101: Beiling

It was Tang Ping's turn to be surprised. How did it feel like Tao Yumian knew him?

"You know me?"

"A lasting impression." Tao Yumian stepped forward, and heads fell all around, splashing water several feet high on the ground.

"You worked for a company in Jiangcheng City under Shengtian Group, right? A year ago, I interned with you. There were over fifty interns at the company then, but only two were hired in the end, both through connections."

"One went through the manager's connections, and the other went through the team leader's connections."

"The one who went through the team leader's connections was even more impressive than the one who went through the manager's. As soon as he started his internship, while the rest of us were scrambling with all sorts of things, a bunch of old employees were lining up to personally teach him."

"Do you think my impression isn't lasting?" Tao Yumian stared at Tang Ping.

Tang Ping immediately touched his nose awkwardly: "Ah, hahaha, so we were colleagues before! No wonder I felt so familiar when I first saw you."

He felt a little guilty because he genuinely had no impression of Tao Yumian at all. During the two-month internship, he was busy learning various job tasks. With over fifty interns at the company, how could he possibly remember everyone?

Even the name Tao Yumian was only known to him after learning about Empress Taoyao in the future. He never expected that he had actually interned with her back then.

He successfully got the job, while she went to make milk tea. He didn't know why, but he felt a hint of resentment in her tone.

"Hahahaha, what a coincidence! Hello, let's reintroduce ourselves."

"My name is Tang Ping. Tang as in Great Tang, Ping as in peace."

"My name is Tao Yumian. Tao as in Tao Ran, Yu as in listening to rain, Mian as in spring sleep."

Under the starry night, on a patch of green grass.

Tao Yumian was filling dirt on a small mound: "I told you not to establish a Survivor Base, but you wouldn't listen. Now look what happened."

"Lying in this little mound, you're finally quiet. I always knew you were foolish. You were foolish even when making milk tea. The boss told you to add more ice, but you didn't. He told you to use overnight lemons, but you didn't. As a result, you even lost your milk tea job."

"It was still good back then, at least you only lost your job. Now, you've lost your life."

"People aren't as good as you think, but you wouldn't believe it. You only believed that time reveals a person's heart, that effort brings rewards, and that sincerity begets sincerity... Now, you've gotten a chill to your heart."

"And I have to help you dig a pit and fill it with dirt."

"We were born with nothing. We grew up in an orphanage, no parents when we were young, no friends when we grew up. We weren't smart, and our bodies were always ailing. We struggled to get into a second-tier university in Yunan Province, but as soon as we graduated, college students were a dime a dozen."

"Why are you so stubborn? What's so good about saving others? What do their lives or deaths have to do with us? We awakened good Talents, obtained good Shelters, had good opportunities. Why not just quietly find a place..."

"...and stay there?"

"But you refused."

"Now look, what's all this 'everyone is a dragon' nonsense? No one could stop you, and what was the result?"

"..."

"Sleep. I will look after your base, but I won't manage it. Let it grow however it wants, whether it grows crooked or straight."

"It has nothing to do with me."

"Nor do I have an obligation to take care of them."

"But as long as I am here, not a single Infected will step foot inside."

The small mound was patted firm and round.

A peach branch was stuck in the ground.

"Let's go." Tao Yumian stood up.

"To that place you mentioned."

"North Ridge."

"Okay." Tang Ping nodded.

He had already told Tao Yumian about North Ridge. This time, Tao Yumian did not plant the sacred spirit peach tree, but only inserted a peach branch.

However, the boy Tang Ping brought seemed to have received a vow of some kind of power, and a simple peach blossom pattern appeared on his brow, making him the new leader of this base.

Under the starry night and moonlight, Tang Ping and Tao Yumian left the Ping'an Survivor Base.

Yu Jiaqi held his younger brother, bidding them farewell.

"Have a safe journey." He whispered, and the infant in his arms seemed to sense the two leaving, quietly staring with wide, round eyes.

Morning

No wind, no sand, no rain.

The weather was fair and beautiful.

"Wait here for a moment. I have some matters to attend to."

"Okay." Tao Yumian nodded.

Tang Ping left. At this time, he had returned to Jiangcheng City, preparing to go to the place where he buried his Shelter to put some items inside.

300 a-rank experience stones.

E-rank healing potion.

D-rank antidote.

Some attribute stones.

cherry bomb.

pupa fluid.

"Next time I come back, perhaps I can get some gu worms and send them over." After reburying the Shelter, Tang Ping returned to Tao Yumian's location a kilometer away.

The two continued towards North Ridge.

North Ridge should not have changed much yet. Before the apocalypse, North Ridge was a mountain range, spanning over two hundred kilometers north to south, with ancient trees reaching the sky and numerous rare wild animals and plants.

After more than a decade of forest closure and cultivation, the ecosystem became even more complex and diverse, with numerous wild animals breeding and thriving there.

And these abundant wild animals laid a solid foundation for North Ridge to become a forbidden zone.

No one knew how many Beast Kings were inside.

There were even Beast Emperors comparable to human peak titled powerhouses... Danhe Town.

This was a small town at the foot of North Ridge. The total population of the town was not large, only forty to fifty thousand, named after the Danhe River, which originated from North Ridge and flowed through its territory.

Upon entering Danhe Town, it was clear that there were far fewer Infected.

It was not like Jiangcheng City or Pingcheng City, where Infected were everywhere.

However, at the foot of North Ridge, although there were no Infected, the North Ridge, which was already emitting mysterious contamination substances, had begun to affect the birds, beasts, insects, fish, flowers, and trees here.

Many venomous insects and fierce beasts posed no less threat to humans than the Infected.

That day, a giant moth landed in this small town at the foot of the mountain.

Tang Ping patted the Great Emperor Moth and put it into his Shelter. His Shelter was now Level Three, and the living room was quite large, barely able to accommodate the Great Emperor Moth.

However, when the Great Emperor Moth leveled up, a Level Three Shelter would no longer be able to hold it.

He would have to upgrade to a level four Shelter. He had already collected the fragments for a level four Shelter, but he currently lacked the blueprint for a level four Shelter, so he couldn't complete the upgrade yet.

The town before them was also in ruins. Many of the tiled roofs had long been swept away by storms, leaving only isolated shells. The streets were filled with muddy sewage. Perhaps because the terrain here was higher, it wasn't like the counties and cities that were completely waterlogged.

The empty town showed no signs of any living people. Occasionally, figures would flash by rapidly, but they were only Infected.

Most of the Infected here also seemed to have disappeared, either entering the depths of North Ridge or heading to more populated counties and cities to hunt for food.

Before even entering the town, just walking on the main road, windows of roadside houses exploded, and a dozen Infected rushed out.

"I'll handle it." Flames surged in Tang Ping's palm, turning into a fiery wave that instantly engulfed the dozen Infected.

In just a few breaths, the Infected, burning with golden-red flames, were reduced to charred skeletons.

"The Infected here seem much stronger." Tang Ping's foot stepped on a skeleton, and he could still hear a crisp cracking sound.

One should know that in other places, these Infected, under his Flame Blaze, even if some skeletal remains were left, would turn into dust with a light step, not merely shatter as they did now.

"It seems this place is indeed as you said." Tao Yumian's eyes shimmered with a strange light.

"It is truly extraordinary."

She was preparing to go deep into North Ridge to plant her sacred spirit peach tree.