Bloody Resonance

Su Huan crouched down, drew a dagger from his calf, and began to slice through the skin of the Blood Hound.

"As long as there's a chance, that's enough."

A metallic sheen flickered in Qi Xiaoba's eyes as he raised his palm, causing the twisted metal doors and windows to rapidly revert to their original state.

Su Huan looked up. "Is there enough Pan-Energy left? If so, seal everything off completely."

"Should be no problem."

As he spoke, the metal coils wrapped around the Blood Hound flew into the air, moved toward the window frame, and transformed into a metal plate that sealed the entire window.

The moment the window was sealed, Su Huan was once again enveloped in a sense of security, though it wasn't as intense as it had been initially.

A mere 3mm steel plate could not provide him with sufficient peace of mind.

Su Huan stood up, holding something he had extracted from the Blood Hound's body.

He grabbed a bottle of mineral water from a nearby pile of supplies, took a fierce gulp, and then poured the remaining half over the bloody lump of meat in his hand.

As the crimson blood was washed away, the object revealed its true form.

It was, shockingly, the heart of the Blood Hound.

Qi Xiaoba looked at the heart in his hand, lost in thought.

The two arrived at the dining car, and upon seeing the scene inside, Qi Xiaoba's expression changed drastically.

"What happened to Sister Xingzi?"

Yu Jing frowned and said, "She collapsed the moment she came in. She's still conscious, but her face is deathly pale—it looks very similar to the signs of mutation seen in those zombies."

Qi Xiaoba cast his gaze toward Su Huan beside him.

Su Huan crouched down, looked at the weak Xingzi, and said calmly, "There is a way now that could not only heal your injuries but also potentially make you an Evolutionist with special abilities. The price is that you might die. Do you want to try?"

Xingzi stared blankly into Su Huan's eyes; she still couldn't see any emotion in them.

He radiated an aura that made people inexplicably inclined to trust him.

Looking at Qi Xiaoba nearby, a glimmer of color returned to Xingzi's reddened eyes. "How do I do it?"

Su Huan held the Blood Hound's heart up before her eyes and said earnestly, "Eat it."

The scene in the dining car was bizarre: a group of people huddled in a nervous circle, watching a woman drenched in blood resolutely gnaw on the heart in her hands.

The only sound in the carriage was the faint noise of chewing.

The atmosphere had turned inexplicably eerie.

Su Huan leaned back, sitting on the sofa, watching the scene with interest.

There are generally two ways to become an Evolutionist.

One is to slowly come into contact with freshly dead zombies, accumulate Pan-Energy, and then quietly evolve once a certain critical point is reached.

The other is much more direct: doing exactly what Xingzi was doing—devouring the heart of an Evolutionary Beast raw.

This accumulates the Pan-Energy in the body to the critical threshold all at once.

The advantage is speed.

The disadvantage is that turning into a zombie is also fast.

When she had eaten half of it, Xingzi seemed less weak, and the speed of her gnawing accelerated.

After finishing the last bite, her eyes were covered by a white film, as if a layer of membrane had formed, and she collapsed directly onto the floor.

Qi Xiaoba looked at Su Huan nervously.

Su Huan spread his hands. "Don't look at me, there's nothing I can do. The rest depends on whether she can hold on herself."

In any case, Xingzi was a windfall; if she became an Evolutionist, he would profit.

If she died, it wasn't a loss—it was just an Evolutionary Beast heart, nothing that important.

Thinking of this, Su Huan subconsciously shifted his gaze to Liang Kuan. He had seen the man's performance earlier, though he didn't know how much of it was acting.

But in Su Huan's mind, he had already passed the first test.

He was temporarily added to the list of internal members.

He glanced at the thermometer on the wall; it had already soared to 27°C. He couldn't help but mutter to himself that the temperature was rising truly fast. By the hottest part of the afternoon, it would likely reach 28 or 29 degrees.

"Liang Kuan, go turn on the air conditioning."

Liang Kuan got up and went to the front of the train. Five minutes later, cool air began to blow into the VIP dining car.

"So, the way to become an Evolutionist is to accumulate enough... Pan-Energy?" Yu Jing suddenly looked up at Su Huan, her eyes carrying a hint of verification.

"Snap!"

Su Huan snapped his fingers. "Correct."

"Once absorbed, Pan-Energy promotes biological evolution. Whether it's flowers, trees, or cats and dogs, everything can evolve, just like the Evolutionary Beast from earlier—the Blood Hound."

"And you've already seen the result of a failed evolution: turning into a zombie, capable of spreading infection."

However, zombies also evolve.

Therefore, in his past life, there was a theory that those who turned into zombies were merely playing a resurrection match for evolution.

He had heard too many rumors like this, half-true and half-false, and there was no need to repeat them to the others.

"So, zombies and Evolutionary Beasts contain large amounts of Pan-Energy. Through frequent contact, some people can activate superpowers and gain formidable abilities. But take note, it is only 'some people'; most are simply infected and become new zombies," Su Huan said earnestly.

Qi Xiaoba listened intently. Although he was also an Evolutionist, his understanding of the apocalypse, Pan-Energy, and Evolutionists was far inferior to Su Huan's.

From those few sentences alone, everyone could tell that what Su Huan had laid out was a logically complete conceptual system.

It was not mere speculation.

Yu Jing did not press Su Huan on how he had obtained this information; her beautiful phoenix eyes drifted toward Xingzi.

She had heard him clearly.

Long-term, frequent...

Not a single word there matched the method Xingzi had just used.

"The way she rapidly devours Pan-Energy is called—Bloody Resonance."

Perhaps noticing her confusion, Su Huan said slowly.

"Oh."

Yu Jing responded with indifference.

Su Huan felt a bit uncomfortable and looked up in surprise, only to see that woman, Yu Jing, staring at him with a strange, probing gaze.

It did not look like a woman looking at a man; it looked more like a researcher encountering an interesting... subject.

"Haa..."

Ten minutes passed. Xingzi, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly sat up. Everyone was startled, and Liang Kuan instinctively stood up to reach for his axe.

Only Su Huan, seeing the non-reflective film over Xingzi's eyes, wore a smile on his face.

He walked over to her, crouched down, and extended his palm.

"Welcome to the Armed Train."

Xingzi stared at Su Huan for a long moment before extending her hand, struggling to squeeze two words from her throat.

"Thank you."

"If you feel dizzy, you can try to deactivate your visual analysis and think carefully; that information should be in your memory," Su Huan reminded her.

"It seems... that is the case?"

The dull film over Xingzi's eyes gradually faded, reflecting Su Huan's image.

Su Huan snapped his fingers, the corners of his mouth curling up. "Correct. You have arrived in the world of Evolutionists. By the way, what was your full name again?"

"Wan Xing. Xing as in the apricot blossoms in spring rain."

"Su Huan. Huan as in the radiance of a new life. You can call me Captain, Boss, Chief, Brother Su, or Su Huan... the title doesn't matter. But you must understand one thing: as long as you are on this train, you must listen to me. I will only say this once."

Although Su Huan's tone was calm, it carried an unquestionable, chilling edge.