Chapter 175

No one knew when the sky had clouded over. The clouds should have been layered thickly overhead, but the entire city was burning, twisting and warping the sky above it.

The clouds were tinged purple.

But no one noticed.

The first time, no one knew what was about to happen. No one paid attention.

The second time, after hearing Jiang Cheng’s explanation, everyone tried to recall what they had seen. Even so, most people only remembered that it seemed to have been cloudy. It was difficult to remember something you had never noticed in the first place.

This was the third time. The sky had turned purple again, and still no one noticed.

There were explosions and fires everywhere.

Ten minutes after the gas station exploded, the main upstream pipeline chain-reacted and blew up.

Thirty minutes later, the explosions reached the city’s medium-pressure gas network. The moment someone using the gas turned on a flame, it triggered another blast.

The Youth Apartments in the High-Tech District.

After the last incident, when a burst water pipe had left everyone scrambling because no one knew where the main shutoff valve was, Song Jingshuo had urged Manager Wang to produce the complex’s blueprints. He had then handed them over to several people with civil-engineering experience so they could identify the key valves in every system.

When the apartment complex exploded, Song Jingshuo realized that the natural-gas pipelines had gone wrong. He immediately shouted, “Shut off the valves! Shut off the valves—!”

Someone sprinted off to do it!

The clubhouse cafeteria exploded. The cook, a big man whose food had always been delicious, died on the spot. So did a woman who had come over from High-Tech Middle School.

Fortunately, fire-type ability users made up the largest group among all the superpowered people.

The fire users rushed forward to put out the flames. Zhang Lesi plunged into the smoke before it had even cleared and rescued the remaining injured women.

When the women opened their eyes, they were dazed. The explosion had rattled their minds senseless. They could not speak, only gasp for breath.

The special nature of the Youth Apartments revealed itself once again. Everyone ate at the cafeteria; no one cooked in their own homes.

As a result, the buildings remained safe.

The moment Song Jingshuo realized this, he immediately ordered, “Go next door! Go next door and help!”

The neighboring complexes—Auspicious Garden and Imperial Scenery Garden—were now packed with refugees.

Many of them had been cooking. It was not yet dinnertime, but the cafeteria had begun using its stoves early because it had so much food to prepare.

There was no guarantee that no one in the neighboring complexes had started cooking early as well.

With fewer missions outside the compounds, people had gradually settled into staying indoors.

Large numbers of fire-type ability users rushed toward the neighboring complexes.

Several manhole covers on Auspicious West Street had blown off, flames shooting upward from underground.

People with civil-engineering backgrounds shouted, “Earth types and metal types! Cut off the underground pipelines! Cut them off—!”

Without the blueprints, there was no way to know where the valves on the street’s medium-pressure gas lines were. The best solution was to sever the pipelines with their abilities.

Song Jingshuo heard them and immediately called the leaders of the other districts. The instant someone answered, he gave the same concise order:

“Earth and metal types—sever the underground gas pipelines!”

The entire city exploded.

Flames consumed the city.

Then, all of a sudden, someone told you what to do.

The people answering the calls did not even have time to see who was calling. They were already shouting, “Cut off the underground pipelines! Earth types! Metal types! Cut off the underground pipelines—!”

Sure enough, several floors of Auspicious Garden exploded. Some residents had started cooking early.

Especially after outside missions had become scarce, many people’s schedules had fallen apart. They slept until late in the day before getting up.

Their mealtimes had become irregular too. It was afternoon now—perhaps they were making lunch.

That was exactly what had happened.

Mr. Xu and his group had fallen into an erratic routine. They were making lunch.

The kitchen of the apartment where they were cooking exploded.

A human torch came staggering out, screaming horribly.

Only after everyone worked together to put out the flames did they discover that it was Tao Xiaoxiao.

Someone shouted, “Sister Wu is still inside! Old Zhao! Old Qin!”

They had a large group, occupying several apartments on the same floor.

Sister Wu and Tao Xiaoxiao had just finished chatting with them in another apartment and gotten up to leave. Sister Wu had said she was going to check on the kitchen. Tao Xiaoxiao, tempted by the smell of food, had followed her.

They had only been gone a moment when the explosion happened!

Everyone panicked. They soaked blankets with water, and several people wrapped themselves in the wet blankets before charging inside.

After a while, they carried someone out together. It was Sister Wu, burned so badly that smoke was still rising from her body.

“Old Zhao and Old Qin are gone!”

Mr. Xu had no time to grieve. He bellowed, “Move! We’re taking them to Zhang Lesi!”

Mr. Xu carried one injured woman on his back, while Director Yu carried the other. Together, they rushed downstairs.

Mr. Xu was a muscular man to begin with. Director Yu had followed the team up and down stairs every day, not only slimming down but also building up considerable strength in his legs.

Together, they carried their two injured female colleagues downstairs.

Clearly, the Youth Apartments had once again acted faster. The moment they rushed out of the building, they saw many familiar faces charging over from that direction.

Mr. Xu shouted, “Where’s Zhang Lesi?”

One of the fire-type ability users running ahead called back, “Behind us!”

Then he continued forward and rushed upstairs to put out the fire.

Zhang Lesi was running behind them.

Mr. Xu ran toward her, while Zhang Lesi ran toward him. As they approached, she shouted, “Put them down—!”

Everyone hurriedly laid the injured women on the ground.

Wu Yan and Tao Xiaoxiao were burned beyond recognition, barely clinging to life.

It did not matter. As long as they still had a breath left in them, Zhang Lesi could drag them back from death’s door!

Zhang Lesi dropped to her knees between them and pressed one hand against each woman.

The charred skin began to repair and regenerate before everyone’s eyes, as if by a miracle.

Why did such a miracle exist in this world?

No one had time to think about it. They could only regard it as a miracle.

Wu Yan’s eyelids had just begun to move when Zhou Wang shouted from nearby, “Zhang Lesi—!”

Zhang Lesi looked up.

Zhou Wang and Brother Dong had already rushed over like afterimages, tossed two people whose bodies were still steaming and smelled of roasted meat onto the ground before her, and then sped away like the wind.

Every second counted. Saving people was what mattered.

Zhang Lesi’s superpower consisted of diagnosis and external-injury treatment.

She most often used her diagnostic ability, examining people day after day as if she were clocking in for work.

Her external-injury treatment could only be used on a living organism that was still alive when it was injured. She had tested it on frozen pork from the cafeteria, but it had not worked. The subject had to be alive.

Diagnosis was an ability that functioned almost passively. Using it consumed very little energy. After examining one person, she only needed to take a drink of water and catch her breath before she could recover.

Zhang Lesi had never used her healing ability at such an intense rate before.

People kept bringing the injured to her. Others dragged away those she had already saved, people who were still dazed and confused.

After healing one person, Zhang Lesi crawled on her knees toward the next.

She did not look at their faces or even check who they were. She relied only on the sensations transmitted through her palms:

About to die—won’t die—almost there—healed—next!

Blood began to trickle from Zhang Lesi’s nose. Her eardrums throbbed as if pierced by needles, and it felt as though her eyeballs were about to burst.

And inside her mind, the source of her superpower was churning and boiling!

I can still save people!

I can save even more!

I—

I can—!

Amid the shocked cries of those around her, two sprays of blood burst outward.

Zhang Lesi’s eyeballs exploded.

No one knew that the source of the superpower in Zhang Lesi’s mind had contracted to its absolute limit before rapidly expanding again.

Only Su Yu had experienced something similar.

But Zhang Lesi’s condition was far more dangerous.

She was far luckier than the metal-type superpowered individual who had died at the military camp during the second outbreak of the zombie virus.

She had possessed her superpower for a month already, and her frequent use of it had allowed her body to become completely attuned to it. When she pushed past the safety limit, the foundation of her physical body was able to withstand the power source’s eruption.

“Connect them! Connect them—!”

There were countless sounds in her ears: explosions, screams of terror, sobs, and footsteps.

Zhang Lesi’s face was covered in blood, and she couldn’t see a thing. But with one hand pressed against each of two injured people, she sensed the presence of three people—one of the injured people had pressed against another victim waiting nearby for treatment!

Zhang Lesi shouted hoarsely, “Make them touch! Make their bodies connect—”

Many people were still too shocked by the sight of Zhang Lesi’s eyeballs bursting to react.

Mr. Xu and Director Yu were the first to understand!

They rushed over and pushed and dragged the injured people scattered across the floor closer together. “Connect their bodies! She wants to treat them all at once!”

The employees sprang into action!

There was strength in numbers.

In Zhang Lesi’s perception, countless living beings appeared.

The superpower that had just erupted within her surged outward like a tidal wave. It traveled through the bodies pressed tightly together, through every patch of contacting skin, passing into every person and every cell!

More injured people were constantly added to the chain, while others beside her were carried away and replaced.

In the end, Zhang Lesi knew nothing more.

Just before she passed out, the only thing she remembered was repairing the last damaged cell.

She had told them she could do it!

All across the city, fires were raging.

Manhole covers lay scattered everywhere, while flames shot up from the open shafts.

The fires caught the cars parked along the roads, and the vehicles exploded in turn.

Some cars had alarms installed. When falling manhole covers struck them, they began emitting shrill alarms.

The zombies in the city were drawn toward the noise and charged into the flames, their burning bodies clearing the streets instead.

On the road, Jiang Cheng bent over, bracing her hands on her knees as she gasped for breath.

She turned her head and saw Zhao Yi lying on the ground, staring at her in a daze.

He had seen her lose control of her emotions just now, hadn’t he?

She had been so furious that she had actually laughed.

Jiang Cheng walked over and held out her hand to Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yi pulled himself to his feet with her help, and then he looked up at the sky.

“Jiang Cheng... is that what you meant by purple?” he asked.

“Probably,” Jiang Cheng said.

Because Jiang Cheng wasn’t sure what this celestial omen meant either.

Did it mean that someone among them was going to turn into a zombie again?

She didn’t think so.

Reusing the same trick over and over was pointless.

If that was what it intended, then “God” was underestimating her far too much.

“Is everyone all right? Is everyone here?” Jiang Cheng asked, looking at the group.

Li Jiangbing was sitting on the ground, panting as well. “Everyone’s here. Everyone’s here.”

But after scanning the group once, Jiang Cheng suddenly asked, “Where’s Mo Li?”