Loyalty Has A Price

She went down to the restaurant where soldiers eat, she took out the tank and the containers. "I need people who will load the solution from the tank to these containers."

"I'll do it." A woman in her forties came and accepted the task.

"Thank you." She looked at the lady seeing her tired appearance. "You can have a glass first. The people going out to do missions can buy these for 6 level one zombie nuclei. Tomorrow, 9 people will come for one each. They don't need to pay. Alright?"

"Yes leader. Thank you very much." Who doesn't know the things taken out by the leader are very valuable?

Amelia went to increase the number of trees to conceal Agatha. After she has grown many trees and just about to take a break. A car came to the gate.

"Leader, there are people outside demanding we let them in." The voice came from the talkie in her hand.

"Old Mo." She said unhappily.

"Believe me, I didn't want to bother you as well. But they are from the army."

"So?" Amelia doesn't care.

"He said they are sent by the state."

"Tell them to go back. The medical supplies burned down. We don't accept outsiders here."

"They saw trucks of people coming in earlier." Mo said in a low voice.

"...."

"I'm on my way." Defeated, she agreed to go.

Getting to the gate. Three cars of the army stood there in the sun. The trucks are obviously carrying supplies.

"Yes." Amy looked at the men in soldier uniform and smiled.

"We wish for entry."

Amy looked at the people in the gate and told them to open. When the people came in with the trucks, Amelia followed them to an empty outer building.

The one who seems to be in charge walked to her. "You are the leader?"

"Yes." Amy answered. The man is first surprised but he doesn't show it on his face.

"We are in charge here now. The government sent me as soon as they found out the hospital has been cleared of the zombies. The country thanks you." The man said with a no nonsense tone.

"No." Amy said with a clear voice.

The man took out his gun. He wasn't scaring her, he wanted to kill her there in front of all the people as a show of force.

Amy blinked and the man separated into two parts from head to the middle. "Anyone else who points a gun at me will die just like these three."

Hearing her words, people are confused. There is only one person, why did she say three?

"The other two are on top of a few trees a distance away." The men who just came in became scared.

"Pick him up, and go with him. You are leaving the three trucks of supplies and the women are mine now." Amy said.

She pointed at the gate. The 11 men ran out before they can be hurt by the crazy woman.

Amy pointed to the truck. "Get them some medicine. One is about to die from the heavy things on top of her." She turned back.

"This must be the man Ning'er wanted to sell me to." She said going back to make trees. The curious thing is that the secretary she was talking about this morning is also in this truck.

She is wondering where they found the army trucks and uniforms. But it isn't too interesting to her.

A day went by and almost all those men died on the road. These type of people, the hospital base doesn't want.

The new ladies numbered up to 34. The one who was almost dying died shortly after being taken out of the truck.

Most of them are people who left the base at that time following strong supper powered people. They now only get to stay on the outer buildings and pay rent every week. Even if they want to enlist now, they are not welcome.

Two days went by. The nine children came back. Amelia can see the maturity in their faces although not enough it is still something.

"Congratulations. You did well, and there are no missing limbs. Since you are all fine. Eat it like last time." She gave them three golden bananas.

"You 9 are the pillars I will put in charge of my army. If any of you want to back out, say it now." She looked at them one by one.

"Good. Don't disappoint me." She went to check on the new cooks in the children's kitchen.

She asked for a dish and when the she sat down to eat, the people in the kitchen became nervous. The cooks in the orphanage get paid higher so they don't want to be fired like the other group.

Amelia finished the plate and thanked them. She went out hoping they improve steadily. The main building can house 18 thousands people on its own so the future will be very hectic if this is their level at it's best.

A week went by and a quarter the wall is already built. The smooth wall can be seen no matter where in the base a person is. Amelia is currently making a heavy gate. The heavy metals from the construction wholesale shop before has not been touched because of Agatha's existence.

These materials will be used when building the outer city. The gate is a combination of wood and metal. She finally made a 380 liter worth of metal paste. In the immortality world, this paste made thousand year old buildings remain sturdy without any cracks regardless of what materials it is made from. As long as there is no gap on the outside where the paste is painted, the materials inside will remain new.

That is the magic of the paste. It is very expensive in the immortality world the reason she knows it formula is because she is an alchemist and someone traded it for medicine.

The wooden logs are brought side by side and then wire is used to attach them together. The metal paste is applied on them to keep them glued together like that. She is doing it to teach a few people who will be making them from now on.

She showed the how to make it complete with strong wheels on the bottom to open the gate easily. These gate are only big enough for a truck to come inside unimpeded but no more than that. There are only four of such big gates, the rest are smaller one for two people to walk in side by side.

No one asked who is making the wall. Not even old Mo. The 9 children regularly go out to train these days. When they come back, they drop many crystal nucleus for the leader.

She is going to another meeting today. The people seem different than a week ago. The fat ones seem to have slimmed down even more.

"How many people successfully awakened supernatural powers?" Amelia asked as soon as the came.

The hall became noisy. Many people stood up proudly. Now out of 4200 enlisted soldiers, more than half awakened their powers.

"Good."

"The rest of you can organize with old Mo to see if you can awaken yours. If you don't have a spirit root. It means the you wont get powers which means you have to work twice as hard to get half of what they have.

" Amelia said in comfort.

"Leader." Someone called out.

"Was the medicine to help us awaken?"

"It was to clean your system. Awakening is possible when the impurities in your system is cleaned out." Amy explained.

"I feel very strong, doesn't it men my body should have awakened as well?"

"It means your body is getting to an optimal level. The best version of itself." Amelia avoided to answer directly.

"Leader, doesn't it mean we wont get powers?" A sad voice sounded.

"Some people are not born with this possibility." Amelia said.

The air got thick with sadness. "Now, the next two days will be a day off from the medicine." As she finished saying this. Cheers sounded all over the hall.

"There is a new juice in the cafeteria, it is in a small container drink it. It is good for you. Enlisted soldiers."

"The next week, everyone is going outside to fight zombies. Separate into groups of ten. Those are the people you will be giving your backs to in the battlefield. I want 100 level one crystal nucleus from each team.... a day."

"Leader, isn't that a bit too much for us?"

"When you leave, there is medical kit in the reception before heading out. Instructions on each medicine will be provided before your trip commences are in the kit

Good luck." She ignored the question above.

"Leader. Are these teams permanent?"

"You will have to register your team and the captain before departure. You can only change teams after the week is over."

"Remember not to let me down. Don't back stab each other or put each other's lives at risk if you do this you are in violation of rule 6 of the agreement and you will be punished accordingly."

Amelia went out. She wasn't just making the paste the entire week. She was also checking the many fruits to see the effects.

Cabbage juice will stop the bleeding. Cucumber and strawberries will recover and disinfect. Then it's the fasting pill. A gun, a knife and 500 bullets.

Amelia is now using the weekend to make the jade slips. The first thing is to imbue formations on the high quality jade from the briefcase. She then put many spit stones inside each jade slip. There are 19 pieces of jade but she just needed 10 for the wall and one for the middle or the 'heart' of the formation.

The ten space jades are each put inside the wall and then Amelia established a web of lines connecting each jade slip to the heart of the formation. The formation will lock anyone who is not coming in through doors. Each door can be opened by the jade slips in the hands of the soldiers.

When someone breaks in, they will have to be more powerful than the enclosed formation imbued with powerful inscriptions and charged by tends of middle level spirit stones.

The formation has three aspects. One is the lock and key. Every day soldiers will use their jade slips to open the gate for visitors. If anyone has devel qi inside their bodies exceeding 13% they will be blocked by an invisible force.

The normal level is 10% if someone has more and they are already inside the formation will trap them before sounding the alarm. The jade slip can not be stolen because it will register a person's breath. If someone else uses another person's jade slip, it wont work.

Amelia had initially wanted to make it more advance and include the function of handing a message through the jade slip but this will require mental power to operate. Cultivators can use it because they all have mental power but mortals without spirit root will not be able to use it. Plus making it is very time consuming. She will water for the smart watches from the wizard of the tech.

That is the name of the convict who is excellent in technology upgrade and inventions.

The wall and the gates will have these formations called entry point. Amelia will also have access point for many places in the main building. Like the storages, the floors upstairs and the access to archive and the vault, of course it will be empty but people will know where it is.

To enter, a person's needs to use this jade slip. Depending on the level of authority they will be granted entry.

Amelia also added many misdirection formations making it very hard to diffuse the formation. This is because the third function is to expose thieves and assassins.

This third function is the reason for large requirement of spirit stones. It doesn't guard against zombies but humans. These formations are intertwined and complex and putting them up will require a lot of time. But now that Amelia has this type of jade, she can just make them and ask Agatha to help her put them inside the walls before putting it back the way it was before.

This will confuse the intruder because there is also the formation to be hidden from mental and spiritual force. They won't know where to find it. Even if they try to follow the leaking spiritual energy they will only be confused.

The nine soldiers have now been fully bloodied. They exude a strong aura even when they don't mean to. Two weeks and their power is at level 5 the lowest. Amelia is very happy with these kids. The people call them the nine kings because they have been rescuing survivors steadily all around the nearby areas.

Their reputation is growing steadily among the residents. At this time, no one has been found sleeping on the ground outside everyone has a place to sleep and a job to get payment from.

Amelia went into seclusion for the first time in a long time. Her dentin are now full of spirit qi she can break through to qi refinement at any moment.

The qi that was condensed in the first realm is now going to be refined into own power. The body will be a level above mortals when she finished. The power increased from eating her spirit food from space, not even cultivating that seriously.

She meditated and ran the technique.

.....

"This place seems peaceful. Are you sure there is a base here?" A man wearing blue sunglasses and a loos white black shirt came out of the car looking at the empty street.

"The hospital."

The one who has his eyes closed in the back said pointing at a direction. His name is Qin Ai from the school base that Amelia had previously rented a place to sleep from when she was going to look for the mental fruit.

This man is the base leader and has come to seek a way that will allow his people to live more comfortably. He had come to check this place out, as a responsible person, he wants to find a good place for his people because he recently found out a lot of disgusting things his employees have been up to behind his back.

He feels like a failure as a leader, how many people have died or lived a fate worse than death under his nose? So he came to find them a better place and hopefully a better leader.

No to mention he had only wanted to bring temporary order before the government takes action but who knew that not only is the world crumbling but the government is completely helpless? They refused to take the old and the young. Only health young people who can work. In the end, he was left with a little over 1500 people his own base. Most of the young and strong people left with the army.

Now he is looking for a place to put them and hopefully they will be safe. These last couple of weeks the number of zombies have skyrocketed and they can barely hold on as a small base.

It has been five weeks since Amelia went into seclusion, in that time the wall was completed and the base residents took over putting on the several gates.

When the gates were just completed, Amelia came out of seclusion and made Agatha assist her in putting the jade slips into the wall and on the gates. She had made a total of 70 jade slips after she successfully broke through to the refinement realm.

Out of 11 small gates, only 7 are operating because only these gates have the access key holder. The other gates can't allow anyone to enter for the time being. She explained the concept to the people of her base but it was clear they only cared about the fact that this new lock seems very safe.

The alarm just causes the key holder all over the base to glow red. When people see this they will know something is up, the key holder closest to the place where there is abnormality will glow a glaring white color and make a sound.

Agatha already took her payment from Amelia. She has been refining the energy from the fruits and accepting fragments of inheritance from her bloodline.

Amelia has left a large concoction with the restaurant so the people will have a refinement every night and go to clean out zombies during the day. Collect crystal nucleus and submit the work done.

The nine kings each chose ten people to train under them on the battlefield outside. They have to change these ten people every week so they can familiarize themselves with the overall quality of the soldiers in the base.

The operation went well since there are enough supplies for emergencies such as zombies bites and scratches. The medicine provided by the base is very effective even when a group encountered a level seven zombie, it still worked.

Amelia has anticipated the rise in zombies power which is why the medicine is mixed with spring water. When a zombie is more powerful, just drink more potion.

The man looked at the place where his major pointed at. To say he is surprised is an understatement. How did he missed such a tall wall?

"Who...can build such a high wall?" The young man smacked his lips in shock.

"If reports are to be believed, a giant snake." The one in the car answered.

"Really messing with gods and demons ah!"

"Can I live inside? That looks very safe."

"Sure. But I hear the leader is a willful little girl." The driver said jokingly.

"I don't care, she managed to make that happen, how powerful?"

"Let's go greet her."

The leader said. He is a handsome man with sharp eyebrows and straight nose. His eyes are bright and deep like a silent shore with depth. He had gone home this time to check on his little sister before going to the next mission.

He had brought his men with him since he was going to take a plane after seeing her. But the world changed and he had to take charge as a strong man. Speaking clearly he should have reported to the military superior but he couldn't leave his little sister behind.

The girl has always been very sickly and a trip to the B base with the army would have probably killed her. Which is why even at the orders he decisively stayed. He is a man who will fight for his family first than the country. He is not his father who chose the country over his family.

The man is still alive and in the capital. His sister was sent to the boarding school even though she is weak in health. Has he known his father will ship her off the moment he went for his 5 years mission he would have quite the army.

Looking at the sleeping Meng'er his cold eyes softened.

Just as they drive to the clean road going to the hospital, a row of ambulances came whooshing passed them in incredible speed.

They counted, it seems there are 9 ambulances.

"It's the nine kings, they really exist ah!"

"It is said that they may have reached level 10. Look the one in the back just disappeared and reappeared far in the distance. It's the space king. They say she can make thousands of space blades."

"Maybe you can get an autograph."

"I hope so, but I don't think I can."

"..."