After they spent another two days in Yuan Ge village, Huang Wen, Zhang Tian Yi, Liu Wang Yun, Ma Heng, Chen Wu Xuang and Tian Zhong continued their journey, while the villagers prepared a group of men to make the journey to Fuzhou.
As they feared, many wreckage blocked the main road and they spent days on the road most of the time their days filled by clearing the road, without many significant incidents. Several times they met a group of robber or evolved zombies but none as dangerous as Shi Long's group. They steadily moved toward Nan An. Zhang Tian Yi and the other four had broken through level 10, while Huang Wen stuck at level 21.
---- o ----
At the same time, in Fuzhou, Zhang Hu returned from hunting zombies, he had many tasks to do every day but never neglected his own training. He steadily improved his level and this time reached level 11. Fan Zheng had more free time and already reached level 12.
While Zhang Xuan, Chen Yao and Xia Yue, used their free time and diligently trained themselves. Each of them reached level 10, 11 and 9, respectively.
The majority of Zhang Hu's men reached level 5, several of them reached 6, while almost everyone else including the elder, women and children reached various level between 2 to 3. Zhang Hu believed that each one of them was important to build a strong force and by trusting them such chance. He would gain their trust in turn.
He had a kingdom in mind, how could he act with a narrow mind?
Zhang Hu believed, in order to create his kingdom, he must have a big heart, as wide and as deep as an ocean.
When the group of men, from Yuan Ge village that was saved by Huang Wen arrived. Zhang Hu didn't hide his joy. He received them warmly and showed them around his base in Fuzhou. After they met Zhang Hu and saw all of his achievement, how he upheld law and order, as the representatives of Yuan Ge village, they asked to be integrated under Zhang Hu's leadership.
Zhang Hu gladly agreed, but rather than bring them to Fuzhou, he sent Fan Zheng and fifty strong men to the village.
Zhang Hu sent Fan Zheng and fifty strong men to Yuan Ge village, he assured Yuan Ge village's representatives that Fan Zheng was his trusted brother, he would rule them justly and would never misuse his power for selfish gain.
Zhang Hu also made two posts along the route between Fuzhou and Yuan Ge village. Every day there will be a group of men who patrol along the route, both to keep it safe from zombies and bandits, as well as keep it clear from any wreckage and ensure the transportation between Fuzhou and Yuan Ge village.
Zhang Hu and Fan Zheng actually have almost everything planned out, first they need to secure a base and firearms, then they secure the food stock and medicines, next they wanted to secure at least one of the electric power plant near Fuzhou. Most of the system ran automatically these days, the engineers fix things when certain problem arise and the operators mostly only monitoring the situation, perhaps adjust some parameters along the way. With most factories and facilities down, the electric consumption lowered greatly and they hope the electric would hold for months but sooner or later without anyone maintained it, some fault would occur and could bring the whole system down.
They already secured their base and secured enough food stock that with strict rationing system, will last a week. Every day there were two groups who constantly explore the city to gather more food and medicines. Now they need electricity to make sure they have freezers which were working to keep their food stocks. Not to mention that having electric power means they could utilize many modern technologies. Without it, they would be thrown back to medieval ages.
Zhang Hu gathered engineers and technicians among the survivor. He appointed a few of them to lead the group. Together with them, Zhang Hu came up with the plan.
However, almost everything, aside from gathering food stock, was put on hold after he learned the existence of the area where demon and zombies could not enter. Safety was his main priority, if he could have a place that was safer than his current base then he would make it his priority to secure it as his base.
Electricity means nothing if no one alive to use it.
Days passed and Zhang Hu began to grow impatience, he had put a hold on all of his other plan to find that place, but so far he hadn't received any good news.
He was in a bad mood that day, as his level progressed to higher level. It was getting harder to improve. Not to mention that with thousands of his people actively tried to improve their level, it was getting harder to find zombies within the vicinity.
Of course, Fuzhou was far from cleaned up from zombies, but he had to travel further and further which wasn't convenient since at this stage Zhang Hu chose to handle everything by himself. All the important decision must be approved by him. He also did most of the supervision by himself. He was nurturing leaders among his men, but they weren't at the level that satisfied him yet.
Fortunately there were more and more evolved zombies like Ding Yun, although they hadn't reached levels where they regained their intelligence like Ding Yun but they gave more experience than normal one.
For women, the elderly and children, they provided maimed zombies to kill. Unfortunately the increased of evolved zombies population, hampered any activity outside their base. Every day less food and medicine was gathered and the progress of the novice village search also much slower than expectation.
Along with the good news from Yuan Ge village, there was also news about the existence of one man named Shi Long, whose power matched Huang Wen but with cruelty and ferociousness far above him. All these things must be dealt by Zhang Hu alone.
Fortunately he could entrust Yuan Ge Village to Fan Zheng but with Fan Zheng left for Yuan Ge Village, no one helped him at handling problems at Fuzhou. He kept his smile and warmth personality in front of other, but alone he couldn't hide his impatience.
Zhang Hu was sitting with all his worries, sighing and softly cursing, when Madam Zhang Hu entered the room, brought with her two cup of hot tea and biscuits.
Zhang Hu lifted his head and tried to smile. They exchanged no words. Madam Zhang Hu moved behind him and started kneading his muscular shoulder. Slowly all his wearies disappeared.
"I never expected, after killing zombies and improving my strength, it's all just to give you a massage.", Madam Zhang Hu chuckled.
Zhang Hu laughed without making a sound. Only his body shook gently as he laughed.
"Having another hard day?", Madam Zhang Hu asked.
"Hmm...", Zhang Hu nodded.
"Try to go home earlier sometimes. The kids miss you too. It will reduce your stress too, isn't it better to rest and sharpen your axe rather than work with a dull axe?", said Madam Zhang Hu.
She gently leaned forward and hugged Zhang Hu from behind. Her ample chest pressed on his head.
Zhang Hu chuckled and said, "Hmm... I thought you want me to relax..."
Madam Zhang Hu laughed gently, "I do... aren't you relaxing right now?"
"Ha ha ha... some part of me couldn't relax, it's getting harder you know..."
Madam Zhang Hu giggled coyly, "Aren't you too old for that?"
She moved elegantly and sat on Zhang Hu's lap, a moment later they were kissing passionately. It was getting better, but suddenly someone was knocking on the door.
Zhang Hu pulled himself away unwillingly, his expression showed how annoyed he was. Madam Zhang Hu laughed softly and tipped his nose with her index finger.
"Now... now... wipe that scary face away. Who knows, you might get some good news.", she said, comforting the annoyed Zhang Hu.
Zhang Hu forced a smile, "Hmm..."
Madam Zhang Hu leaned closer and whispered in his ear, "I'll wait for you tonight..."
She gently squeezed Zhang Hu's hardened manhood as she got up. She moved so close to Zhang Hu that her breast caressed his face when she got up. Zhang Hu groaned and silently swore. Madam Zhang Hu was giggling as she left him. She walked with her hips swayed seducingly.
As soon as she left the room, a man entered the room, he seemed noticed the mood and sheepishly greeted Zhang Hu.
"Hmm..., alright, what news you brought to me?", Zhang Hu calmly asked.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
"Master Zhang Hu. Sir, we Group A, we believe we have found that area sir. It was Xichan temple."
Zhang Hu jumped from his seat, "Are you sure?"
"We're quite sure about it sir. It wasn't like any other area before this. Once we enter Gongye Road, we can't sense any demons and there are no zombies at all, but as we moved closer to Xichan temple we sensed something different. We didn't dare to venture further. We decided to inform you first."
"Good... excellent... sent messengers to the other groups, told them to return to base. We should get ready. We've been waiting too long to find it. I don't want to waste another day."
"Yes, sir!"
He was ready to leave when Zhang Hu remembered something, "Do we have any casualties?"
"No sir, we explored the city carefully, beside the closer we are to Xichan Temple, the less zombies we met.", he answered.
"Good... you show good leadership. I'll reward you later. Now go send those messengers.", Zhang Hu nodded and the man seemed really proud to hear Zhang Hu praised him.
"Yes, sir!"
Zhang Hu nodded and sent him away. He sat on his chair with a big smile on his face. He predicted that he would find it within 2-3 days, but for more than a week spent on finding this place. To their surprised, it actually closed to Huang Wen's dormitory.
"Too bad Fan Zheng isn't here...Huang Wen, Zhang Tian Yi and the others aren't here too...I wish we could check this place together.", Zhang Hu sighed.
"Should I start to move people to that place?", Zhang Hu thought to himself.
He shook his head, "No... I better carefully check it first. Bao Wang said he sensed some power. Someone or something must release that power. The power that prevents zombies and demons to enter the temple. First I need to know what is it and whether it safe for me to move people into that area."
The next day, Zhang Hu led a small group of trusted men, Zhang Xuan, Chen Yao and Xia Yue accompanied him too. Guided by the team A's leader, Bao Wang, they visited Xichan Temple. They stopped a few hundred meters away from the entrance of the temple, right at the corner of the street toward that place.
"Well, what do you say", Zhang Hu asked his daughter.
Zhang Xuan who had the highest spirit said, "Yes, I think I can sense the presence of something spiritual over that pagoda and the surrounding but just like the team leader Bao Wang said, it wasn't demon's presence."
Chen Yao and Xia Yue nodded vigorously.
Zhang Hu rubbed the stubble on his chin and said, "Okay, let's approach carefully. Zhang Xuan, Chen Yao and Xia Yue, use your third eye all the time."
Zhang Hu took the girls, because similar to Huang Wen they also have an innate ability which awakened into third eye after they survived the first wave of zombies. People like Bao Wang could sense something, but for some reason he didn't get the skill. Zhang Hu walked in front. The girls walked behind him and the rest followed behind.
Chen Yao suddenly stopped and grabbed Zhang Xuan's hand. Zhang Xuan turned to look at the thing that Chen Yao pointed at.
"Father, there is something... I don't know what it is. I think it's a she. She's a spiritual being, just like demons... but they're different.", Zhang Xuan quickly told her father.
Zhang Hu stopped on his track, "Well... do you think she is hostile toward us?"
Zhang Xuan frowned, "I don't know..."
Zhang Hu thought for a moment and then commanded his men, "All of you. Wait here, let me, my daughter and her friends went to check. Don't do anything rash. You can't see them so there is nothing you can do anyway."
Bao Wang and his men nodded their head, they watched Zhang Hu and the girls walked toward the temple.
As they moved closer, the girls saw numerous spiritual beings were guarding the entrance to the temple, there were male and female. Some of them carried bows and arrows, while four of them carried a long dagger. Zhang Xuan of course told her father everything they saw.
"We're a few steps away from them now. They were watching us closely but I don't think they wanted to harm us.", Zhang Xuan whispered to her father.
Even Zhang Hu who didn't have a third eye and usually wasn't sensitive at all, could feel something, he politely bowed and spoke to the direction of those beings, "Greetings... My name is Zhang Hu. I came here in peace. I came to find a safe place for my people. I see now, why there are no demons or zombies dare to enter your land. I hope you will grant me and my people permission to enter and live in your land."
One of them who seemed the leader, walked forward and spoke. Zhang Hu only felt something but couldn't hear or understand the thing he spoke of. The leader then turned to Zhang Xuan and spoke.
Zhang Xuan's eye widened when suddenly she could hear a voice within her mind and relay the message to her father.
"Father, he said that if that's the purpose of our visit, then we're making a mistake. Their leaders, he called him their great grandfathers were trying to suppress the gate from the demon's realm which is going to be opened. It happened the gate was the land under the pagoda.", Zhang Xuan relayed the message, when the spirit saw she could hear him, he seemed pleased and talked more.
Zhang Xuan kept relaying his message, "This gate was bigger than the rip that brought thousand of low level demons about a week ago. This time, once the gate opened, even middle level demon would be able to escape from the demon realm."
Zhang Xuan's eyes filled with worry as she heard the next message, "They tried their best to prevent it from happening, but after days of trying, they still couldn't close the gate. All they can do right now, is to delay the gate from fully opened, as long as possible. Rather than live in this area, our best option was to leave this city before the gate opened."
Zhang Hu's face grew pale when he heard that but he remained calm, "How long? How long do they think, they can delay it from opening?"
Zhang Xuan replied, "At most a week, probably less than five days, they could guarantee three days."
Zhang Hu closed his eyes and sighed bitterly. Not only he failed to find a safe place, where their safety was guaranteed, now he must even leave his base, the base that built for days of hard work, through sweat and tears.
He opened his eyes and nodded his head, "Okay, I got this. Zhang Xuan, my daughter, could you ask them who are they? And tell them that I'm grateful for what they did and do."
"He said... you could call them fairies..? Something like that, according to his explanation, for generations they lived here for hundreds of years, serving the Immortal Wang Ba who was cultivating in this place long in the past. Their kind is enemies of demons. That's just how it is for as long as they could remember. Now they would prepare for their last battle.", Zhang Xuan said.
Zhang Hu suddenly thought something and said, "How much their chance to win this battle?"
Zhang Xuan, Chen Yao and Xia Yue suddenly looked down on the ground sadly. Zhang Hu waited for Zhang Xuan to tell him.
Zhang Xuan finally said, "They have no chance at all but they won't surrender nor run away from their enemy. This place, this land means too much for them. They can't watch it fall to the demons. So they decided to fight to the death."
"... all of them?", Zhang Hu asked.
Zhang Xuan nodded, "Yes, all of them."
Suddenly Zhang Hu shook his head vehemently, "Forgive me but I must say that's a fool plan. Fool! Fool I say! If all of you died here then for ever demons would take a hold on this mountain and this temple."
Zhang Xuan's eyes opened wide and said, "Father, you anger him."
Zhang Hu sighed and bowed toward them, "So be it... I could not say how much I'm grateful for what they do, but I can't say nothing when they wanted to mass-suicide. I've said it though. Okay girls, let's leave. Less we leave this place as their enemy."
Zhang Hu bowed once again, followed by the girls, before they turned to leave.
Suddenly something moved so fast, approaching toward that entrance and Zhang Xuan grabbed her father's hand, "Father. Wait... they want us to wait a bit."
Next : Chapter 33.