Chapter 348 – Burn, Little Universe!

Ahead, a wide expanse of buildings came into view, with a gently flowing river blocking the way forward.

The river’s greenish, murky water looked deep, emitting a foul stench that was hard to ignore.

The intersecting river and this roughly twenty-meter-wide watercourse formed a natural barrier between A City’s quarantine zone and the zombie horde.

“Get ready, we’re ditching the vehicle,” Yuwen Xuan suddenly announced.

“Wait! I can’t swim!” Wu Pengfei cried out in alarm.

Luo Ni quickly added, “I… I can’t swim either.”

“Who said anything about swimming… Do I look that unreliable to you?” Yuwen Xuan frowned and responded.

“Uh…”

“Of course…”

Ling Mo could barely muster the energy to nod. Although his energy had been replenished in time, preventing a headache, the enhanced psychic power caused a constant throbbing sensation at his temples, requiring time to adjust and assimilate.

Ye Lian and the others had done most of the fighting during this final stretch.

Fortunately, this part of the road was free of obstacles, and Yuwen Xuan drove at an incredible speed, leaving most of the zombies behind. The few that remained stood no chance against them.

Ling Mo suspected that Yuwen Xuan had used his abilities to pull off some tricks. Otherwise, how could an off-road vehicle perform like a racecar?

“Relax, I wouldn’t mess around… Snap!”

After Yuwen Xuan snapped his fingers, a dark shadow suddenly darted across the river, rapidly growing larger as it approached.

“No way! Why is there a lifeboat in a place like this?” Wu Pengfei, startled at first, breathed a sigh of relief when he saw what the shadow really was. He widened his eyes and asked.

The lifeboat was suspended on the opposite side. By shooting the rope, it would swing over to them. Instead, Yuwen Xuan used his superpower to burn through the rope directly.

“Just consider it the hypocrisy of the higher-ups. It’s supposed to give survivors who might escape from the mountains a chance at life. Although I think even if some manage to survive, they wouldn’t willingly leave the mountains only to seek death. However, given the lack of information, some might think the situation outside is slightly better… But in reality, I believe it’s just to give an explanation to those survivors. There are always some people who eat the camp’s food but worry about the survival of all humanity,” said Yuwen Xuan as he suddenly stopped the vehicle. “Ling Mo and I will hold them off. You guys go ahead! Ling Mo, you have a way to cross the river directly, right? If not, I’ll carry you…”

“Stop right there!” Ling Mo shuddered, looking disgusted.

“Got it. Everyone, be careful,” Yuwen Xuan replied nonchalantly with a smile.

As soon as they got out of the vehicle, a burst of flames and several invisible tentacles lashed out behind them.

Over twenty relentless zombies rushed towards them, with dozens more following closely behind.

But those twenty or so zombies ran straight into their well-prepared attack. Some had their heads exploded by Ling Mo, while others were instantly turned into fiery figures.

Unlike Xia Zhining’s fire-related superpower, which required physical contact with objects to increase their temperature, Yuwen Xuan’s ability was evidently much more powerful.

“This must be the difference in innate talent… Judging by his expression, it seems to consume his stamina,” Ling Mo thought.

Just as Ling Mo was considering this, Yuwen Xuan suddenly clenched his fist and shouted with a serious expression, “Burn! My little universe!”

“…”

“Ah, don’t mind that,” Yuwen Xuan said, laughing sheepishly without a hint of embarrassment. “If I don’t do that, I can’t use my power properly. It’s a subconscious thing.”

“So it’s a form of self-suggestion…” Ling Mo realized.

When he first started using his psychic power, he also experienced a feeling of having strength but being unable to use it.

However, he relied on continuous practice to turn his superpower into an instinct.

Yuwen Xuan, on the other hand, used self-suggestion, and it seemed to work quite well for him.

“Forget it. Rather than engaging in such psychopathic behavior, I’d rather spend more time training properly… Suggesting to himself to unleash a ‘little universe,’ that’s pretty embarrassing,” Ling Mo thought, glancing at the invisible tentacles waving in front of him.

Ye Lian and the others had already put the lifeboat into the river, but it would still take a few minutes for them to row to the other side.

For these few minutes, they couldn’t retreat even a single step!

“Huff! Bring it on!”

On the flat road, nearly a hundred zombies were charging towards them, yet Ling Mo surprisingly felt no fear.

Maybe it was because of the intense battle they had just gone through, but Ling Mo felt a surge of boldness rising within him.

He kept his hands in his pockets and slowly closed his eyes.

The approaching horde of zombies immediately transformed into clusters of psychic light in his mind.

Attacking with his eyes closed wasn’t a first for Ling Mo.

Every time he entered this state, he felt a sense of complete immersion.

Moreover, without the visual shock of seeing bodies fall, simply eliminating the clusters of psychic light seemed to make him more efficient in combat.

However, this state had its drawbacks too.

A living being seemed to instantly turn into a meaningless cluster of psychic light, making it effortless to destroy.

There was even a satisfying feeling akin to popping bubbles with his fingers, but this pleasure made Ling Mo feel a bit uneasy.

“If I stay immersed in this for too long, it will definitely lead to a mental breakdown. But right now, there’s no room for hesitation, not even a single piece of cover. This is the only way,” Ling Mo thought, frowning slightly.

“So it really is pure psychic power attacks…” Yuwen Xuan glanced curiously at Ling Mo.

In front of Yuwen Xuan, the air seemed to distort, and one by one, fireballs began to appear.

“Look!”

Standing on the boat, Wu Pengfei hurriedly nudged Luo Ni and shouted.

Luo Ni was nervously gripping the edge of the boat, not daring to relax even a bit.

When Ye Lian and the others started rowing, they had accidentally rammed a paddle against the shore. The immense force propelled the lifeboat forward by three or four meters in an instant, nearly scaring Luo Ni out of her wits.

“Look at what…”

“Look at Ling Mo and the others! They’re amazing…”

Wu Pengfei watched the battle on the shore with great envy. He couldn’t even handle a single zombie in a head-on confrontation.

Ling Mo stood motionless, but every time a zombie got within ten meters of him, it would suddenly collapse to the ground with a mysterious hole in its head.

Precise, efficient鈥”like the Grim Reaper himself!

His thin and unassuming figure now seemed almost intimidating.

However, if anyone could see the tentacles flailing around in front of Ling Mo, they wouldn’t think so…

Yuwen Xuan’s combat style, on the other hand, was much more exaggerated, interspersed with bursts of wild laughter.

Fireballs rained down, each strike aimed at tricky angles.

Heads, legs… He didn’t kill as many zombies, but he managed to hold them off effectively.

By the time they finally reached the shore, both Ling Mo and Yuwen Xuan were nearly at their limits.

“I’ll cover you… Hey!”

Yuwen Xuan, drenched in sweat, had just shouted when he saw Ling Mo abruptly open his eyes and sprint toward the shore.

“Fighting alongside a professional backstabber like you, I’ve always been on guard…” Ling Mo said with a faint smile.

Just as he was about to fall into the water, his body seemed to be pulled by an invisible rope. He suddenly bounced up and landed lightly on the other side.

He landed right beneath the utility pole they had used to secure the lifeboat.

Yuwen Xuan, meanwhile, clumsily dealt with a few more zombies, but the endless horde in the distance made him cry out in alarm. A jet of flame shot out from his rear, propelling him into the air.

After a mid-air somersault, he crashed onto the opposite shore.

Upon landing, he lay on the ground, utterly exhausted and motionless.

“I couldn’t hold out for another second… I would’ve died on the other side…”

The zombies swarmed to the shore. One fell into the water, but the rest just flailed their arms in a frenzy.

The zombie that fell into the water paddled for a moment but didn’t drown, though it couldn’t swim either.

“Crack, crack, crack…”

With a smile on her face, Xia Na slowly yanked a metal railing from the shore, much to everyone’s astonishment, and handed it to Ye Lian.

“Whoosh!”

As Ye Lian hurled the metal rod accurately at the zombie, a splash of dark blood immediately stained the river.

“Gulp!”

Wu Pengfei stared wide-eyed at the scene before him and swallowed hard.