The Blood Serpent was weak, pitiful, and helpless.
Under the wolves' relentless trampling, the soil became even more compacted.
Although the Blood Serpent still had a chance to burrow out of the ground, the wolves were running too quickly. Every time it poked out even a little, it was trampled back down.
Dozens of minutes later, after the wolf pack had gone far away, the Blood Serpent slowly seeped out of the soil.
Under the moonlight, its tiny lump of blood looked especially desolate.
Inside the safe house, Zhang Ping opened his eyes and felt utterly hopeless.
He could not split his attention. He either had to control the Blood Serpent wholeheartedly or shift his focus back to his main body.
Still, even when his attention was focused on his main body, he could sense the distant Blood Serpent. It was like an external organ of his.
At that moment, he felt a vibration. It was extremely faint. He froze at first before realizing that it did not come from his main body, but from the Blood Serpent.
He quickly closed his eyes and switched his attention to the Blood Serpent. Then he saw a huge number of Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbits racing toward it.
"Didn't a whole bunch of them die just a few days ago? They breed way too fast."
With one glance, Zhang Ping estimated there were at least a thousand Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbits. The densely packed rabbits charged forward, their red eyes especially bright in the darkness.
Zhang Ping quickly made the Blood Serpent lie flat, pretending to be a harmless puddle of liquid.
When a Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit leaped past the Blood Serpent, he immediately controlled it to seep into the rabbit's body.
The rabbit was startled and leaped high into the air. But when it landed, it realized it was uninjured. It hesitated for a second, then simply gave up thinking and followed its instincts, continuing to run forward.
It had no idea that an extra mass of blood had entered its body.
The instant the Blood Serpent merged with the rabbit's blood, Zhang Ping heard the wind in the distance, the rabbits' cries, birds flying through the sky, wolves howling afar, and strange, terrifying roars behind them.
He could even understand what the rabbits were saying.
The feeling was extremely strange. It was not that he understood the rabbits' language; he understood their meaning.
However, the rabbits communicated in a very peculiar manner. Since they themselves were quite ignorant, their messages kept repeating just a few ideas: danger behind them, run, run faster.
Zhang Ping could even feel the rabbits' fear. They were terrified of the danger behind them.
"What's behind them?" Zhang Ping muttered inwardly.
Unexpectedly, the rabbit parasitized by the Blood Serpent was startled again. Its eyes darted around as though it were searching for the owner of the voice.
"You can hear me?" Zhang Ping asked curiously when he saw this.
The poor Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit jumped again. After landing, it became even more suspicious and skittish.
More importantly, it clearly had not understood Zhang Ping's question.
After thinking it over, Zhang Ping stopped using language and instead continuously transmitted his thoughts into the blood.
His mind was filled with one thought: Run, run faster, run even faster!
Sure enough, the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit became increasingly focused and gradually began accelerating. It had originally been near the front of the rabbit herd, but now it rushed straight to the lead and gradually pulled away from the others.
"So I really can influence its behavior. It's just that the influence isn't very strong. The main thing is that it already wants to run."
Zhang Ping tried making the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit turn around and run backward. Its speed slowed, but it had absolutely no intention of turning around.
Half an hour later, he saw Mingzhu City, along with densely scattered wolf corpses.
On Mingzhu City's walls, many adventurers were looking down as they cleared out the wolves. Clearly, the wolf pack was not much of a threat to Mingzhu City.
In truth, the adventurers had long noticed that something was wrong with the situation inside Mingzhu City.
Especially a few days ago, when every Patrol Team member had been summoned by the City Lord to the City Lord's Manor and had remained behind closed doors ever since. It was only natural that people would start wondering.
Several adventurers had tried probing for answers, hoping to learn the reason, but they had all been fobbed off with inexplicable excuses. Many veteran adventurers had grown suspicious of both the City Lord's Manor and the Patrol Team.
Because the Patrol Team was doing nothing, the adventurers had voluntarily begun keeping watch at night, protecting the city and defending their homes.
When the adventurers assigned to night watch saw the wolf pack tonight, they immediately informed the others. The adventurers quickly organized a defense. Apart from a few wolves that bypassed the city walls and escaped, most were killed on the spot.
"Is that... a Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit?"
On the city wall, a young adventurer holding a longbow spotted a small white thing running in the distance. He narrowed his eyes and spoke uncertainly.
A bearded man nodded. "It really is a Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit. Roast that little thing over a fire, and it tastes incredible. Heh heh, watch this."
As he spoke, he drew his bow and took aim. The moment the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit jumped, he fired.
"Watch out!"
Seeing the arrow fly toward it, Zhang Ping immediately warned it.
Perhaps because it could sense Zhang Ping's emotions, the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit actually reacted. Just as the arrow was about to hit it, its fur stood on end and its ears sprayed out a large amount of corrosive water.
The corrosive water instantly ate through the arrow. Then it landed and sprinted away, reaching the nearby wolf corpses in the blink of an eye and using them as cover.
"Missed."
The bearded adventurer said regretfully.
He had thought he would get a midnight snack tonight.
Below the city wall, the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit cautiously twitched its ears. Its hearing was extremely sharp, and Zhang Ping could hear many sounds through it.
For example, the bearded man muttering to himself, other adventurers discussing matters, and sounds from within the city.
Perhaps because he was regularly harassed by Wind Whisperers, Zhang Ping's ability to process sound had improved by the day. He could easily pick out the sounds he wanted from countless chaotic noises.
"Your Highness, should we kill all the humans on the city wall?" The hoarse voice belonged, unsurprisingly, to a Heavenly Fox.
Prince Yue replied coldly, "No... watch a little longer."
At the City Lord's Manor, Prince Yue caught a trace of an unusual aura. It monitored the entire city with its tail while keeping watch over the distant lands beyond the city. Vaguely, it felt a sense of unease.
Apart from Prince Yue and the Moon King, the other members of the Heavenly Fox Clan were not actually very strong in combat. Although they could use their abilities to infiltrate other races and hunt, other beasts possessed far sharper animal instincts than humans. Even if the Heavenly Foxes' disguises were flawless, even if they twisted the beasts' common sense, they would still be attacked for no apparent reason.
There was simply no logic to it.
That was why the Moon King had decided to invade the human world. Only humans found it hardest to see through their disguises.
But after losing dozens of Heavenly Foxes in succession recently, Prince Yue could not help wondering whether that choice had been correct. Especially whenever it faced Chen Juntaing, the guilt and regret in its heart grew stronger by the day for reasons it did not understand.
Because of Chen Juntaing, it had even begun to hate eating her kind.
It had not eaten for an entire day.
About half an hour later, the densely packed Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbits appeared.
On the city wall, the bearded man saw so many Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbits and said happily, "Oh ho, we're in luck tonight. These little things taste amazing, but don't waste arrows and weapons on them. Use elemental attacks whenever possible!"
Zhang Ping sensed an opportunity and immediately urged the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit to run. Using the wolf corpses as cover, it headed east.
Perhaps sensing his goodwill, the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit immediately started running. The problem was that it did not know which direction was east, so it instantly exposed itself to the adventurers' sight. Then an ice spike struck its hind leg. It rolled behind a wolf corpse and struggled several times, unable to get back up.
"Don't worry, little guy. I'll heal you."
Zhang Ping hurriedly soothed it, afraid that moving around would only tear open the wound further.
He controlled the blood to gather around the wound, and the bleeding stopped in an instant. Then, through the Blood Serpent, he continuously repaired the injury. The originally gruesome bloody hole slowly turned into tender pink skin, and fur quickly grew back over it.
When the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit found that its hind leg had healed, it got back to its feet.
This time, Zhang Ping's command was much clearer. It carefully ran out from behind the wolf corpse and sprinted eastward.
In truth, Zhang Ping was already extremely exhausted.
Too much had happened tonight.
During the first half of the night,
he had first learned the Phoenix Claw Form at Beast King Fist Hall, then sparred with Wang Jieming.
After that, he had dealt with a rapist, then endured Prince Yue's attack to forcefully kill a Heavenly Fox.
During the second half of the night,
he had withdrawn from Mingzhu City. After obtaining the Pure Blood Body, he had treated Liu Tiefeng.
All of that had consumed enormous amounts of his stamina and Mental Strength. He had been so drained that he had not even noticed the wolf pack's arrival beforehand. Liu Sishan had needed to remind him before he reacted.
Now, remotely controlling the Blood Serpent and coordinating with the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit was consuming even more of his focus.
Although his main attributes were stamina and Mental Strength, and both recovered quickly, he could not help feeling overwhelmed.
But he was far too worried about Qiu Qiang's safety.
Compared with this bit of exhaustion, Qiu Qiang's life or death mattered far more. That was why he gritted his teeth and forced himself to endure.
At that moment, a Fireball suddenly exploded near the Corrosive Water Bullet Rabbit. The blast wave sent it flying, and amid the violent tumbling, Zhang Ping instantly lost his connection to the Blood Serpent.
Inside the safe house, he opened his eyes and immediately felt a wave of dizziness.
Just as he was about to fall backward, Liu Sishan caught him. He had barely opened his mouth when she made a silencing gesture and pointed outside.
The safe house door had been opened a crack.
Under the deathly pale moonlight, densely packed shadows swayed as they advanced toward Mingzhu City.
Thanks to the Nightwalker talent, Zhang Ping could see clearly that some of those shadows were decayed human corpses dressed in tattered clothing, while many others were animal corpses missing forelegs, tails, or ears.
Human corpses and animal corpses walked together in eerie harmony. Their eyes glowed a dark green, making them utterly terrifying.
Fortunately, their senses were not particularly sharp, and they had not noticed the safe house fifty meters away. Otherwise, if so many corpses came swarming over, the consequences would be unimaginable.
A thin layer of sweat appeared on Zhang Ping's forehead. He quickly controlled Nether Mist and poured it into the Wraith Lantern, whose flame had gone out, leaving only a tiny spark.
While he had been fully controlling the Blood Serpent, the Wraith Lantern had already burned through all the Nether Mist he had previously infused into it. Only a faint ember remained in its wick.
Now that Nether Mist was infused into it again, gray flames reignited within the lantern. Under its light, the entire safe house turned black and white.
"Sisi, what the hell are those things?" He looked at Liu Sishan and could not help asking.
Liu Sishan crouched behind him and shook her head. "I don't know. It's my first time seeing them too."
First came the wolf pack, then the rabbit herd, and now even a horde of Living Corpses had appeared.
Tonight was very unusual.