“Blood sves? Ha! If we relied on them, we’d be long dead already!”

  Nicole looked at Amy’s clueless expression and couldn’t help but shake her head with a bitter smile. She slumped back into the couch, sighing deeply. “Amy, it seems the Patriarch was wise to send you out here to assist me. You know far too little about our family’s affairs. Do you even realize that a healthy blood sve rarely lives past thirty? Due to prolonged blood extraction, they almost completely lose the ability to reproduce. Even with artificial insemination, the survival rate of their offspring is abysmally low, and the mothers themselves face a high risk of death. On top of that, each generation of their bodies weakens more than the st. If we relied on them, our entire bloodline would be extinct in less than a century! So, Amy, I hope you take everything happening here seriously. We’re here to seek hope for our family’s future, not to indulge in food and leisure like some spoiled aristocrat!”

  “Fine, fine. I’m taking that damn Gard seriously now, okay? Just stop using family affairs to lecture me. I’m not a child anymore! I’ve been alive for over forty years—by Blood Cn standards, I’m already an adult! I have my own judgment!”

  Amy waved her hand dismissively, clearly irritated. She grabbed a bottle of Hennessy from the table, flicked off the diamond-shaped cap, and took a bold swig. The amber liquid spilled over, trickling down her ample chest, but she didn’t seem to care. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she frowned and said, “Alright, now can we finally talk about that damned Gard?”

  Nicole exhaled slowly, rubbing her temples in frustration before responding with evident fatigue, “The Werewolf Tribe has sent a Silver Wolf leader to assist us in this operation. Gard wasn’t out hunting—he was carrying out my orders to rendezvous with them.”

  “The stinking werewolves? My God, when did our noble Blood Cn start colborating with such lowly creatures?” Amy bolted upright from the couch, practically shrieking.

  “Why wouldn’t we?” Nicole replied calmly, fixing Amy with a serious gaze. “Yes, we were once enemies, but when survival is at stake, anyone will cooperate. Whether we like it or not, we need them. This is the apocalypse, Amy—nobody has it easy. Werewolves reproduce far faster than we do. In some matters, we can’t afford the losses, but they can.”

  “Well, since the whole world is crumbling, I suppose even working with those crude beasts isn’t impossible,” Amy sighed dramatically before fshing a mischievous smirk. “But dear sister, are you sure your little Gard didn’t just get himself killed by those werewolves? If that’s the case, we should be extra careful—this is China, after all. Double-crossing happens here all the time.”

  Nicole’s brows furrowed deeply, her expression clouded. She absentmindedly flicked the ash off her cigarette, letting it fall onto her elegant dress without noticing. There was something she hadn’t told Amy—something only she, as Gard’s master, could sense. Not only could she feel Gard’s presence, but at the moment of his death, she could also glimpse the final image imprinted in his eyes. And what she saw… was a wolf-like creature tearing out his throat in one savage bite.

  She wasn’t sure if it was a transformed werewolf. In the darkness, wolves and rge dogs looked eerily simir.

  The next morning, the group emerged from their shelter with weary expressions. The deaths of Zhang Hong and Xiaohua had cast a heavy shadow over them, leaving grief etched onto their faces. Almost everyone sported dark circles beneath their eyes, having barely slept. As they gathered in front of the small building where makeshift wooden grave markers stood, a deep sorrow enveloped them. No one could find the words to break the silence.

  “Sister Hong… I’m sorry. We have to go now. But we promise—we’ll come back to visit you.”

  Bai Ru knelt before Zhang Hong’s grave, gently tracing the freshly carved name on the wood. The thought of Zhang Hong lying there, alone in the cold earth, made her close her eyes in pain. No longer able to suppress her emotions, tears slipped silently down her face.

  “Alright, let’s go,” Lin Tao said softly, pcing a reassuring hand on Bai Ru’s shoulder. She remained still for a long moment before finally rising to her feet. Wiping away her tears, she slung her backpack over her shoulder and trudged forward, her expression hollow.

  The group set off again, their hearts heavy with grief. But the women among them proved resilient, leaning on each other for comfort. Bai Ru and Cao Mei walked side by side, rifles in hand, forming a silent guard on either fnk of the group. Bai Ru’s face was etched with sorrow, while Cao Mei, though not as visibly devastated, carried a quiet mencholy in her expression.

  Cao Mei hadn’t slept a wink the night before. She had spent the entire night wrestling with a single question: Was all the scheming and infighting among them truly worth it? What did it even matter in the end? Would she, too, end up like Zhang Hong—her life nothing more than an illusion, fading into dust?

  Twelve people and a dog trudged along a road buried under yers of yellow sand. Everyone now wore sungsses and scarves to shield themselves from the relentless, stinging winds. Even the girls, usually more concerned with appearances, had abandoned vanity in favor of protection.

  As they pressed forward, Lin Tao and the others began to notice something unsettling—an inexplicable change in the weather. The further they walked, the stranger it became. The temperature climbed drastically, and the wind fluctuated unpredictably—one moment howling so fiercely that it nearly knocked them off their feet, the next falling into an eerie stillness, as if the very air had frozen in pce.

  Abandoned buildings y half-buried in sand, while rusted vehicles sat trapped in dunes, some completely swallowed by the desert. They had been walking since morning, searching tirelessly, but not a single functioning vehicle could be found.

  However, amid the worsening environment, one peculiar detail stood out—the number of undead seemed to be dwindling. Since leaving their shelter at dawn, they had encountered only a handful of stray zombies.

  “Maybe the undead can’t survive in conditions this extreme,” someone muttered.

  A year under this scorching sun… even zombies would have been turned into dried-up husks.

  “Master, have you noticed?”

  Michael, who usually carried a pyful smirk, now bore a rare look of seriousness. He left A’Xue’s side and strode to the front of the group, braving the gusts of sand. His figure looked somewhat desote as he gazed into the distance. After a long silence, he turned to Lin Tao, his expression grave.

  “The scent of sulfur is getting stronger. It smells just like the depths of Hell. And ahead… there’s something lurking. A power so strong it unsettles me.”

  “Yes, I feel it too,” Lin Tao murmured. “But there’s no choice—we can only take it one step at a time. No matter how bad things get, can it really be worse than what we’ve already endured?”

  He bent down and ruffled Michael’s head, a weary but determined look in his eyes. This wasn’t the first time he had faced despair. As long as they were still alive, they had no option but to keep moving forward.

  The scorching sun bore down on them mercilessly. The world around them felt like an endless, suffocating oven. Every step forward demanded sheer willpower.

  Heat. Overwhelming, relentless heat. It consumed their thoughts.

  Sweat poured from their bodies, only to be instantly evaporated, leaving behind white salt stains on their skin and clothes. The discomfort was unbearable. Even the women had abandoned modesty, stripping off their bras to reduce the burden on their bodies.

  Then, suddenly—

  A dull thud.

  One of the flight attendants colpsed. She had a stunning, statuesque figure, but she had always been on the thinner side—malnourished, perhaps. Lin Tao took one look and knew immediately—heatstroke.

  “Old Hu, take her pack. We need to find shelter!” Lin Tao hoisted the unconscious woman onto his back. The others quickly assisted, and together they hurried toward a half-buried government building.

  Only after settling in its shade did they realize—this wasn’t just any building.

  It was the county government office.