Chapter Ninety-Seven: Lingbo Leaves Yanbei

Those people could see that Qin Hao had no intention of handing out any other weapons, and staying here really was dangerous. Even a tiny wound, if it came into contact with the zombie virus, would turn a person into a zombie.

By then, this “hero” would no longer save them. He would kill them instead.

With that thought, and despite their unwillingness, they all fled.

Living alone was dangerous, but it was still better than starving. Just as Jiang Yuhang had said, even stripping bark from trees could keep a person alive.

The blaze obscured Wu Qiong’s view, but the people inside the building could clearly see everything that was happening. The evolvers inside hurriedly stopped the ordinary people from jumping down any farther, even resorting to force and knocking several of them to the ground.

Compared with evolvers, ordinary people were on an entirely different level. They could only be suppressed like prisoners.

With fire raging in Qin Hao’s hands, the Voodoo Demon also sensed the presence behind it. And because Qin Hao carried the Flame Demon Curse, the Voodoo Demon’s venomous eyes locked onto him, and the zombie horde went mad, surging toward Qin Hao’s position.

Unfortunately, every one of those zombies was consumed by the flames. Even if a few broke through the fire and opened their sharp claws to kill Qin Hao, he would simply kick them away, their bodies smashed into pulp.

In the blink of an eye, the dreadful inferno had encircled the zombies. It burned for a full half hour, and only then, together with the Voodoo Demon, did the tide of corpses finally come to a halt.

This small-scale zombie tide had also been a mission, and Qin Hao once again earned a batch of hero points.

In truth, as long as one had strength, things like hero points would always come. There would certainly be no shortage of star energy crystals either.

Qin Hao gathered the star energy crystals on the ground and placed them into his space ring.

At that moment, Wu Qiong, the base commander of the Yanbei Villa District, who had been standing on the rooftop launching attacks all this time, also came out.

Seeing scorched marks all around, he could still feel the searing heat lingering in the air even after the flames had died out.

Wu Qiong’s eyes were full of caution.

“May I ask how I should address this hero? We are truly grateful for your help this time.”

“Qin Hao.”

Wu Qiong silently repeated the name, but he had never heard it before, nor did he recall any Qin family with such powerful backing in the capital. So he said cautiously, “So you are Mr. Qin. My name is Wu Qiong. I’m the son of Wu Zhenbang of Guangtong. This base was built by the Wu family.”

Guangtong. Wu Zhenbang.

That was the country’s largest mobile phone brand, backed by the state and hugely influential. Unless one lived deep in the mountains, everyone would know the name Guangtong.

What Qin Hao remembered most clearly, however, was not that.

It was that Wu Qiong was the very man who had plotted the murder of Tan Xiaowei.

Ling Bo had once been here in the Yanbei base as well.

“So you’re the young master Wu. A pleasure to meet you.”

Qin Hao extended his hand and gave the other man a brief, perfunctory shake.

“You’re too polite, too polite. Brother Qin, are you from the capital? Which base are you with?”

“I’m not from the capital. I came this time to find someone. Ling Bo. I don’t know if you know him.”

Wu Qiong’s face immediately darkened, but a trace of malice quickly appeared in his eyes as well.

“So you’re here for Ling Bo too? Then you must have heard that Ling Bo has a batch of medicines in his hands that can grant immunity to the zombie virus. He was originally in the Yanbei base, and I wanted him to hand over the medicine for free to save humanity. That is what a hero should do. But he insisted on charging us, and then he ran off on his own. We had originally intended to look for him, but as you can see, our base was besieged by the Voodoo Demon. I even suspect this was all part of Ling Bo’s scheme. He’s the type who’s best at this sort of thing. Those geniuses really are different from the rest of us ordinary people.”

After hearing this, Qin Hao thought to himself that Wu Qiong was not an idiot after all. At the very least, he had some skill in sowing discord.

Unfortunately for him, Qin Hao already knew what would happen in the future. Ling Bo leaving the Yanbei base so soon was somewhat unexpected, but it also meant that what Qin Hao had said earlier had had an effect and altered Ling Bo’s actions.

Thinking of this, Qin Hao went along with it and said, “I heard the news too, so I came to buy the medicine. Do you know where Ling Bo is now?”

What Wu Qiong feared most was that Qin Hao had not come to buy the medicine at all.

“I’ve already sent people to investigate. If Ling Bo wants to sell the medicine, he’ll definitely put out word. Brother, do you have a base too? In that case, why not let Ling Bo contribute the medicine? At the very least, we need to know the formula. Otherwise, if he’s the only one making it, the process will always be too slow. We have to think about humanity’s survival.”

Wu Qiong spoke with such righteous fervor that Qin Hao did not feel moved in the least. Instead, he wanted to laugh.

He made it sound so lofty and noble, but in the end wasn’t it just to snatch the medicine?

“You make a fair point. I still have some matters to attend to, so I’ll go handle those first. In two hours, I’ll come back. By then, if you’ve found Ling Bo’s whereabouts, we can go together.”

“All right. But Brother, I’ve helped you look into this. Even if I have no credit, I’ve still put in some effort. There are so many brothers here, and we all took part in killing those zombies just now. Could you spare some of the star energy crystals for us? I’d also have something to explain to the others.”

Wu Qiong figured that someone like Qin Hao, an evolver, might not care much about star energy crystals. If Qin Hao were generous and loosened his hand, giving them half, then this trip would be a tremendous profit.

Unfortunately, Wu Qiong was dreaming too well.

Qin Hao took out a small handful of star energy crystals and handed them to Wu Qiong.

“When I arrived just now, there were 4,239 zombies. I killed 3,621 of them myself. The remaining 618 are yours. Take these.”

With a sweep of his mind, the count was exact, not one more and not one less.

Wu Qiong’s expression stiffened.

What could more than six hundred star energy crystals amount to? With a little effort, they could have killed all those zombies themselves.

And if more star energy crystals ended up credited to them later, wouldn’t that mean Qin Hao had cut them off at the pass?

For a moment, Wu Qiong could barely keep his face composed.

But Qin Hao paid no attention to what he was thinking. After giving him the crystals, he turned and left.

He had come to the capital not only to find Ling Bo, but also to hunt the Voodoo Demons.

There were only nine Voodoo Demons left in the capital now. Qin Hao pursued them all the way, and after wiping them out, all that remained were the wandering zombies. These too were ordinary people transformed by infection, and their strength was roughly on par with that of Fangtooth Demons.

Two hours later, Qin Hao returned to the Yanbei base.

When Wu Qiong saw him come back, he forced out a smile. He would still be counting on Qin Hao to deal with Ling Bo later.

“Brother Qin, we’ve found Ling Bo. Let’s go take a look together!”

Wu Qiong led more than thirty evolvers with him. Every one of them carried a gun. That did not look like a party going to reason with someone; it looked more like a band going to rob a house.

Yet Qin Hao had also underestimated how complicated the power structure in the capital was.

By the time Wu Qiong arrived, several hundred people had already gathered at the location, and every one of them looked aggressive.

These were the elite forces of the major bases.

But Ling Bo was only one man.

No, that was not quite right. Beside Ling Bo, there was another person with him: Tan Xiaowei.