Chapter 148: The Zombie Emperor

The young man’s head was tilted slightly, exposing his slender neck, the blue meandering veins could be faintly seen under the skin.

Xie Shili was dumbfounded at once.

The soft lines of the nape extended down to the neckline of the sweater. The pitch-black fabric strongly contrasted with unhealthy pale skin, which also made the terrifying purple-black bite marks from the shoulder to neck all the more frightening.

It was like peerless white porcelain that had been cracked abruptly on your eyes, leaving a flaw that could never be eliminated.

That kind of heart-piercing tragic beauty tugged on one’s heartstrings subconsciously.

Xie Shili stretched out his hand involuntarily, covering the wounded skin with his palm.

The skin under the palm was cold and soft to the touch, as cold as marble, and the bluish-black bite marks were bumpy to the touch, distinctively unlike the surrounding skin, making it look even more shocking.

Xie Shili stroked the edge of the scar with his fingertips, and asked incomprehensibly,

“Did it hurt?”

Ge Xiu turned his head and glanced at him. In the night, his gray eyes flashed through the gaps between the eyelashes, seeming like dense mist soaked in darkness.

He thought about it carefully, then shook his head slowly.

The soft hair brushed against the back of Xie Shili’s hand following his movements, bringing a slightly itchy sensation.

Xie Shili knew he had made a slip of the tongue.

After humans became zombies, the concept of pain disappeared.

In addition, they had no memory of their previous life, so naturally they would not remember whether the wound was painful or not.

Ge Xiu lowered his eyes.

……pain.

This word was like a stone thrown into a turbulent current, stirring up the silt at the riverbed in an instant, tiny fragment flashed in his mind, but it disappeared when he thought about it carefully— as for pain, he had a vague impression.

However, these impressions were too fragmented and they disappeared in a blink of an eye.

As fleeting as a dream, it flashed by and dissipated without a trace.

Ge Xiu raised his eyes, and there was a little confusion in his gray eyes.

The air fell into a deep silence for a moment.

Suddenly, Xie Shili realized abruptly that his palm stayed on the back of the other’s neck for a bit too long.

Even moreso, with passage of time, it had a tendency to move downwards—

He was startled out of sudden, and yanked his hand away as if had been scalded.

However, the slender and thin outline of the opponent’s shoulder blades and the subtle curvature of the sunken spine seemed to have been branded on his palm, lingering and refusing to dissipate.

Xie Shili subconsciously tightened his fingers.

Not knowing if it was because he wanted to shake off that touch, or rather to hold it tightly in his hand.

He gave a low cough, stood up, and said, in an attempt to change the subject:

“…I’m going to find a car.”

Ge Xiu nodded expressionlessly and stood up as well.

Number One, Two, Three and Four saw him standing up, and stood up one after another, with the attitude of wherever the boss will go, they will go.

Xie Shili: “…”

Looking at the five blank and innocent faces in front of him, he was silent for a few seconds, then raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling the oncoming headache. He then turned and walked into the darkness.

Five zombies followed behind him step by step.

Soon, Xie Shili found a working vehicle and refilled the fuel at the nearby gas stations. After that, Ge Xiu sat in the passenger seat, and the remaining four zombies crammed into the back seat, filling the vehicle to the brim.

Xie Shili started the car skilfully.

The sound of car engine sounded in the deserted streets and then the headlights turned on, illuminating the dust swirling ahead.

The off-road vehicle climbed back to the road.

Two hours later, Xie Shili parked the car on the side of the road, turned off the engine, then turned to Ge Xiu and said, “I’ll be right back.”

Ge Xiu hesitated for two seconds.

Would his reserve food take this opportunity to run away?

——However, if he run away, he could still be caught by following the smell.

Had that happened, he can just eat him directly.

Ferocious thoughts were circling in Ge Xiu’s mind, but his expression was still pure and innocent.

He nodded.

Xie Shili curled his lips, he closed the car door behind him, and quickly disappeared into the darkness.

Three hours later.

The pitch-black sky gradually turned pale, and the cold dim light of the morning brightened the night, making the whole view murky and misty.

Xie Shili came back with the rising sun and morning dew.

He walked through the grass and woods towards the off-road vehicle parked by the side of the road. The trousers on his long legs were already soaked thoroughly by the dew along the way.

The abstruse facial features were shrouded in the dim light, his deep-set eye sockets were hidden in the shadow cast by the eyebrows, and the fierce killing aura around him had not yet dissipated.

Ge Xiu smelled the fresh smell of blood coming from him.

It was the smell of supernatural human.

Very familiar to that.

Ge Xiu quickly matched it with memory in his mind — it was the same as the team of supernatural humans from yesterday afternoon.

In fact, Xie Shili never planned to let the other team go back alive from the very beginning.

Not to mention the opposite team still had the intention to kill, and they only didn’t dare to fight because they took into account the revealed dual-element abilities and the fact that they were in the city center.

If they were allowed to go back and pass the information what they would face next may be regular military and lab mercenaries.

In addition, the existence of mutated zombies had clearly became a widely known fact by now, so the secret of mutated zombies’ nucleus being absorbable by people with abilities and capable of greatly enhancing the level of abilities couldn’t be kept for long either.

At that time, no matter how dangerous the high-level zombie was, there would still be many people who coveted him. The greed of human beings was even crazier than the hunger of zombies. Driven by interests and ambitions, they would attempt to ambush him, no matter his strength.

The dangers would have been unending.

——What’s more, Xie Shili was the only human with dual ice and fire abilities.

This was an aftermath that must be cleaned up.

Therefore, when the team of supernatural beings left, he deliberately paid attention to the direction they were leaving, and made plans and predictions based on the terrain around the city and several routes between the nearest survivor bases——he knew that by the time the night fell they would be forced to stop and rest. Zombies were most active at night, so rushing back at this time would be equivalent to suicide.

Combining various factors and speculations, Xie Shili selected their most likely location.

——The ending was as expected.

In the last days, it was either kill or be killed.

Natural selection, survival of the fittest.

Ge Xiu turned around and waved to Number One, Two, Three and Four who were hovering beside the car.

Hearing the call, the four zombies obediently surrounded him.

During the time when Xie Shili left, they were not idle. On the contrary, under Ge Xiu’s command, they intercepted the zombies passing by with the vehicle as the center, skilfully digging out the nuclei and putting it in the backpack for storage. In just three hours, a pile of zombie corpses piled up on the side of the road.

Xie Shili opened the car door, and Ge Xiu followed suit, stretching out his hand to open the car door, and sat back on the co-pilot.

Immediately afterwards, Number One to Four huddled together in the back seat again, aggrievedly.

Xie Shili skillfully started the engine.

In the blue-gray mist of the morning light, the off-road vehicle parked on the side of the road slowly started moving and drove forward along the straight and desolate road.

Ge Xiu sniffed the air.

In the enclosed space, the bloody smell on Xie Shili’s body became more and more clear.

He turned his head to look at Xie Shili who was sitting in the driver’s seat.

The man stared intently at the road in front of him, the features of his profile were hazy in the dim light from the car window, and a few drops of blood that hadn’t dried up remained on his cheeks, exuding the unique smell of the blood of a supernatural human.

Ge Xiu blinked, leaned over suddenly, stretched out his fingers to wipe his face.

The car, which was driving steadily, suddenly made an “S” shape on the road.

Xie Shili turned his head to look at Ge Xiu who was sitting in the co-pilot, and saw that he was staring thoughtfully at the scarlet blood stained on his fingertips, and then opened his mouth, as if he wanted to lick it.

He was taken aback.

The source of the blood was immediately clear.

Xie Shili frowned, freed one hand, took out a piece of tissue from the car, and hastily wiped off the blood from the other’s fingertips—the whole set of movements was smooth and swift, and took only a few seconds.

He withdrew his gaze, and once again fixed his eyes on the road in front of him:

“Dirty.”

For some reason, he instinctively didn’t want his zombie to taste other people’s blood.

Ge Xiu was stunned for a second, and when he looked again, the blood stains on his fingers had been wiped off—in fact, the smell of other people still seemed dull, he just wanted to try, whether the drop of blood would taste better after it stayed on the food reserve for a long time?

It turned out that out of sudden, before he even could taste it, it was gone.

He was angry.

It’s fine if he couldn’t eat his reserve rations, why couldn’t he even taste other’s blood from reserve rations?

Ge Xiu opened his mouth, and bit Xie Shili’s knuckles with an ahhh.

On the road, the vehicle that had gradually stabilized turned abruptly, making a huge twisted arc, and drove forward crookedly.

Xie Shili’s voice suddenly tensed up:

“You… let go.”

Ge Xiu clenched his teeth on the other’s knuckles, and unclear sound came out of his throat: “Waaaao.”

Not letting go.

Xie Shili’s voice was hoarse and low, as if suppressing something:

“…I can’t drive like this.

“Woah aoo aoo.”

The four zombies sitting in the back seat of the car looked at each other, trying to communicate with their eyes:

——Are we going to have number five?

——Unlikely.

——Are you hungry?

——hungry.

Under the morning sun, the vehicle drove forward crookedly, leaving twisted traces on the road that looked like slithering snakes.

·

One week later.

In a bright lit room, several photos were thrown scattered on the table. On the photos was portrayed scorched traces on entire block, as if it has been ravaged by a raging fire. Between the burned traces laid charred black corpses, looking like a scene straight from purgatory.

On the photo below, was a messy shopping mall, the shelves were thrown upside down and everything thrown into a chaos.

There were clear marks of fighting all over the ground.

The man frowned and walked around the room anxiously.