Chapter 687 – The Hidden Eye

“Just now…” Ling Mo began to speak with difficulty.

“It wasn’t an illusion,” Xia Na continued.

The three female zombies all nodded, confirming they had witnessed it.

Ling Mo looked troubled, “Then…”

“That’s right, Yu Shiran now has two souls in one body… Ah, no, her situation should be called… two relatively independent but intertwined mental entities, coexisting in one body… similar to a certain human food, like a twisted doughnut or a churro, just without the connectors, no real connecting point… something like that?”

After saying this in one breath, Xia Na looked at Ling Mo for confirmation.

“No wonder you’re a top student… but this analogy is quite peculiar…”

Before Ling Mo could finish, Xia Na had already turned to Yu Shiran, pinching her chin thoughtfully, and asked with interest, “So, does that mean you can also control Black Silk’s body in reverse?”

“Who would want that!”

Yu Shiran acted with disdain, “Evolved into such a weird shape, no one would believe it’s a mutation beast if you told them! Does anyone even remember what its original form was like?”

“I remember…” Ling Mo showed a look of regret.

His Cool Giant Dog…

“I’ll bite you!” Yu Shiran said angrily.

“The past is hard to look back on,” Ling Mo said, indicating he was just casually lamenting.

“My current situation is what’s really hard to behold!”

Yu Shiran grabbed Ling Mo’s collar, pulled him close, and was about to ask harshly, but then realized the angle seemed a bit off…

“Kneel down!… Hmph, forget it if you won’t! You tell me, what should I do now! Anyway, Sausage Humans, this is all your fault, you need to take responsibility!”

“Take responsibility?”

This blame was really inescapable…

“Alright, how do you want me to take responsibility?” Ling Mo asked as he backed up to the wall, starting to pat the dust off his clothes.

“Separate our thoughts!” Yu Shiran followed closely behind step by step.

“Otherwise, I will definitely find a way to eat you!” She added firmly.

This evolution had clearly increased Yu Shiran’s intelligence. Although her mental age probably wouldn’t surpass eleven or twelve, she already exhibited the stubbornness typical of a little girl.

Yu Shiran stared coldly at Ling Mo with wide eyes for a few seconds, then huffed, tossed her hair, and turned away. “I’m going to find Xiao Bai. Don’t worry… that stupid human won’t discover me…”

As she watched Yu Shiran walk to the window, open it, and then flip herself out, a pensive look appeared on Ling Mo’s face.

“Seeing her like this, should I save the sad news for later?”

“What news?” Li Yalin asked curiously.

Ling Mo touched his nose, pondered for a moment, and said, “She’s now my Zombie Puppet as well…”

Although Ling Mo’s psychic link hadn’t directly affected Yu Shiran’s psychic light cluster, since Black Silk could control her body, Ling Mo could as well, indirectly speaking.

However, Yu Shiran apparently hadn’t realized this yet, otherwise, she would have gone on a rampage.

“Now, thinking about it, I do feel a bit sorry for her. It’s clearly her own body, yet there are always others who can control her so easily…” Ling Mo couldn’t help but think.

Swoosh!

Mu Chen, who was jogging down the corridor, suddenly stopped and turned his head to look at a half-closed door beside him.

For a brief moment, he felt like he had caught a glimpse of a dark shadow out of the corner of his eye.

Behind the door was a room that seemed relatively tidy but covered in dust.

A broken window screen hung askew at the window, swaying with the slightest breeze.

“Did I see it wrong…?”

Mu Chen stared at the screen for a while, then walked away in confusion.

“So… how can we help her?”

Hearing Li Yalin’s question, Ling Mo shifted his gaze back from the window. “How would I know…”

“Then why did you look like you were deep in thought, staring off into the distance?” Xia Na grumbled.

“I’ve got a head full of questions as well… I remember Black Silk having an innocent face before it mutated. Why did it suddenly turn into a cunning, devious creature after the mutation? What exactly happened in between?” Ling Mo asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Ask the virus…” Xia Na said calmly, turning her head.

“From the moment Yu Shiran appeared, Black Silk has had its eye on her. It seems like from then on, Black Silk’s goal wasn’t just to find a powerful symbiote… it was premeditating a takeover! And why do I feel like Black Silk chose Yu Shiran specifically to get back at Ban Yue?”

Now, whenever something concerning Black Silk came up, Ling Mo couldn’t help but lean towards conspiratorial thinking.

“Ask her…” Xia Na continued to turn her head.

“But the good news is, judging by the state of the psychic light cluster, it seems unlikely that Black Silk will completely devour Yu Shiran and totally take over her body…”

Ling Mo closed his eyes briefly, trying to relax his tense nerves.

To be honest, although he had known for a while that Black Silk was no longer just an ordinary mutation beast, hearing her speak to him directly still felt quite bizarre.

The world of viruses is truly full of unimaginable possibilities…

Thud!

Yu Shiran landed lightly on the ground, and a silver thread retracted back into her.

She looked around and glanced toward some distant smoke.

“Xiao Bai?”

Calling softly, Yu Shiran began walking in one direction.

However, after just a few steps, the zombie loli suddenly stopped.

She stood still, her body motionless, but her eyes shifted to the side.

In her field of vision, there was nothing but dirty walls and a desolate street.

Maintaining her stance, a silver thread silently slid down her back and onto the ground, snaking its way backward like a venomous snake.

The silver thread deftly avoided the broken clothing on the ground, slipped under an abandoned car, and slowly moved toward a corner of a wall.

Yu Shiran kept her gaze fixed on a shadowy spot with the corner of her eye, appearing to be just a rusty, abandoned trash can.

But just moments ago, Yu Shiran distinctly felt a gaze upon her.

The silver thread moved very slowly, climbing up the trash can and then gradually wrapping around it…

Clang!

With a light sound, the trash can tilted slightly, then began wobbling side to side like a roly-poly toy.

Almost simultaneously, Yu Shiran, who had been standing still, swiftly turned around, staring intently at the shadowy spot.

The trash can continued to wobble, producing a faint rustling sound, but behind it was nothing but emptiness…

Yu Shiran blinked in confusion. “Weird…”

She stood there for a while longer, but seeing that nothing had happened, she pouted and turned to walk away.

However, as she turned, a ripple suddenly appeared in the shadow.

The wall seemed to start distorting, and a pair of eyes suddenly emerged.

These eyes were an unusually eerie purple-red, staring unblinkingly at Yu Shiran from within the “writhing” wall.

From the perspective of these eyes, Yu Shiran’s retreating figure appeared distorted and blurry, as if viewed from underwater.

“What a surprise, really surprising! Hahaha… Who would have thought, an unexpected gain… I mustn’t rush, mustn’t rush… I’ll come back after I’ve finished… Don’t worry, I won’t miss you all… This period will just allow you to grow more mature, more delicious…”

A fervent gleam flashed in the eyes before they vanished silently into the ripples of the wall…

After a night’s rest, Xu Shuhan’s condition had stabilized.

She had almost returned to the same state as the previous night, but her temper was much calmer.

However, when she habitually reached for her silenced submachine gun, Mu Chen was quicker and got to it first.

“I’ll handle it,” Mu Chen said with a fawning smile.

But while he was still smiling, a dark shadow suddenly fell in front of him, and he felt a weight on his arm.

Xia Na brushed past him, not even turning her head as she said, “You can carry this bag too. It’s all precious food, don’t let it fall.”

“If it’s so precious, why throw it to me… Dammit! I’m here to be an instructor, not a laborer!”

But what good were his protests… Mu Chen ended up carrying a big bag, struggling to follow the group as they filed downstairs.

Xu Shuhan walked next to Xia Na, musing about how bizarre this group was.

Three female zombies, two humans, and something that was neither fully human nor fully zombie…

And the only one completely unaware of the true situation was Mu Chen.

He still considered Xu Shuhan the biggest threat but had no idea that the three female zombies walking ahead of him could tear him to pieces in moments.

“Ignorance is bliss…” Xu Shuhan thought with a sigh.

As she pondered her inevitable mutation, she found herself quite interested in Ye Lian and the three girls.

Observing them in advance was certainly better than knowing nothing when her time came…

But what really intrigued her was Ling Mo…

Look at how Mu Chen reacted to zombies – that was how a normal person should respond.

And Ling Mo?

Xu Shuhan looked at Ling Mo with a complex expression. He was currently speaking quietly with Ye Lian, that slight smile on his face appearing both genuine and relaxed…

“Since you guys have cleared the path, can we head straight to Heishui City today?” Mu Chen asked eagerly.

“Almost…” Ling Mo began to reply, but then hesitated.

When they had fought the bird zombie earlier, something about it had seemed off…

“We might as well check out Cuihu City on the way,” Ling Mo said, changing his mind.

“Why!” Mu Chen was exasperated. He could never figure out what was going on in this guy’s head!

“It’s on the way…” Ling Mo said offhandedly.

“It’s a detour of at least dozens of miles!”