Bai Tao was overjoyed at her own progress and trailed behind Jiang Ye like a little tail.
Inside the car, Bai Chen Zhu closed his eyes and sensed the two small light spots moving farther and farther away from them. On the other end of the vague outlines, several light spots clustered densely together.
In his ‘vision,’ as they delved deeper, the outlines of the houses grew taller and more exquisite. Toward the center, he could even see a house shaped like a castle. The fake mountain nearly three stories high and the waterfall beside it alone were breathtaking.
Zhou Zhuo Hua glanced at Bai Chen Zhu, who seemed to have fallen asleep, then got out of the car and stretched lazily. She fiddled with a stick by the car door, a sharp glint occasionally flashing behind her glasses.
Bai Chen Zhu used his mental power to guide the two, leading them left and right toward the largest house. Along the way, they occasionally encountered scattered small light spots, but it seemed the pair had dealt with them.
As the distance grew, Bai Chen Zhu’s breathing gradually grew heavier, and his face turned pale.
“Are you okay?” Zhou Zhuo Hua leaned against the car window and touched his forehead, slick with cold sweat. “Is it too taxing?”
On the third day after discovering his ability, he had eagerly tested it like this. Frankly, Bai Chen Zhu felt he had overestimated himself.
He slowly pushed away Zhou Zhuo Hua’s hand, opened his eyes, and stared blankly at his bandaged leg. In a soft voice, he said, “They’ve clashed. I’m a bit worried.”
As the distance widened, his mental power could no longer keep up with their speed. The closer they got to the villa in the center, the weaker his mental power became, as if something was repelling it.
Just moments ago, he had given them directions one last time, successfully leading them to the villa, but their connection had completely severed at that point.
Right before it broke, he had clearly sensed the two familiar small light spots confronting a small team.
He wondered how the two were doing. That villa always gave him an uncomfortable feeling.
“Sister Hua, actually, I can walk now. How about…” Bai Chen Zhu rubbed his temples and gazed thoughtfully at the iron gate.
“Don’t even think about it!” Zhou Zhuo Hua cut him off. “It takes a hundred days to recover from injuries to muscles and bones. It might look fine now, but if it tears open later, I’ll still have to clean up the mess. Besides, things are different now. Don’t get infected by the zombie virus, only to die from tetanus.”
“I didn’t say anything, Sister Hua.” Bai Chen Zhu shrugged helplessly and stuck his head out the car window, looking left and right.
This affluent villa district was hidden deep within the residential area, extremely secluded. But no matter how secluded, there were still plenty of residents around.
At this time, zombies wandered numbly on the roads, dazed and unaware of time. Some would even fight when they met, until one devoured the other.
It was strange, though. The villa district clearly had plenty of humans, yet no zombies were visible inside the neighborhood.
Bai Chen Zhu looked about fifty meters away, where two zombies were fighting.
He focused his attention intensely on one of them, roughly draining his own mental power. The zombie stopped its movements and began searching puzzledly for something, like a donkey chasing a dangling carrot.
Seeing the scene unfold as expected, Bai Chen Zhu breathed a sigh of relief and made up his mind. “Sister Hua, I suddenly have an idea.”
Under Zhou Zhuo Hua’s wary gaze, he pointed toward the zombies. “Look over there. Now we know mental power can attract monsters, and I can project this strange power outward. Doesn’t that mean…”
Bai Chen Zhu smiled faintly, his pitch-black eyes like an abyss untouched by sunlight, brimming with a strong desire for control. “I can make them serve me?”
Zhou Zhuo Hua took an interest. She stayed silent for two minutes, then quickly got back into the driver’s seat. Seeing that she understood, Bai Chen Zhu swiftly buckled his seatbelt in the passenger seat.
“In that case, let’s go pick them up.” Zhou Zhuo Hua turned the key.
“Drive slowly,” Bai Chen Zhu said, looking back. “Their limbs aren’t coordinated; they can’t match human running speed. Too fast, and they might not keep up.”
“Also, there aren’t enough mutants nearby. We need to circle around for more.”
“Got it.” Zhou Zhuo Hua adjusted her glasses. “Little Bai, in your current state, how many can you attract?”
Bai Chen Zhu estimated. “Not many, maybe a dozen or twenty? By my reckoning, there aren’t more than thirty people inside, and only three or four mutants.”
“That’ll do.” Zhou Zhuo Hua took a deep breath, steeling herself. She stepped on the accelerator, and the off-road vehicle roared like a beast awakening, turning sharply and vanishing through the back gate.
Meanwhile—
The fight had been chaotic at first. Bai Tao had the good sense to hide herself, while Jiang Ye took on five guys alone.
Once it was safe, Bai Tao crept up to his side. “Are we safe now? What did Brother Bai say?”
“Lost contact.” Jiang Ye wiped his sweat, glanced at Bai Tao, and casually dragged the five unconscious men out the door one by one.
“Hold it! Who the hell are you people?!” Someone noticed the commotion. A loud voice startled those around, and people rushed over, weapons in hand, quickly forming a crowd.
Jiang Ye tossed out their pursuers and swiftly locked the gate, wrapping it several times with iron chains.
“Block them!” The pursuers yanked at the chains on the gate but couldn’t break free quickly, so they all climbed the walls. Some had already dropped into the yard, charging over to grab them.
In their sight, the girl beside the man was hopping around anxiously, yelling nonstop, “Go to sleep! Go to sleep! Everyone, sleep! Hurry up and sleep, ahhhh—”
Her shrill voice pierced the ears. Under the crowd’s stares treating her like a lunatic, Bai Tao blushed furiously, but she had no other way to use her power besides her voice. She kept shouting regardless, louder each time. “Sleep! Go to sleep now!”
The people in the yard shook off the sudden headache and didn’t take it seriously.
Those outside tried to drown out Bai Tao’s voice, shouting loudly, “Hurry and take down those two!”
No sooner had the words left than the people inside cried out in pain and collapsed under the puzzled gazes from outside, their tools clattering to the ground.
More climbers poured over the wall endlessly.
Bai Tao suddenly screamed and tugged at Jiang Ye’s clothes. Jiang Ye, who had been throwing people out one by one, turned back to see a man in black clothes appear silently and grab Bai Tao.
He held a knife to her neck with one hand and covered her mouth with the other.
“Who are you?” The black-clothed man’s voice was hoarse.
The earplugs worked too well; Jiang Ye could only see his mouth moving. After a brief hesitation, he removed the sponge from his left ear.
Bai Tao used her mental power through sound, which didn’t distinguish friend from foe. Jiang Ye had plugged his ears from the start to block her mental power, but now it had backfired, preventing him from noticing her peril in time.
Jiang Ye stared into the man’s bloodshot eyes and suddenly asked, “Who are you? Where’s Tang Jie?”
At the mention of Tang Jie’s name, the black-clothed man looked surprised. Jiang Ye moved with a speed that left only an afterimage, knocking the knife from the masked man’s hand and pinning him down with an arm twist.
“Let Brother Liang go!” The group outside kicked viciously at the ornate iron gate, even trying to climb the walls, their voices nearly cracking.
There were nearly twenty of them. Bai Tao panicked a little and coughed a few times, asking Jiang Ye in a slightly hoarse voice, “What do we do?”
Jiang Ye pinned the masked man firmly, his intent clear. He looked at Bai Tao. “You keep going. If that doesn’t work, remember what I taught you?”
What he taught? Channel mental power into the blood? Bai Tao paled. Her mental power didn’t distinguish friend from foe, and that method would make her hands feel like they were pierced by ten thousand needles.
Bai Tao never wanted to experience that again. She took a deep breath and summoned a heroic resolve.
Jiang Ye: ?
He had a bad premonition and quickly stuffed the sponge back with one hand.
After the chaotic yelling, Bai Tao discovered a new, more efficient method. She cleared her throat, her emotions surging with righteous fervor, and belted out the song played at every flag-raising ceremony. “Arise! All who refuse to be slaves—”
For the first time, everyone felt a heat flow surging from the crown of their heads. They yelled and roared, “Stop singing! Stop singing! Stop singing!”
“Hurry and flip over the wall, what are you standing around for! Grab that girl first!”
The black-clothed man’s subordinate was surprisingly strong. Jiang Ye struggled to hold him down. Under these conditions, with so many enemies, a few would inevitably break through Bai Tao’s mental power attack and open the door.
The black-clothed man snapped, “Let me go! You can’t go in!”
Didn’t that confirm Tang Jie was inside?
As Jiang Ye weighed using the masked man’s life to threaten the interlopers away, someone screamed, “Zombies! Zombies!”
The voice was filled with confusion and disbelief.
Wheels rolled over the cement ground, speeding toward them, followed by zombies from who-knows-where.
At the sight of the zombies, everyone’s first reaction was to flee! They scattered in panic. The leaders glared resentfully at the car, then at the black-clothed man inside the gate, before turning to run.
Bai Tao hurried to open the iron gate. The car accelerated and rushed in, stopping in the spacious yard. The zombies couldn’t match the car’s speed and were left far behind. Bai Tao quickly locked the gate again, keeping the zombies outside.
Zombies were dangerous, but from another angle, as long as they could endure the fear and repulsion, these simply behaving creatures could serve as their security.
Bai Chen Zhu hopped out on one foot. “How’d it go? Did you find them?”
“No, but we found a suspicious guy. Huh?!” Bai Tao nodded toward Jiang Ye, then gaped in shock. “Where’d he go?”
Jiang Ye rotated his right wrist and hissed in pain. “He slipped away when the gate opened.”
“He’s not afraid of zombies?” Bai Chen Zhu hadn’t seen the masked man, but by all logic, who would charge toward zombies?
“Forget him.” Zhou Zhuo Hua scanned the garden but found no one. “Where’s Tang Jie?! Let’s go inside and check.”
They pushed open the half-ajar door. The house was lavish and exquisite, with beautiful marble statues, vibrant oil paintings on the walls, and ornate spiral staircases leading to the second floor. The Chinese-style furniture sets were elegant and grand.
Yet everywhere were piles of random junk: sharp porcelain shards, torn paintings, shredded clothes…
They skirted these obstacles and called out Tang Jie’s name inside the house, but got no response.
Bai Chen Zhu couldn’t walk anymore. He leaned against a pillar with his eyes closed to rest. Their shouts echoed through the villa. Jiang Ye, with his keen senses, caught a faint whiff of blood at the tip of his nose.
“What’s wrong? Your face looks off.” Bai Chen Zhu hopped over twice to Jiang Ye’s side on one foot.
Jiang Ye’s face darkened as he squatted down and touched the brownish bloodstain on the floor.
Bai Chen Zhu was surprised. “Where’d this blood come from?”
They followed the blood trail a few meters to a dusty little door with a plaque reading two words: Da Huang.
The door was locked. Jiang Ye pulled out a dagger and neatly severed the chain. Behind the small door, in a luxurious dog kennel half a person’s height against the wall, huddled a skinny man in disheveled clothes.
A dog chain as thick as a knuckle tethered his neck undignifiedly. He lay pillowed on tattered bedding, with a bowl of half-congealed blood in front of him. If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, no one would notice him.
His wrists were haphazardly wrapped in rags, blood seeping through. He seemed utterly detached from the commotion outside, like a corpse.
Jiang Ye approached and caught a strong stench. He half-squatted, flipped his dagger in the air with flair, then pressed the blade against the skin and sliced outward. With a faint click, the hard leather collar around the man’s neck was cut, leaving a ring of chafing marks.
The blood in the bowl had oxidized to brown. Bai Chen Zhu glanced once and looked away, unable to bear it. “Who locked him here and drained his blood? That black-clothed man?”
Jiang Ye tried to look at the curled-up figure. “Tang Jie? Do you recognize me? I’m Jiang Ye. We met when we were kids.”
But the man just rolled over, turning his back to him.
Zhou Zhuo Hua was drawn by their conversation. Seeing that back, she widened her eyes in disbelief. She walked to the opposite side of Jiang Ye and half-squatted too, her expression complicated. “Little Jie?”
The man paused, then simply lay flat on his stomach, refusing to show his face no matter what.
“How did you…” Zhou Zhuo Hua raised her hand, wanting to touch him and check his injuries, but hesitated before this body covered in scars.
