The leader, Qi Yangfan, immediately became sharp-eyed and decisively raised his hand to stop the group from moving forward.

“Aling, are you up there?” Ling Yuan, who had worked with Qi Yangfan for a longer time, naturally understood the meaning behind his action.

She quickly spoke to match Qi Yangfan’s motion of stopping.

Leaning against the wall, Nan Muran glanced at the stairwell, contemplating throwing these people down.

“Come up, they’re all here,” Cheng Cheng said helplessly, sensing that if they continued dragging their feet, Miss Nan might throw them down directly.

Hearing the unfamiliar female voice, the twelve-person mutant ability team from Lan City immediately went into full alert.

“Yuan Jie, Fan Ge, it’s really you.” Zhou Ling was the first to run to the stairs to look at them, his eyes reddening.

After such a nerve-wracking night, he was nearly driven crazy.

Qi Yangfan and Ling Yuan both breathed a sigh of relief, partly because they saw that Zhou Ling and the others were safe and sound, and partly because their safe appearance prevented an imminent confrontation.

When they climbed onto the platform, they noticed several people sitting against the wall, with the girl sitting in the center and the tall man beside her being quite pleasant to the eye.

Zhou Ling looked at Nan Muran and the others: “Well, I said I’d make it up to you. You saved me last night, so I can take you to the Lan City base.”

“The Lan City base has plenty of supplies. You can go there and replenish, no need to pay—I’ll treat you.”

Nan Muran nodded indifferently: “Lead the way.”

Hearing her agree to go to the Lan City base, Zhou Ling was practically bouncing with joy.

Qi Yangfan and Ling Yuan exchanged a confused glance, both wondering why Zhou Ling was suddenly so polite to these people and lowering his stance so much, considering his usual rebellious and unruly nature.

“Let’s go,” Zhou Ling ignored their expressions and began eagerly leading the way.

The group descended the water tower, and outside, the zombies, having aimlessly wandered through the night, had already dwindled in number.

However, due to Qi Yangfan and the others’ actions, more zombies gathered around.

Nan Muran expressed her displeasure, her cold gaze unmistakable.

Cheng Cheng turned and looked at Qi Yangfan’s group: “You brought this trouble yourself, you deal with it.”

Qi Yangfan and Ling Yuan immediately understood the source of her dissatisfaction, but they still weren’t used to her commanding tone.

However, Zhou Ling, trailing behind, readily agreed: “We’ll handle it, we’ll handle it now, just wait a minute.”

He then looked toward Qi Yangfan’s group, and the meaning was clear.

Qi Yangfan’s team was part of the Zhou family’s trained mutant ability squad, and Zhou Ling was the only heir, future leader of the Zhou family. His words couldn’t be ignored, so they reluctantly started dealing with the surrounding zombies.

Meanwhile, Nan Muran and her group returned to the overpass.

Watching them leap onto the nearly ten-meter-high overpass in their strange ways, Qi Yangfan and Ling Yuan couldn’t help but raise their brows.

“These people’s abilities are definitely not ordinary.”

Upon hearing Qi Yangfan’s comment, Zhou Ling naturally replied: “Of course, I’ve never seen any mutant abilities stronger than theirs.”

On the overpass, the car windows on both sides of Nan Muran’s car had been completely shattered, but fortunately, the windshield at the front was still intact. However, the interior of the car was still quite messy.

“It can still run, just needs to bear the cold,” the old eagle went up to check.

Nan Muran sighed, unable to stop herself from feeling nostalgic about her several big, cute vehicles from her space, though she couldn’t take them out.

“Get in the car, the Lan City base isn’t far,” Si Ye looked at the map and added, “It’s only about half an hour on the highway. Once we enter the city, the speed won’t be so fast, so it won’t be too cold.”

After getting into the car, they drove for about a kilometer and then saw three cars coming from Lan City, driven by the twelve-member mutant team.

The five vehicles followed the overpass westward and, half an hour later, entered Lan City.

Lan City was built along mountains and rivers, with many tunnels. The terrain resembled a sugar-coated hawthorn stick.

Because of successive natural disasters during the apocalypse, most of Lan City had been buried. Therefore, the safe base was established on the mountain of a new district on the west side of Lan City, relying on a previously developed housing project.

With Zhou Ling leading the way, they entered the base smoothly.

“Um, I don’t know you all yet,” Zhou Ling said with some excitement.

“No need to,” Cheng Cheng looked at his overly eager expression and couldn’t help but frown.

Zhou Ling still kept a smile, showing no displeasure, and patiently introduced: “Over there is the commercial street of the Lan City safe base. There’s food, drinks, and various shops. At the end of the commercial street, there’s a rental center. If you want to stay a few more days, you can rent a house there. If you only need a short stay, go to that white 16-story apartment building, that’s the base hotel.”

“Within the whole base, both the crystal cores and base points cards can be used interchangeably.”

Though Zhou Ling might be somewhat inept, Nan Muran didn’t have a bad impression of him, considering he wasn’t a fool but just a rich second-generation who lacked ability.

She directly said: “Find someone to help us lead the way.”

“I’ll do it,” Zhou Ling eagerly pointed at himself.

Nan Muran nodded indifferently.

“Where can we repair our car? We need some repairs,” Han Yingting immediately asked.

“I’ll arrange for Book to bring it over for you,” Zhou Ling promised.

The group decided to stay first and chose the Lan City base hotel.

The hotel, converted from an apartment building, had the lobby on the first floor turned into a reception area, and the second and third floors still had lounges.

“Eight double rooms and one suite, all on the same floor.”

Once Nan Muran made the request, Zhou Ling’s task was to fulfill it. Soon, eight adjacent rooms on the top floor were booked.

“The 15th floor is the VIP floor of the hotel. Although the cost is higher, the environment is the best,” Zhou Ling added, “One day’s room fee requires 27 primary crystal cores, even I think the price is steep.”

Nan Muran didn’t care; after going through the zombie tide, what they lacked most was the basic crystal cores to replenish their strength.

She directly booked ten days.

Suddenly, Si Ye reached over and draped his arm around Nan Muran’s shoulder, turning her body in another direction.

At the same time, Jia Wu, the old eagle, and Han Yingting all quickly lowered their heads to cover their faces.

“Ouyang Yun?” Han Yingting said in surprise.

In the distance, Ouyang Yun entered the hotel, protected by a group of well-dressed, scholarly-looking men and women.

“Zhou Ling, go find out what those people are here for,” Nan Muran turned to Zhou Ling, her tone cold.

Following her pointing finger, Zhou Ling just happened to see Ouyang Yun and her group: “Chen Shuhan? Who is that? Why is Ouyang Yun here?”

“Do you know them?”

“The one at the front with glasses is Chen Shuhan. His father is the head of the Lan City base, Chen Xiongan.”

“Ouyang Yun, she’s the daughter of Ouyang Feng. This woman is ruthless, she’s never done anything good,” Zhou Ling sneered at the two.

“Do you know why they are here?”