Chapter 29 Earth-type Zombies [Second Update] Mysterious Man
Cheng Zhiyu opened his eyes and noticed something was off about the doorway. He immediately got up, cautiously opened the door, and was somewhat surprised to see what was on the floor by the door.
There was a chicken on the ground, barely alive. Its eyes were half-open. When it saw Cheng Zhiyu appear, it struggled for a moment, then fell silent, only breathing.
Cheng Zhiyu asked in surprise, "Why is there a chicken at the door? It couldn't have just wandered in by itself, could it?"
And judging from its appearance, it doesn't seem like it could have run over here on its own.
Cheng Zhiyu took a stick and poked at the dying chicken, confirming that it was just an ordinary chicken, but it seemed to have been injured by something and was seriously wounded.
Something came by last night and left a chicken here.
Cheng Zhiyu frowned. This realization made him uneasy. The other party had come silently, and neither he nor Tian Qiao had noticed. What if the other party wasn't there to deliver chickens, but had some other purpose?
He pursed his lips, his face somewhat somber. He looked around and saw that the yard was made of earth, but because people had lived there for many years, the earth had become very hard, and there were no marks on the ground.
When Tian Qiao woke up and saw the chicken, she grinned foolishly and asked, "Chengzi, where did you find this chicken? Are we having chicken today?"
Cheng Zhiyu told Tian Qiao about finding a chicken at the door as soon as he woke up this morning, and as expected, Tian Qiao was not happy after hearing it.
The other party sent them a chicken, which seemed like a kind gesture, but it made them wary, since they didn't know the other party's true intentions.
"What should we do with the chicken?" Tian Qiao asked.
Cheng Zhiyu glanced at it and said, "Let's leave it for now." He didn't intend to eat anything of unknown origin.
Xiao Hei yawned lazily and said, "I saw him come last night."
Cheng Zhiyu looked at Xiao Hei.
Xiao □□: "He just left a chicken here, seemingly not intending to do anything, so I didn't pay any attention to it."
Cheng Zhiyu patted Xiao Hei: "Did you see clearly what it was?"
Xiao Hei: "It was too dark, and the other party was moving very fast, so I couldn't see them clearly."
Speaking of this, Xiao Hei was still a little depressed, because he was too weak now.
“Xiao Hei was already great. I had no idea anything had come by last night.” Cheng Zhiyu praised Xiao Hei when he saw him looking dejected. “It’s so reassuring to have you here. I think if he had been planning something last night, Xiao Hei would probably have been the first to realize it.”
Xiao Hei smiled as he was praised: Of course! Cheng Zhiyu slept very soundly last night, thankfully he was there.
"By the way, if they come again tonight, Xiao Hei, remember to call me, okay?" Cheng Zhiyu pinched Xiao Hei's paw.
Xiao Hei awkwardly twitched its paw slightly, but couldn't pull it out, so it let it go: "Okay, I'm calling you."
Cheng Zhiyu smiled and said, "Thank you, Xiao Hei! What would you like to eat this morning, Xiao Hei?"
Xiao Hei glanced at him: "Make something simple."
Cheng Zhiyu smiled. Was Xiao Hei worried that he was too tired from cooking?
He thought for a moment and decided to make something simple: cold shrimp noodles. It was a pity that the cucumbers and tomatoes hadn't grown yet, otherwise they would have tasted especially delicious together.
But it didn't matter if he didn't have those two things. He searched and searched in the vegetable gardens of nearby farmers and found some lettuce.
Actually, there are quite a few vegetable gardens nearby, but unfortunately, the weather is very hot these days, with the sun shining every day and no rain, so many vegetables have died.
Seeing this, Cheng Zhiyu was not in a good mood. Such weather was not suitable for plants to survive, and the human situation would only become more difficult.
He sighed softly, kneaded the dough, and began to prepare the shrimp and lettuce.
Once everything was almost done and the dough had risen, Cheng Zhiyu started pulling noodles.
Cold noodles are easy to make. After tearing the noodles, put them in the pot, and once they are cooked, take them out and cool them with cold water.
To make it taste even better, Cheng Zhiyu specially asked Tian Qiao to add ice to the water, which made the noodles even more chewy after soaking.
Tian Qiao found some garlic from somewhere, added some scallions, chili powder, poured hot oil over it, and added various seasonings. The simple cold noodles looked exceptionally tempting, and with lettuce, they looked even better.
Cheng Zhiyu filled a bowl for himself, clapped his hands, and said, "Let's eat!"
He was worried that it would be inconvenient for Xiao Hei to eat, so he specially fed Xiao Hei a noodle. Xiao Hei bit one end of the noodle and ate it with relish.
In this kind of weather, cool noodles are a perfect match.
After finishing his meal, Cheng Zhiyu checked the system space and was pleasantly surprised to find that Xiaoqiang's life state had reached 20%. He estimated that it wouldn't be long before Xiaoqiang would enter the mature stage.
I'm curious about what kind of plant Xiaoqiang is.
Today was a bit less busy, so Cheng Zhiyu practiced his inner cultivation technique, while Tian Qiao continued practicing his ice-type ability. He can now shoot five ice arrows at the same time.
The zombies in the village have all been cleared out. Tian Qiao wants to practice his skills with the zombies, so he needs to go outside the village. He can take a stroll around the area and clear out any zombies that are about to enter the village.
Cheng Zhiyu was worried about him going alone, so he said to Xiao Hei, "Xiao Hei, you go with Tian Qiao."
Xiao Hei glanced at Cheng Zhiyu, somewhat reluctant. He was worried about leaving the other person alone in the village.
Cheng Zhiyu sighed helplessly, "Then I'll go with you."
Xiao Hei jumped onto Cheng Zhiyu and patted his neck with its paw. Cheng Zhiyu was tickled and shrank his neck, saying, "Xiao Hei, stop being so cute."
Xiao Hei looked like he'd been struck by lightning; he'd never imagined he'd be associated with the word "coquettish."
The group left the village. Because they had cleared out the zombies along the way, the zombies here were scattered and posed no threat.
Tian Qiao easily dealt with a zombie and started trash-talking: "That's boring. We need a whole bunch of them. That would be much more fun to kill them."
Cheng Zhiyu thought it was unlikely: "There shouldn't be that many zombies here. It's been cleared out before."
As they were talking, Xiao Hei's ears twitched, and it immediately stood up from Cheng Zhiyu's shoulder, looking into the distance.
Looking at him, Tian Qiao had a bad feeling: "Wh...what's wrong?"
Cheng Zhiyu glanced at Xiao Hei, immediately called out Xiao Tie, and frowned, saying, "There's a horde of zombies."
Tian Qiao: "Holy crap! Am I a jinx?"
As he spoke, he saw a group of zombies approaching them from not far away. The group of zombies was obviously organized, otherwise they wouldn't have come so uniformly. This time, even without Cheng Zhiyu saying it, Tian Qiao could tell that there must be superpowered zombies among them.
Tian Qiao conjured an ice arrow, gritted his teeth, and said to Cheng Zhiyu, "Leave the superpowered zombies to me this time." He couldn't rely on Cheng Zhiyu every time.
Then, he added somewhat hesitantly, "If I can't handle it, then you can step in."
Cheng Zhiyu said, "Okay."
He certainly hoped that Tian Qiao could become stronger, and now that she also had this awareness, it was of course the best.
So, Cheng Zhiyu, Xiao Hei, and Xiao Er leisurely dealt with the ordinary zombies approaching them, occasionally giving Tian Qiao some guidance.
“Currently, super-powered zombies cannot remotely control ordinary zombies, so they are mostly mixed in with the zombie hordes. Since they look very similar, finding them is the first challenge,” Cheng Zhiyu said after slashing a zombie.
At first, Tian Qiao was a bit flustered, but he gradually became more skilled. Although he could conjure five ice arrows at the same time, his control over them was obviously not enough, and one or two of them would always miss.
But now that he's killed so many zombies, he can hit the target with five ice arrows eight out of ten times.
Tian Qiao was very satisfied with this and said happily, "Haha, I must say, the superpowered zombies are quite useful. With a continuous stream of zombies coming, there's no need to worry about them all being killed."
Cheng Zhiyu's lips twitched. Superpowered zombies should be able to understand some human speech, and he wondered how they felt upon hearing Tian Qiao's words.
Little Black swished its tail, half-closed its eyes, and played with its superpowers, sometimes conjuring a ball of water, sometimes lightning.
Later on, a small dark cloud even appeared and rained on the head of one of the zombies.
It was a localized rainfall event.
Cheng Zhiyu's eyes lit up with amazement: "Can superpowers be used like this? Xiao Hei, how did you do that?"
Little Black's tail twitched, its eyes widened from squinting to half-open, and it glanced at Cheng Zhiyu. Its tone was somewhat light as it slowly said, "Clouds are made up of evaporated water vapor..."
While he was talking, perhaps he had had enough fun, or perhaps for some other reason, a bolt of lightning struck out from under the dark clouds, instantly killing the rain-soaked zombie.
Cheng Zhiyu: "...Wow."
The little black tail swung even more violently.
Not to be outdone, Xiao Er transformed into a fireball. Instead of burning the zombies to death directly, he circled around their heads. Cheng Zhiyu then saw that the hair on the heads of the zombies that Xiao Er had bypassed was singed. A gust of wind blew by, and all the zombies became bald.
Cheng Zhiyu couldn't help but laugh out loud. It was really... not very harmful, but extremely insulting.
Xiao Hei glanced at the plant, somewhat displeased.
Tian Qiao exclaimed in disgust, "Ugh, it's really too ugly!"
He couldn't bear to look at the zombies with their heads burned bald, so he decided to deal with them first.
The little dog probably noticed that Cheng Zhiyu was happy, so it shook its branches and leaves. It had grown a bit bigger than before. Cheng Zhiyu had given it the fire-type crystal core he had obtained earlier. Although it didn't reach level three immediately, it had grown a lot.
Just as it was about to repeat the previous operation and was about to burn the next one, a clay ball suddenly came flying at it. Cheng Zhiyu immediately called the waiter to his side and then said to Tian Qiao, "Here!"
Tian Qiao naturally noticed the zombie as well. Perhaps it couldn't stand the humiliation of Xiao Er burning hair and had deliberately exposed itself.
Tian Qiao immediately began dealing with the earth-type zombies, while Cheng Zhiyu and the others helped deal with the ordinary zombies.
At first, Tian Qiao shot ice arrows at the earth-type zombies, but all the ice arrows were blocked by the suddenly appearing earthen walls. This happened several times, which made Tian Qiao a little anxious.
Just then, Cheng Zhiyu's voice came from not far away: "Watch your step!"
Tian Qiao trusted him completely, so she immediately jumped far away. She couldn't help but glance at the spot where she had just stood, where the soil had sunk.
He felt his hair stand on end. If he had been any slower to dodge, he probably would have fallen into the pit and been buried alive.
As he thought about it, he looked away, not daring to look any longer.
The level-one superpowered zombie had limited strength and could not continuously ambush Tian Qiao, so the two sides were locked in a stalemate for a time.
Cheng Zhiyu chopped the zombies down like watermelons. Seeing Tian Qiao's somewhat anxious expression, he reminded her, "Find a way to prevent it from using its superpowers."
Upon hearing this, Tian Qiao frowned and began to ponder. Just then, the zombie suddenly attacked him, and he hurriedly and awkwardly dodged a clump of dirt that was thrown at him.
Perhaps sensing something, the zombies began to attack Tian Qiao with all their might. Several times, Tian Qiao almost couldn't dodge, and he looked like a mud man, extremely disheveled.
Little Black flicked its tail and disdainfully erected a wall of water to keep the flying dust out.
While Tian Qiao was struggling to cope, he saw this scene and instantly came up with a solution. The next moment, ice walls suddenly rose up around the superpowered zombies.
The opponent clearly sensed the danger and tried to dodge, but it was still a little too slow. Tian Qiao knew that this method could only be used once. Next time, the superpowered zombie would definitely be more vigilant, so it had to succeed the first time.
He didn't know where his potential came from, but in an instant he trapped the superpowered zombie inside the ice wall. Then, the box made of ice wall shrank rapidly, and a piercing roar could be faintly heard coming from inside.
The ordinary zombies around them seemed to have lost their command and became scattered.
Cheng Zhiyu smiled, quickly dealt with the ordinary zombies, and raised an eyebrow at Tian Qiao: "Not bad."
Tian Qiao was belatedly feeling a bit exhausted, but he was extremely excited because it was the first time he had independently dealt with a superpowered zombie. He ran his hand through his sweaty hair and grinned foolishly, "Thanks to Brother Hei for reminding me."
Xiao Hei gave Tian Qiao a strange look; he hadn't given her any warning.
Tian Qiao was covered in dirt and felt terrible. She opened her arms to Xiao Hei and called out, "Brother Hei!"
A puddle of water rushed towards him. Tian Qiao: "Hehe, that feels great!"
Xiao Hei: "..."
Tian Qiao said happily, "The zombies are gone, let's go back."
Cheng Zhiyu said he was so happy he was dumbfounded: "We haven't even dug out the zombie's crystal core yet."
Tian Qiao slapped her forehead: "That's right!"
He immediately went off to dig for crystal cores, and soon returned with a small, earth-colored crystal core about the size of a finger, which he told Xiao □ to quickly wash clean.
Tian Qiao held the yellowish-brown crystal core in her palm, turning it over and over to examine it, exclaiming with delight, "It's so beautiful! How can something so beautiful exist in the world? Hehe..."
Cheng Zhiyu: "..." That's enough.
As they returned to the village, Tian Qiao kept asking, "What are we having for lunch today?"
The main purpose was to ask for the opinion of Chef Cheng Zhiyu.
Cheng Zhiyu thought for a moment: "It's so hot, let's eat something cold, how about cold shrimp?"
Tian Qiao naturally had no objections: "Okay!"
Cheng Zhiyu looked at Xiao Hei: "Where's Xiao Hei? Is there anything else you want to eat?"
Xiao Hei said, "This one will do."
Cheng Zhiyu nodded: "Okay, then let's eat this."
As the group walked into the courtyard, Cheng Zhiyu saw something, turned his head, and exchanged a glance with Xiao Hei. Their expressions both became somewhat serious.
Tian Qiao sensed something was off and scratched his head: "Chengzi, Hei Ge, what's wrong with you two?"
Cheng Zhiyu squatted down and could vaguely see black footprints in front of him: "That person came here last night."
Something was stuck to the other person's shoes, leaving a mark on the ground.
Tian Qiao saw it was indeed him and immediately put her hands on her hips and frowned: "Why is it him again? What's he doing here? Stealing something? I'll go in and see..."
A moment later, Tian Qiao came out: "Nothing is missing inside. I saw that the footprints were also in front of the chicken, but not elsewhere."
Tian Qiao: "So what's he trying to do? He gave us the chicken, then regretted it? And wants to take it back? Wait, isn't the chicken still here? So what exactly is he trying to do?"
Cheng Zhiyu was also unsure of the other party's intentions. He stood up, dusted off his hands, and said, "Never mind him."
There's no point in thinking about it so much, let's eat first.
Tian Qiao snorted: "Sneaking into someone else's house is rude. Don't let me catch you!"
Although this is not their home, they are temporarily staying here, and the original owner of the house is gone. They subconsciously feel that this is their territory, and the invasion of their territory makes them very uncomfortable.
My gloomy mood completely disappeared when it was time to eat. Cheng Zhiyu made a sauce, full of red oil, with all sorts of seasonings. The shrimp meat soaked in it, and when I took it out to eat, it was incredibly delicious.
Tian Qiao ate several bowls of noodles with this.
Before the apocalypse, I never dared to imagine a life where I could eat shrimp every day, but now that the apocalypse has come, I'm living that life.
Tian Qiao rubbed her slightly full stomach and muttered, "Eating like this every day, I don't want to leave here."
Xiao Hei flicked its tail and looked at Cheng Zhiyu.
Cheng Zhiyu was amused by the two foodies and said, "We'll take some shrimp with us later."
Tian Qiao shouted, "Long live oranges!"
Xiao Hei jumped onto Cheng Zhiyu and patted his chest with its paw, as if praising him.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Cheng Zhiyu grabbed Xiao Hei's paw and kissed it. Looking at Xiao Hei's bristling appearance, he curled his lips and said, "I'll make some shrimp powder later and add some when I cook. It will definitely make the food extra delicious."
Little Black, ignoring its bristling fur, twitched its ears: "Shrimp powder?"
Cheng Zhiyu smiled and said, "I'll do it tomorrow."
Xiao Hei glanced at Cheng Zhiyu, gave a soft hum, and didn't hold the matter against him anymore.
That night, the mysterious person did not appear.
Cheng Zhiyu got up early and checked his system space. He found that Xiaoqiang's life status had improved a lot. He was in a great mood and felt that it wouldn't be long before Xiaoqiang entered maturity.
And the vegetables he planted have grown quite a bit. The potatoes and watermelons don't need any care, but the cucumbers and tomatoes need trellises, which should be done in the next couple of days.
Upon exiting the system space, Cheng Zhiyu found Xiao Hei, who had been thoroughly cleaned, already sitting on the pillow waiting for him.
Cheng Zhiyu smiled: "Eat something first to tide you over."
Little Black flicked its tail: it was hungry.
She jumped off the bed, her short legs carrying her to Cheng Zhiyu's feet. After taking a couple of steps, she conjured a water bed and lay down lazily on it, the water bed floating with Cheng Zhiyu.
Cheng Zhiyu glanced at it and muttered, "You really know how to enjoy yourself."
Little Black straightened his legs and stretched.
Cheng Zhiyu: Cute.
For breakfast, Cheng Zhiyu simply pan-fried meat patties. The patties were delicious. At first, Cheng Zhiyu made them the size of his palm, but later he found that they weren't even enough to fill a tooth gap. He made one, but not many. There were two people squatting next to him, looking on expectantly. This put a lot of pressure on Cheng Zhiyu, so he simply made meat patties the size of his face to save time.
The earthen stove in the countryside is big enough that he can fry three meat patties the size of his face at a time. He doesn't care if they are perfectly round, since the shape doesn't affect the taste. He doesn't care that much when he's eating alone.
Tian Qiao wasn't idle either; he sat by the stove and tended the fire. The fire for frying the meat patties had to be a little low, otherwise they would easily burn.
He couldn't control himself at first, and Xiao Hei angrily chased him away and took over. But Xiao Hei was no better than him, and he made Tian Qiao continue to tend the fire.
This made Xiao Hei a little depressed.
Tian Qiao wanted to laugh at him, but Cheng Zhiyu comforted Xiao Hei from the side: "It's okay, our Xiao Hei is born to enjoy life, he doesn't need to know these things."
Tian Qiao: "..." Listen to this, listen to this, is this even human language?
He could almost see what Cheng Zhiyu's future children would be like.
Absolutely shameless! He angrily added fuel to the fire under the stove.
Cheng Zhiyu: "The fire is too big."
Tian Qiao quickly pulled out a few pieces of firewood.
As expected, Xiao Hei was coaxed by Cheng Zhiyu. To be honest, it was the first time Tian Qiao had ever seen a dog smile.
"These meat patties smell delicious, eat up." Cheng Zhiyu handed each of them a plate with a meat pie the size of their face on it.
Tian Qiao couldn't wait to take a bite. This meat pie was quite simple to make, but it smelled really good when it was fried. He had been secretly swallowing his saliva for a while.
As she swallowed, the meat juices exploded in her mouth, and the skin was fried until it was crispy and fragrant. Even though it was very hot, Tian Qiao couldn't bear to spit it out, even though her tongue was dancing in her mouth.
It smells so good! As expected, high-end ingredients only require the simplest cooking methods.
Tian Qiao was enjoying her meal when Xiao Hei pushed the plate with its paws in front of Cheng Zhiyu, saying, "You eat."
Tian Qiao: "..."
He glanced at the meat pie on his plate, which looked like it had been gnawed by a dog.
Cheng Zhiyu, like a father overjoyed that his child had become sensible, exclaimed exaggeratedly, "Wow! Xiao Hei is so thoughtful! But I have some here, so you should eat it."
Xiao Hei naturally knew he had some, but Cheng Zhiyu was only deliberately busy and didn't care about eating at all. Really, he only cared about taking care of others and always forgot about himself.
Despite Xiao Hei's insistence, Cheng Zhiyu took a bite of the meat pie. He frowned at the corner he had bitten and said, "I'll make you another one."
Xiao Hei isn't that much of a dog; how could he let the other person eat his leftovers?
As a result, Xiao Hei didn't ask him to change it and started eating right away.
Seeing that he didn't mind, Cheng Zhiyu let him go.
On average, each person ate seven or eight meat patties, and then they got busy. The mutated crayfish were too big, and Cheng Zhiyu wanted to make crayfish powder. Directly drying them was obviously not an option; they had to be cut into small pieces.
Then, we used bamboo sieves specifically for drying vegetables, which we found at a farmer's house, to dry them. A large round plate was filled with shrimp meat, and in this weather, they should be dried by tomorrow.
Perfect timing, I'll make shrimp noodles tomorrow.
As for tonight, they plan to eat grilled fish. There are fish in the pond, but it's not the main fish-raising pond, so there aren't many. But compared to the mutated crayfish, they can easily catch a dozen or so.
Cheng Zhiyu and his friends built a bonfire, intending to grill the fish over an open flame.
As everyone knows, barbecue, no matter how it tastes, always smells amazing. Xiao Hei has eaten a lot of good food, and when he smelled this aroma, he was so excited that he circled around Cheng Zhiyu.
Tian Qiao deliberately said, "Hey? Blackie is a dog, right? Dogs can't eat fish, can they?"
Xiao Hei looked at Tian Qiao with a sinister gaze. A moment later, Tian Qiao let out a "whoop" and a bump appeared on her head. She was completely obedient now.
Cheng Zhiyu wanted to laugh but held it back, telling him not to provoke Xiao Hei all the time.
As the group chatted and laughed, Xiao Hei's ears suddenly twitched. He had been lying down relaxed, but suddenly sat up.
Cheng Zhiyu seemed to sense something and suddenly looked towards the bushes.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com