Counterattack! After a significant battle, not only was morale stabilized, but Wei Xun also broke through to the silver level, finally bringing a brave general under Chen Feng’s command.
In addition to this, the allegiance of Liang Jingyao and Xu Zhe was an unexpected delight.
With Xu Zhe in submission, Chen Feng had no worries regarding management and could focus solely on expansion, leaving matters of food, lodging, and transportation to them.
This helped Chen Feng build solid foundations for his power.
Currently, Chen Feng has four professionals under his command, and besides them, there are over nine hundred ordinary people, which means it won’t take long to break through the limit of a thousand!
Although the factory is not small, accommodating so many people would inevitably seem cramped, which is not a long-term solution. Chen Feng attempts to find a more spacious area to establish his base.
.........
Night fell.
The factory fell into silence as everyone gradually rested, except for some night guards.
"Let me see what’s exactly recorded on this."
During the day’s conversation, Chen Feng only skimmed through the notebook, but now he took it out again to take a closer look at its contents.
The handwriting was neat and pleasant to the eye.
The notebook recorded the surroundings, with main categories being, food, human settlements, and monster distributions.
Liang Jingyao was meticulous, distinguishing each category clearly. Chen Feng first opened the food category.
"So many markings!" A hint of astonishment appeared in Chen Feng’s eyes as he looked at the food classification.
Countless small red dots were marked on the notebook, with tiny annotations beside each mark.
Grain shops, supermarkets, grocery stores, dry goods stores, seafood cities...
These pages were filled densely with annotations of nearby stores, some on the roadside untouched by destruction, others buried in ruins with their original appearances entirely changed.
Not only were they marked, but for some stores buried under ruins, Liang Jingyao provided detailed route maps, enabling even an ordinary person to find the food smoothly.
"Just the food here can sustain two thousand people for an entire year; this is no mere notebook, it’s literally a treasure. Anyone who gets it can recruit survivors and form a powerful force in a short time!"
People regard food as their primary necessity!
In these chaotic times, nothing attracts people more than food!
No wonder Yang Zheng thrived so smoothly in his previous life; he must have gotten this notebook, followed the routes, and gathered all the food. In such a scenario, food-deprived survivors would naturally flock to him.
Chen Feng opened the second category, which marked some human settlements. Over twenty settlements, each varying in population, with the smallest housing a dozen people while the largest exceeded over five hundred!
These settlements were scattered around, each individual within struggling through each day.
Chen Feng calculated that if all these people were gathered together, his manpower would exceed three thousand. At that point, his roots would truly be established here, and no one could shake his rule.
"This notebook is simply priceless. If I were to search for them one by one, who knows how many years it would take before figuring out where these people are hiding." Chen Feng rubbed his forehead, with a thoughtful expression in his eyes.
"Liang Jingyao’s ability is quite unique, able to manipulate doppelgangers to investigate the surroundings, an incredibly powerful ability. However, it seems this ability has some side effects."
Chen Feng squinted as he recalled the scene of meeting Liang Jingyao during the day. Although she was beautiful, there was a lot of grey in her black hair.
For a young woman to have a few grey strands could be normal.
But... Liang Jingyao’s hair wasn’t just plain white; it was greyish, like a tree dying with withering roots.
Doppelganger.
The price of using this ability was life force!
Liang Jingyao’s doppelgangers relied on her life force for support. This period of investigation had already caused her hair to wither. If she continued using it, her teeth would gradually decay, her skin wrinkle, her eyesight dim, and she would eventually exhaust her life force, dying of old age.
Chen Feng had taken a closer look at her then and noticed her pronounced dark circles — a sign of excessive Primordial Energy depletion.
"Since she is Xu Zhe’s lifeline, it’s best to use this ability sparingly. Otherwise, once Liang Jingyao dies, Xu Zhe will become dejected, which won’t be beneficial for my development."
Chen Feng let out a long breath.
Certain abilities, if too overpowering, would require some price.
This notebook not only bore Liang Jingyao’s hard sweat but also her life force!
Turning to the last few pages, there were records of some monster distributions. Liang Jingyao didn’t know the names of these monsters, but she was adept at writing and drawing. Whenever she encountered formidable monsters, she remembered their appearance and then depicted them in the notebook.
"Snow Puppet, Flaming Chicken, Cave Bat..."
Upon seeing these illustrations, Chen Feng recited their names. They were all delicacies of the Bloodthirsty Bee; capturing all these monsters could yield an unknown amount of Blood Honey.
Chen Feng reached out and turned to the last page.
A terrifying insect appeared before his eyes.
Clearly, the writing on the last page grew heavier, with some descriptions incredibly detailed.
"On the 19th, clear, while the doppelganger searched south for food, an indistinct crying sound was suddenly heard. Following through the sewer, I saw a baby. No, it was a monster! Its upper body was no different from a baby, but its lower body was grotesque with tentacles. Beside it were some decomposed corpse remains, both human and some beasts. Just one glance was enough to evoke nausea and fear. Do not enter this place!!!"
Towards the end, Liang Jingyao added three exclamation marks!
A drawing.
This was a grotesquely hideous monster with a long tongue, its upper body resembling a baby, while below the waist was a massive fly. It had three pairs of wings on its back.
The most horrifying part was its eyes. A baby’s eyes are supposed to be bright and pure, but this monster’s eyes were filled with red veins, resembling a fly’s compound eyes, incredibly unsettling.
Chen Feng touched the monster’s image with his hand, as if recalling something, and said gravely, "One of the five Insect Kings, the Three-winged Demon Fly, has also appeared. Indeed, the rise of the Insect Race is just a matter of time..."