, you’d climb up it. Little bunny, tell me quickly, what’s going on? Didn’t we bring a bunch of reinforcements? Why is there no movement now?”

“I won’t tell you~ I won’t tell you~ la la la la~”

Originally, Han Ya wanted to listen to their conversation first to determine if they had been controlled, but as he listened to the conversation on the communicator, everyone in the command vehicle had a black line on their faces.

Wen Le chuckled silently, lying in Xiao Wen’s arms. Xiao Wen curled his lips.

“You guys seem to be having a good time!” A low, indifferent voice sounded in the communicator.

“Huh? Wen Zi, who’s talking on your end? Still pretending to be low and deep, aren’t you pinching your neck and trying to sound magnetic?!” This was the cheerful male voice called Xiao Yu.

“I said Xiao Yu, don’t you think this voice sounds familiar?” This was the first person who spoke with a loud voice.

“This is the voice of our Bai Team.” The last communicator finally sounded.

“Hahahaha!” Wen Le couldn’t help but burst into laughter, and laughter echoed from the other three communicators.

A gentle female voice came from the communicator as Wen Le’s laughter died down. “This is Wen Shao’s voice.”

As soon as the female voice spoke, everyone recognized her as Yi Lan, who was by Lin Yan’s side. The reason why she came here in such a hurry to pick up people was partly because Yi Lan was with this team. Despite Lin Yan’s calmness before they left, Xiao Wen and the others were well aware of Yi Lan’s status as the mistress of Lin Yan’s family.

Two howls sounded at the same time, and it’s estimated that both Big Ka and Xiao Yu were almost driven to despair by the absurd conversation.

Bai Yang cleared his throat with a black face, putting an end to the increasingly nonsensical conversation.

“What’s your current situation?”

Bai Yang’s question was addressed to the young man called Wen Zi on the intercom, and no one dared to tease him for speaking in a deep voice this time.

“After entering the Tibetan area, we did not find anyone following us. These people didn’t catch up with us from behind either. It seems that they already knew our route and were waiting to block us.”

Han Ya frowned and took the radio from Bai Yang.

“What happened after they blocked you? What did they do?”

“Only a few people came to talk to us. Because we didn’t head straight for the target, we didn’t respond to them for fear of being led into saying something we shouldn’t. But Big Ka saw more clearly than us in the two cars, so Xiao Yu, you explain.”

“Okay.” The young man called Xiao Yu spoke seriously this time, without his previous cheerfulness. “After we were forced to stop, a total of six people came to each of our three cars to try to communicate, but we didn’t respond. They didn’t make any forced moves either, but after those six people failed, they all went to the same car to talk.”

“Can you see the license plate of that car?” Han Ya asked.

“Yes, it’s XXXXX.”

Upon hearing Xiao Yu report the license plate number, Han Ya turned to look at Wen Le.

Wen Le squinted his eyes and carefully observed with his mental power. He finally found the car and nodded towards Han Ya, but suddenly froze and his eye twitched.

Seeing his expression, others wanted to ask, but Wen Le waved his hand to stop them, indicating for Han Ya to continue.

Han Ya turned back to the communicator and asked, “Anything else we need to pay attention to?”

“No, we can’t observe anything regarding the number of people or weapons,” the little fish replied with frustration.

“It’s okay. You’ve done well. Keep an eye on their movements and notify us immediately if there’s any action,” Han Ya instructed carefully. After all, they could only see the periphery from their direction, which was far less clear than the big truck seen from the inside.

“Yes!”

Han Ya handed the communicator to the officer sitting in the co-pilot seat and turned around with Bai Yang to look at Wen Le.

After all, Wen Le’s behavior just now was hard to ignore.

Wen Le sighed and smiled bitterly, “Old rivals always meet again!”

Others were stunned, and Xiao Wen’s face turned black before realizing.

Seeing that Bai Yang and Han Ya were still a bit puzzled, he explained, “Apart from today, the only time we had contact with the Tibetan Military District was during the arms factory battle. And the only team we could call old rivals is the one we clashed with at the factory.”

Now Han Ya and Bai Yang also wanted to curse.

“If we don’t have an official confrontation later, Wen Le and I won’t show up. Han Ya, you and Brother Bai will be responsible for negotiating with them. If we’re recognized by them, given their previous losses, it will be hard not to fight,” Wen Le said.

Han Ya nodded. He originally came along to negotiate with the other party, and Xiao Wen and Wen Le were only responsible for protecting him. Now the two of them couldn’t show up, and they had to notify other vehicles and ask the team members who had previously been to the arms factory and clashed with them to avoid appearing in their sight.

After about an hour, it was almost dark, and the other party still had no movement. Han Ya was starting to doubt whether they were luring them away from their base.

Han Ya’s team was getting impatient, and the team from the Tibetan Military District was also getting impatient.

Yao Jin opened his eyes, which had been closed to rest, and a hint of killing intent flashed in his eyes.

“No movement yet?” he asked.

Zhao De Yang, sitting in the co-pilot seat, turned back and said, “Commander, they haven’t taken any action since they stopped.”

Yao Jin sneered, “Are they so patient because they know we won’t attack these three cars?”

Zhao De Yang fell silent for a moment and hesitated before speaking, “I think they might have a way to communicate with each other. They waited calmly for our response only after confirming the safety of these three cars. Otherwise, why would they come all the way here and not do anything once they arrived?”

“Do you think there might be someone in those three cars who made them arrange for a large force to come and assist them?” Yao Jin squinted his eyes and asked.

Zhao De Yang looked at his superior officer hesitantly, afraid that his impulsive behavior during the last incident at the military factory might have caused him to ignore the commander’s orders.

However, speaking of the last incident, although he was scolded by his commander when he returned, after the scolding, even the commander had to admit that the orders of the superior officer at the time were completely correct, and no one else could have done better.

From the traces in the mountains and forests after the incident, only five or six hundred people attacked them head-on at the time. Who could have imagined that such a small number of people would dare to open fire with full force against the entire army, and that they would have so many psychic ability users with large spaces who could empty the entire military factory.

It could only be said that the other party had been lucky enough to encounter such an opportunity after a thousand years!

Seeing Zhao De Yang’s hesitation, Yao Jin snorted coldly.

Although he wished he could tear these brats apart, he couldn’t ignore the commander’s orders.

“Alright, don’t hesitate anymore. You go and inform these brats that we will negotiate in three days.” Yao Jin instructed Zhao De Yang.

He was not interested in continuing to waste time with the other side. Although he didn’t expect them to come so quickly, since they had come, he would just convey the commander’s orders directly.

Zhao De Yang got off the car to carry out his orders. The commander didn’t just want them to intercept, it was natural that he couldn’t just notify them of the negotiation time.

He wanted to get a sense of the other side’s bottom line, and it would be best if he could confirm whether there was a military presence. If there was, then negotiation would be necessary. If not, there was no need for negotiation.

They could just bring in the army, and no matter how many ragtag people were there, they wouldn’t be able to withstand the power of the military. The incident at the military factory could not be replicated.

But now there’s no need to guess. With so many military vehicles coming over, although their military district license plates have been removed, it’s impossible for anyone other than the military to have so many military vehicles at once.

It seems they’ll have to swallow their anger from last time.

When Han Ya saw someone coming over from the other side, he got out of the car directly, and Bai Yang followed him.

After seeing Bai Yang, Zhao De Yang suddenly realized something. As a military leader, although the leaders of each military district are not very active, they generally still know each other.

Seeing Bai Yang, it was not difficult to guess where this force that had been hiding in the Tibetan area was from.

When they arrived, Zhao De Yang saluted the two of them. “Captain Bai.”

Bai Yang also returned a salute. “Captain Zhao.”

“Who is this?” Zhao De Yang asked, looking at Han Ya, who was smiling next to them.

“This is a staff officer from the base, Han Ya.” Although Bai Yang is straightforward, he is not stupid. His introduction was somewhat ambiguous.

There is a position for staff officers in the military, and Han Ya’s role in the base can also be considered a staff officer. It depends on how Zhao De Yang interprets it.

Zhao De Yang also muttered to himself, at least from Bai Yang’s words, he couldn’t tell whether this invisible base was led by the military or the government. Although heroes emerge in troubled times, it is unlikely that the military would willingly follow the leadership of civilians.

“Putting aside these speculations for now, at least let’s make our intentions clear. As fellow soldiers, we are all one family, and in this post-apocalyptic world, we should help each other out. Why didn’t your army look for our military region when you came to the Tibetan area? We could have offered some assistance.”

Zhao Deyang spoke quite tactfully, and Han Ya smiled in response, “We don’t have any grand goals. It’s enough for us to find a place to settle down and not starve in the Tibetan area. Everyone is struggling in this world, so we don’t want to cause any trouble for you.”

Zhao De Yang almost cursed at this statement. No grand goals? Not wanting to cause trouble?

Wasn’t the matter with the factory obviously suspicious?!

Bai Yang held back a smile as he watched Zhao De Yang’s face turn purple.

Taking a deep breath and suppressing his frustration, Zhao De Yang stopped beating around the bush and directly stated their intentions, “Our leader wants to have a detailed discussion with your army. What do you think?”

Han Ya’s mind turned, but he remained expressionless, “When and where?”

“Three days later at noon, at your base?” Zhao De Yang’s last sentence was clearly a test.

Han Ya looked at him for a moment with a smirk before slowly speaking, “Don’t you want to come back alive?!” Damn, they dared to be so brazen and probe like this?!

Zhao De Yang cleared his throat, “How about you choose the location?”

Without hesitation, Han Ya immediately set the location, “Three days later at noon, at the northernmost point of the Salt Lake.”

Zhao De Yang nodded in agreement. The two sides didn’t say anything else and directly bid farewell and left.

Han Ya and Bai Yang returned to their car and saw the other team’s convoy splitting apart, with three cars that had been detained slowly driving away from the center. Bai Yang arranged for someone to inspect the inside and outside of the three cars that arrived, confirming that there were no issues, and then the convoy drove straight towards their base without looking back.

Since the other side didn’t directly come to their base, they must have had some reservations. Now that the meeting time had been confirmed, it was unlikely that they would come to their base to cause trouble.

---

After a month of geological exploration, a plot of land of about thirty mu (about 2 hectares) was finally selected as the site for a small-scale munitions factory, located one kilometer southwest of the base.

Once the location was established, the basic construction of the base was completed, and everyone except for the soldiers responsible for patrol and defense was fully engaged in the construction of the munitions factory. Because the factory was to be located underground, the amount of excavation required was extremely large. Not only did earth-elemental ability users work on it, but also many people without abilities borrowed tools to join in the excavation, and both worked simultaneously.

At the same time, Xiao Wen requested a small army of fifty people from Yan Wei Guo, and began to dig a tunnel from the courtyard of the base dormitory towards the direction of the munitions factory under construction. In the event of an enemy attack, whether it be a zombie army that had pushed inland into the Tibetan region, or an attack by survivors, the defense perimeter of the base could be narrowed without cutting off the supply of the munitions factory.

Due to the much higher difficulty of underground construction compared to surface construction, the building materials inside the Warm Shelter were not enough to support the completion of the entire munitions factory. Therefore, after half a month, the space ability users except for Wen Le divided into two groups, leaving the Tibetan region to gather the necessary materials and also collect as much usable resources as possible.

In the blink of an eye, the first autumn after the apocalypse had arrived. Although the weather was still fluctuating between hot and cold, it could not affect the extreme pride felt by everyone at the base as the construction of the munitions factory was nearing completion. At the same time, the golden grains in the agricultural greenhouse had officially ripened.

Wen Le stood in the greenhouse, looking at the small patch of golden grains. She couldn’t help but remember the scene of the base going wild when the first batch of vegetables ripened.

In fact, everyone knew that the greenhouse would produce the food they would need in the future, but the visceral joy of seeing the green vegetables presented before them in large quantities could not be felt by just imagination.

Zhao Lei, the person in charge of the greenhouse, stood beside Wen Le, unable to conceal his pride on his face.

“Wen Shao, everyone has been working hard these past few months, and now we’ve had a great harvest. Do you think we should find a time to celebrate and take a break?” Zhao Lei turned to ask Wen Le.

Wen Le thought about it. Most of the teams that had gone out had already returned, and only the last three small teams had entered the Tibetan area. They would reach the base in a few days. The construction of the underground factory was expected to be officially completed in a week, which would be a good time for everyone to relax.

“Okay, the factory is almost finished, and we can wait a few more days. I’ll talk to Xiao Wen about it, and we’ll have a celebration after the construction is completed,” Wen Le said.

Zhao Lei left happily after hearing this.

Wen Le also left the greenhouse and ran into Xiao Wen on the way home. Wen Le walked up to him with a smile, and the two shook hands and walked slowly home.

A week later, the underground weapons factory was officially completed, with some machines already in place.

Although only one-third of the machines collected were put into use, after the technology group sorted and compiled the data, they decided to mainly produce light and heavy machine guns and ammunition, with the remaining one-third being small portable weapons such as rifles, pistols, and sniper rifles.

A certain amount of grenade launchers were also put into production. The firearms and ammunition produced this time were aimed at maximizing their effectiveness in defending the base.

No matter how they develop in the future, this small base is still their foundation. They can only stand a chance in the apocalypse if they guard this hard-won foundation.

At the entrance of the underground weapons factory, most of the leaders of the base had gathered and were just coming out from visiting the factory, all of them with smiles on their faces.

Although the machines had not started operating formally yet, they had all been test-run during installation, and they were just waiting for the last team to return from outside before the entire base could celebrate with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

After all, this could be considered an important step in arming their own base in the apocalypse.

After the tour was completed, everyone returned to the base leisurely with laughter and conversation.

Just as Wen Le, Xiao Wen, Han Ya, and Yin Chengyang were about to return to their rooms, a soldier rushed out of the conference room and ran straight to Han Ya, whispering a few words in a low voice.

Han Ya’s face changed, and he glanced at Xiao Wen and Wen Le, motioning for them to go directly to the conference room.

The four of them entered the conference room and went straight to the electronic screen.

The screen was currently displaying the location of the last team that had not yet returned.

Each team that went outside would be equipped with a positioning device on their vehicle, so as long as they entered a certain range, the main display in the conference room would show their respective locations.

This team was the last one to return, and according to the speed displayed on the screen, they should have been able to return to the base tonight, but at this moment, the light on the screen was no longer moving forward.

“When did they stop?” Han Ya asked the person in charge stationed in front of the display.

The person in charge looked at the record and then at the clock on the wall.

“They stopped an hour ago.”

“If there are any abnormalities, notify me immediately.” Han Ya stood up and exchanged glances with Xiao Wen and the others.

The four of them walked up to the conference table with serious expressions and sat down.

“Give me the information on the members of this team,” Xiao Wen said to the soldier who had just informed Han Ya.

The soldier went straight to the filing cabinet to retrieve the information. Detailed registration is required for each team before departure, so it’s easy to look up.

After quickly reading through the information, Han Ya said, “We have regulations for all our teams that go out. Since the range displayed on the locator is a safe zone without zombies, any team that enters the display range must drive overnight and can only rest for half an hour during mealtimes. This team has completed three missions, and this is their third time. The first two times were strictly in accordance with the regulations, so there is no possibility of the entire team forgetting the time.”

Wen Le took the team’s information that had been handed over and looked at the record of the twenty people.

Each team sent out by the base consists of twenty people, with two jeeps and one military truck. Of the twenty people, six are dedicated drivers, six are non-powered military personnel, one is a space-powered person, and seven are powered persons.

Each of the three vehicles is equipped with one light and one heavy machine gun. These six military personnel are specifically responsible for these six machine guns, so as to push the team forward in densely populated zombie areas and protect the convoy when the seven ability users protect the spatial ability user to collect materials.

This kind of deployment has never resulted in a complete military loss for any team participating in the base’s missions. There are certainly losses, but they are still within an acceptable range.

Some teams may return to the base later than expected, as there are many unpredictable factors when entering zombie-infested areas. Most of the late returns are due to searching and rescuing survivors along the way, which delays time during the rescue process.

However, the military truck was originally equipped for survivors to ride in for each team.

But this is the first time there has been a problem with the locator range, and they cannot afford to ignore it.

“How about sending a vehicle to meet them?” Wen Le frowned. “We can’t figure out the reason just by speculating here.”

Xiao Wen and Han Ya were about to nod in agreement when they were interrupted by a sentence from Yin Chengyang.

Scratching his head, Yin Chengyang said, “Who knows what the reason is? It can’t be that our invisible neighbor, the military district in the hiding area, has discovered us, right?!”

As soon as Yin Chengyang finished speaking, the faces of the other three turned pale.

During this period, each team that entered the hiding area went smoothly, and Han Ya and the others were initially worried about being discovered by the military district, but it had not happened, which made them forget that there was such a great god sitting next to the base.

Seeing that his one sentence had caused the other three to have such terrifying expressions, Yin Chengyang twitched the corners of his mouth. He was just speaking casually.

“Go and get Captain Yan and the others,” Han Ya called out to Yin Chengyang, who was about to sneak away.

Yin Chengyang paused for a moment before running out. The atmosphere in the conference room was too oppressive, and he didn’t want to be a scapegoat.

Yan Wei Guo and Bai Yang rushed over, and after learning about the situation, they were almost certain that the team that was still shown to be stationary on the monitor had been hit by Yin Chengyang’s words.

“What’s your plan?” Yan Wei Guo asked Xiao Wen.

Xiao Wen glanced at Han Ya and said, “First, send troops to bring that team back. They are not far from our base. Since that team has been discovered, our base will be exposed in a few days. If we don’t send troops to retrieve them, even if they haven’t been detained, they will try to delay time and dare not return directly. But this is just a matter of a few days, and there’s no need to sacrifice a whole team. At the same time, the underground arms factory should start production immediately, and we should be prepared for the worst!”

Yan Wei Guo nodded. Although the situation was not optimistic, it did not affect his admiration for Xiao Wen. For such a long time, whether it was a big or small matter, Xiao Wen’s decisions were almost always optimal. As a young leader, Xiao Wen was a very rare talent. Equally outstanding as his decision-making abilities were his personnel management skills.

Yan Wei Guo looked at the several people sitting around Xiao Wen.

There was Han Ya, who was resourceful;

Yin Chengyang, who was laid-back but had a strong ability to rally people;

Mo Yan, who was quiet and low-key but also exceptionally rigorous; although he was a doctor and rarely involved in decision-making, he could use gentle and healing language and behavior to resolve extreme emotions when Xiao Wen and the others were in a state of extreme emotion, enabling them to quickly calm down;

Zhou Quan, who was able to grasp people’s psychology extremely accurately and could even reverse-engineer the opponent’s psychology in any situation;

Lin Yan, who was not prominent in normal times but could tear apart the encirclement like a ruthless sword in critical moments, and these were all talented individuals.

Perhaps they would shine even brighter if placed under someone else, but there were many types of talent, and Xiao Wen’s greatest strength was to tightly connect these individuals together.

Yan Wei Guo understood that it was not because they were exclusive to others; if they were exclusive, Lin Yan, who was added later, would not have been pulled in. It was just that these few people were just right; one more person would be too many, and one less person would not complete the team.

As the leader and decision-maker, Xiao Wen relied on Han Ya as an analyst who listed all the situations; Lin Yan as a promoter who speculated on the most likely process and results based on people’s psychology; Yin Chengyang as an actor who could fully implement actions with his straightforward personality and rallying power, whether it was defense or offense; Mo Yan as a connective hub between thought and action, strictly executing Xiao Wen’s decisions and making adjustments based on the actual situation, compensating for Yin Chengyang’s inflexibility; Zhou Quan as a pacifier, who was a doctor and had a deep understanding of Xiao Wen and their personalities.

With his gentle language and actions, he could resolve the extreme thoughts of others, allowing everyone to calmly judge right from wrong.

In this regard, even Lin Yan, a psychologist, was inferior to him. Many people in the base were willing to go to Zhou Quan to relieve their emotional suppression or extreme thoughts.

Meanwhile, Yan Wei Guo looked at Wen Le, the boy opposite him, who appeared gentle even though he was frowning, and a smile flashed in his eyes.

He has met too many people in his lifetime, but Wen Le is definitely a strange one. To exaggerate a bit, if Zhou Quan and Lin Yan had ever questioned Wen Le, he would have suspected that this child had a split personality.

Having heard from Zhou Quan and others about Wen Le’s actions since the beginning of the apocalypse, perhaps relying on the survival resources in the space, Wen Le is almost always gentle and soft, but occasionally shows a few moments of cold-bloodedness and cruelty as if he were a completely different person. It’s as if he lives a peaceful life during peacetime, but immediately transforms into the most ruthless survivor in the apocalypse when extreme danger arises. This makes Yan Wei Guo feel very uncomfortable, but he also feels that survival in the apocalypse should be like him.

So when Yan Wei Guo and Bai Yang were chatting, they said that Wen Le is a sword, a sword with a scabbard. When danger arises, he points the sword directly at the enemy, but he keeps his edge concealed during normal times.

And the scabbard is tied to Xiao Wen’s waist. Anyone who is an enemy of Xiao Wen will be pointed at by the sword.

---

Not long after, Xiao Wen returned to the room, and Wen Le did not ask any more questions. The most important thing now was to finalize the preliminary design of the military factory.

After nearly fifty people worked tirelessly to organize the materials, Wen Le presented a relatively detailed outline, although it could not be said that all the information had been classified.

That day, after dinner, everyone gathered in the conference room again.

“Today’s main focus is to determine our next development direction,” Han Ya looked at the people present.

“Wen Shao has brought back the preliminary data, and it has already been sent to everyone at noon. Whether you understand it or not, everyone should have a general idea. So now, everyone can share their thoughts.”

As soon as Han Ya finished speaking, Yan Wei Guo knocked on the table.

“Let me interject here. Xiao Wen came to me earlier and mentioned his thoughts about when to enter the Central Plains, whether it should be now or after the military factory is fully built. I think not only me but also other people have been asked by him.”

Everyone nodded. Although Xiao Wen did not bring this up at the meeting, he had asked each person in the base’s internal senior management about it.

After getting everyone’s response, Yan Wei Guo continued, “I understand Xiao Wen’s mood very well. As a soldier, I am more anxious and worried than him. However, what I am going to say today is not just for Xiao Wen but also for most of you. Among our base, except for our troops who arrived later, you have experienced a smooth journey from the end of the world until now, with no fatal dangers obstructing your progress. So some of you may not realize the gravity of the situation!”

As he said this, Xiao Wen, Han Ya, and other’s faces changed slightly.

Yan Wei Guo interrupted them and waved his hand,

“You may feel that you have gone through a lot of difficulties on this journey, encountering zombies, natural disasters, and so on. You have struggled to get to where you are now. But let me ask you, Xiao Wen and Han Ya, just the two of you, what have you lost since the apocalypse began until now? Don’t tell me about living in peace and having a stable home. That’s all nonsense. Just compare yourselves to our troops. Have you suffered more losses than they have? Have you experienced more than they have? In this apocalypse, how many people have had it as easy as you have? Internally, you lack nothing in terms of warm clothing, life-saving food, and even the resources to establish a base on this grassland. Let me be blunt, without the comfort and resources that you have had along the way, do you think you could have made it so comfortably? In this apocalypse, how many people have had comfort to help others?!”

Yan Wei Guo paused and looked at everyone, and everyone fell silent.

“Now let me say this, if Wen Le were in my unit instead of with you, do you believe that our entire military district would directly establish a top-notch secure base in the country?”

Although they didn’t want to admit it, Xiao Wen and Han Ya nodded their heads.

Yan Wei Guo smiled slightly,

“I said these things today to hit you because from Xiao Wen’s last question, I saw that you were getting complacent. Now things are different from before the apocalypse. Before, if we gambled, we might lose our fortune, but now, we may gamble away our base and the lives of everyone in it! I just said that if the military district had Wen Le’s ability, we could become the best base, because we have more people, stronger combat power, and only need to deal with zombies and natural disasters, without worrying about other survivors and other bases spying on us. But now, if we divide our forces to go to the Tarim Oilfield or march into the Central Plains, our base will not be safe, and it will be easily swallowed up by others. I don’t deny that a base needs sufficient personnel to support its operation, but you have to think, if a base is not solid, it cannot deter those around it, including survivors who come to join us. Is there still a possibility for this base to become strong?”

Speaking of this, Yan Wei Guo slowly took a sip of water and stopped talking. Seeing that almost everyone present was deep in thought, he glanced at Wen Le subtly.

Wen Le pursed his lips, his eyes flashing with gratitude.

The reason why Yan Wei Guo said so much today was actually because Wen Le had gone to his room last night while Xiao Wen was inspecting the base.

Wen Le had thought about it over and over again. Just like he had thought before, this life was different from the last one. Wen Le could not rely on their evaluation from the last life and blindly venture out, thereby losing everything they were fighting for now, even their own lives. However, these words were not something he could say. Yan Wei Guo, regardless of his status or age, could keep Xiao Wen and the others in check. Therefore, in order to prevent them from becoming runaway horses, the reins could only be held in the hands of this teacher and elder.

Yan Wei Guo also agreed with Wen Le’s thoughts. As he said, he was more concerned about the lives of the Central Plains people than Xiao Wen and the others. However, they could not blindly go out to save people. Only by ensuring their own safety and building a solid fortress could they save more people. Killing the chicken to get the eggs was the most unworthy method.

The whole conference room was quiet for a long time. Finally, Xiao Wen stood up and bowed solemnly to everyone.

“Previously, I didn’t think it through. Since entering the Tibetan area, we have hardly encountered any difficulties until now, which made me too impatient and forgetful of the cruelty of the end times. I apologize to everyone here. As the leader elected by everyone, I absolutely cannot make such mistakes. But I did, and if we didn’t have Captain Yan’s guidance today, and everyone trusted me blindly, it would be something we couldn’t bear. Here, I am very grateful for Captain Yan’s guidance. In the future, I hope that everyone will consider any of my ideas as seriously as Captain Yan does, and prevent any possible losses to us from happening.”

Xiao Wen’s words were sincere, and the response from everyone was applause.

Yan Wei Guo smiled at Xiao Wen and waited for the applause to die down before cheerfully speaking up, “You are all young people, and our base needs your energy and courage, while I am old and have only eaten a few more decades of meals than you. So in the future, you can let go and do what you need to do, and I’ll be there watching you. When you charge too fast, I’ll come out and pull the reins to make our foundation stronger.”

Most of the people present were young and agreed with Captain Yan’s words.

“Alright, let’s get back on topic. The main purpose of this meeting is to determine our next steps,” Han Ya clapped his hands and brought everyone back to the topic. “After listening to Captain Yan’s speech, I think our own development should be our top priority. When our military factory is built and put into production, I believe there are few bases in the country that can match our military strength. At that time, our equipment can make up for our numerical disadvantage in defense. I believe we will have the confidence to go find oil or rescue people in the Central Plains.”

“Yes, when we are able to produce weapons and equipment for ourselves and even have a surplus, we should take over the Tibetan military district first. I don’t believe they will dare to challenge us then!” Bai Yang finished speaking and even snorted.

Wen Le’s lips twitched imperceptibly.

It seems that Brother Bai is very dissatisfied with our neighbors.

But it’s not surprising. We’re both military districts, but we still have to be careful not to be discovered, otherwise, we could be taken down in one fell swoop. This makes Brother Bai and other military district personnel feel frustrated and are waiting for the military factory to be built so they can hold their heads up high.

Yan Wei Guo nodded in agreement.

Xiao Wen thought about it and felt it made sense. Moreover, it was a relatively reliable plan. With more military personnel at the base, it would be safer to go anywhere.

“This proposal is good, but let’s first settle the matter of the arsenal,” Han Ya brought the topic back, lest they stray off topic.

“I’ve looked at the data. First of all, in terms of the area occupied, whether it’s in the mountains or underground, it’s a considerable project. I think it would be better to build and use it gradually. Otherwise, even if we work ourselves to death, we may not be able to build an arsenal. After all, we don’t have any technical or tool support,” Lin Yan pointed out the biggest problem.

Xiao Wen nodded. “I also think so. That’s why I have an idea to manufacture some essential weapons and equipment, as well as the fastest producible weapons. We’ll place the factory near here, at a geological location that is relatively solid. We’ll build a small military factory first and wait until we have enough power to expand personnel and recruit more people. Then we’ll officially build an arsenal.”

Wen Le nodded. “If it’s close by, in case it’s discovered, I can quickly put away the machines and avoid being robbed.”

Later, everyone agreed to this proposal, supplemented many details that needed attention, and together selected the first batch of weapons to put into production.

It wasn’t until the middle of the night that they finished the meeting. After the meeting, Lin Yan called in several people with geological exploration experience that they had found earlier and formally began searching for a suitable location nearby.

After returning to their room, Wen Le and Xiao Wen directly entered the space.

Wen Le carried the bowl of shark fin porridge he had prepared and sat down next to Xiao Wen. After taking the porridge, Xiao Wen stared blankly at the lake.

Wen Le sighed inwardly. He knew that the talk with Yan Wei Guo today had hit Xiao Wen hard. It wasn’t that Xiao Wen couldn’t accept criticism, but rather he hadn’t realized that he had made such a serious mistake that could be fatal if he wasn’t careful.

“Le Le, do you think I’m becoming arrogant and forgetting my place?”

Wen Le hugged Xiao Wen’s waist. “It’s not that you’re arrogant, it’s just that we’ve had a smooth journey so far. Do you remember how cautious we were when the apocalypse first came? We had nothing, and we didn’t even know if we could establish a safe base. But since entering the Tibetan area, the people here are really simple and kind, making us forget the cunningness of human nature. We can’t treat everyone as bad people, but we also can’t assume that everyone is as safe as our base members. Moreover, we’ve forgotten how terrifying zombies can be after such a long time.”

Xiao Wen nodded. He had to admit that they had been too safe during this period of time, which had gradually eroded their vigilance.

“Fortunately, Captain Yan’s words today made us realize our mistake. He deserves our respect!”

Upon hearing Xiao Wen’s words, Wen Le pouted in his heart, thinking, “The person who truly deserves respect is right beside you, you know?”

---

After resting for two days, Xiao Wen and Wen Le plunged back into the conference room with the others to start working on this large batch of equipment.

Getting the machines is one thing, but if they can’t be put into use, every day of delay is equivalent to wasting a day. With so many machines, wasting one day of production would be a huge loss.

Yan Wei Guo and the others had already recovered from their shock two days ago, although every time they thought about it, they still felt as though they had been hit by the goddess of luck and were about to vomit blood.

Wen Le was still half-leaning in Xiao Wen’s arms, feeling sore all over, as he and everyone else studied the simple map that Han Ya had sent out to investigate over the past month.

“Captain Yan, we have no experience in building military factories. Please guide us,” Han Ya sought Yan Wei Guo’s help since no one else was speaking.

Yan Wei Guo smiled bitterly. Did they think he had experience just because they didn’t? This was a military factory, not a military strategy. How could he guide them?

Seeing Yan Wei Guo’s wry smile, Han Ya knew it was a difficult question to answer.

“I really have nothing to guide you on this matter, but I have a suggestion,” Yan Wei Guo said after thinking for a while.

All eyes, including Xiao Wen and Wen Le, lit up as they focused on Yan Wei Guo.

“It’s not just the first military factory in F City; as far as I know, other military factories are also built inside mountains. I don’t know the reason for this, but it has always been the case. There must be some reason we don’t know,” Yan Wei Guo explained.

Han Ya and Xiao Wen nodded in agreement. When they chose their location, they chose the center of Xiaya Snow Mountain, N City, and Salt Lake. If they were to build the military factory inside the mountain, the closest option would be Xiaya Snow Mountain.

Wen Le hesitated as he saw the thoughtful expressions of the others.

“If we build it in Xiaya Snow Mountain, won’t the construction cause too much noise and trigger an avalanche? Moreover, with the drastic temperature changes in the post-apocalyptic era, we can’t even tell if the mountain will be structurally stable,” Wen Le raised his concerns.

As Wen Le finished speaking, everyone fell silent.

Han Ya stared at Wen Le, and after a moment of silence, he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his forehead. Although he didn’t understand why Wen Le had such thoughts, his ideas were practical. Nowadays, the abnormality of the environment might have reactions beyond what they could think of.

“How about building it underground?” Yan Wei Guo looked up at the others. “Although I don’t know if the country only considered concealment when building military factories in the past, even if they did consider other factors, both underground and inside mountains are enclosed by soil, which still has some commonalities.”

The others thought about it, and they realized that their current environment didn’t offer many choices for factory locations. It had to be either above ground, underground, or built into a mountain like other weapons factories.

“Above ground, underground, or mountain, those are the only three options. Above ground is out of the question since it’s too conspicuous and risky. For underground, check with the registration office on base to see if they have any relevant professionals. If not, someone who knows about geological exploration would be necessary,” Han Ya said, looking at Lin Yan.

Lin Yan nodded and left the conference room to inquire about it.

“Furthermore, West Ya Snow Mountain is also within the scope of exploration. What you’re worried about, Wen, may not be that serious,” Han Ya continued.

With the factory location on hold, they had to think about the construction of the factory first.

“Wen, what machines did you bring back when you returned? ” Han Ya asked.

Faced with Han Ya’s question, Wen Le blinked innocently and shook his head. He had no idea what they had brought back. It was all so chaotic back then, and he didn’t have time to figure out the equipment.

Suddenly, Wen Le slapped the table and closed his eyes, delving into his mental space. Why didn’t he think of the data they collected earlier? Perhaps there were even notes on the things to consider when choosing a location!

The others looked on in confusion as Wen Le went through his series of actions, but then several large filing cabinets appeared next to the conference room wall, along with three computers and some scattered files on the table.

Without explanation, everyone knew what these things were for.

No one was in a hurry to look at the files in front of them. Xiao Wen thought silently, tapping his fingers on the table unconsciously.

“Captain Yan, arrange some trusted people to come and help. Han Ya, we can only choose some of the brothers who came with us to deal with these things together,” he said.

Yan Wei Guo nodded and asked Bai Yang to arrange it.

The things here were too important. If anything leaked out, it could easily cause great harm.

Except for Han Ya and Bai Yang, who were tasked with arranging personnel, everyone else left the meeting room.

After greeting Yan Wei Guo, Wen Le and Xiao Wen returned to their own small cabin.

Without saying a word, Wen Le rushed to the bed and climbed on top of it.

Although his previous exhaustion had eased, he still couldn’t help feeling sore.

Xiao Wen smiled and watched him, feeling both amused and sympathetic.

Wen Le lay on the bed for a while before getting up to look at Xiao Wen, who was sitting at the head of the bed, his eyes half-closed, pondering.

Wen Le tugged on Xiao Wen’s clothes.

“What are you thinking about?”

Xiao Wen turned his head and picked up Wen Le, smiling and kissing his on the cheek.

“I’m thinking about what our next step should be.”

“Next step?” Wen Le didn’t understand. Weren’t they currently working on rebuilding the arsenal factory?

Xiao Wen rested his chin on Wen Le’s shoulder.

“Our base is now stable, and once the arsenal factory is built, we will have a strong foothold in the post-apocalyptic world. I’m just hesitant about whether we should wait until the factory is built before we enter the Central Plains or if we should go there first. After all, if we wait too long, there will be fewer and fewer people waiting for our rescue.”

Hearing Xiao Wen’s words, Wen Le fell silent.

Xiao Wen’s hesitation was understandable. From a safety standpoint, once the arsenal factory was built and put into use, they would have a strong backing, even comparable to the large bases that emerged later in the post-apocalyptic world. However, if they entered the Central Plains before the factory was built, they could be targeted by other major bases, and the factory’s secrets could be exposed. In that case, the seemingly stable base they had now could easily be destroyed.

“But from a human moral perspective, they now have some means of self-preservation, but what about others? What about those who are still struggling in the besieged cities of the Central Plains? Maybe if they leave one day later, many people who could have survived will lose their lives for the sake of safety and steady progress? Or is it because of their compassion that they are willing to take risks?”

“What do you hope to do?” asked Wen Le.

Xiao Wen met Wen Le’s clear and gentle gaze, pulled the corners of his mouth, and sighed, “I hope to find a balance between the two.”

Wen Le was helpless.

It’s not so easy to find a balance.

“Have you talked to them about this?” asked Wen Le.

Xiao Wen shook his head.

“Let’s talk to them when we have the chance and see what they think. If these two points are not easily reconciled, we’ll just have to follow the majority. Leave it to fate,” Wen Le said with a shrug.

Xiao Wen laughed and pinched Wen Le’s nose.

Wen Le’s eyes suddenly lit up and he burst out laughing.

Xiao Wen raised an eyebrow.

“Regardless of when we enter the Central Plains, I think our top priority is to get enough gasoline, right?”

Xiao Wen was taken aback and laughed, realizing he had forgotten about this.

“Didn’t we talk about this on the way to F City before? What did we say then?” Wen Le squinted his eyes and tried to remember.

“After some thought, the closest oil field to us should be Yumen Oilfield. However, in terms of safety, the Tarim Oilfield is definitely the safest oil field in the country. The only problem is that we don’t have enough gasoline to make it there.” Xiao Wen said, considering the options.

Wen Le nodded. It seemed like they had to go out and get some gasoline, at least enough to get them to an oil field or the Central Plains.

Thinking it over, Xiao Wen placed Wen Le back on the bed and got up to find Han Ya.

Wen Le watched as the door was closed behind Xiao Wen, and a hint of hesitation flashed in his eyes.

In his previous life, his ignorance and naivete had caused Xiao Wen to experience too much pain and suffering, ultimately resulting in a cold and ruthless demeanor. In this life, his change had spared Xiao Wen and the others from many setbacks, but it also made Xiao Wen hesitate in a way that shouldn’t exist.

Human morality?

Wen Le sneered.

If their secret was exposed and they lost their lives, it would be an unwise decision. From another perspective, only if they could live long and safe lives could they truly save more people.

However, as things stand now, gasoline is not so easy to come by. Not to mention the hassle of finding oil wells along the way, even if they arrive at the oil field, there may not be readily available gasoline for them to take. If there is not enough gasoline, turning crude oil into gasoline is not an easy task.

Although he had intended to prevent Xiao Wen from easily entering the Central Plains, Wen Le could not ignore the safety of everyone just for this matter.

It seems that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, the target for them will be the Tarim Oil Field.

Wen Le couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

Now that the factory’s machines have been acquired, although it was a stroke of good luck, it has also made everyone’s gaze more far-sighted and able to move forward more confidently in future development. Therefore, the trip to the Tarim Oil Field would definitely not be the only one.

After the apocalypse, oil field production must have stopped, just like the supply of weapons couldn’t keep up, which is why everyone felt that the gains from the factory were so huge. The future supply of gasoline would also be a problem.

If humanity wants to survive in the apocalypse, the recovery and restoration of oil fields will eventually be on the agenda for all bases.

Although the Tarim Oil Field is located in a harsh geographic environment, the biggest enemy in the apocalypse is the zombies. Even in a harsh environment, it is still better than facing a large number of zombies. Therefore, when people’s attention starts to focus on gasoline issues, the Tarim Oil Field will definitely be the most popular prize and become the object of competition among all the bases.

It seems necessary to find a way to firmly grasp the Tarim Oil Field in their hands!

---

“Brother Han, they’re back.”

Bai Yun, who was arranged by Han Ya to monitor the locator in the conference room, quickly ran out to inform Han Ya when she saw the densely packed green dots on the screen.

Han Ya and Bai Yang looked at each other, put down the documents in their hands, and rushed to the conference room.

On the small screen, a bunch of dots were slowly moving on the easternmost side, which finally relieved Han Ya’s worries. However, with a sudden thought, he felt that something was unusual.

Lin Yan and Yan Wei Guo, who came over upon hearing the news, also stood aside. Yan Wei Guo couldn’t help but frown.

“Why are they back so soon?”

Upon hearing Yan Wei Guo’s muttering, the others also felt that something was wrong.

It had only been about a month since they left. Even if everything went smoothly, they should still be on their way to collect other supplies. Even if they didn’t collect any supplies, they should still be on the road now, instead of almost arriving at the base.

“They seem to be in a hurry, like they’re running for their lives.” Bai Yang chuckled as he looked at the dots, but as soon as he finished speaking, he was stunned.

“Lin Yan, you stay at the base, I’ll take people to pick them up!” Han Ya turned around and ran out of the conference room.

Lin Yan reached out to stop Han Ya, “You and the instructor wait here, I’ll go with Brother Bai to check it out.”

Compared to Han Ya who didn’t have any abilities, it was obvious that it would be safer for Lin Yan to lead the team.

Han Ya didn’t argue with him and just nodded before going out with everyone to regroup.

The speed at which Xiao Wen’s team returned was faster than normal, which made them feel uneasy.

After regrouping, despite the uncertain weather conditions, Lin Yan and Bai Yang led the team overnight and headed towards Xiao Wen’s direction.

Because both teams were driving non-stop, they would meet each other on the morning of the third day.

Once the teams were reunited, Bai Yang couldn’t help but use binoculars to look behind Xiao Wen’s team, but didn’t see any pursuers, so he let out a sigh of relief.

“Why are you here, Brother Bai and Lin Yan?” Wen Le and Xiao Wen walked over to them and asked in surprise.

Bai Yang patted their shoulders and felt relieved that they had returned in one piece.

“Because you were driving too fast and we were worried someone was chasing after you, so Lin Yan and I led the team to come and meet you!” Lin Yan said with a smile.

Xiao Wen and Wen Le exchanged a glance and laughed.

“Okay, let’s talk about it when we get back.” Xiao Wen pulled Wen Le and got on Bai Yang’s car with Lin Yan.

On the way back, Xiao Wen briefly explained what had happened. Even though he didn’t go into detail, Lin Yan and Bai Yang couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat.

How courageous were these two people?!

Bai Yang looked back at the two young people who had fallen asleep in the back seat, feeling amazed.

They continued to travel at a fast pace and returned to their base after a brief stop following their reunion.

Xiao Wen and Wen Le were too exhausted to think about anything else, so they got in the car and fell asleep together.

After escaping from the military factory, the team didn’t even take a break. Even when they stopped at Wen Le’s place to resupply, they left as soon as they finished, driving non-stop for more than ten days. Even a team of superpowered individuals would have been unable to endure it.

When they returned to the base, Han Ya waited at the gate, anxious to ask about their situation, but was stopped by Bai Yang and Lin Yan. Looking back at the exhausted faces of everyone who got off the car, Han Ya suppressed his doubts and let all the accompanying personnel take a week off to rest before discussing the situation.

Wen Le wanted to talk to Han Ya about the situation, but was lazily lifted by Xiao Wen, and thrown back onto the bed amidst the teasing of many people.

Without any struggle, Wen Le fell asleep as soon as he touched the pillow. Xiao Wen pinched Wen Le’s pale face and sighed before getting into bed himself.

After Han Ya learned about the situation from Lin Yan, he couldn’t say anything. After the meeting, he couldn’t help but come to Xiao Wen’s door, gently opened it, and saw the two sleeping soundly. Han Ya smiled and quietly left.

It seems that this time they really pushed themselves to the limit.

When Wen Le woke up groggy, he looked at the familiar roof for a long time before realizing that he was back at the base. Compared to the others who switched shifts to rest on the car, he and Xiao Wen barely slept, not only because of the bumpy ride but also because they had to stay alert as the lead vehicle to get back to the base faster.

After almost two weeks of sleeplessness, Wen Le’s thinking was almost paralyzed.

“Are you awake?” A hoarse voice came from above Wen Le’s head.

Wen Le turned his stiff neck and looked at Xiao Wen, who also had unfocused eyes.

Xiao Wen stretched out his left hand and rubbed his forehead while glancing at his watch.

He had slept for a long time. Over twenty hours had passed.

Just as Xiao Wen was about to get up and stretch, he felt Wen Le roll over and half-crawl onto him, unable to help laughing and bowing his head.

“What’s wrong?”

Wen Le pouted, “I feel like my bones are falling apart.”

Thick laughter came from the chest where Wen Le’s head was resting. Wen Le rolled his eyes and ignored him.

“Alright, get up and move around. It’s inevitable to feel uncomfortable after sleeping for more than twenty hours. Let’s eat something. You can’t go without food for such a long time, or your appetite will suffer.”

Xiao Wen put his arm around Wen Le and lifted him up in one motion.

Wen Le was reluctant to crawl out of Xiao Wen’s arms. If it wasn’t for Xiao Wen’s quick reaction, he would have fallen to the ground.

Wen Le pouted and complained, “I can’t use any strength, I’m so weak.”

Xiao Wen held Wen Le, who had completely leaned against him, feeling a bit heartbroken.

Wen Le had never endured much hardship, let alone Xiao Wen, who had been rolling around since childhood. Even he was having a hard time.

Sighing, Xiao Wen said, “But we still have to eat.”

Xiao Wen put Wen Le back on the bed, raised the pillow so Wen Le could lean against the wall, and Wen Le obediently pulled out a small table from his spatial storage and set up various dishes on it.

These dishes were Wen Le’s private collection, and now he could finally reward himself after being exhausted for so long.

Xiao Wen reached out and touched Wen Le’s forehead, took the chopsticks, and started cooking.

When Han Ya came to check on them for the third time, he saw the two of them eating and talking together, having eaten their fill.

“I mean, you guys didn’t even show your faces after waking up. I thought you were dead asleep!” Han Ya pushed the door open and walked straight in.

Xiao Wen looked up at Han Ya and smiled, “We’re exhausted this time, and Wen Le can’t even get up. It’ll probably take a couple of days to recover and move normally.”

Han Ya nodded, no longer making jokes.

Seeing these two people with such strong vigilance sleeping soundly, several times he approached them and didn’t even know, it was clear that they wouldn’t be able to recover to normal without a break for some time after this trip.

“Lin Yan probably already relayed the situation to us, but we need you two to explain it in detail. I and Captain Yan are quite worried,” said Han Ya, expressing his concern.

Understanding Han Ya’s meaning, Xiao Wen thought for a moment, “Why don’t we let everyone come over, we still have the strength to talk.”

Wen Le nodded in agreement when he saw Xiao Wen looking at him after speaking.

Han Ya turned around and went out to notify the others.

In a short while, Yan Wei Guo and others gathered at the bedside.

Wen Le watched as everyone obediently pulled up chairs and sat in front of them, staring at them.

He couldn’t help but curl his lips and suppress the desire to make fun of them, cooperating with Xiao Wen to carefully explain the situation from when they first noticed something was amiss near F City, to when they saw the military vehicles from the garrison outside the arms factory in the mountain area, to the reckless evacuation after the sweep.

The others listened intently, clenching their fists and sweating for them.

Yan Wei Guo even wanted to curse out these two reckless young people who dared to take such a risk without even knowing how many people or weapons or abilities the other side had. But he also knew that at the time, it was impossible for them to carefully investigate the situation, and success or failure depended on that one chance.

Moreover, even if they knew the other side’s military strength, what could they do? In order to establish a foothold for the base in the future, they would inevitably have to confront the other side.

It was a long time before Yan Wei Guo finally exhaled a breath. “I didn’t expect that the other side was after the same thing.” This was his mistake.

When he told these young people about the military factory, he only wanted to make the most of it, to use the remaining power of the factory to save as many survivors as possible. He didn’t expect it would lead to a direct confrontation with the other side.

“How many people did we lose?” Wen Le looked at Han Ya.

They had been rushing on the road and had no time to stop and regroup.

“We lost fifty-seven people and two hundred and thirty were injured,” Han Ya said.

Wen Le nodded. The number of casualties in that battle was within his expectations. Compared to their loss of fifty-seven people, the other side’s losses were much greater.

“How is the collection of weapons going?” Yan Wei Guo suddenly asked.

Xiao Wen and Han Ya were stunned, they looked at each other, and then both looked at Wen Le at the same time.

Wen Le blinked. “There aren’t many finished weapons, less than a hundred boxes.”

Yan Wei Guo sighed, wondering if it was worth it for him to lead this operation.

Seeing Yan Wei Guo’s serious yet disappointed expression, Wen Le and Xiao Wen looked at Han Ya at the same time. Han Ya received their questioning looks and turned to Bai Yang.

Bai Yang responded with a bewildered expression.

Now, not only Wen Le but even Xiao Wen had a row of black lines on his head.

“Um, Captain Yan, we have achieved our goal this time,” Wen Le opened his mouth, but he still spoke relatively tactfully.

Captain Yan waved his hand, “Indeed we have, but compared to the lives we lost, it seems a bit unworthy!”

Seeing Yan Weig Go’s still grieving expression, Wen Le thought it would be better to be clear.

“Captain Yan, do you know what our goal was this time?”

Yan Wei Guo was taken aback, “Wasn’t it the weapons inside the military factory?”

Wen Le choked, waiting for Han Ya to speak.

Han Ya wiped the sweat off his forehead. He had neglected this point and forgotten that Yan Wei Guo and the others didn’t know about Wen Le’s outrageous space abilities, so he didn’t explain Wen Le and Xiao Wen’s objective. He thought everyone knew.

“Um, Captain Yan, my mistake, my mistake,” Han Ya dryly laughed as he looked at Yan Wei Guo.

Seeing that Yan Wei Guo didn’t understand, he nervously explained, “The boss’s objective this time wasn’t finished weapons in the military factory, but the machines that produce them.”

Yan Wei Guo and Bai Yang looked at Han Ya without changing their expressions.

It wasn’t until Lin Yan suddenly stood up and knocked over his chair with a loud bang that the two soldiers who had been in the army for most of their lives trembled and opened their mouths, unable to say anything.

Han Ya forced a bitter smile and didn’t look at Lin Yan’s twitching face.

He didn’t expect that it had been a day since the caravan had returned, and half of the people present, including the main leaders of the base, still didn’t know the purpose of the caravan’s departure.

Lin Yan’s cheeks couldn’t stop twitching. Seeing Han Ya’s bitter smile, he turned abruptly to Xiao Wen and Wen Le. “And the machines?”

Xiao Wen grinned. “We brought them all back.”

Bang!

Yan Wei Guo and Bai Yang’s chairs were also destroyed after Lin Yan’s.

---

After nightfall, everyone quietly climbed to the top of the mountain and looked down at the faint flicker of fire below. Xiao Wen and Wen Le exchanged a glance and took a deep breath before gesturing to the people behind them.

38 earth-elemental ability users and 12 other strongest attackers were integrated into the assault team, led by Xiao Wen and Wen Le to bypass the mountain and start their attack from behind the factory. Mo Yan and two other officers led 400 soldiers, mainly composed of soldiers with strong physical abilities, to form the main attacking force. Once they received Xiao Wen’s signal, these 400 soldiers would launch a weapon attack on the mountain in the first wave. The remaining 200-odd people, including 100 long-range attackers led by Nian Gongga, would be responsible for conducting ability attacks on both sides of the first wave. The rest of the people were led by a wind-elemental ability user to guard the rear of the army and were mainly responsible for retreat.

Wen Le walked at the front, and the whole team quietly made their way through the mountains and forests until they reached the weakest part of the mountain wall that he had discovered earlier.

“Take turns to dig until we have a tunnel large enough for two people to pass through. Try to keep your voices down,” Wen Le instructed the earth-elemental ability users.

Everyone nodded, and Wen Le made way for them to start working.

As the earth-elemental ability users took turns digging, Wen Le followed the one at the front, going deeper and deeper into the tunnel. He made a pause gesture, stopping the earth-elemental ability user beside him. As the tunnel grew deeper, Wen Le’s mental strength extended further into the factory’s range. They were now only twenty meters away from the factory, but Wen Le’s mental scan of the soil and rocks above them showed no signs of collapse due to their excavation, which put his mind at ease.

He instructed the ability users to continue digging, but at a slower pace.

It was getting closer and closer. When Wen Le stopped again, they were less than a meter away from the space inside the factory.

Wen Le’s mental power had already penetrated deeply into the interior of the factory and naturally discovered the dense distribution of monitors inside. Although the monitors were not rotating, Wen Le couldn’t guarantee that they wouldn’t be discovered by the other side once they entered.

Wen Le quietly informed Xiao Wen of the situation, and after thinking for a moment, Xiao Wen asked the earth-based ability user next to him to make a small hole in the wall less than a meter thick.

At the same time, Xiao Wen’s hand was already on the button that launched the locator signal.

“Once an anomaly occurs after the connection is established, you will directly open all the channels.” Xiao Wen said to the ability user who had already placed his hand on the wall, ready to act at any time, then turned around to remind the people behind him, “After entering, if you are discovered, everyone should disperse and disrupt the opponent’s sight. First, ensure your own safety. Got it?”

The ability users behind him all nodded.

Xiao Wen tensed his body and nodded to the earth-based ability user who was ready.

Ring!

The deafening alarm sounded throughout the mountain. Xiao Wen didn’t have time to curse and immediately sent the signal. At the same time, the earth-based ability user who heard the alarm for the first time opened the entire wall according to Xiao Wen’s command.

Their previous worries became reality. The wall of the factory near the mountain did have an alarm device, but fortunately, it was not the strong metal wall they had imagined. If there was a metal wall blocking them, it would have been very difficult for them to enter the interior of the factory from here.

As soon as the wall was opened, Wen Le was the first to enter the interior.

Previously, Wen Le’s spiritual power did not detect any soldiers stationed in the positions he could sense. He estimated that the other side couldn’t even imagine that at this time, someone would bypass the main entrance and penetrate deep into the interior!

At the moment when Wen Le and the others broke through the mountain, the entire alarm sounded throughout the valley. At the same time, Mo Yan received the signal from Xiao Wen.

“Attack!” Mo Yan gave the order, and the people behind him were already prepared, geared up and ready to go. The first two rows of people carrying machine guns rushed down the hill, followed closely by soldiers with rifles. The people led by Nian Gongga on both sides, responsible for supernatural attacks, also rushed down the hill with guns in hand.

“Enemy attack!” At the sound of the alarm, Yao Jin, in charge of occupying the factory, stood up directly and ran out of the office.

“Can you find out what’s going on?” As soon as Yao Jin entered the factory’s original central control room, he asked.

The two soldiers who were buried in the control room continued to adjust the machine in front of them while responding to Yao Jin’s words.

“No, sir, we still can’t break through the password of the monitoring system.”

Yao Jin cursed lowly and turned around, walking quickly towards the command room.

“Sir, the alarm should have been triggered from within the factory. Someone should have used the earth-based ability to penetrate the mountain and trigger the alarm system,” said Zhao De Yang, the chief of the guards, who followed behind Yao Jin.

Yao Jin nodded as he walked, but before he could give orders, a battalion commander ran up to him.

“Sir! There are enemies attacking the main gate from the opposite mountain!”

Yao Jin was stunned and his face turned serious.

Just now, he thought it might be some small-time thieves trying to take advantage, but he didn’t expect that there would be someone cooperating with them.

“How many people are they?” Yao Jin asked with a grim face.

“At least a battalion, and their weapons and equipment are not inferior to ours!” the battalion commander replied.

“How is that possible?!” Yao Jin exclaimed. “Are you saying that their equipment can match the army’s?”

The battalion commander nodded. “At least their weapons seemed similar to ours just now, but I don’t know about their ammunition reserves.”

“Go, inform the second battalion. Your two battalions are responsible for resisting the front attack. De Yang, you notify the third battalion to immediately arrange for people to search inside the factory. We must catch that rat!” Yao Jin gritted his teeth and ordered.

Daring to pull out a tooth in a tiger’s mouth, did they really think the army was eating for nothing?!

Xiao Wen and the others did not know the situation ahead. As soon as they entered the factory, they saw large and incredibly huge machines quietly distributed around.

Without bothering to carefully check if there were any living beings inside the huge machine like small mountains, Wen Le quickly walked around, sweeping his spiritual power to confirm that there were no living objects inside the machines. He then extended his hand to store the machines into his space.

The people following behind Xiao Wen and Wen Le stared wide-eyed as Wen Le, with just a touch, turned the previously large machines into empty shells with only small holes fixed with steel nails.

As each machine was collected into the space, everyone couldn’t help but be amazed at the size of Wen Le’s space. Even the smallest machine here was over ten cubic meters, and the largest was almost forty or fifty cubic meters! With such a continuous collection, wouldn’t Wen Le’s space burst?

What they didn’t know was that luck was clearly on their side this time. They had entered directly into the weapons manufacturing workshop through the mountain wall, and didn’t need to spend time searching before making contact with their target.

It wasn’t until the massive workshop was completely cleared out that the group arrived at the only iron door in the workshop.

Just as Xiao Wen was about to open the door, Wen Le grabbed his hand and said to everyone, “After we leave, we head straight for the right passage, where there are more machines.”

Although they didn’t know what kind of machines were there, it didn’t prevent Wen Le from clearing them out. Any machine that could be placed in the weapons factory was definitely not useless.

Upon receiving Wen Le’s words, all the people, led by Xiao Wen, nodded.

Opening the door, they walked lightly, quickly turned right, and followed Wen Le towards the target iron door. In the dark passage, they could already hear the sound of intense running, which meant that the other side had begun to send people to search the factory.

The rearguard, a earth system ability user, had a sudden inspiration and pulled over a gold system ability user.

“You can generate metal, right? Seal this door.”

The gold-elemental ability user who was pulled over didn’t ask for the reason and immediately placed his hand on the door, connecting the iron door to the door frame with generated metal. Unless they broke through the wall, no one could enter the door except for him.

Wen Le led the charge to the target iron door, but it was closed. Even if they had enough time, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to open the multiple password locks that had been set.

Without a word, Xiao Wen fired a round at the entire door frame with his gun, and then kicked the door open.

Wen Le didn’t have time to marvel at Xiao Wen’s violence, rushing into the workshop and starting to sweep again.

Because their noise was too loud, the sound of footsteps from the passage grew closer. With the previous behavior of sealing the door, the gold-elemental ability user had someone lift the iron door and fix it in place again.

Dadada…

Just tens of seconds after the door was fixed, there was the sound of machine gun fire outside.

“Pick up the pace.” Xiao Wen couldn’t help but tell Wen Le.

Wen Le didn’t have time to wipe the sweat off his face, and grabbed onto Xiao Wen’s clothes.

“You run with me, I’m too slow on my own.”

Xiao Wen grabbed Wen Le and began to run quickly. The entire workshop could only see a trail of shadows passing by, and all the machines in their path disappeared.

Even the heavily made metal door couldn’t withstand continuous machine gun fire. By the time the workshop became empty again, the metal door was already on the verge of collapsing.

Xiao Wen gathered everyone in front of the iron door.

Seeing that Xiao Wen was still hesitating, Wen Le directly gave orders to everyone.

“Earth-based superpower, immediately build two earth walls, be careful everyone, try to avoid casualties. As for the enemy, kill one for every one that comes, even if they come in a thousand, we will kill a thousand! This is not the time for mercy, if we don’t kill them, their guns will be aimed at us! “

As soon as Wen Le finished speaking, the two earth walls at a 45-degree angle to the gate appeared in the workshop. Before everyone had time to react, the gate collapsed with a bang.

Da da da

As Wen Le had predicted, the other side didn’t have any time to ease up. Countless bullets flew into the workshop as soon as the gate opened.

In the face of the fierce attack, the people on this side fought back even more fiercely. The gold-based superpower, due to the nature of their power, was impervious to bullets and was standing in the middle of the two earth walls. Facing the barrage of bullets, they fiercely fired their machine guns.

In less than two minutes, the enemy’s firepower began to weaken. After all, Xiao Wen and Wen Le had brought superpowers, and while the machine gun was firing, all the superpowers were attacking with their powers and firearms. Spikes, fireballs, and lightning bolts filled the smoky passage.

In fact, the enemy also had a lot of superpowers, but Wen Le immediately eliminated them, not giving the enemy a chance to counterattack with their powers.

After nearly ten minutes of intense killing, the gunfire finally stopped. Wen Le used his psychic power to confirm that there were no living people outside before they set out on their sweeping path again.

The next action was not as easy as before, almost all of it was fighting against the enemy while Wen Le gathered the machines.

By the time the third battalion ran to the command center and requested support, Wen Le had already cleared out almost half of the factory.

Yao Jin’s face turned pale as he listened to the soldiers of the third battalion report the situation, and then turned to look at Zhao De Yang.

Zhao De Yang shook his head with a bitter smile and said, “Commander, the situation outside is not optimistic. All of the attackers are ability users, and their number of ability users is almost greater than the number of ability users in our entire regiment. Moreover, they are acting according to a plan. Our response was hasty, and now only the First and Second Battalions can just about keep the enemy from advancing. Once we pull troops away, it is hard to say that those people won’t make it to our doorstep.”

Yao Jin gritted his teeth for a while before turning to dismiss the soldier in front of him.

“Hold on up front, and leave the factory search for now. Aren’t they just weapons?! Most of the weapons left behind in the factory have already been taken away today, and the rest can be given to those mice. But I can’t just leave them there for them to take the machines away!”

However, when Xiao Wen and the others left and Yao Jin checked the situation in the factory, he fainted on the spot in the face of all the empty workshops.

After receiving Yao Jin’s orders, the captain of the Third Battalion no longer allowed his soldiers to fight to the death to stop Wen Le and his group’s actions.

Normal confrontation continued, but as soon as the situation became too much, the soldiers immediately withdrew and no longer fought to the death.

This made Wen Le and Xiao Wen’s actions even smoother, and they went through more than a dozen workshops. Wen Le did not even miss the few remaining weapons in the warehouse where the finished products were stored.

Unfortunately, the database and design room were isolated from the workshops by heavy metal walls due to their different categories. No matter what methods they tried, they could not break through the walls into the other area.

“Alright, we’ve already made a good harvest this time.” Xiao Wen patted Wen Le’s shoulder and said to him, who had a look of unwillingness.

Wen Le tightly bit his lip and didn’t move. They didn’t know how to make weapons with just machines and materials, and without specific data, when would these machines be put to use?

“No, once we leave, we will never be able to get those data. Xiao Wen, you let them go first. We will meet up with Mo Yan outside. We’ve come this far, there’s no reason to give up the data that’s within our reach!” Wen Le shook his head and refused to leave.

Xiao Wen looked deeply at the rare stubborn face in front of him and sighed. “If you don’t go, these machines will be equivalent to not leaving here.”

Wen Le still shook his head.

Xiao Wen was helpless, and he didn’t want to knock Wen Le out directly, and Wen Le’s thoughts were not wrong.

After a moment of silence, Xiao Wen pulled Wen Le.

“Let’s go and implement the second plan outside.”

As they walked, they covered almost half of the space within the mountain, but they didn’t find any traces of the military factory’s gate along the way. That is to say, if they entered from the gate, it should be the area outside the metal wall.

After leaving the factory, Xiao Wen instructed the others to meet up with Mo Yan and his team while he and Wen Le headed towards the factory gate, looking for an opportunity to enter the arms factory.

The others followed Xiao Wen’s orders and quickly moved out, following the sounds of explosions to join the main force.

Xiao Wen and Wen Le ran towards the gate at the foot of the mountain at the fastest speed. As soon as they arrived at the main gate of the arms factory, before the guards could react, Xiao Wen immediately flashed past them and rushed inside during the brief moment when the gate opened to transport weapons out.

“Enemy in the base!” When the soldiers who were moving weapon boxes reacted, there was no sign of Xiao Wen and Wen Le. They immediately ran back and shouted.

Xiao Wen and Wen Le’s goal was simple, to find information about weapon manufacturing. At this critical moment of the battle between the two sides, the importance of the information was self-evident. Therefore, the two mainly searched for heavily guarded areas where they were sure to find what they were looking for.

However, when Xiao Wen passed by the first obvious heavily guarded area, Wen Le shook his head with certainty. His mental power swept through the area, and he felt a huge conference table inside, which clearly indicated that it was the command room.

When they reached the second heavily guarded room, the two of them did not hesitate and cooperated violently once again, forcefully breaking in.

There were several computers and an entire wall of shelves filled with documents in the room. Wen Le didn’t hesitate to use his powers to store the computers and shelves in his storage space.

After making sure that they didn’t leave anything behind, the two of them broke through the door and left. The locator had already shown Mo Yan’s signal, indicating that the firepower outside was beginning to wane. This time, Wen Le didn’t stubbornly insist on searching for useful items. He clung to Xiao Wen’s back, and the two of them dashed out the door and charged straight into the forest.

After receiving Xiao Wen’s signal, Mo Yan waved his hand and led his men to fight and retreat. By the time they retreated to the mountaintop, Xiao Wen and Wen Le were already waiting there.

“Let’s go! Return the way we came!” Without resting, Xiao Wen led the troops in a direct retreat.

At this point, Yao Jin didn’t know that the entire arsenal had been emptied, so when he received news of Xiao Wen’s retreat, he didn’t order pursuit.

Taking advantage of the time when there were no pursuers, the group quickly climbed over the mountain and, after reaching the flat ground, didn’t even have time to catch their breath before climbing into the car that Wen Le had brought and heading back the way they came. Along the way, they encountered several cars that had been left halfway to guard against unexpected situations. The caravan drove back to the village where Han Yi Feng was located.

After the main force left, the ten people who stayed behind took turns looking out from the highest point of the terraced fields in the direction that Xiao Wen and his team left. Finally, they saw them come back, and they were able to let go of the worry that had been hanging over their heads.

Although they were anxious to ask, when the people left behind saw how exhausted everyone looked, they suppressed the urge to speak and began to boil water and cook.

“Don’t bother. Let’s pack up and go back. Every car that comes by can take food, water, and gasoline.” Wen Le grabbed Han Yi Feng, who was about to start a fire.

“But…” Han Yi Feng looked at everyone’s tired faces and hesitated.

Xiao Wen waved his hand. “We need to leave now. We’ll go as far as we can before they catch up with us. Once they catch us, the base could be exposed.”

Xiao Wen’s words were very realistic, and everyone immediately went to Wen Le to collect their things and get ready to go.

It wasn’t until the convoy left the village that Yao Jin, who had been made dizzy by the empty arsenal, ordered his soldiers to pursue them. But when they faced the empty ground with no trace of the retreating troops, they couldn’t find the direction to pursue.

It wasn’t until this moment that Xiao Wen and Wen Le’s mission was finally successful.

---

“If we just return to the base like this, the downfall of the base is inevitable once the Tibetan military region becomes stronger. Unless they are willing to submit to the military region and obey their arrangements in everything.”

However, not only Xiao Wen, but even Wen Le would never be willing to become a pawn controlled by others.

After thinking about it, it’s better to take a gamble. If they can grab it, they win. If they can’t, they will be doomed sooner or later!

Xiao Wen and Wen Le gathered everyone together and told them the evaluation of Yan Wei Guo on the military region and the future situation of the base. This operation relies entirely on volunteers. Those who are willing to take the risk can follow Xiao Wen, and those who are not willing can stay here. If they cannot return within the planned time, they should return to the base on their own and tell Han Ya the situation so that the base can be prepared.

Xiao Wen’s words left no one willing to be a coward. The people who originally belonged to the army had been ordered by Yan Wei Guo before leaving the base that they would follow Xiao Wen’s arrangements for everything, so they naturally followed Xiao Wen’s footsteps. The group of ability users who initially established the base with Xiao Wen had already made up their minds to follow Xiao Wen all the way, regardless of life or death.

However, what Xiao Wen and Wen Le did not expect was that the response of the ability users among the Tibetan indigenous people was even greater than the two groups they thought would roughly follow them.

“You guys,” Wen Le was a little puzzled by the reaction of the Tibetans.

Nian Gongga also came along this time, and explained with a bitter expression in the face of Xiao Wen and Wen Le’s doubts.

“We have never forgotten the actions of that person in the Tibetan area, even if we die. In our tribe alone, many innocent people died. The old chief had actually retired, and his son took over as the chief, but he was also killed on a false charge at that time. Helplessly, the old chief had to take over the tribe again. Boss Xiao, and Xiao Wen, don’t doubt it, I dare say that every tribe had people wrongly killed back then!”

As Nian Gongga spoke, the other Tibetan superhumans gritted their teeth and nodded.

The two of them didn’t expect there was still such a thing involved, and couldn’t help but feel sad.

If they hadn’t asked, these people probably would have kept silent, but not speaking didn’t mean they forgot. This kind of hatred might not dissipate even until death.

They never spoke because they couldn’t defeat that person, but once they had the power to resist, Wenle believed they would unite to overthrow the entire military district for their loved ones who died in vain and their own anger.

“Since that’s the case, let’s leave together. Live or die, let’s leave it up to fate!” Xiao Wen looked at each and every person who didn’t back down and slowly spoke.

“Yes!” The loud voice echoed throughout the mountains and wilderness.

Although they said it was up to fate, Xiao Wen still planned to carefully come up with the most feasible plan. After a night of study, Xiao Wen and Wen Le finally settled on a relatively higher chance of success plan.

Xiao Wen asked Han Yi Feng and nine others to stay in the village. If the operation was successful, they would return directly to the village.

Because they didn’t know if the military district had communication equipment, it was easy to be ambushed once they hit the highway.

Xiao Wen set the deadline for five days. If they didn’t return in five days, Han Yi Feng would lead the others back to the base and tell Han Ya everything, so he could be prepared.

At first, Han Yi Feng refused to stay behind, but he was eventually persuaded by Wen Le to remain in Bai Yun. He looked dejected and resigned to staying.

The rest of the group left with Xiao Wen, leaving several cars behind along the way as backup in case of success. The caravan set off towards the mountain range where the arms factory was located.

Wen Le distributed all the firearms and ammunition in the space, knowing that in the event of a real conflict, there would be no time to replenish the ammunition.

That afternoon, the caravan arrived at the foot of the mountain. Mo Yan and Wen Le carefully observed with binoculars but did not see any soldiers stationed around the perimeter.

To avoid detection by the military, Xiao Wen led the group into the mountains on foot rather than taking the winding mountain road. They abandoned their vehicles and Wen Le collected them all in the space since they couldn’t guarantee that they would use the same route on their retreat.

Over 700 people marched quietly into the forest. Only the faint sound of footsteps could be heard, and they moved stealthily through the woods.

As night fell, they refrained from using any illumination devices as even the slightest light could easily give them away. Wen Le led the way, observing their surroundings with her psychic abilities. The others followed behind her, holding onto each other in a line.

For the entire night, they crossed over a large mountain. When the day broke, Wen Le was standing halfway up the second mountain, according to the directions given by Yan Wei Guo. From the mountaintop, they would be able to see a lake, and their destination was on the west side of the lake.

“Rest here. Mo Yan, distribute the food and water. We’ll go and take a look first. Don’t throw away any leftover garbage randomly. Collect it and I’ll throw it into the space when I come back,” whispered Wen Le to Mo Yan behind his. Mo Yan nodded.

Wen Le carefully found a relatively flat place and took out compressed biscuits and water from the space without waiting for Mo Yan to distribute them. He then climbed onto Xiao Wen’s back.

With the cover of the trees, the two quickly arrived at the mountaintop. They found a relatively hidden tree branch and sat on it, carefully observing the situation below.

Although most of the area below was still covered by trees, a small lake could be seen at a glance. There were many people in military uniforms fetching water by the lake.

Looking to the west of the lake, even with the trees blocking the view, there were still vague shadows of people moving around.

However, there was no trace of the military factory that Yan Wei Guo had mentioned. It was unlikely that such an important facility would be easily visible.

But there was no need to spend time searching. About eighty percent of the people were concentrated in the area where the activity was most intense, which was likely to be the location of the military factory.

After roughly noting the situation, Xiao Wen gestured to Wen Le to go down.

The two quietly descended the mountain again and, after entering the forest at the foot of the mountain, Xiao Wen slowed down while Wen Le tightened his nerves, carefully filtering all the movements within her spiritual range.

Suddenly, there was a loud noise ahead, which startled both Xiao Wen and Wen Le. Wen Le almost immediately took Xiao Wen into the space, but fortunately they realized that no one was approaching them.

Wen Le pointed to the location of the sound, and Xiao Wen nodded silently, carrying Wen Le on his back as they walked towards the source of the noise.

It took them about two hours to get there, and they had to enter the space three times to avoid people suddenly approaching them. Each time they stayed in the space for more than twenty minutes before coming out.

As soon as they emerged, Wen Le expanded his mental power to its maximum range, ready to return to the space at any moment. Luckily, they were not discovered by anyone along the way and finally reached the foot of another mountain after dawdling for some time.

Here, there were more and more soldiers dressed as military officers, and there was almost no way for them to continue forward. Xiao Wen carefully surveyed the surroundings while Wen Le focused all his mental power on the area with the most soldiers.

At the moment when Wen Le’s mental power reached its farthest range, he was delighted to find the entrance to the arsenal. Don’t ask him how he could be sure it was the entrance. First, there was a heavily concealed and sturdy iron gate at an angle to the mountain slope, and secondly, there were heavy guards around it. Wen Le immediately confirmed that this was the place they were looking for.

However, Wen Le’s mental power could only detect the gate, and if they wanted to explore what was inside, they would have to get closer, which was currently impossible for them.

Wen Le hesitated for a moment, then pointed to the left to Xiao Wen.

Most of the soldiers were concentrated near the gate, and there were hardly any people on the left mountain wall. Wen Le asked Xiao Wen to follow him along the mountain wall.

A weapon factory could not be too small, although they couldn’t get close to it at the gate, they could learn about the inside of the mountain from other places.

Wen Le didn’t know how the factory was built, but he could sense the sudden appearance of space inside the mountain when they went around to the back of the mountain where the factory was located, using his psychic powers.

Wen Le complained through gritted teeth to Xiao Wen, “This is the thinnest part of the mountain wall, about 70 meters thick.”

Xiao Wen smiled, “Seventy meters is not bad. If it were thinner, I would suspect that the mountain was made of metal!”

Wen Le also thought about it. If it were too thin, it would easily collapse under the weight of the soil above.

“Let’s go back first and keep a good watch out,” Xiao Wen reminded Wen Le, who was lying on his shoulder.

Because they were far from the heavily guarded area, they did not encounter anyone who came out to investigate on their way back.

They returned smoothly to where Mo Yan and the others were, and Wen Le took out paper and marked down what he had observed.

Xiao Wen found several superhumans who held certain positions in the army and asked them to participate in the plan-making.

If the soldiers themselves do not want to go to war with other military districts under the same headquarters, then it can only be said that the Tibet Military District is an exception. Whether it is the leaders above or the soldiers who shoot at ordinary people under orders from their superiors, they have already been mentally divided into another area that is not part of their own military system.

Several officers surrounded Xiao Wen and Wen Le, looking at the rough hand-drawn map on the paper, and began to calculate.

After studying for most of the day, they ultimately divided into two plans. The first plan was to start from the relatively weak mountain wall behind the mountain detected by Wen Le, and let earth-element ability users dig through the mountain wall together. Meanwhile, most other people would attract the attention of the defenders from the front, creating chaos and making it easier for those entering the factory to move around.

The second plan was to engage in direct combat on the front lines. After the fighting began, the gate of the factory would likely open to support the defending soldiers with weapons. Then, Xiao Wen would take advantage of the opportunity to rush into the interior of the factory with Wen Le.

After assigning personnel, they would execute the first plan first at night. If they could enter the factory through the first plan, they would notify the people in front and begin to disturb the defender’s vision. If they failed to get in, they would circle back and execute the second plan.

After preparing everything, everyone sat quietly in place, waiting for the night to come.

---

Threat from Monkey Pack. Before departing in the morning, Xiao Wen notified everyone during the assembly. Once again, as they set off, Xiao Wen’s tightly clenched fists and shining eyes directly indicated the boiling blood within his heart.

On the other hand, Wen Le continued to endure Han Yi Feng’s excited murmurs, it seems that the child still hasn’t digested the true purpose of their trip.

From the direction, they could brush against the edge of F City and enter the mountains directly without passing through the city. This saved them a lot of trouble as the loss of life and danger within a city were not few in number. It was best to avoid it if possible, just as they had been avoiding densely populated towns along the way.

After more than three hours, although the weather was not as extreme as in the Tibetan area, the unusual Central Plains environment was not so comfortable either. The temperature gradually rose to around thirty degrees by ten o’clock, and by noon, it could reach thirty-four or five degrees.

Although occasional gunshots could make everyone alert, the stuffy car environment still made people feel sleepy and lethargic.

Wen Le forced herself to stay alert, occasionally looking at nearby landmarks to estimate the distance.

“Boss, Wen Shao, we have a problem.” Chen Ye was responsible for driving this time. Mo Yan sat in the front passenger seat and had been observing the surroundings. Suddenly, he spoke up and broke the silence in the car.

Xiao Wen and Wen Le looked in the direction Mo Yan pointed, which should be where F City was located.

They seemed to vaguely see something, but because it was too far away, Wen Le took out her binoculars and carefully observed from the skylight.

“Xiao Wen, let the convoy stop!” After seeing clearly, Wen Le quickly said to Xiao Wen.

Xiao Wen did not hesitate, he picked up the walkie-talkie and asked the convoy to pull over. Fortunately, they were walking on a rural road with few nearby zombies, and there was no danger of being surrounded if they stopped.

After stopping the car, Wen Le did not say anything and went back to the car to hand the telescope to Xiao Wen, indicating that he should take a look himself.

Through the telescope, thick smoke rose in the direction of F City, clearly not the situation that a normal dead city in the apocalypse should have.

Zombies do not understand how to start a fire, and the possibility of such a large-scale fire is very low. Moreover, if the weather were dry, the fire would not have continued until now, it should have burned out long ago.

“It should be caused by people.” After seeing it, Xiao Wen went back to the car.

Wen Le nodded, “It’s possible that it’s caused by humans and zombies using abilities. Humans may avoid some things, but zombies don’t have the brain to know what can and cannot be burned.”

“What should we do now?” Chen Ye couldn’t help but ask.

There was also an inquiry on the walkie-talkie.

Wen Le briefly explained the situation on the walkie-talkie, but it was met with silence.

“Let’s mind our own business. I mean, with the strength of our convoy, ordinary people wouldn’t dare to provoke us.” Han Yi Feng felt that there was no need to be so cautious.

He was right, the whole convoy of over 700 people were all capable of using their powers, and their weapons were on par with most regular armies. Most forces would have to detour when they saw them.

But it’s better to be safe than sorry. Xiao Wen and Wen Le didn’t want anything unexpected to happen when they were close to their destination.

Moreover, Wen Le didn’t know why, but after seeing the billowing smoke, he had an inexplicable sense of unease.

“Mo Yan, you lead the convoy to stay here. Xiao Wen (Wen Le) and I will go check it out,” Xiao Wen decided to be cautious and determine what was happening in F City before deciding whether to continue forward.

Chen Ye moved aside to give way to Xiao Wen, and everyone got out of the car except Wen Le, who stayed in the passenger seat.

“Be careful,” Mo Yan couldn’t help but remind them.

Wen Le nodded to him, and the car slowly drove towards F City.

The closer they got to F City, the more uneasy Wen Le felt. After leaving the convoy, they went directly onto the highway that led to F City.

As they got closer to the city center, the population became denser. Moreover, Xiao Wen was not driving fast, so they should have attracted the attention of zombies. But they had been driving for a long time and no zombies had come close.

“Xiao Wen, look ahead.” Wen Le suddenly points ahead.

Xiao Wen stops the car and looks ahead. The two of them feel a sense of dread.

The highway ahead is clear, without any obstacles, but on either side of the clear road are various vehicles obviously overturned by brute force.

“It should be the work of the clearing car,” Xiao Wen says slowly. He saw the clearing car clearing the road when they followed Bai Yang’s army into X City, just like the scene in front of them.

Wen Le doesn’t say anything. A team that can use a clearing car to clear the road might not be something their convoy can afford to provoke.

Starting the car again, the speed is even slower than before. When passing the overturned cars on the roadside, Wen Le can’t help but look closely. Many of the marks on the car bodies are newly made, indicating that the group of people had been there in the past few days.

The two of them move forward cautiously and still haven’t found anything unusual until they enter F City.

Inside the city, there are far more zombie corpses lying around than on the highway, and Wen Le’s mental power sweeps over them, discovering that many of the second-level zombie crystals are still inside the bodies and haven’t been dug out.

Wen Le has a vague idea of who these people might be.

“Xiao Wen, I think the situation is very bad,” Wen Le says with difficulty.

Xiao Wen has been frowning the whole time and hasn’t relaxed. When he hears Wen Le’s words, he glances at him.

Wen Le smiles wryly and continues, “These zombies haven’t had their crystals removed.”

Xiao Wen doesn’t need Wen Le to continue. He already understands.

Wen Le had said that crystal nuclei were already circulating as currency in the Central Plains region. Therefore, anyone who killed zombies would not let the crystal nuclei go to waste.

If they knew the value of the nuclei but didn’t take them, it could only mean that their time was too tight and their goals were much more important than these nuclei.

As for F City and its surroundings, apart from the arsenal mentioned by Yan Wei Guo, Xiao Wen couldn’t think of anything more important than crystal nuclei.

From the high-speed road they had just traveled, it led to the direction of the Tibetan area. They didn’t take the high-speed road initially because if they went on the F City high-speed road, it would take a longer route to their base than directly crossing over.

“It seems the more we try to hide, the less we can.” Xiao Wen sighed.

At this point, if they still didn’t know that the group of people ahead of them came from the Tibetan military region, then they were fools!

From the position of the Tibetan military region to F City, taking the high-speed road was the fastest route. Moreover, as of now, perhaps only the Tibetan area had not yet started using crystal nuclei as currency. After all, the number of zombies in the Tibetan area was too small, and the amount of crystal nuclei was not enough for normal circulation.

Wen Le leaned silently against the back of his chair, feeling a little lost in thought about what to do next.

Since the Tibetan military region went through so much trouble to come here, their purpose could only be the arsenal. Furthermore, since Yan Wei Guo knew about the largest arsenal in the country, the leader of the Tibetan region couldn’t possibly not know.

After planning for so long, they had overlooked such a crucial point.

“Let’s go back first. No matter what we plan next, we can’t let the convoy stay there. If the military region’s people change their route on their way back, it will be really troublesome if they run into us.” After a moment of thought, Wen Le patted Xiao Wen’s arm.

Xiao Wen remained silent as he turned the car around and quickly returned the way they came.

“What’s going on?” Han Yifeng couldn’t help but run up and ask as he approached the convoy.

Mo Yan looked at the serious expressions of Xiao Wen and Wen Le and couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

“Everyone get on the car, we’re heading back the way we came, back to the village we were at before,” Wen Le said to the approaching people.

Seeing the serious expressions of the two, no one asked any questions and quickly got on the car, all turning around and heading back.

“Wen, what’s going on?” Han Yi Feng couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked.

Wen Le paused and sighed.

“Our target has been taken by someone else.”

“Who?”

“The military district in the Tibetan region.”

Upon hearing this, Mo Yan realized the severity of the situation. Chen Ye and Han Yi Feng didn’t know about the military district in the Tibetan region, but Mo Yan had learned about it from Han Ya. He didn’t expect that they hadn’t encountered it during their time in Tibet, but instead they encountered it after they left.

After another three hours, the entire convoy returned to the village.

On that day, they didn’t do anything else but drove around for fun.

Despite knowing that it was a waste of time, they had no other choice.

Returning to the room where they had stayed the previous night, Xiao Wen and Wen Le sat on the bed at a loss.

“We can’t just turn back like this, can we?!” Wen Le said unwillingly.

Xiao Wen narrowed his eyes. “Definitely not. If we go back empty-handed, it wouldn’t even be worth the gasoline we wasted on this trip!”

Wen Le pinched his brow, feeling a headache coming on. “Then what should we do? Maybe we could wait here until those people leave and then go into the mountains. After all, they don’t have as much space as I do, so they can’t take the machines with them.”

Xiao Wen shook his head. “My concern is that their goal is the same as ours.”

“How could that be?! Although I haven’t seen the machines used to manufacture weapons, I imagine they must be quite large. The space of a normal psychic can’t even accommodate them!” Wen Le immediately dismissed the idea.

Xiao Wen sighed, “That’s not what I mean. I’m worried that they’ll station people at the factory to produce weapons continuously.”

Wen Le was stunned. After thinking carefully, what Xiao Wen said made a lot of sense. Yan Wei Guo had also said that the ambitious first battle couldn’t possibly only be a one-time deal. If they wanted to become a dominant force in the apocalypse and rule over the area, they needed a continuous supply of weapons.

“What should we do?!” Wen Le asked anxiously. If what Xiao Wen guessed was true, then they really would have made a wasted trip.

What should they do? Xiao Wen gritted his teeth. “Even if it means stealing, we have to take those machines! If they really get their hands on those machines, we won’t just return empty-handed. We might not have any peaceful days in the Tibetan area for a while! Once they have enough weapons, their first step will definitely be to rule over the entire area!”

Xiao Wen’s words were not wrong, but steal? Wen Le was speechless. Was it even possible to steal something like that?

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