After leaving the area that had been swept clean by Chu Tian’s mental power, they encountered some giant rats and black birds along the way.
Quan Xiaoyu cleared the obstacles in front of him at top speed, rushing all the way toward the shopping mall.
Ten minutes later, the building he was looking for appeared in his line of sight.
But strangely, the giant rats and black birds here were all leaving one after another, scattering in all directions, as though something terrifying had appeared here.
They looked desperate to escape. They did not even attack Quan Xiaoyu as he ran toward them.
Something must have happened here!
Even from a hundred meters away, Quan Xiaoyu could already sense the danger surrounding that building.
His running footsteps suddenly slowed, and he stopped.
Standing where he was, he stared ahead, then gritted his teeth hard, took out a bottle of water from his spatial dimension, and gulped it down fiercely.
Then he started running at full speed again.
The shopping mall’s rolling shutter door had been deeply dented inward, but it was still closed.
Quan Xiaoyu raised his katana, preparing to slash down hard at the rolling shutter, when the door suddenly exploded outward as a huge object slammed into it.
That enormous object also came rolling toward Quan Xiaoyu.
Quan Xiaoyu reacted extremely quickly. He leaped backward, narrowly avoiding the massive creature charging toward him.
At the same time, several figures rolled out together with the monster.
Quan Xiaoyu focused his eyes and finally saw clearly.
That enormous creature was actually a giant spider!
No!
It wasn’t completely a spider!
It was a monster!
It had the huge body and eight enormous legs of a spider.
But where a spider’s head should have been, there were eight human heads hanging there!
Eight children’s heads.
Eight children’s faces!
Every face was grayish-blue, and their blood-red eyes were now glaring viciously at the group.
A bolt of lightning struck down, hitting the monster spider.
However, the lightning seemed only to cause it some pain. It did not inflict much damage on its thick shell.
The one who had unleashed the lightning was Zuo Li.
The monster spider cried out in pain. One of its heads angrily opened its mouth, and a strand of spider silk shot out, heading straight for Zuo Li’s vital point.
Without even thinking, Quan Xiaoyu sent out a fireball, directly blocking the attack for Zuo Li.
The spider silk met the fireball and was immediately burned away, turning into nothing more than a wisp of black smoke.
The others’ attacks followed immediately.
Ouyang Jing manipulated the surrounding metallic elements, turning them into sharp swords that shot toward all eight heads of the monster spider.
“Xiaoyu, it’s great that you’re okay! Where are Chu Tian and the others? Are they behind you?”
Seeing Quan Xiaoyu appear, Ouyang Jing was naturally overjoyed. He attacked while sparing part of his attention to speak to him.
“Where are Chu Tian and the others?”
That question shattered the last trace of hope in Quan Xiaoyu’s heart.
An unprecedented pain shot straight into his heart.
The pain was so intense that he dropped to one knee and could not speak for a long time.
“Don’t get caught up fighting! We’re heading out of the city!”
That was Xiao Ziran’s voice.
Quan Xiaoyu slightly raised his head when he heard it and saw Xiao Ziran charging out through the iron door with several others.
“Understood! Xiaoyu is back.”
Ouyang Jing answered Xiao Ziran.
Sure enough, they were retreating toward the outskirts of the city while continuing to fight.
Only then did Xiao Ziran see Quan Xiaoyu crouched on the ground, sweating coldly from the pain.
But he merely glanced at him. There was no time even to greet him.
Because another monster pursuing them from behind quickly emerged as well.
Yes.
It was still a monster!
A gigantic python with two heads, surrounded by black poisonous gas, slithered out of the shopping mall.
Just like the spider, its two heads were the heads of children, with grayish-blue faces and blood-red eyes.
The only difference from the spider was that these two heads were identical faces.
Xiao Ziran attacked while retreating.
Quan Xiaoyu could see that they seemed to be protecting something as they fled.
The non-powered members of the team?
Quan Xiaoyu remembered that even at the very end, Chu Tian had never forgotten his responsibility as the leader of the team.
Even knowing that they were going to die, he still wanted to stay together with everyone.
Then what about himself?
Chu Tian was gone.
What could he still do?
Go!
Go and fulfill the responsibility Chu Tian had been unable to fulfill!
A voice deep in Quan Xiaoyu’s heart was saying this.
He stood up.
His eyes contained nothing but the monsters fighting alongside his companions.
Kill them!
At this moment, there was only one thought in Quan Xiaoyu’s mind.
Kill them!
The dragon pattern around his neck began to burn, glowing with a blood-red golden light.
Everyone only saw Quan Xiaoyu stand up with bloodshot eyes.
Before anyone could even ask a question, Quan Xiaoyu instantly transformed into a streak of light and charged toward the monster spider.
He was simply too fast.
Everyone only saw a flash of shadow before a small whirlwind swept past.
The monster spider and that streak of light collided in rapid succession.
Five minutes later—
The monster spider fell.
Its eight heads and eight long legs were scattered across the ground.
Ouyang Jing, Zuo Li, and the others stared in stunned disbelief.
Then they saw that streak of light charge toward the two-headed monster snake.
In Xiao Ziran’s eyes, it was not white light.
It was a dazzling, multicolored radiance.
Its colors were different from Chu Tian’s, but they were just as brilliant and varied.
Of course, Xiao Ziran certainly had no mind to study that at this moment.
Quan Xiaoyu’s attack had bought everyone a precious moment to breathe.
“Come help!”
Xiao Ziran shouted.
Then everyone worked together, bringing out all the people they had been protecting along the way.
More than twenty children!
There were both boys and girls, all under twelve years old.
The youngest looked only three or five years old, and Xiao Ziran was carrying that child in his arms.
“Run! Everyone, run! Ouyang, Zuo Li, you lead the way. I’ll cover the rear!”
Xiao Ziran gave another order.
Everyone moved quickly, sprinting forward at full speed, including the group of children.
Xiao Ziran handed the child in his arms to Old Wu, who had been following closely beside him, and told him to go first.
He stayed behind as expected.
“Xiaoyu, don’t get caught up fighting. Run with us! There are more monsters inside. We can’t handle them. I’ve locked them in, but I won’t be able to hold them for long.”
There was no response.
Quan Xiaoyu was still locked in combat with the two-headed snake.
“Quan Xiaoyu! Did you hear me? Damn it, come with us!”
Xiao Ziran became anxious as well. At this moment, he also sensed that something was wrong with Quan Xiaoyu.
The vehicles they had parked outside earlier had long since been destroyed by the giant rats and black birds.
Now, they could only rely on their own legs to flee for their lives.
Fortunately, for some unknown reason, all the giant rats and black birds had left.
Otherwise, there would have been no chance of survival.
The answer Xiao Ziran received was two heads rolling across the ground.
Even after losing its heads, the two-headed snake was still able to lash out at Quan Xiaoyu with its tail.
Only after landing its attack did it finally crash to the ground.
Quan Xiaoyu had been unable to dodge the final attack from the two-headed snake.
Its tail struck him solidly, sending him flying.
Xiao Ziran hurriedly manipulated the vines, sending them after Quan Xiaoyu and pulling him directly back to his side.
Only then did he see that all the radiance had disappeared from Quan Xiaoyu’s body.
Even the red color that Xiao Ziran could normally see was gone.
His entire body was shrouded in gray, dull and lifeless.
And he had already fallen into a deep coma.
Xiao Ziran cursed under his breath, hoisted Quan Xiaoyu onto his back, and sprinted toward the direction the team had gone.
He had already heard it—
The sound of the obstacles inside the shopping mall, which had been used to block the monsters, breaking apart!
They sprinted wildly the entire way.
White bones and bloodstains covered the ground.
They returned to the place they had once left.
There wasn’t a single living person here anymore.
Blood, white bones, human corpses, and monster corpses covered the entire area.
When they fled here, everyone finally stopped.
On one hand, their physical strength was completely exhausted.
On the other, beyond the collapsed city wall, smoke and dust were billowing in the distance.
Another enormous mass of things was charging toward them!
A dead end!
They had reached a dead end!
Their final sliver of hope had been completely extinguished.
At this moment, everyone instead became strangely calm.
They had been fighting for an entire day and night.
Their physical strength was gone.
Their abilities were exhausted.
Even their crystal cores had been used up!
Someone took water from his pocket, sat down, and began gulping it down.
It was water Bai Mingxi had distributed to them before the battle.
Some people had already lost theirs.
Others had not yet had the chance to drink it.
Xiao Ziran arrived carrying Quan Xiaoyu on his back.
Looking at everyone silently resting where they stood and the billowing smoke and dust ahead, he also gave a bitter smile.
Most of the children they had brought out were looking up blankly at the adults.
“I’m sorry, kids. In the end, we still couldn’t save you.”
Xiao Ziran smiled at the children and gently lowered the unconscious Quan Xiaoyu from his back.
The children looked at one another in confusion.
Xiao Ziran did not say anything else to them.
He took out his own water and began gulping it down as well.
A dead end!
This was already a hopeless situation.
At this moment, even Xiao Ziran had given up.
Ahead were unknown monsters—or perhaps an army of zombies.
Behind them was a huge number of artificially created monsters!
They were starving, and they were filled with hatred toward humanity!
“What happened to him?”
Ouyang Jing walked over to Xiao Ziran’s side and glanced at the unconscious Quan Xiaoyu, asking worriedly.
“Probably exhaustion. That kind of reckless fighting style…”
Xiao Ziran actually curled his lips into a slight smile.
“Is he okay? Should we have Lu Zhongxia take a look at him?”
Ouyang Jing asked.
Xiao Ziran looked at him strangely, his expression becoming an ambiguous half-smile.
“I’m a doctor. He’s only unconscious. Besides, at a time like this, isn’t it better that he has no awareness?”
Ouyang Jing froze for a moment.
Then he understood what Xiao Ziran meant.
Yes.
In a hopeless situation with no way out, what difference did it make whether they treated him or not?
Perhaps it was better to remain unconscious.
He wouldn’t have to wait for death like they did.
He wouldn’t have to feel the terror of death drawing closer.
And even more importantly—
He wouldn’t have to watch his companions being torn apart one by one, swallowed one by one.
Then watch himself be torn apart and swallowed as well.
At a time like this, losing consciousness was perhaps a good thing.
Ouyang Jing let out a deep sigh and quietly walked away.
Ahead, the figures within the smoke and dust had already become faintly visible.
A massive horde of zombies was charging toward them at full speed!
Behind them, the monsters’ howls were also becoming faintly audible.