In a frigid apocalypse, she fed her boyfriend until he became a zombie king.

"Nothing's wrong, I'm probably just tired." Wenren Lei changed the subject. "This place is far from District 11 and the Qinggang black market. Why did Lan Peiyou go so far to get purification crystal cores?"

Fu Yan looked ahead and said, "Lan Peiyou is from District 11, and is essentially opposed to the Cataclysmic Research Institute."

Wenren Lei sneered, "Oh, so you went to the black market to buy crystal cores to eat in order to kill me. But you didn't forget justice, so you followed the trail and found out the seller's coordinates, right?" He rested his chin on his hands, pursed his lips, and shook his head. "He's just a good guy who wanted to kill me~"

Fu Yan laughed out loud: "He's a big bad guy."

"Tch." Wenren Lei hooked her arm around his neck. "Go on."

Fu Yan said, "I suspect that something happened at the Cataclysmic Research Institute branch here, which forced some people to travel thousands of miles to trade crystal cores on the black market in Qinggang."

Following the coordinates, the two arrived at a small town adjacent to Jiangdao City.

Wenren Lei stared blankly at the scene before him, dumbfounded: "Is this the living world?"

The town ahead was large, surrounded on three sides by dense forest.

The entire forest is like a huge living thing, with branches intertwined to form a conveyor belt, slowly crawling towards the center, transporting the contents of the forest to the deepest part of the jungle.

The cargo on top consisted of rows of zombies.

Fu Yan said, "It's a fusion-type skill. One tree merges the entire forest together. Just like that zombie wall in the southern suburbs of Weicheng before."

Wenren Lei felt nauseous at the thought of that wall of flesh. He shook his head to clear his mind and said, "Even the plants are like this. It seems the zombie virus is still evolving."

Fu Yan shielded Wenren Lei with his supernatural abilities and said, "Go in and take a look."

Wenren Lei jumped down from Fu Yan's arms, walked ahead, and smacked her lips: "My mouth tastes bland."

Fu Yan took out a piece of chocolate, unwrapped it, and handed it to him: "Eat this."

Wenren Lei glanced at him, then lowered her head, took the chocolate, and chewed it into her mouth, crunching as she walked through the snow towards the town. "I already had one this morning, didn't you forget?"

"I haven't forgotten."

"Then what about health?" Wenren Lei suddenly remembered that Fu Yan hadn't been deliberately controlling his diet in the past few days. He could eat whatever he wanted and stay up all night whenever he wanted.

Fu Yan nodded: "No more health preservation, from now on, my darling can do whatever makes you happy."

Wenren Lei stopped in her tracks: "You're so fickle."

Fu Yan pretended not to hear, raised his head and read out three words: "Maolin Town".

Wenren Lei looked up as well.

Before us stood the town's gate, the three gilded characters "Maolin Town" on the gate shining brightly, as if they had just been painted on.

Wenren Lei crossed her arms and looked around, saying, "This town's name does fit the terrain quite well."

Compared to the dilapidated and desolate outside, the town's cobblestone streets were exceptionally clean, and Wenrenlei's feet never stepped on the snow again after she stepped through the gate.

The green belts on both sides of the street were trimmed into spherical shapes, and strangely, their surfaces were not covered with snow.

The houses were spotless and brightly lit, with brightly colored cartoon murals painted on the walls, making it look like a typical tourist town—if you ignored the strange feeling of being spied on.

Wenren Lei turned her head and looked around: "Who's spying on us?"

The town was so quiet you could hear a pin drop; the phrase "the sound of someone's tears" seemed especially clear in the air.

Fu Yan said, "There are energy fluctuations from high-level crystal cores here."

"Oh, that timid little zombie. No wonder there are zombies all over those branches; it's digging out crystal cores to eat!"

"Um."

"I can eat it." Wenren Leiga took a bite of a piece of chocolate and chewed it slowly. The crumbs fell to the ground. He glanced down at them, walked around them, and continued walking forward.

Fu Yan suddenly conjured a protective shield to protect the two of them.

Wenren asked tearfully, "What's wrong?"

As soon as she finished speaking, she heard a dense rustling sound. Wenrenlei turned her head and saw that the spherical green belt by the roadside was shaking excitedly.

One of the spherical bushes suddenly popped out with a "bang" and rushed straight towards the two of them.

Wenren Lei quickly shielded Fu Yan behind her, pulled him back half a step, and fired several shots in quick succession as a flowing pistol materialized in her palm.

Even after its leaves were knocked off, the little tree ball didn't slow down. A thick vine was attached to its roots. It rushed up to Wenren Lei but suddenly stopped. It didn't seem to have any desire to attack; it just kept circling in place.

Wenren Lei paused for a moment, then peeked out slightly: "What's she doing, trying to be cute?"

As Fu Yan watched Wenren Lei's retreating figure, a pang of sadness welled up in his heart. He realized that Wenren Lei had not completely emerged from the shadow of his own death.

The little tree ball spun around and moved slightly, finally stopping in the middle of the road. It stretched out two small leaves, one as a broom and the other as a dustpan, and carefully swept away the chocolate crumbs on the ground.

The vines slowly pulled the small tree ball back to the green belt, sweeping away its own fallen leaves along the way.

"Huh?" Wenren Lei laughed out loud. "This wouldn't happen to be a branch of that zombie tree, would it?"

"It seems so."

"He's a germaphobe?" Wenren Lei said, tearing off a small piece of chocolate wrapper and throwing it on the ground.

The green belt started shaking again, and spherical bushes popped out from the ground, like a sweeping robot, searching in circles, quickly sweeping up the trash they found, and then quickly retreating back into the green belt.

"No wonder this town is so clean." Wenren Lei suddenly remembered something chilling. He lowered his voice and asked, "Could it be that the entire town is covered in its tree roots, watching us?"

That's why there's that feeling of being watched, like a thorn in one's side.

Fu Yan lowered his head, gently stepped on the bluestone pavement, and suddenly a long knife materialized in his palm, piercing the ground fiercely.

"ah--!"

A sharp scream came from underground. Fu Yan pulled out the knife, squatted down, plunged his whole hand into the blade, and yanked out a piece of tree root and threw it on the ground.

"ah--!!"

The tree branch screamed, struggled a few times like an eel, and then lay still.

Wenren Lei got goosebumps all over her body from the cold, and the thought of the twisted tree roots she was standing on sent chills down her spine.

"Get lost." Fu Yan lowered his eyes and said coldly to the ground, "Try spying on me again."

The pit that had been dug in the ground slowly closed up, returning to a calm and clean state, and there was no more noise.

The feeling of being watched that had been lingering around Wenren Lei gradually disappeared.

Wenren Lei teased, "I almost forgot, our Brother Yan is now the Zombie King. Even this giant zombie tree would have to kneel down and call you 'Dad' when it sees you."

Fu Yan stood up, wiped the mud off his hands with a wet wipe, and put his arm around the man's shoulder as they walked forward: "Then they'll all have to listen to Master Wenren."

"That makes sense!" Wenren Lei shouted, "That tree!"

There was a moment of silence, and the spherical bush trembled as it moved out of the green belt and into front of the two people.

Wenren Lei said, "Is there any research institute here? Take me there."

The little tree ball spun around in place, as if secretly observing Fu Yan's expression.

Fu Yan said, "Do as he says."

"Meow."

The little tree ball made a sound, dragging its vines, and slowly wriggled along the road to lead the way.

Wenren Lei was completely confused: "Wait, why would it do that?"