When Park Su heard that Xu Nuo could listen to what they were saying, he was somewhat surprised, "You not only have clairvoyance, but you also have super hearing?"
Xu Nuo gave him a light tap on the forehead, "What are you thinking? There's no such thing as clairvoyance or super hearing. It's just because their current location is quite open, and not too far from us, so I can use some simple sound transmission talismans to eavesdrop. After all, if you don't know what they're saying, you might not accept losing the bet, and then refuse to acknowledge it."
At first, Park Su thought Xu Nuo was incredibly impressive for being able to do this, but when he heard the last sentence, his face darkened. "I'm not the type who can't afford to lose; I won't welch on a bet, it's just..."
Seeing those innocent women, elderly, and children being killed by zombies made him feel bad inside.
This apocalypse truly makes people despair. Thinking this way, although his wood-type ability is supportive, at least it's allowed him to survive tightly for six years in this apocalyptic world. If it weren't for someone betraying him, he might have lived even longer.
While he was feeling sympathetic for these ordinary people, Xu Nuo beside him gave him a sidelong glance and snorted coldly. "The zombies now, although they don't feel pain and seem very aggressive, aren't particularly formidable.
Even young people can kill one or two of them. After all, after so long in this apocalypse, everyone knows where the zombies' weaknesses are. But they don't fight back, just keep running and waiting for rescue; that's what leads to their doom.
Don't forget about Lu Xia, a woman who looks weaker than some of them, but when we went to save her, she managed to take out two zombies on her own. She couldn't fend off the third one, but she held out until we arrived, didn't she?
So, everyone's fate is in their own hands. Relying on others will only lead to disappointment, even despair, and could drag others down, ultimately being abandoned by them.
After all, no one has the obligation to help anyone, and in this apocalypse, there are fewer and fewer people like you who are foolish. You see yourself as a good person, but others might see you as a fool."
He paused, then raised the corners of his mouth in a cold, mocking smile, "In such a society, it's easy for the darker sides of human nature to expand. People like Zuo Xiong, who are shameless, will likely become more common."
As he spoke, he quickly folded a hundred-yuan bill he had taken out from his pocket into something resembling a paper crane.
Then, he drew some symbols on the wings of the paper crane that Park Su couldn't understand, and with a slight flick of Xu Nuo's hand, the paper crane flew towards where Zuo Xiong and his group were.
Although it couldn't fly as nimbly as a real bird, the fact that a paper crane could fly was something Park Su had only seen in TV dramas. He never thought he'd see it in real life, which made him quite surprised.
Xu Nuo replied very calmly, "I saw it in some Xianxia TV shows before and thought it was interesting, so I researched it.
I combined several types of talisman spells, experimented over a thousand times before succeeding. It's quite interesting. Don't worry, since I promised to teach you, I will once your Daoist skills reach a certain level."
Hearing this, Park Su's mouth twitched. If he remembered correctly, the spatial ring seemed to have been researched because of something seen in a novel or TV drama.
So, this Master Xu Nuo, whom everyone in the apocalypse wanted to curry favor with, was not only a novel enthusiast but also a TV show fan. How did this kind of revelation seem to challenge his worldview?
Of course, this thought he only dared to mutter in his mind; he wouldn't say it directly in front of Xu Nuo.
Soon after, the paper crane landed on a tree branch near where Zuo Xiong was, standing still even in the wind, truly miraculous.
Quickly, the conversation from Zuo Xiong's side was transmitted verbatim. Park Su heard Zuo Xiong, while packing, cursing, "We left so many zombie corpses around his place; logically, the scent of blood should have kept the zombies there. How did they all come here?
Everyone, hurry up and pack. We don't have time to count the supplies. Let's just pack them up for now, and we'll sort them out after we get through this. If we delay any longer, we might not even be able to leave."
Meanwhile, Zhu Xianhou's expression was not good, "It seems that person has some tricks up his sleeve. I guess that young man must have done something to redirect the zombies here instead of to his place.
I wonder if he'll come after us for revenge since we've offended him. He does seem to have some real skills. Look, there are so many zombies outside, but not a single one is attacking the yard where we placed the talisman."
Upon hearing this, Zuo Xiong immediately began cursing, essentially blaming Zhu Xianhou for stopping him from dealing with Xu Nuo and his "little lover" yesterday. If he had, there wouldn't have been all this trouble today, and they might have even taken the talismans. After his rant, he noticed the looks around him and continued to curse Xu Nuo for being too cold-blooded, unwilling to share such beneficial items like talismans with everyone, and even going so far as to lure zombies towards them. They were just two people, but here they had seventy to eighty, which was utterly heartless, completely forgetting that even two people have a right to live, and that Xu Nuo had the right to choose whether or not to share his talismans.
Xu Nuo just gave a cold laugh in response, not commenting, and continued to watch as Zuo Xiong directed several strong men to load things onto the car, arranging a few to act as the vanguard, clearly preparing to leave.
For them, whether Xu Nuo was dead or alive, or what method he used to attract the zombies, was not their concern right now; saving their own lives was enough.
As Zuo Xiong was getting into the car, he said, "Don't let me see that kid again, or I'll make him pay for what he did today."
Zhu Xianhou, seeing his eagerness to get into the car, looked displeased and grabbed him, "What about those ordinary people? Aren't you going to do anything?
Don't forget they are part of our convoy. If you leave them like this, are you sure the strong men in the cars won't hold you accountable? Don't forget, some of their family members are out there."
Zuo Xiong was very agitated upon hearing this, "What use are those people? They're just a burden. Some of the women can only help to keep some of the brothers in line, but those kids and old people, keeping them in the convoy is just wasting our resources. If they want to blame someone, they should blame their bad luck for running into this situation. If there wasn't so much danger, I could safely take them to the base, but now with so many zombies outside, are we supposed to risk our lives to save them? Zhu Xianhou, if you've got no brains and want to do something foolish, go save them yourself, but don't drag me down with you."
Zhu Xianhou, upon hearing this, was somewhat displeased. Zuo Xiong's words were too harsh; after all, the expansion of the convoy to its current state was largely due to his efforts. Now, with this issue, Zuo Xiong was pushing all the blame onto him, which was quite chilling.
But the convoy was also his life's work, so he lowered his voice and said, "Even if you're not planning to save them, you should at least make it look like you're trying. If you just leave like this, how can the people in the convoy trust you in the future?
Don't forget how we convinced them to join the convoy in the first place. Even if times have changed and everyone knows it's not as simple as we initially made it out to be, we still have to keep up appearances!
And can you guarantee that all those people will be killed by the zombies with no survivors? If someone escapes, our convoy's reputation will be ruined.
Moreover, you're pushing all these people out at once; what if you encounter another danger later? What will you do then? Go out yourself? Or send these ability users who've lost faith in us?"
Zuo Xiong hesitated upon hearing this; after all, he had put a lot of effort into expanding the convoy to its current size. Although there were quite a few ability users in it, most were still ordinary people, since ability users were not very common in this world.
As time passed, ability users had become more arrogant, less willing to join convoys, and even if they did, they wouldn't do the menial tasks, leaving most of those to the ordinary people without abilities.
If they lost all these people now, who would do the grunt work in the future?
But that wasn't even the most critical issue. Initially, he and Zhu Xianhou had used grand promises of righteousness to attract some ability users into the convoy, essentially using moral obligations to bind them to the group for the sake of saving more people.
However, if he completely ignored their cries for help now, would those ability users, who joined under the banner of righteousness, turn against him or leave the convoy after this incident? That could lead to the convoy's dissolution.
So, the best approach was to at least make an appearance, even if it was just for show; they should save some people they deemed useful.
Like some of the strong ordinary men who could help fend off zombies, young people capable of work, or women with good looks who could be used to keep ability users loyal.
However, the thought of the dense crowd of zombies outside made Zuo Xiong's scalp tingle; he really didn't want to go out there. After all, nobody enjoys risking their life for no good reason.
At this moment, he somewhat blamed Zhu Xianhou for using such an excuse to recruit those people, completely forgetting how much he benefited from this excuse initially.