Apocalyptic Disaster: I Hoard Billions in Supplies and Kill the Saint

221: Extra Chapter 9: Reencounter with Zhou XiaoFive River Valley—this was the next target area for Ye Nanxing’s journey.

According to the data transmitted back by the Seed map, this area had a relatively high population density and extremely low energy pollution. Even more baffling was:

The supplies were extremely abundant.

There was stable drinking water, purification devices, and even a local area network and micro energy banks.

The basic medical facilities were complete, the defensive lines were intact, and there were even aerial drone reconnaissance systems patrolling.

The entire place didn’t look at all like a human settlement seventeen days into the Apocalypse.

It looked more like a ’sub-civilization stronghold’ where order had not yet collapsed.

Ye Nanxing frowned slightly and personally led the team to head there.

As soon as she stepped into the settlement, an armed sentry saw her and immediately shouted in a tone that was complicated yet tinged with excitement:

’Tell Chief Zhou! She’s here—she’s really here!’

Everyone in the valley seemed to know who ’she’ was.

At this moment, the people around gathered one after another, looking towards Ye Nanxing with awe in their expressions.

It was as if they weren’t waiting for a person,

but were waiting for an answer where faith had become reality.

The back door of the defensive line slowly opened, and a tall figure came, almost rushing toward the light.

It was Zhou Xiao.

He stood against the light, with a neat and orderly settlement and rising steamy heat behind him,

yet on him, it seemed there were still traces of his initial military years.

His hair was slightly long, with a few strands of gray on the sides, and his stubble hadn’t been deliberately groomed,

yet his military uniform remained neat, the collar fastened tightly, and his combat boots were as clean as iron.

His pace was steady at first, as if subconsciously maintaining the demeanor of a ’chief’,

but when that familiar figure truly appeared before his eyes—

He felt as if he had been pulled out of reality for a moment, falling back to the rainy frontline three years ago.

His gaze trembled, and his brows knit together tightly.

’...Ye Nanxing.’

He blurted it out, his voice low and hoarse but trembling.

It was as if a voice suppressed for the entire duration of the Apocalypse had all come out at this moment.

The next second, he walked quickly toward her.

At first, he wanted to reach out—

But when he reached a distance of three steps from her, he stopped abruptly.

His fists slowly tightened, his gaze subconsciously sweeping over the back of his hands covered in wind and sand, and the bloodstains and calluses on his knuckles.

He stopped, stood still, reined in his movements, and put his hands behind his back, as if returning to the moment years ago on the training ground when he stood before her to report an order.

But this time, he lowered his head, his voice low, steady, yet filled with an indescribable exhaustion:

’I thought... I would never see you again.’

His shoulders trembled slightly,

yet he still didn’t rush forward—

He just stood there, like a soldier who had finally made it back.

After Ye Nanxing led her team to station themselves there, Zhou Xiao arranged a temporary meeting.

He explained:

Before the earthquake, he was originally representing the Old Fire Ring Alliance to execute a supply allocation mission, but due to chaotic spatial sensing during the journey, he accidentally entered the Southwest Wasteland.

At first, he was the only one.

After the earthquake, the wasteland was torn apart, and he used his status as an officer to gather nearby stragglers and civilians.

Right in the depths of Five River Valley, he unexpectedly found a medium-sized bunker—

’It cost over a billion to build, and it was some tycoon’s final plan to escape the world before the Apocalypse.’

’I took it.’

He said with a smile, his words devoid of showing off, containing only the tactical instinct and sense of responsibility of an old soldier.

When he learned that Ye Nanxing had obtained the Seed and established a barrier and a new civilization,

Zhou Xiao just nodded quietly, then stood up, as if he had heard a military order:

’Then I should go.’

’Everything in this place that can be dismantled, bring it all along.’

Within three hours, he gathered all portable energy modules, medical crystals, combat readiness charts, architectural sketches, air traffic control chips, spare thermal fusion gun cores... everything that could be moved was moved.

On the day of departure, hundreds of survivors from Five River Valley lined up to see them off.

Zhou Xiao only left behind one sentence:

’Her place is the future.’

Bringing the last batch of returnees, Ye Nanxing stepped into the Fire Ring barrier.

As the convoy drove in, the world was no longer filled with desolation and dust; instead, a slow yet steady aura of growth rushed toward them.

She looked out the car window; the ’base’ before her was no longer just a wartime refuge.

—This, was a city of the Seed that truly belonged to humanity.

On the periphery, the second-level ’Civilization Sensing Grass’ had extended to a radius of four kilometers,

dense green-gold lines spread from the ground, forming a natural vegetation buffer zone.

Along the edge of the barrier, space-purifying moss derived from the Seed adhered to rock walls and fault crevices, quietly neutralizing the toxins remaining in the air of the Apocalypse.

Lin Sui and her team were squatting among the grass, recording the interaction frequency of the Sensing Grass—she said they were ’talking,’ building a primitive communication network of plant intelligence with each other.

Three fire energy purification towers stood firmly at the edge of the Fire Stele, their crystal pipelines glowing faintly at night,

the energy hub not far away was distributing energy to:

[Supply Management Office]: An orderly recycling and distribution system

[Engineering Modification Area]: Mechanics were building the first generation of portable Fire Source furnaces

[Ecological Research Institute]: A new batch of water-purifying bacteria was about to be test-cultivated

The joint technical team from Tianlang Mountain and Orchid Rock was inspecting under the towers,

some were carrying pipes, some were lifting crystal cores, and others were squatting by the newly paved fire-brick road eating hot meals.

This was order; this was the prototype of civilization.

Under the Fire Stele was the world of the Children.

They were chasing each other on the Sensing Grass at the edge of the forest guard,

some were playing with small psionic lanterns among the fire grass, and others were squatting and drawing simple pictures of ’Ye Nanxing’ bringing back the fire.

There was also a Child of about five years old who ran up to Zhou Xiao and asked in a milky voice:

’Uncle, did you also come back from ’outside the fire’?’

’Have you also... brought people back before?’

Zhou Xiao squatted down, patted the Child’s head, and nodded with a smile.

He didn’t say how many variants he had slaughtered along the way, didn’t say how many days he had gone hungry, and didn’t say he had once been presumed dead.

What he said was:

’We all brought them back.’

’Brought you home.’

The outline of ’Root of Fire · First City’ had taken shape:

Ring of Technology: Used for the reconstruction of secondary industrial systems such as mechs, energy, and parts

Ring of Memory: Composed of the ’Seed Oral History Museum’ and the ’Children’s Literacy Center’

Ring of Ecology: Plant adaptation experimental fields and the Seed fungal network symbiosis zone

Ring of Life: Purification hospitals and Fire Mark infection observation stations

Ring of Defense: Patrolled day and night by the ’Initial Defense Army’ organized by Zhou Xiao

Ring of Residents: Converted from the ’Fire Source Shelter’ into residential areas

Ring of Communication: The new council hall where representatives from each base were stationed

Ring of Psionics: The resonance area of the Sensing Grass and the Seed, with restricted access

Looking down from the sky, the Fire Stele was the heart, and the eight rings were like blood vessels.

Civilization began to pulse.

Ye Nanxing stood at the top of the tower, looking at all of this.

She saw people repairing roads, carrying crystal pipes, teaching children to write, and quietly singing a song without a melody.

She heard the sounds of life—a sound that wasn’t about struggling to survive, but rather, ’I want to live.’

At that moment, a strange sense of stability suddenly rose in her heart.

It wasn’t the relief after completing a mission, nor the numbness of surviving a war.

But rather:

’It seems... we can really go on like this forever.’

’If there are no more disasters, just living like this... is also quite good.’

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the purified air.

The Seed jumped lightly in her palm, as if responding:

[Okay. Let’s live on like this.]

Until that line of text appeared—

In her mind, a long-lost, indelible voice suddenly emerged:

[Seed landing detection complete]

[Civilization embryo has acquired survival capability]

[System master control authority is about to return]

Ye Nanxing opened her eyes abruptly, and the star map unfolded before her,

the world in the distance was not firelight, but data bubbles composed of circles of cold light.

’Who are you?’