Chapter 41 - 39: Locking Eyes

Chapter 41: Chapter 39: Locking Eyes

"What the hell is that?"

Xie Shaokun vaguely heard a strange noise from the courtyard of a house behind him. He whipped his head around and saw the emaciated pit bull, jumping in fright.

"Save me! Please, save me!"

Blood gushing from his neck, Xia Feng staggered over as if he were being chased by a ghost.

"Did you kill that thing?"

With no Mutants approaching for the moment, Xie Shaokun had a brief moment to catch his breath. He couldn’t help but ask.

"It’s dead?"

Xia Feng looked back and froze.

He hadn’t killed it.

It must have been Yu!

Xie Shaokun quickly came to this conclusion. At the same time, he grew even more cautious. ’Who knows if there are more of these monsters lurking in the shadows?’

BOOM.

A rugged off-road vehicle, like a mad bull, charged violently toward the Mutants.

"I’ll run you all down!"

The driver was none other than Wang Quanzhi. He had almost been killed here just moments ago, saved only by Xie Shaokun. Afterward, he realized he’d just be a burden if he stayed, so he’d boldly decided to leave and find a car.

His gamble paid off.

At sixty kilometers per hour, the kinetic energy generated by the vehicle’s several-ton weight was terrifyingly immense. When unleashed instantly on a Mutant, the destructive power was self-evident.

Although it still couldn’t kill it, it was enough to cripple it on the spot.

Besides, the rugged off-roader was so powerful that a single Mutant couldn’t even slow it down!

"Awesome!"

Seeing this, Xie Shaokun’s eyes lit up.

He had loved this kind of off-road vehicle since he was a kid and had always dreamed of modifying one. Seeing this scene now gave him an inexplicable itch to try.

’If only I could use Enhancement on an entire off-road vehicle one day.’

The sudden thought filled him with anticipation. ’Then I’d be unstoppable, and I wouldn’t even have to worry about the car getting damaged.’

Unfortunately...

His superpower was still too weak to use Enhancement on such a large object.

"Kill."

Xie Shaokun didn’t hesitate. Brandishing his pig-killing knife, he charged the crippled Mutants to land the final blow.

His kill rate skyrocketed.

Moreover, the commotion Wang Quanzhi was making drew the attention of all the Mutants, significantly reducing the pressure on Xie Shaokun and giving him more breathing room.

"You..."

"You’re so strong, why didn’t you save me? Why?!"

"I won’t let you go, even as a ghost!"

Seeing that Xie Shaokun was completely ignoring him, Xia Feng’s face twisted with despair and venom. He staggered two steps before falling heavily to the ground. His consciousness was fading, but he still didn’t forget to spew vitriol.

It was as if the whole world owed him something.

Yes, that was just who he was.

As he was dying, he thought he could faintly see his mother walking toward him.

A warmth spread through Xia Feng’s heart. ’She was the only one in the world who truly doted on him.’

One step.

Two steps.

Xie Chunlan suddenly accelerated.

And pounced on her son.

"It hurts so much."

The heart-rending pain brought some clarity back to Xia Feng’s consciousness. He watched as his mother, now a monster, frantically tore at his body, feeding.

He could even hear the sound of his own flesh and blood being chewed.

In the end, he died in agony and despair.

In the shadows.

Watching Wang Quanzhi and his "Big Collision," Xia Yu couldn’t help but show a hint of admiration.

Without Xie Shaokun’s help, and without her secretly taking care of the Mutated Beast, this act would have been utterly foolish.

But now, with all those conditions met, Wang Quanzhi’s move was a wise one, easing the pressure on both her and Xie Shaokun.

And it was true.

In just over ten minutes.

More than thirty Mutants had been killed, and they had even managed to rescue several survivors.

From then on.

Xia Yu stopped paying attention to the main battlefield and turned her gaze to the glass greenhouse where the sunflowers were.

’Although the chance of a plant becoming a Spiritual Plant is minuscule, these sunflowers are fully mature and have a huge number of sunflower seeds.’

As she moved closer, she pondered how to identify which of the sunflower seeds was the Spiritual Plant.

In the ten years of the Apocalypse, many capable people had emerged, and humanity had developed a total of three methods of identification.

Given her current circumstances, she could only...

"Hm?"

Xia Yu stopped in her tracks, her brow furrowed.

Because it was a glass greenhouse, it was quite transparent. In the faint light, she could see living people inside!

After all this time since the Mist Event, anyone still alive was not to be underestimated. At the very least, they had to be extremely lucky.

To be cautious, she didn’t approach hastily. She thought to herself, ’I wonder if these three can draw out that dangerous presence hiding in the shadows?’

Inside the glass greenhouse.

"Haaaah."

Liu Daqing let out a huge sigh of relief, but at the same time, the pain from his wounds made him constantly suck in sharp breaths of cold air.

Just now.

If it weren’t for his mountain-of-flesh-like physique, he would have been long dead.

In particular, there was a deep gash over his heart, made by a Mutant’s claw. It had nearly pierced his heart; if he had been any thinner, it certainly would have.

If his heart had been hit, the outcome would have been obvious.

"Thank god for all this fat."

"Good thing I never went on a diet."

Liu Daqing was overcome with relief. He lowered his voice and urged, "Quick, while that maniac in the car outside has the monsters’ attention, stop the bleeding."

"Just get me out of here alive, and I’ll make sure you’re well paid."

"One hundred thousand each."

"No."

"Five hundred thousand!"

Next to him were his driver, Xiao Wang, and a bodyguard.

The bodyguard had studied medicine before and knew the basics.

He still knew how to do something as simple as stopping the bleeding.

"Okay."

"Boss, this is going to hurt a little."

Tempted by the money, the bodyguard forced his body to move and began to bandage his boss’s wounds.

"Xiao Wang, go close the greenhouse door."

"Be careful not to let the smell of our blood attract those monsters."

Before the bandaging began, Liu Daqing cautiously gave his driver an order.

There were no corpses or Mutants in the glass greenhouse, only a dozen or so sets of clothes scattered on the ground, which was splattered with blood. The situation was quite bizarre; a moment’s thought was enough to realize something was wrong.

But Liu Daqing couldn’t afford to think that much. All he knew was that the blood on the ground, combined with the blood flowing from his own wounds, made the smell of blood in the greenhouse extremely thick.

"Yes, sir."

The driver, Xiao Wang, did as he was told.

Then, Liu Daqing bit down on his clothes, signaling to the bodyguard that he could begin.

The next moment.

A violent jolt of pain made him tremble like a leaf, his mind going completely blank.

The bodyguard was also focused on bandaging his boss. Neither of them paid any attention to the driver.

And at that moment.

The driver, Xiao Wang, was passing by two sets of clothes that had been torn to shreds.

SQUELCH.

He stepped into a pool of blood, making a strange sound.

He tried to lift his foot but found that the sole of his shoe was stuck to something, as if he had stepped in Super Glue.

He couldn’t lift it.

’What’s going on?’

The driver, Xiao Wang, who had been carefully watching what was happening outside, suddenly stumbled and nearly fell. He was about to curse but remembered he needed to be quiet. He quickly swallowed the profanity, a pained look on his face.

He steadied himself and was about to put some force into it when he noticed a sunflower to the side twitch.

Slowly, it turned.

Just like a person turning their head.

"???"

Seeing this, the highly alert Xiao Wang was genuinely terrified. He instinctively tried to take a step back, but his foot was stuck fast. His upper body, however, was already recoiling.

With a SPLASH, he fell backward, landing in the pool of blood.

Just then, the sunflower finished turning to face Xiao Wang.

Their eyes met.