Chapter 116: Chapter 116: The Future That Should Have Been
It was true. They had personally seen Ding Yao’s corpse outside Frenzy Base, his eyes wide open in death.
But how much time had passed? Now he was standing before them again. Even cloning couldn’t be this fast, could it?!
Ding Yao sneered. "A bunch of idiots. I am the Chosen One. How could I possibly die so easily at Li Xingye’s hands? The one who should be dead is him!"
Qiangzi couldn’t hold back and punched him again. The smile on Ding Yao’s face froze, and he spat out two bloody teeth.
Haozi crossed his arms and scoffed, "Why aren’t you laughing anymore? You, the Chosen One? Don’t tell me you started hallucinating after eating your own kind back at Frenzy Base?"
But Cheng Peng recalled something Li Xingye had mentioned before. In a grave voice, he said, "The Chosen One... Is this what you mean by being able to predict the future? Did you predict your current situation?"
Hearing this, anger finally appeared on Ding Yao’s face. "You don’t understand anything! Li Xingye must die! Only when he’s dead can the apocalypse end!"
"Is that so? I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed then." Li Xingye walked in slowly, followed by a line of people wrapped in vines.
When Ding Yao saw the state of those useless fools, he couldn’t hide his disappointment. "Those drugs... As I thought, they had no effect on you."
Li Xingye casually tossed the people next to Ding Yao. "Why don’t we start with when you got in league with Dawn Base."
No one was surprised by Li Xingye’s words.
In their view, if anyone could pull off something as horrifying as ’coming back from the dead,’ it would have to be those madmen from the Imperial City.
Unexpectedly, Ding Yao scoffed at the idea. "Dawn Base? A leader who’s overdrawn his power, desperately clinging to life while searching for a vessel, and a group of researchers who lost their minds long ago and are now just puppets. They’re only fit to be my stepping stones!"
Hearing this, the superpower users who were wrapped tightly in vines and cowering like quails to the side couldn’t help but glare at Ding Yao. "Ding Yao, you were the one who came begging our base for help like a dog! It was only because you said you had a way to deal with Li Xingye that our leader took you in!"
Ding Yao shot them a sidelong glance and said coldly, "You still don’t get it, do you? This plan never intended for any of you to survive from the very beginning. And guess what? Do you think the people at Dawn know that?"
His words truly broke their composure. Their eyes instantly turned red. "Do you think the leader trusts you? If you can’t complete this mission, don’t even think about getting back alive!"
The others watched them tear into each other, feeling rather speechless.
But they were also curious about what exactly Ding Yao had said to the leader of Dawn Base to earn such trust.
Especially the part about ’searching for a vessel’ that Ding Yao had mentioned.
’Could it be that the leader of Dawn is after Li Xingye’s body?’
The men seemed to want to say more, but vines sealed their mouths shut.
Li Xingye himself was calm. He sat down in a chair and said flatly, "I ask, you answer. I don’t spare worthless lives. You first."
He casually pointed at the leading Thunder Ability User. "How did the zombie horde get here?"
The vines on the man’s mouth vanished instantly. His eyes darted around. "I don’t kn—"
SHLICK—
A flower bloomed on his chest. Ding Yao was more familiar with this scene than anyone. His expression changed, but he said nothing.
The others were terrified by Li Xingye’s style of attacking without a word of warning. ’But hasn’t Li Xingye always been taking in and protecting people who couldn’t survive the apocalypse? How could he be so ruthless?!’
Li Xingye didn’t care what these people were thinking. His voice remained flat. "Think carefully before you answer. You’re next."
Having learned from the previous man’s fate, the second person pointed at scrambled to speak the moment the vines on his mouth disappeared. "I’ll talk! I’ll talk! It’s our leader at Dawn! He—they researched a way to create ’sympathetic frequency zombies.’ Not only can they mimic the sonic waves of High-level Zombies to herd other zombies, but they can also... also control low-level zombies.
"They used this method before to try and force Baiyi Base to hand over their Healing system user. I don’t know anything else, Leader Li! We were forced into this!"
The man’s words made everyone’s expression change.
Duan Qianyu, who had arrived later, heard this and was in disbelief. "He researched something like that, only to use it to create zombie hordes?!"
Ding Yao scoffed. "Every man for himself, and the devil take the hindmost. Only people like you, sheltered under Li Xingye’s protection, still think the apocalypse is some kind of child’s play with your little friendships."
Li Xingye beckoned with his finger, and Ding Yao’s voice caught in his throat.
The next moment, as Ding Yao was suspended in midair by vines, Li Xingye’s mocking voice sounded in his ear. "I killed you once, and I can kill you a second time. The only reason you’re still alive is that I haven’t figured out the secret to your resurrection yet.
"But Ding Yao, you should know better than anyone that nothing can stop me from finding out what I want to know. You think this so-called ’predicting the future’ gives you an advantage. But in the face of absolute power, what’s the difference between you and an ant?"
Li Xingye’s words must have struck a nerve, because Ding Yao suddenly roared, "Li Xingye! Why don’t you just die?! Your superpower should have been mine! You just got lucky and managed to cling to life until today!
"What gives you the right to talk to me like that?! If it weren’t for you... I would have already ended the apocalypse and been standing at the pinnacle of the world!!"
Everyone thought Ding Yao had been driven mad by his own delusions.
Only Li Xingye, resting his chin on his hand, watched Ding Yao’s frantic outburst with cold eyes. He said unhurriedly, "Back then, the future you saw... was it of me dying outside the base?"
Ding Yao knew he couldn’t escape today, but he seemed to have something to fall back on. Aside from anger, his face showed little fear.
Hearing this, he spoke with a sense of unwillingness. "It’s not the future I saw, it’s the future that *should* have been! Back then, I watched you die outside with my own eyes... Li Xingye, aren’t you a saint? Don’t you want to save everyone? Give me your life, and I promise you, I can end all of this!
"Otherwise, once your body falls into the hands of Dawn, that will be the true end of the world!"
Ding Yao’s words seemed to carry a great deal of information.
But Li Xingye picked up on an unusual undertone. "So, you’re saying you’ve seen many different endings for the future?"
Having said so much, Ding Yao seemed to throw caution to the wind.
"I told you, I am the true chosen one of heaven. I’ve seen... no, I should say, I have *experienced* countless endings. And the beginning of every single one of those endings was your death.
"Li Xingye, you must have wondered why your superpower is so special, right? So special that almost everyone can perfectly synchronize with it.
"That’s because your superpower was never some bullshit Wood Element. It’s Devour!!"
