Chu Tian, who had walked over, also crouched down in front of Li Nan, just as Quan Xiaoyu had done.
“Xiao Nan, sometimes, death is a form of release. Some people live in too much pain. Every day they remain conscious is an ordeal like hell. Being able to leave peacefully is their greatest happiness.”
Chu Tian’s voice was gentle and calm, soothing Li Nan’s emotions little by little.
“Think about it from her perspective. What can we do to help her? Turn her back into a human? Leaving aside whether that’s even possible, even if it were, how would you expect her to face the past? How would she face those dark, hopeless memories? How would she face the fact that she has swallowed the flesh and blood of countless humans?”
“Or perhaps we could help her become a higher-level intelligent zombie? That might actually be possible. But do you remember what your Xiaoyu-ge said? Aside from interference from certain phenomena, the way zombies evolve is simply by—constantly eating humans, and even eating their own kind.”
“Think about it yourself. Would she be willing to live like that?”
The cruel reality was laid out by Chu Tian in a soft, gentle voice, but no matter how soothing his words were, they could not ease the pain in Li Nan’s heart.
Li Nan collapsed to his knees as though breaking down completely, covering his face and sobbing.
It was so helpless.
There was nothing he could do.
Nothing at all…
Quan Xiaoyu immediately embraced him without saying a word, his eyes filled with sorrow.
Although no one explained the whole story, everyone had vaguely understood part of what had happened through the conversation between the three of them.
No one spoke.
No one asked any more questions.
The atmosphere was heavy with sorrow.
And this sorrow and sympathy were being given by these humans, who had nearly lost their lives, to a zombie who had almost killed them.
At that moment, several leaps brought a dark figure rapidly into view.
Yuning had returned, riding Dahua.
She staggered down from Dahua’s back and slowly walked toward everyone.
This time, no one was afraid.
No one backed away.
Everyone looked at the girl before them with sympathy and reluctance.
After putting Yuning down, Dahua suddenly ran away.
But everyone’s attention was focused entirely on Yuning, so no one paid any attention to where it had gone.
“It’s time. Let her go.”
Chu Tian spoke softly as he reached out and gently patted Quan Xiaoyu’s back.
Quan Xiaoyu released Li Nan and stood up.
“Wait.”
Li Nan spoke through his tears.
“Let me say goodbye to Yuning-jie first…”
As he spoke, tears continued to stream uncontrollably down his face.
Quan Xiaoyu silently took a step back, picked up the samurai sword from the ground, and stood to one side.
Li Nan walked forward and immediately threw his arms around Yuning.
The top of his head only reached her abdomen. He tightly hugged her legs, burying his face against her stomach as he sobbed.
Everyone watched this farewell, their eyes stinging with tears.
After a while, Li Nan voluntarily stepped away, but he continued staring at Yuning, crying bitterly.
Chu Tian walked over and pulled Li Nan away, holding him tightly in his arms.
Then he nodded at Quan Xiaoyu.
Quan Xiaoyu walked over to Yuning.
“If you have a next life, I hope you’ll be happy and fulfilled, and never be hurt again.”
The words had barely left his mouth when the sword rose and fell.
Yuning’s head quickly rolled to one side.
Her body fell heavily backward, kicking up dust from the ground.
At the same time, the final image from Yuning appeared simultaneously in the minds of Quan Xiaoyu and Li Nan.
She was still smiling so beautifully.
“Thank you… Thank you both!”
“Xiao Nan—”
She pointed at her own head.
“I’m giving you what’s in here.”
That was her final sentence.
Then she disappeared like the wind.
Li Nan had no other reaction because he had already fainted in Chu Tian’s arms.
His small body could no longer endure such pain.
Li Nan fell unconscious.
Before Quan Xiaoyu could become anxious, Xiao Ziran spoke.
“He’s fine. He fainted from overwhelming grief. He’s too exhausted. Let him rest.”
At that moment, Dahua, which had just run away and disappeared, suddenly returned.
Just like when it had left, it came back silently and swiftly.
When it appeared again, there was something in its mouth.
It leaped in front of Chu Tian and gently placed what it was carrying at his feet.
Its eyes, however, remained fixed on the unconscious Li Nan.
“For him?”
Chu Tian looked at Dahua and asked.
Then he said, “I understand.”
Dahua nodded and took several steps backward.
Only then did everyone get a clear look.
What Dahua had brought for Li Nan were actually two mutated cat kittens.
Their eyes had not even opened yet, but they were very healthy. They were anxiously making little “mew, mew” sounds, though their cries sounded somewhat different from those of ordinary kittens.
Dahua’s gaze returned to them, filled with reluctance to part.
Chu Tian was the first to sense its emotions.
He guessed what it wanted to do.
“Don’t worry. I promise I’ll take good care of them.”
Chu Tian spoke.
Dahua nodded once again.
Then, suddenly, it leaped.
Before anyone could react, its body shot into the sky.
It went incredibly high, higher than anyone could have imagined.
It used every bit of strength in its body to propel itself upward.
And then—
It came crashing down.
Headfirst.
It landed beside Yuning.
“Bang!”
The sound of its skull shattering rang out.
Dahua quickly closed its eyes as well.
The two kittens seemed to sense what had happened.
Their “mew, mew” cries became increasingly shrill and heartbreaking.
The two women finally could not bear the sight any longer and began to sob.
“Bury them.”
Xiao Ziran spoke softly.
Quan Xiaoyu nodded.
He walked over to Yuning, silently apologized to her in his heart, and then used the samurai sword to pry the crystal core out of her head.
The crystal core shimmered with seven-colored light, dazzling like a rare gemstone.
Quan Xiaoyu wiped it clean and tightly closed his hand around it.
This was Yuning’s final gift to Li Nan.
After thinking about it, he also extracted the beast core from Dahua’s head and placed the two cores together.
When Xiao Nan woke up, he would give both of them to him.
Afterward, Quan Xiaoyu bent down and lifted the bodies of the human and the beast, one in each arm, and carried them away.
Chu Tian handed Li Nan and the two kittens to Bai Mingxi, then said to the doctor, “Have everyone go collect the crystal cores. I already taught you how to do it.”
The battlefield where they had just fought was still there.
It was littered with the corpses of the zombies they had killed.
“Got it.”
Xiao Ziran nodded.
After saying that, Chu Tian went after Quan Xiaoyu.
The two of them chose a secluded place and buried the human and the beast together.
Throughout the entire process, they silently went about their work.
Neither of them spoke.
Only after everything had been properly taken care of did the two of them tightly clasp hands.
They walked back to the others hand in hand, without saying a word the entire way.
The work of collecting the crystal cores went smoothly.
By now, everyone had already experienced the power of the crystal cores, so they were surprisingly enthusiastic about this somewhat disgusting task.
They finished collecting them very quickly.
By the time Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu returned, everyone had already been waiting for them for a while.
Li Nan still had not woken up. Bai Mingxi had carried him into the vehicle.
“All right. Get in. We’re continuing on.”
Seeing the two of them rejoin the group, Xiao Ziran gave the order.
The convoy continued forward.
After this battle, everyone was extremely exhausted, but strangely enough, the road conditions were excellent.
They barely encountered any wandering zombies either.
So everyone pushed forward in one go and finally managed to leave S City safely.
The moment they left the city, many people couldn’t help turning around.
Through the car windows, they looked at the city one last time.
Goodbye, S City!
Ten days later.
The convoy stopped by the roadside to rest.
Everyone shared some dry rations.
They had been lucky the day before.
In an unnamed small town they passed through, they had discovered a supermarket warehouse that was still perfectly preserved.
After the previous battle, Bai Mingxi’s spatial ability was no longer a secret.
The food everyone was sharing now was precisely what they had obtained the day before.
For the time being, their supplies were still quite abundant.
As a result, everyone was in high spirits, and a few people were even quietly chatting and laughing.
Every now and then, two tiny kittens darted through the crowd, pawing at this person and nibbling at that one.
Everyone spoiled the two little things rotten, occasionally giving them some of their own food.
At first, no one dared feed them anything indiscriminately.
But gradually, everyone discovered that the two little things had enormous appetites. They would eat anything and had no trouble with any kind of food.
They were the two kittens Dahua had given to Li Nan.
By now, their eyes had already opened, and they were sturdy and healthy, with round faces and short legs.
They waddled as they walked, cute enough to melt the hearts of everyone around them.
“Xiaoyu, Xiaoning, stop eating! You’re eating too much!”
Li Nan chased after the two kittens as they ran around stealing food.
He had already fed them, but after finishing their own food, they had run off to other people, acting cute and begging for more.
The two kittens were one male and one female.
No one knew whether they were siblings in the sense of brother and sister or littermates, but the male was called Xiaoyu, while the female was called Xiaoning.
The meaning behind those names was self-evident.
Author’s Note: I don’t want to read this chapter again. It was a little too heavy. And I didn’t make any typos this time!