Chapter 52 - 45: Speculation

Chapter 52: Chapter 45: Speculation

Wang Meng was right. Xu Mo really didn’t think the three of them, or even their entire thirteen-person team, could pose any real threat to him.

This confidence wasn’t born from blind arrogance, but from his understanding of his own strength and his keen perception of others’ auras after stepping into the Cowhide Realm.

The leader, Wang Meng, had a formidable demeanor, a steady gait, and sharp eyes. He looked like a survivor who had been through life-or-death struggles and had plenty of real combat experience.

Before his breakthrough, Xu Mo would have definitely had to be on his highest alert and treated someone like that with extreme caution.

But in Xu Mo’s perception after breaking through to the Cowhide Realm, while Wang Meng projected a menacing air, he didn’t give off any sense of danger. To put it simply, Xu Mo couldn’t detect any power from him that could threaten his own. After being tempered by the apocalypse, Wang Meng might have had exquisite combat skills, but in the face of absolute power, the effectiveness of those skills would be drastically reduced.

As for Zhao Ming, Sun Xiaoyun, and Big Bull, whom he had met yesterday, their auras felt even weaker in Xu Mo’s perception.

It was a mark left by long-term malnutrition, constant mental strain, and physical exhaustion. Their physical condition was possibly even worse than that of an ordinary healthy adult before the apocalypse. Facing such opponents, Xu Mo was confident he could end the fight in a short time using only the Mountain-Cutting Saber on his back and his bare fists, without even needing to use a gun.

This disparity in strength gave him a sense of absolute composure. It was the fundamental reason why Xu Mo dared to show himself twice and trade with them so readily. The compressed biscuits, canned food, and cigarettes he gave away were a drop in the bucket compared to his vast reserves. Exchanging these "trivial" items for key information and avoiding unnecessary conflict was a very worthwhile bargain.

By comparison, Xu Mo was more concerned about the information Wang Meng had revealed regarding the mutated zombies.

"Agility Type, Strength Type, Venom Type..." Xu Mo muttered to himself, his gaze once again falling on the snow-covered ruins of the town outside his window—Cyan Pine Ridge Town.

Xu Mo had always been puzzled by something: the level of destruction to many buildings in this town seemed beyond what ordinary zombies could cause. The completely collapsed walls, the rebar torn apart by immense force, the floor slabs that looked as if they’d been smashed through by a sledgehammer—such severe damage couldn’t have been caused merely by hordes of ordinary zombies crowding and ramming into them.

Now, Xu Mo had a preliminary answer.

’In the early days of the apocalypse, a densely populated town like this must have had an extremely large number of zombies. With such a huge base population, the probability of mutations would also increase.’ Xu Mo’s thoughts gradually became clearer. ’Those shockingly destructive marks were likely the ’masterpieces’ of Strength Type mutated zombies. Relying on their terrifying brute force, they easily destroyed the load-bearing structures of the buildings...’

Xu Mo even thought about the zombies’ large-scale, westward migration that one night. ’Could such a unified and abnormal behavior be related to some unknown mutated type with stronger guidance or special abilities?’

’I just don’t know how many mutated zombies plagued this town back then. And where did they go afterward?’ Xu Mo couldn’t answer these questions for now, but the existence of mutated zombies forced him to make a new, higher assessment of the dangers outside. In the future, whether he chose to hole up or leave, he would have to factor in these terrifying monsters.

Shortly after dawn the next day, Xu Mo saw Wang Meng’s team from his rooftop.

The group walked out of town, their bags seeming even more swollen than when they arrived. It looked like they had managed to find some supplies in town. They wore self-made snowshoes, moving in a loose formation along the old highway outside of town. They marched resolutely eastward, their figures gradually vanishing into the vast, snowy plains.

For Wang Meng and his team, Cyan Pine Ridge Town was just a waystation on their long journey, a place that offered temporary shelter and unexpected supplies. Their hopes and future lay two hundred kilometers away in a place called the Jiang City Shelter. Perhaps there, they could find a sliver of long-lost order and stability, though it would likely come at a price.

Xu Mo watched them leave in silence, feeling no particular turmoil in his heart. Everyone has their own path, and he understood their choice. When one’s individual strength is weak, huddling together for warmth and relying on a stronger organization was the most realistic choice for the vast majority of survivors.

However, the arrival and departure of Wang Meng’s team served as a reminder for Xu Mo, prompting him to adjust the strategy for using his "Golden Finger."

Xu Mo didn’t immediately put back the signs he had taken down—like "Free Samples," "Pharmacy," and "Emergency Food Storage"—on their corresponding doors.

From his conversation with Wang Meng, he had learned that winter, due to the zombies’ reduced activity, was the peak season for many small and medium-sized survivor groups to migrate and seek refuge in large shelters. This meant that Cyan Pine Ridge Town, marked on maps as a "necessary route" or "potential rest stop," would likely see other passing survivor teams in the near future.

If he had to scramble to take down the signs every time outsiders came, then put them back up after they left, it would not only be a hassle but also increase the risk of exposure. If he ever failed to take them down in time, or if someone with a keen eye noticed the leftover adhesive marks and strange signs on the doors, it could lead to unnecessary trouble.

’Looks like I can’t just take the easy way out and leave the signs up on the doors long-term,’ Xu Mo decided. ’When I need to scavenge supplies, I’ll bring the corresponding sign with me, stick it on the door on the spot, and take it right back down when I’m done. It’s an extra step, but it’s much safer and more discreet.’

This way, his secret would be protected to the greatest extent, regardless of whether outsiders entered the town. For most of the time, those seemingly ordinary doors would just be ordinary doors, drawing no extra attention.

Xu Mo carefully packed away the cardboard signs with different names on them into a separate compartment of his backpack, as if he were organizing a set of exclusive "master keys." This set of keys would only make a brief appearance when it was time to open their corresponding "treasure vaults."

After doing all this, Xu Mo’s life returned to its usual rhythm. Morning exercise, Qi Collection, daily cultivation, evening practice, absorbing the evening glow, studying... on and on in a cycle.

Then, Xu Mo—or rather, Cyan Pine Ridge Town—was once again hit by heavy snow.

The accumulated snow on the ground had never melted, as the temperature remained below freezing. The successive snowfalls only deepened its thickness. Xu Mo deliberately didn’t clear the snow near his residence, precisely so he could cover up all traces of his previous activity. This was also to prevent any future survivors coming to town from discovering him too easily.