Lu Xi'an sorted through what the woman said—

First of all, this woman is the mistress of her current boss, thus she can know some secrets from him, and becomes the small leader of this expedition team.

This is no problem.

Just looking at the way she flaunted herself and flirted with him just now, it's clear she indeed has some skills.

In this apocalypse, for an ordinary person, her beauty is already considered top-notch, being the mistress of a boss makes sense.

Secondly, the woman said her boss told her that the recent deaths in the county are due to vengeful souls cooperating with her boss. She speculates this is false because those souls have never appeared.

Lu Xi'an thought seriously about it and also leaned towards the woman's perspective.

The woman mentioned the souls didn't appear, that's one aspect.

On the other hand, when entering the "First Petrochemical" gas station in Pingchuan City, he and Yao Wei encountered someone who fled from Yao County. That person mentioned a rumor where the old boss was killed, and there were laughter of old people and little girls, while when a person at his dwelling's door was killed, it was silent.

These small details indeed are suspicious—after all, according to the woman, her boss wants the souls to attract attention.

Why not just make it obvious, let people know souls are taking lives, instead of being so cryptic and ambivalent?

Moreover, from what she said, not talking about Shu, just Chai Xin—considering Chai Xin's current capabilities, assassinating a few ordinary people shouldn't be a problem?

If she indeed cooperated with the woman's boss, why not simply help to eliminate other bosses, instead of indirectly killing their subordinates? It's totally redundant.

Also, he used the Resonant Gene Scanner before, and there were no new red dots in Yao County's town.

So, thinking from all aspects, Lu Xi'an confirmed the woman's speculation. Chai Xin has either left or fell in the city.

Lu Xi'an naturally leaned towards Chai Xin and Shu having already left; after all, Chai Xin is a Neo-Human and Shu is not ordinary either, how could they die so easily?

If that's the case, then there's no need to go to Yao County's town, just bypass it.

But the problem is, all this is just speculation, with the lesson from Mengxin City, he is now hesitant to be sure.

—Back then in Mengxin City, both he and Yao Wei, based on their judgment and partial understanding of Chai Xin, felt Chai Xin went to Tongzhou County, resulting in a futile trip.

Looking back, Chai Xin had already gone to Mengxin City urban area, fought with people there, and got captured.

Now, if his guess is wrong, and for some special reason, Chai Xin and Shu have fallen here, if they just left, wouldn't they miss the opportunity?

Therefore, considering what is known now, it is indeed necessary to visit Yao County's town.

Moreover, it is almost confirmed that there are no Neo-Humans, nor mutated creatures like Shu and Fish Riders in town, the danger isn't substantial.

To be cautious, Lu Xi'an asked: "How did that old boss provoke the vengeful souls back then?

"Listening to what you said, those two vengeful souls shouldn't be simple, they came down from Sword Mountain, how could the old boss have provoked them and still pursued them?"

The woman didn't respond again, and asked: "Where's the promise you made to me? If you break your word, just give me a quick death, kill me.

"Or however you wish to torment me, I'll not resist. But if you ask me questions, I absolutely won't answer anymore."

Lu Xi'an: "..."

This woman has a strangely resilient toughness.

Seeing this situation, Lu Xi'an knew that if he didn't first solve the woman's doubts, she wouldn't answer his questions anymore, so he said:

"Your boss can stir up fear among the people in Yao County's town with the name of vengeful souls.

"What about you? If given the title of cooperating with Neo-Humans, what extent can you achieve?"

The woman sneered: "Cooperate with Neo-Humans? Don't joke. We ordinary people don't qualify to cooperate with Neo-Humans."

She seemed to have ceased to regard Neo-Humans and herself as the same species; to her, Neo-Humans are lofty deities who shouldn't look down on her.

Lu Xi'an said: "Then let me rephrase, how about working for Neo-Humans, being their spokesperson?"

The woman was instantly stunned.

Lu Xi'an said: "I might need to go to Yao County's town. If you cooperate with me, I can also cooperate with you to create such a false impression before we leave.

"If you want to survive and have the brains to utilize this title, even without a leg, you should still be able to establish yourself in Yao County's town.

"I once saw a kid using tactics of divide and conquer to completely manipulate others in a county, and he only relied on himself.

"You can still rely on working for me and being my representative, surely you're not worse off than him, right?"

The woman felt a surge of emotions, as if she had glimpsed the future. Her face, previously pale due to blood loss, even showed a bit of a blush as she said, "You're... you're not lying to me, are you?!"

Lu Xi'an said, "What benefit would I have in lying to you?"

The woman exclaimed excitedly, "Great! It's settled then! I can pledge my allegiance to you—I heard that over in Jiangbei, folks like us are precisely what they call the Neo-Humans.

"Whatever you want me to do, I can cooperate, even sleeping is not an issue. Master, I will definitely serve you well!"

Lu Xi'an, however, remained unmoved, glanced at the woman, and said, "Take care of your leg and answer my question."

The bleeding from the fracture in the woman's leg had already stopped, likely due to the effect of her being a Type D-1 Neo-Human. For an ordinary person, such an injury and blood loss would have been unbearable.

She ignored her short leg, sitting on the ground, and said, "True, the master has better women, why would you bother with someone like me? Only a loser like the old boss would care about me.

"No rush, later when you take me back there, I'll remove the part of my pants on this short leg and bandage the wound myself."

Her change in attitude was so swift, calling Lu Xi'an master at every turn, even flattering him, which left Lu Xi'an feeling quite uncomfortable.

Lu Xi'an thought to himself, are the Neo-Humans in Jiangbei City this extravagant? How come they act like the Three-Body People, making others call them 'master' all the time...

Seeing the woman didn't care about her leg, he didn't bother either, saying, "Now tell me, how did the old boss hunt down the Vengeful Soul back then?

"And what is the situation in the city now? Besides your old boss, who else is there? How many people does each boss have under them, and what kind of people?

"Hmm... and how do you know those two Vengeful Souls came down from Sword Mountain?"

The woman smiled sweetly and asked, "Looks like you know those two Vengeful Souls, master."

Lu Xi'an squinted his eyes and gave the woman a sidelong glance.

The woman quickly apologized, saying she wouldn't dare waste any more time, "About a month ago, we went through a long harsh winter here, leading to a food shortage.

"We... um... our county's old boss gave an order for everyone to go out finding food, including himself, taking people out.

"I didn't go with him at that time, so I didn't see what exactly happened.

"But later I heard, at the southern side of the city by the Qin River, they saw the old man and the little girl fetching water by the river, and they took the chance to shoot secretly, hitting the little girl.

"Then those two fled, and the old boss chased them for a while, chasing them both into the river. The old boss and his men followed the blood in the river for a while, but ultimately lost track of them.

"Those who went speculated the two were swept away by the water. It was a pity, they said they were carrying a lot of stuff, and if they could have taken it, it would have been a big haul, but unfortunately, even the stuff was swept away.

"Anyway, the next day, we all returned to the city. The old boss gathered people to sit down and discuss the haul. Those who went with the old boss were still talking about it when he suddenly had his throat slit, and the scene turned chaotic.

"I heard about this, as I wasn't important enough to be called by the old boss to sit down and talk.

"But with your support, master, I wouldn't even care about such privileges in the future."

As she spoke, she seemed to envision her prosperous days ahead, and her blush deepened.

After listening to her, Lu Xi'an understood——

It turns out Chai Xin and Shu were fetching water and, not paying attention, were ambushed by the old boss of Yao County, hence getting shot.

Chai Xin was probably injured and didn't want to engage with those people. With blood on himself, even if he became invisible, there would be traces of blood on the ground, so he found a place with the right water level and jumped down, then became invisible.

Lu Xi'an estimated that after Chai Xin became invisible, he climbed ashore, but those from Yao County focused only on the river, not noticing if there was blood on the shore, allowing Chai Xin and Shu to run and later mount a counterattack.

"And the second question? How do you know they came down from Sword Mountain?"

Lu Xi'an asked again.

The woman said, "It's a local legend here, that Sword Mountain has people who don't look human, covered in festering wounds. The legend says they came down from the mountain a long time ago.

"Those weirdly-shaped people in the legends seemed like decomposed people, with Neo-Human abilities, but just a little, and they died quickly.

"Before we always thought that was just a legend, but we didn't expect the old boss really encountered them and that they were your people, master."

She didn't think Shu and Chai Xin could be Lu Xi'an's friends. From the description she heard, the two didn't sound like Neo-Humans.

If they weren't Neo-Humans, how could they be friends of Neo-Humans?

If they weren't friends of Neo-Humans, they could only be like herself, serving Neo-Humans as others did in Jiangbei City.

It seemed the master took care of his followers, and since she chose to follow him today, it shouldn't be a bad choice...

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