The Realization of Being Wanted

The Realization of Being Wanted

A group of people had vividly described their appearances, and the rumors grew more and more outrageous.

The news had come from White Dragon Base.

After people connected to the base verified it with Gu Mingshi, wanted notices were issued far and wide.

Jiang You, Lord Yan Chi, Zhang Shuhui, and Da Zhuang had practically become household names as major wanted criminals.

The wanted notices even depicted the appearances of the three people and one cat in great detail.

The rotting corpses created by Lord Yan Chi were, in a certain sense, a new type of warrior.

After all, no base could refuse an existence capable of continuously producing Berserkers.

As long as they mastered the method of control, these rotting corpses would not fear death or pain. They had no fear and knew only frenzied slaughter. They were practically the best weapons of war!

The rewards offered by the various bases were more tempting than the last.

Before the apocalypse, unless someone had blown up an entire country, they would never have been hunted so aggressively.

The people of White Dragon Base had suffered enough, but the other bases had not!

Even though the White Dragon survivors had described An City as a living hell capable of frightening children into silence at night,

these people did not believe them. They thought the people of White Dragon Base were simply too weak and were making excuses for themselves.

Especially after learning that these people were hiding in An City.

Quite a few self-proclaimed powerful ability users rushed to An City from all directions, eager to claim this enormous fortune.

One snowstorm after another dragged the temperature down another notch.

Not a single one of the ability users who poured into An City survived.

They either joined the army of rotting corpses or became food for them.

Throughout the winter that lasted half a year, as wave after wave of ability users vanished in An City, An City's terrifying reputation spread throughout the various bases.

Thus, no matter how tempting the wanted notices were, no one dared set foot in An City's territory anymore.

An City became a place that truly made people turn pale at its mention.

Ability users everywhere even marked it as a zombie exclusion zone.

When Jiang You looked at the wanted notices that ability users had brought into An City one after another, she laughed until tears came to her eyes.

"Madmen, hahaha, a bunch of madmen!!"

"That madman Gu Mingshi couldn't get them for himself, so he publicized the news instead. Hahahaha!!"

After Jiang You had laughed enough, she curled up on the sofa, eating roasted corn while looking over the wanted notices.

Lord Yan Chi spat out disdainfully, "Blue City Base's wanted notice is so ugly. The color scheme is terrible!"

Zhang Shuhui also leaned over to give her opinion.

"Boulder City is simply ridiculous. Our Cult Master is only worth a thousand crystals? Are they trying to fob off a beggar? So stingy~"

"Huh? Qiushan Base's wanted notice looks the best. They even retouched the portraits!"

"Black Lion Fortress's wanted notice is just there to make up the numbers, isn't it? What, were they afraid of looking out of place if they didn't issue one too?

"They even used a black-and-white picture. Anyone who didn't know better would think they were making offerings to their ancestors."

"..."

The group showed no awareness whatsoever that they were wanted criminals and continued to hole up in An City.

An City, the woods.

The snow piled up outside the house had begun to melt. Under the eaves of the treehouse, icicles dripped and trickled with snowmelt.

Gu Ling remained stubbornly camped out in the man-eating tree's cage.

She curled up inside it every night to sleep, without fail.

She had slept in a black box since she was little, so she could not fall asleep in a space that was too large.

Thus, the man-eating tree had reinforced and compacted its tree cage so that she could live in it permanently.

In fact, it was quite happy to have someone accompanying it in the tree.

Now, there were two little companions in the man-eating tree: Mei Qiu and Gu Ling.

No, that was not right. She could no longer be called Gu Ling.

Jiang You had said she would give her a new name and let her think of one herself.

She stared at the silver plaques jingling throughout the tree. After pondering for a while, she spoke two words under Zhang Shuhui's expectant gaze.

"Silver."

The glimmer of hope in Zhang Shuhui's eyes collapsed with a crash.

She fell straight to the ground as though she had just heard some terrible news.

It took her a long time to recover.

Through studying day and night that winter, Lord Yan Chi gradually grew.

He was no longer the "elementary school student" still struggling through Three Hundred Tang Poems. He matured day by day, like fruit hanging from a branch, slowly revealing the light and shadows of time from within.

Of course, he still sounded like an idiot from time to time.

He was completely different from the murderous, crazed figure in Jiang You's memories of his previous life.

If the Lord Yan Chi of his previous life had been a bloodthirsty beast that could go mad at any moment,

then in this life, he merely went mad intermittently. Most of the time, he was perfectly normal.

The degree of his madness usually depended on the enemy's attack power.

The stronger the opponent, the crazier he became.

But overall, Zhang Shuhui had completely escaped the responsibility of teaching him.

That was something worth celebrating.

The ice and snow melted, and the temperature gradually rose.

Bright green blades of grass began poking through the ground as the snow vanished, and the trees in the woods began sprouting new buds.

The man-eating tree kept scratching at a certain spot with its branches, always feeling as though it was about to grow a brain.

Jiang You increased the amount of crystals she fed it, and also increased its daily supply of fresh blood.

Every day, she sat in the courtyard, enjoying the warm sunlight while keeping a close eye on the man-eating tree's condition.

Recently, she had been spending more and more time on the man-eating tree.

Zhang Shuhui always felt that she seemed to be doing something.

But she did not tell anyone else.

She wanted to find Lord Yan Chi, but then she thought better of it. Lord Yan Chi was no longer as cute as he used to be.

A Lord Yan Chi who was not an idiot was like snail rice noodles without snails; he had lost the part of his soul she liked.

So she settled for second best and reluctantly stuck with Silver.

She pulled Silver behind the doorframe to spy on them.

"Silver, you're in the tree every day. Have you noticed anything strange about the man-eating tree?

"The Lord has been watching it every day lately. She also feeds it baskets of crystals every day and gives it blood.

"But this man-eating tree is completely useless right now. Given the Lord's personality, she wouldn't raise something useless!

"I can't figure it out. I really can't figure out what use this tree has?!

"The Cult Master has never paid this much attention to me, hm~

╭(╯^╰)╮"

Silver squatted on the ground expressionlessly and woodenly spat out a few words.

"It drops more leaves."

"Huh?"

Zhang Shuhui froze for a moment before realizing that Silver was answering her first question.

"What's strange about dropping leaves? If a tree doesn't drop leaves, is it supposed to drop fruit instead?"

"No, I can't think anymore!

"I really want to ask, but the Cult Master hasn't said anything. It definitely wouldn't be appropriate for me to ask. I can't be a housekeeper with no tact.

"Ahhh, why can't my brain be a little smarter?!"

Zhang Shuhui irritably scratched at her scalp nonstop, sending dandruff cascading down.

It all landed on Silver's head.

But her hair was white, so it could not be seen.

Silver did not care in the slightest about the "heavy snowfall" on her head. Her eyes were fixed on a purple beetle crawling past in front of her. After hesitating for one second, she reached out directly.

With lightning speed, she grabbed it and stuffed it into her mouth.

"Crunch~ crunch~"

"What are you eating?"

"You're grabbing random things to eat again! Spit it out right now!!"