Chapter 227: For the Crystal Cores
SQUELCH. The tires crushed a large patch of withered grass as the vehicle continued to speed forward.
Li Dawei and his group, following closely behind Xie Ning, occasionally had to dodge the Wind Blades and Fireballs that whizzed past them.
The driver got smacked on the head twice by Li Dawei. "Drive carefully! Stay closer!"
The driver was on the verge of tears. If he stayed any closer, there would be no way to dodge the Wind Blades and Fireballs.
Xu Bailiang, his brows knitted, was continuously launching Fireballs out the window. "Faster," he urged.
It normally took about twenty minutes to cross this lake bridge. Now, with these troublesome water weeds, it was hard to estimate the time.
Fortunately, the military had been sending people to clear the surrounding area, so the jumble of crashed cars on the lake bridge had already been removed.
Otherwise, passage would have been even more difficult.
The driver felt the tires slip and yanked the steering wheel, sending the van straight toward the bus ahead.
Zhu Yong saw this in his rearview mirror, stomped on the gas, and casually threw up a thin earthen wall behind his vehicle.
The driver’s eyes bulged. With a strange cry, he crashed headlong into the earthen wall.
Luckily, Zhu Yong had been decent enough to make the wall relatively thin, and the driver’s van broke through it.
The impact with the earthen wall slowed the van, and he managed to avoid rear-ending Zhu Yong.
"Fuck, can you even fucking drive? Can you?!" Li Dawei flicked him on the head twice more, and tears welled up in the driver’s eyes.
Behind them, Mr. Wang, who had his window open, got a mouthful of dust. He spat a few times before quickly rolling the window up.
Chen Juan’s husband drove steadily through the crumbling remains of the earthen wall, glancing back at his wife.
Squeezed into a window seat, barely able to move, Wu Qiuyun suddenly pointed out the window and shrieked.
"What the hell are you screaming about?" Mr. Wang cursed. He glanced out the window, and his blood ran cold. He shot upright. "What is that?"
He raised his voice and yelled, "Faster! Faster, step on it!"
BANG! A dozen tattered figures, draped in seaweed and dragging trails of rotting flesh, leaped out from under the water.
They crouched or lay sprawled on the railings, silently looking down at the vehicles speeding across the lake bridge one by one.
"Zombies! Fuck, are those Water-type Zombies?!"
"What are these freaks? Quick, drive faster!"
A survivor on the military truck trembled as he poked his head up for a look, then suddenly let out a piercing scream.
Abruptly, the zombies perched on the railings, looking as if they were in mourning clothes made of seaweed, began to move.
They lunged toward the military truck.
"Oh my god!" The survivors screamed in terror. In the chaos, a few weak and crooked superpower attacks were launched at the lunging zombies.
However, the attacks vanished like stones in the ocean, having no effect on the zombies whatsoever.
A survivor next to them started to cry. "Aren’t you Superpower Users? Why can’t you kill the monsters?"
The few Superpower Users had awkward expressions on their faces.
They were used to a pampered life in the base. Ever since awakening some kind of superpower, they thought of themselves as the chosen ones, blessed by fate and heaven, with no need to worry about the future.
Who would have known that half a month later, their superpower levels would still be at the Initial Stage, while the mutated creatures’ Levels had already risen?
An Initial Stage superpower was useless against First Rank or even Second Order zombies and mutated creatures.
In a fight, they were probably less effective than a sharp sickle.
"Everyone, be careful! Get down!"
BANG! Two Water-type Zombies leaped onto the truck with incredible speed, snatching up two people with their claws before leaving.
"AHHHH!" The survivors let out wretched, terrified screams.
Song Xiaolong rallied and swung his knife at a Water-type Zombie’s arm, but the force of the impact made the web of his thumb go intensely numb.
He watched as the zombie’s claw descended, about to snatch him away. Grandma Song’s pupils contracted. She would protect her grandson even if it meant death.
It all happened in an instant. The air suddenly vibrated.
Before anyone could see what happened, the zombie’s skull was sliced open, and its head, along with a gush of dark red blood, was flung into Ta Lake.
Song Xiaolong looked up to see his younger sister, Xie Ning, flying toward them like a celestial being from beyond the heavens, seemingly stepping on air.
In the eyes of the survivors on the military truck, Xie Ning truly looked like a goddess who had appeared out of thin air to save the world...
But in reality, she was just leaping rapidly toward them, stepping on a series of thin Space Blades invisible to the naked eye.
"Fuck, that brat Xie Ning is crazy." Li Dawei, who had stuck his head out the window to look back at her, was utterly astonished. ’Since when was she so righteous, public-spirited, and helpful??’
Indeed, Xie Ning wasn’t driven by any sense of justice. She just wanted to hunt these Second Order mutated zombies for their Crystal Cores.
That’s right, a whole group of Second Order Water Element mutated zombies, perfect for helping her power-seeking mother advance.
For a Water Ability User, absorbing the energy from a Water Element Mutated Crystal Core to level up was a hundred times more effective than using a regular Crystal Core.
One of the zombies squatting on the railing suddenly launched a Water Element attack at her.
But the stream of water, in Song You’ai’s words, was no bigger than a piss stream and would be useless even if it hit someone.
With a wave of her hand, Xie Ning sent a Metal Spike through the back of the zombie’s head and retrieved its Crystal Core from a distance.
After her, Song You’ai, Song Shijun, and Song Kexin all jumped out of their vehicle and rushed over to clear the large patches of water weeds on the ground.
"Are they here to save us?" Some of the survivors on the military truck were so moved they started to cry.
Song Xue, wringing her hands, crouched beside Song Zhaodi. Her gaze, full of jealousy, was fixed on Xie Ning’s figure. ’It’s definitely not that simple. She would never do this for us.’
Meanwhile, as Xie Ning’s group jumped into the zombie horde to clear them out, the military trucks and buses began to move even faster.
Many of the drivers waved to show their respect, but Xie Ning just glanced at them, her face devoid of expression.
’I don’t have any noble sentiments,’ she thought. ’I just came for the Crystal Cores...’
"Protect yourselves! Kill!"
At Xie Ning’s command, Wang Zongxuan and Song Youzhi, who had followed, also joined the hunt for the Water-type Zombies.
One zombie, seeing the situation turning against it, was about to leap into Ta Lake to hide, but Song Youzhi’s blade came down and blew its head apart.
On the lake bridge, most of the large trucks and buses had passed, with only a few small private cars left, which whizzed by right after.
Suddenly, a van SCREECHED to a halt beside them.
Xie Ning turned her head to see three or four young men and women burst out of it.
The tall, thin young man in the lead waved his hand, instantly casting three or five Fireballs that, with the speed of a thunderclap, blasted a rapidly crawling Water-type Zombie to bits.
"Xie Ning?" an uncertain voice called out from behind the young man.
"You? It is Xie Ning."
Seeing someone trying to steal her kills, Xie Ning quickly used her ability to collect a large wave of Crystal Cores from a distance, tossing them all onto her terrace.
She then turned and met the wide, joyful eyes of He Zhi.
"Xie Ning, it really is you."