Proactively exposing one's whereabouts, Xiao Wenjing's growth

The failure of the upper echelons of the Wu Kingdom led to the downfall of the entire Qingzhou, with no one among its millions of people spared.

With Qingzhou's fall, Tongzhou, Wuzhou, and Quanzhou also suffered from the zombie crisis.

To halt this disaster and uncover the reasons behind the outbreak of the zombie crisis, the Wu Kingdom made the sacrifice of abandoning fifteen cities. With lightning speed, they constructed formidable walls, completely isolating these fifteen cities from the outside world.

The entire nation's forces were deployed outside these walls, serving as the final line of defense against this catastrophe.

The determination of the Wu Kingdom's upper echelons to stop the disaster was evident to all citizens.

Under such circumstances, would the Wu Kingdom's border defenses be weakened?

No, they would not!

While the Wu Kingdom's intention to halt the disaster was genuine, so was their desire to leverage the zombies for research purposes.

However, safeguarding the homeland was also of paramount importance.

Would the Wu Kingdom's upper echelons weaken their border defenses to prevent the disaster, thereby providing an opportunity for the predatory Bai Kingdom and other nations?

The Wu Kingdom's true strength was far from as weak as it appeared on the surface.

Under the banner of maintaining world peace, the five nations of the Bai Kingdom amassed their armies on the border.

Such an action would only pressure the Wu Kingdom but would not lead to an outbreak of war in the short term.

Without the outbreak of war, the forces stationed outside the moat would not be withdrawn for support.

This situation offered no assistance to Lin Chuan's predicament.

Or, to put it another way, the movements of various nations had no direct connection to Lin Chuan.

Without knowing the specific intentions of the Bai Kingdom, it would be exceedingly difficult for Lin Chuan to leverage their movements and the pressure of the five armies of the Bai Kingdom to create favorable conditions for himself.

At present, Lin Chuan could only wait.

He waited for the actions of the various nations and for them to reveal their true colors.

Waiting for an opportunity might be a lengthy process.

This time could be utilized to further enhance his strength and prepare adequately for the moment when he would have to breach the moat.

Having grasped the core essence, Lin Chuan gently massaged his temples and, through information sharing, examined the situation of the zombie horde.

After a night of frenzied infection,

The total number of zombies in the horde soared from hundreds of thousands in Qingzhou to an astonishing three million.

Such a colossal number was equivalent to the combined population of two Qingzhous.

Yet, when compared to the total population of the fifteen cities, this number seemed insignificant.

Each of the fifteen cities housed at least a million inhabitants.

Cities like Tanzhou, Fengzhou, and Liuliuzhou boasted populations exceeding three million.

Even medium-sized and small cities like Wuzhou, Huanzhou, and Tanzhou had nearly two million residents.

Currently, the activities of the zombie horde were confined to the thirteen cities.

On average, each city had fewer than four hundred thousand zombies.

However, in reality, Tongzhou, Wuzhou, and Quanzhou alone accounted for more than one and a half million zombies.

Heishizhou had only tens of thousands of zombies.

Among the three million zombies, the vast majority were ordinary ones.

There were fewer than five hundred first-tier zombies.

Less than one hundred second-tier zombies.

Apart from Xiao Wenjing, no new third-tier zombies had emerged.

Unconscious and unintelligent zombies, compared to humans who were solely focused on hiding, were akin to fools.

It was difficult for them to locate the hiding places of survivors.

If this trend continued, by the time Xiao Wenjing evolved to the fourth tier, a second third-tier zombie might not even emerge.

At present, a solution must be found to this temporary dilemma and more third-tier zombies must be cultivated as soon as possible.

Each city should have at least one leader.

Then would be the time to strike at the three cities of Liuliuzhou.

Yet, apart from Tongzhou, Wuzhou, and Quanzhou, the zombies in the remaining ten cities were not entirely inactive.

Under Lin Chuan's previous instructions, they had surrounded hundreds and thousands of survivors at fixed locations, awaiting Lin Chuan's arrival to reap the harvest.

Seeing this, Lin Chuan stood up and strode out of the building.

Without concealing his whereabouts, he drove a car and left Huanzhou directly.

Xiao Wenjing was brought into the open, and the upper echelons of the Wu Kingdom could certainly lock in Lin Chuan's whereabouts through Xiao Wenjing's movements.

Rather than waiting to be tracked down by the Wu Kingdom's upper echelons, it was better to proactively expose their whereabouts.

Not only to better conceal their whereabouts later, but also to observe how the Wu Kingdom would react after gaining knowledge of their movements.

...

Meanwhile,

After leaving the building, Xiao Wenjing, who had been respectful and quiet in front of Lin Chuan, revealed a fierce and grotesque demeanor.

She sniffed the scent of living people in the clean air and launched a swift operation.

With the bone sword she had conjured, she sliced through the hiding places of survivors.

She gazed upon the living, savoring the pungent aroma as she sucked and drank.

She forcibly suppressed her desire to devour them and instead initiated a frenzied infection.

Then, using the powers granted to her by Lin Chuan, she clumsily controlled the infected zombies, continuing to spread the infection wantonly throughout the city.

In just one hour, the number of zombies in Huanzhou reached more than ten thousand.

The screams and howls of these ten thousand zombies sent shivers down the spines of the more than 1.5 million people within Huanzhou.

And with the infection of ten thousand zombies, their numbers continued to multiply.

Seeing this, Xiao Wenjing no longer suppressed the instinctive desires of her body.

With her bone sword, she easily harvested lives, devouring them ravenously and greedily.

By noon, Xiao Wenjing had consumed an unknown number of people and finally felt satisfied.

Looking at her blood-stained body and torn clothes, she recalled Lin Chuan's admonition to "mind her image."

Xiao Wenjing walked straight into the bathroom, stripped off her ragged clothes, and rinsed off her bloodstained body.

Then, in the bedroom closet, she found a snow-white dress and put it on.

But this was the first time Xiao Wenjing had worn clothes since gaining consciousness.

After studying for half a day, she finally managed to put on the dress, albeit awkwardly and unflatteringly.

However, Xiao Wenjing didn't mind.

Wearing her askew dress and bare feet, she walked to the desk and picked up a book to read.

As she opened the book, Xiao Wenjing realized that she couldn't read and couldn't understand human books.

How could she learn from human books without knowing how to read?

What should she do?

For a moment, Xiao Wenjing looked at the book in her hands, feeling somewhat at a loss, and her eyebrows furrowed.

"Now that you're a zombie with self-awareness, you should learn to use your brain in everything you do," Xiao Wenjing recalled Lin Chuan's previous lecture and began to think.

Soon, she had a plan.

She needed to find a human to teach her how to read.

With a clear goal in mind, Xiao Wenjing decisively dropped the book, stepped out of the building barefoot.

...

Elsewhere,

Wudu.

The conference room.

"Ah!"

Upon learning that the disaster in the Wu Kingdom had spread, causing numerous upheavals, and that the Bai Kingdom, under the pretext of maintaining world peace, had allied with several countries and sent their armies to the border, Wu Boxue was not overly surprised but merely sighed softly.

When the disaster failed to be contained promptly and instead spread, forcing the blockade of fifteen cities to safeguard national tranquility, Wu Boxue had anticipated this scenario.

He just didn't expect it to come so soon.

The talk of maintaining world peace was merely a guise for a pack of wolves to take advantage of the situation and encroach upon the territory of the Wu Kingdom.

"Sun Rong, prepare to receive the envoys," Wu Boxue instructed the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

"Yes, Your Excellency," Sun Rong stood up and quickly left the room.