Luo Xiaole smiled and cheerfully replied, "Morning."
Her eyes flickered to Mo Shen, who was leaning back on a lounge chair in the middle of the yard, hands in his pockets, looking utterly relaxed.
She felt both annoyed and amused.
She had woken up exceptionally early today. Before everyone else had even stirred, she had already been collecting old, dusty tools and larger discarded items from around the house.
As she searched, she had also been using her [Sharp Blade] skill to reinforce them one by one.
"Hmm... this looks promising, not going to reinforce it?" As she was happily engrossed in strengthening items, a clear voice, like a mountain spring, sounded from beside her.
"You scared me to death!" Luo Xiaole nearly jumped out of her skin. She had assumed no one would be in the yard at this hour.
"Oh, the mighty 'Weapon Master,' not as brave as one might imagine..." The murmuring voice spoke again, a faint trace of amusement in its tone.
Luo Xiaole suddenly twitched her ears and stared, her eyes wide as saucers, at Mo Shen. He was leaning against the doorframe, holding a small mallet in his hand.
Mo Shen was actually joking with her?
She must be hallucinating...
And where did he find that little mallet!
It looked quite good...
Since the divine being was offering it, she wouldn't be polite!
She quickly walked over and, with a touch of subservience, grasped the tail of the mallet, "rescuing" it from his slender, jade-like fingers.
"Then I won't be polite. Thank you, great one!" she said. While using her skill to reinforce the mallet, she then sprinted away, heading to another room to continue her search for items to reinforce.
One reason was the time crunch; she genuinely wanted to find more things to reinforce in the shortest possible time. Another was Mo Shen's extremely uncharacteristic behavior, which was just too...
Last night, everyone had cleaned themselves up by the small mountain spring, washing away the dust of their journey.
Mo Shen's outstanding figure and features, illuminated by the early morning light, seemed to glow. And him speaking in such a tone, not only was it abnormal, but the scene itself, who could handle that!
So, under Mo Shen's watchful gaze, she darted back and forth between different rooms in the yard. Finally.
[94 items reinforced, 18800 shop coins spent, balance 92185 shop coins]
"Phew..." Reinforcing so many things had made her dizzy.
It was all Mo Shen's fault. He kept staring at her, making her so nervous that she reinforced things faster than usual...
And her mental energy was depleted much more!
"Xiao Le!" Luo Shu's shout pulled her back from her memories.
"That map you guys were talking about yesterday, can we take a look? We're all so curious!" Zhou Xiaojun came running over, acting quite subservient.
Luo Xiaole wearily pulled the map out of her pocket and handed it over.
Luo Shu happened to hand her a protein bar. "Eat something to refuel. You look like you've had your essence drained by a Black Mountain Demon..."
"Pfft..." Mo Shen couldn't help but chuckle beside them.
"Tsk tsk, the thousand-year-old ice mountain is melting..." Zhou Xiaojun mumbled to himself, shaking his head while chewing on the bread Luo Shu had given him and holding the map.
"Xiao Le! Where did you get this map? It's so detailed!" Zhou Xiaojun exclaimed, almost forgetting to chew his bread.
Everyone passed it around, including Mo Shen, who was sitting in his rocking chair. He silently, meticulously flipped through every page of the map.
The map finally reached Luo Shu's hands.
He had just finished pulling out food for everyone from his spatial storage and was now holding the map, eating with relish.
"Aooo!!" A zombie's roar that could make one's scalp explode suddenly echoed faintly from the surrounding jungle.
Everyone's faces changed, and they immediately became vigilant.
"Hoo hoo..." "Roar..." More zombie sounds, one after another, rose from not far away.
"Something's not right. Why do they sound like so many, and more and more?" Luo Shu frowned.
Luo Xiaole's heart sank. This place was so desolate; there shouldn't be so many zombies...
The crescent moon ring in her pocket suddenly stirred.
It vibrated faintly.
Luo Xiaole pursed her lips and quickly slipped into a nearby corner, quietly opening the ring's projection.
The ring displayed the location of another ring. It turned out that at some point, they had already surpassed the position of their group on the way to Luocheng Base!
Qin Mingyang and the others must have encountered something during the night and decided to press onward!
Luo Xiaole suddenly remembered the map she had just examined. The topographical features gradually merged with the map shown on the ring...
If the zombie horde followed them, or were drawn out from the mountains and forests, they would inevitably pass through their current location, a farmstead, to reach Qin Mingyang's present position!
Luo Xiaole was suddenly shocked!
This place was no longer safe!
She thought for a moment, then took out a silver chain from her pocket and attached the ring to it, turning it into a necklace that she hung around her neck.
She then carefully tucked the necklace with the hanging ring inside her clothes, so no one could see it.
Perhaps the ring had given a hint last night, but because it was in her pocket, the vibration was too subtle, and she had missed it...
"Let's go, we need to leave now!" Luo Xiaole realized that the speed at which Qin Mingyang's ring was attracting zombies seemed to be increasing.
These zombies also seemed to be getting more agile.
This was not good news...
"Listen to her, move out." Zhou Shoushan also gave orders to the soldiers beside him.
The soldiers acted quickly and decisively, found the keys, got into the cars, and waited in the driver's seats.
Hearing the approaching zombie sounds and Luo Xiaole's anxious voice, the others didn't dare to delay. They quickly grabbed their backpacks and sprinted to the cars.
Luo Shu also quickly stuffed the map into his spatial storage, his mouth full of bread, and rushed into the passenger seat.
Within a few breaths, everyone was in the cars, not a single person left behind.
"Depart!"
The three cars instantly started and sped off.
There was only one road ahead. The soldier driving the lead car's expression was solemn, his hands gripping the steering wheel nervously as he floored the accelerator on the narrow road ahead.
After the three cars had driven for ten minutes, they gradually felt as if the sounds of zombie roars behind them were fading away...
Not only could they not hear them, but everything around them seemed to fall into silence...
Not even a bird chirped, as if they had entered a completely soundless vacuum...
This wasn't right.
Luo Xiaole reached into her pocket, ready to pull out a thumbtack at any moment.
Mo Shen and Zhou Shoushan, who had spent a lot of time on the edge of combat, were more sensitive.
Both of them frowned deeply.
Zhou Shoushan assumed a defensive stance and leaped from the back of the car to the passenger seat.
At the same instant, Mo Shen moved to the rear of his seat, raising his right hand with his sword, his eyes sharp.
"CRASH!" A sudden loud bang erupted from behind Luo Xiaole's car.