Su Nian pulled the dagger from her waist and activated her speed ability. Her body became a blur, and in the blink of an eye she appeared in front of the zombie, driving the tip of her blade fiercely toward the center of its black-purple forehead.
Clang!
It was as if something had blocked the dagger. The blade stopped an inch away from the zombie’s brow.
Ye Xihe frowned. Why did it feel like…
She stepped forward, wanting to take a closer look.
“Su Nian!” Ye Huizhou charged forward with a steel rebar in hand.
“Protect Xihe.”
Su Nian didn’t linger after missing her strike. She immediately retreated to Ye Xihe’s side.
Meanwhile, Ye Huizhou and the others had already engaged the zombie.
The C-rank Zombie was agile and incredibly fast. More troublesome still, it could wield lightning abilities. Xu Wen failed to dodge in time, and several holes had already been blasted through his clothes by arcs of electricity.
It was an extremely difficult opponent.
For a time, lightning, blazing flames, and showers of sparks from clashing metal illuminated the battlefield. The dazzling flashes were almost impossible to look at directly.
Yet despite all the spectacular effects, very few attacks actually inflicted any damage on the zombie.
The battle reached a stalemate.
Ye Xihe watched anxiously.
Something about the zombie seemed strange, and before she realized it, she had taken a few more steps forward.
Su Nian grabbed her arm.
Turning back, Ye Xihe saw Su Nian shaking her head.
The three fighters also realized that direct attacks weren’t working. They began dodging while cautiously probing with smaller bursts of their abilities.
After being toyed with for a while, the zombie gradually lost patience.
It stopped in place and threw back its head with a furious roar.
A ring of purple electricity exploded outward!
The glass throughout the mall shattered instantly, raining fragments everywhere.
Reacting swiftly, Su Nian tackled Ye Xihe to the ground and shielded her beneath her body.
Her focus was entirely on protecting Ye Xihe, and she didn’t notice the long cut that a flying shard had carved into her arm.
Ye Xihe immediately healed the wound with her ability.
Outside the mall.
There were many survivor teams in the area, and the zombies had largely been cleared out, so plenty of people moved about during the day.
The bow-selling man was holding a little girl’s hand, trading handmade bows for snacks she liked.
When the third floor of the mall exploded with a thunderous boom, the little girl jumped in fright.
“What happened?”
People below instinctively looked up.
The bow seller stared toward the third floor, his brows slowly knitting together.
Inside the mall.
The zombie’s roar continued unabated.
Purple waves of electricity spread outward again and again, making the entire floor tremble.
“Interrupt it!”
Gu Zhuoye condensed a fireball the size of a yoga ball and hurled it at the zombie.
“If it keeps roaring, this floor is going to collapse!”
“You beast!”
Xu Wen’s golden broadsword whistled through the air.
“Who the hell are you yelling for?”
The powerful assault staggered the zombie and finally interrupted its roar.
At that moment, Ye Xihe noticed something.
Fine ripples, like water waves, appeared across the zombie’s black-purple skin.
“Brother!”
She instantly understood what she was seeing and shouted,
“There’s a layer around its body, like protective qi! Break that and you’ll break its defense!”
Xu Wen’s weapon transformed from a blade into countless needles, which shot toward the zombie in a storm.
But the metal needles struck as if they had hit a steel plate, clattering uselessly to the ground.
It didn’t work.
Gu Zhuoye spun his flaming spear and thrust directly at the zombie’s chest.
A dull thud rang out.
A black claw grabbed the spear and actually snapped the solidified flame weapon in half.
Without changing expression, Gu Zhuoye waved his hand and summoned another spear.
“Xu Wen! Conductive metal!”
Ye Xihe’s voice rang out again.
“The layer around it is electricity. Use metal to draw it away!”
Now that she had figured it out, her voice grew firmer.
“The electrical system for this floor is on the left front side. Xu Wen-ge, create a conductive network. Brother and Zhuoye-ge, lure it into attacking and channel the electricity from its body into the system!”
Clap!
Xu Wen slammed his palms together, and a silver-copper mesh materialized before him.
Creating metal from nothing consumed a tremendous amount of energy, and his face turned pale.
Ahead, Gu Zhuoye’s attacks shifted from brutal assault to deliberate provocation.
His flames slithered around the zombie like a living serpent.
At one point, when the zombie paused to grab at the fire, Gu Zhuoye even reached out and casually patted its black-purple, grayish face.
The zombie: …
It was truly furious now.
The corner of Ye Huizhou’s mouth twitched.
Not wanting to lose, he delivered a kick squarely to the zombie’s black-purple backside.
Roar!
Enraged, the zombie chased after them.
Little by little, they lured it toward the electrical system.
But it seemed to realize what they were trying to do and suddenly turned to flee.
Standing in front of the power panel, Gu Zhuoye casually sliced his palm against a twisted metal door nearby.
Red beads of blood welled up from the cut.
The scent of fresh blood reached the zombie, and it completely lost its remaining reason.
It lunged forward viciously.
Just as its gray claws were about to rake across Gu Zhuoye’s face, the metal network suddenly appeared between them.
The instant the zombie’s claws touched the mesh, electricity erupted across it!
Gu Zhuoye slipped aside with remarkable agility, brushing past the steel rebar in Ye Huizhou’s hands.
The rebar connected the metal network to the power system.
In the next instant, every remaining light fixture on the ruined floor flashed to life with blinding brilliance.
The harsh white light tore through the darkness and illuminated everything around them.
The power system acted like a massive pump, draining every trace of lightning ability from the zombie’s body.
“Now!”
Su Nian activated her speed ability and enhanced her teammates.
In the blink of an eye, Gu Zhuoye’s spear pierced straight through the zombie’s skull.
But even with its head pierced, the zombie did not die completely.
It was still moving.
“It’s going to self-destruct! Get back!”
A man’s voice suddenly came from the emergency stairwell entrance.
Ye Xihe turned around.
“It’s you!”
It was the man who had tried to sell them a bow.
The man looked frantic.
“Move! Get away!”
Ye Huizhou and the others retreated at top speed, but it was already too late.
The instant the zombie exploded, a massive sphere of white light descended over them.
It was Ye Xihe.
The moment before the explosion, Su Nian had used her speed ability to bring her to the center of the group.
Forcing out such a huge amount of power in such a short time was almost too much for Ye Xihe. She swayed unsteadily.
Su Nian quickly supported her.
“Xihe?”
Protected by Ye Xihe’s healing barrier, none of them were injured by the blast.
However, chunks of flesh and blood rained down all over them.
The nauseating stench spread instantly.
Ye Xihe gagged several times.
It smelled awful!
Ding!
Where the zombie had originally stood, a purple crystal the size of a pigeon egg rolled onto the floor.
Suppressing her nausea, Ye Xihe walked over and picked it up.
The crystal was smooth and warm to the touch.
It reminded her of the brown crystal that had dropped from the bear before. That one had been brown and rough, with sharp edges.
After a moment’s thought, she handed the crystal to her brother.
“Brother, try using your ability with it.”
Ye Huizhou trusted his sister unconditionally.
He clenched the warm crystal and activated his ability.
Purple light blossomed from the crystal.
A powerful force surged through his palm and rushed into his body.
He let out a muffled groan, cold sweat appearing on his forehead.
“Brother!”
Ye Xihe called out anxiously.
Ye Huizhou didn’t respond.
He was concentrating completely on taming the immense new power that had suddenly entered his body.
Time passed second by second.
Half an hour later, he still hadn’t moved.
Seeing this, Ye Xihe realized he was probably absorbing the crystal’s energy. She finally relaxed and sat down against a nearby wall.
Gu Zhuoye immediately followed and sat down on her right.
Su Nian quickly sat down on her left.
Xu Wen scratched his head and sat down as well.