Chapter 33: Healing, Massive Energy Consumption

They took the stopped escalator up to the third floor. Before they’d gone far, they heard Wu Dalang and the others shouting, mixed with a strange, beast-like roar—shrill and chilling, enough to make one’s hair stand on end.

Gu Xu’s eyes flashed with pain. He was about to warn Bian Changxi, but she strode quickly around the corner before he could speak. There, in a corner, Wu Dalang and Qiu Yun were struggling to restrain a crazed figure. The shelves and goods around them had been knocked over in the chaos, but at least the mess didn’t block their view.

Bian Changxi got a clear look at the frenzied person.

He was a young man, plain-faced, tall and thin. Now, his skin was deathly pale with a bluish tint, his eyes bloodshot and bulging, unfocused and filled only with violence.

There weren’t many signs of rot or zombification yet.

As Bian Changxi drew closer, she noticed small black-gray spots on his skin, like mold. His flesh looked like it was about to slough off but hadn’t yet. On closer inspection, his neck and the backs of his hands had several wounds, torn open during his struggles, with strips of flesh hanging grotesquely. In his bloodshot eyes, a strange yellow substance seemed to be emerging, and his teeth and nails looked abnormal as well.

Bian Changxi’s heart skipped a beat. He was definitely in the process of turning into a zombie.

The people around her all looked up at her anxiously and expectantly.

“Miss Bian!”

“Miss Bian!”

Bian Changxi felt a sudden pressure. She’d never done anything like this before—knowledge alone wasn’t enough. After a moment’s hesitation, she reached out and sent a vine to wrap around the injured man, called Shadow. Just as she’d done when healing people before, she began channeling her energy into him.

Wood-type energy was gentle, resilient, and slightly cool, like a tree—naturally brimming with vitality. Bian Changxi immediately felt her energy being absorbed by Shadow’s damaged tissues. Shadow himself seemed to pause, but before anyone could feel hopeful, Bian Changxi suddenly sensed resistance. The vine exploded with a pop, and she was thrown backward.

Gu Xu, who was right behind her, caught her in time. Watching Shadow’s increasingly violent struggle, he asked, “How is it?”

Bian Changxi seemed to have realized something. After a moment’s thought, she said quietly, “My ability can repair his body, but there’s a strange, sinister force blocking me. I suspect it’s related to the virus.”

She looked up and said, “From what I know, people don’t usually struggle this much during zombification. This can only mean his willpower is fighting the virus.” She glanced at Shadow, who looked deranged and kept trying to bite or claw at people, only to stop himself at the last moment. “See? He’s resisting the virus’s control. But the body and the mind don’t always act in sync, so while he’s still struggling mentally, his body is already failing. Once his body gives out, he’ll be gone.”

This insight had just come to Bian Changxi, but it matched almost exactly what the wood-type powerhouse from her previous life had said. She felt fairly confident, but she couldn’t predict what would happen next.

She looked at Gu Xu and said, “My opinion is the same as before: I can heal his body and give him energy, but the rest is up to him. The problem is, once his body recovers, he might go even more berserk. Can you guys handle it?”

In Gu Xu’s team, aside from Shadow, three people had abilities; the other two were ordinary and could only stay out of the way. Bian Changxi and Lin Rongrong couldn’t help much either, and there were still plenty of people with bad intentions downstairs. The situation was dangerous.

Gu Xu exchanged glances with his teammates and didn’t hesitate. “Do as you say.”

“Then hold him down and expose the wound the zombie gave him.”

He had Qiu Feng, Gu Pei, and Lin Rongrong step back. He himself replaced Qiu Yun, telling him to keep an eye on the people below, and together with the strong-as-an-ox Wu Dalang, pinned Shadow face down. There was a narrow wound on the back of Shadow’s neck, already rotting deeper.

Bian Changxi didn’t waste words. She knelt beside him, pressed a half-used crystal core to the wound, and channeled energy into it. She immediately encountered resistance again. With a low shout, she summoned all her power and forced it through.

Shadow began convulsing, then struggled even more violently, letting out guttural “roar-roar” sounds.

Bian Changxi felt her own energy being rapidly drained away. Alarmed, she quickly pulled it back, forcing only the energy from the crystal core into the wound, and grabbed a fresh core with her other hand.

In less than half a minute, the old core shattered into powder. Both Bian Changxi and Gu Xu were shocked—at this rate, four crystal cores wouldn’t last long at all!

Bian Changxi quickly pressed a new core to the wound. After three minutes, it too dimmed and crumbled.

Without a word, she put on a third, then a fourth core.

The crystal cores were being used up fast, but the effect was obvious. The bluish-gray hue in Shadow’s skin faded, the moldy spots disappeared, and the loose flesh tightened and regained its luster. Even the roars from Shadow’s mouth changed from beastly howls to the shouts of a normal person.

Gu Xu and Wu Dalang both noticed that Shadow’s strength was increasing bit by bit. They had to use their full strength to pin down his limbs, their faces flushed with effort.

The fourth core lasted longer. It seemed Shadow’s body was nearing saturation and absorbing energy more slowly. Time ticked by. Night fell. With no power in the supermarket, it was almost completely dark. The second and third floors were eerily silent, while outside, the zombies’ howls and pounding on the doors grew clearer and more frenzied. With every blow, the whole building seemed to shake.

Bian Changxi’s whole body was stiff from holding her position, her breathing growing rapid. She felt she wasn’t just healing Shadow’s body—once her wood-type energy entered him, part of it went to healing, but most was being entangled by another force.

She sensed something small and black, like countless sesame seeds, darting about, cunning and elusive. They devoured Shadow’s body, consumed his energy, and tried to merge into every one of his cells—like countless evil, intelligent sprites expanding their territory. When Bian Changxi’s energy entered, they turned on her, tangling with her power.

Was this the zombie virus?

She even had the feeling that if she wasn’t careful, these things would follow her wood energy back into her own body, then multiply and wreak havoc like parasites.

Bian Changxi shuddered at the thought and became even more cautious. She did her best to avoid direct contact with those things, because she realized there was another force inside Shadow fighting them. Her job was to support him.

She controlled her glowing green energy to dodge and weave, sending out hair-thin streams that wove a net inside Shadow’s body. If not for her past-life experience, she could never have managed such fine control. Even so, she felt her body reaching its limit—and worst of all, the crystal core in her hand was almost depleted. Once the fourth green core was used up, she’d have no energy left!

Even after being reborn, she couldn’t use other types of crystal cores.

In her desperation, she suddenly remembered she still had a second-tier green core.

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