Chapter 597 – The Red Glimmer in the Darkness

At first glance, Ling Mo couldn’t help but be startled, and his hair stood on end immediately.

The figure in the mucus looked just like a living person!

If it weren’t for that layer of mucus, it would be indistinguishable from the zombies they usually encountered.

But he quickly calmed down… If it were truly alive, it would have pounced upon smelling human scent, wouldn’t it?

Nonetheless, a corpse appearing in the mucus was eerie enough…

“Ling-Ge, come and see,” Xia Na half-squatted and glanced, calling out.

Ling Mo moved with some difficulty and walked over, frowning as he directed the beam of light onto the figure.

Although it was still a bit unclear, he could vaguely see the scene inside the layer of mucus.

The thin white mucus was like a large spider, completely enveloping the figure inside.

The figure trapped inside maintained an upright posture with its upper body, neck struggling forward, and legs firmly fixed to the ground.

This posture was somewhat like those zombies with maimed limbs, poised to pounce on their prey.

For example, among the zombies Ling Mo had seen in the industrial area of A City, many had this form.

The figure’s face was unclear, but the pair of blood-red eyes could be distinctly seen, affirming it was undoubtedly a zombie.

The biggest difference between zombies and humans was these eyes; they were highly recognizable.

But how did a perfectly good zombie end up in such a place?

Ling Mo stared for a while in puzzlement, then suddenly handed the flashlight to the side: “Here, hold this for me. I’ll take a closer look.”

A long, slender, fair hand grabbed the flashlight, and a lock of long hair fell down.

Ling Mo glanced sideways and saw Ye Lian holding the light for him while curiously peering at the figure.

“You guys don’t recognize this kind of mucus, do you?” Ling Mo asked.

“Of course not, but the smell is somewhat familiar,” Li Yalin interjected.

Ling Mo nodded knowingly. When she said “familiar,” she probably meant it also contained virus components…

After rolling up his sleeves, Ling Mo pulled out his tactical knife from his leg, scrutinized the figure left and right, then found a spot and began cutting.

However, as soon as he started working, Ling Mo discovered that the mucus-formed filaments were not only sticky but also extremely tough.

Fortunately, the tactical knife in Ling Mo’s hand was no ordinary item. With a few easy slices, he managed to create a gap.

As soon as the gap appeared, a foul stench wafted out, nearly choking Ling Mo.

“Cough, cough…”

No wonder there was no odor. It was all sealed inside.

But while this sealing could fool the human nose, it couldn’t hide from the heightened sense of smell of zombies.

Of course, it mainly couldn’t hide from Leader-Level Zombies. Whether ordinary zombies could smell it, he wasn’t sure…

“What the heck is that smell? It’s so choking, my eyes are tearing up…”

Ling Mo covered his nose, squinting against the burning sensation, and peered inside the gap.

Under the light, the zombie sealed inside was finally fully exposed, face-to-face with Ling Mo.

But after just one look, Ling Mo almost vomited.

From the outside, this corpse didn’t look mummified at all; on the contrary, its skin appeared quite full…

But upon closer inspection, it wasn’t full; it was filled.

The mucus seemed to be flowing out from within the body, and it looked like more was fermenting inside.

That clammy heat was generated this way, but it kept the skin surface intact without any rotting, which surprised Ling Mo.

Could this mucus have an anti-decay function? It really is a byproduct of virus evolution, making formalin look pathetic in comparison…

Suppressing his revulsion, Ling Mo used the tactical knife to make a cut on the zombie.

“Whoosh!”

A gush of turbid liquid spurted out, and the skin rapidly deflated before his eyes.

“What the heck is going on!”

Ling Mo had never seen a zombie like this, nor any situation like this.

Indeed, the more zombies evolved, the weirder they became. Who knows if this was another variation zombie or simply a mutation species.

“Hey, there’s another one here,” Xia Na shouted as she found another grotesque zombie not far away.

As they continued down the stairs, these bizarre zombies became more frequent until the walls were almost lined with them.

At a glance, the walls on both sides of the stairs seemed to be built from corpses, with the wax-like figures encapsulated in white membranes.

The hazy atmosphere made the sight even more eerie, sending chills down one’s spine at a mere glance.

Ling Mo figured out that these zombies weren’t being sealed in by the mucus; rather, the mucus was perpetually oozing from their bodies, enveloping them.

Judging by the amount of mucus, it seemed to be regenerating continuously…

Thinking about the stair steps, ceiling, and even the handrails being smeared with these zombies’ body fluids, Ling Mo wished he could just swing across the area.

But his mental energy reserves weren’t enough to afford such an extravagant use, so no matter how disgusting it was, he had to bear it…

Ye Lian and the others, however, seemed entirely unbothered and were even curious about the situation.

If it were other girls, they would probably be screaming their heads off right now, right?

Ling Mo suddenly felt a bit embarrassed, realizing that out of the group, he, the male, was the most tense…

“These are all the same kind of zombie… but what’s the point of it all?” Xia Na asked curiously, tilting her head to look at the ceiling and even scraping it with the tip of her scythe.

“Hmm… you’re right!” Xia Na’s words brought a realization to Ling Mo. The presence of these zombies here, all rotting and constantly secreting mucus, couldn’t possibly be a collective suicide event, right?

There had to be something more concealed behind this situation.

Ignoring the evolutionary cause of these zombies, just looking at the effect of the mucus—it seemed to serve as concealment?

Whether it’s the mental ability probe or the scent, there’s a significant shielding effect. Especially in terms of shielding psychic power, the effect is incredibly potent.

They definitely weren’t doing this just to prevent people from discovering their bodies. And when checking through Black Silk’s perspective, it wasn’t hard to notice that Yu Shiran and the others weren’t focusing on the zombies, but rather on…

“Below.”

Ling Mo turned to look down the stairs. Judging by the structure of the mall, the lower level should be the parking lot…

It’s clear that they and Yu Shiran took different routes, Ling Mo had already noticed this.

But their objectives were probably the same…

“Let’s go!”

Ling Mo waved his hand and said.

Whatever was below, since Yu Shiran and the others were there, he had to find them.

Not to mention, Xiao Bai and Black Silk were his zombie puppets!

As for that zombie loli…

“This time, I’ll make sure to rip out your other front tooth!” Ling Mo gritted his teeth and said.

As they picked up the pace, they quickly got off the staircase and arrived at a hallway within two minutes.

The hallway was similar to the staircase, illuminated by the flashlight, revealing dense, variously posed figures on either side.

The layer of mucus on the floor was even thicker. Ling Mo estimated it to be at least five or six centimeters.

“This is what you call made of water…  Might as well call it a watery corpse,” Ling Mo said with a look of disgust as he lifted his foot to take a look.

“Not accurate, it should be called Milky Corpses,” Li Yalin corrected seriously.

“…No matter how grotesque they look, they still have their dignity, you know…” Ling Mo’s eye twitched.

After bypassing this hallway, they encountered an iron door.

As soon as Ling Mo placed his hand on the door handle, that previously felt eerie sensation grew intense.

His heart started pounding as if some monster was staring at him through the keyhole…

“Gulu…”

Ling Mo swallowed hard, took a deep breath, then abruptly pushed the iron door open.

Creak-

In the silence, the sound of the iron door slowly opening broke the dead calm, and a red glimmer suddenly flashed through the gradually widening gap…