Wasteland Commander

Ye Fan went to a nearby stall and exchanged a piece of meat for some paint.

Then he returned to Qin Yumo's side, speaking in a muffled voice: "Captain Qin, I used to be a painter, and I think your team's emblem lacks spiritual charm, it might be hard to achieve your wishes."

Qin Yumo, who was directing her men to move things, paused and turned her head to look at Ye Fan curiously: "What do you mean by spiritual charm?"

Ye Fan pointed to the two mountains: "These are just ordinary mountains, truly spiritual mountains aren't like this; take Huaguo Mountain for example, it's because there's an Immortal Stone there that nurtured the Monkey King, making the mountain truly spiritual, so you should add a little something to yours."

Qin Yumo nodded slightly: "Seems to make some sense, what do you suggest?"

Ye Fan walked over, picked up the paint, and added two raised round stones to the tops of the two mountain peaks.

"Now it's good."

Qin Yumo stared at the mountain pattern on her car for quite a while without speaking.

When she turned to face Ye Fan again, her fingers clicked with sound.

"You drew well." Her voice was cold enough to shed ice.

"Haha, it's excessive praise, if you've never eaten pork, you've at least seen a pig run, right?"

There was a killing intent in Qin Yumo's eyes, as if hesitating whether to immediately take him out.

But as she stared closely at Ye Fan, she gradually saw the clue.

It turned out to be him!

Qin Yumo had to suppress her anger back into her stomach.

Speaking in a low voice: "You're so idle, not doing your proper work and you're still teasing me, a weak woman?"

Ye Fan saw Qin Yumo finally recognized him, put the paint down: "Follow me."

Qin Yumo followed Ye Fan, along with Zhuge Yunxue, and they arrived at a street corner.

Here, close to the central area wall, there was already no one around.

Ye Fan pulled down his hat and exhaled: "Phew, I'm suffocating."

"Captain Qin, let me ask you something, did you see that promotional vehicle from Daqing Mountain?"

Qin Yumo nodded: "Just saw it."

"What's your opinion on this matter?"

Qin Yumo chuckled: "You're asking the right person because no one is more interested in things happening over at Daqing Mountain than I am, after all, the foundation I built was all destroyed in their hands."

"Xu Weiwei absolutely isn't from the Daqing Mountain Prison Base; whether it's the old Daqing Mountain, or our airport or hot spring or other places, such a person has never been there."

"Where could she be from?"

Qin Yumo thought for a moment: "If I'm not mistaken, this woman should be from Ice City."

"Ice City?"

Ye Fan fell into deep thought, why would someone from Ice City perform for Daqing Mountain?

Could it be that Daqing Mountain's new leader Yan Zhihuan has such face to invite Ice City's stars?

Although stars these days aren't worth much, they still differ from regular people.

Qin Yumo laughed: "Leader Ye, I'll just share what I know, and you can analyze it yourself."

"Yan Zhihuan is a new leader, previously unknown; from what I know, the biggest force in Ice City now is Guo Zhun from the Liberation Army, and that base has a reported population of four hundred thousand, and their armed forces are extremely powerful, Xu Weiwei might be from there."

"As for why Xu Weiwei would accept Yan Zhihuan's invitation, that I don't know, but you're such a talented painter, Leader Ye, surely you could make a rational analysis."

After saying this, Qin Yumo turned and left.

Ye Fan rubbed his chin, a hazy speculation already formed in his mind.

*********

Zhang Kunlin gave a reply to the people from Daqing Mountain.

They could perform in Dawn City, but Dawn City currently doesn't have a suitable venue.

They need a little time to create a venue and then return.

The parties talked it over and set a date.

It's just now entering December, so there's a month until New Year's Day.

At that time, each survivor base will welcome the first New Year after the apocalypse.

Then the Dawn Army will welcome Daqing Mountain's dance troupe to perform, setting the time on New Year's Eve, to enrich Dawn City residents' leisure life.

However, the Dawn Army won't pay Daqing Mountain; it's an honorary performance.

The people from Daqing Mountain agreed gladly.

They said they came to Dawn City to foster harmony between the two parties, not to charge any fees.

The people from Daqing Mountain left contently; the situation was reported back to Ye Fan.

Ye Fan stated he understood.

Since they promised, Ye Fan decided to set up a performance venue.

The performance venue will be prepared in Dawn Restaurant's location.

Dawn Restaurant's foundation is already laid, the ground is leveled, basement is done, just need to build upwards.

Now it's winter, not suitable for large-scale construction, but building a temporary large stage is feasible, since those temporary buildings don't require earthwork.

The Dawn Army's engineer corps began, quickly setting up large event board rooms.

In the middle, there's a temporary stage with seating for the audience below.

The height reaches twenty meters, and the length and width both exceed a hundred meters.

It's planned to be turned into a performance venue that can hold five thousand people. Although not too large, it's quite decent as a temporary setup.

It's estimated that it can be completed within half a month.

********

At the Daqing Mountain Prison Base, the new leader, Yan Zhihuan, received this news and felt secretly delighted.

He doesn't consider himself a great talent, nor does he ever hope to become a dominant figure in the region.

But he ended up in power somewhat cluelessly, pushed up by someone else.

After Hu Yuan's death, many people wanted to become the prison base's leader, openly and secretly competing.

As a low-ranking member of the leadership, Yan Zhihuan originally had no hope.

However, a group of mysterious figures arrived, using their formidable personal strength to viciously eliminate several contenders for leader, instead installing him as the leader.

Yan Zhihuan knew that what appealed to them was his obedience.

He plans to maintain this trait, doing whatever they tell him to.

Reporting the news of Dawn City, he could tell that they were very satisfied.

That's enough. Seeing the nearly superhuman power of those mysterious figures, Yan Zhihuan believes that sooner or later, Huacheng will have a new leader.

Be it Ye Fan or Wangbei Army, under that person's formidable power, they'll sooner or later be swept into the dustbin of history.

********

The successful trade market in Dawn City brings Ye Fan some income every day.

Converted into Gold, there's about two thousand gold's worth of income daily.

Others might not care about Gold, but resources are undeniably real.

Among them, diesel, gasoline, rare metals, etc., anything that appears must be purchased by the Dawn Army.

Dai Yu from the hot spring drove an oil tanker back to the base, causing quite a stir.

Ye Fan naturally gave him a warm welcome, but it also stirred up quite a bit of jealousy.

Many of the traders here were originally people from the Survivor Alliance, and in essence, they were once enemies.

Most could still restrain themselves, but a few from the Burning Army couldn't hold back.

After Wang Dashan died in battle, his confidant took over the Burning Army.

He resented the Dawn Army for annihilating the main force of the Burning Army, causing them to become somewhat dormant.

Seeing the base's situation deteriorate, survivors already struggling to get by, he also frets over the base's future.

Arriving late today, he missed out on good spots, fueling his anger.

"Damn it! It truly is fortune's wheel. Once irrelevant, the Dawn Army is getting better and better. Our Burning Army used to be Huacheng's second, but now we've fallen to this state, all thanks to the Dawn Army!"

They loudly cursed, attracting the attention of nearby security forces, who promptly came over to warn them.

If they continued to spout nonsense, they'd be driven out by the Dawn Army.

Those survivors showed no restraint: "Do you think only the Dawn Army can trade? Let me tell you, Guo Zhun of Ice City, Jiang Mountain of Crane City, Li Yuntian of Oil City—those places are the largest survivor bases in Divine Dragon Province, and there's Hai Shan Wei by the Shenlong River. Which isn't stronger than your Dawn City? What a facade!"

The Dawn Army's soldiers were unreserved, directly picking them up and ejecting them from the base.

This leader furiously led a few people back to the Burning Army.

Their subordinates were at a loss; if they didn't trade with the Dawn Army, where else could they go?

The Burning Army was nearly out of food and had to find a way out.

Whether to Ice City, Oil City, or Crane City, none were close, and the roads weren't fully opened yet—migrating a large group of survivors was too dangerous.

This leader made a decisive decision.

"If we can't stay here, we'll find somewhere else. Tell everyone to start up all the trucks from the base, load them with high-quality coal, and we'll head north!"

His men brightened up: "Are we going to merge with the Wangbei Army?"

The leader snorted coldly and shook his head: "Zhang Xiaofei from the Wangbei Army has been running to Dawn City constantly. Wiggling at Ye Fan, nearly snatching the role of his guard dog, can we rely on him?"

"Then... where can we head north to?"

"Of course, it's Hai Shan Wei!"

The group was all stunned; were they really going to seek refuge with the Rakshasa?

They considered opposing it, but the leader had already made up his mind.

"No one should try to dissuade me. Tell everyone, those willing to follow me, I'll take them to Hai Shan Wei for a good life, those unwilling can find their own way, but don't even think about driving away a single car or taking a single gun!"

The order was passed down, and under his strong stance, nearly six thousand of the Burning Corps' survivors chose to follow the leader to the Rakshasa.

The remaining three thousand chose not to abandon their country and sought out other paths.

This leader took more than two hundred trucks of coal and set off on the road north.

Not daring to take the Wangbei Army's path led by Zhang Xiaofei, he had no choice but to circumvent via Huacheng's edges.

By passing the fork road between former Pinggang Town and Huacheng, they could still reach the Shenlong Riverfront.

Pinggang Town was no longer infested with zombies; hopefully, this journey would be safe.