Another roar of exploding flames rolled out, and everyone narrowed their eyes to ease the discomfort from the scorching blast.
The bulging burial mound turned charred black. The damp grave soil spilling out of it (Grave Worms) dried in the heat, plugging the cracks that had opened up.
Wen Kele turned toward the Big Black Bull and instinctively sniffed her hand.
Wen Keyi must have wiped it clean.
The Big Black Bull looked at Wen Kele and snorted two streams of white vapor. It was clearly furious. This woman had done something downright inhuman to it earlier, and it had hurt like hell.
Wen Kele raised her hands above her head to mimic a pair of ox ears. "Moo, moo, moo!"
She waggled her eyebrows and bared her teeth, pulling faces.
Me, scared? What a joke! There wasn't a trace of cowardice in the personality she'd been given.
With all these people around, would it really dare to gore me?
Near the back of the procession, people on motorcycles and motorized three-wheelers arrived one after another.
Xiao Shengge gripped the steering wheel, alternating between glances at the rearview mirror and the towering flames ahead.
The flames gave her no sense of security. Instead, they made everything even more unnerving. Her feet felt cold, and the cold sweat seeping from her soles soaked her socks.
Her best friend Jiang Ying sat in the passenger seat, while three guards-two men and one woman-sat in the back. Another female bodyguard had started crying and laughing halfway here, so Xiao Shengge had ordered the others to throw her out.
"Shengge!!!" Jiang Ying pointed ahead and to the left in terror.
At the edge of the Gray Fog stood a withered corpse with pure white pupils and blood-red lips curled into a smile. Its green-glowing eyes were fixed on three people riding a motorized three-wheeler.
The driver was a burly, dark-skinned man. A gray-haired couple wrapped in blankets sat in the back, presumably his parents.
The burly man seemed to sense something in that instant and abruptly turned.
The withered corpse lunged. The man instinctively reached out, clamping its neck in his iron-vise left hand.
The elderly woman on the vehicle let out a terrified scream. Those blood-red lips were only a centimeter away from her.
With a loud shout, the burly man grabbed the corpse by the neck and slammed it toward the ground.
The next instant, another bloodthirsty howl rang out from the fog. A second withered corpse sprang out and sank its teeth into his shoulder.
At the same time, withered corpses appeared all along the edges of the Gray Fog on both sides of the road.
They lunged and bit, and screams rose one after another.
The silence was shattered once again.
A withered corpse lunged out. Su Nian remained calm and thrust the Sin-Cleaving Butcher's Knife into its mouth.
[Ding! Killed one Corpse Puppet. Gained 100 Survival Points.] [Survival Points: 2,690]
Su Nian pulled his knife free, and the Corpse Puppet collapsed limply.
Hao Ren also twisted a Corpse Puppet's head off.
Ahead of them, the vast sea of flames died away, leaving only the area around the burial mound burning.
"Let's go!" Su Nian turned and lunged at another Corpse Puppet. There was definitely danger inside the burial mound, but he wasn't about to test it himself.
[Ding! Killed one Corpse Puppet. Gained 100 Survival Points.]
So many! Su Nian grinned.
Hao Ren understood that too. He raised his megaphone. "Everyone, withdraw in an orderly manner! Don't panic!"
He would let someone else test the waters first.
Just then, a motorcycle sped past one side of the burial mound. The silent mound suddenly changed. Countless green spikes pierced through it, skewering the motorcycle and its rider into pincushions. At the same time, the mound collapsed, leaving only the bottom board of a rotten coffin.
On that board lay a corpse covered in long green hair.
"Holy shit!" Hao Ren's eyes widened, and he took off running. One look was enough to tell that thing was powerful. "Follow me! We're getting in Su Nian's car!"
The Grave-Crying Specter clearly intended to wipe them all out. Staying alive was the top priority now.
"Hurry up!" Gong Qing slapped the back of Wen Kele's head as she stood there with her hands in her pockets, acting like no one could challenge her. They shared the same body, but different souls required different treatment.
One responded to kindness, not force. A harsh word or a slightly stern tone would make her cry.
The other responded to force, not kindness. She didn't care for sweet words, but hit her and she would listen. Scolding didn't work-she would talk back.
Wen Kele puffed her cheeks in anger, but she still turned and ran. The Big Black Bull ran after her.
Behind them!
"Hrr..."
A dry, hoarse rasp rolled from the corpse's throat as it rose rigidly upright, just like a zombie in a movie. Beneath its green hair, a pair of blood-red eyes shone as brightly as flames.
A cloud of black corpse miasma spewed from its mouth.
"Brave little ox, never afraid! Turn around and ram it to death." Wen Kele patted the ox's head.
The Big Black Bull wanted nothing to do with her. It missed the days when it had plowed fields.
"What a coward. You're the most cowardly ox I've ever seen," Wen Kele complained.
Su Nian kept slaughtering Corpse Puppets. Every flick of his hand killed another. Before the previous puppet's head even hit the ground, he had already leaped in front of the next and swung his knife... a golden blade gleam lingered in the air.
The Corpse Puppet's head slid off.
Xiao Shengge helped Jiang Ying to her feet. Once they discovered these Corpse Puppets could be killed, they decisively chose to fight rather than hide in the car and wait to die.
Many people around them started fighting back too. If a wraith couldn't be killed, running was the only option. But if someone didn't know to fight back against something they could kill, they deserved to die.
People didn't lack courage when cornered.
"He's practically Superman! If I awaken, could I become as strong as him?" Jiang Ying's shock carried a note of longing.
"He really is badass! I feel like he could kick me to death in one hit." Watching Su Nian leap onto a car roof as effortlessly as an agile monkey, one of the male bodyguards looked impressed.
The other male bodyguard said, "Leave out 'I feel like.'"
He really knew how to flatter himself.
"He isn't cold-blooded and murderous like the rumors say, leaving people to die. You can't believe every rumor. He's doing everything he can to save everyone," Xiao Shengge said.
That was for the best. Dealing with someone who had feelings was always better than making a bargain with a tiger.
A man with no weaknesses was the most terrifying kind. He considered only profit and risk, leaving others no way to get a handle on him. And this was the apocalypse-there weren't even basic laws to restrain him.
"Get in. We'll leave while it's chaotic."
[Ding! Killed one Corpse Puppet. Gained 100 Survival Points.] [Sin-Cleaving Power: 40 → 41] [Survival Points: 6,690]
Su Nian felt his blood boil with excitement. If the Corpse Puppets were endless and he spent a few years killing them here, wouldn't he go straight to the top?
A mere Class A Wraith would dare test me? I'd be invincible, standing at the pinnacle of life.
Of course, he was only imagining it. Imagining things wasn't a crime.
After killing another Corpse Puppet, Su Nian spent eight hundred points to add one point each to his constitution and spirit. His depleted stamina and mental energy recovered as well.
[Constitution: 31] [Spirit: 31]
He had originally thought that once constitution and spirit exceeded 30, the Survival Points needed to upgrade them would double to 800. For now, however, it was still 400.
The damn system hadn't raised its prices.
The Sin-Cleaving Butcher's Knife pierced through the crown of a Corpse Puppet's head. It shuddered once and collapsed.
[Ding! Killed one Corpse Puppet. Gained 100 Survival Points.] [Sin-Cleaving Power: 42 → 43] [Survival Points: 6,090]
A middle-aged woman pinned beneath the withered corpse hurriedly pushed it off.
"Thank you... thank you." Having narrowly escaped death, the middle-aged woman thanked him repeatedly. The awakened people in her old convoy had never cared whether people like her lived or died. They only checked whether anyone had handed over too few supplies, hidden any, or submitted nothing but poor-quality items.
"Get out of here!" Su Nian waved a hand and looked toward the rear.
Only two scattered figures on bicycles remained.
The casualties are terrible this time! Probably not many will survive.
A Class A Wraith, and most of them were dead before it even showed its face.
The middle-aged woman lifted her motorcycle upright. She wanted to leave, but... her pupils kept trembling.
Before you continue