Chapter 682 – This Is Not Our Style!

“Swish!”

Senior Sister grabbed the cushion and started tearing it apart. Xia Na dodged the flying cotton and shredded fabric, while apologetically smiling at Ye Lian, “It’s alright now…”

Ye Lian gently moved her hand away and said, “He is very… very tired…”

“I can see that,” Xia Na nodded, “Let him sleep. He’s usually so alert; if it weren’t for you covering him, he would have definitely woken up…”

“You would… cover him too,” Ye Lian smiled faintly.

Xia Na glanced at the sound-asleep Ling Mo, feeling a pang of pity, but she snorted and said with faux annoyance, “Yeah, I’d cover him with a pillow and suffocate him, then I could have some meat.”

“Ah!” Ye Lian exclaimed in shock, “You’re… you’re lying…”

“It’s not lying, it’s called joking… No, I’m not joking at all!” Xia Na muttered. She was currently in a state of confusion, with her human nature and zombie instincts constantly alternating, which made her a bit different from her usual self.

Ye Lian had a look of half-understanding on her face and quietly sat down beside Ling Mo, asking, “You… how are you… doing?”

Xia Na smiled, “Much better than before. We have to thank you all; when that advanced zombie appeared, I was in a daze but still had some sensing. If we had to fight back then, the situation wouldn’t have turned out this well.”

She glanced at Ling Mo again, “As a result, he ended up this exhausted… showing off again!”

Ye Lian’s big eyes blinked, completely at a loss for what to say.

The first part was clearly concern, but the second part sounded critical…

This is not a zombie’s style…

“What about you, Ye Lian? After breaking through, did you feel anything special?” Xia Na suddenly asked out of curiosity.

It was clear she hadn’t broken through to the dominant level in this evolution, but having gained another advancement, it was just a matter of time before she did. It would be good to ask in advance…

Ye Lian fiddled with her fingers, organizing her thoughts in her head while intermittently saying, “It’s… it’s a bit different… from before…”

She pointed to her eyes, “Here…”

Then she pointed to Ling Mo, “And… him…”

“Huh, what does this have to do with Ling-Ge?” Xia Na asked, more puzzled.

She understood the part about the eyes immediately—for those pupils to contract was clearly an abnormality caused by mutation.

But how did Ye Lian’s evolution relate to Ling Mo?

“I…” Ye Lian bit her lip and softly said, “I… understand him better…”

Xia Na was stunned for a moment, then a look of sudden realization appeared on her face, “Ah, I get it!”

Her mismatched red and black eyes darted between Ye Lian and Ling Mo, nodding, “Your connection has deepened!”

Ye Lian nodded first, then shook her head, “Not only… that…”

With a combination of words and gestures, she finally made Xia Na understand what she was trying to convey.

“So… you can feel those human emotions he shows?” Xia Na tried to summarize and confirm.

“Mm-hmm!” Ye Lian nodded excitedly.

Xia Na thought for a moment but raised another question, “So… do you have similar feelings yourself? Since you can sense them, you should have them too, right?”

At this point, Xia Na’s eyes showed a hint of expectation.

She had retained her humanity to some extent. As for whether she could fully return to being human… at least Black Na had no interest in that at all.

She enjoyed being a zombie—that thrilling sensation upon seeing blood, the complete control over her body, and the all-encompassing joy of throwing herself into battle. These were experiences normal humans couldn’t understand.

But the complex emotions in a human’s mind also seemed intriguing to Xia Na.

Under Xia Na’s eager gaze, Ye Lian slowly shook her head, “No… I don’t…”

“I know… what he means because… I remember some things… but… I don’t have them myself…” Ye Lian said.

Xia Na’s face quickly showed a hint of disappointment; things really weren’t that simple…

Strictly speaking, Ye Lian couldn’t really be said to feel those emotions.

It was like learning words from pictures—she knew what the fruit in the picture was and what it was called, but until she tasted it herself, she wouldn’t truly know it.

Ye Lian’s understanding of human emotions had only reached the level of learning words from pictures.

“It’s alright,” Xia Na leaped forward and grabbed Ye Lian’s hand, “At least you’ve made significant progress, right? Next time when you see him shaking with anger, you won’t think he’s shivering because he’s cold…”

“Mm!” Ye Lian smiled softly.

“Huff… huff…” In the pitch-black stairwell, Xu Shuhan was gripping the handrail, unsteadily climbing upward.

Her mind was relatively clear, but because of that, the physical sensations were even more overwhelming.

In the darkness, it seemed like there were rustling noises everywhere, drilling right into her brain.

Even covering her ears, she could still hear the sound of her own blood flowing.

Even her own breathing sounded annoying, driving her to the brink of madness.

“This is unbearable…”

Xu Shuhan didn’t know which floor she had reached. She slumped against the corner of the stairs, sliding down the wall, and sat there with her head in her hands.

Xia Na’s words echoed in her ears, “You’ll get used to it…”

“Is this the side effect of retaining sanity? If I lost my mind and was controlled by zombie instincts, I wouldn’t feel this awful…” Xu Shuhan couldn’t help but think.

But then she remembered the twisted expressions of common zombies, tearing apart living people, and she couldn’t help but shudder.

“No… I don’t want to become like that, no way…”

Xu Shuhan shrank further into the corner, her nails scraping long white lines on the floor, the clicking sound jolting her back from her dangerous thoughts of giving up.

“That… person…” Ye Lian clearly didn’t know what to call Xu Shuhan. Without fully mutating, she was at most half a zombie…

Xia Na, sitting with her knees hugged in front of Ye Lian, said, “Her? It all depends on her willpower. She’s already quite lucky, having the chance to fight back. Ling-Ge has learned a lot from living with us for so long.”

“But… let’s hope she can hold on,” Xia Na was silent for a few seconds, then her tone suddenly changed.

“Hey, Nana, stop trying to take control all the time…”

“How is that taking control? I have as much right as you do.”

“Tch, isn’t your half a spiritual body? Why don’t you try undressing with one hand?”

“You’re holding onto the other side of my clothes, how am I supposed to take them off?”

Watching Xia Na bicker with herself and her arms flailing about, Ye Lian shrank back in confusion and then quietly covered Ling Mo’s ears.

The room descended into chaos, with Li Yalin relentlessly tearing apart all the cushions, while Xia Na wrestled with herself. Amid the flying cotton stuffing, Ling Mo continued to sleep soundly with his eyes closed…

In the corner, the Cocoon gave a slight shudder, then fell still again…

“Bang!”

Another glass window suddenly shattered, sending hot air and thick smoke along with flames billowing outward.

The entire Mall had turned into a massive furnace, with plumes of black smoke continuously pouring out.

The adjacent buildings had also caught fire, spreading rapidly.

The streets were packed with zombies drawn from all around, but aside from the occasional zombie bursting out engulfed in flames, none of them approached the Fire Scene voluntarily.

Flames attracted them, but mere fire wouldn’t make them willingly rush into the blaze like moths to a flame.

Unless there was prey…

But their half-charred kind didn’t seem particularly appealing. The desperate burst of instincts from the dying drove them into the zombie horde, but no zombie was willing to tussle with them.

Those accidentally caught in the chaos were usually the weakest among the observing horde.

These small disturbances occurred in isolated pockets, not causing any major uproar.

“Thunk!”

At the back entrance of the Mall, a large, mangled object suddenly crashed down from an upper window.

The charred mass twitched slightly, and then a scorched hand extended outward.

The hand was soaked, with pink muscle visible beneath the burned skin, and some parts of the fingers had even turned to charcoal.

The moment it appeared, the hand clawed stiffly at the air a couple of times before grabbing onto the ground.

As the hand slowly crawled forward, a shadowy figure emerged from the charred debris.

“Cough…”

Struggling, it managed to fully drag itself out, emitting harsh, guttural sounds from its throat.

Not only was its hand burned, but its entire body was seared similarly.

The head was bald, with bulging eyes that seemed to be nothing more than two rotating eyeballs.

The irises were still purple, but the whites of the eyes had turned completely red.

Under a partially burned lip, white teeth were gruesomely exposed.

A piece of flesh dangled from its left cheek. It reached up, scraping along its temple with sharp nails.

A spark flew out, and when it grabbed hold of the flesh, it viciously tore it down.

The already sunken cheek caved in further, amplifying its grotesque appearance.

Skin that even a knife would struggle to cut had been reduced to this state by the flames.

If it weren’t for being at the King level, it would have long perished in the raging fire.

“Cough! Cough!”

It abruptly opened its mouth, letting out a hoarse scream due to the smoke.

The tension ripped the skin on its face, causing thick blood to ooze from the wounds, making for a ghastly sight.

“Stop screaming,” a voice suddenly interrupted.

The Bird Zombie immediately turned its head toward the sound.

Between two buildings, a shadowy figure had appeared unnoticed.

Short in stature with a slender frame, the head seemed disproportionately large.