Alliance Invitation

The young woman swung her blue sword, and a wave of icy power spread from the blade.

The nearby Shadow Weirds were caught in its chill. A layer of eerie blue frost appeared on their pitch-black shadow bodies, and they slowed noticeably.

She slashed with the red sword in her other hand. Hampered by the icy power, a Shadow Weird could barely move and was struck by the blade, which trailed flames.

This time, the Shadow Weird did not split in two as it had the last time it was struck.

Instead, its entire body shattered like a block of ice.

Tiny flames clung to the fragments.

Its body shattered and burned by the flames, the Shadow Weird was completely killed.

After it died, a twisted, translucent remnant soul the size of a palm dropped where it had stood.

A tormented human face appeared on the remnant soul from time to time.

What was this...?

Curious, the young woman stepped forward and prodded the remnant soul with her sword.

She had no idea what it was for, but it looked unusual. What if it was something good?

She casually took out a black garbage bag and flicked the thing into it with her sword, putting it away.

Elsewhere, the Shadow Weird Chen Fan had killed had dropped the same thing.

To Chen Fan's surprise, Shadow Weirds were a peculiar kind of weird. Once killed, they disappeared completely, and unlike monsters, their souls could not be collected in the Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

Fortunately, they still dropped something. Otherwise, Chen Fan would have felt rather shortchanged.

After killing the Shadow Weirds over there, the many yin souls returned to the Ten Thousand Souls Banner like a surging tide.

Lao Mo's yin soul did not forget to bring over the remnant soul dropped by a Shadow Weird and present it to Chen Fan.

Chen Fan did not take it. He summoned the artifact refining furnace and refined the remnant soul directly.

[Refined the Shadow Weird drop "Nightmare Remnant Soul." Obtained 100 origin artifact materials]

Nightmare Remnant Soul?

It seemed to be a rather special material.

Chen Fan somewhat regretted refining it right away.

Perhaps the next time he encountered one, he could try refining it into a magical artifact.

The bespectacled man beside him saw Chen Fan produce a black banner and then a small furnace. Seeing how mysterious his methods were, he could not help taking several searching looks at him.

After putting the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and the artifact refining furnace back inside his body, Chen Fan rested his right hand on the Spirit Refining Sword hanging at his waist.

He looked at the bespectacled man and asked, "The danger has passed. Is your convoy going to continue on its way, or rest here?"

The bespectacled man said, "By our judgment, now that we've dealt with this danger, we can stay here safely until nine tomorrow morning. So we're planning to rest here. What about you? Why don't you join us? It's still dark, and it won't be easy for you to travel."

Chen Fan thought for a moment and said, "All right. We worked together fairly well tonight, so let's continue teaming up for a while."

The bespectacled man nodded and led his people off to reorganize the convoy, which had been thrown into disarray by the weirds' attack.

The dead, the wrecked vehicles, and the supplies left behind all needed to be dealt with.

Things were simpler on Chen Fan's side. There were only a few of them, and they did not need much in the way of arrangements.

After confirming with Qian Lei that they could safely "stop taking orders" in this area, Chen Fan and the others climbed into the truck's cargo compartment to rest.

They left Li Yuanyuan outside to keep watch.

As it happened, she had already been scheduled for the last shift.

She had not needed to fight in the battle just now, either.

So it was just right.

Before going to sleep, Chen Fan left a giant insect yin soul nearby, concealed from sight.

That way, he could wake up immediately if anything unusual happened.

Yin souls were formless by nature. They could manifest to attack, or disappear from sight.

Unless someone possessed a special perception ability, they could not see a concealed yin soul.

Compared with first-rank yin souls like Lao Mo and Old Zhao, the giant insect yin soul was weaker and consumed less power to use.

That was why Chen Fan could leave it outside for a long time to provide warning.

After all, this counted as continuously using supernatural power.

If it were yin souls like Lao Mo and Old Zhao, he would have had difficulty keeping it up for so long.

Even with the giant insect yin soul, dawn was not far off, so he did not need to maintain it for long.

If he had to keep it up all night, Chen Fan was not sure whether he could handle it.

He slept soundly. By the time Chen Fan woke again, it was already broad daylight outside.

It was almost time for the convoy to set off again. Over in the other convoy, people were already up, cooking, packing, and preparing to leave.

Sun Hong and Yan Kuan were also preparing breakfast outside the cargo compartment.

Chen Fan stepped out and stretched.

"Captain, you're up? Breakfast will be ready soon."

Yan Kuan cooked silently.

Sun Hong, on the other hand, immediately rushed over to Chen Fan with a beaming smile.

Just then, a figure approached Chen Fan and the others.

Chen Fan noticed the movement and looked over.

It was someone past fifty.

The man's hair was graying, but neatly groomed.

Though his clothes were old, they were clean and tidy.

That was already a rare sight in the apocalypse.

"Sir, our captain instructed me to invite you and your friends over for a simple meal if I saw that you were awake. Would you do us the honor...?"

The old man was very polite, even somewhat elegant.

Chen Fan had not expected someone to invite him to a meal so early in the morning.

After a moment's thought, he nodded and said to the old man, "All right. You can head back first. I'll come over shortly."

After the old man left, Chen Fan looked at Yan Kuan and Sun Hong.

"You two eat breakfast. Li Yuanyuan, Qian Lei, and I will head over there in a bit."

Sun Hong was delighted and hurriedly nodded.

With the supernatural beings absent, the whole pot of food would be theirs.

They could eat their fill.

"All right."

Yan Kuan also voiced his agreement.

Li Yuanyuan had gone to wash up, while Qian Lei had gone to take a dump.

When they returned, Chen Fan briefly told them that someone from the neighboring convoy had invited them to a meal.

If someone was inviting them to eat, it was bound to be good food.

Both happily agreed.

The three of them then headed over to the neighboring convoy.

The man past fifty led the way for them.

Carrying the Spirit Refining Sword, Chen Fan walked through the other convoy.

That morning, the survivors were all busy with their own tasks.

Some were packing up tents, some were washing up, and others were making breakfast.

Chen Fan noticed that these survivors all seemed to be in good spirits, and their supplies were fairly plentiful too.

That showed that the convoy did not impose an excessively harsh management policy on its survivors.

Three months into the apocalypse, there were even slave convoys. It was already rare to encounter a convoy like this now.

As Chen Fan and the others passed, the survivors watched them too.

The survivors clearly all knew the old man. Since he was leading them, and Chen Fan carried a sword and looked completely different from the impoverished, numbed survivors, it was easy to guess that they were supernatural beings.

So most of them only glanced over and did not dare look any longer.

Three months into the apocalypse, a very clear difference in status had already formed between survivors and supernatural beings.

Apart from a few people who were still living in a dream and could not grasp the situation, most survivors did not dare provoke supernatural beings.

The vehicles belonging to the other convoy's supernatural leaders were parked in the middle of the convoy.

Their vehicles were grouped together, with a large camping tent set up in the middle.

The old man entered the tent first.

All four of the convoy's supernatural beings were inside.

"Captain, they're here."

The bespectacled man smiled and said, "Let them in, Uncle Chen. Thanks for your trouble."

Zhou Yuanchen nodded and walked out of the tent. After bringing Chen Fan and the others inside, he withdrew.

Carrying his sword, Chen Fan strolled leisurely into the tent with a smile on his lips.

A folding camping table had been set up inside.

A lavish spread of food was laid out on it.

Stir-fried potatoes and cured pork, pork ribs stewed with dried green beans, steamed sausage, ham slices with dried chilies...

But when Chen Fan looked closely, he realized that most of it was probably packaged frozen food or premade meal kits.

That was to be expected. After so long in the apocalypse, where would they find fresh vegetables?

"What a spread!"

Chen Fan said with a smile.

The bespectacled man smiled back. "Welcome, everyone. Please, have a seat."

Beside the camping table sat, from left to right, the bespectacled man, the panda man, the woman carrying swords, and the hooded woman.

Chen Fan exchanged a few pleasantries with them, then the two groups took their seats.

The bespectacled man poured tea for Chen Fan and his companions.

They had also prepared liquor, but Chen Fan thought it felt strange to drink so early in the morning, so he declined.

Li Yuanyuan and Qian Lei politely declined as well.

Chen Fan asked, "I wonder what you invited us over for so early in the morning. Why don't you speak frankly?"

Until they made it clear, he did not even know whether he could eat this meal.

The bespectacled man said, "In that case, I'll be frank. We worked together last night, and it felt like we had a pretty good understanding. Would you consider an alliance between our two convoys? I'm sure it would be a union of two strong forces."