Chapter 194
Jiang Cheng ultimately never made it to Q City.
The survivors of Q City were fleeing.
An hour after leaving D City, the sky ahead began to darken. Going any farther meant entering the rain zone.
Q City was a coastal city backed by mountains, and several roads had been cut off. Some had collapsed because their foundations gave way; others had simply been washed out by flash floods.
As they continued forward, vehicles began coming toward them from the opposite direction.
Cars, motorcycles, three-wheeled vehicles, even bicycles—the survivors were using every means of transportation they could find to escape Q City.
“There’s been a tsunami!” they shouted. “The mountain floods are coming down too! Heaven itself won’t let us live!”
The Blades vehicle pushed upstream. Farther ahead, the road began to flood.
Fortunately, the Blades vehicle had been converted from a large public bus. Its chassis was high enough that it could keep moving.
Until the flood surged toward them.
Li Jiangbing stood beside the driver at the front of the vehicle. The oncoming flood split apart before them, flowing around the Blades vehicle and streaming away on both sides.
The flood carried both living people and zombies. The zombies thrashed clumsily in the water, trying to tear into the living.
The metal-element esper traveling with them transformed the blades on the vehicle’s body into handrails. People drifting past the vehicle grabbed onto them and were pulled to safety.
Jiang Cheng stared at the endless expanse of water. After a long silence, she said, “Turn around.”
She asked Li Feng whether the situation in Q City had reached the level of a natural disaster.
Now “they” had given her the answer.
With flash floods and tsunamis raging right in front of her, they had answered loudly and clearly:
Yes. This is a natural disaster.
Uncle Jiang had said that the extreme cold was moving westward, while the east was raising a Corpse Emperor.
The west had natural disasters; the east had man-made ones.
But now Jiang Cheng had come east, and the east was where the natural disaster was.
The man-made disaster could only be in the west.
The Corpse Emperor was in the west.
Su Yu had headed straight toward the Corpse Emperor and his army of zombies.
Li Jiangbing’s expression had turned terribly grim.
Everyone understood now.
Jiang Cheng closed her eyes. “Turn back. We’re heading west to catch up with Su Yu.”
At that moment, nearly 1,500 kilometers away from Jiang Cheng, Su Yu and the people traveling with her were staring at the endless sea of zombies. They too realized they had been tricked.
They had been traveling west all this time, passing through the central regions that had once been covered by the extreme cold, fully expecting the weather to grow colder the farther west they went.
The central regions still bore heavy traces of the extreme cold. Along the way, they saw many corpses—most of them people who had frozen to death inside shelters.
Radios were not common.
They might seem ubiquitous in foreign films, but in reality, shortwave radios were extremely uncommon in China, a niche item at best.
Not every survivor settlement had a shortwave radio.
Nor did everyone who heard the mysterious person’s warning about the “extreme cold” believe it.
Even among those who did believe, not everyone had any real concept of what “extreme cold” meant. They might find a couple of extra thick coats and gather some firewood in reserve, and that would be the extent of their preparations.
The only blessing was that death in their sleep was painless. They closed their eyes at night and died before morning.
The central region had once been a prosperous inland area. After the extreme cold, it became a deserted zone. The cities and towns were devoid of survivors, resembling ghost towns.
Too many corpses were rotting, and there was no one capable of dealing with them. The area would soon become an epidemic zone. It was no longer habitable.
Zhou Wang suggested that the convoy pass through as quickly as possible and reach the west as soon as they could, where they could find a suitable place to settle.
Su Yu accepted his suggestion.
Su Yu, Cui Haiyang, and Gao Yuxuan had always been the backbone of the Youth Apartments. From the Youth Apartments to the temporary government, the three of them had been highly active.
In reality, however, they were merely screws in an already established system. None of them had ever truly led a group.
Only Zhou Wang had independently led and managed a residential community.
Thus, the team naturally settled into an arrangement where Su Yu became its spiritual leader, while Zhou Wang handled the actual management.
After crossing the ghost towns of the central no-man’s-land, the terrain rose, and the mountains became noticeably more numerous.
Before long, they saw another city. From here on, they had entered the western region.
They had assumed it would be cold and had prepared themselves to face the extreme chill.
Jiang Cheng had given them a great deal of coal and many blankets and winter clothes precisely so they could withstand the cold.
Yet the western region was experiencing the full warmth of spring. It was even several degrees warmer than S City had been when they set out.
It was baffling.
“Where did the extreme cold go?” Su Yu asked.
No one could answer her.
In truth, everyone was delighted that the extreme cold was nowhere to be seen. No one wanted to spend their days holed up for the winter. People needed contact with the outdoors; they did not want to become cave-dwellers.
Yet amid the general excitement, Su Yu sensed a faint unease in her heart.
Because of that unease, even though the city’s high-rises were already visible in the distance, Su Yu still decided not to enter the city. They would camp that night in an open area in the countryside.
Naturally, everyone was disappointed.
Because they had feared that the rotting corpses scattered throughout the central region might spread disease, they had not stopped in any cities. They had spent two nights in a row sleeping outdoors.
Everyone desperately wanted to sleep in a real bed.
Zhou Wang stepped forward to calm them. “There are a lot of zombies in a major city. There might even be mutant zombies. If we go in later and night falls before we have electricity, it’ll be too dangerous. We’ll enter tomorrow morning. At least then we’ll be able to see the zombies if they come.”
The complaints subsided.
Su Yu let out a breath of relief.
Fortunately, they had Zhou Wang. She really was not good at managing people.
If only Lesi were here. Lesi was much better with words than she was.
That night was much like the previous two. The earth-element espers constructed houses and large communal sleeping quarters.
Everyone moved the stoves into the buildings. It was still somewhat cold at night, and the temporary structures had no enclosed windows, so they still needed heating.
A few people were also assigned specifically to stand watch. If the extreme cold descended without warning, the sentries could immediately wake the fire-element espers and have them start fires to provide warmth.
Because of this, the fire-element espers were distributed very evenly among the various buildings.
Every preparation had been made on the assumption that they were about to encounter the extreme cold.
But the chill that night was merely the normal temperature of a spring night.
By dawn, the extreme cold had not arrived.
The zombie tide had.
The earth began to tremble, rousing the drowsy sentries.
At first, they thought another earthquake had struck.
Then they saw the zombies pouring out of the distant city.
The sentry’s heart-wrenching cry rang out through the dawn:
“Zombies! Zombies are coming—! Zombi—”
Everyone was jolted awake.
In an instant, white light swept over everyone, expanding outward like a huge inverted bowl and covering all the hastily constructed buildings beneath it.
Su Yu’s protective barrier was truly formidable.
After enduring an earthquake and taking the full impact of half a collapsed building, it had become even more powerful.
In the past, whenever the barrier went up, everyone felt safe.
But this time, after everyone hurriedly put on their armor and grabbed their weapons before rushing out of the buildings, the color drained from every face.
The total number of zombies they had seen over the past ten months might not even equal the number in this single attack.
They stretched across the land in a dark, surging mass.
No one had ever seen so many zombies. It seemed as if their sheer numbers alone could crush humanity beneath their feet.
Everyone froze.
Countless howls rose into the air.
Some people turned pale. Others covered their ears.
When something terrifying reaches a certain scale, it becomes horrifying beyond words.
The zombies came running, kicking up enormous clouds of dust.
All kinds of mutant zombies were already visible: serpentine ones, spider-like ones, three-headed, six-armed ones—every possible variation, as though this were a grand exhibition of human deformities.
A cloud of dust and smoke came rolling toward them.
Gao Yuxuan and Cui Haiyang, veterans of countless battles, roared, “Don’t just stand there! Get to the front! Move! We need time! Buy us time—!”
Why did they need time?
Because the protective barrier was being sustained by Su Yu.
It was not limitless.
It could run out of strength, weaken, and vanish.
And because it was shielding everyone, the barrier was extraordinarily large. The larger the barrier, the more superpower it consumed, which meant it could hold out for less time.
They had to buy time!
Fight!
Destroy them!
Many brave people rushed to the front, the tips of their toes pressed against the barrier.
The zombies, of course, did not stop when they saw it.
The zombie horde slammed into the barrier.
Su Yu felt as if she had taken a hammer blow to the chest.
The last time she had felt this way was on the night of the earthquake, when she had single-handedly withstood half a building collapsing on her.
The zombies pounded furiously against the barrier. With so much fresh flesh only a step away inside, how could they not go mad?
There was not a single primitive zombie among them.
They were at least second-generation zombies.
Countless mutated zombies lashed and hammered at the barrier with their tentacles and pincers.
Gao Yuxuan unleashed the highest-voltage current he could muster, striving to kill them instantly.
Cui Haiyang planted a huge iron plate upright on the ground. It rapidly transformed into an iron framework, and above it formed a long blade like a guillotine, positioned at neck height. The blade shot out and retracted repeatedly, harvesting rows of heads each time.
Many of those who had come for “Extreme Cold” possessed fire-based superpowers.
Fireballs flew outward as if they cost nothing.
The earth-type superpowered individuals knelt with their hands pressed against the soil. Outside the barrier, stone spikes rose one after another, stabbing straight up from between the zombies’ legs and into their brains.
And a great many ordinary people wielded crescent shovels, hacking away at the zombies’ heads!
If someone was careless, a zombie would seize the extended shovel. If the wielder failed to let go in time, they would be dragged outside!
Su Yu’s protective barrier was one-way, divided into an “inside” and an “outside.”
Physical and superpowered attacks from outside were blocked.
From inside, physical attacks and superpowers could extend outward. Human bodies could extend through it as well.
Weapons could reach out. Hands could reach out. As long as the rest of the body remained inside, they could pull themselves back in.
But once a person’s entire body had gone outside the barrier, they could not return.
Under the current circumstances, Su Yu could neither reverse the barrier’s “inside” and “outside” for a single person nor open a small gap for them.
She had been able to do that before, when there had been fewer zombies and she could manage the precise manipulation.
But now the zombies were swarming the barrier from every direction.
Those at the front collapsed into corpses, and the ones behind them trampled over the bodies and continued charging.
There was no way to perform such fine control. None at all.
The corpses outside the barrier piled up layer after layer, but the zombies behind them kept coming without end. No one knew exactly how many there were.
Farther away stood more than a dozen giant zombies, evenly spaced apart. They did not advance, like generals commanding the battle from the rear.
Everyone’s adrenaline surged wildly.
People were dragged outside the barrier one after another, and then swallowed by the zombies. They did not even have time to scream. It happened too quickly.
Those at the very front had already been rotated out several times.
Every person who withdrew had arms trembling with muscle spasms.
Cui Haiyang gripped the iron framework and sent the guillotine blade shooting out.
One tentacle had been waiting for this moment.
The instant the blade shot through the barrier and sliced through a zombie’s head, the tentacle darted forward like lightning, wrapped around the blade, and pulled it outward.
Cui Haiyang let go almost at once, but by the time he released it, both his hands had already crossed outside the barrier.
Another tentacle coiled around his wrist.
Cui Haiyang was dragged out.
“Haiyang—!” Gao Yuxuan let out a shrill cry.
Gao Yuxuan pushed his superpower to a level he had never reached before.
More than a dozen bolts of electricity pierced through the barrier and struck at the heads of the zombies surrounding Cui Haiyang.
Cui Haiyang instantly reshaped the iron framework, forming it into a cage around himself. Blades shot outward from the cage as well. Roaring, Cui Haiyang rammed the iron cage in every direction, trying to carve out a path to survive.
Cui Haiyang had always been the soul of their team.
The moment they saw him trapped, the fire-, metal-, and earth-type superpowered individuals frantically unleashed their abilities at the zombies around him.
But it was useless.
The zombies closed in layer after layer.
They blocked everyone’s view.
Layer after layer.
Soon, nothing could be seen at all.
Suddenly, a tentacle flung something into the air.
An object spun rapidly, hung suspended for a moment, then came crashing down onto the barrier before bouncing away violently.
Gao Yuxuan saw it clearly.
It was the iron cage Cui Haiyang had just formed.
Gao Yuxuan cried out in a voice torn apart by grief, “Haiyang—!”
Despair swept through everyone’s hearts, including Su Yu’s.
Even with so many people in front of her, she could still see the giants in the distance.
They stood there, unmoving, refusing to advance.
Su Yu knew that if so many giants joined the attack, the time the barrier could hold out would be cut in half.
Su Yu’s voice turned sharp. The girl who normally spoke softly and gently shouted, “Brother Zhou! Tell everyone to retreat! Retreat! Get everyone into the vehicles! I’ll hold them off! Fall back! I’ll hold them off!”
Zhou Wang had just withdrawn from the front line. Both his arms were trembling.
With zombies packed so densely together, even he did not dare leave the protection of the barrier. His wind-based superpower was useless here; all he could rely on was brute arm strength.
His muscles were cramping from overuse and pain.
Retreat?
Zhou Wang looked at the backs of his companions, fighting desperately at the front.
Then he turned and looked behind them.
No.
The zombies had gathered on the west side because everyone was facing them head-on. They were all concentrated there.
If they climbed into the vehicles and retreated, the commotion would be too great. The zombies would simply go around the barrier and pursue them.
There were countless speed-type zombies.
There were countless mutated zombies, and no one knew what special abilities they possessed.
And farther away stood so many giant zombies that they were enough to make anyone lose their nerve.
“Losing one’s nerve” could sometimes be an objective description.
That was exactly what had happened to Zhou Wang.
He looked at the densely packed front line to the west, then at the empty rear to the east.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The roars and screams sounded so faint in his ears, so unreal.
Zhou Wang did not want to die.
He had been given a wind-based superpower by heaven precisely so he would not die. That was how he had always understood it.
How could he die here?
Zhou Wang’s lips trembled.
“N-no, we can’t. We won’t get away like that,” he said. “Y-you hold on. I...”
His speech went from stammering to fluent in an instant. “I’ll take some people around to the rear and draw their attention. Once I pull them away from here, everyone else can retreat.”
At that moment, Su Yu had no capacity to think.
There were too many zombies. Many of the mutated zombies were immensely powerful, strong enough to exceed what the barrier could neutralize. The excess force rebounded onto Su Yu’s body to a certain degree.
On the night of the earthquake, every bone in her body had fractured. Only Zhang Lesi had managed to drag her back from the gates of death.
Now, every part of her body hurt.
“Move faster! Faster!” she shouted.
Whatever he was going to do, he had to do it quickly!
Zhou Wang answered, “All right! All right! Hold on! You have to hold on!”
Then he turned and ran.
Su Yu thought he had gone to “lead them away.” He had said he was going around to the back to draw the zombies’ attention.
But Zhou Wang was simply running east.
Just as one foot stepped outside the protective barrier, Zhou Wang suddenly remembered something.
He hesitated for a moment, then turned and sped into a house.
Three little tykes were hiding inside, too frightened to make a sound.
Zhou Wang rushed in and yanked them to their feet. “Come on! You’re coming with me!”
The flatbed cart they had used to transport the iron stove the night before was right in front of the house. Zhou Wang put the three children on it. “Sit tight and hold on!”
Air currents condensed around him and rose, lifting the flatbed cart slightly off the ground as it fought against gravity.
Zhou Wang started running, dragging the cart and bursting out through the eastern side of the protective barrier.
He left everyone behind—Su Yu and Gao Yuxuan included—and fled alone with the three little tykes.
Su Yu’s pupils suddenly widened.