Li Dong was more troublesome than any zombie Zhou Jinshi had ever encountered.
And Zhou Jinshi was also more difficult to kill than any human Li Dong had ever met.
Zhou Jinshi gripped the hilt of Divine Art, his entire body wrapped in a layer of flowing water.
He raised his head and looked at Li Dong, speaking with absolute certainty. “The zombie beneath the Yanhu Grand Hotel, that was you.”
That zombie had made his blood boil with excitement back then. He had not had the opportunity to kill it at the time, but unexpectedly, he had another chance today.
“It was me,” Li Dong answered his question.
Li Dong’s pale bluish-white eyes bulged outward. This time, he even said a few more words. “Eat you.”
Yet the instant the word “you” left his mouth, the blade named Divine Art had already flown through the air.
Li Dong’s tall yet hunched body was instantly split into two.
Foul-smelling blood, bursting organs, yellow-white brain matter. All of it mixed together and was churned into the muddy ground.
Merely this was far from enough to make Zhou Jinshi lower his guard, and it was even less capable of dispelling the killing intent that had already been completely ignited within him.
Zhou Jinshi could feel Divine Art lightly trembling in his hand, as though it were asking him to continue. Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Jinshi raised his blade once more and hacked Li Dong’s already split head into even smaller pieces.
The mist of blood dispersed, and Zhou Jinshi looked coldly at the pile of mangled flesh before him.
He had not expected that a zombie like Li Dong, one that possessed intelligence and emotions, would not have a crystal core in its head.
Perhaps Divine Art had simply been too sharp, and he had used too much force earlier and shattered the crystal core.
Zhou Jinshi’s ability had only advanced recently, and his control over his power was no longer as precise as it had been before.
So it was not impossible.
Thinking this, Zhou Jinshi no longer dwelled on it. He stood up and headed in the direction Hu Zeyu and the others had fled.
The road ahead remained unknown, and no one knew what was waiting for them. Perhaps it would be peaceful. Or perhaps there would be even more zombies.
The most urgent matter was still ensuring everyone’s safety.
As Zhou Jinshi put away Divine Art, the dense killing intent in his eyes dissipated, and in the blink of an eye, he disappeared from sight.
…
A gust of wind passed, and the dark clouds that had long gathered finally began to release a light, drizzling rain.
In the grass, Li Qiu raised her head. The raindrops struck her face, but they did not hurt.
This was ordinary rain, not acid rain.
Following the instinct she had once possessed as a human, Li Qiu gently opened her mouth and let the rainwater pour into her throat.
She was thirsty.
Unfortunately, this rainwater did nothing to quench her thirst.
Li Qiu’s eyes turned slightly red. She knew what could quench her thirst.
That thing only required a sharp object to cut open the skin, and it could be obtained.
I have blood too.
Why don’t I drink my own?
This strange and genius idea suddenly appeared in Li Qiu’s mind. She even seriously raised her purplish-blue arm.
Then Li Qiu slapped herself. “You’re insane. Even a tiger doesn’t eat its own cubs!”
But she was truly thirsty.
Hungry and thirsty…
It felt as though a ball of fire was burning her internal organs. That fire also caused the fragrance of blood wafting from afar to become almost tangible, luring Li Qiu toward it.
Li Qiu was not unfamiliar with this instinctive feeling.
The last time had been the same.
This feeling would devour the part of her consciousness that still belonged to a human, and after that, even she could not predict what would happen.
Li Qiu felt a little anxious and let out a sorrowful sigh.
But what could she do even if she was anxious? She still could not go out.
The battle between the humans and the ability users had not ended yet. She could not go out there and offer herself up.
However, Li Qiu was not someone who would sit around waiting to die.
Supporting her head with one hand, Li Qiu came up with another genius idea.
She furtively looked around and, after making sure no one was nearby, immediately licked her left hand with lightning speed.
Earlier, Li Qiu’s left hand had been cut by the wild grass. The wound had actually healed long ago. But there was still a tiny bloodstain where the cut had been.
No matter how little blood there was, it was still blood. No matter how small a fly was, it was still meat.
Li Qiu’s eyes practically glowed green as she licked that tiny bloodstain over and over again.
She half squatted and half reclined in the grass, numbing herself, and waited for another half an hour or so.
The place where the battle had been gradually fell silent.
Overjoyed, Li Qiu sprang to her feet.
The rain was not heavy, but it had continued intermittently, soaking most of Li Qiu’s body.
Her originally soft down jacket had absorbed so much water that it had become thick and heavy.
Without paying attention, Li Qiu once again rolled down through the grass.
This tumble left Li Qiu completely dizzy, and she simply gave up struggling. Wherever heaven wanted her to roll, she would roll there.
“If you’ve got the guts, let me roll straight into a pile of corpses!” Li Qiu cursed furiously in her heart.
When something finally blocked her and brought her to a stop, Li Qiu’s hat and scarf had vanished, her clothes had been shredded into something that looked like a beggar’s outfit, and there were numerous scratches on her face and hands. If someone claimed she had escaped after being kidnapped and beaten, others would probably believe it.
Ever since turning into a zombie, many changes had occurred in Li Qiu’s body.
Other than the time her hand had been corroded by acid rain, she had almost stopped feeling pain altogether.
But even though Li Qiu did not feel much pain right now, she could clearly sense that something was very wrong.
One of her legs was bent upward at a bizarre ninety-degree angle. There was an eighty percent chance that it had been fractured in the fall.
“Could it be that heaven truly wants me dead?” Li Qiu felt like crying.
Using the rainwater as accompaniment, Li Qiu genuinely and pitifully cried.
Less than ten seconds later, Li Qiu wore a cold expression and let out a hungry burp before licking the wounds on her hand.
She decided that even if she had to crawl, she would crawl to the pile of corpses.
As she crawled, Li Qiu did not forget to call out Li Dong’s name.
“Unreliable, way too unreliable. He definitely chased after the ability users and ran far away. He doesn’t take me, his boss, seriously at all!”
“When I’ve eaten my fill and my injuries have healed, I’ll drive away immediately. We’re splitting up, completely splitting up.”
Li Qiu cursed and grumbled, but her eyes constantly scanned every direction, unwilling to miss even the slightest movement.
She kept thinking that perhaps in the next second, Li Dong would push aside a clump of grass and come looking for her.
But Li Dong never appeared.
Another ten minutes later, with tears streaming down her face, Li Qiu finally reached the previous battlefield. Just as she had observed earlier, the battle had already come to a preliminary end. Whether it was the human ability users or the zombie horde, they had all moved on to other targets. This place was safe for Li Qiu.
But there was still a distance of one arm’s length between Li Qiu and the nearest zombie corpse.
“Stupid hand, just grow a little longer. If you grow longer, you’ll be able to reach it!!” Li Qiu shouted with a ferocious expression.
But she had almost no strength left, and the sound she made could only be heard by herself.
Perhaps heaven could not bear to see Li Qiu starve to death here. At that moment, her eyes, which were almost closed, suddenly spotted a finger.
It was a rather long middle finger, with distinct joints. It probably belonged to a zombie because it had long, black fingernails.
This finger looked somewhat familiar…
Forget it, who cares? I’m so hungry.
Li Qiu swallowed and directly gulped down the entire finger.
After eating the finger, Li Qiu barely managed to keep her eyes open and continued crawling forward.
Very soon, she touched the corpse and began eating with remarkable familiarity.
After the great battle, two more figures came walking along the highway.
No, they should be called two zombies.
Fang Qi had brought Su Zhihai all the way here, crossing mountains and rivers.
Both of Fang Qi’s hands were covered in dark, black-red bloodstains, while an unknown creature’s intestines hung around Su Zhihai’s neck.
Su Zhihai was no longer as lively as he had been when he was human. He simply followed quietly by Fang Qi’s side.
“Guh…” A sound came from Fang Qi’s throat. She raised a hand and pointed in one direction before speaking two incomplete words. “King, there.”
Su Zhihai was not an intelligent species. He could neither understand nor repeat Fang Qi’s words. Yet he was unconsciously drawn toward the direction she was pointing.
If a person had never been truly hungry, they would never understand how precious food was. The same sentence also applied if the subject was changed to zombies.
Li Qiu, who had completely lost her human consciousness, was diligently enjoying her buffet.
She was like a conscientious cleaner, not letting a single arm or a single brain on the battlefield escape her attention, making sure to eat every corpse clean. If she had actually been capable of digesting clothes, Li Qiu had even planned to chew up the shoes and belts as well.
By the time Li Qiu’s human consciousness began to return, it was already dark and the rain had stopped.
The surroundings were utterly silent, as though the heavy night had pressed a mute button on the world.
Li Qiu burped. This time it was a full burp. After burping, she suddenly felt something strange. Her field of vision had expanded tremendously.
Did I awaken a vision ability after eating my fill? Li Qiu thought cheerfully, but she quickly realized that it was no vision ability at all.
It was clearly a giant ability. Her body was like a bag of potato chips, having expanded by who knew how many times!
The most prominent part was her belly.
When Li Qiu lowered her head, she could not even see the ground. All she could see was her own round belly.
“Blegh…” Li Qiu felt a wave of nausea. She did not know whether it was because she had eaten too much or because she had suddenly become taller, fatter, and bigger and had somehow developed a fear of heights.
Perhaps it was both.
After the nausea became less frequent, Li Qiu carefully touched her stomach and even patted it.
That pat startled Li Qiu.
She heard someone talking inside her belly.
“It hurts.”
The voice from inside her stomach was very weak, and its tone was stiff, like a baby just learning to speak.
Weak or not, though, this baby-like voice sounded way too familiar.
“Li Dong? Did I freaking eat you?” Li Qiu’s vision darkened, and she felt a little guilty.
She had been unconscious while eating earlier. Whenever she grabbed meat, she stuffed it into her mouth, and whenever she found a blood vessel, she slit it open and drank from it. So she really was not sure whether she had accidentally eaten Li Dong.
“Oww, my stomach! My stomach hurts so much.” Her stomach churned violently, and Li Qiu once again felt pain. Her face instantly turned even paler than a corpse that had been drowned for three days.
She could not help cursing.
“Li Dong, even if you’re in my stomach, can you stop moving around? Even if I really did eat you, I didn’t do it on purpose!”
The thing inside her stomach made no further sounds. It seemed to have quieted down a little.
Li Qiu had only just sighed in relief when she suddenly noticed two zombies kneeling not far away.
One was Fang Qi, and the other was Su Zhihai. They had long ceased to be human. When they noticed Li Qiu looking at them, expressions of intoxication and obsession appeared on both of their faces at the same time.
At that thought, a trace of melancholy over how things had changed filled Li Qiu’s heart.
She opened her mouth, wanting to ask why the two of them were here.
However, before Li Qiu could say anything, Fang Qi had already bowed and kowtowed first, her mouth full of fangs producing a clear and accurate sound.
“King! King! King!”
Li Qiu: “…” She suspected that after becoming a zombie, Fang Qi had been bitten by a dog, otherwise why was she barking here?
“King! King! King!” The thing inside Li Qiu’s stomach seemed to have received a summons and also began calling out along with her.