Plaza of the Living Dead

Xia Leng's drowsy eyelids were barely open, as if he could never quite wake up, but they couldn't conceal the savage aura lurking in his shadowy pupils!

After finishing off the mutated zombie, he walked forward, still unsatisfied, moving like a robot toward the dark Street of the Living Dead and the few ordinary living dead still lingering at its edge.

Seeing a human who should have been their food walking toward them of his own accord, the living dead felt a growing unease creep into their rotten hearts!

Aaargh!!!

They let out piercing howls, trying to intimidate the human, but it had no effect. His expression remained cold and unmoved.

Though the zombies were deeply unsettled, the word "retreat" wasn't in their vocabulary. They would only fight their enemies to the death.

It was this savage nature that had kept them off the list of prey hunted by humans in the apocalypse.

But from the moment darkness claimed his pupils, Xia Leng was no longer human...

And so the distance between the living dead, who had once been human, and Xia Leng, who was no longer human, steadily shrank until they were both within striking range!

The moment Xia Leng stepped into the shadows, the zombies eagerly bared their claws and teeth and launched a fierce attack!

Aaargh!

One of the living dead lunged straight for his throat, its fangs snapping at Xia Leng's neck. Its sharp teeth and tremendous bite force could leave deep marks in a steel plate!

But when its fangs were less than a few centimeters from his delectable throat, they suddenly stopped in midair!

Xia Leng had moved even faster, catching its head with just one hand!

Then Xia Leng slammed the living dead's head down onto the ground!

Crack—

A burst of sound rang out. Its head burst like a watermelon, crushed against the ground by Xia Leng's tremendous strength!

Its entire body, along with the gray crystal in its skull, then turned into a mass of blood and was absorbed into Xia Leng's body by the tendrils extending from the surface of his arm!

At the same time, the other zombies that had attacked together leapt at him and sank their fangs, teeming with countless pathogens, deep into his skin.

As they frantically shook their heads, trying to tear away a chunk of flesh, they discovered that his muscles were so tough and elastic they couldn't bite through them!

Xia Leng showed no pain despite being bitten. His expression remained as cold and blank as ever. He seized one zombie by the jaw with his left hand and squeezed!

Creak—

He ripped the living dead's powerful lower jaw off, tearing away a large chunk of rotting flesh with it!

Before it could let out a pained howl, Xia Leng shoved his entire hand into its hollow throat and yanked hard!

The living dead's head came away with half its cervical spine, leaving it completely unable to move. It collapsed to the ground like a heap of mud.

As for the last two living dead, Xia Leng clenched his fists and struck each one beneath the chin with an uppercut, sending the two gaunt corpses several meters into the air!

When they crashed back down, their skulls had already been smashed to powder. Their bodies twitched violently for a while, then stopped moving.

It had taken less than half a minute to dispatch these four living dead and the mutated zombie from earlier.

Even the bite marks on his body healed completely in no time.

As for the deadly pathogens the zombies had bitten into his body, they were little more than an appetizer to the Blacklight Virus...

By then, the darkness in Xia Leng's pupils had gradually faded, a sign that he had regained control of his body.

He actually liked being able to shift his emotions so freely, almost as if he had a split personality: violent when the moment called for it, calm when he needed to be.

Otherwise, losing control at the wrong time and charging ahead recklessly could lead to consequences he didn't want to see.

Xia Leng walked over to the three zombies that still hadn't completely died, crushed their heads one by one with his foot, and devoured them. He didn't have to worry about their disgusting blood staining his clothes; they were woven from the Blacklight Virus and would absorb every drop of blood that splashed onto them.

This time, however, Xia Leng kept the three gray crystals.

One could serve as his ticket into the Fortress, where he could ask about the Land of Corpse Cold.

The other two could be traded for the supplies he needed at the market inside.

Xia Leng had the crystals he wanted and could have left, but the sight of the living dead carrying food was impossible to forget.

Had the living dead really grown more intelligent and developed a social structure that would put even the apocalypse's refugees to shame?

The thought of the living dead, already physically stronger than most humans, picking up guns and firing the first shot of a zombie uprising sent a chill down his spine.

How the hell were humans supposed to survive this...

Xia Leng decided to venture farther into the street. Following the blood trails left by the dragged corpses, he would find out what the living dead, who should have had only animal instincts, were up to!

He drew a deep breath, pulled up his black hood, and concealed himself in the darkness. Even his presence was so well hidden that it was difficult to detect.

Following the blood trails left by the corpses the living dead had dragged away, Xia Leng used the abandoned vehicles parked along the street for cover and began making his way into the depths of the eerie, terrifying commercial district.

He hadn't gone far before he noticed something else unusual.

Roughly every stretch of the street, one or two living dead stood motionless, like wooden posts.

Were they sleeping on their feet?!

No! Their eyes still glowed scarlet in the darkness, and every now and then they glanced around.

They looked more like sentries on guard!

This only made Xia Leng even more determined to investigate what lay farther inside!

What kind of presence could make the living dead abandon their primal bloodlust and transport food deeper into the district?

Xia Leng was like a born assassin, silently closing in without giving off the slightest hint of his presence. Once those "sentries" entered his attack range, he would strike and kill them in an instant!

Xia Leng was glad their intelligence hadn't advanced to the point of setting up hidden sentries. Otherwise, he would have been discovered the first time he killed one.

And so, relying on this stealthy but time-consuming method, he silently killed his way forward.

Xia Leng didn't charge straight through because he wasn't arrogant enough to think he could face a horde of thousands—or even tens of thousands—of zombies alone.

After fighting his way through the street and reaching its central area, he began to encounter more and more living dead!

The zombies Xia Leng saw deep in the Street of the Living Dead weren't wandering aimlessly like they did in the movies. Instead, they sat wherever they could, just like humans, seemingly dozing or resting?!

They rested too, conserving their strength when there was no food!

Xia Leng even saw several zombies gather together, letting out unintelligible howls, one after another, as if greeting and chatting with one another. Could this be a language shared by zombies...

All in all, the large mass of zombies here gave off a sense of order that seemed to belong only to human society!

Just then, Xia Leng also spotted the zombies he had seen carrying food earlier. They were bringing it into a tall building that had once been the Trade Tower, and none of the other zombies nearby tried to steal the meat from them.

The moment Xia Leng looked at the building, a dangerous sensation that made his hair stand on end descended upon him...