Jian Ning packed away the sword feathers and put them in her backpack. The people collecting supplies had also come out of the warehouse. "Boss, most of the wine jars are empty!
Only three have wine, and they aren't even full!" said a man of medium build. It was truly difficult to maintain such a physique in the Apocalypse.
Hearing Ā Jīn's words, everyone's eyes turned slowly towards Jian Ning. Under everyone's gaze, Jian Ning remained composed, packed her bag, and walked straight to the main entrance. Xiāo Qíng frowned.
"Boss, you're just going to let her go like that?" Qín Xiūzhé asked, "What, do you want her to join us? Or do you want to be the captain?"
His voice was clear and resonant but carried a chilling edge. Qín Xiūzhé knew what Xiāo Qíng meant, but for some reason, he just didn't want to hurt her. Xiāo Qíng, being rebuffed, paled and glared resentfully at Jian Ning.
Seeing their boss angry, the others remained silent, merely "watching" Jian Ning's graceful, departing figure. Though Jian Ning appeared calm on the surface, she was panicking inside! She quickly drove away.
Her original plan was to visit those factories, but it seemed Qín Xiūzhé and his group were heading the same way. Even if Qín Xiūzhé and the others suspected her Space was large, China was such a big country. Would they really meet again?
At this moment, Jian Ning wouldn't have thought that her words today would come true! It seemed her plan needed to change. Jian Ning decided to return to her new home first and try to avoid them.
The journey was uneventful. Jian Ning reached the entrance of the residential complex. The main gate was locked, and a few zombies could be seen wandering inside.
Jian Ning parked her car in a secluded spot and put it into her Space. She went to the small door of Building B6 and climbed inside. The nearby zombies, smelling her scent, rushed towards her.
Jian Ning held her saber, her expression stern. Since her abilities had upgraded, the current zombies posed no challenge to her. After Jian Ning dealt with the nearby zombies, those further away began to approach.
Jian Ning hurried downstairs; the unit door was locked. Jian Ning wasn't flustered. She took out a hammer from her Space, broke through the window of a First Floor unit, and climbed in.
Inside the First Floor apartment, there was a family of three. The child was a very young girl, about five or six years old, still wearing a puffy skirt. They had all turned into zombies.
Except for the child, whose body had no wounds, her parents had several scratches and bite marks. It seemed that in the early stages of the Apocalypse, children mutated first and then infected their parents. Watching the severed head fall, Jian Ning felt nothing.
Easily dispatching the zombies, Jian Ning checked the usable supplies in the house. The items in the refrigerator were unusable. In the kitchen, there were seasonings, some goji berries, fish maw, peach gum, longan, and other health products.
It was evident the former resident enjoyed a comfortable life. A few potatoes, sweet potatoes, a carton of milk, and other fruits had rotted. Oranges and apples remained.
Finding no more usable items in the kitchen, Jian Ning went to the other rooms. In the bedroom, there was a first-aid kit, some common children's medications, and some pure gold jewelry in the closet. Jian Ning put them all into her Space.
After searching the house twice and confirming there was nothing else to collect, she left the room. There were over a dozen zombies wandering in the hallway. The narrow space of the hallway was advantageous for Jian Ning.
She fought her way up to the 8th floor. There were no more zombies above. Survivors, hearing the commotion, looked out through their peepholes.
The zombies in the hallway had vanished. They guessed someone was outside but didn't venture out to check. She made her way up to the 15th floor and discovered that the protective door she had installed between the 15th and 16th floors had been pried open.
Dark red footprints appeared in front of the door of unit 1602. Her own apartment door also showed signs of being tampered with, but it hadn't been forced open! Jian Ning became angry.
With a slight movement of her Divine Sense, she turned and looked behind her. A boy ran up the stairs. Jian Ning recognized him as Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ from downstairs!
Before Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ could reach Jian Ning, he was stopped by the Tang Saber Jian Ning held up, freezing him two meters away. Jian Ning looked down at Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ with a calm expression. In just over 20 days, Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ seemed like a different person.
His eyes were dead, his complexion sallow, his eye sockets sunken, his lips cracked and dry, his clothes filthy, and he exuded a foul odor mixed with a faint sour stench... Smelling the sour odor, Jian Ning's delicate brows furrowed fiercely. Her eyes fixed on Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ with a meaningful gaze.
Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ felt a pang of guilt under her stare and involuntarily took a step back. However, remembering the purpose of his visit, he began to speak, "Sister, I know who damaged your door. They wanted to search your house for supplies, but they didn't get in."
His voice was hoarse and unpleasant, like an old man on his last legs. Jian Ning thought for a moment, took a bottle of water from her backpack, and tossed it to Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ. She didn't give him any food, figuring he couldn't eat it anyway.
She turned to leave. Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ became anxious. "Sister, don't you want to know who it was?"
"I gave you a bottle of water as a courtesy to a neighbor. Stop with your schemes." With that, Jian Ning opened her door.
Before entering, she glanced back at 1602. Her merciless gaze, sharp as a falcon's, shot towards the opposite unit, cold and bloodthirsty. Though her appearance was undeniably beautiful and striking, it was her sharp eyes that people would remember.
Behind the peephole, Hǎo Liàng suddenly recoiled and fell to the floor, clutching his heart as if it would leap out of his chest! Jian Ning withdrew her Mental Power with satisfaction and closed the door. In unit 1602, "Liàngzi, what's wrong?"
Zhōu Wéiwéi asked. "The person from across the hall is back," Hǎo Liàng stood up, calming himself before replying to Zhōu Wéiwéi. Hearing this, Zhōu Wéiwéi became interested.
"Oh, they're back? How many?" "I only saw one, a woman," Hǎo Liàng said, his expression somewhat dazed.
Zhōu Wéiwéi: "A woman? Great! A change of taste.
Hey, did you get a good look at her? Is she pretty? What's her figure like?
Is she as good-looking as Sūn Lìxiá?" Hǎo Liàng looked at Zhōu Wéiwéi as if startled. "Don't get any ideas about the person across the hall.
She's not simple. Don't you remember? She came back over 20 days alone, breaking through hordes of zombies!
She's no easy target!" Zhōu Wéiwéi sneered. "Coward.
We have so many people, and Brother Wang is a fire elemental ability user! Are you afraid of one woman?" Hǎo Liàng stared directly at Zhōu Wéiwéi and said word by word, "No matter how many people we have, they're not as many as the zombies.
Abilities? How do you know if she has any?" Zhōu Wéiwéi shivered under Hǎo Liàng's gaze and muttered, "I can't be bothered with you."
With that, he grabbed a naked woman and pulled her into the room. Moments later, sounds of a woman's pained moaning echoed from within the room... A huddled figure in the corner of the room flinched upon hearing the sounds, a flash of hatred in its eyes...
In the hallway, Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ picked up the bottle of water from the ground and quickly ran back to his room, closing the door tightly. He drank greedily, choking because he drank too fast, and began to cough violently. After a while, Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ held his head and sobbed, like an animal trapped in a cage.
It was all his fault. If he hadn't been so unable to judge people, his grandmother wouldn't have died. He hated his own weakness, the cruelty of those people, and Jian Ning's cold-bloodedness.
He had seen how easily Jian Ning killed zombies downstairs. If she had been willing to help, his grandmother's revenge would have been achieved. When he got the supplies back, he wouldn't have to...
Some people are inherently selfish. Jian Ning ignored the drama downstairs. The solar power in her apartment was operating normally, but Jian Ning hadn't connected too many appliances, only a refrigerator and air conditioner.
A thin layer of dust lay in the room. She tidied up, turned on the air conditioner, and cooled the stuffy room. Jian Ning's floor was very high, so even if the air conditioner's outdoor unit made noise, it wouldn't attract zombies.
She took out a pre-packaged meal from her Space and ate a simple meal. Returning to her Space, she heated some water and washed some cherries and grapes. Jian Ning took a hot bath, ate fruit, and watched TV dramas.
Her constantly tense nerves finally relaxed. Jian Ning thought of Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ downstairs and sighed. She hadn't expected that in just over 20 days, some people had already resorted to cannibalism.
Yes, the smell emanating from Jiǎng Xiǎoyǔ was the sour stench that lingered after eating human flesh. Thinking of the apartment across the hall, Jian Ning sneered inwardly. Six men and one woman, one of whom was an ability user.
It would be easy for Jian Ning to kill them. As for Qín Xiūzhé's group, although they drove a military truck and Qín Xiūzhé himself had an extraordinary bearing, his teammates exuded a strong killing intent, with a hint of rogueishness. They didn't look like soldiers and seemed more like mercenaries...
Thinking too much was useless. It had nothing to do with her, and she doubted they would ever interact again. Jian Ning decided not to dwell on it.
The priority now was to study her abilities. She actually had a bold idea about her powers and needed to find an opportunity to test it.