The moment Zhou Nuo shouted, a flash of silver streaked past. For an instant, she felt the world slow down. Little Right clearly couldn't block the attack, and she felt death closing in.
Everything seemed to stop like a scene from a life flashing before her eyes. Her gaze shifted from horror to frenzy. She didn't want to die. What would happen to her parents if she did? She'd never been in a sweet romance, and there were so many things she still wanted to do.
It was as if her body had broken through its limits. Everything around her slowed, but she wasn't affected.
She abruptly ducked, then slid toward the table and snatched up a fruit knife from the fruit plate. Reversing her grip, she stabbed it into the middle-aged man's fleshy whip, then drove the blade down hard and cut the whip clean off.
It all happened in the blink of an eye. By the time Zhou Nuo felt everything return to normal, the middle-aged man had leaped backward several steps. His fleshy whips had withdrawn and, after a squirm, turned back into heads.
But now, a chunk of flesh was missing from his cheek, and blood was gushing from the wound.
He didn't seem to care. Instead, he looked at Zhou Nuo and said calmly, "The power you just unleashed was incredible. You really are special."
As he spoke, the middle-aged man slowly shuffled backward. At last, he reached the window he had entered through and stopped, staring coldly at Zhou Nuo. In an even tone, he said, "I'll come for you again. When I do, I'll replace it and become your only parasite."
With that, the middle-aged man flashed into motion, climbed through the window, and vanished into the vast darkness in the blink of an eye.
Once he was gone, Zhou Nuo could no longer hold herself up. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the floor like a deflated balloon.
She gaped, her chest heaving. Her brush with death had left her shaken, and her mind was still blank. Even now, her ears were ringing.
After quite a while, Zhou Nuo was still breathing hard, and her heart was still racing like a runaway horse. Its pounding felt like a drumbeat, making her miserable.
Without thinking, she pressed a hand tightly to her chest, trying to calm her wildly beating heart.
Little Right moved close to Zhou Nuo and stared at her with its single eye, astonished. "How did you do that?"
Even Little Right had been terrified by Zhou Nuo's sudden burst of power. Her speed, which surpassed its own, and her impossibly calm perception and movements had left it amazed.
Little Right was a Parasitic Beast itself, so it knew exactly how strong a Parasitic Beast's fleshy whip was. A fruit knife shouldn't have been able to hurt it, let alone cut it off. At the very least, it would take an adult wielding a huge cleaver to sever one.
And yet Zhou Nuo had cut off the middle-aged man's fleshy whip with one hand. How could a woman do that?
Faced with Little Right's question, Zhou Nuo stared back in confusion. "Wha... what do you mean, how did I do it?"
Her heart was still pounding like thunder, and she could hear every beat echoing in her ears. Her head also felt heavy, as if she hadn't slept in days. She was terribly groggy.
Just then, a knock sounded at the door. Zhou Nuo then heard the police calling out from the other side.
Hearing the police, the stone hanging over Zhou Nuo's heart finally settled. The next instant, her vision went black, and she lost consciousness.
At the request of our readers, VIP members can now enjoy an ad-free experience.
Click to view
Liu Bing, who had been hiding off to the side, nodded in satisfaction. Zhou Nuo's actions had clearly been decent, but seeing her collapse after only one burst of power, he murmured, "Looks like using Bullet Time and Absolute Calm together puts quite a strain on the body. I hope you can make good use of those abilities."
Seeing that he didn't need to get involved, Liu Bing left. He needed to deal with those zombies.
Normally, he wouldn't have needed to handle the zombie incident. They were only a few low-level Hopping Zombies, nothing to worry about. The authorities could even capture them as research material.
But the people who loved chasing traffic were another matter. The way the farmer's sheep had died looked far too much like the work of zombies, giving those content creators a golden opportunity to attract views.
Of course, they didn't believe zombies had done it. After all, this was an age of science. Nobody believed something as unscientific as zombies could exist.
They acted much faster than the police. Like sharks smelling blood, they swarmed toward the mountain village where the farmer lived.
Xue Ming was panicking—really panicking. He dashed through the woods, glancing back now and then. His eyes were filled with fear and disbelief.
He hadn't expected to run into real zombies just because he'd come to livestream a debunking of feudal superstition.
He was a fairly well-known streamer online. He loved using his livestreams to expose all kinds of superstitions.
Whether it was sticking incense into a bowl of white rice and tapping on dishes in the middle of the night, dotting the eyes of paper figures, or even going to a deserted mountain path at midnight to summon spirits...
In short, he tried anything that was supposedly capable of making ghosts appear. He firmly believed there were no demons, ghosts, or paranormal events in the world, and publicly declared that he would debunk every superstition.
This time, his attention had been caught by reports that a farmer's flock of sheep had been killed in what looked like a zombie attack. The story had even attracted quite a bit of attention.
It was a rare chance to gain followers, and Xue Ming wasn't about to let it pass him by.
So during the day, he'd gone to inspect the dead sheep in person. Sure enough, each had two small puncture wounds on its neck, and they really had died from having all their blood drained.
Seeing that, Xue Ming had secretly rejoiced. But on the surface, he'd feigned composure and deliberately said a few things to stir up his viewers, building anticipation for the livestream he planned to start that night.
As for whether the sheep had really been bitten to death by zombies, he didn't believe it for a second. He was a staunch materialist.
That night, Xue Ming packed up his livestreaming gear, headed into the woods around the mountain village, and started streaming.
At first, everything was quiet, and he didn't notice anything unusual. He wandered aimlessly along the mountain paths, but never saw another person or any sign of an animal.
At first, he only thought the mountains were a little too quiet. Why weren't there any nightingales or insects calling? But he didn't think much of it. In the dead of night, he heard a rhythmic sound, a dull thumping as if someone were hopping through the mountains.
He immediately grew excited, then quietly crept toward the sound.
Before you continue