Chapter 219: Death Cycle (XVII)

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Chapter 219: Death Cycle (XVII)

“What are you doing? Why did you kill Xiao Cheng?!” one mercenary roared furiously at Di Kui. The “Xiao Cheng” he meant was the zombie whose head Di Kui had just knocked off.

Di Kui stood in front of Shang Ke with a cold expression, his golden eyes filled with an indifference that sent chills down the spine.

The mercenary trembled uncontrollably. His legs had gone rigid, leaving him unable to move. He stared at Di Kui in terror, shaken by the man’s overwhelming strength. Outside, zombies shrieked madly. Inside, the atmosphere plunged below freezing.

While quickly bandaging his wound, Shang Ke explained, “That wasn’t Xiao Cheng. It was a zombie in disguise.”

Shang Ke’s voice pulled the mercenary out of his fear—only for fury to replace it.

Eyes bloodshot, he shouted at Shang Ke, “You smashed his head to pieces! Whether he was real or fake is whatever you say it was now!” Xiao Cheng was his brother. One moment he had been celebrating his return; the next, he had watched him die in front of his eyes. The shock stripped away his reason. Ignoring the zombies outside, he raised his pistol and fired at Di Kui.

“Don’t!” Bai Mu and several others shouted at once, but with so many zombies attacking, none of them had a free hand to stop him.

The instant Shang Ke saw him move, he knew things were about to go badly. Di Kui might have behaved harmlessly lately, but that did not change the fact that he was a dangerous creature who could kill without blinking.

Reality unfolded exactly as Shang Ke feared. The moment the mercenary raised his gun, Di Kui pierced straight through his body. In the next instant, Di Kui was already back beside Shang Ke. The mercenary remained frozen in the act of aiming and did not even feel the pain until consciousness was already leaving him.

“Iron Mask!” Another mercenary stared in disbelief. “Are you insane? Why did you kill my companion?!”

If “Xiao Cheng” had been killed because he was a zombie, then what about Iron Mask?

Everyone nearby immediately turned hostile, wary eyes toward Di Kui.

“Enough! The zombies are about to break in!” Bai Mu shouted, reminding everyone that this was no time for infighting.

The scent of Shang Ke’s blood drove the zombies even more berserk. They attacked the mercenaries without regard for their own lives, and several mercenaries had already been killed.

Zuo Xian, Bai Mu, and the others were powerful, but the cramped space prevented them from using their full strength. Zombies packed around the small building so tightly that not even water could pass through, while still more continued pouring in from every direction. Zuo Xian charged out several times in an attempt to lure some of them away, but every attempt failed.

Zombie howls rose and fell without pause. The smells of blood, sweat, and rotting flesh mixed together, fraying everyone’s nerves.

Di Kui seemed affected as well. A low growl rumbled in his throat, and his razor-sharp nails lengthened rapidly, flashing with a cold metallic gleam.

“He… he’s turning into a zombie!” a mercenary screamed, pointing at Di Kui.

Everyone’s hearts lurched. They turned and saw that Di Kui had indeed revealed unmistakable zombie traits.

Bai Mu and the other higher-level ability users immediately realized the truth: he was not “turning into a zombie.” He was a zombie.

“Everyone, get out!” Bai Mu made the decision immediately. With danger both inside and outside, the mission no longer mattered. Staying alive came first.

Seeing everyone prepare to risk breaking through the siege, Shang Ke knew the situation could no longer be salvaged. Di Kui’s identity had been exposed, which meant Shang Ke could no longer remain with the mercenary group either. Before leaving, however, he could at least do something for them.

Shang Ke caught hold of the increasingly agitated Di Kui. “Take me outside.”

Di Kui swept him into his arms and vanished from the building.

The others breathed a sigh of relief, but surprise quickly followed. Shang Ke was obviously an ordinary human. How could he command a zombie that powerful?

Then something even stranger happened. The zombies that had surrounded the building began to withdraw and surge in another direction. Within moments, only a few scattered dozen remained nearby.

“They lured the zombies away?” The zombies that even Zuo Xian had failed to divert had actually followed those two?

“No way. Why would they do that?” Wasn’t that man a zombie? Why would he help humans?

“Fuck, that scared the hell out of me. Don’t tell me I’ve been hanging around with a zombie all these days?”

“I never suspected him at all.”

“Neither did I.”

“Boss Huo was the one who introduced them. Who would’ve thought to question it…”

At those words, everyone turned toward Zuo Xian at once, hoping for an explanation.

Zuo Xian ignored them. He was staring blankly at the sky. The others followed his gaze and saw that a strange black vortex had appeared in midair without anyone noticing.

“The spatial zombie has appeared. Be careful!” Zuo Xian warned them, then flashed away toward it.

Elsewhere, the moment Shang Ke and Di Kui left the building, the zombies caught the scent of blood and immediately chased after them.

Halfway there, Di Kui suddenly stopped. His pupils contracted slightly, and he threw a violent punch straight ahead. A dull impact sounded. A dark figure was blasted abruptly out of empty air, only to disappear just as suddenly. The entire exchange lasted less than a second, and Shang Ke never even got a clear look at the figure.

Immediately afterward, Huo Xuan appeared in Shang Ke’s field of vision.

“Shang Ke.” Huo Xuan had not even reached him when a black vortex formed overhead. The surrounding light dimmed rapidly, as though some enormous beast were devouring everything around it.

Moments later, Di Kui, Shang Ke, and Huo Xuan—along with the approaching Zuo Xian and every mercenary still inside the building—were swallowed by deep darkness. A faint, strange fragrance drifted through it.

Shang Ke’s heart tightened. The zombie had activated its spatial ability again. The ability itself could not affect him, but Huo Xuan and Di Kui might fall into illusions. If their mental power became unstable, it would in turn affect Shang Ke.

As the thought crossed his mind, dizziness suddenly washed over him and countless chaotic images began overlapping in his head. At the same time, his body heated rapidly, fire seeming to gather in his lower abdomen. Shang Ke guessed that the General-class zombie’s space itself was a specialized reproductive mechanism, carrying an aphrodisiac effect that pushed living creatures toward mating.

With Huo Xuan and Di Kui’s strength, however, it should do little more than induce hallucinations, and they ought to break free quickly—even if, inside the illusion, they believed a long time had passed.

What Shang Ke had underestimated was how strongly Di Kui desired him. The illusion could not truly trap Di Kui, but his desire erupted like a volcanic flood. Worse, every image in Di Kui’s mind poured through their mental connection into Shang Ke’s head. The resulting collection of explicit scenes was… completely unfit for viewing!

Shang Ke drifted between reality and illusion. The sensation of being taken felt so real that, even with his thoughts clouded, he could not ignore the waves of painful pleasure rolling through him.

“Shang Ke!”

A furious roar tore through the darkness. A streak of silver shot toward Di Kui’s head, only to strike empty air.

“Di Kui, I’ll kill you!”

The moment Huo Xuan broke free of the illusion, he rushed to find Shang Ke—only to see a scene that enraged him beyond reason. Di Kui had Shang Ke pinned beneath him, their bodies still joined as the drugged frenzy continued.

Seeing the person he cared for in that state with a zombie shattered Huo Xuan’s remaining restraint. Sword-light flared around his body, carving streaks of silver-white through the darkness.

Di Kui was equally furious. He had been perfectly content with Keke until this irritating man appeared to interfere—and worse, the man was too strong to kill with a single slap.

Silver sword-light crisscrossed the space. Di Kui was forced to pull away from Shang Ke before charging murderously at Huo Xuan. The two clashed violently inside the dark domain. Their wildly surging mental power tore Shang Ke out of the erotic hallucinations and plunged his awareness into the battlefield instead.

He “saw” Di Kui and Huo Xuan locked in vicious combat, neither holding back, each intent on killing the other.

Shang Ke shouted for them to stop, but neither seemed to hear him.

Damn it, Di Kui! That is a fragment of your own soul. If you kill him, you may end up permanently incomplete.

And Huo Xuan—being a soul fragment with an independent personality is one thing, but now you want to kill the main soul too?

The fight grew increasingly brutal. Only one thought remained in Shang Ke’s mind: he could not let them keep destroying each other. If someone had to die, then let it be him. He could resurrect. He could reincarnate. As long as their souls remained intact, they could continue finding one another and staying together life after life.

Shang Ke moved toward them step by step. Razor-sharp blades of energy opened bloody cuts across his body.

Di Kui was the first to notice Shang Ke’s condition. He immediately stopped attacking and turned back to him, allowing Huo Xuan’s flying blades to pierce his body.

“Let go of Shang Ke!” Huo Xuan pursued them, trying to wrench Shang Ke away from him.

Di Kui raised one hand to block the assault, a savage blood-red light flickering in his golden eyes.

Huo Xuan suddenly felt his chest seize, as though something inside him were being torn apart. The pain was nearly unbearable.

“You… have to die!” Huo Xuan forced out through a rigid jaw. Murderous intent filled his eyes as countless blades of light flew from his body, gathered into two torrents, and shot violently toward Di Kui’s back.

Holding Shang Ke in his arms, Di Kui was trapped inside Huo Xuan’s domain and could not evade in time. He was not afraid, however. An attack like this posed no fatal threat to him.

But at that moment, Shang Ke suddenly surged upward from Di Kui’s arms and wrapped himself tightly around him, exposing most of his own body to the incoming sword-light.

Di Kui and Huo Xuan’s eyes widened at the same time. Countless blades drove through Shang Ke’s body, shredding flesh and bone in an instant. Blood erupted outward, splashing across half of Di Kui’s face.

Huo Xuan froze. When he launched the attack, he had deliberately aimed away from Shang Ke. Combined with Di Kui’s protection, the blades should never have been able to touch him. Yet Shang Ke had placed his own body in front of Di Kui and taken most of the attack himself.

Why? Why would Shang Ke risk his life to protect a zombie?

Di Kui tore off his outer garment, carefully wrapped Shang Ke’s shattered body inside it, and laid him gently on the ground. Then he noticed the flower of flame slowly blooming through the blood over Shang Ke’s right chest. In the next instant, it shattered, becoming countless petals that scattered into the air.

As the petals dispersed, the light in Shang Ke’s eyes gradually faded until it vanished completely.

Di Kui and Huo Xuan both felt their hearts convulse. It was as though a piece of their souls had suddenly been hollowed out, and overwhelming terror crashed over them…

When the dark space vanished and daylight returned, broken zombie limbs lay everywhere within sight. The small building nearby had been reduced to rubble, and every mercenary lay unconscious on the ground with serious injuries. The dark space had not bewitched them, but they had nearly died beneath the shockwaves released by Di Kui and Huo Xuan’s power.

Zuo Xian struggled upright among severed limbs and mangled corpses. As he slowly raised his head, a familiar figure appeared through his blurred vision.

The man stood nearly naked in the last light of sunset, drenched in blood and apparently holding someone in his arms.

At his feet lay a shattered corpse. Looking more closely, Zuo Xian realized it was none other than the Zombie King, Di Kui.

Huo Xuan had killed the Zombie King? Surprise and joy flashed through Zuo Xian’s eyes. He started forward, but the figure ahead vanished.

“Huo Xuan, where are you going?” Zuo Xian shouted into the empty air. Silence surrounded him. Other than the desolate sigh of the wind, there was no answer…

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