Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
All mutated animals tens of miles around the area instantly hid their vibes and started running for their lives. Some hid in their nests and didn’t dare to come out. Meanwhile, most of the birds rose from treetops and flew away.
Even some mutated plants above level-five quieted down.
Wu Chengyue brought Lin Qiao away at a very high speed. In the next second after the level-eight underground gorilla crawled out of the hole, he and Lin Qiao showed up somewhere over ten miles away.
After steadying herself, Lin Qiao turned back to look at that underground gorilla. She was a little worried that the giant monster might head toward All Beings Base.
Wu Chengyue brought her to the opposite direction of All Beings Base. He, of course, was aware that they should not return to All Beings Base at the moment. If the monster followed them there, the base would be doomed.
Yun Meng and the others were fast as well. Before long, they showed up around Wu Chengyue and Lin Qiao. Xiao Licheng was slower than them, and was still on the way. After all, his earth power didn’t allow him to move as fast as wind-power possessors.
Also, the poor man had become a target again. This time, what was targeting him wasn’t that level-five zombie or the level-seven underground gorilla.
The ten-meter-tall underground gorilla sniffed around, then made two steps toward Xiao Licheng. After that, it lowered its upper body and propped itself with its pair of strong forelimbs that looked like elephant legs, then bent its waist and thrust its rear legs against the ground.
Bang! The giant dark figure leaped over ten meters high in the darkness, then landed about fifty meters away from the hole. After that, it made another leap. Its enormous body stirred the air and raised a gust of wind. When it landed, a thunderous thud was heard and a wave of strong wind spread.
Xiao Licheng was leaping from a roof when he heard the loud noise behind him. That dangerous vibe descended and shrouded him instantly.
He turned back to find a gigantic figure hopping toward him from a distance away. He felt as if he had just fallen into an ice hole. The strong oppressing feeling made his face pale, and sweat drops oozed out of his forehead thickly.
That monster had its eyes on him…
He was going to die…
While he was locked onto and slowed down a little, that enormous figure had made a couple of more leaps and shortened the distance further.
The overwhelming life crisis urged him to wake up quickly, and then he started running like hell.
On the other side, Lin Qiao and Wu Chengyue both realized that Xiao Licheng’s life was in danger.
Wu Chengyue was anxious, but also hesitating. He wanted very much to save Xiao Licheng. With him, Xiao Licheng would surely be safe. However, he was now bonded together with his future wife, who was in no condition to approach that monster together with him.
While he was struggling, Lin Qiao narrowed her eyes, seemingly to sense something. Soon, she gave her order to Yun Meng and the other zombies—‘Go and save him first. Don’t fight it face to face.’
Hearing that, Yun Meng immediately brought a few level-six zombie back toward Xiao Licheng.
None of zombies on the scene had wind power. A wind power possessor would be able to bring Xiao Licheng out of trouble very easily.
Bang! Another sound was heard, and Xiao Licheng turned back to find that the monster had made over ten leaps within a few seconds, catching up with him rapidly. It was now only two-hundred meters behind him, and would be right before his eyes in a few blinks.
He was so nervous, but he still told himself to calm down. At least, his boss was there. Chief Wu wouldn’t let anything happen to him. Apart from him, the group of zombies from All Beings Base was also nearby. Thinking about them, he believed that he wouldn’t die, at least not so soon.
“Don’t look back!” Yun Meng showed up by his side right at that moment and grabbed him, then moved forward at lightning speed. The other zombies showed up in the next second as well. They didn’t approach that monster, and only attacked him with their superpowers from the distance.
Swoosh! Eight had metal power. His head was still wrapped gauze in a weird shape. However, that didn’t weaken his power.
All metal objects nearby flew into the sky and gathered toward him. Abandoned cars, metal pieces from buildings, even the reinforcing steel bars were brought out from the walls and woven into enormous arrows. As Eight wielded an arm, those huge arrows swished at that monster.
“Roar…” The gigantic underground gorilla paused briefly under the rain of metal arrows, then swung both arms and easily slapped the two-meters-long, five-centimeters thick arrows off the sky. It missed a few and let them land on itself, yet those arrows only caused a series of clangs against its skin and left some white marks on its body. Not a single arrow broke its skin.
After dealing with those large arrows, the giant gorilla made another leap toward Xiao Licheng. But at that moment, a dazzling huge fireball was thrown at it.
The tiny body of Four, who threw out the fireball, flashed across the air and disappeared.
It was his greatest fireball, generated with all his power. After throwing out that fireball, he wouldn’t be able to use his fire power again in about ten minutes. On the other side, Eight also needed a few minutes to regain his power after launching those metal arrows.
Lin Qiao didn’t want them to confront tough with toughness, so they took turns to distract the monster and buy time for Yun Meng.
Bang! The underground gorilla, which had leaped into the sky, failed to dodge the fireball and ended up being struck down to the ground. However, the fireball didn’t bring it any harm, and only emblazed some inflammable objects around it.
“Roar…” The giant gorilla made a roll on the ground and crushed the flower bed by the street. Then, it stood up and uttered an angry roar. Those attacks didn’t hurt it, but stopped it from catching up with its prey. That made it very unhappy.
With all that happening, Yun Meng brought Xiao Licheng farther away from the giant gorilla.
As Lin Qiao sent her zombies to help Xiao Licheng, Wu Chengyue sighed with relief. He held her wrist tightly, then slightly dropped his head as he turned and said to her, “Thank you!”
‘You’re welcome,’ Lin Qiao responded calmly.
Recently, she was able to vaguely sense his thoughts while making body contact with him. It might because he had suffered a drastic energy reduction lately. She sensed how worried he was just now. That was why she sent Yun Meng and the other zombies to bring Xiao Licheng back.
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Except for Yun Meng, the other zombies were all at level six or five. Their attacks could not stop that underground gorilla.
After being interrupted over and over again, the underground gorilla was infuriated and started to launch fierce counter strikes.
It landed on the ground with an earth wall before it, but shattered it with merely one swing of its arm. Vines grew out of the earth and wrapped it up, but it raised both arms and easily broke them.
At that moment, a figure sneakily took a detour around the battlefield and followed behind Xiao Licheng and Yun Meng.
As Xiao Licheng was already safe, Wu Chengyue took Lin Qiao and kept moving further away. They both wanted to know how far could that eye-less monster go away from its nest.
Right at that point, the giant underground gorilla abruptly stopped. It turned its head from side to side, then made a circle before spending a short while standing there quietly. After that, it suddenly turned and slowly walked back without leaping like it did earlier.
While walking, it quickly restrained its vibe. Soon, people could no longer sense its presence.
“Eh?” Yun Meng had felt that too. She landed on top of a building with Xiao Licheng and looked at that underground gorilla.
“What’s wrong?” Xiao Licheng asked curiously without thinking.
“Haven’t you sensed it? It’s not coming after us anymore. It has also hidden its vibe and stopped causing noises.”
Being reminded by her, Xiao Licheng immediately felt that as well. Indeed, the pressure that nearly suffocated him earlier was gone. He could no longer hear that monster run or sense the quake of the earth caused by it.
At that moment, Eight, Xia Ri, and the other zombies who were relatively closer to the gorilla had all been watching it slowly walking back toward its nest with its back hunched. Its vibe had disappeared without a trace.
Strangely, that enormous creature wasn’t creating any noise while walking as it silently merged into the darkness and disappeared.
Four landed beside Six, glanced at the disappearing monster, then raised his head and looked at Six confusedly. Six looked back at Four, then shook his head and said with a dry voice, “I don’t understand.”
He didn’t know what was happening either. Why did that fierce big guy suddenly give up on chasing them?
He and his friends didn’t relax their vigilance though. They kept their eyes on that giant gorilla and watched it moving silently in the darkness, no longer toward Xiao Licheng.
The fresh scent from Xiao Licheng, a living human being, was its target for tonight. But, predators wouldn’t normally give up on their prey like that.
Lin Qiao and Wu Chengyue, who were preparing to leave, paused and turned back.
“It stopped and took back its vibe,” Wu Chengyue said with confusion, “Why?”
Lin Qiao narrowed her eyes to sense it, then shook her head to let him know that she had no idea either. But soon, she realized that he couldn’t see her movement. So, she put a hand on his arm and said to him, ‘I don’t know.‘
After that, she took her hand off him and folded her arms to ponder over the creature’s behavior.
The underground gorilla didn’t even boost its strength. Why did it suddenly stop chasing its target? Was that a scheme? Did it change its way of hunting? Was it preparing to launch a sneak attack?
It had hidden its vibe, so Lin Qiao could only locate it by tracking its scent.
At that time, Yun Meng brought Xiao Licheng back to them. She was confused about the creature’s behavior as well.
“It stopped following us and went back. It’s not planning on a sneak attack,” said Yun Meng.
“Are you sure?” Lin Qiao looked at her and asked.
“Six and Eight are keeping an eye on it over there,” said Yun Meng, “We’ll know when they come back and tell us what they saw.”
About ten minutes later, Four came back and stood before Lin Qiao. He told her that the monster had gone back to the cave indeed, and that Six was still watching it.
Lin Qiao frowned slightly and murmured to herself with confusion, ‘Why did it give up? Is it because it can’t go too far away from the cave?’
‘Where was it just now?‘ She asked Yun Meng, ‘How far was it from the original entrance to the cave?’
“About ten miles,” Yun Meng answered her question.
One thought suddenly crossed Lin Qiao’s mind. Those creatures only moved in one direction every time when they come out to search for food. They wouldn’t go too far away from their nest. No matter how many preys they caught, they would draw back to the cave when they reached a certain distance. The next time, they would choose a different direction, but their moving range would stay the same.
It seemed that they didn’t dare to go too far away from the cave.
Lin Qiao thought of one possibility. ‘Perhaps they have no sense of direction. What do you think? They stay near their nest, maybe because they are afraid that they might get lost. They probably need to follow their own scents back to the cave.’
“They might get lost?” Yun Meng paused briefly and wondered, “I think… that’s possible.”
In pure darkness, people could easily lose their sense of direction. Those creatures lived underground, with no eyes to see things. They, of course, had no sense of direction in the darkness. They could only sense their prey with other organs except eyes. They were probably only able to mark locations with their own scents, or the scents of their preys.
Hearing what Yun Meng said, Xiao Licheng and Wu Chengyue instantly figured out what Lin Qiao had in her mind.
Wu Chengyue nodded in agreement with his eyes glowing, “That’s possible. Many animals that live underground have no sense of direction, which is why they can’t go far on the earth’s surface. If their scents faded, they wouldn’t be able to find the way back home.”
That was only a guess so far, so people still didn’t care to relax their vigilance.
“They have no eyes, so they must be very sensitive to scents. I think your guess is highly likely to be right,” Xiao Licheng, who was frightened slightly just now, had calmed down already. He agreed with Lin Qiao as well.
“Next time, we can bring one back alive for study,” said Yun Meng excitedly.
Those creatures couldn’t go far on the earth’s surface, so they weren’t highly threatening to All Beings Base temporarily.
‘Let’s head back,‘ said Lin Qiao, ‘I wonder what they have learned from the body that we sent back to the base.’
While speaking, she walked downstairs, then brought out a few vehicles from her space. Holding her belly with her hands, she got into the backseat of the first car.
Wu Chengyue followed her into that car without thinking. He wanted to stay close to her now, so he could protect her in time if any accident happened. In the post-apocalyptic era, any danger could occur at any time in the outside world.
Xiao Licheng took the driver’s seat and watched Yun Meng sit on the front seat before he started the car. Meanwhile, the other zombies fitted themselves in the rest two vehicles.
