Replacement

Su Ze remained utterly calm and cursed without mercy, "You idiot, you brainless moron!"

"After you drain me dry and kill me, have you considered how you're going to open the door to the Containment Zone?"

The Vampire smiled. "Didn't you tell us that as long as..."

As he spoke, his voice abruptly stopped, as though he had gotten stuck.

The Containment Zone's door was indestructible and could only be opened from the outside. It required the Guard Captain on duty outside to verify his fingerprint and enter a password before the door could be opened.

And before opening the door, the Guard Captain always had a habit of observing the situation behind it first.

Su Ze's original plan had been to have the Sickly One control Zhao Lingxiao's corpse and deceive the Guard Captain into opening the door. But Zhao Lingxiao's face had now collapsed, and the Vampire had drained quite a bit of his blood, leaving him nearly a desiccated corpse. That was clearly no longer possible. Therefore, one of the three of them could only impersonate Zhao Lingxiao.

But neither the Vampire nor the Sickly One had a build that matched Zhao Lingxiao's. Su Ze, on the other hand, looked as though he had been cast from the same mold as Zhao Lingxiao.

That was assuming Su Ze remained in normal condition. If the Vampire drained him into a mummy, he definitely would not be able to fool the Guard Captain either.

Realizing this, the Vampire immediately stopped drawing Su Ze's blood.

Su Ze did not want to waste time either. In a low voice, he said, "Open the cell doors first."

In Su Ze's Escape Plan, killing Zhao Lingxiao had been a crucial step, because they needed a corpse to press the button and open the cell doors.

The control console that operated the cell locks was fifty meters away. They could only rely on the Sickly One's corpse-controlling ability to open the cell doors.

The Sickly One's corpse-controlling ability came from a rare Third-tier Exotic Beast: Nether Cat. This feline Exotic Beast, covered in black fur, possessed an extremely strange ability: corpses it touched would rise again and fall under its control.

After absorbing a vial of Nether Cat extract, the Sickly One had fortunately gained this ability.

However, he needed to make contact with a corpse in order to use it. Clearly, the Sickly One, locked inside his cell, could not touch Zhao Lingxiao's corpse on the floor.

Su Ze had long prepared a solution for this. The Sickly One bit open his finger and extended the injured digit through the small window.

The Vampire immediately controlled the blood flowing from the Sickly One's wounded finger, stretching it into a thread of blood. One end remained connected to the Sickly One's wound, while the other continuously extended until it touched Zhao Lingxiao's corpse on the ground.

Blood was also part of the Sickly One's body, so this counted as the Sickly One making contact with Zhao Lingxiao's corpse. The next instant, the dead Zhao Lingxiao slowly climbed up from the ground, though his movements were somewhat stiff.

It worked!

Joy appeared on the faces of the three escapees.

They had collected the Guard Captain's fingerprints long ago. Now that they had successfully controlled the corpse, all the conditions needed to open the cell doors had been met.

The Vampire grabbed one of Zhao Lingxiao's fingers and scraped off the fingerprint with his nail. He then controlled the flowing blood to condense into a new fingerprint—the Guard Captain's fingerprint.

Under the Sickly One's control, Zhao Lingxiao's corpse strode toward the prison's control console with quick yet rigid steps.

After Zhao Lingxiao's corpse operated the console for a moment, the cell doors of the Sickly One, Su Ze, and the Vampire opened in succession. The three eagerly squeezed out of their cramped cells.

Su Ze immediately picked up the Head of the Wailing Ones from the ground. A vicious gleam flashed through the Vampire's eyes when he saw this, but he did not act.

The Sickly One controlled Zhao Lingxiao's corpse to walk back to the three of them, then released his control over it.

Su Ze immediately took over and dragged Zhao Lingxiao's corpse back into his cell.

At close range, Su Ze could smell the pungent perfume on Zhao Lingxiao more clearly. Yet beneath that perfume... Su Ze could also faintly smell a foul stench!

A corpse smell already?

No!

Su Ze suddenly realized that Zhao Lingxiao had used so much perfume precisely to conceal that foul odor on his body!

Could it be that his promiscuous private life had recently gotten him infected with some disease?

Su Ze shook his head and did not dwell on it. He swiftly stripped off Zhao Lingxiao's clothes, then removed his own prison uniform.

Of course, he was not doing this because he had been cooped up in the cell too long. He was going to exchange their clothes.

That was right. Su Ze not only intended to put on Zhao Lingxiao's clothes, but also planned to dress Zhao Lingxiao in his prison uniform. He was going to take his place!

"Go in peace. I'll inherit your billions in assets for you..."

Su Ze removed Zhao Lingxiao's sunglasses and put them on his own face, then casually closed Zhao Lingxiao's eyes, which were still wide with fury.

While Su Ze changed clothes inside the cell, killing intent flashed through the Vampire's eyes outside. He made a throat-slitting gesture at the Sickly One.

He meant that they should strangle Su Ze now, then have the Sickly One control Su Ze's corpse to deceive the Guard Captain into opening the Containment Zone's door.

The Sickly One shook his head. The corpses he controlled moved stiffly compared to living people, and they could not speak either. There was a risk of being exposed. The Escape Plan was already more than halfway successful, and he did not want to take that risk.

Seeing that the Sickly One disagreed, the Vampire could only let it go.

Before long, the two saw Su Ze emerge wearing Zhao Lingxiao's clothes. Surprise and confusion flashed through both their eyes. Zhao Lingxiao's outfit fit Su Ze far too well, as though it had been tailored specifically for him.

At first glance, they even thought Zhao Lingxiao had come back from the dead.

It was only because Zhao Lingxiao had previously concealed his face with a mask and sunglasses. Otherwise, if they had discovered that Zhao Lingxiao and Su Ze had identical faces, who knew what conclusions they might have drawn.

"They look too alike! There's absolutely no problem fooling the guards!"

The Sickly One and the Vampire grew even more confident in their successful escape.

Zhao Lingxiao's clothes were still intact, and the Vampire had dealt with every trace of blood. Only the mask had a small hole pierced through by the blood arrow, but it was not obvious at all. No one would notice it without looking closely.

"Move." Su Ze called out and took the lead toward the Containment Zone's door.

The Vampire and the Sickly One lowered their bodies and followed behind Su Ze.

They both had countless doubts about what had happened tonight, but this was clearly not the time to satisfy their curiosity.

The three walked down the corridor for a while. After turning a corner and taking a few more steps, they would reach the Containment Zone's door.

Both the Vampire and the Sickly One stopped at the corner. If they went any farther, the Guard Captain would be able to see them through the transparent glass in the door.

The two crouched in the corner, waiting only for the door to open before charging out and killing their way through.

Su Ze walked steadily to the door and knocked softly.

The Guard Captain outside peered in. He first looked at Su Ze, then examined the area behind him, after which the sound of him entering the password echoed out.

Beep! Beep! Beep...

Every press of a key made Su Ze and the other two tense up even more.

Finally, the sound of the lock cylinder turning rang out, and the door slowly opened.

The Vampire and the Sickly One, who had long been poised to strike, immediately moved. They sprang up and pounced toward the half-open door like cheetahs.

As long as they got through this door, their prison break would basically be a success. It was late at night, and only one of the guards stationed outside was at the Cocoon Breaking Stage. He could not stop the two of them at all.

As for Su Ze, who was currently blocking their path, they did not care in the slightest.

With their physical strength and explosive power, if Su Ze was hit by them, it would be no different from being struck by a speeding car. Even if he did not die, he would be crippled.

But so what?

To them, Su Ze had completely lost his value.

Yet only then did they see that Su Ze, with his back to them, had kept one hand behind him the entire time. In that hand, he gripped a small skull, its two hollow eye sockets aimed directly at them.