The next day, Shen Feng reluctantly crawled out of his warm bed, feeling an unusual pull from the covers. However, duty called, and he had to guard the city walls. With a sigh, he left the tent, tucking a comic book into his embrace, and stepped outside. All he could see was a vast expanse of white.
A spark of inspiration struck Shen Feng, and he casually remarked, "A vast white land, so clean and pure."
Chu Zhaoyan appeared, looking at Shen Feng and asking, "That line isn't meant to describe snow; you've used it incorrectly. Speaking of which, do you know where it's from?"
"No, I just thought it fit the scene and used it," Shen Feng replied honestly.
Chu Zhaoyan sighed and said, "Never mind. You're not a professional, so I won't pick on you. It's from *Dream of the Red Chamber*. As for me, I'd say something like this: 'Red beauty enhances the snow's charm, her prime longer than life itself.' This snow can serve as a backdrop, but it will eventually melt."
As she spoke, Chu Zhaoyan took out her phone and began taking selfies, completely unashamed, truly seeing herself as a beauty gracing the snow. She also pulled out her notebook to record her experiences. Chu Zhaoyan's notebook had already reached its second volume, and she estimated she'd finish it soon, given the abundance of recent events.
Upon hearing Chu Zhaoyan's poem, Shen Feng looked puzzled. "Who wrote that?" he asked.
"I did. What, do you have a problem with it?" Chu Zhaoyan replied, clearly displeased. Did Shen Feng have an issue with her poetry?
Shen Feng scratched his head, embarrassed. "I think it sounds nice. I was wondering what the whole poem means. Could you recite it for me?"
"Hmph, maybe later. It's no use to you anyway," Chu Zhaoyan said dismissively. She felt that reciting her poem to someone like Shen Feng would be a waste of breath, as he likely wouldn't understand it. It would be better to save it for a more opportune moment.
Shen Feng shrugged helplessly. He had intended to recite a few lines he remembered about "a thousand miles of ice, ten thousand miles of snow," but it seemed his cultural level wasn't up to Chu Zhaoyan's standards. He might as well go guard the wall and read his comic.
When Shen Feng and his men arrived at the city wall, they found nothing below. All they could see was blinding white. Although the sky was overcast, the snow reflecting off the ground still hurt their eyes.
Not wanting to suffer from snow blindness, Shen Feng quickly put on his sunglasses and began reading his comic. Unfortunately, the comics now appeared in black and white. As long as the content was interesting, Shen Feng didn't mind. He considered it a brief respite from his duties, a bit of slacking during work hours. After all, with no zombies attacking, it was quite peaceful.
As Shen Feng stood on the city wall reading his comic, dozens of helicopters took off from within Yanjing City, heading outwards. This action didn't draw much attention; it was merely routine reconnaissance. Besides, weren't most of the zombies likely frozen to death by now?
Almost no one worried about the zombie situation, as everyone knew that zombies couldn't withstand the extreme cold and would simply freeze to death in the wild. Only zombie kings and mutated zombies might survive. Ordinary zombies had no chance of living. A heavy snowfall could effectively wipe them out.
From the city wall, they could see a world of white, as if the entire world had turned white. However, the pilots in the sky had an even more spectacular view. As far as they could see, mountains, rivers, and lakes were all covered in snow. The trees in the forests, usually bare, now seemed to have grown white branches and leaves after a night of snowfall. Water droplets from melting snow often froze onto the trees.
The pilots surveyed the beautiful scenery as they proceeded to investigate the areas around the city. They had a specific mission: to assess zombie casualties. While satellites could provide aerial views, the heavy snow made it impossible to see the zombies on the ground clearly. Therefore, the task of gathering intelligence fell to the pilots.
The helicopters headed towards the areas where large numbers of zombies had previously gathered, trying to locate them. However, the pilots soon became confused. The number of zombies seemed to have drastically decreased. Many were still visible on the ground, frozen to death in the frigid weather due to the lack of heating facilities and shelter from the wind and snow.
Yet, the number of zombies the helicopters could find was far too few. Only a few million were spotted, a stark contrast to the over one hundred million zombies previously present. The vast majority of the remaining zombies had vanished without a trace, as if they had disappeared overnight.
"Could the heavy snow have buried the zombies? Otherwise, we wouldn't be unable to find them!" one pilot asked, suspecting that the zombies were buried by the snowfall, making them invisible from the air.
This explanation clearly didn't convince the others. The simplest problem was that even if some zombies were buried, with such a large number, even their corpses should be visible. The only explanation was that the zombies were not on the ground!
The helicopters quickly returned to Yanjing City, reporting their findings: it seemed the zombies had vanished overnight.
Upon hearing this, the headquarters remained calm. Most people had been blinded by the joy of the snowfall, believing that it would eliminate the zombies. However, the disappearance of the zombies indicated that they had prepared for the heavy snow long ago!
"Did the satellites not detect any zombie movement last night?" someone at headquarters asked.
"No. When it snowed yesterday, the cloud cover was too thick for the satellites to penetrate and observe the zombies' movements. Furthermore, in the dead of night, with heavy snowfall, we didn't dare send out helicopters to investigate. So, no one knows what happened last night!" the observation personnel replied helplessly.
"Hurry and investigate! We must find out what happened and locate the zombies. Otherwise, the consequences will be dire!" Many high-ranking officials became anxious. If the main zombie force couldn't be found, who knew if the zombies were waiting for an opportunity to attack again?
Marshal He also arrived at the command center. Upon hearing about the disappearance of most of the zombies, he too could no longer remain composed. The simplest fact was that headquarters couldn't afford a prolonged standoff with the zombies, as it would affect the plan to reclaim cities nationwide!
Currently, most of the nation's military forces had been mobilized to deal with the zombie offensive in the north, meaning the central command had substantial troop strength. However, local forces were insufficient. If the battle in Yanjing didn't conclude, the entire country couldn't reclaim cities, and the nationwide plan would be delayed due to the zombie situation!
"Zombies don't disappear without reason. Moreover, in this freezing weather, they couldn't have fled the area in such a short time. Therefore, the zombies must be hiding underground! Immediately send people to investigate the wilderness and find their hiding places!" Marshal He said in a deep voice.
Following the headquarters' command, the Abilities Administration was the first to respond. Zhang Zi stepped forward with excitement, knowing this was her chance to shine. As an ability user who controlled ice and snow, this heavy snowfall was her domain! Moreover, as a woman, she had to hold up half the sky!
Thus, Zhang Zi quickly said, "I'll go investigate. I guarantee I can complete the mission. Besides, with all the snow outside, it's the perfect time for me to showcase my abilities!"
Zhang Zi's request was quickly approved. However, the administration couldn't let Zhang Zi go alone. They selected many personnel suitable for investigation to set out in different directions to search for traces of the zombies. The army also dispatched soldiers with strong combat capabilities, many of whom were evolvers who had used evolutionary potions and could unleash powerful combat strength at critical moments. Currently, everyone at headquarters was worried about the zombie situation. If the zombies were deliberately conserving their strength, wouldn't the fighting continue indefinitely?
As Shen Feng was reading his comic on the city wall, Chu Zhaoyan was also contemplating, "If we hurry back to Yuzhou soon, we can still celebrate the New Year together. I just don't know when we'll be able to leave. This northern region is too cold, and the air is very dry."
Shen Feng leaned against the city wall, ignoring Chu Zhaoyan's complaints. However, he suddenly spotted a somewhat familiar figure and put down his comic, asking in confusion, "Why is Zhang Zi going out of the city? I remember her ability is to control ice. Could it be she's going out to test her strength?"
Chu Zhaoyan also looked in the direction Shen Feng was pointing. Zhang Zi was sitting in a bamboo basket, being lowered from the city wall by soldiers. The moment her feet touched the ground, she shot out like an arrow. The snow on the ground was soft, and ordinary people would sink into it with each step, creating large pits. But now, Zhang Zi began to glide on the snow, as if the snow itself was propelling her forward.
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Zi disappeared from Shen Feng's sight. Her departure didn't attract much attention.
Chu Zhaoyan couldn't help but envy. "This must be the so-called home-field advantage. On the snow, Zhang Zi's abilities are so powerful. Her current speed is comparable to yours."
Shen Feng shrugged. "Perhaps. Who can blame me for being slowed down by ice and snow? I can't glide on the snow. However, I'll probably stay in Yuzhou from now on, and it doesn't snow there often. So, as long as I'm in Yuzhou, my speed will still be the fastest!"
At this moment, Chu Zhaoyan was somewhat distressed. "It's a pity my ability is material-based, controlling chlorine gas. I have no home-field advantage at all!"
Shen Feng thought for a moment and guessed, "I think your home-field advantage should be at sea. Because there's a lot of salt in seawater, you can easily produce chlorine gas. However, Yuzhou is too far from the sea, so you could say you have no home-field advantage."
Chu Zhaoyan looked at Shen Feng with great envy. "Why is your luck so good? How come you have a natural ability, while I only have the mere ability to control chlorine gas? As long as you're in an open area, it's your home-field advantage!"
"Can't help it, I can only say I'm favored by heaven, so heaven takes special care of me!" Shen Feng said with a smile.
After leaving Yanjing, Zhang Zi used her abilities to glide rapidly across the snow. Only shallow tracks were left on the snow she traversed, a feat that could be described as "leaving no trace on the snow," something only masters of internal energy after decades of practice could achieve. Now, Zhang Zi accomplished it with ease.
Zhang Zi's speed on the snow was incredibly fast, surpassing even snowmobiles. She rushed directly into the forests outside the city and saw zombies scattered about, their bodies stiff and unmoving, having been frozen to death.
Zhang Zi slowed down and began to observe her surroundings carefully. There were indeed no living zombies on the ground, but the remaining zombies were nowhere to be seen. Previously, the mountainsides were covered with zombies, but now it was difficult to find large gatherings. The contrast was too stark.
Suddenly, Zhang Zi saw footprints on the snow. The dense footprints led towards a small mountain in the distance. Seeing this, Zhang Zi immediately realized that the numerous and chaotic footprints must have been left by zombies. This meant that the zombies had moved together to a certain location during the snowfall!
Zhang Zi quickly pursued the direction of the footprints. When she arrived at the foot of the small mountain, she saw a large cave at its base. The entrance was exceptionally wide, wide enough for two men of 1.8 meters to pass side-by-side. This was where the footprints converged.
Zhang Zi looked around and was shocked. Not only was there this one large cave at the foot of the mountain, but at intervals in the distance, there was another dark cave entrance. These cave entrances had been dug out from the mountainside, with piles of earth around them. Clearly, these mounds of earth were excavated soil.
Previously, satellites had detected many mounds of earth on the ground, but no one had paid attention to them at the time. They had all assumed it was just the zombie king being cowardly and digging tunnels to hide underground.
"Could it be that for the past month, the zombies have been digging tunnels, preparing for this very day?" Zhang Zi was greatly shocked. She never imagined that the zombies' schemes were so deep, that they had anticipated the snowy day and had started digging tunnels a month in advance!
"Doesn't that mean the war is still ongoing? If the heavy snow can't kill the zombies, then we can only continue fighting until the last zombie is eliminated?" At this moment, Zhang Zi's faith seemed to crumble. After a month of fighting, she thought the snowfall meant victory. But now, it seemed the zombie king was not incompetent. The zombie king had long begun its evolution and offensive against Yanjing, sending cannon fodder zombies to their deaths daily just to lull them into a false sense of security!
Zhang Zi glanced at the cave in front of her, as if she could still hear low growls. She now understood that the remaining zombies were all hiding underground. Even with a proactive attack, the Yanjing side would not be able to easily eliminate all the zombies!
Suddenly, Zhang Zi spotted a box not far away. It was an iron box, entirely green, seemingly made of steel with green paint. The box was placed on a large rock, and to ensure it was noticed, red fabric was placed around it. In the world of white, red was particularly conspicuous.
Zhang Zi slowly approached the box, worried it might be a trap. However, on the snow, she could use her extreme speed to escape quickly. Thus, she couldn't suppress her curiosity to see what was inside the box.
Zhang Zi walked to the edge of the large rock and slowly opened the box. At the bottom, she saw an envelope. Besides that, there was nothing else.
Taking out the envelope, Zhang Zi saw a few lines written on it: "Please deliver to Yanjing Command, Zombie King Ma Jingshuang!"
This letter was actually left by the zombie king. This meant the zombie king had anticipated someone coming to gather information and had deliberately left this letter to convey a message to Yanjing. Such intelligence could only evoke a deep sense of dread!
Zhang Zi didn't dare to linger. She took the letter and quickly returned to Yanjing. She knew that something big was amiss. She had to report the information she obtained to her superiors immediately because the war was still ongoing, and their enemy was not some foolish zombie, but a highly intelligent zombie king!