AFTCKCTCKATD - Chapter 37
Chapter 37
"You're Running The Wrong Way!"
Feng Yimo glanced coldly at Xia Shen Shu before looking ahead again.
Ji An and Ji Le, who were holding hands, ran a few steps and caught up with Ji Yanqing.
Night fell early in the wild. It was only around five o’clock, and the setting sun was already hanging low in the sky. The scorching temperature that had been torturing them was gradually replaced by cool breezes.
Xia Shen Shu stopped pestering Feng Yimo. He knew Feng Yimo had taken his words to heart.
The group walked along the railway tracks, remaining vigilant of the shrub walls around them. After almost an hour, they saw a large banyan tree in the distance, to the right of the tracks.
The tree had been large to begin with, over a thousand years old. After mutating, it had become even bigger, its trunk so thick that it would take dozens of people to encircle it. The area covered by its crown was close to eight or nine hundred square meters.
Seeing the banyan tree, no one smiled or expressed their amazement. They all couldn’t help but take a deep breath and become incredibly alert.
Ji Yanqing led the way off the railway tracks and headed towards the ancient tree in the twilight.
It was almost dark. Compared to the wasteland full of shrubs, that tree was obviously more suitable for camping.
When they were still more than two hundred meters from the area covered by the tree’s crown, they all stopped and hid behind a shrub.
The tree seemed even more massive up close. Looking up at the lush canopy above, they even had the feeling that there might be another world up there.
Li Pingsen silently gestured to Ji Yanqing and quietly headed towards the tree with Xia Chen and two others to scout the situation.
Ji Yanqing didn’t stop them. Under Xia Shen Shu’s guidance, they were now quite capable.
They carefully made their way through the shrubs and quickly approached the tree. After walking around the tree and not finding anything, they headed behind it.
The others held their breath behind the shrubs, waiting.
Five or six minutes later, just as the others couldn’t help feeling tense, Li Pingsen and the others reappeared.
There were no zombies nearby. It was relatively safe.
Ji Yanqing quickly led the others along the path Li Pingsen and the others had just taken and entered the area covered by the tree’s crown. They joined Li Pingsen and the others under the tree.
“Come and take a look.” Li Pingsen led the way and turned left towards a large cluster of shrubs.
Ji Yanqing glanced at Ji An and Ji Le. After confirming that the two little ones were by Feng Yimo’s side, he followed Li Pingsen.
They walked along the left side of the tree until they reached the back, and then followed the shrubs behind the tree.
After going around the shrubs and walking forward for some distance, Li Pingsen stopped.
Ji Yanqing looked ahead. Seeing what was in front of them, he frowned. There was a pool of blood almost three meters in diameter. The blood was still fresh and reeked. There were many pieces of clothing and bone fragments in the blood. It looked like at least two people had died there.
The traces were still very fresh. It must have happened within the last two days.
Ji Yanqing didn’t go closer, and they turned back.
After rejoining the others, Li Pingsen looked at Ji Yanqing. “What do we do?”
“Let’s rest here tonight, and leave first thing tomorrow morning,” Ji Yanqing said.
Whatever had happened here, it had happened one or two days ago.
They were currently in the wasteland, and their visibility was limited. It was the worst possible idea to travel at night when they didn’t know what was out there.
Li Pingsen nodded and went to have everyone put down their backpacks to rest. At the same time, he took out food and water, preparing to distribute rations. It was almost dark.
Xia Shen Shu and the others looked at Ji Yanqing.
Ji Yanqing took out his map and spread it out on the ground.
The area to the right of the county town was very remote. Most of it was undeveloped plains and mountains. The nearest village from the county town was a four- or five-day walk, and the town by the canal was a ten-day walk.
He reconfirmed their current location and direction, marked the location of the banyan tree, and put away the map.
“Papa…” Ji An and Ji Le happily ran towards him, holding the food rations for the three of them.
Coming closer, they shoved everything into his arms and waited for him to redistribute it.
There wasn’t much food and water. It wasn’t nearly enough to fill their stomachs. The food was also very random, with everything from snacks to instant noodles.
Ji Yanqing chose some of the more palatable and filling things and gave them to the two little ones. Then he took what was left and started to eat.
Even the more palatable and filling things were only instant noodle cakes. The cakes were very hard, and Ji An and Ji Le, who had received half a cake each, struggled to take a bite.
Watching from the side, Ji Yanqing was afraid their teeth would break, so he found a packaging bag and helped break the cake into smaller pieces.
After breaking it up, it was much easier to eat, and the two little ones munched happily.
Ji An still didn’t have much of an appetite, and only ate a small portion before refusing to eat any more. Ji Yanqing was anxious, watching him from the side, and urged him to eat a little more.
By the time they finished eating, it was completely dark. The nights in the wild were a bit brighter than in towns, but it was still so dark that there weren’t any stars.
Xia Shen Shu discussed the night watch duty arrangements with Li Pingsen and the others. Four people were left to keep watch, and everyone else went to bed early.
Ji Yanqing also went to bed early, holding the two little ones.
Ji An and Ji Le were very easy to take care of. They weren’t at all spoiled or fussy, unlike other children their age. After lying down next to Ji Yanqing, they fell asleep within a couple of minutes.
Listening to the even breathing beside him, Ji Yanqing slowly raised his head and carefully took Ji An’s hand, gently unwrapping the cloth strips.
The wounds on his palms had healed three days ago.
They had rested for seven days in the previous county town, plus the first day, for a total of eight days.
Ji An had been injured on the morning of the first day they entered the county town. On that day, and the second and third days, his attention had been on the supermarket and the county town. On the morning of the fourth day, when he had remembered to change Ji An’s bandages, the wounds under the bandages had already healed.
His small, fair palms were clean, with no signs of injury.
At that time, Ji Yanqing had thought he was mistaken, but he had carefully examined them, and there were indeed no traces of injury on Ji An’s hands.
He rubbed his thumb against Ji An’s soft palm in the darkness.
Ji An was sleeping soundly. His palm tickled, and he instinctively grasped Ji Yanqing’s hand.
Ji Yanqing felt the faint pressure on his thumb and the warmth of Ji An’s palm. He wrapped the cloth strips around Ji An’s hand again.
Lying back down, Ji Yanqing emptied his mind and went to sleep. They still had a ten-day journey ahead of them, and they still didn’t know what had happened to the survival team ahead of them.
It started snowing at about eight in the evening. Ji Yanqing was woken up by the cold. He sat up, took the two little ones into his arms, and was about to lean against his backpack and go back to sleep, when someone walked towards him in the darkness.
He looked over.
“Captain Ji, there are people ahead,” Xia Chen, who was on night watch duty, said.
“Well, they to be survivors,” Xia Chen said.
Ji Yanqing put Ji An and Ji Le down on the ground, took his axe, and quickly got up.
Leaving his warm embrace, the two little ones immediately curled up like kittens. Their practiced movements made one’s heart ache.
Xia Chen led the way towards the shrubs behind the banyan tree. The two of them walked through the shrubs for five or six minutes before Xia Chen stopped.
“Over there, at the foot of the mountain.” He pointed ahead.
Ji Yanqing looked in the direction he was pointing.
This plain wasn’t a vast, endless grassland. It was just a relatively flat wasteland.
There were mountains around the wasteland, but when they were in the wasteland, the shrubs taller than a person had blocked their view, so they couldn’t see the surrounding mountains.
“We originally just wanted to see if there were any zombies in the area a little further away. Then we found traces of survivors fleeing in the shrubs, and we followed the traces for a while and found that this tree was actually not far from the mountains,” Xia Chen explained.
“The people are at the foot of the mountain. They were moving earlier, so they must have arrived there not long ago,” another person said from behind the shrubs.
Xia Chen wasn’t alone. The other person was also on night watch duty.
Ji Yanqing squinted. He didn’t see anyone at first. After looking again, he finally saw two people at the foot of the mountain.
They were sitting on the ground, only small black dots from afar, but zombies wouldn’t sit still, let alone two zombies sitting still together.
“Should we go over and take a look?” Xia Chen asked.
Ji Yanqing thought for a moment and then looked at the other person. “Go wake everyone else up. Tell them to be as quiet as possible.”
He didn’t know what had happened to the two people who had died in the pool of blood nearby. But since those people were right here, it meant that the thing that had created that pool of blood was likely chasing after those people at the foot of the mountain.
The person nodded and ran towards the tree.
Xia Chen moved closer to Ji Yanqing and spoke again. “There are far fewer of them than we expected. I got a little closer and counted. There are at most twenty people.”
Ji Yanqing’s heart sank.
“If they’re really the survival team that was ahead of us, then four or five hundred people have been reduced to only twenty or so in just a few days… They either encountered a corpse king and were wiped out, or they were separated from their main group,” Xia Chen said.
If it was the latter, it would be fine. But if it was the former…
Four or five hundred people reduced to only twenty or so in one or two days… The corpse king they encountered must have been at least as terrifying as the corpse king they had seen in the hospital, or even more so.
“Ji Yanqing.” A few minutes later, Xia Shen Shu and the others approached quickly in the darkness, carrying their backpacks.
Ji Yanqing took his backpack from Feng Yimo and put it on.
The person who had gone back to wake the others had already told them about the situation. Knowing there were people at the foot of the mountain, they all looked over there.
“Could it be people from another survival team?” Lan Zi speculated.
No one answered her question, because no one knew the answer.
“Which way did they come from?” Xia Shen Shu asked.
If they had really encountered a corpse king, their best option was to find out where it was and then quickly get away.
“I don’t know. They were already there when we found them,” Xia Chen shook his head.
“Let’s get closer and take a look,” Ji Yanqing said.
After grabbing Feng Yimo, who was walking to the right, and pulling him back, he led everyone towards the mountain.
They had already grown accustomed to moving stealthily. They didn’t make a sound as they walked, as if they belonged to the darkness itself.
There were many shrubs in the wasteland. They didn’t stop until they were only a little over three hundred meters away.
There were indeed only twenty or so people. Except for the two on watch, everyone else was sleeping. Many of them didn’t even have backpacks. They were clearly fleeing.
“It seems…” Someone muttered, but their voice was too low, and Ji Yanqing couldn’t hear.
“Tsk.” Xia Shen Shu clicked his tongue.
Ji Yanqing looked at him.
“It’s Xue Gang’s people,” Xia Shen Shu said.
Ji Yanqing was stunned. When he looked over again, he quickly saw a bald man among the sleeping people.
The man was wearing a hat and was lying with his back to them, curled up in a ball in the snow. But it was definitely the bald man from their former team.
“How could it be them? I thought they were all dead,” Li Pingsen said, his face dark.
They had suffered a lot when they were in Xue Gang’s team. When they had parted ways, Xue Gang had even pointed a gun at them and forced them to distract the zombies so he could escape.
If it hadn’t been for Ji Yanqing, they would have already died in that city.
“They probably fled towards the county town after leaving that city, and entered this wasteland before we did,” Lan Zi analyzed.
“What do we do? Should we—” Li Pingsen’s words were cut off when one of the two people keeping watch in Xue Gang’s team suddenly looked over.
“Who’s there!”
Hearing his question, the other person on watch duty and several people who had been sleeping were instantly awakened. They immediately raised their guns and pointed them in Ji Yanqing’s direction.
Their nerves were incredibly tense from being on the run. To those people, the gazes filled with obvious anger from Li Pingsen and the others were like beacons in the night.
The group of people on the opposite side, whose nerves were already stretched to their limits, were stunned for a moment upon hearing the voice. The expressions on their faces were incredible, as if they had encountered ghosts in the night, as if they were terrified that a corpse king could actually speak.
Soon, Xue Gang, whose face was full of anger, was the first to react. He got up from the ground and pointed his gun at the shrubs. “Come out.”
Ji Yanqing took two steps to the side, out of the shrubs.
Seeing him move, Xia Shen Shu and the others also slowly moved out from behind the shrubs.
The two sides were too far apart, so Xue Gang and the others slowly approached them with their guns raised.
Only when they were about fifty meters apart could Xue Gang finally recognize them.
“It’s you.” He lowered his gun. His eyes swept across Li Pingsen and the others behind Ji Yanqing, finally resting on their bulging backpacks. “You’ve arrived just in time. We’ve lost our luggage. Give me some water.”
Hearing Xue Gang’s matter-of-fact tone, no one behind Ji Yanqing moved.
His hand, outstretched to ask for water, hung awkwardly in the air. This made his already bloodshot eyes instantly erupt with rage. “What do you mean by this?”
Still no one responded. They only stared at him in silence.
The commotion had woken up everyone in Xue Gang’s team, and they were all standing behind him now.
There were twenty-two or twenty-three of them. Only five or so, including Xue Gang, were left from his original team. The others were all ordinary team members.
They all had one thing in common: they all had injuries or bloodstains on their bodies. Their eyes were bloodshot, their faces pale, and their lips chapped. It was clear that they hadn’t been doing well after escaping from that city.
“Let’s go.” Ji Yanqing turned and walked back in the direction they had come from.
“How dare you!” Xue Gang raised his gun and pointed it at Ji Yanqing. Without water in this harsh environment, they would surely die.
Almost at the same time he raised his gun, Xia Shen Shu, Lan Zi, Li Pingsen, Xia Chen, and the young Su Luo, all of whom had guns and had been on guard, raised their guns in unison and aimed them at Xue Gang.
The others without guns also took a step forward, their eyes red, making it clear that if Xue Gang dared to shoot Ji Yanqing, they would kill him.
Feng Yimo’s gaze swept coldly across Xue Gang’s face.
Facing all those gun barrels, the muscles in Xue Gang’s mouth twitched. He instinctively looked at Feng Yimo. He had the feeling that if the gun in his hand had moved a fraction of an inch closer to Ji Yanqing just now, his hand would have been cut off.
After Xia Shen Shu and the others, the other four people with guns in Xue Gang’s team reacted and raised their guns.
Baldy hesitated for a moment before raising his gun as well.
Xia Shen Shu’s eyes swept across his face, and then he looked at Xue Gang, smiling brightly. “Yo, if it isn’t Team Leader Xue. How come you’ve become a drowned rat in just a few days? Looking so pathetic…”
The atmosphere between the two teams was already tense, like a drawn bow ready to fire, and Xia Shen Shu was fanning the flames. The corners of everyone’s mouths twitched.
Xue Gang glared at Xia Shen Shu with hatred, his face dark. His eyes swept across the faces of Ji Yanqing and the others, his expression vicious, as if he wanted to remember every one of them so he could get revenge.
When his gaze swept past Ji An and Ji Le, a flash of cruelty appeared in his eyes. He had always disliked these kinds of brats who did nothing except for eating and drinking.
If it had been before, he would have kicked them.
Ji An and Ji Le’s faces had turned pale the moment they saw Xue Gang. They knew Ji Yanqing would protect them, they knew they didn’t have to be afraid now, but the sight of his face couldn’t help but remind them of all the beatings they had endured.
Every time, he had beaten them almost to death.
“So, what do you want—”
“Grraaaaawr!”
A beast’s roar, different from the previous beast corpse king’s roar but just as ferocious, suddenly came from the wasteland to their left.
The group of people, who had been on the verge of attacking each other, instinctively turned to look in the direction of the sound. The sound wasn’t far, at most five hundred meters.
“Move!” Ignoring Xue Gang and the others, Ji Yanqing led them towards the mountains ahead. There were more trees in the mountains, which made it easier to hide.
Xia Shen Shu and the others quickly followed.
As for Xue Gang, who was still holding his gun, even if he had ten times the courage, he wouldn’t dare shoot at a time like this.
“Leader, those two brats… they seem to really be the two from before…” one of the people in Xue Gang’s team said in surprise, looking at Ji Yanqing and the others leaving.
“Nonsense. Those two brats died a long time ago.” Xue Gang glared at him. He had the time to care about that at a time like this?
He hesitated for a moment before quickly following in the direction Ji Yanqing and the others had gone.
They definitely couldn’t find water in a godforsaken place like this. The only water was in Ji Yanqing and the others’ backpacks.
“But those two brats… they seemed to know you…” the person continued, following behind him.
He had already had that feeling before. Just now, when Xue Gang glared at those two brats, the fear in their eyes made him feel it again.
The feeling made him feel cold, and it also made him feel ridiculous. He had been right there watching when Xue Gang beat those two brats to death.
The smaller one… he remembered that Xue Gang had kicked him so hard that he crashed into a pile of rebar at a construction site. His entire back had been pierced…
He clearly remembered that pale, tear-stained face, his lips bitten to stop himself from making a sound.
But if that child really was one of the two from before, how could he still be alive?
With a wound like that, let alone a three-year-old child, even an adult would have definitely died, even with access to medical treatment.
He followed Xue Gang, glancing at the figures of Ji Yanqing and the others ahead of him. He seemed to see two small figures following closely behind Ji Yanqing at the front.
They were running at a speed that didn’t seem possible for three-year-olds…
That sight made him feel a chill from the bottom of his heart.
He swallowed.
Ji Yanqing led the way into the mountains and quickly found a steep cliff that was only a few meters high. He led the others to quickly hide behind it.
The forest was pitch black. The huge, dense tree canopies blocked all light, making it almost impossible to see anything other than vague figures, and making everyone’s breathing sound louder.
After Ji Yanqing’s team, Xue Gang’s team also quickly hid under the cliff.
Ji Yanqing glanced back and saw that Xue Gang had followed. He wasn’t surprised. Xue Gang was that kind of person.
Everyone held their breath, listening. The beast’s roar before had only been about five hundred meters away. If it discovered them and came this way, it would be here by now.
The darkness was silent. Only their heavy breathing and the sound of their heartbeats could be heard.
They didn’t hear any footsteps or unusual movements. The people huddled behind the cliff breathed sighs of relief.
“Where’s Wu Yao?” Xia Shen Shu asked Baldy, who was next to him, in a low voice.
Lan Zi also looked over. She had noticed earlier that Wu Yao wasn’t among Xue Gang’s people.
Being asked, Baldy, wearing a hat and a cloth bandage over his left eye, moved his lips. After a while, he finally spoke. His voice was so hoarse that it didn’t sound like him. “…He’s dead.”
Xia Shen Shu and Lan Zi exchanged glances. They could barely see each other’s expressions in the darkness, but they both understood what the other meant.
They were surprised, but not really. They had already guessed this would be the outcome the moment they didn’t see Wu Yao in Xue Gang’s team.
Baldy tried to say something else, but his lips opened and closed several times without making a sound.
In that city before, Wu Yao had been cornered by two zombies. He wouldn’t have had to die if someone had been willing to help him, but Xue Gang, who was right next to him, hadn’t even looked back and had just run away.
He still remembered the look of despair in Wu Yao’s eyes when he realized that Xue Gang had run away, when he realized that he was the only one left…
Wu Yao was about the same age as Ji Yanqing, only in his early twenties, still a college student before the virus outbreak.
Wu Yao hadn’t originally planned to give Xue Gang the food and medicine in his backpack. It was because he had persuaded him to, because he had thought that if both he and Wu Yao joined Xue Gang’s team, Ji Yanqing might change his mind and join as well.
He was the one who had gotten Wu Yao killed.
“What happened to you guys?” Xia Shen Shu asked again.
“There’s an Awakened zombie in the wasteland. That entire wasteland is its hunting ground. All the zombies who fled there before the virus outbreak and then got infected, and the people who fled there later, have all been eaten by it,” Baldy said. “When we got here, there were still more than thirty of us, but over the past few days, it’s been eating two people a day. Now there are only a few of us left.”
“Eating two people a day?” Xia Shen Shu had never heard of such a thing. Were corpse kings really that smart now? Had they developed sustainable development?
“Its body doesn’t look like a zombie at all. It’s more like that beast corpse king from before, but it hasn’t fully evolved yet. It’s like it’s on the verge of evolution—” Baldy suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Ji Yanqing and the others, who were listening to him, all looked at him.
At first, they didn’t understand why he suddenly stopped talking, until they realized that something was falling from the cliff above them.
That thing was light, cold… It was snow from the top of the cliff.
There was something on the cliff above them.
Realizing this, everyone looked up.
Almost the instant their heads turned upwards, they were all swallowed by a wave of cold.
Right above them, on the edge of the cliff, a huge head was looking down at them, its gaze menacing.
The head was hairless, covered only in scales. It looked like a giant badger, but it had sharp teeth, its mouth split all the way to its ears, and its eyes glowed faintly red in the darkness.
Looking up at that huge head so close, at those eyes, the hearts of everyone below the cliff, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, instantly jumped to their throats.
The next moment, Ji Yanqing’s voice broke the silence, pulling them out of their shock. “Run!”
Their bodies reacted before their minds. They all rushed towards the forest on the right.
They were already very fast. The echo of Ji Yanqing’s “Run!” was still reverberating in the forest when they had already run far away. But even so, the last person still didn’t escape.
Before he could even cry out, he was cut in half.
“Thump.” His body, without its upper half but still instinctively moving forward, fell into the snow. The white snow was instantly dyed a large patch of red, like a flower blooming in despair.
No one dared to look back. Everyone ran forward with all their might.
Their hearts were beating so fast that they felt like they were about to explode.
The icy air felt like knives, cutting their throats and noses as they breathed, but they couldn’t care about the pain. They just gritted their teeth and ran forward like crazy.
Ji Yanqing picked up Ji An and sped up again. At the same time, he glanced back. The half of a body on the ground was already gone, along with the Awakened zombie.
He looked ahead again and, after dodging a large tree, looked around while continuing to run.
He was trying to find the Awakened zombie in the forest, but it was pitch black. The trunks of the large trees, each thicker than several people could hug, blocked his view.
Before he could even think about where the Awakened zombie could be, a scream full of terror and despair pierced the darkness.
“Ah!”
He immediately looked in the direction of the sound.
On the far left of the team, a huge monster, almost two stories high, covered in scales and resembling a badger, was chewing on someone’s legs.
The person whose legs were being chewed was still alive. In extreme pain and fear, the person screamed frantically, trying to call for help, but they all knew it was futile.
Ji Yanqing’s scalp tingled, and he continued running forward.
His explosive power was very strong. In an instant, he had dashed more than ten meters ahead, reaching the front of the team.
Feng Yimo, carrying Ji Le, followed closely behind.
Ji Yanqing gritted his teeth. This was far from enough. The Awakened zombie was much faster than them. It was even faster than the beast corpse king from before.
“Ah…” The screaming stopped abruptly, and the world went quiet. The only sounds left in the darkness were the sounds of footsteps, breathing, and heartbeats.
Under that silence, their hearts sank into the abyss of despair. Xue Gang’s team, however, seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief. Many of them looked back.
Just as Ji Yanqing was feeling puzzled, a third scream rang out.
“Help me! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die yet—”
This time, the sound didn’t last very long.
After the third person’s voice disappeared into the darkness, the color drained from Xue Gang’s face, which had just relaxed.
“How could this be? Doesn’t it only eat two people a day…” Someone exclaimed.
Ji Yanqing instantly understood why Xue Gang and the others had breathed a sigh of relief. They had thought that the Awakened zombie would leave after eating two people.
Before anyone could answer, a fourth scream rang out.
The fourth person didn’t even have time to scream properly. They had just started to cry out when they were silenced.
The people who were running at top speed felt their scalps tingle. Many instinctively turned back.
“Don’t look back! Run!” Ji Yanqing warned.
The people who had turned back had already seen what was happening. They didn’t know what they had seen, but the expressions on many of their faces were full of despair.
Ji Yanqing’s toes tapped the ground as he quickly leaped over a tree root that was half a person tall. Landing, he used the momentum to lower his body and prepare to charge forward. He dashed forward another five or six meters.
Feng Yimo still kept a distance of half a meter behind him. Almost the instant he dashed forward, Feng Yimo followed.
Ji Yanqing took this opportunity to glance back. Behind him were terrified faces. He had put quite a distance between himself and the last few people in the team.
Behind them, the Awakened zombie was catching up.
The Awakened zombie was huge, but it was also very fast. In just two steps, it caught up with the last few people. As it ran, it lowered its head, and the last person was swallowed into its mouth.
Seeing the people next to them disappear, knowing what was happening behind them, the last few people gritted their teeth, their faces pale, and ran even faster.
They no longer hoped to create a large distance. They only hoped to outrun the people next to them, because if they didn’t, they would be the next to die.
“Bang!”
A gunshot suddenly rang out.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound. Baldy did the same.
He looked and saw the black muzzle of a gun right next to him. He was stunned for a moment before he realized what was happening. He stared blankly at his own chest, where the barrel was pointing.
A blood flower bloomed on his chest.
Xue Gang retracted his gun and threw away his backpack as he sped up again.
Baldy watched his quickly retreating figure. His sluggish mind finally started working. He didn’t look at the wound on his chest first. Instead, he instinctively looked at Ji Yanqing, who was looking back from the front of the team.
“Save…”
The plea for help died on his lips. He suddenly remembered that he was no longer a member of Ji Yanqing’s team. He was speechless. Then he suddenly panicked.
Besides Ji Yanqing, who else would be willing to save him?
Meeting Baldy’s eyes, Ji Yanqing hesitated for a moment. It was in that moment of hesitation that several people ran past him, reaching the front.
As Xia Shen Shu passed him, he reached out and pulled Ji Yanqing. “Run!”
Baldy should have known this day would come when he betrayed them. And he had been shot in the chest. Even if Ji Yanqing went back, he wouldn’t be able to save him.
Ji Yanqing snapped back to his senses and gritted his teeth, running forward.
Seeing Ji Yanqing’s retreating figure, Baldy, who was falling forward due to inertia, suddenly remembered what he had said to Ji Yanqing before: There always has to be a choice.
Ji Yanqing was too kind. He was kind to everyone. That was why, sometimes, he felt that Ji Yanqing wasn’t suitable to be the captain. A person like Ji Yanqing, as captain, would surely suffer a lot.
He didn’t like Xue Gang either. But the moment he had seen Xue Gang, he had known that someone like Xue Gang was more suitable to be captain.
In this cruel world, selfish and self-serving people would have an easier time.
He had already started to regret it when he knew Ji Yanqing was leaving. He had been uneasy then, but he had chosen to ignore it.
Because he knew, there always has to be a choice.
That’s right. There always had to be a choice.
But who knew when he would become the one being abandoned?
“Sorry…” he murmured, but his voice couldn’t reach the front of the team.
“Help me!” Xue Gang’s sharp cry for help pierced the darkness.
None of the people running ahead turned back. They only sped up.
The beast was less than two meters behind him. He could even smell the stench of decay coming from it.
After Baldy, there was no one else around him.
He emptied his gun, but none of the bullets penetrated the beast’s body. Its scales were incredibly hard. The bullets couldn’t pierce them.
“What are you waiting for?! Shoot! Kill it—” He roared, looking back at the others.
Everyone was running ahead in the darkness. No one looked back.
Xue Gang’s face instantly darkened. Had they forgotten that he was the captain of this team? The guns in their hands had all been given to them by him! They were able to live until now, they were able to eat and drink, all because of him!
“What are you doing?! I said, kill it!”
Someone not far ahead turned back and saw that Xue Gang was about to be caught. A look of relief appeared on his pale face.
If that beast ate Xue Gang first, it wouldn’t reach him so soon.
Seeing that look of relief, seeing the figures ahead running further and further away, Xue Gang’s mind buzzed, and his face darkened. His bloodshot eyes were full of malice. He would make them remember this. He would definitely make them regret it. He would make them beg him to give them a quick death—
Before he could even finish his vicious oath, he was lifted into the air. By the time he reacted, one of his feet was already in the Awakened zombie’s mouth.
“Crack.” The sound of bones breaking clearly reached his ears, followed by intense pain.
Sharp, slender teeth pierced his flesh, his bones. They chomped down, crushing his entire leg into a pulp while he was still alive, while he was still conscious.
“Ah—” A cry full of pain and fear pierced the darkness.
Hearing that soul-piercing scream, Ji Yanqing’s bloodless face turned green. If this continued, they would all die here.
Him, Ji An, Ji Le, no one would be spared.
Ji Yanqing glanced at his surroundings. There were several people around him, including Xia Shen Shu and Li Pingsen.
He took a step to the left and snatched the gun from Li Pingsen before he could even react.
“Ji—” Li Pingsen was startled.
Ji Yanqing quickly went to the right, looking around while continuing to run. They had already run a long distance, and were now deep in the mountains.
These mountains were different from other places. They were full of primitive canyons. There was a deep gorge not far to their right.
He glanced back at the Awakened zombie that was still chewing on Xue Gang, and then quickly ran to a tree and put Ji An down. “Run! Follow them! Find Feng Yimo!”
After saying that, he turned and ran in the opposite direction, moving extremely fast, like a spirit in the night, instantly disappearing into the darkness of the forest.
He thought quickly as he ran.
The scales on that beast were like armor, impenetrable even to bullets. And its body was huge. It would be impossible to kill it. The only hope was to distract it to give the others a chance to escape, and then lose it.
He didn’t intend to die, so he had to find a way out for himself before taking action.
The trees in the forest had mutated and become enormous. They could effectively conceal his figure. But it wasn’t enough to shake off that Awakened zombie. The beast was so fast that he might not even have time to hide…
His only chance was the canyon.
He quickly ran past the beast from the right, at a distance of more than ten meters.
He didn’t look back to see if the beast had noticed him. He thought quickly, raised his gun, and fired two shots.
“Bang! Bang!”
The two gunshots were like thunderclaps through the darkness, impossible for the Awakened zombie to ignore.
The Awakened zombie, which had been pursuing the others, had already noticed Ji Yanqing running in the opposite direction. Now, alerted by the gunshots, its blood-red eyes narrowed.
Like a beast that knew it was being provoked, it growled in a mixture of disdain and fury.
It stopped and slowly turned, its massive body shifting as it charged towards Ji Yanqing like a shadow.
Since this one was so eager, it would devour him first!
It was on the verge of completing its evolution, of becoming a corpse king. It was mere moments away! It didn’t believe that Ji Yanqing, a mere human, could pose any real threat.
It moved with blurring speed, rapidly closing in on Ji Yanqing. Just as it was about to accelerate, its tail was suddenly seized by something incredibly strong, far stronger than itself. Its momentum caused it to be lifted momentarily into the air as it was dragged back.
It landed with a crash, knocking over nearby trees with its body.
Intense pain shot from the tip of its captured tail, up its spine, and into its brain. Its mind went blank for a moment.
“Wu!!” After a stunned moment, it struggled to its feet in the darkness, glaring angrily at whatever had dared to grab its tail.
At first, it saw nothing. Only when its tail was yanked backward a second time did it realize that its captor was a small child.
Ji An’s normally dark eyes glowed with a faint golden light. Tears streamed down his pale, thin face, but there was no fear in his eyes as he looked at the monstrous creature before him, only burning anger.
If it dared to bite Ji Yanqing, he would bite it back!
He was going to become a zombie anyway. He had nothing left to fear. At the very least, he had to protect Ji Yanqing. He couldn’t let him be eaten.
“GrRARaRak!” The Awakened zombie slowly rose, glaring back at the small figure clinging to its tail and roaring.
It felt humiliated. It had been caught by the tail by a child and even knocked down!
The humiliation quickly morphed into rage and killing intent. It was furious.
“Roar!” Ji An held onto the tail tightly, took a step forward, and roared back.
His roar, though not a beast’s roar, was just as powerful, echoing through the forest. It wasn’t deafeningly loud, but held a sort of inaudible authority that shook the entire forest.
The anger and killing intent in the roar were almost palpable, enveloping the entire mountain range, pressing down on the trees until they swayed, pressing down on everyone until their breath hitched and their bodies instinctively trembled.
The people running frantically through the darkness all stopped and, with pale faces, turned towards the source of the sound.
What was that?
Another corpse king!?
Hearing that roar, the Awakened zombie froze, fear flooding its being. It instinctively recoiled, whimpering, its body trembling uncontrollably as it stared at the small figure before it with terror.
Ji An’s small hand tightly gripped the tail tip, thicker than his arm and covered in tiny scales. Tears welled in his red-rimmed eyes. He opened his mouth and bit down hard on the tail!
With his baby teeth, he easily pierced the scales that even bullets couldn’t penetrate, leaving a row of small teeth marks.
He glared fiercely at the hulking monster.
It dared to try biting his Papa? He would bite it right back!
He was super fierce!
“Grraooo!” Its tail bitten, the pain radiating beneath its scales, the already terrified Awakened zombie became even more frantic.
“Waaoo…” Its four limbs thrashed on the ground as it tried to escape, kicking up dirt and fallen leaves, creating four large gashes in the ground, but its tail remained firmly in Ji An’s grasp.
-
In the darkness of the forest, at the edge of the gorge…
“Ji An…” Ji Yanqing, who had run a considerable distance and was formulating a plan, was about to put it into action when he heard the roar from behind. He abruptly turned.
Before he could comprehend what was happening, a second, even more terrifying roar resonated, followed by overwhelming anger and killing intent, and then a fearful whimper.
The whimper seemed to be coming from the Awakened zombie, very close to where he had left Ji An.
After a moment of hesitation, he gritted his teeth and ran towards the sound, his heart pounding with worry.
He had only run less than a hundred meters when a massive, fast-moving figure suddenly rushed past him. He instantly recognized it as the Awakened zombie.
His heart leaped into his throat. He instinctively stopped and raised his gun, but before he could fire, the beast, as if pursued by something incredibly ferocious, vanished into the distance.
Seeing it disappear into the forest in the blink of an eye, his already terrified heart pounded even harder.
There was something in these mountains even more terrifying than that Awakened zombie, was it the thing that had roared?
Had that Awakened zombie been attacked by that unknown entity?
Ji Yanqing gritted his teeth and ran towards Ji An's last known location, his mind consumed by worry. Ji An…
In the forest, realizing the Awakened zombie wasn’t following them anymore, and hearing the series of roars, everyone stopped.
“Where’s Ji Yanqing?” Feng Yimo couldn’t fathom why Ji Yanqing always seemed to disappear whenever he followed him.
“It seems like he went back. Could he have gone back to save someone? Not running away at a time like this, and even going back… Is he stupid?” one of the people from Xue Gang’s team, who was carrying a gun, remarked.
Xia Shen Shu kicked him. “Well, you’re so fucking brilliant, aren’t you? The entire world's population combined isn't as smart as you!”
“He went to distract the Awakened zombie…” Li Pingsen stared blankly at the others, realization dawning on him. He hadn’t understood why Ji Yanqing had snatched his gun until the gunshots had rung out behind them. “Ji Yanqing… he went to distract…”
Hearing Li Pingsen’s words, everyone’s faces paled.
They had all witnessed the Awakened zombie’s power. Even if Ji Yanqing were superhuman, he wouldn’t be a match for it. And there seemed to be something else lurking in these mountains.
Ji Yanqing was surely doomed.
“I’m going to find him.” Lan Zi turned and walked back towards where they had come from, her gun held firmly in her hand. “He can’t have gone far.”
Li Pingsen stared blankly, his feet rooted to the spot, his mind a void.
It was the same for Xia Chen and the others. The group of over thirty people exchanged glances, their minds reeling.
They knew that Ji Yanqing was different from Xue Gang. They had seen it firsthand. They were all surprised that he would actually turn back to distract the Awakened zombie, but…
The Awakened zombie and the other unknown entity were both in the mountains. If they didn’t run now, they might really die here.
They had just narrowly escaped the Awakened zombie. Were they now going to go back and die?
To die for Ji Yanqing… was it worth it?
“Are you crazy?” The man who had been kicked by Xia Shen Shu, the one with the gun, couldn’t help but curse when he saw that Lan Zi was actually going back.
Xia Shen Shu looked away from Lan Zi and fixed his gaze on the man.
“What—” The man wanted to retaliate for the earlier kick, but when he met Xia Shen Shu’s chillingly cold smile, a shiver ran down his spine.
Xia Shen Shu ignored him and looked back at Lan Zi, who had turned without hesitation and was already some distance away.
A bright smile spread across his face, a bit of merriment reaching his eyes as he followed her. He licked his lips, thinking that he must truly be crazy.
Knowing that Ji Yanqing hadn’t followed them because he had turned back, Feng Yimo, without a word, scooped up Ji Le and ran towards the darkness to rescue him.
Xia Shen Shu noticed and tried to grab him, but Feng Yimo was too fast. His hand couldn’t even graze Feng Yimo's clothes before he was already far away.
Seeing that Feng Yimo was about to disappear from view, Xia Shen Shu roared hoarsely. “You’re running the wrong way!”
----
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