Chapter 34 – The Blocked Passage

If Yuan Jianze was currently filled with frustration, then Cheng Yang was experiencing a headache. He stood outside the southern exit of Xiangcheng City, gazing at the densely packed demonic creatures that filled the dozens of meters long passageway. The sight made his scalp tingle.

There must be at least seven to eight hundred of them, right? And among them were numerous high-level monsters. Cheng Yang estimated that within this horde, there was at least one late-stage Tier 1 demonic beast.

Although he had just killed a late-stage Tier 1 black wolf, that didn’t mean he could disregard all late-stage Tier 1 demonic beasts. Especially when this one was hidden among nearly a thousand monsters – killing it wouldn’t be as easy as before.

What would happen if he provoked these creatures now?

Cheng Yang surveyed his surroundings. Apart from the relatively sparse trees near him, both sides were like primeval forests, filled with tangled thorns and impassable terrain. Of course, if someone were to clear a path, venturing deeper into the forest would be easy. But with only Cheng Yang alone, his only escape route was behind him.

But what if monsters suddenly appeared behind him, blocking his retreat? This was something he had to consider in advance. Most monster hordes didn’t stay in one place; they wandered around searching for food, albeit at a slow pace.

This was nearly a thousand monsters, not like the fifty he had faced before. With fifty, even if surrounded, he could quickly escape. But if trapped by nearly a thousand demonic beasts, death would be certain.

Therefore, Cheng Yang dismissed the idea of disturbing these creatures and slowly retreated. His purpose this time was only to scout, and that goal had been achieved. As for how to solve this problem later, it would require careful planning. At least, without sufficient magic potions, he had no intention of confronting this horde.

On his way back, Cheng Yang took a different route, clearing it as he went. By the time he returned to Luofeng Village, it was already past three in the afternoon.

Although this trip had taken a long time, the rewards were substantial. His spiritual energy had broken through to 1,500 points. Even if Yu Kai and the others didn’t return the 1,000 points tonight, he could still cultivate at four times the normal speed.

As he entered Luofeng Village’s gate, Cheng Yang noticed that Li Wanshan’s team was currently guarding the village. However, Li Wanshan wasn’t cultivating but was instead standing guard with his forty subordinates.

In truth, Luofeng Village didn’t really need guards now, as monsters no longer spawned within a kilometer radius. The real concern was internal security, given that nearly a thousand ordinary civilians who hadn’t yet undergone job transitions were living in the village. For now, they coexisted peacefully without survival crises. But if someone stirred up trouble and there was no one to maintain order, some might take dangerous risks.

Li Wanshan wasn’t cultivating because he had already done so last night. Less than twenty hours had passed since his last cultivation session, so he had to wait.

Seeing Cheng Yang enter through the main gate, Li Wanshan immediately approached and asked, “Village Chief, how was your reconnaissance? Can we fight our way back to Xiangcheng?”

Cheng Yang replied, “The situation isn’t good. There’s only one passage about a hundred meters wide leading to Xiangcheng from our side. The rest is all bottomless chasms. That passage is now occupied by nearly a thousand demonic creatures. If we want to enter Xiangcheng, we’ll have to eliminate these monsters first.”

Li Wanshan’s expression turned grim. He said bitterly, “Is there really no way? It’s already been three days. I don’t know how my family is doing… Damn heavens, why are you so cruel? Why don’t you just kill me outright?”

At the end, Li Wanshan looked up and shouted at the sky, his voice filled with anguish.

Cheng Yang sighed inwardly. He had seen people react more intensely than Li Wanshan, so this didn’t seem strange to him. He said, “It’s not hopeless. If we focus on improving our strength, I believe we can enter Xiangcheng in a few days. Today I heard a lot of activity in Xiangcheng. Probably the military has entered the city. Yuan Jianze, the commander of Xiangcheng Military District, is a competent soldier. He’ll save everyone he can. Even if we returned now, it wouldn’t make much difference. Rather than being angry here, it’s better to focus on improving our strength. When we return to Xiangcheng, even if your family is suffering, your arrival can change that.”

Li Wanshan’s eyes gradually cleared. He said, “Village Chief, you’re right. Since heaven is playing with us like this, I’ll fight against it properly.”

Cheng Yang nodded, then asked, “It seems we rescued quite a few people today? Have the refugees from Huimin Town started coming out of hiding?”

Li Wanshan, now discussing serious matters, replied, “Village Chief, it’s already the fourth day since the apocalypse. Those hiding in the dark are starving. If they don’t come out to find food, they’ll die of hunger without the monsters even needing to attack. Additionally, there are very few scattered monsters in Huimin Town now – only about one monster group every few hundred meters. They probably realized this too, which is why they’re coming out of hiding. That’s why we were able to rescue so many people today. You might not know this yet, but the six hundred people who came to Luofeng Village are the ones who still have some strength left. There’s still a large number of people in Huimin Town who are too weak from hunger to move. So the combatants in Huimin Town are trying to kill as many usable demonic beasts as possible to feed them, so they can regain strength and travel.”

Cheng Yang was momentarily stunned, then asked, “How many people are still in Huimin Town?”

Li Wanshan said, “About two thousand have been rescued from Huimin Town so far. Based on Huimin Town’s population, there should still be nearly two thousand people who haven’t been rescued. As for the others… they either died under the claws of demonic beasts or starved to death.”

Cheng Yang roughly estimated that with all the current population, Luofeng Village now had about 1,300 people. If they could rescue another 4,000 from Huimin Town, that should be enough to upgrade Luofeng Village to a town.

The only problem troubling Cheng Yang was: how to feed these 5,000 people? Could they eat demonic beast meat for every meal? Even he, who had lived through a year of the apocalypse, couldn’t adapt to that kind of life.

Perhaps he really needed to establish the general store soon. Otherwise, not only would the spatial ring remain an unattainable dream, but food would also become a major problem.

In the early days of the apocalypse, most of what people ate came from general stores. Though no one knew why the general stores had an endless supply of food, people were just grateful rather than finding it strange.

“How many demonic beast groups are left in Huimin Town? What’s the size of the largest one?” Cheng Yang immediately asked.

Li Wanshan replied, “Huimin Town covers less than one square kilometer. After this morning’s clearing, there are about fourteen or fifteen monster groups left. The largest one has over three hundred.”

Cheng Yang nodded, “That’s not too bad. Here’s what we’ll do: I’ll go to Huimin Town later and try to eliminate all the demonic beast groups in the ruins this afternoon. Although new monsters will appear after we eliminate these groups, the numbers won’t be large. We can safely clear the ruins, which will help both with rescuing people and gathering wood.”

Li Wanshan suggested, “Village Chief, we could build a carpentry workshop first. Once we have that, we can have some people learn lumberjack skills. With enough wood, we can quickly build other structures.”

Cheng Yang smiled wryly and shook his head, “The lumberjack skill isn’t as effective as you might think. Generally, each lumberjack can only gather about ten cubic meters of wood per day.”

Li Wanshan’s eyes widened, “Ten cubic meters? That can’t be right! With our strength, even with these iron swords, we could chop down several big trees a day. That should easily amount to ten cubic meters.”

Cheng Yang explained with a bitter smile, “That won’t work. Trees cut down by people without lumberjack skills can’t be used for construction.”

“Why?” Li Wanshan was stunned.

Cheng Yang spread his hands, “I don’t know either. You can think of it as the gods not recognizing such materials.”

“But how come the wood we transported earlier could be used? There shouldn’t have been any lumberjack skills back then?” Li Wanshan was even more confused.

Cheng Yang explained, “When the gods were transforming this world, they incorporated all wood that met certain specifications into the rules. That’s why the wood we found in Huimin Town could be used. But after the transformation, to obtain usable wood, we must follow the new rules.”

Li Wanshan smiled bitterly, “That’s too harsh. If only you had bought all the logs from my lumber mill back then.”

Cheng Yang rolled his eyes, “I wanted to, but I didn’t have enough money. I had to negotiate hard just to pay an 80,000 yuan deposit.”

Li Wanshan chuckled awkwardly, “Who could have known things would turn out like this back then?”

Cheng Yang said, “Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. We’ll see how things go later. Building a carpentry workshop first isn’t a bad idea. Now that we have about two hundred people, having dozens learn lumberjack skills is feasible.”

Li Wanshan nodded with a smile, “That’s great! With a few hundred cubic meters of wood added daily, we can quickly meet the upgrade requirements for a level 2 village.”

Cheng Yang added, “Wood won’t be the most important resource in the future. The most crucial thing will be food. So a large portion of people’s secondary professions will inevitably shift to farming. That’s an inevitable trend.”

PS: Only 30 new collections today. Brothers, we need to work harder…