“Bang!”
With a deafening crash, the already rotten wooden door finally gave way under the strain.
After being battered by the relentless impacts, it shattered into countless sharp splinters that flew into the hut like a torrential downpour.
Outside, the pale moonlight fell upon three hideous monsters.
They wore tattered fishermen’s clothes, their cloudy gray-white eyes fixed viciously on the people inside.
Thick black drool dripped from the corners of their mouths, and the overwhelming stench of decay instantly filled the cramped wooden hut.
“Hrr…”
Having caught the scent of fresh living humans, the three Level-One zombies let out excited growls.
They frantically swung their claws covered in black nails and charged inside like starving wolves pouncing on their prey.
Qiao Yu stood beside the fire and was startled by the sudden crash of the door.
Yet there was not the slightest trace of fear in her eyes.
After drinking the Physical Enhancement Potion, she now felt as though her entire body was filled with explosive strength that had nowhere to go.
Looking at the zombie charging at the front, Qiao Yu narrowed her eyes and instinctively clenched her right fist.
Her enhanced muscles instantly tensed, and her bones gave off faint cracking sounds.
She had even calculated the angle, preparing to blow the monster’s head apart with one clean punch while testing the limits of her current strength.
Just as her fist was about to strike, the corner of her eye suddenly caught sight of the pile of dry grass in the corner.
Rong Chen had opened his eyes at some point!
He was lazily leaning against the cold wooden wall with his long legs casually crossed.
Under the dim light, his crimson eyes were fixed on her with a faintly amused expression, as though he were enjoying a show that was about to begin.
Qiao Yu’s heart suddenly pounded wildly, and she almost felt the blood rush backward through her body.
Damn it! She had almost exposed herself!
She had just sworn that she had suffered extremely serious internal injuries and could not even sleep with him.
If she now punched a zombie away with one blow, wouldn’t this Devil King immediately see through her lie?
With his suspicious and twisted personality, he would definitely think she had ulterior motives and kill her without hesitation!
In the blink of an eye, Qiao Yu’s fist, which was about to unleash terrifying power, came to a dead stop in midair.
She instantly relaxed her tense muscles and deliberately shifted her center of gravity.
One second, she had been a murderous female warrior. The next, she seamlessly transformed into a delicate little flower who could barely defend herself.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
A scream loud enough to pierce the eardrums suddenly rang through the wooden hut.
Qiao Yu closed her eyes and wildly waved both hands in the air, putting on an expression of someone scared out of her wits.
She stumbled forward a few steps, but her direction was remarkably precise as she charged straight toward the corner where Rong Chen was sitting.
“Hubby, save me! There are monsters!”
Accompanied by her desperate cry for help, Qiao Yu threw herself into Rong Chen’s arms like a frightened little bird.
She wrapped both arms tightly around his neck, buried her face against his chest, and even trembled as she rubbed against him twice.
“Boohoo, I’m so scared! Hubby, hurry and kill them!”
This sudden embrace left Rong Chen, who had originally been waiting to see how she would handle the situation, completely frozen.
A soft and warm body had suddenly crashed into his arms.
The woman’s unique scent, mixed with the smell of earth yet strangely fresh, instantly filled his nose.
She held him so tightly that her slender arms were wrapped around his neck like vines.
Rong Chen had lived for more than twenty years, yet no woman had ever dared to approach him so boldly.
Let alone cling to him like a koala!
A rare flash of surprise and irritation appeared in his usually unruffled eyes.
The veins on his forehead throbbed.
“Let go.”
Rong Chen’s voice was low and hoarse, carrying an unmistakably cold authority that made it seem as though he might kill someone the next second.
But instead of letting go, Qiao Yu hugged him even tighter.
“No, no! I won’t let go even if I die! Hubby, you’re invincible, so you have to protect your delicate wife who can’t even take care of herself!”
While frantically complaining in her mind about how disgustingly cheesy her lines were, she kept her eyes tightly shut and pretended to be terrified.
By then, the three zombies who had been completely ignored had already roared and pounced toward them.
Their sharp black claws were less than half a meter away from the two of them.
The overwhelming stench of decay made Rong Chen’s brows draw tightly together, and a trace of disgust finally flashed in his eyes.
His body was extremely weak at the moment, so he could not use his large-scale destructive superpower.
But in the instinctive reaction between life and death, a flash of dark light passed through Rong Chen’s deep eyes.
He did not even raise his hand. He simply lifted his long right leg slightly.
With the tip of his foot, he casually hooked up a fist-sized piece of broken stone from the ground.
“Whoosh!”
The ordinary piece of stone seemed to be imbued with a terrifying gravity superpower the instant Rong Chen kicked it.
It transformed into a black bolt of lightning, tore through the air, and released a sharp sonic boom.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Three dull explosive sounds rang out in rapid succession.
Like an unstoppable cannonball, the stone pierced through the heads of all three zombies in an instant!
Black, foul-smelling blood and brain matter exploded through the air like fireworks and splattered across the floor.
The three lifeless bodies collapsed straight to the ground.
Until the very end, they had not even realized what had happened.
The wooden hut once again fell into deathly silence.
Only the piece of stone deeply embedded in the wooden wall opposite them continued to emit wisps of white smoke.
Qiao Yu lay against Rong Chen’s chest and secretly opened one eye.
Looking at the three headless corpses, she could not help but suck in a cold breath.
Good heavens, what kind of combat power was this?
He had merely kicked a stone and had not even fully unleashed his superpower, yet he had instantly killed three zombies?
Luckily, she had not acted impulsively just now. Otherwise, the stone that pierced through them might have been the one piercing through her head.
Once she confirmed that the crisis was over, Qiao Yu immediately sprang out of Rong Chen’s arms.
Her ability to get into character at a moment’s notice was practically flawless. She instantly plastered an adoring smile across her face and stared at Rong Chen with sparkling eyes.
“Wow! Hubby, you’re incredible!”
“I knew it! As long as you’re here, these ugly monsters couldn’t even touch a single hair on your leg!”
“That move when you kicked the stone just now was unbelievably cool! My love for you is like an endless river, flowing forever!”
Her flattery poured out endlessly as though it cost her nothing.
Rong Chen looked at her coldly and brushed the dust she had rubbed onto his chest from his clothes, his eyes filled with undisguised disgust.
“Had enough of acting?”
His crimson eyes seemed capable of seeing through every disguise. “The way you clenched your fist just now didn’t look like someone who couldn’t even take care of herself.”
Qiao Yu’s heart sank.
This Devil King’s powers of observation were terrifying. He had even caught that fleeting movement.
But her mental fortitude was exceptionally strong, and she did not even blush.
“Oh, hubby, you saw wrong. I was just so frightened that my hand cramped up.”
To forcibly change the subject, a sudden idea flashed through Qiao Yu’s mind as she remembered the blind box that was still unopened inside the space.
“By the way, hubby, you just displayed such incredible power, so you must have used up a lot of energy. Come on, let me give you some nutrition!”
As she spoke, she took advantage of turning around and quickly sank her consciousness into the space.
“System, open the blind box!”
【Ding! Random Blind Box opened successfully!】
【Congratulations, host! You have obtained: One limited-edition vacuum-packed jumbo chicken leg from the Apocalypse, spicy flavor!】
Qiao Yu’s heart leaped with joy.
This blind box had opened at exactly the right time!
She immediately took out the palm-sized, glossy red and enticing spicy chicken leg from the space.
When she turned around, she was already holding a chicken leg with half of its packaging torn open, filling the air with a rich aroma of meat.
“Ta-da! Look what I made appear for you!”
As though presenting a precious treasure, Qiao Yu pushed the chicken leg right up to Rong Chen’s mouth.
The rich, spicy aroma of meat instantly filled Rong Chen’s nose.
In this Apocalypse, where even a moldy biscuit could make people fight to the death, a perfectly preserved vacuum-packed chicken leg that still carried the aroma of fresh meat was practically priceless.
Rong Chen paused slightly.
He looked at the glossy, tempting chicken leg by his mouth, then at Qiao Yu’s ingratiating smile.
He knew that this woman was hiding many secrets. The miraculous bowl of noodles from before was one of them, and so was this chicken leg that had appeared out of thin air.
But at this moment, his body truly needed a large amount of protein and energy to repair his damaged superpower.
In the face of absolute survival needs, all suspicions could be put aside for the time being.
Rong Chen did not refuse.
He opened his mouth naturally, bit down on the chicken leg, and tore off a large piece of meat.
The spicy juices burst across his mouth, and the long-lost sense of satisfaction softened his expression considerably.
Qiao Yu stood beside him with a beaming smile as she watched him eat, secretly pleased with herself.
See? No matter how fierce the Devil King was, he still had to obediently eat the food she fed him.
This wasn’t raising a villain. She was clearly raising an arrogant, ferocious beast.
Just when Qiao Yu thought she had successfully soothed this man with food and stabilized her image as a “virtuous wife,” Rong Chen swallowed the chicken in his mouth.
He chewed slowly while his gaze drifted toward the three zombie corpses lying on the ground with their heads blown apart.
Then he turned his head, and his crimson eyes fixed directly on Qiao Yu.
The corners of his lips curved into a faintly amused smile, while his voice carried a casual probing tone and a deadly sense of pressure.
“Wife, since I’m so powerful…”
He deliberately dragged out the last word.
“You said earlier that you suffered internal injuries because you were protecting me.”
Rong Chen leaned slightly toward her, his gaze gradually becoming as sharp as a blade.
“Tell me, if even a few brainless zombies were enough to scare you until your legs went weak…”
“How did you protect me before?”