Xu Qing dodged while constantly activating his Blue Silver Grass. Vines rose one after another, continually restraining his enemies, but his Soul Power expenditure was also climbing rapidly.
He could clearly feel the Soul Power inside him draining away, and a thin sheen of sweat had already seeped across his back.
I can't keep dragging this out.
Xu Qing's gaze sharpened, and he stopped merely defending.
Spotting an opening, he charged at the ordinary zombie with the weakest presence and swung his crowbar with all his strength, smashing it hard into its skull.
The zombie went limp and crashed to the ground.
One down!
But the remaining three were still utterly fearless, and the two tall mutated zombies attacked with increasing ferocity.
Xu Qing twisted and dodged. The zombies' sharp claws struck him several times, but the iron plates on his body blocked them all.
Gritting his teeth, he concentrated his Soul Power in his arms. The strength inside him erupted instantly, and a faint golden glow spread over his body.
Xu Qing dodged a lunging zombie, then used his small, nimble frame to leap up. The next instant, he swung his crowbar savagely into its head.
Crack!
The sound of shattering bone rang out, and the second zombie toppled to the ground.
Seeing their companions fall, the two remaining tall mutated zombies grew even more frenzied and lunged at Xu Qing together.
Xu Qing did not meet them head-on. He retreated rapidly while summoning a mass of Blue Silver Grass vines, which swept in from every direction like a net, tightly binding the monsters' limbs and pinning them firmly in place.
The two zombies struggled madly. The vines kept snapping under their strength, and broken scraps of grass scattered everywhere.
Seizing this fleeting opportunity, Xu Qing strode forward, raised his crowbar, and smashed it into their skulls again and again.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
After several heavy blows in succession, the two tall mutated zombies twitched a few times before finally falling completely still.
The hall instantly fell silent, leaving only Xu Qing's heavy panting.
He gasped for breath, his entire body aching slightly. He had used up more than half his Soul Power, and cold sweat covered his forehead.
"Good grief, why are the zombies in the police station so strong?" Xu Qing wiped the sweat from his face, inwardly shaken by how close he had come.
Had he been the slightest bit careless and gotten caught by one of them, he would have met his end here today.
Douluo Continent: No! Dude, be careful! If you really kick the bucket, what am I supposed to do?!
He tightened his grip on the crowbar and surveyed the entire hall.
Dead bodies lay all over the floor. Most had already become dried corpses, some even had their limbs scattered around, and there were also large quantities of scattered files and broken furniture.
Moreover, every corpse had a hole in its skull. Someone had clearly dug into them.
The flashlight beam swept slowly across the hall. On the far side was a staircase leading to the second floor, along with several tightly shut office doors.
Most of the police station's supplies were probably upstairs or inside those offices.
Xu Qing spent a short while regulating his breathing, recovering a small portion of the Soul Power he had expended.
Then he picked up his knife and began searching the four corpses. Before long, two grayish-white crystals and two transparent crystals, white with a hint of yellow, appeared in his hand.
There really has been a change, Xu Qing thought as he looked at the two whitish-yellow crystals.
After putting the crystals away, he did not recklessly rush straight upstairs. Instead, he first took the map out of his backpack and checked it.
This was a police station, so there was a good chance of finding firearms and police equipment-ideally grenades and TNT.
He walked toward the nearest office, raised his hand, and gave the door a hard push.
Clang!
The rotten wooden door swung inward at the sound.
The room was a complete mess. Desks lay overturned on the floor, cabinet doors stood wide open, and dust covered everything.
Holding up his flashlight, Xu Qing scanned the room bit by bit, searching carefully.
He pulled open the cabinet drawers one by one, but all that remained inside were piles of discarded files and damaged office supplies. There was nothing useful at all.
He searched two offices in succession and came up empty-handed in both.
Xu Qing frowned slightly. Could all the supplies be on the second floor?
Just as he was about to turn toward the stairs, another low growl came from deep in the corridor, different from the zombies' snarls.
The sound was deeper and heavier, carrying an intense sense of pressure as it traveled down from the second floor.
Xu Qing's entire body instantly tensed. He instinctively tightened his grip on the crowbar and snapped his flashlight beam toward the stairway.
In the shadows of the stairs, an even more powerfully built figure slowly poked its head out.
The flashlight beam pierced the darkness and illuminated the figure.
It was a monster far larger than an ordinary mutated zombie, standing nearly two meters tall, with a body as thickset as a brawny man. Large patches of its skin had rotted away, yet its flesh did not hang loose like an ordinary zombie's. Its muscles bulged and knotted, gleaming dark gray.
Its arms were exceptionally thick, its claws sharp and slender. Its pitch-black nails glinted with a cold light, and its murky red eyes fixed on Xu Qing downstairs, like a wild beast spotting prey. A low, grating roar rumbled in its throat, and a savage presence filled its entire body.
"Fuck! Is my luck really this bad?"
Xu Qing's heart sank.
Back on the outskirts of town, the strongest things he had encountered were ordinary mutated zombies. This was his first time facing a monster of this level.
The pressure radiating from it was far stronger than that of the two tall zombies from earlier.
The tall zombie descended the stairs one step at a time. Its heavy footsteps made the battered floor creak, and with every step, the entire building seemed to tremble slightly.
"Hey, bro~ Would you believe me if I said I was just passing through?"
But how could the zombie possibly pay him any heed? With a roar, it charged straight at him.
Fuck!
Xu Qing dared not be careless. He immediately drove his Soul Power to its peak, and the strength within him erupted once again, spreading a faint golden glow over his body.
A mass of Blue Silver Grass vines burst wildly out of the ground, weaving densely into a great net that swept toward the stairway to seal it off.
The blue vines surged upward like a tide, tightly wrapping around the tall zombie's torso and limbs.
But the tall zombie possessed terrifying strength. It wrenched its body, and with several sharp cracks, a number of thick Blue Silver Grass vines were torn straight through.
"Good grief, it's that strong!" Xu Qing's pupils contracted.
The tall zombie quickly broke free of the Blue Silver Grass around it, leaped straight down from the second floor, and landed heavily on the hall floor, sending dust flying.
It opened its filthy, blood-filled maw and let out a deafening roar.
Its enormous claw slashed viciously toward Xu Qing at incredible speed.
"So fast!"
Damn it! I can't dodge!
In that case!
I'll just... see you later!
Just as the sharp claws were about to catch Xu Qing, his entire figure suddenly vanished!
Seeing its target suddenly disappear, the tall zombie roared in fury and slammed a fist into the floor, instantly leaving a huge crack.
Inside Xu Qing's room on Douluo Continent,
Xu Qing suddenly appeared, gasping for breath!
That was close!
Good thing I reacted in time!
However, that zombie's speed and strength had clearly already exceeded the limits of an ordinary zombie.
Xu Qing took off his armor. Some of the zombies' bluish blood had stained it, and he intended to study it. After all, if he ever got scratched, wouldn't he turn into a zombie too?
Moreover, his mom and dad were right there at home. If he implicated them because of himself, he would never forgive himself.
With that thought, Xu Qing took out a test tube he had found in town. After collecting some blood, he tossed the homemade suit of armor back into Parallel Earth.
After that, he took a shower and changed into clean pajamas.
As for the clothes he had taken off, after carefully checking them three times and confirming that no blood had stained them, Xu Qing tossed those into Parallel Earth as well.
Once all that was done, Xu Qing took out today's haul.