An Ambush?

In the wasteland world, more than a dozen zombies wandered aimlessly through the streets.

Their bodies had rotted away, yet their exposed teeth and nails gleamed with an eerie sheen.

They looked ordinary now, but the moment a living person appeared, these zombies would transform into the most terrifying nightmare.

"Ah..."

Suddenly, one zombie raised its head in confusion.

A cold gleam abruptly appeared in midair.

It shot toward the zombie before it. With a wet pfft, it pierced straight through the zombie's hardened skull.

With a bang, the cold gleam did not slow after piercing through. It even split into two.

The cold gleams darted through the air, swiftly piercing and dismembering the dozen or so zombies present.

A few breaths later, thuds rang out as corpses hit the ground. The dozen or so zombies had all collapsed, utterly devoid of life.

"Return!"

Ye Xiu formed a hand seal, and the cold gleams dancing throughout the street instantly gathered toward him as though they had received an order.

In the end, what hovered at his side was none other than the Soul-Reaping Thorn, glinting with cold light.

"This Soul-Reaping Thorn truly deserves to be called a mid-grade spirit artifact. Fang Qiong hadn't lied about that."

A flicker of delight crossed Ye Xiu's face. The Soul-Reaping Thorn possessed such power even while he was only at the fifth level of Qi Refinement; it had greatly exceeded his expectations.

The last time he came here, he had only been at the first level of Qi Refinement. Even dealing with more than three zombies at once had been extremely difficult.

But now, bolstered by the Soul-Reaping Thorn, he only needed a few breaths to deal with more than a dozen zombies at once.

"Why are there so few zombies on these streets?"

Looking at the empty street before him, Ye Xiu controlled the Soul-Reaping Thorn to retrieve the soul pearls from the zombies' bodies.

He opened his storage pouch and frowned at the mere thirty-odd soul pearls inside.

Compared to the zombie horde he had seen during his last visit, this unfamiliar area he had crossed into this time clearly had far fewer zombies.

He had slaughtered his way down an entire street, yet there were only this many.

After resting briefly, Ye Xiu sensed the spiritual energy within him moving with increasing ease and decided to look elsewhere.

He followed the street to an intersection. When he saw the battered road sign hanging above the crossroads, Ye Xiu suddenly froze.

Jianghai City, Pingjin Road, Baiyun Street.

Those familiar words caused long-buried memories to surge to the surface all at once.

Jianghai City—wasn't that where he had lived before crossing over?

According to what that uncle had said last time, this was the city that had held out the longest, only to be breached by the zombie tide a year ago...

That meant he might still be able to find traces of his younger sister?

Ye Xiu's heart began pounding uncontrollably.

But moments later, he forcibly suppressed the thought.

He had not forgotten that outside the secret chamber in the cultivation world, a group of righteous-path cultivators were still eyeing him like tigers watching their prey!

"Help! Let me down!..."

A cry for help suddenly rang out from afar. Ye Xiu's expression changed, and his fifth-level Qi Refinement cultivation allowed him to swiftly locate its source.

He had not intended to get involved, but if someone was crying for help, there would surely be a large number of zombies.

He had to take a look.

Having grasped the key point, Ye Xiu no longer hesitated. He activated his spiritual energy and headed toward the source of the voice...

Inside a massive pit, the surroundings had been hollowed out. Only a rock pillar more than ten meters tall remained in the center, and atop it, a wounded woman was bound tightly in place.

Beneath her was a dense sea of zombies.

The zombies greedily stretched out their hands and climbed upward, only to keep slipping on the smooth rock walls. Then the zombies behind them crushed them underneath, leaving them to struggle and writhe in vain.

Ye Xiu looked at the scene before him, and an odd glint flashed through his eyes.

No wonder he had not seen many zombies nearby. By conservative estimate, there were at least two or three hundred in this massive pit—almost all the zombies from the surrounding streets had gathered here.

"What's going on?"

Standing atop a bus nearby, Ye Xiu looked toward the woman on the rock pillar. For some reason, he felt that she looked familiar.

Hearing his voice, the woman, who had been hanging her head, raised it in astonishment.

She stared at Ye Xiu for a while, then suddenly widened her eyes as though she could not believe what she was seeing.

"Are you... Brother Xiu?"

Hearing that, Ye Xiu frowned. "You know me?"

"Run! Get away from here!"

The woman suddenly screamed. Along with her words, the zombie horde below boiled over and surged toward Ye Xiu.

Several hundred meters away, atop a three-story western-style house.

A tall, burly man sat with one leg crossed over the other, humming a tune. Beside him, a scantily clad woman wore a flattering smile as she massaged him.

"Brother Jun, it's about time, isn't it? Shouldn't we close the net?"

The woman spoke in a sweet, coquettish voice. "Once we collect the soul crystals this time, you have to let me advance!"

Brother Jun chuckled and slapped her plump backside, drawing a coquettish cry from her.

"That depends on how you perform tonight."

The woman let out a coy snort, then bent down with a seductive smile. "Why wait until tonight? I'll let Brother Jun try what I just learned right now..."

Just as the two were about to get down to business, the balcony door was suddenly flung open.

"Brother Jun, someone's come to the rock pillar!"

"What?"

Brother Jun's expression changed. He kicked the woman beneath him away and strode onto the balcony.

But after taking just one look, he slapped the back of the boy staring at the rock pillar.

"Idiot, why are you yelling when it's only one person? Even a dignified third-tier ability user like me can't take them head-on. Isn't that kid just going there to die?"

After receiving the slap, the boy immediately fell silent.

At that moment, the woman wrapped herself around Brother Jun again. "Brother Jun, don't let these little matters spoil the mood. Let's continue..."

"No rush. Let's first see how this kid dies. If possible, bringing him back would be a good thing too."

Brother Jun waved his hand. Meanwhile, zombies had already climbed out of the deep pit and were making their way toward Ye Xiu.

Hearing this, everyone immediately wore expressions of eager anticipation.

Under their watchful eyes, Ye Xiu, standing atop the bus and surrounded on all sides by zombies, suddenly raised his hand.

"Haha, is this kid trying to surrender to the zombies? This is hilarious..."

The boy whom Brother Jun had slapped earlier burst out laughing when he saw Ye Xiu's action.

But in the next second, his ducklike laughter stopped abruptly, as though someone had seized him by the throat.

"Slay without mercy!"

Ye Xiu faced the zombie horde already within arm's reach as spiritual energy surged through his body.

The Soul-Reaping Thorn flew out at his command. After piercing through the skull of the zombie before him, it continued without losing momentum and began splitting at high speed.

One became two, two became four, four became eight...

The zombies that rushed forward were harvested like stalks of wheat. In mere moments, beneath the cold gleams filling the sky, only Ye Xiu remained standing proudly between heaven and earth!

The people watching from the small building turned ice-cold. They instinctively wanted to flee, but in the next instant, they saw that expanse of cold gleams howl toward them!