Chapter 159: Chapter 159: The Essence of Crystal Core Absorption
Xie Ning drove the RV a short distance before she had to get out and clear away the nearby zombie horde.
Meanwhile, the survivors from the Song Family Pavilion also began to arrive one after another.
Seeing that the alley entrance was blocked by a swarm of zombies, many people’s first reaction was to immediately retreat back to the Song Family Pavilion.
But some others quickly got out of their cars and joined the fight against the zombies.
A blaze of fire erupted from the Song Family Pavilion villa.
Zhu Huizhen shoved the old woman into the fire, then grabbed her daughter and ran downstairs.
Hearing the old woman’s agonized screams, a strange sense of satisfaction flashed in Zhu Huizhen’s eyes. Her pace quickened, and she dashed out the door like a gust of wind.
Her husband, Xiao Wan, staggered out, screaming in terror, "Huizhen! Huizhen!"
Zhu Huizhen didn’t even look back. Soon, the sounds of zombies chewing on living flesh and her husband’s agonized cries came from behind her.
’She had awakened. Just now.’
When several zombies surrounded her and the old woman tried to feed her and her daughter to them to help her own son escape, Zhu Huizhen had felt a powerful energy erupt from within her.
Now, her steps were as light as a feather, as if she could fly. The zombie horde was hideous and terrifying, but they couldn’t catch her at all!
’Finally, I, Zhu Huizhen, have a superpower! Qiqi and I have a way to live!’
With so many zombies storming the Song Family Pavilion, many survivors resorted to setting them on fire.
For a moment, the path ahead was blocked by a sea of zombies, while thick smoke billowed from behind. It was as if they had plunged into a living hell overnight.
After Xie Ning dealt with the dozen or so zombies swarming the front of the RV, she turned to her mother, who was busy hacking at zombies nearby, and shouted, "Get in the car! We’re leaving."
Song You’ai cleaved a zombie’s head in two, kicked it away, and quickly turned to get in.
"It’s a shame we don’t have time to search for Zombie Crystal Cores," Song You’ai said, panting, a hint of regret in her voice.
Xie Ning lifted a hand, showing her mother a handful of Crystal Cores.
"When did you pick these up?" Song You’ai asked, completely shocked, as she casually picked up two or three Crystal Cores.
Gripping the steering wheel, Xie Ning stepped on the gas and surged forward. "My Spiritual Ability must have advanced to the First Rank. The biggest advantage is that I can retrieve Crystal Cores from a distance."
This way, she could effectively avoid the trouble of cleaning up the battlefield.
She could kill zombies and extract Crystal Cores at the same time—fighting and collecting in one go!
"That’s great." Song You’ai pulled two Crystal Cores from her pocket. "And here I was thinking it was a bit of a loss to have only picked up two."
’My daughter is just so capable.’
Xie Ning glanced at her mother and suddenly froze.
"Mom, you can absorb Crystal Cores too??"
Song You’ai looked at the powder in the palm of her left hand. "This? What’s happening?"
As she drove, ramming into several zombies that lunged at them, Xie Ning asked anxiously, "Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?"
Song You’ai quietly focused for a moment. "I feel my superpower source..."
Song You’ai’s eyes suddenly widened in delight. "I think I’m about to rank up!"
’Mom’s about to rank up her superpower at a time like this? This is way too intense!’
Looking at the tide of zombies swarming them from both sides, Xie Ning gritted her teeth. "Get in the back seat."
"Then how about I rank up later?"
"No, ranking up isn’t something you can control. If you try to suppress it, you might explode and die. Mom, hurry up and go."
Xie Ning glanced again at the powder in her mother’s palm, inwardly shocked.
’She had originally thought that after her rebirth, only she could absorb the energy from Crystal Cores. But she’d never imagined... Wait!’
She suddenly called out to her mother, "Mom, your right hand! Let me see your right hand."
Comrade Song You’ai was startled by her daughter’s sudden, frantic shouting and hastily held out her right palm.
Xie Ning saw two Crystal Cores lying quietly there, with no sign of turning to powder.
"It’s nothing. Go rank up. Get in the back, buckle up, and don’t worry about anything else." A sharp glint flashed in Xie Ning’s eyes.
’The three Crystal Cores that Comrade Song You’ai had absorbed were the ones she took from Ningning!’
’But the two Crystal Cores she had collected herself were lying in her palm, completely untouched and not absorbed by her body at all.’
’So the problem wasn’t with her body’s ability to absorb, but who had handled the Crystal Cores!’
When Xie Ning realized this fundamental reason, a storm of shock raged in her heart.
’Could it be that any Crystal Core that passes through her hands becomes absorbable by the human body??’
THUMP, THUMP. The RV’s body was scraped by two passing zombies, causing the vehicle to lurch.
She checked on her mother in the rearview mirror and saw her buckled up and leaning back, clearly having quickly entered the state of ranking up.
The RV rolled over several zombie corpses. Behind them, Zhong Shichong, He Dayong, and Wu Qiuyun drove recklessly in their respective vehicles.
Wu Qiuyun’s hands trembled with fear. Fortunately, she was tailing Xie Ning and her mother. With the pair clearing the path ahead, she wasn’t in much danger as long as she stayed close.
As Xie Ning’s RV turned from the village road onto the main highway, she heard a familiar roar.
It was Boss Pi!
Xie Ning gritted her teeth and gave a cold sneer.
’Boss Pi is certainly vindictive. He’s been gathering a horde of zombies along the way, and it’s obvious he’s coming for me.’
’Fine. If I can kill him once, I can kill him a second time, and a third.’
By now, Uncle Ge Liang and his daughter had swapped places. Ge Yan was driving the motorcycle while Ge Liang wielded two axes, swinging and spinning them rapidly.
Whenever a zombie lunged forward, he would meet it with a furious flurry of chops.
His strength was immense. A single swing of his axe would crush a zombie’s skull, making his attacks incredibly ferocious.
The group of survivors from the Song Family Pavilion who had no vehicles were in a rather pitiful state. Even as they fled for their lives, they didn’t forget to carry their luggage and backpacks.
Their speed lagged, and they were quickly overwhelmed by the surrounding sea of corpses. The endless sound of crunching and chewing filled the air.
Lu Zhong and Cao Fa, leading a few of their underlings, cursed nonstop as they rode their small electric scooters.
They had barely managed to snatch a few electric scooters on the way. Their original plan was to rest up at the Song Family Pavilion, find a car, and then go back to their apartment building to pack their things.
Who knew they would run right into a zombie horde blockade?
Just then, a series of gunshots rang out from the north of the Song Family Pavilion.
The people from the Song Family Pavilion, fleeing for their lives on electric scooters and bicycles, felt a sudden jolt of excitement.
"The army is here!"
Someone shouted—it was unclear who. Ge Yan’s arm trembled as she drove the motorcycle, and she ran over the upper half of a howling zombie. SPLAT. The bike crushed the screaming zombie’s open-mouthed head.
"BANG! BANG! BANG!" Following a volley of gunfire, a massive explosion, BOOM, rocked the area north of the Song Family Pavilion.
Everyone turned to look. They saw three or four large military trucks bursting out of the west gate of the Song Family Pavilion, their headlights blazing.
Following them were four or five large buses and dozens of smaller cars in a long line, the air filled with shouts.
"Help has arrived!"
"We’re saved!"
"Hey, watch the road!" Ge Yan shouted to a middle-aged woman on an electric scooter who had turned her head to look.
The woman snapped back to her senses just as her wheel hit a zombie corpse. The front windshield frame wobbled violently, and she swerved, staggering to the side.
Ge Yan zipped past on her motorcycle with a WHOOSH. An electric scooter behind her couldn’t dodge in time and collided with the heavyset woman, sending them both tumbling to the ground.
The person who had been hit scrambled to their feet, but before they could even let out an enraged roar, a zombie lunged from behind and clamped its jaws on their head.
The heavyset woman screamed, kicking her legs as she scrambled backward. A precisely aimed bullet WHOOSHED past and finished off the zombie.
The chewing stopped.
