After about half an hour, Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao finally finished processing the bones and meat of the steel-scaled bear they had taken. The two of them cleaned the blood off their bodies by the stream and then continued towards the direction of the Red Shore ruins.
"Mr. Ye!"
Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao hadn't walked a few steps when Li Yidao's voice came from behind.
"Hmm?"
Ye Feng stopped, turned his head, and looked at the other party with some confusion.
"Mr. Ye, the remaining steel-scaled bear, you... you don't want it anymore?"
Although Li Yidao was already over forty years old and looked even older due to his long-term exploration, he did not show any disrespect to Ye Feng because of his young appearance. He even used a respectful title.
In this post-apocalyptic world, only strength could earn others' respect!
"Oh, I don't want it. Take it if you want it!"
Ye Feng waved his hand gently and continued to walk forward with Xiao Xiao.
Upon hearing Ye Feng's words, Li Yidao and all his subordinates showed expressions of extreme joy. They immediately ran quickly towards the steel-scaled bear.
After all, they had only heard of and seen steel-scaled bears before, but they had never eaten one...
Although Li Yidao knew a lot about steel-scaled bears, it was purely theoretical knowledge with zero practical experience...
...
After more than an hour,
Ye Feng was a bit depressed because he and Xiao Xiao hadn't encountered any troublesome monsters along the way. There were only occasional scattered zombies, or some venomous snakes and wild beasts...
"Hey, why are you following me?"
Suddenly, Ye Feng turned his head and looked at Li Yidao's group behind him.
For some reason, these people had been following him and Xiao Xiao.
At first, it was only Li Yidao and his subordinates. As they walked, more and more lone or injured explorers joined them, and the group grew significantly without them realizing it...
After the initial fierce battle with the treant and gargoyle, Li Yidao's subordinates were reduced to about 20 people. However, now there were nearly a hundred people following Ye Feng.
"Li Yidao, is it? Come here for a moment!"
Seeing the group standing there, looking at each other blankly, Ye Feng called out to Li Yidao.
"Uh, okay!"
Li Yidao was slightly taken aback, but the next second he trotted to Ye Feng's side.
"Hey, what's going on with these people? Why are they following me?"
Ye Feng asked Li Yidao quickly.
"This... Mr. Ye, my subordinates see that you are powerful, so following you makes traveling... much safer..."
"The other lone explorers probably have the same idea... And later, some explorers who didn't know what was going on just followed because there were so many people..."
Li Yidao did not hide his intentions at all.
"Dangerous... If this Red Shore ruins is so dangerous, shouldn't you retreat directly?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly.
"Something might have happened to these Red Shore ruins... It was very safe near the outer perimeter before, at most there would be some fierce beasts and poisonous insects..."
"But just now, we encountered treants, gargoyles, and flame-headed leopards, which are usually only found near the core area..."
"If we retreat directly, the road ahead might not be safer than following you. And our Artisan Saber Exploration Team put a lot of effort into exploring these Red Shore ruins. If we leave just like this... we're not willing to!"
Li Yidao quickly explained to Ye Feng.
"I see~"
After a pause, Ye Feng spoke again, "According to you, the deeper we go, the more monsters there should be and the more dangerous it will be. But we've been walking for an hour, why haven't we encountered many monsters?"
"This is also what puzzles me... Even if we have a lot of people and make a lot of noise, scaring away some fierce beasts,"
"But monsters like the fanged python, elephant-legged pig, and mountain demon, which should be encountered here, wouldn't be scared away... They would even actively run towards noisy places... But this time, for some unknown reason, none of them appeared!"
"And the monsters we encountered when we first entered this forest, like the steel-scaled bear and the treant, gargoyle, were also a bit strange. Their habitats are in completely different directions from this forest, and the nearest one is over 70 kilometers away..."
"Mr. Ye, based on my observations along the way, monsters like the fanged python and elephant-legged pig should have been preyed upon or scared away by the steel-scaled bear and the treant..."
"The steel-scaled bear and the treant seemed to be attracted by something, and their destination was not here... The few just now seemed to have fallen behind..."
Li Yidao quickly explained his observations and analysis.
"The situation seems a bit complicated!~"
Ye Feng scratched his head, took out the map of the Red Shore ruins that Han Qiuli had given him before, checked it, and spoke again, "So, if we continue in this direction, we will reach an area near the Red Shore ruins with many zombies, right!"
"Yes, the Red Shore ruins was originally a military base, and there were quite a lot of people living there. Indeed, there are many zombies!"
Li Yidao nodded.
"Oh, that's good!"
After getting confirmation, Ye Feng couldn't be bothered to think about why the monsters were behaving strangely anymore. He immediately walked with Xiao Xiao towards the direction that could barely be recognized as a path.
...
After another hour or so, Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao's vision became clear. They finally walked out of the primeval forest.
"Big brother, there's a town ahead!"
Xiao Xiao pointed at the steel-concrete buildings ahead, which were neither too high nor too low, and said excitedly.
"En! Let's go!"
Ye Feng nodded and quickened his pace.
Before long, Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao arrived at the large iron gate of the building complex.
Next to the large iron gate were several damaged tanks, and the ground was covered with shell casings, indicating that fierce gun battles had taken place here.
Looking around, there were anti-collision fences made of colored steel and massive guardrails placed everywhere, but they were all rusty. Many corpses were stuck on them.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, Ye Feng's attention was drawn to the seven or eight-meter-high wall next to the large iron gate.
The concrete wall next to the large iron gate was full of bullet holes, and there was a large hole in one place, revealing dark, thick rebar inside.
What caught Ye Feng's attention was the large hole in the wall. It didn't look like it was caused by artillery shells, but rather something had forcefully crashed out from inside the wall, pulling the rebar straight outwards...
"Did something break out of the base?"
Ye Feng's expression became slightly more serious, as each rebar inside that wall was as thick as three thumbs.
"Ugh~ *cough cough* ~ Roar~"
Suddenly, muffled, suppressed roars reached Ye Feng's ears.
"It's zombies!"
Hearing the familiar sound, Ye Feng was overjoyed. He immediately entered the large iron gate with his fire axe and found two zombies swaying inside the gate, occasionally twitching their necks.
"*cough~ cough cough~*"
The two zombies also discovered Ye Feng. After sniffing the air, they roared and charged at Ye Feng.
"Screech~ Crunch!"
"Bang~ Rumble!"
After two skilled swings of the fire axe, the two zombies were instantly headshot. Black brain matter splashed everywhere, and one of their eyeballs burst.
One of the zombies hit the metal plate next to it with a loud bang.
"Ding~ Host killed..."
"Bang~ Clang~"
"*cough cough cough~*..."
As the system's prompt sounded, a series of crashing sounds and a large number of zombie roars came from not far away.
Within a few breaths, Ye Feng saw a large group of zombies running out from behind a three-story building not far away, roaring and rushing towards him.
...