Chen Yi and Jiang Tian nodded with bitter faces.

Jiang Tian suddenly had a bright idea and said, “There’s actually something significant happening in the fortress lately.”

San Wu glanced at them, while Ji Lingbai beside her perked up his ears.

“In half a month, the fortress will select some people to explore new territories.”

New territories?

San Wu narrowed her eyes. She remembered that the people in the fortress had the highest mortality rate of all the fortresses. The land was completely sufficient; why would they need to acquire new territories?

“I heard that the fortress is being very generous this time. As long as you’re a candidate, you can get a handful of bean sprouts,” Jiang Tian said excitedly.

But then he realized that San Wu had everything here; she probably wouldn’t care about bean sprouts.

“They’ve cultivated bean sprouts?” San Wu raised an eyebrow. She loved bean sprouts too, but the most crucial thing was that the bean sprouts they produced could be used for carrying weight. 

Hydroponic bean sprouts would die after reaching a certain size, and hydroponics in the fortress were difficult to maintain. In the past, they couldn’t even produce bean sprouts, and it was likely that the taste wouldn’t be good either.

But she could plant them in the soil. When they grew soybeans, they could make tofu, soy milk, tofu skin, and so on.

“I know about this,” San Wu nodded. “If there’s nothing else, you two can leave.”

She needed to set up a chicken coop and find a place to raise ducks.

“Master, let’s go to bed, it’s late!” Kuiku nudged San Wu, saying.

“Alright.” 

There had been things happening constantly these days, and San Wu hadn’t been sleeping well.

Before going to bed, she scattered the remaining seeds on the newly cultivated piece of land and yawned as she lay down. As for the things Jiang Tian and Chen Yi brought, she would sort them out the next day.

Ji Lingbai slept in the room next to hers. He should have rested early, but he didn’t sleep that night.

Until the moon hung high in the sky, casting silver frost all over the ground.

Ji Lingbai came to the window.

The cat’s paw resting on the window turned into a slender hand under the moonlight, with clear joints and clean nails. The fingertips slowly rubbed against the window sill, making a rustling sound.

His black short hair fell to the side as he tilted his head back.

Ji Lingbai stepped on his boots and looked into the distance with a pair of eyes shimmering with coldness.

He bent down and pulled out two slender knives from his boots. As he pressed his fingertips against the thin blades that could cut open a person’s throat, he seemed to smell the fragrance of flesh bursting open.

He smiled pleasantly, his beautiful double eyelids rising along with his silver eyes.

A large and a small, two crescent moons.

With a flap of his wings, he leaped out of the window and flew toward the direction of the Eighteenth Fortress.

At the same time, San Wu, who was still sound asleep next door, heard the sound of breaking wind outside the window and suddenly opened her eyes.

San Wu, hearing the sound of breaking wind, got off the bed and walked to the window to take a look outside.

It was pitch black outside.

She thought for a moment, then walked to the other room, and sure enough, Ji Lingbai was gone.

Ji Lingbai was different from San Yi and the others.

Kui Ku and Luo Bo were both grown by herself, akin to being like a mother to them.

While San Yi was a zombie, most of the time acting on instinct.

Only Ji Lingbai, she didn’t know where he came from, and his intelligence was definitely not lower than that of humans.

He was not under her control.

San Wu stood at the doorway, her expression changing for a moment, then she turned decisively and went downstairs. “San Yi, Xiao San, Kui Ku, Luo Bo, all of you come down. I have something to tell you.”

…

Ji Lingbai stood in mid-air, beneath him were stretches of lights, looking down from above they seemed like a continuous stream of light.

“Eighteenth Fortress,” he sneered softly, “A bunch of trash driven out from other fortresses, gathered together and somehow making a name for themselves.”

Though they were both fortresses, the difference was immense.

For example, the first fortress he stayed in was much more orderly compared to this bunch of losers.

“With such a small number of people, they still want to expand their territory?”

“Handing out bean sprouts like candy,” Ji Lingbai chuckled, “Something’s fishy.”

“Although only half of my strength has recovered… it’s still good enough.” He swung his wings silently and landed in a dark corner of the fortress, where there were no lights.

After putting on a set of guard clothing from the fortress, he wandered through the spacious corridors.

The so-called slum area and the area for those with abilities that San Wu mentioned were easy to distinguish.

The slum area was dead silent at night.

While the area for those with abilities was much livelier.

There were still many people out and about, some exchanging goods, some socializing.

He kept his head low and walked to the center of the fortress, where the residence of the highest authorities was located.

The outside of the building was heavily guarded, but Ji Lingbai glanced at the high-level ability holders guarding the entrance, then slipped in through a small side window on the fifth floor, hidden in the shadows.

After climbing three floors, he caught a very familiar and nauseating smell.

Ji Lingbai’s expression darkened.

Why would there be the smell of a zombie in the central position of the fortress?

And it was the lowest rank, emitting the stench of decaying flesh.

Ji Lingbai transformed into an inconspicuous form, sticking close to various hidden corners as he made his way towards the source of the smell.

“Be careful! We can’t get even a bit of this stuff on us!”

“I know, I’m even more careful than you! But how long do we have to endure this? It’s disgusting!”

“You nearly got me caught just now! Damn it! I almost got caught just now!”

A low-ranking zombie was chained to an experimental table, while two fully armed men were cutting flesh from its body with knives.

Thick black blood stained the table, and Ji Lingbai looked on disdainfully as the two men filled a jar with the harvested meat and walked into another room nearby.

Inside the room were many hydroponic bean sprouts.

Shallow water in each pot bubbled with yellow beans soaking in it.

Ji Lingbai glanced over.

Vegetable seeds were non-renewable resources, and these people seemed to have plenty in stock.

But they were pouring the blood and flesh contaminated with zombie toxins into those nutrient solutions. The next moment, the previously motionless yellow beans began to grow rapidly.

Thick, finger-like sprouts rose aggressively upwards, with red veins running through their pale yellow surfaces, resembling muscles exerting force.

“These things don’t look very appetizing. Will those people really eat them?” One of the guards said, yawning.

Another person laughed, saying, “Of course they will. Strange-looking plants grown in labs, so what? They won’t suspect a thing.”

“But it would be better if these were edible bean sprouts. What a pity.”

“What a pity? It’s good enough that those trash will taste some ‘vegetables’ before they die.”

As they spoke, the two of them, wearing gloves, began to pick off all the bean sprouts.

“Beep!”

The sound of a card swiping came from outside.

“The Young Master is coming.” The two immediately stood at attention.

Young Master?

He had heard that the lord of the fortress had a son named Wang Haosheng, who was cunning and cautious.