Chapter 214: Death Cycle (XII)
TL: Resonance
There were two main types of zombies. One type was the original zombies, which was the first batch of people who got infected by the zombie virus. They went through a complete gene mutation. Although their initial levels were low, they had unlimited possibilities for evolution. Most high level zombies nowadays were all evolved from the original zombies. After reaching general level, they would gradually gain consciousness and an independent personality, becoming a true new species.
The second type of zombies were variants formed after receiving secondary infection from the original zombies. They did not have any vital signs and only had the instinct to devour flesh and blood. A more accurate way to call them would be the “living dead”. The living dead had slow evolution, but their virus spread very quickly. If an ordinary person was infected, the most they could evolve into was an intermediate level zombie. However, it was different for ability users. Infected ability users were stronger than original zombies. They also had the possibility to evolve into a zombie king, but the probability was relatively lower.
Shang Ke was unable to determine whether Di Kui was an original zombie or an ability user who got a secondary infection. All he knew was that Di Kui had already evolved into a zombie king before he devoured the dark world spirit piece. He had no compassion towards humans and he also didn’t have a sense of belonging with the zombies. It was if he was an existence independent of all other living things.
Shang Ke settled the last zombie and casually flung the blood on his long saber away. Then, he stepped on the ground filled with broken and severed limbs and walked slowly towards Di Kui.
“Three crystallines and 17 crsytalline fragments.” Shang Ke sat down beside Di Kui and roughly counted his harvest this time. “Not bad, we can buy lot’s of supplies with these.”
Di Kui looked at the wounds on Shang Ke’s body and felt unhappy. He crushed the empty milk bottle and suddenly disappeared from the spot. He didn’t stop Shang Ke from fighting with the zombies earlier, but that didn’t mean he was willing to see Shang Ke being hurt by the zombies. Once Shang Ke was done, it was now his turn. Di Kui decided to kill the group of zombies far away that got attracted here by the smell of blood.
Shang Ke didn’t know what Di Kui went to do and didn’t mind it either. It didn’t matter as long as he wasn’t going to destroy the world.
Shang Ke took out some jerky from his bag and bit on it, admiring the sunset which was bright like blood while waiting for Di Kui to come back within the mountain of corpses.
At this moment, Shang Ke felt his eyes jump. He seemed to have felt something and turned around to look. There was nothing behind him, but the feeling of danger didn’t disappear.
Shang Ke spread his perception and found some light hidden nearby as expected. Two of the lights belonged to two general level zombies while the other light came from an ability user, and it was an ability user with exceptional strength.
That ability user was the furthest away from him and was at the edge of his maximum perception range. Other ability users definitely couldn’t sense his existence. The soul fire within his perception was purple-blue. If Shang Ke didn’t guess wrong, that soul fire should belong to Zuo Xian whom he had seen not long ago.
Those two general level zombies seemed to be chasing after something. With one after another, the two of them ran quickly towards his direction.
Shang Ke saw what they were chasing after within a few seconds. It was a ball of rapidly spinning air. The air seemed to be intentionally attracting them over and the target was directly at the position he was in.
Shang Ke drew out his weapon and prepared himself for battle. He wasn’t a general level zombie’s opponent, but he had nothing to be afraid of with his immortal body.
When that ball of air flow was almost reaching Shang Ke, he suddenly felt the sight before him darken and a tall figure appeared before him without warning. With a wave of his hand, the ball of air swiftly exploded in the air and turned into countless wind blades blasting towards the two general level zombies.
A zombie quickly turned invisible and disappeared completely while the other went on all four and avoided the wind blades before continuing to rush towards them.
Shang Ke’s vision was blocked and didn’t know what the man before him did. By the time he poked his head out to look, he only saw a hole on the ground and the two zombies disappeared.
“Are you okay?” The man turned around and two profound eyes landed on Shang Ke.
Huo Xuan? Why was he here?
Shang Ke put away his weapon and smiled at him, saying, “I’m okay.”
Huo Xuan saw the wounds on his body and frowned slightly. “It’s getting dark, return to the base soon.”
Shang Ke nodded his head and said, “Understood. Thank you.”
After saying so, the two of them fell into a strange silence.
After choosing Di Kui, Shang Ke subconsciously felt that he should keep a distance from Huo Xuan. However, this man made him feel familiar too.
Shang Ke thought for a while and asked, “I saw Zuo Xian just now. Are those two zombies purposely attracted here by him?” That’s right. If you want to disgust someone, then you must spare no effort to expose his shortcomings!
“I will investigate this issue, don’t worry.”
What do you mean by don’t worry! Isn’t Zuo Xian your confidant? You should confidently defend and protect him!
Shang Ke said with an unkind tone, “How are you going to investigate? Zuo Xian is one of your people. Even if you knew that he wanted to harm me, you can only leave him alone in the end.”
“Then how do you think I should settle this?” Huo Xuan said in a “fair and just” mode.
Shang Ke said maliciously, “Get rid of his ability, throw him into a group of zombies and let the zombies eat him until not a single piece of his corpse is left!”
As someone who has experienced it before, this punishment is definitely cruel, bloody and violent enough!
After listening to him, not only did Huo Xuan not get angry, he even let out a slight smile. He was the uncrowned king of this planet revered by many. Even if someone was dissatisfied with him, they wouldn’t directly express themselves in front of him. Not to mention, most people found it hard to stay calm before him. Someone like Shang Ke who was calm, casual, and even dared to ask him to punish Zuo Xian was really unique.
Shang Ke looked at him strangely: What are you laughing about? Someone wants to throw your confidant out to feed the zombies and you’re still able to laugh? Where’s your conscious of being the boss?
As he was thinking about it, Huo Xuan suddenly asked an irrelevant question, “Do you like the perfume I gave you previously?”
Perfume? Shang Ke searched through his pocket subconsciously and took out a bottle of perfume. While he was changing today, he had placed it into his pocket. He didn’t know why he did that.
He looked up towards Huo Xuan. The latter had profound eyes of unclear meaning, causing Shang Ke’s heart to tremble: Do not misunderstand! This is just a coincidence!
Shang Ke pretended not to care as he stuffed the perfume back into his pocket. He said calmly, “I’ve never used it before so I don’t know.”
“Mn.” Huo Xuan didn’t continue asking about the perfume. Instead, he took out an injection syringe and walked towards Shang Ke. “You’re scratched by a zombie. I’ll help you inject the vaccine.”
The vaccine developed by humans can prevent the virus infection to a certain extent. Unless they have overlapping infections, ability users generally wouldn’t be infected if they receive timely injection of the vaccine. However, the vaccine is very precious and not all ability users can buy it.
“No need, I have my own.” It was simply a waste to use the vaccine on him.
However, Huo Xuan didn’t care and very quickly poke the needle into Shang Ke’s arm.
".....……"
Shang Ke: I’ve already said that there’s no need…
The needle had just pierced through when a strong murderous intent could be felt from the surrounding.
Huo Xuan’s expression turned serious and silver light flashed all over.
“Be careful!”
A figure suddenly appeared behind Shang Ke. Huo Xuan made a stern shout and several silver blades shot out. The silver blades drew a half arc in the air and flew straight towards the figure behind Shang Ke.
The figure took Shang Ke and instantly moved out of the silver blades’ attack range. The next second, the figure appeared alone in front of Huo Xuan and punched towards his chest.
The two of them went at each other and started fighting mid air.
Shang Ke rubbed his temple and felt anxious. The situation he did so hard to avoid still happened.
Huo Xuan definitely wasn’t Di Kui’s opponent, and Di Kui definitely wouldn’t show him mercy. If Huo Xuan gets killed, then it’s really game over!
It was hard to get close to a fight between two king level people, don’t even mention stopping them. Their majestic power covers tens of miles. Wherever it goes, living beings retreat.
“What happened?” Zuo Xian’s voice suddenly sounded beside Shang Ke.
Shang Ke wasn’t in the mood to care about him. He stared closely at the two who were having a fierce battle.
A trace of surprise flashed past Zuo Xian’s eyes when he saw Shang Ke’s expression remain unchanged under such powerful pressure. Even he could barely support himself, yet the person before him seemed to be completely unaffected. Has his strength also reached the king level? No, that’s impossible. Zuo Xian soon denied this conjecture. He had seen how Shang Ke fought earlier. He was only slightly better than ordinary fighters.
However, why is he able to remain composed under these two people’s pressure?
At this moment, a piercing sound sounded in the air followed by Huo Xuan’s cold shout, “You’re… a zombie!”
As the battle went on, the foundation on Di Kui’s skin gradually fell off and his original appearance was revealed. The patches of greyish-blue corpse spot clearly showed his identity.
He wasn’t an ordinary zombie!
Huo Xuan was extremely sure this fellow’s strength was above the king level. He might be the legendary zombie king—Di Kui!
Zuo Xian, who was watching from a distance, heard Huo Xuan’s words and his expression changed. He turned to look at Shang Ke and asked unbelievably, “You actually brought a zombie along with you and even brought him into the human base?”
Seeing Zuo Xia glare at him, a thought came to Shang Ke’s mind and he purposely provoked him, “So what? Raising zombies is my hobby, I might even raise more zombies in the future.”
“Are you crazy?” Zuo Xian pointed at him and said in anger, “He’s such a powerful zombie. Do you know how much harm it would bring to humans!”
“How harmful can it be? Didn’t nothing happen during the two days he stayed in the base?” Shang Ke had an indifferent look.
“Nothing happened doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t happen!” Seeing Huo Xuan in a critical situation, Zuo Xian ordered, “Make him stop immediately. Otherwise, don’t blame me for being impolite!”
Shang Ke raised his chin and gave a look which made people want to punch him, “Sorry, there is nothing I can do.”
Zuo Xian grew anxious, “You know exactly who Huo Xuan is. If something happens to him, you will become the public enemy of all humans.”
“Haha.” Shang Ke smiled and said, “As long as Huo Xuan is dead, Di Kui can replace him. In fact, I am quite looking forward to mankind perishing.”
Based on his tone and demeanour, he looked just like an extreme anti-social.
Zuo Xian finally got fed up because of him and murderous intent immediately appeared in his eyes. He stretched out his hand to clutch Shang Ke’s neck and said ghastly, “Since that’s the case, let me send you off first before humans perish.”
Shang Ke promptly protected his throat and didn’t get killed by Zuo Xian immediately. His objective was to infuriate Zuo Xian and force Zuo Xian to make a move on him. He would use this to divert Di Kui’s attention and ultimately stop the fight.
Of course, he wasn’t 100% sure. After all, the zombie king was different from ordinary people. He might not necessarily pull away from the fight to save him before he got to kill Huo Xuan. Not to mention, Di Kui also knew that he could revive and it was fine even if he was killed.
As he was thinking so, the pressure on his neck suddenly disappeared. Then, he was caught in someone’s embrace and taken away from his original spot.
Shang Ke poked his head out from Di Kui’s embrace. He saw Zuo Xian covering his bleeding arm and looking at them with a pale face. Huo Xuan stood beside him with an obscured expression.
Di Kui let out a low roar from his throat. His face was ferocious and his eyes were full of fierce murderous intent.
Shang Ke hugged his waist and said softly, “Let’s go.”
Di Kui let out a cold humph: I won’t go! I refuse to leave before I kill these two humans.
Shang Ke pinched his back and said, “Are you really not leaving? If we leave now, I can let you do what we did last night.”
What we did last night… Various unharmonious images flashed quickly in Di Kui’s mind. After hesitating for three seconds, he held Shang Ke and disappeared from the spot.
Huo Xuan looked at their disappearing figure and his eyes let out a sharp glint.
“Huo Xuan, that Shang Ke is a dangerous person. He wants to make use of Di Kui to kill you and then destroy the entire human race.” Zuo Xian denounced Shang Ke’s crimes.
Huo Xuan sighed, “You actually believed that.” That person just wanted to lead Di Kui away.
“What?” Zuo Xian didn’t understand.
Huo Xuan didn’t speak any longer. He couldn’t help but clench his fist as he recalled the scene of Shang Ke being taken away by Di Kui.
Is there anyone in the world willing to be with a zombie? That is a powerful zombie king. Once he’s angered, he will surely bring disaster to mankind. Shang Ke might be staying by his side because he has no choice.
Resolution flashed past Huo Xuan’s eyes: He must become stronger! Strong enough to save Shang Ke from the zombie king’s hands.