Following the direction Du Hao pointed, the crowd finally observed the city ahead with serious attention.
A stone wall had abruptly risen within the city. From their vantage point, the stone wall appeared to enclose a rather large area.
"This stone wall shouldn't be an original structure here."
Before the apocalypse, no city would have undertaken such construction within its limits; city planning certainly wouldn't have been designed this way.
"Is that a new base they've built?"
Someone asking this wasn't out of place, as in the post-apocalyptic world, human ability users were present in many regions, and they had constructed defensive walls of this scale.
"Doesn't seem like it, that wall looks like a single barrier."
"Could it be newly built? If it's a new base, and there are no zombies here, that would make sense."
"Did any of you hear any construction sounds?"
Even if an earth-element ability user had constructed this city wall, the sound of it rising from the ground wouldn't be insignificant. After all, it was a physical structure, and it wouldn't be entirely silent.
Yet, within the city, apart from the distant roars of some zombies, there wasn't a single sound where they were.
The place was eerily quiet.
"No sound..."
The crowd shook their heads, looking at the abrupt wall in the city with great confusion.
"Shall we go take a look? It's so quiet over there, there shouldn't be any zombies."
Du Hao remained silent for a moment, then looked again towards the location of the wall.
"No, let's retreat first. We'll come back in a couple of days."
If this was all a zombie conspiracy, going there would be akin to suicide. It was better to wait a couple of days and see if the situation on the city's outskirts changed.
Without further hesitation, everyone packed up their belongings. They drove away quietly, their faces all etched with solemnity.
When they first arrived, seeing the absence of zombies, they thought they had stumbled upon a lucky find, believing the zombies here had been controlled and led away. They hadn't expected the city to be so unsettling.
Lu Heng, in the center of the city, was unaware that the group he had encountered in the wilderness had also arrived in this city.
He was even more oblivious to the fact that those people had been scared away by the stone wall he had created. However, this was for the best, as it would prevent others from witnessing him integrating the zombies, thus keeping his ability to control them a secret.
Below the city, the zombies were still engaged in fierce battles, and their numbers were rapidly decreasing.
After some zombies killed their companions, under Lin Xue's control, they would directly extract the crystals from the slain zombies and consume them.
For a time, the bloody scene was filled only with zombies.
This state of zombies fighting amongst themselves was, in fact, fortunate for humans. However, some harbored fear, or perhaps a pathological jealousy, towards the ability to control zombies.
As the sun began to set, its lingering rays illuminated the abandoned buildings, casting a more desolate aura upon the ruined city.
At this moment, Lin Xue reported the situation to Lu Heng again.
"Master, these zombies have all reached level twelve."
Lu Heng lay on a lounge chair, a small fire crackling on the side table beside him, its flickering light casting shadows on the rooftops.
Lu Heng stretched, then got up to look at the zombies below.
"Mm, head towards the city wall. I'll open a path for them to enter."
Lin Xue let out a sharp cry. The zombies that had just finished their battles and leveled up to twelve immediately adjusted their direction and moved towards a specific location.
When moving through the city, they had to navigate around various buildings. Furthermore, the ground was littered with the corpses of zombies from their recent battles.
Consequently, the zombies' progress on the ground was arduous, as they had to trample over numerous zombie corpses before reaching the wall.
Driven inside the wall, Lu Heng, with Lin Xue, sat atop the not-so-wide wall, observing the zombies below.
The zombies showed no signs of rest. Upon entering the wall, they immediately resumed their mutual combat. After several hours, two more level twelve zombies emerged.
Lu Heng felt as if he were sitting in the Roman Colosseum, watching gladiators like a slave owner.
Those zombies were like the slaves forced to fight.
These 'slaves' fought to the death until Lin Xue commanded them to stop, at which point they numbly ceased their combat.
The zombie that Lu Heng had previously isolated had once again sensed the presence of newly arrived high-level zombies in the vicinity.
However, being confined, it couldn't see the outside situation, only sensing the constant fighting of the other zombies.
But this time, it didn't become agitated or act out in a frenzy. It simply remained quietly pressed against the wall, listening to the sounds outside.
Lu Heng, sitting on the high wall, observed the zombie's behavior and said to Lin Xue, "It's time to let it out."
Immediately, a gap appeared in the wall that had been isolating the zombie. Lin Xue controlled the zombie and directed it towards the recently integrated zombies.
Just as Lin Xue was about to control the zombies for further combat and integration, Lu Heng raised his hand to stop her.
"Let them act on their own."
This meant that Lin Xue should not control the zombies; he wanted to personally observe the reactions of these high-level zombies.
Freed from Lin Xue's control, the three level twelve zombies stood together, observing each other.
However, the zombie that had been integrated first, having adapted to the functions of a level twelve, immediately conjured an ice wall around itself.
After creating the ice wall, it made no further move. It let out a low growl towards the two zombies not far in front of it.
This was communication, communication between zombies. Although Lu Heng couldn't understand it, Lin Xue, beside him, translated it for him through telepathy.
"It wants the two zombies opposite it not to fight it. It's trying to persuade them to leave this place with it."
Heh, interesting. This zombie seemed to have not only recovered its intelligence but also possessed a high level of it.
However, it seemed to have forgotten that the person who brought it here wouldn't let them leave so easily.
Did it still think it was unobserved, like it was just moments ago?
With Lin Xue's translated words constantly flowing into his mind, Lu Heng smiled as he watched the persuasive zombie below.
Since this zombie had no intention of continuing to fight the other zombies here, he would have Lin Xue control the opposite zombies to kill it.
Subsequently, under Lin Xue's control, the two zombies on the opposite side simultaneously launched an attack towards the zombie behind the ice wall.
One zombie punched the ice wall, causing numerous cracks to appear instantly.
Perhaps this dual-element zombie's ability was stronger, as even with the cracks, the ice wall still held.
The dual-element zombie instantly stopped its low growls. It cautiously created another ice wall behind the previous one.
Then, after a couple of roars, it ran towards the rear.