Chapter 64

Chapter 64

At Qi Mo's shout, Huo Jingxuan and Huo Jingtan, who had been ready at both ends, immediately began outlining a circle along the gasoline-soaked trail.

They were trying to trap the entire swarm of mutant ants.

Qi Mo urgently shouted to Huo Liangzhou, "Babe, hurry! I'm about to light the fire!"

Huo Liangzhou immediately dashed over.

As soon as Qi Mo saw Huo Liangzhou cross the tree trunk, a massive wave of mutant ants surged forward. Without hesitation, he threw the burning match onto the wood...

With a whoosh, flames instantly spread along the gasoline-soaked path.

Huo Jingxuan and Huo Jingtan ran as they poured gasoline, moving swiftly. If the fire caught up, they could get burned alive.

The circle closed as two lines of fire converged, instantly forming a perfect trap.

Qi Mo, spotting the two slumped nearby, shouted, "No breaks yet! Go grab more firewood. If any part of the fire weakens, throw the wood in immediately!"

"Hurry! Patch the weak spots with firewood. If any mutant ants break through, smash them or toss straw to ignite them!" Qi Mo yelled.

Before he could continue, Qin Lan arrived with Huo Liangya and others, while Chen Xia's husband, Huo Liangyu, also rushed over.

The mutant ants numbered not in the hundreds or thousands, but tens of thousands, spreading like a black flood across the land.

They weren’t human—death meant nothing to them.

Once trapped, the mutant ants began charging the fiery ring, desperate to escape.

They used their dead to clear a path...

Fortunately, Qi Mo noticed in time. With the villagers' cooperation, any mutant ants that broke through were driven back.

Even the weaker sections of the fire were reinforced by villagers piling on firewood. With gasoline aiding the flames, the wood and straw ignited instantly, generating blistering heat.

Though the heat was intense, the villagers stood guard. If these creatures broke free, they would devour people.

A dog had been stripped to the bone in seconds—how terrifying...

As the sun rose, no more mutant ants emerged from the fiery ring.

Huo Liangzhou took Qi Mo home.

"Hungry? What do you want to eat?" Huo Liangzhou asked.

Hearing this, Qi Mo grabbed a watermelon. He wanted fruit. The nine-month-old Chubby baby also woke up, babbling, demanding a bite...

Kitty Snowball joined in, meowing for watermelon—everyone wanted some.

Huo Liangzhou watched the three eating watermelon, then opened his mouth, waiting for his husband to feed him a bite.

Indeed, the young master's watermelon was always extra sweet, refreshing, and tasty.

"You can't just eat watermelon," Huo Liangzhou said gently.

Qi Mo looked up. "We can cook a pot of rice porridge, pack some to go, and head to the mountains later to dig up mutant ant eggs."

Huo Liangzhou chuckled upon hearing this—you still remember that, huh?

"Alright," Huo Liangzhou gave a nod.

Soon, a big steel pot of congee came to a boil—just needed to kill the flame.

Qi Mo had already pulled pumpkin congee from his storage space, along with a plate of tomato shrimp balls, to share with Chubby baby and Snowball the kitty.

Huo Liangzhou's portion was set aside.

There was also a large plate of fried noodles, prepared by Qi Mo for Huo Liangzhou—big guys need more fuel.

Huo Liangzhou sat down and watched Chubby baby eating the shrimp balls. "He’s just a toddler—go easy on the salt."

Qi Mo nodded. "I know. I made sure no salt was added."

Huo Liangzhou, always planning ahead.

After they finished eating, Qi Mo stashed the congee to keep it from going bad later.

Putting on a sun hat, Huo Liangzhou took the little lord uphill.

Huo Jingtan and a few others followed.

It was already past seven, and sweltering—the second they stepped outside, they were drenched in sweat...

Qin Lan turned to Huo Liangzhou and asked, "Can you actually eat ant eggs?"

Huo Liangzhou replied, "If ants are edible, then their eggs are too."

Tracking the mutant ants’ path, they soon reached the gorge and stream behind the pig farm.

Looking at the vast network of ant tunnels, they occasionally spotted a few mutant ants crawling around. The numbers were low, and surprisingly, they scurried back into the nest instead of attacking.

Huo Liangzhou said, "We wiped out the swarm, but the queen and workers remain. If we don’t take her out, we’ll have another swarm on our hands in a few days."

"Start digging," Huo Jingtan ordered.

A group of villagers quickly began digging.

Chen Xia grabbed Qi Mo’s sleeve—he was holding Chubby baby and watching Huo Liangzhou and the others dig for the queen.

"Sister Chen," Qi Mo turned to look at her.

She whispered, "About the earlier robbery—Liangzhou promised supplies, but nothing’s happened yet. Folks are getting antsy."

Qi Mo replied, "I know. Things’ve been hectic lately. Once they’re dealt with, I’ll handle it. Let them know it’s handled."

Chen Xia relaxed.

The matter wasn’t urgent, but broken promises breed gossip—nothing pleasant.

She worried that Qi Mo, being young and thin-skinned, might take it badly.

"Just looking out for you."

Soon, four or five people dug through the earth, unearthing a sprawling underground hive with a half-meter-long queen—pale, bloated...

Even exposed, the queen kept pumping out eggs.

Worker ants hauled them off to the nurseries...

The queen ant was impaled to death with a pickaxe.

The hatching chamber was dug open, and Qi Mo exclaimed, “Wow!” at the sight of countless white ant eggs, each the size of a marble, densely packed across four or five square meters of space.

Dozens of worker ants, seeing their hatching chamber exposed, instantly charged toward the group.

Such a small group was quickly dispatched by Huo Jingtan and the others.

“These ant eggs must be very nutritious. Everyone, grab your baskets and fill them up. Remember to boil them right when you get home, or else if a queen hatches, we’ll be in big trouble,” Huo Liangzhou said before taking a bag and filling it to the brim.

Soon after, the group made their way down the mountain.

It was already around nine o’clock, and the temperature had soared to 47 or 48 degrees Celsius.

Qi Mo carried an umbrella while the chubby baby held his milk bottle, drinking water.

Every now and then, he would shove it into his daddy’s mouth, and they’d take turns sipping together...

Back home, Qi Mo brought up what Chen Xia had reminded him about.

Huo Liangzhou boiled water, washed the ant eggs, and poured them into the pot.

Hearing Qi Mo’s words, Huo Liangzhou laughed lightly. “They remember it clearly, but I did overlook this matter. I’ve been busy these past couple of days and forgot.”

Busy with what? Qi Mo knew all too well—yesterday had been a full day of... activity, and his back still ached from it today.

*Are you going to go to the executions tonight?* Huo Liangzhou asked.

He was afraid of scaring the young master, but he didn’t hide the truth either. He always sought the young master’s opinion before making decisions.

“I’m going. I want to see their fate. How dare they try to bully me? Am I someone they can mess with? And worst of all, they even thought about bullying you—that’s downright unacceptable. My husband can’t be bullied by anyone else. If anyone gets to bully him, it should only be me,” Qi Mo said angrily.

*My young master’s finally clued in—he knows how to protect what’s his now,* Huo Liangzhou mused.

Once the ant eggs were cooked, Huo Liangzhou peeled a few and fed them to the young master. “Good, huh?”

“They’re a bit like quail eggs, but a little richer. Can they grow bigger? They don’t look scary at all,” Qi Mo said as he cracked one open, splitting it in half—one for the chubby baby and the other for Kitty Snowball.

Taking out an ice cream bar, Qi Mo gave half to Huo Liangzhou before saying, “I was thinking—after they’re executed, what supplies should we give to their families? We have potatoes, some lotus roots, meat sauce, fruit jam, canned yellow peaches, and fruit preserves.”

“There’s also some smoked fish and chicken,” Qi Mo added.

Huo Liangzhou scooped a spoonful of ice cream and fed it to Kitty Snowball before replying, “Let’s give them a jar of meat sauce, a jar of fruit jam, one smoked chicken, and one smoked fish. That should be enough.”

“Alright, we’ll deliver them tomorrow,” Qi Mo said before yawning, exhausted from the long day.

For the family of four—not counting Snowball—Huo Liangzhou moved their bedroom to the basement.

The temperature there was over ten degrees cooler than the living room, hovering around a relatively cool 37 or 38 degrees—a practically refreshing contrast compared to upstairs.

Mutant beasts were appearing everywhere, but in his previous life, Qi Mo had never ventured beyond Jiangcheng at first, and Huo Liangzhou never shared such news with him, so Qi Mo had been unaware initially.

Chou Yun was also someone who had been reborn. Though he had been imprisoned until death, he later stayed on as a ghost beside Bai Bin, witnessing and learning many things.

With communications down, orders from the capital couldn’t get through.

At least they still had bicycles.

After the initial chaos, the capital organized bicycle teams to begin manual communication.

Water storage pits were dug en masse across various regions.

Although cities couldn't restore running water, supply points had been set up.

Though it was just a stopgap, it still gave people some hope.

Especially as governments enforced martial law in desperate times—punishing theft, robbery, and murder with beheading...

Not a drop or grain would go to these criminals.

At the same time, government agencies everywhere received reports about Mutant Beasts and were instructed to strengthen defenses.

Once they appeared, they had to be swiftly eradicated.

Huo Liangzhou had his eye on mutant bees. People from coastal cities had already begun searching for them—now that food supplies were failing, everyone was desperate, and with plants dead, survivors scrambled for any food they could find.

Even as shores piled with rotting sea life daily, countless survivors still came to collect water.

Seawater was useless as-is, but freshwater could be extracted through weather-dependent distillation.

Even doomsday skeptics now believed. Even if the nation had grain reserves, if they couldn’t reach these areas, it was pointless.

Besides, no region would give away its own food—grain-rich provinces wouldn’t feed others before their own.

After all, anyone with eyes could see the cracked earth would yield no crops in the future.

Jiang Nuan had stayed put. In Peach Blossom Town of Yuncheng, things were oddly stable.

Qi Mo woke at dusk.

He shook the sleeping Huo Liangzhou awake: "Six-thirty. After dinner, we’re heading into town."

Huo Liangzhou nodded: "Yeah, watch the kid. I’ll cook noodles."

The last two days wore them out.

Chen Feng had fled far away. Not long after Jiang Nuan left, shards of memory bombarded him.

Was this a future warning, or had he somehow relived the past?

He recalled that three or four months into the apocalypse, Huo Liangzhou, thanks to his freakish strength, managed to secure food. To take it, they tricked the young master into being snatched.

Just that alone would have made Huo Liangzhou rescue the boy.

Then Chen Feng awakened a psychic power—a weird ability, barely offensive but capable of making two targets ignore each other entirely, unable to recognize even when face-to-face.

It warped reality itself—anyone nearby trying to warn them found their thoughts twisted.

But Chen Feng hadn’t expected that, in desperation, Qi Huai’s crew would go after Qi Mo. Once Qi Mo died, the psychic effect binding him and Huo Liangzhou would collapse.

Huo Liangzhou slaughtered them all—no survivors.

When Huo Liangzhou bought up the Jiang family’s grain processing plant and beverage factory—something that hadn’t happened before—and especially after Qi Mo kept dodging him afterward, Chen Feng suspected Qi Mo might have gotten the memory fragments earlier—or even been reborn.

By the time Chen Feng got his, he’d missed the window to hoard supplies.

Terrified Huo Liangzhou would lop his head off, Chen Feng vanished into the shadows.

Jiang Nuan went to find Qi Mo, while Chen Feng decided to play it by ear and see how things played out.

Huo Liangzhou was rich and had a thing for Qi Mo, so Qi Mo must’ve hoarded tons of supplies by now.

So he couldn’t compete with Huo Liangzhou, but not everyone was outmatched by him—he needed to find a powerful ally.

However, Chen Feng couldn’t recall the big players early in apocalypse, and those from later stages probably wouldn’t be able to beat Huo Liangzhou either.

Someone knocked on the door, and Chen Feng said, “Come in.”

“Boss Chen, we found something out—Huo Liangzhou isn’t in Jiangcheng. It looks like he’s handed control over to his younger brother, Huo Liangchuan. What do you think? Should we make a move? We heard he’s hiding a lot of food,” a henchman piped up.

Chen Feng’s eyes lit up when he heard this. “Don’t rush it. Keep digging.”

Third Master Bai was super strong—maybe he should talk to Bai Jiu. That guy might be able to stand up to Huo Liangzhou…