Not only was the government allowed to stay on the land surrounding Ivy’s territory, but they could only borrow the land temporarily.

They would never possess the right to purchase it from her permanently.

Furthermore, Ivy made another condition absolutely clear.

The government could not suddenly enforce unreasonable taxes on her base or other bases under her protection simply because they felt like doing so.

The negotiation dragged on for several exhausting hours.

Silas sat there calmly the entire time, squeezing as many benefits out of the government as possible for Ivy.

Every single loophole Carter attempted to leave behind was immediately sealed by Silas without mercy.

By the end of the negotiation, Carter’s entire expression had darkened terribly.

Still, despite the frustration burning inside him, he could only force a fake smile onto his face before leaving.

The moment they stepped outside the mansion, Lina suddenly stopped walking.

She turned toward Silas with an ugly expression.

"I want to talk with you," she said coldly. "Come with me."

Before Silas could even respond, Ivy calmly spoke first.

"My husband only listens to me," she said with a faint smile. "So whatever you want to say, you can say it directly in front of me. Why drag him away separately?"

Lina’s face immediately darkened.

She narrowed her eyes before replying sharply,

"If you had stepped up more during the negotiations, your husband wouldn’t have looked like the actual representative of this base."

Her tone grew increasingly mocking.

"I’m honestly beginning to wonder whether he already has thoughts about taking over your authority."

However, Ivy merely chuckled softly.

The sound of her laughter was gentle, yet strangely confident.

Then she calmly replied, "The one who will inherit and rule this base in the future is our child."

She smiled faintly before continuing.

"So trying to sow discord between us won’t work."

As she finished speaking, Ivy leaned slightly closer and rested her head comfortably against Silas’ shoulder.

Seeing her action, Silas immediately grinned smugly.

Meanwhile, Lina’s face became uglier and uglier.

In the end, she angrily stomped her feet before turning around and leaving without another word.

Once she disappeared completely, Ivy finally pulled back slightly before looking toward Silas.

"There are too many dangers involved in cooperating with them," she said quietly. "The government is the definition of a perfidious ally."

Silas nodded slowly. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"There are definitely risks," he admitted calmly. "However, the government still possesses enormous connections and influence."

He leaned back slightly before continuing.

"With their help, reclaiming the surrounding regions will become much easier. At the very least, it will buy us more time to focus on these superior beings."

Hearing that, Ivy could only sigh softly.

"If only things were simpler," she murmured quietly. "Maybe then we could actually spend more time together like a normal couple."

The moment she said those words, Silas’ gaze softened slightly.

Meanwhile, not far away, Felix instantly covered his eyes dramatically before running straight toward Annie’s house.

Nowadays, he constantly felt as if Annie might agree to his confession at any moment.

Because of that, his actions had become noticeably more proactive lately.

As for Carter, he moved surprisingly fast.

Within the next two months, the antidote had already spread throughout almost the entire nation.

Even Ivy was slightly shocked by how terrifyingly efficient the government’s network truly was.

Before long, the entire nation gradually stopped fearing ordinary zombie infections as much as before.

At the same time, Carter also revealed another terrifying capability.

Loans.

Using the government’s reputation and authority, Carter continuously borrowed enormous amounts of gold and resources from wealthy families and influential factions.

Of course, almost all of that gold eventually ended up flowing directly into Ivy’s hands.

After all, the antidotes themselves belonged exclusively to her.

However, Ivy absolutely refused to accept ordinary paper currency.

Silas had already warned her beforehand.

If Carter gained complete control again in the future, he could simply manipulate the economy however he pleased.

He could pay enormous amounts using paper currency during the crisis, only to later devalue or discard the currency entirely once stability returned.

At that point, Ivy would suffer tremendous losses.

Naturally, Carter would probably compensate afterward by giving honorary titles or public praise, but that would never truly recover the actual value lost.

Because of that, Ivy never lowered her guard.

She only accepted gold.

As a result, the amount of gold stored inside her reserves gradually became terrifyingly enormous.

Eventually, her private reserves almost rivaled the gold reserves of an entire country.

After seeing how much gold Ivy possessed, even the temporary storage continuously offered various exchanges and mysterious options in return for those gold reserves.

After learning just how important gold was to the superior beings, Ivy immediately decided to hold onto it instead of trading recklessly.

Meanwhile, two months quickly passed.

The antidote spread successfully across major cities, and humanity’s situation finally began stabilizing slightly.

At first, Ivy was genuinely thrilled.

However, another matter soon started troubling her deeply.

The portal investigations.

The search teams sent to locate the hidden portals encountered enormous difficulties. Days turned into weeks without meaningful progress.

It was not until the end of the second month that they finally discovered one of the hidden sites.

The formation for the portal was concealed deep inside the ruins of an abandoned structure.

The moment the team arrived there, they immediately recognized the familiar sacrificial formation engraved across the ground.

Without hesitation, they destroyed it.

Still, nobody knew whether the portal had already been activated before they found it.

According to their assumptions, an activated portal should contain black markings similar to the terrifying formations Ivy had previously witnessed in the reports.

When the investigation report finally reached Ivy, she did not feel happy at all.

Instead, an uncomfortable feeling slowly spread through her chest.

Somehow... she felt as if something was terribly wrong.

As if they had overlooked something extremely important.

’Or maybe this is all a distraction,’ Ivy thought grimly.

Otherwise, how could they possibly locate the formation so easily if it had not even been activated yet?