Chapter 151 – The Sinister Presence from the Shadows

In the silent office building, several zombies were shuffling slowly in the spacious lobby.

Among them, two were dressed in security uniforms, and the others appeared to be white-collar workers who had once worked here.

From a distance, their twisted faces looked like grotesque masks placed on wax figures, exuding a strong and eerie aura.

Two of the zombies had severely distorted limbs; one dragged a twisted right leg from a fracture, while another had an arm bent backward unnaturally.

Judging by the fountain in the lobby and the luxurious interior decoration, this was clearly a high-end office building.

Ling Mo, carrying the unconscious Li Yalin on his back, had just stepped into the building’s entrance. The nearest female zombie suddenly snapped her head around.

Her blood-stained face turned towards Ling Mo, and a gurgling snarl immediately emanated from her throat as she charged at him in high heels.

The snarl alerted the other zombies, as if it were some kind of signal.

Zombies pounced from all directions, but such a scene hardly fazed Ling Mo anymore.

After all, he had encountered thousands; a few were nothing.

Thus, Ling Mo calmly walked further inside, still carrying Li Yalin. Xia Na and Ye Lian flanked him on either side, ready to engage.

Xia Na’s broken knife flashed, and a cold gleam sliced through the air. Instantly, a head flew off, and a fountain of blood spurted out wildly.

As the blood rained down, Ye Lian agilely spun through the crimson shower. Her curved knife, with a swift flick of her wrist, slit the throats of two zombies.

The pungent smell of blood filled the air, and in the blink of an eye, all the zombies were on the ground, dismembered.

The attacks from Xia Na and Ye Lian, both advanced female zombies, were swift and deadly, leaving these ordinary zombies no chance to resist. Their numbers were too few, and they couldn’t even get close to Ling Mo.

Ye Lian wiped a drop of blood off her cheek, then glanced at her fingers and extended her pink tongue to gently lick it away.

The blood stimulated her taste buds, causing her eyes to momentarily turn a shade of red.

However, Xia Na’s broken knife got stuck in one of the zombie’s shoulder blades. After she kicked the corpse away and extracted the knife, another crack appeared on the blade.

Ling Mo couldn’t help but take a closer look. He thought to himself that using the knife for so long was an issue, but another problem was that Xia Na’s strength had markedly increased. The force she used when slashing was substantial, naturally causing wear and tear on the weapon.

It seemed he still needed to find her a sturdier weapon. Otherwise, no matter how many times they replaced it, it wouldn’t last long.

There were only about thirty zombies in the office building, scattered across different floors. They weren’t gathered together, so the danger was minimal.

With Xia Na and Ye Lian around, these few zombies were quickly cleaned up and then tossed into the lobby on the first floor.

“Thud!”

The sound of bodies hitting the ground as they were thrown down from the upper floors echoed throughout the office building, sending a shiver down the spine.

Naturally, the corpses shattered into pieces upon impact, splattering blood everywhere.

Ling Mo thought about stopping this violent behavior, but seeing how excited the two of them were, he decided to let it go.

For them, blood and slaughter were instinctive desires and interests. Besides, forbidding them from killing humans was one thing, but restricting their ability to kill zombies seemed unfair, even to Ling Mo.

There weren’t many zombies around this area. By the time the stench of decay and blood attracted more, Ling Mo and his group would be long gone.

The only potential concern was the appearance of mutation beasts, but even then, they would likely remain in the first-floor lobby, posing no direct threat to Ling Mo and his party.

At the very least, Ling Mo and his group should be able to detect them in time before any attack, avoiding any chance of an ambush.

Ling Mo settled into an office on the third floor, near the emergency staircase. The reception room there had two sofas. The environment was relatively clean with just a bit of dust and no bloodstains.

After placing Li Yalin on one of the sofas, Ling Mo gently lifted her wrist to examine it closely.

Li Yalin, unconscious, had her eyes tightly shut. Her body trembled slightly now and then, her brows furrowed, and her eyelashes fluttered lightly, giving her a look of discomfort.

Advanced zombies were significantly stronger than ordinary zombies in every aspect, but the dual evolution of their intelligence and strength brought another effect that could be considered a side effect: their sense of various feelings was gradually returning.

Ordinary zombies didn’t necessarily lack the sensation of pain; rather, they lacked awareness of it and their bodies wouldn’t react to it.

Advanced zombies, though they wouldn’t retreat due to pain, at least had some level of response to it.

For reasons unknown, as Ling Mo watched the unconscious Li Yalin, he found her much more agreeable.

He had always sensed a hostility from Li Yalin, making him cautious and vigilant around her.

But now, seeing her unconscious, it was hard to believe she was an advanced zombie just by her appearance.

The most crucial thing was that after truly taking control of her, Ling Mo felt a surprising sense of closeness toward her.

The wound on her wrist had swollen significantly, indicating that the venom had rapidly integrated into her bloodstream right after the bite, leaving almost no trace.

Ling Mo tried to gently squeeze her wound, and the blood that flowed out was bright red, perhaps even more vivid than that of ordinary humans. There was an oddly sweet fragrance to it, though it would likely be quite pungent to someone with a normal sense of smell.

“It looks like you’ll have to rely on yourself.”

Since the venom had already mixed with her blood and left no traces, draining all her blood was out of the question. Her fate now depended on whether the virus in her advanced zombie system could completely overcome the strange snake venom.

Fortunately, her breathing remained steady. Ling Mo put his ear to her chest and noted that her heartbeat wasn’t excessively rapid. At least for now, it seemed she wasn’t in immediate danger.

After settling Li Yalin, Ling Mo wiped the dust off the other sofa, setting it up as a bed for himself, Ye Lian, and Xia Na for the night.

If it weren’t for Li Yalin’s injury, Ling Mo would have been quite eager to explore that zoo. He was curious about what kind of sight it presented.

Although both were infected by the zombie virus, there were many differences between mutation beasts and human zombies.

For now, though, Li Yalin couldn’t be moved, and Ling Mo’s head felt like it would explode. Resting and recuperating were the priorities.

By midnight, Li Yalin was still twitching slightly. If the light were bright enough, one could see that although her face was pale, her lips were as red as blood, and her ten fingers had deeply embedded into the sofa below her.

Suddenly, she arched her body and raised her upper torso.

As she abruptly opened her eyes, it seemed as if a faint red glow flashed through the darkness.

At the moment she sat up, Ye Lian and Xia Na also opened their eyes simultaneously. Ling Mo, despite his psychic power being exhausted, could vaguely sense a chilling presence.

It felt as if he had been stabbed while in a sleep, a sudden sense of danger jolted him awake. He struggled to sit up and reached for the handle of his short knife.

Hearing the commotion, Li Yalin turned her head sharply. Her eerily red eyes made Ling Mo’s scalp tingle.

However, just when Ling Mo thought Li Yalin was about to act out, he noticed something unusual about her condition.

It seemed she wasn’t looking to attack anyone but was rather excited… It seemed that Li Yalin had withstood the venom, but her state was somewhat strange. From her eyes, Ling Mo thought he saw a hint of that mutation snake.

Under Ling Mo’s cautious watch, Li Yalin suddenly glanced toward the door, then crouched and slowly jumped onto the floor.

This was the first time Ling Mo had witnessed how a wild advanced zombie hid its aura. Li Yalin held her breath and focused, her eyes deadlocked on the door, yet she seemed to blend into the darkness, exuding no presence at all.

If not for his ability to see her, Ling Mo might have thought she wasn’t standing there at all.

“What’s going on?” Ling Mo realized that the chilling aura wasn’t coming from Li Yalin, but from outside the door.

To be precise, it seemed to originate from somewhere within this office building.