On the second day, Mo Ye passed Ye Zhongming a list. On it were those who did well in the battle and other areas. There were 35 of them. Mo Ye and Tang Tian also selected 100 people to join the fighting group.
Just like that, the number of one-star evolved would reach 50, and they would have 200 ordinary warriors.
Ye Zhongming passed her 40 potions. The five remaining were for her to reward people. New ordinary soldiers would get immunity potions which they would collect from Sister Rong.
Lu Yi also passed some news from Yuanshang. It was the evaluation he had of the various factions after the battle against the Demon Monsters yesterday. He had also sent out the bounty for Xia Bai.
“East Mountain Village, Lou Family, and Hungry Tiger Cavalries suffered huge losses this time. Seem like these Demon Monsters are strong.” Xia Bai looked at the report and looked around Ye Zhongming’s body. She thought Ye Zhongming chose to attack the gran for the food and was using those factions. Now it seemed like this guy knew the place wasn’t so easy. Which was why he rejected Yuan Shang’s suggestion?
Ye Zhongming looked at the report carefully and knew it wouldn’t be too accurate. Everyone had a trump card, and that wasn’t something that others would know about. But from the report, he could find out some things, and they were worthy of being analyzed.
“The only badly affected team would be the Hungry Tiger Cavalries.”
He passed the report to XIa Lei, Lu Yi, Sister Rong, and also Liang Chuyin, and Candy, who were in the room, and he said, “Be it East Mountain Village or Lou Family, they were formed of their family members or people in the base. There are many of them, and they are very united. After those days of development, they are really strong. In terms of evolved numbers, we might not be their match. Although they suffered many losses, their overall strength didn’t drop by much.”
“But not Hungry Tiger Cavalries, there are too few of them, and they aren’t good at managing. They are defending a cement factory. Even if a wheel exists, it isn’t a good place to develop. They lost a small part of their men, and their strength dropped. There would be one last faction around if there were no miracles.”
Hearing Ye Zhongming say that, everyone nodded. The formation of Hungry Tiger Cavalries felt like people were playing around. They fought and won Tech City Team because they were lucky and got a few job certificates. They used that advantage to cause the Tech City Team to suffer losses.
But now, Tech City Team was getting stronger while they suffered huge losses this time. Just thinking about it, one knew that if you were Tech City Team, you wouldn’t give up on such a chance.
“East Mountain Village and Lou Family are quite interesting.”
Ye Zhongming touched his chin and recalled information about these two factions. He did know some things about East Mountain Village as they were a famous faction. Other factions also respected that smith. Uncle Hai was also an expert.
A beast wave wiped out Lou Family, but he didn’t know the exact time. But people who stayed there for a long time mentioned that they were strong and had a spear technique that they passed down. Their spears were on the level of skill.
“Uncle Lu, I think you might have to make a trip for some things.”
Ye Zhongming thought about it and made a decision.
“What about?”
“Head to East Mountain Village and come into contact with them. See if we can use grain to trade for weapons, guns, bullets, etc. If they can sell modified guns, we can trade them for crystals. I will think about the ratio before giving you a bottom line.”
Lu Yi loved to do business and was excited by this thought.
“Continue to monitor Zhang Dalong but be careful not to get noticed by them.” Ye Zhongming instructed Mo Ye. Ye Zhongming continued to pay attention to Zhang Dalong, a future Nine star who evolved.
“What about that Soul Merchant? That faction is quite mysterious, and they appeared in the battle yesterday. Should we track them?” Xia Lei waved the intel report from other factions.
Ye Zhongming shook his head, “This is not a faction that we can touch now. We are too weak in front of them; stay far from them.”
Everyone looked at each other and was shocked. They had never seen Ye Zhongming respect a faction so much before.
“Zhongming, they are so strong that we aren’t their match?”
Ye Zhongming smiled at Liang Chuyin, “We are strong but not invincible. Moreover, Soul Merchant… They will do anything to evolve and do many cruel things; they are animals. So they will lead humanity now, but that would be temporary. Those evil and weird methods will never be the proper way.”
“I hope we don’t need to offend them, and our base can develop for some time.” Candy prayed.
“Then I will inform the subordinates not to conflict with them. Give in and retreat if we can.”
Ye Zhongming nodded and agreed with Mo Ye, “They are strong now, but if they affect our core interests, we don’t have to fear and can fight them. So what if they are strong? If we go all out, I have at least 60-70% confidence of beating them.”
Everyone was pumped up. They knew what Ye Zhongming meant. Soul Merchant was above Zhang Dalong. But even then, this young leader gave a clear signal: if they went all out, there was no one he couldn’t kill.
That gave them tremendous confidence. In their hearts, they weren’t sure how robust Ye Zhongming was. But those few sentences showed that there was no faction that this leader feared.
In the afternoon, after many days of building, the walls on both sides were built up. This made many people excited. After all, this meant that in the future, vast and robust walls would protect the base, and they would be much safer.
But, a few other news caused the core members and management-level staff to be silent.
At 6 pm, they got the news that a team of over 200 from Ying City jail was driving towards Cloud Peak. The leader was the evil Meng Lin, whom people nicknamed Evil Tower. Hu Qian, who had extorted them previously, was among the group.
At 9 pm, they got the news that the hunting squad found a zombie horde of over 20 thousand strong that appeared in Ying City. Looking at the direction, they would arrive here in 7 days. Among them were many level-three zombies.
12 On the second day, Lu Yi, who was at East Mountain Village, radioed back that they had no intention of trading food for weapons. He was trying his best.
At 1 pm, the same radio, East Mountain Village, told Cloud Peak they rejected the proposal. They also took down Lu Yi and the ten-person team and wanted 5000 kilograms of grain to redeem them.
At 2 pm, Yuanshang and his motorcade arrived and brought a letter from Tech City Team’s boss Big Kai. He had only one clear message: to use grain in exchange for protection.
At 5 pm, Yuanshang, who left two hours ago, sent a message using the radio that Xia Bai was in the hands of the Lou Family. She was at the lake island and was severely injured. She would die at any moment.
Ominous news spread one after another, which made everyone anxious. Hot-tempered people like Little Tiger and Shengyuan suggested sending people to teach these bunch a lesson—especially East Mountain Village, which was holding their men, hostage.
Those calmer ones suggested coming up with a plan. There were many dangers, and the entire base would be destroyed if they didn’t deal with them well.
But no matter who they were, they realized an issue.
The biggest crisis of Cloud Peak was here.