Chapter 364 – Clearing the Field

“Yuwen, hurry up and figure out a plan to deal with the old man. I have a feeling… something is going to happen here tonight!”

As Ling Mo peered down the hallway, he pulled the earpiece to his mouth and said, “Hey, are you listening?”

There was no response from Yuwen’s end, and it was unclear what was happening.

After much hesitation, Ling Mo realized that the current situation had completely disrupted his plans, and he had no choice but to initiate Plan B.

He pressed the off switch, and his Zombie Puppet was sent forward to scout the way while he followed behind, cautiously making his way deeper into the building.

Although the screens had been smashed, the surveillance might still be operational, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

This appeared to be the rear section of the building, with lit corridors, but the rooms on either side were tightly shut, eerily silent.

Despite detecting no one in the vicinity, Ling Mo remained extremely vigilant.

Not far along, he spotted a staircase leading upwards and a large hall connected to the main entrance.

The two guards were still standing at the door, seemingly unaware of any disturbance.

“If only I could take advantage of this confusion… Plans never keep up with changes. I thought I could completely control Yuwen, but it turns out I still have to get my hands dirty. Sigh, born to toil…”

Resolved, Ling Mo silently followed his Zombie Puppet up the stairs.

He no longer conserved his Mental Power, using it to scan the area directly.

To be on the safe side, he immediately took out the Zombie serum from the Spider Queen and held it in his hand, ready to replenish his Mental Power at any moment.

While the building wasn’t tall, each floor was indeed spacious with several intercrossing corridors and adjoining rooms, most with closed doors.

Ling Mo moved through the hallways, surrounded by silence, with only the sound of his breathing and faint footsteps.

“For just a pharmaceutical company, why such an extravagant setup?”

Given the building’s structure and sound insulation, anything short of a major commotion upstairs would likely go unnoticed by the guards at the door…

Thinking back to the artificial rockery at the entrance, Ling Mo felt he had overestimated the security consciousness of such companies, or rather, it fell far short of his standards.

“Places teeming with security personnel, ID cards, and fingerprint locks are not something you’d find in a small city like this.”

Ling Mo sighed slightly with a tinge of disappointment, then quickly shook his head, “I must not be influenced by Yuwen Xuan…”

It took a full three minutes for Ling Mo to finish searching the second floor.

During his search, he found two more bodies, both with necks twisted and dumped in sealed rooms.

What concerned Ling Mo was that these victims, including Wu Youcai, seemed to have died suddenly while busy with their own affairs, without any signs of struggle.

The perpetrator was either a highly professional assassin or a Leader Class Zombie. These two identities were not necessarily contradictory, and when it came to violent killings, the Leader Class Zombies were certainly among the top contenders.

“Still, even if the zombie escorting Ban Yue and Yu Shiran had enough intelligence to infiltrate and ambush without alarming the guards, and managed to clear this building, what’s the point? Could it be trying to understand how far humans have come in their research on zombies and the virus?” Ling Mo couldn’t help but speculate.

He brushed his hand across the face of a female corpse: “It’s still warm.”

This building had staircases on both sides, as well as two elevators.

Given that someone had cleared the way ahead, Ling Mo decided to honestly take the stairs.

By the time he reached the fourth floor, Yuwen Xuan’s voice finally crackled through his earpiece.

“Get in here, quick… Ah! They’re following!”

Ling Mo immediately ducked into a corner because he could now hear Yuwen Xuan’s cries directly; they weren’t far from each other.

And… it seemed this unfortunate guy was in the midst of being chased.

The Zombie Puppet, under Ling Mo’s control, clung to the wall, ready to back up Yuwen Xuan at a moment’s notice.

Soon, a figure burst around the corner of the corridor.

Yuwen Xuan had flames licking at his backside; he shot out like a cannonball, and just before hitting the wall, he kicked hard against it to change direction.

Seeing his terrified expression, Ling Mo was also taken aback.

Something could actually scare this out-of-the-box thinker…

But then Ling Mo understood why.

A figure, agile like a monkey, appeared on the wall, clinging to it with all four limbs and pursuing Yuwen Xuan with incredible speed and agility.

This gravity-defying act could only be described as mind-blowing.

In fact, it was reminiscent of motorcycle cage rides at a stunt show…

“What in the world…” For a moment, Ling Mo thought of a mutated zombie. But then he saw his mistake.

Wrinkled skin, a ghastly pale complexion, eyes nearly reduced to pupils that shone a bright red, and a head of white hair…

It looked like a mutation, but in reality, it was an… old lady zombie!

Although shocked, as soon as Yuwen Xuan dashed past the Zombie Puppet, Ling Mo immediately controlled it to pounce.

The old lady zombie pushed off the wall with her tiny feet, leaped to the ceiling, and then swiftly descended from above, heading straight for the Zombie Puppet.

Even as an evolved creature under Ling Mo’s control, the Zombie Puppet’s agility was no match for the old lady zombie; it seemed to be moving in slow motion in comparison.

Ling Mo couldn’t even react before watching the Zombie Puppet get sent flying.

The intense pain in its head forced Ling Mo to sever the psychic connection, and as he reeled from the impact, Yuwen Xuan spotted him.

“Ah! Run! Old lady zombies are an unstoppable force!”

Yuwen Xuan screamed and charged toward Ling Mo.

“I’m quite interested in her evolution process, but it seems that she indeed can’t be resisted right now.” Before Yuwen Xuan could even shout out, Ling Mo had already turned around and started to run.

As the mental connection was severed, Ling Mo also used his mental tentacles to probe the old lady zombie.

Judging from the fluctuations of the Mental Sphere, there wasn’t much difference to be seen… His tried-and-true strength detection had lost its effect, which made Ling Mo rate the old lady’s power even higher.

The inability to achieve accurate mental detection proved that it was impossible for Ling Mo, with his current mental power, to control the old lady zombie. The effectiveness of attacking with mental tentacles was likely to be ridiculously low as well.

Considering the terrifying power she had displayed, Ling Mo guessed that she must have reached the pinnacle of the Leader Class Zombies, or possibly… even broken through!

Seeing such results from the probe, Ling Mo didn’t even think before he turned around and fled.

Direct confrontation was absolutely not an option. He needed to think of a strategy while he was on the run!

“Darn it, City A, by the looks of it, you’ve created this quarantine zone, which is actually just like dangling a giant carrot, stimulating these zombies to evolve like crazy!” Ling Mo cursed as he quickly ran towards the staircase.

Other than the “whoosh whoosh” sound of Yuwen Xuan running wildly behind him, there were hardly any other sounds, but Ling Mo didn’t need to look back to know that the old lady was chasing them like Spider-Man, ignoring the terrain.

Compared to this old lady, regular zombies were just a joke!

“How can you blame us for this? Humans also need space to recuperate. Moreover, if humans have a certain strength, this kind of thing is bound to happen, right?”

While Yuwen Xuan was frantically running for his life, he did not forget to defend himself.

“Cut the chatter, just tell me what’s going on in this building!” Ling Mo demanded.

“This old lady seems to have been lurking, but she started to act after she discovered I came in. It might be my Psychic status that drew her attention. I know some zombies specifically target Psychics. I didn’t expect there to be zombies here, anyway, I didn’t hide my presence…”

“Stop rambling, get to the point!”

“Alright, I’m just trying to justify my mistake. Anyway, she must have been following behind me. I was walking in front with the old man, and she was killing behind us. When we were close to the cold storage room, she suddenly jumped out.”

Yuwen Xuan spoke very fast, some words even turned into a beep sound by the poor signal: “Within one minute of the fight, I was defeated. That old man was probably knocked out.”