Hiss!

"Die!"

"Twin Blade Chokehold!"

Ye Chen stood at the threshold like a god of war, his black hair whipping in the air. The fire axe in his hand moved like an impenetrable shield. When a large crowd of zombies charged, he switched to "Whirlwind Dragon Slash." When only a few zombies remained, he used "Twin Blade Chokehold."

He constantly rotated between the two techniques, feeling his stamina drain rapidly. A tearing sensation shot up his arms, as if his tendons had been ripped—a pain that would fell an ordinary person caused him only to slightly furrow his brow, acknowledging that his arms were overloaded and couldn't sustain the strain much longer.

Looking up, the roaring assault washed over him, deafening. The putrid stench from the zombies' mouths was intensely sharp. Although over a hundred zombies lay dead at his feet, seventy or eighty more were still surging forward in a dense mass.

Ye Chen was beginning to struggle.

A normal person with the strength of thirty, facing nearly two hundred zombies, each possessing the strength of six, would either be killed or crushed. He owed his survival to the dual techniques of Whirlwind Dragon Slash and Twin Blade Chokehold.

"This can't go on; my strength will be depleted," Ye Chen muttered, his eyes narrowing. He glanced back at Ye Zhu and the others, then quickly ordered, "Bailong, go find a gas cylinder."

Bailong started, then immediately understood. He dashed up to the second floor, rummaged through a room, and rushed back down carrying a half-full gas cylinder, handing it to Ye Chen. He asked with surprise, "If you detonate that, won't you blow yourself up too?"

Ye Chen said nothing. He tossed the fire axe to Bailong, turned, grasped the gas cylinder, and swung it like a sledgehammer toward the horde of zombies.

"Damn, using it as a weapon?" Bailong was dumbfounded.

Just then, the cylinder smashed into four or five zombies, denting its side. Ye Chen swiftly pulled a lighter from his pocket, flicked it, and hurled the gas cylinder toward the cluster of undead. The immense force bowled over several more zombies. As the cylinder’s momentum waned, about to hit the ground, Ye Chen threw the lit lighter at it.

In that instant, time seemed to slow down. All the zombies appeared to be moving in slow motion...

The lighter streaked across the air in a dead-straight trajectory, finally colliding with the gas cylinder—

BANG!

A brilliant spark erupted from the impact, instantly followed by a deafening explosion that shook the entire street!

BOOM!!!

Shrapnel tore through the air, piercing the skulls of countless zombies. A wave of fire swept the area, engulfing the dozens of undead in a sea of flame.

The moment he threw the lighter, Ye Chen had already dropped to the ground, thus avoiding any injury.

Moments later, the intense heat subsided. Ye Chen looked up to see utter devastation. Zombies lay sprawled everywhere. In the center, the ground was scorched black, and the few zombies nearby were horribly burned, their skin peeling away in gruesome fashion.

Roar!

The zombies farther away, not yet completely dead, struggled to crawl toward Ye Chen from the ground.

Ye Chen walked over, his expression cold. He stomped on one skull, crushing it, then turned to Bailong, "Hurry up and collect the Jihua; it’s getting dark."

Bailong emerged from behind, his jaw dropping when he saw the field of dead zombies outside. "Holy hell, that actually worked!"

The group began working quickly, rapidly harvesting the Jihua from the zombie bodies. Mo Feng merely watched, silent; no one could discern his thoughts.

Before long, everything was packed up, and the party set off toward the research institute.

Zhuge Fan, her large, expressive eyes darting around the rapidly darkening twilight, saw the pervasive silence and felt a surge of fear. She whispered timidly, "Nothing’s going to charge out at us now, right?"

Bailong retorted irritably, "How could that happen!"

"Stop!"

Ahead of the group, Ye Chen suddenly halted, bending down to press his ear to the ground. His expression shifted slightly. He stood up and commanded, "Move! Monsters are heading this way!"

"Huh?" Bailong’s eyes widened, then he turned to look at Zhuge Fan as if he’d seen a ghost. "Damn, you called it exactly right."

Zhuge Fan’s face flushed crimson, and she stammered, unable to reply.

The group quickly gathered their things and sprinted toward the institute. Fortunately, after a short run, the building was in sight. They filed inside, locked the windows, and retreated into the inner research laboratory.

In the lab, the windows were all bulletproof glass; ordinary zombies couldn't break through.

Soon after, a massive shadow rushed past outside, lingering for a moment before moving on.

"Can you give me that Jihua?" Mo Feng suddenly approached Ye Zhu while she was cleaning the harvested material, speaking calmly.

Ye Zhu paused, surprised. "Why?"

Mo Feng explained, "If you consume it directly like this, the excess energy will be wasted. I can try to process it into a gene serum; that way, we can maximize the utilization of the Jihua's energy."

Ye Zhu frowned slightly, clearly hesitant.

"Give it to him!" At that moment, Ye Chen walked in from outside and said quietly.

Ye Zhu looked at him, then finally nodded. "Alright!"

Mo Feng glanced at Ye Chen in surprise but said nothing, accepting the large bag of Jihua before disappearing into the underground workshop.

"Why did you give it to him? What if..." Ye Zhu sounded worried.

Ye Chen shook his head. "I’ll check on him later. Don't worry."

Gene serum! In the later years, the Jihua from many monster bloodlines had been processed into serums for easier consumption, ensuring not a single bit of energy was wasted. Consuming it raw always resulted in some unabsorbed energy loss.

After dinner, Ye Chen descended to the basement. He saw Mo Feng pouring the entire bag of Jihua into a machine tank on the workbench, subjecting it to crushing, compression, extraction, and a series of other processes.

He wore white gloves for every step, his demeanor intensely focused. He was clearly familiar with extracting energy and genes from blood; he appeared highly proficient.

Before long, a cup of milky-white liquid was dispensed from a nozzle and handed to Ye Chen. Mo Feng said impassively, "Try it."

Ye Chen smiled and accepted the cup with his long, fair hand, taking a small sip. It was cool with a faint fragrance—a nostalgic taste, exactly like what he’d consumed in his previous life. He nodded, satisfied. "Not bad!"

Mo Feng nodded back, looked at Ye Chen, and suddenly asked, "How did you know there was Jihua inside the zombies?"

Ye Chen gave a slight smile. "Some things, if you know them, you just know. There's no need for a reason."

Mo Feng studied him a moment longer, then turned, picking up a laptop from a nearby table. "The apocalypse began on September 1st, 2013, at 7 PM, originating from a research institute in North America. This is a preliminary guide to the cataclysm."

...

Recommend tickets, tickets, tickets, tickets, tickets... There will be a surge next week, and I'll add extra chapters, extra chapters, extra chapters...