Chapter 107: Contradictions, Chang Xi’s Selfish Motives (Second Update)

Early in the morning, in the dark and eerie ruins of the abandoned hotel, the sudden appearance of such a thing was enough to send chills down anyone’s spine.

Goosebumps prickled along Bian Changxi’s arm. She couldn’t help but glance at Chen Guanqing.

She saw that his eyes were brimming with tenderness and grief, so much so that it almost overflowed. His whole body was tense, nearly trembling—clearly, he was overwhelmed with emotion.

She bared her teeth in a wry smile. Truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. No matter what the one you love turns into, they’re still the most beautiful and important person in the world. In that moment, she felt that little Ai was lucky, and her resolve to carry out her plan later only grew stronger.

She had to succeed.

Her gaze sharpened as she looked at the zombie.

The little white cat moved with lightning speed, its claws scraping the ground as it leapt two or three times, about to pounce on Chu Hao. Bian Changxi raised her gun and, with a soft pop, fired a silenced bullet. At the last moment, the cat pushed off with its front paws, and the bullet that should have blown its head off merely grazed its scalp. The cat let out a sharp screech, flipping backward and skidding three or four meters across the floor.

Chu Hao’s eardrums rang from the piercing cry. He turned back in shock and confusion, only to see the cat twitch a couple of times, then shakily get back up. Blood streamed from its head, staining its white fur, making it as terrifying as its now blood-red eyes.

Bian Changxi frowned. “This cat… something’s off.”

The red-eyed cat glanced over, seemingly having spotted Bian Changxi and Chen Guanqing hiding there. It immediately turned and fled deeper into the hotel, finally coming to a stiff stop at the feet of the zombie, Xiao Ai. It hopped and squeaked as if complaining. The zombie then swung its long claws and let out a shrill scream.

Just like that day, mutated beasts surged in from all directions—only this time, they came even faster, as if they’d been lying in wait. Bian Changxi realized the enemy was now on guard against them. After all, she’d come to provoke and observe again just yesterday.

Milk’s ears perked up. The lazy creature lying at Bian Changxi’s feet suddenly stood alert, but she pressed a hand on its little head. “Don’t move.”

Milk looked up in confusion. Wasn’t it supposed to deal with those little creatures?

Bian Changxi shook her head and pointed her gaze elsewhere. “Wait.”

There was something wrong with that cat. If Milk intervened, it might interfere. She had a strong feeling she needed to see what that cat really was.

As she spoke, she leapt up, swung her gun, and fired a burst. The hotel’s glass walls shattered in response. She charged toward the zombie. The zombie let out a long howl, and two birds swooped down from the hotel rooftop.

These two birds were once pigeons raised for food in the hotel, now mutated. Their gray-white feathers were streaked with black. Each was the size of a grown chicken, but more streamlined and powerful. Their long tail feathers were like finely crafted blades. With a flick of their wings, countless wind blades sliced through the air.

These were two mutated pigeons capable of launching wind blades.

Bian Changxi had been caught off guard by them yesterday and lost some skin, but now she was prepared. Her gun vanished, replaced by a long, slightly curved, gleaming Tang sword. With a flick of her wrist, she deflected the barrage of wind blades.

The wind blades made noise and emitted energy waves as they flew, but since both pigeons were only first-tier, Bian Changxi’s higher rank gave her the upper hand—it wasn’t hard to block them.

In a flash, the mutated pigeons were upon her, their sharp beaks lunging at her face. She raised her sword to block, leaning back as one beak struck the blade with a screech. She twisted her sword, redirecting the attack, and the tip arced around to slash the other pigeon.

Both pigeons faltered and flew off awkwardly, but two vines shot out, wrapping around their tail feathers and yanking them out of the air, slamming them to the ground.

“Gaaah—” The pigeons shrieked in pain, but by now, mutated beasts had surrounded them in layers. Chu Hao, seeing no way out, ran back to Bian Changxi, panting. “Look at this—so many of them. They’re trying to take us down in one go.”

Bian Changxi glanced around and saw the same—layer upon layer of beasts, with large, fierce mutant dogs leading the charge. These dogs were as big as gorillas, snorting heavily through their noses—she’d never seen their kind before.

Every gaze, human and beast alike, was fixed on this spot—including zombie Xiao Ai and the white cat at her feet.

Seemingly forgotten, Chen Guanqing had quietly and swiftly crept to the side of the hotel. With the glass wall gone, it was easy for him to toss a fireball—a fireball with an orange-red outer flame and a blue-black, ghostly inner flame.

The fireball moved slowly, its force weak, as if he was afraid of hurting his beloved. It floated down like a feather, landing atop her head. Then, something astonishing happened.

As soon as it touched her, the orange-red flames did little, but the blue-black inner flame seemed to melt into the zombie’s body. All her movements froze, even her harsh cries stilled. She remained rigid, and beneath her tangled hair, her face seemed to flicker with confusion.

From afar, Bian Changxi saw this and clenched her fist tightly—she’d guessed right!

She’d always found Chen Guanqing’s mutated fire ability odd. As far as she knew, there were plenty of derivative abilities like wind or ice, but fire abilities that manifested abnormally were rare. Otherwise, in her previous life, Gu Xu’s evolution into a lightning user wouldn’t have been so shocking.

After learning this man was Chen Guanqing, she vaguely recalled that he’d once been compared to Gu Xu: both had mutated fire abilities, but one had successfully evolved into lightning, while the other was stuck halfway. People had talked about it for a while.

Because of these two reasons, she’d secretly studied Chen Guanqing’s ability. He’d barely used it in front of her, but she was sensitive to powers. Through repeated observation, she realized the blue-black inner flame felt eerily similar to the zombie Xiao Ai’s chilling aura. Later, Chu Hao told her that Chen Guanqing’s ability had only emerged after Xiao Ai became a zombie.

From then on, a bold and risky idea took root in her mind. After Granny Gu died, and after Chu Hao and Chen Guanqing finally spoke their hearts, she realized nothing could be worse for Chen Guanqing than his current half-dead state. So she decided to put her idea into action.

She wanted to keep zombie Xiao Ai.

By the seventh year of the apocalypse, zombie humanization was no longer unheard of. Some elite zombies could regain most of their intelligence and bodily functions, and the boss-level ones could even recover their memories. Outwardly, they were indistinguishable from normal people—talking, acting, thinking, reacting, just like living humans.

It was said that the Tengyang Base had harbored such a zombie, who even infiltrated human society and rose to a significant position. If Gu Xu hadn’t uncovered the truth, the entire base would have been thrown into chaos.

When this story reached Yunhua Base, most high-level officials didn’t believe it. Zhu Yunhua himself scoffed, saying Tengyang would do anything to mythologize Gu Xu.

But Bian Changxi knew there was no smoke without fire. The emergence of high-intelligence zombies only supported the story.

If nature could turn humans into zombies and then make zombies indistinguishable from humans, what about artificial intervention?

Even if she couldn’t achieve something so miraculous, what about simply controlling a zombie?

In her previous life, weren’t there people who could command zombies?

If she could tame a zombie like Xiao Ai, with her powerful summoning ability, what benefits could that bring?

This was a rare experimental opportunity, and she genuinely wanted to give Chen Guanqing a chance.

No matter how much she reasoned, actually carrying it out was no small feat. She was a novice at zombie control. Despite living through a previous life, there were too many things she’d never encountered, and most of what she did know came from the tech maniac Qu Yi at her side.

She only knew that, as with mutant beasts, the first step was taming. So, she let Chen Guanqing try. Since their powers shared the same origin, she believed they’d “get along.” Sure enough, the change in the flames and Xiao Ai’s reaction confirmed her theory.

In an instant, zombie Xiao Ai’s aura became docile. Chen Guanqing was overjoyed, his eyes misty—he could still feel her, she was still his Xiao Ai!

But the cat couldn’t stand this happy scene. It bit down hard on the zombie’s leg.

“Hrk, hrk!” Zombie Xiao Ai seemed to snap out of it, her docility vanishing as she snarled viciously. Several mutant dogs broke from the circle and lunged at Chen Guanqing.

Enraged, Chen Guanqing hurled a fireball at the white cat. “Get lost!”

The cat dodged nimbly, and a horde of mutant beasts nearly overwhelmed Chen Guanqing. Bian Changxi exchanged a look with Chu Hao, who vanished and reappeared at Chen Guanqing’s side. The next moment, the mutant beasts realized they’d missed their target.

Suddenly, two people appeared behind zombie Xiao Ai. Before she could turn, a giant sack was thrown over her head, and Chen Guanqing quickly tied her up. The zombie struggled, but her hands were bound, and her legs had already been wrapped with red, green, and white vines up to her knees—she couldn’t move.

She toppled backward, but Chen Guanqing caught her and stuffed her into a large freezer Chu Hao had pulled from his storage space, slamming the lid shut. Chu Hao hurriedly stored the freezer away again.

The capture went smoothly. As Bian Changxi had said, aside from summoning mutant beasts, zombie Xiao Ai had little power.

They should have been able to breathe a sigh of relief, but both of them felt a chill and an unprecedented sense of danger. Turning around, they saw the white cat staring wide-eyed at the spot where zombie Xiao Ai had disappeared, panting heavily, as if it were a person about to have a heart attack from rage.