"There really is something, something big!"
Zhuang Shuyuan reacted extremely fast. Seeing that Liang Yuan was truly angry, she hurriedly straightened out her attitude.
Ignoring the biting cold wind and the heavy snow falling on her beautiful hair, she quickly said, "On Yang Baoshan, the number one survivor force in Baoshan City, thereâs a man named Xu Haoyang who sent people to Dark Abyss Mouth to seek your help."
"Heâs currently over at Wu Yingâs side and has been detained."
"He doesnât know whether this Xu Haoyang really has any relationship with you, so he told me to hurry over and ask you."
"They couldnât find you at the Leaderâs Mansion and could only come to your doorstep."
"Besides, they didnât even enter the house. That counts as keeping their promise, right?"
As she said this, she put on a pitiful expression, eyes brimming with tears.
Hearing this, Liang Yuan couldnât help but raise an eyebrow slightly and asked, "Xu Haoyang? I remember heâs the expedition captain of the Yang Baoshan survivor base. His strength is decent. Do you people know anything about the situation on Yang Baoshan? Whoâs the leader? How strong are they?"
He completely ignored Zhuang Shuyuanâs pitiful act; he knew this woman far too well.
For her to feel wronged just like thatâimpossible.
This was nothing but one of her methods to make him forgive her.
For women, their strongest weapon is never how hard they can hit, but how well they can show weakness and act spoiled.
Zhuang Shuyuan saw that he wouldnât pick up the cue and felt somewhat helpless.
She put away that expression, her watery eyes blinking as she said, "That place is a bit far from us, and because Guangfuâs territory has been expanding fiercely, the Inspection Department is rather understaffed, so we never went to Baoshan City to investigate."
Liang Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Then whatâs the situation with Beichen Island?"
Zhuang Shuyuan still shook her head, indicating she wasnât very clear.
As for Baoshan City, Yangshan really didnât have much intel.
"Mr. Liang, are we going to get involved in this?"
Liang Yuan said in a deep voice, "Xu Haoyang and I donât have that deep a relationship, but since heâs come to me, it shows heâs truly reached the end of his rope."
For someone to ask help from a person heâs not close to, it means heâs run out of any other options.
"Heâs a Light Attribute Superpower User, quite strong, and that Yang Baoshan is also the largest survivor base in Baoshan City. The population is probably considerable."
"Itâs not that we canât help, but we definitely canât be hasty."
Zhuang Shuyuan asked, "Then what should we do?"
Liang Yuan thought for a bit. "First send people over to scout the situation, especially to find out who the leader on Beichen Island is and what experts they have."
"What if the people on Yang Baoshan canât hold out?"
Liang Yuan gave her a glance and asked, "Isnât it better if they canât hold out?"
"Do I want to take in a group thatâs still organized, goal-driven, and has leadership?"
Zhuang Shuyuan immediately understood, just like with Martial King Pavilion back then.
For Liang Yuan to subdue these people, what he wanted was not an organization with its own regime, but scattered soldiers whose ideology had already been shattered.
Only then would this group integrate into Yangshan and become a part of Yangshan.
"Go."
Liang Yuan waved his hand and was about to leave.
Zhuang Shuyuanâs expression changed instantly; she hurriedly shouted, "Wait, I canât fly!"
Liang Yuan sneered. "Canât fly, but you canât walk? You managed to walk all the way to my doorstep, didnât you? Pretty capable, arenât you?"
As his words fell, he took a step out and walked away in midair.
Seeing this, Zhuang Shuyuan suddenly gritted her teeth and jumped hard, leaping straight toward the cliff as she shouted, "Wait for me."
With that leap, her explosive power was quite something; she actually almost managed to grab Liang Yuan in an instant.
However, Liang Yuan was even faster. His figure flickered, and he had already stepped far away, easily dodging her.
Zhuang Shuyuan let out a sharp scream at once, her whole body plummeting in free fall toward the bottom of the cliff.
In midair she flailed her arms and legs, screaming in panic and terror.
Seeing that she was about to smash into a protruding rock below, Liang Yuan still didnât appear.
Zhuang Shuyuan was instantly furious. She immediately took out a Talisman Stone and gently crushed it.
With a hum, the Talisman Stone lit up, enveloping her.
Bang!
She slammed down hard, crashing onto the rock. The defensive shield smashed the rock to pieces with a roar, while she herself was completely unscathed.
"Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!"
"He really didnât save me!"
Zhuang Shuyuan cursed loudly.
So it had all been an act just now. With her status as Minister Zhuang, even if she couldnât fly using her Superpower, there was no way sheâd be short of various life-saving Talisman Stones.
So dying from a fall like this? That was never going to happen to her.
But just as she finished cursing, a cold laugh suddenly sounded from behind her.
"Were you cursing me?"
Zhuang Shuyuanâs whole body instantly went rigid. She turned her head slowly, hastily putting on a pitiful expression. "No, I was just scared is all."
Liang Yuan sneered and grabbed her chin, pinching her delicate face.
"Stop playing these little tricks with me. You should know I understand you better than you think."
"Minister Zhuang! This time is just a small lesson. If you dare to take matters into your own hands again, donât blame me for truly turning ruthless."
"Y-youâre hurting me."
Zhuang Shuyuan couldnât help struggling a bit.
Liang Yuan sneered at once. "Hurting? Thatâs enough to make you cry? I donât think you have any idea what pain really is."
Ripâ!
He tore open her qipao with the blue-and-white porcelain pattern in one go, and her slit thigh was instantly exposed.
On those long legs she wore black stockings, setting off Zhuang Shuyuanâs sexy, slender thighs.
Zhuang Shuyuanâs whole body trembled, and she wanted to say something, but Liang Yuan lightly gripped her waist, making her let out a muffled groan at once.
The next moment, Space twisted slightly, and Liang Yuan directly dragged her into the Sumeru Mustard Seed Space.
Two hours later, Space twisted again, and two figures appeared at the original spot.
Liang Yuan fastened the last button, then glanced at Zhuang Shuyuan, who was lying on the ground.
Her hair was a mess, her face was flushed, and her whole body was still trembling.
On her fair skin, conspicuous marks had been left behind.
Some were swollen red from being slapped, some were sucked out.
Her eyes were rolling back a little, half-fainting, looking truly miserable.
Liang Yuan casually pulled a set of clothes out of his inventory and tossed it onto her body.
"When you go back, reflect on yourself properly. If you dare cross the line again, it wonât just be two hours next time."
Zhuang Shuyuanâs legs trembled at once, her chest heaving, showing that she wasnât really unconscious.
Swish!
Liang Yuanâs figure flickered and vanished from where he stood.
Only after a long while did Zhuang Shuyuan finally catch her breath.
She struggled to sit up from the ground, as if she had lost all strength and means.
She leaned blankly against the wall, waited a bit, then finally gathered herself.
"Hooâbastard!"
She lightly bit her teeth together, couldnât help cursing, but there wasnât much anger in itâinstead there was a trace of sweetness.
"Next time? Hmph, next time this Minister just has to find a way to crawl into Yang Meiâs bed!"
She sneered inwardly, climbed up, threw away the already torn stockings, and changed into the clothes Liang Yuan had left.
She glanced at the marks on her body and smiled smugly.
"All those women still canât satisfy you? You still have to vent on this Minister."
"Just you wait, sooner or later Iâm going to ride on your head!"
In a good mood, Zhuang Shuyuan hummed a little tune, then limped off toward her workplace.
...
At the same time, Liang Yuan didnât go straight home, but went to Floating Bridge Port between Yangshan and Meishan.
Now, as the heavy snow kept falling, Floating Bridge Port was completely buried in snow.
Even so, Floating Bridge Port was still packed with people, gathering quite a lot of survivors.
These survivors each had a basket on their backs and held fishing rods and nets in their hands.
"Mr. Liang."
"Mr. Liang."
The nearby patrol members saw Liang Yuan and hurriedly greeted him.
Liang Yuan nodded slightly, swept his gaze around, and saw a familiar face.
"Hongmian, whereâs Xiangman?"
Luo Hongmian looked up, saw it was Liang Yuan, and immediately smiled. "Captain is up in the watchtower."
Liang Yuan smiled. "Then Iâll go up and find her. Howâs business today?"
Luo Hongmian grinned. "Youâve seen it yourself, itâs insanely busy. If Iâd known running a fishery made this much, Captain and I wouldâve done it ages ago."
Turns out that ever since more and more people settled in Yangshan and the number of Superpower Users kept rising, the people under Han Xiangman also grew in number.
But aside from relying on Yangshanâs Points distributions, they had no other source of income.
Before winter set in, in their off time they could still go help the construction department to earn some Points, or go into the mountains to hunt Mutant Beasts.
But after winter, with the heavy snow never stopping, the water surface froze, and there wasnât a trace of Mutant Beasts in the mountainsâthere was basically nowhere to earn Points.
Han Xiangman had troubled over this for a long time, until Liang Yuan gave her an idea: go clear the snow at Floating Bridge Port, break the ice, and open up a fishery.
Han Xiangman immediately took Luo Hongmian and a few old friends, led her people, and started breaking the ice to open a fishery.
Sure enough, once the fishery was opened and the ice surface smashed open, many Mutant Fish trapped under the water swam over for oxygen.
Han Xiangmanâs people were overjoyed and caught loads of Mutant Fish every time, then sent them to the Slaughterhouse and raked in Points.
And the people who earned those Points then rushed straight to the Spirit Gathering Tower to spend them, boosting their strength.
This money-making model was quickly copied by others.
But opening a fishery wasnât easy; it needed a lot of manpower.
The ice layer on the water was very thick, the weather this cold, and the snow this heavy.
First you had to clear the snow, then start breaking the ice.
Once the ice was successfully broken, people also had to stay nearby around the clock to make sure the surface didnât freeze over again.
The project was no small thing, so up to now there were only two or three fisheries at Floating Bridge Port.
They were basically run by idle members of the patrol teams working together.
Among them, Han Xiangmanâs fishery was the biggest.
And thanks to the fisheries, the Slaughterhouse received a huge amount of Mutant Fish, and Liang Yuanâs Points naturally shot up like crazy.
In just over half a month, Liang Yuanâs Points had soared to as many as 300,000, almost doubling his previous total.
And the fishery model was quickly spreading outward.
Not only in Yangshan, Meishan, and Lingyun Slopeânow even Zhao Kai, Li Qinghua, and the others far away in Guangfu were copying it.
Even the military had gotten wind of it and started imitating it.
With that, the Points problem that had once troubled Liang Yuan had basically been solved.
Liang Yuan figured that before long, there would be an explosive growth in Points; earning a Million Points a month was no longer just a dream.
When that time came, he would be able to use the system to directly redeem the gene recombination rewards from the Million Points prize pool.
By then, his gene recombination progress would skyrocket!
After saying goodbye to Luo Hongmian, Liang Yuan went up the watchtower.
At the entrance he saw two patrol members on guard. They were about to salute him, but Liang Yuan pressed their hands down and smiled. "Is Captain Han inside?"
"She is."
Liang Yuan nodded and walked in, only to see that in the small room inside the watchtower, Han Xiangman was in the middle of the Cultivation of the Genetic Activation Technique.
He smiled, simply sat down to one side, and didnât disturb her.