Chapter 695 – The Mysterious Bloodstain

The Zombie Puppet was being controlled to move towards the passage leading to Zone B, while Ling Mo himself fell back with a suspicious look on his face.

Could he have dropped something along the way?

Though the possibility was very low… Even if it were true, he wouldn’t just run back without a sound…

Given the unclear situation, Ling Mo didn’t turn on his flashlight.

After getting used to the dim environment, his current vision, though not as clear as a Zombie’s, was enough to see roughly.

As Ling Mo was advancing and searching through the Mall, a figure quietly slipped into the stairwell door.

The door gently closed behind them, then began to sway slightly.

Creak… Creak…

Ling Mo immediately turned his gaze towards the stairwell.

The sound was very faint; he wouldn’t have caught it if there were a lot of people around.

But being fully focused at this moment, Ling Mo’s five senses were quite sharp.

He could only vaguely hear some noise, like the sound of furniture expanding and contracting in a large dark space.

No matter what the sound was, in this situation, it had to be checked out.

Ling Mo quickly picked up his pace and soon arrived at the stairwell door.

The door was slightly ajar, and the swaying had stopped.

Ling Mo frowned and stared at the crack in the door. Although he didn’t detect anything behind it, a feeling of being watched suddenly arose.

“Am I catching Xu Shuhan’s paranoia?” Ling Mo quickly snapped back to reality and self-deprecatingly thought.

Just as he was about to grasp the doorknob, his hand suddenly stopped.

“Blood?”

Even though the light was dim, with a little attention, one could see that there were bloodstains left on the doorknob…

And it was fresh blood at that.

Someone had just passed through here, and their hand was bleeding…

Ling Mo looked down at the floor and, sure enough, found a few drops of blood.

He quietly pushed the door open and glanced at the floor inside.

The bloodstains indeed trailed down the stairs…

“Did Mu Chen get hurt? Or did he injure something?” Ling Mo wondered.

Although inside the Mall, Ling Mo had already stopped probing with his Tentacles, primarily focusing his attention on controlling the Zombie Puppet for lower-level searches.

However, with Ye Lian and the three girls also in the Mall, no matter who was bleeding, they should more or less have sensed something…

But there were no bloodstains along the way until this spot…

The stairwell was located in a corner of the Mall, so it was normal for Ye Lian and the others not to notice it. Even with the Zombies’ sharp sense of smell, there were limits. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any room left for human survivors to exist…

“Could it be that something happened in the stairwell? Did Mu Chen discover it and encounter a Zombie there?” This was the only possibility that came to Ling Mo’s mind in an instant.

The chances of bumping into something were too low for an Enhancement ability superhuman to end up in such a condition…

Especially for those with Enhancement abilities, regardless of the type of enhancement, their skin’s toughness was far superior to that of ordinary people. After all, they engaged in close combat regularly. Even if they had no combat experience before, their body’s reflexes would be quite strong by now.

The kind of “ouch” head-bumping tragedy probably only happened to superhumans with mental abilities…

But without seeing the facts, nothing could be conclusively determined.

Before entering Cuihu City, the report he received had given Ling Mo a preconceived notion… there couldn’t be any survivors in Cuihu City.

Such “human dead cities” weren’t rare, especially in some small towns. Along the way, survivors were seldom found.

Ling Mo estimated there were two main reasons for this phenomenon; one being that lone survivors found it increasingly difficult to survive, and the other being that Survivor Camps like Niepan headquarters were becoming more stable, becoming primary gathering spots for survivors.

For a moment, Ling Mo’s mind conjured a bizarre thought:

What if, in the future, while walking down the street of a vast city, he was the only human left…

If it truly came to that, what kind of feeling would he have?

“Focus, focus… Strange, why am I losing focus so much today…”

Ling Mo wanted to slap his forehead. Staring at bloodstains, his thoughts drifted to those places.

And once he started thinking, those imagined scenes kept cropping up in his mind, feeling extraordinarily real.

When Ling Mo thought about being the only human left in the entire city, a profoundly complex emotion welled up within him…

“Maybe the pressure has been too much lately…” Ling Mo shook his head and focused his gaze back on the bloodstains.

There was another possibility… that human survivors were also present here.

“That’s right, we’re not too far from the Niepan headquarters after all…”

Ling Mo immediately became vigilant. He moved to the side of the door, cautiously peering inside, and only after probing with a few Tentacles did he finally reach out for the door.

Just as his fingers touched the cold metal surface, a tingling sensation suddenly shot up his hand.

Ling Mo’s scalp tingled instantly, and he reflexively retracted his Tentacles while quickly withdrawing his hand.

The Tentacles caught nothing, and there were no marks on Ling Mo’s hand.

However, the sensation had been too real, as if someone had gently brushed their fingertips across the back of his hand.

Ling Mo stood still, calming his breath.

The Tentacles had already searched up and down the stairwell, but found nothing…

Yet Ling Mo was certain it wasn’t his imagination.

Xu Shuhan might experience various illusions due to fear, but as a superhuman with mental abilities, he lived by his willpower. Such occurrences were highly unlikely for him…

“Something’s wrong…”

Ling Mo pressed himself against the wall, his eyes glancing towards the narrow black gap.

Under these circumstances, he should usually call Ye Lian and the others over…

But with Xu Shuhan’s unstable condition, even if she could control herself, the adrenaline surge caused by fear might make her go on a rampage.

That would just become a hassle then…

And as Xia Na had mentioned, separating them and leaving only one or two made him worry about their safety.

“Call Yu Shiran…”

After sending the psychic command, Ling Mo waited by the door for a few more seconds.

Soon, a Red Glimmer appeared in the darkness, swiftly approaching Ling Mo.

When the eerie little zombie reached him, the main body and the Zombie Puppet exchanged glances, even Ling Mo himself felt a bit creeped out.

That twisted expression… such relentless damage to the corpse…

No wonder all the Zombies’ motivation is to evolve. Just looking at this face… it makes sense to strive for evolution…

The Little Zombie Puppet once again reached out towards the Iron Door. After waiting for a couple of seconds with no reaction, it swiftly slipped inside.

A minute or two later, Ling Mo followed suit…

Rustle, rustle…

After some faint sounds, a black snout suddenly appeared from the thick grass.

After a couple of sniffs, a pair of blood-red eyes appeared among the blades of grass.

The sharp, serrated leaves brushed against the thick white fur but couldn’t even pull out a single hair, let alone cause any harm…

“Be careful. Don’t let those Zombies spot you.”

A small hand parted the grass as Yu Shiran, sitting atop the mutation panda, keeps her gaze fixed on the Iron Door not far away.

This was Ling Mo’s arrangement. If there was truly something in the Staff Passage, they could perfectly surround it from both sides.

Additionally, they could search outside to check if Mu Chen had managed to exit.

“I don’t smell fresh blood… But there’s a strong scent of food…”

Yu Shiran took a deep breath, a hint of delight appearing on her face.

The panda, Xiao Bai, swayed its head, closing its eyes as if thoroughly enjoying the moment.

Smack!

After receiving a sudden smack on the head, Xiao Bai immediately settled down.

“I told you to be careful. It’s called stealth, understand? Stealth…”

After a brief lecture, Yu Shiran glanced again at the door and then looked down at Xiao Bai.

“Wait a minute! You can’t fit through that door!”

With Xiao Bai’s size, it would need to lose quite a bit of weight to squeeze through the Iron Door.

Right now… it could only fit its head inside at best…

Forcing it could work; it’s just a door, one hit and it would fly off.

But Ling Mo’s instructions were for them to infiltrate quietly…

Feeling frustrated, Yu Shiran jumped down and patted Xiao Bai: “Stay here and guard. I’ll go in myself.”

As she finished speaking, she rolled her eyes and added irritably, “I mean… I and Black Silk will go in… You’re keen on these details, why don’t you go scold that Sausage Human about it, he’s the one who didn’t mention you…”

Continuing her low-volume “self-talk,” Yu Shiran slipped through the entrance.

Upon glancing around, she didn’t see anyone, not even a trace of Ling Mo.

Yu Shiran twitched her nose, and a few silver threads appeared around her, shimmering faintly.

After looking left and right, she gently closed the door and began walking slowly deeper into the passage.

As she passed a mirror on the wall, Yu Shiran actually paused and made a Grimace at the dusty surface.

“Bite me if you can… Saying my Ban Yue isn’t good, claiming that human as a master is better… Just because following him means better food? Hmph. All you think about is eating, look at what you’ve become… Me? I wasn’t caught because of food!”

Yu Shiran waved her fist at the Mirror: “Stop arguing, if you mess up the Sausage Humans’ plans, I’ll tell him it’s all your fault… Just a mere pet… Ah!”

The Zombie Loli suddenly pinched her own nose. Just as she was about to use her other hand to grab her wrist, that hand swiftly moved aside to tug on her ear.

“Stop fooling around…”

After a brief scuffle between her hands, Yu Shiran wrinkled her nose at the mirror again.

Just as she was about to walk away, she suddenly stopped.

“Huh?”

In the instant she turned around, it seemed like a shadow had appeared in the Mirror…