Survive

Bandu's throat was slit open.

Alice's chest was riddled with bloody holes.

One child after another fell into pools of blood.

Zhou Bai roared as he unleashed fifty points of his primordial spirit power. Blood streamed from his ears and eyes.

Bang! The frenzied force slammed into the Heavenly Demon, but had no effect. It only earned a sneer from him.

"Why would a pig... resist?"

The black mist turned into a long serpent and swept straight toward Zhou Bai.

The instant his primordial spirit power touched the serpent, it crumbled and dissipated.

The weakened black mist swept into Zhou Bai. His vision went dark as he crashed into the wall and slid to the floor. His consciousness began to blur.

Heavenly Demon: "You're all pigs who do nothing but eat and shit. I'll kill every last one of you!"

With a series of soft whooshes, one person after another was pierced through.

Bang!

A steel pipe flew into the Heavenly Demon.

His expression darkened as he turned and saw Elsa standing there, glaring at him. Her thin legs trembled uncontrollably, and her voice was thick with fear. As she spoke, tears streamed down her face.

"S-stop... stop! Why are you killing everyone? We... we were all trying so hard to survive... I've already been eating so much less!"

Whoosh!

"Silence."

A blade formed from black mist pierced Elsa, pinning her to the wall.

Zhou Bai gritted his teeth. His primordial spirit power was being driven to burst out of his body, but nothing happened. Both his primordial spirit and his body were badly injured. He had lost all ability to fight and could only watch helplessly as it all unfolded.

"The last one..." The Snake Monster gave its head a slight shake. Black energy swept around it and formed a blade that shot viciously toward Zhou Bai.

Am I... going to die?

Zhou Bai's mind was a tangled mess. He felt no anger, no loathing, no hatred... One thought alone filled his mind.

I really... don't want to die...

The fear of death spread to the very tips of every nerve in his body.

In that moment, Zhou Bai suddenly understood what death meant: vanishing, losing all connection with the world, and having no hope or future ever again.

Just how terrifying was that for a living being?

Sizzle...

The sounds of a violent collision and grinding rang out.

At some point, Dr. Zhuang had stepped in front of Zhou Bai. He gripped the incoming black blade tightly in one hand, and blood trickled from his palm.

Zhou Bai stared wide-eyed. Dr. Zhuang's face was calm as he said, "Zhou Bai, are you scared? Despairing? Angry? And yet unable to do anything? Remember how you feel right now. This is what helplessness feels like. Don't let yourself ever go through this again..."

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! More black blades swept toward them. A flash of golden light gleamed in Dr. Zhuang's eyes.

With a series of sharp cracks, Dr. Zhuang swept the black blade in his right hand through the air. Like black lightning, it knocked away every incoming blade.

Snake Monster: "Tch, you killed Moro? What a useless thing."

"You mean your companion?" Dr. Zhuang said. "I'll send you back to join him."

The Snake Monster looked coldly at Dr. Zhuang's other arm, severed at the elbow, and the gaping hole in his thigh. It sneered. "You're so badly injured you can't even use your primordial spirit power, and instead of running away, you came down here to save someone?"

"Pigs are pigs. Utterly foolish."

The next moment, all the black blades flashed and were covered in black flames—including the blade in Dr. Zhuang's hand. The flames spread toward his hand, forcing him to let go.

"Zhou Bai... this planet may no longer be a suitable place for humans to live..."

Bang! Dozens of black blades transformed into a tornado of swords and smashed Dr. Zhuang all the way into the wall with a tremendous crash.

"But Earth can submit..."

Boom!

Thin strands of golden light rose from Dr. Zhuang's body. At some point, his hair had turned into golden fur, and a tail had grown from his tailbone.

The next moment, he broke through the black blades around him and once again stood in front of Zhou Bai, intercepting the blades aimed at him.

"Humanity will never yield."

Dr. Zhuang charged through waves of black sword rain and golden afterimages, slammed into the Heavenly Demon, and pressed its head against the wall with one hand.

"Zhou Bai, this is my final lesson. Survive, no matter how lowly, how afraid, or how desperate you feel... Survive."

"You're self-destructing your primordial spirit?" the Heavenly Demon snarled at Dr. Zhuang. "And you're... turning into a demon..."

Golden flames blazed across Dr. Zhuang's body. The Heavenly Demon's serpentine form struggled wildly, and black blades pierced Dr. Zhuang again and again, but it still couldn't break free.

Dr. Zhuang said, "As the last humans, don't let our civilization end here..."

The next moment, blinding golden flames filled Zhou Bai's entire vision, spreading through the laboratory, the fourth basement level, the third, the second, and the entire base.

The golden flames burned everything in the base to ashes. By the time they finally went out, Dr. Zhuang and the Heavenly Demon had already vanished without a trace.

Zhou Bai had also been so badly injured that he'd passed out on the ground.

When Zhou Bai woke up, almost the entire base had been destroyed. Only he and the children's bodies beside him had escaped the flames, clearly because Dr. Zhuang had controlled them deliberately.

What should I do now...

His whole body ached, and he couldn't move at all.

With no other choice, Zhou Bai could only rest for a while and try again once he'd recovered a little.

More than half an hour later, Zhou Bai tried to activate his primordial spirit power. Bit by bit, he pushed himself upright and sat on the ground.

As he did, he felt as if something had been placed against his chest.

He opened it and found what looked like a small booklet.

Zhou Bai's gaze sharpened slightly. "Who put this here? Could it have been Dr. Zhuang?"

Zhou Bai asked in his mind, "Christina, do you know?"

"It really was probably Dr. Zhuang. He must have slipped it to you during the battle. His cultivation should be quite high; doing something like that wouldn't be difficult."

Zhou Bai continued reading. Page after page of diary entries appeared before him.

But much of the diary had been torn out or crossed over.

The atmosphere in the base is growing more and more oppressive. In the darkness, it feels like something is watching me. Jack has started talking in his sleep at night. I told him not to tell anyone. I'm very worried about him.

I don't know whether we're heading in the right direction. May the Heavenly Court protect us.

—Heavily revised

The research is still ongoing. Li Zhengdao has gone mad, and we can only lock him in solitary confinement. He keeps speaking in a language no one can understand. Everyone is deeply discouraged. Maybe our approach really is wrong.

I'm worried about him. I hope he'll be all right.

—Several consecutive pages missing

Since I stopped sleeping, I haven't heard the whispers again. Maybe this method is right. I should spread it to everyone.

—

Survivors: 2