Chapter 127: Death by a Thousand Cuts
The collapsing sky, the trembling earth, the towering inferno, and the girl, bathed in an ethereal glow, like a vengeful deity – these images flashed through Wu Hejun’s mind, a torrent of fragmented memories from her prophetic visions.
The increasing pressure, the fading will to resist, made it almost impossible for her to stand, her head forced downwards.
Like bowing in submission.
If she didn’t resist, if her forehead touched the ground, the force, like a hydraulic press crushing an egg, would crush her skull.
I’ll die…
I’ll die!!!
No… I can’t fall here… this isn’t her true power! She’s just using the forest!
If I can just hold on, Anan can burn this city down… he can do it… he has most of the precious, rare blood crystal serum injectors, he has more than enough energy…
She hadn’t ordered him to burn the forest in a circle, to cut off the girl’s energy supply; she had seen the outcome of that strategy in her fragmented visions.
Burning just a small section of the forest wouldn’t stop them; they were interconnected, their roots intertwined.
As long as their roots remained connected, the forest’s regenerative abilities would outpace her attacks.
The only way to win was to force the trees to divert their energy, to spread it thin, weakening their focus on the girl.
I just have to hold on, wait for Anan…
This destroyer… isn’t invincible.
And this level of pressure… it can’t kill me!
Don’t panic, Wu Hejun!
“Zzzt—”
Steeling her resolve, she unleashed her power, her body crackling with red lightning.
The light intensified, like a miniature blood-red sun, outshining the emerald green glow on the girl’s right.
Like a clash of superpowers in a comic book.
“Crackle—”
A bolt of red lightning shot towards the girl’s head, a flash of light momentarily disrupting her vision, but causing no real damage.
She needed a more… substantial projectile.
“Zzzt—”
Firing the “flashbang,” Wu Hejun scrambled towards a nearby, vine-covered car.
“Screech—”
She slid behind the car, her legs, rapidly regenerating, almost able to support her weight.
Crouching behind the vehicle, she raised her hand, aiming at the car, concentric rings of electromagnetic energy forming, crackling with power.
Die—!
Just as she was about to unleash her attack, she noticed something.
Hadn’t there only been a green glow where that girl was standing?
But now, the green was fading, replaced by countless tiny, flickering red lights within the vines and trees.
Like… hundreds of glowing red eyes staring at her from the darkness…
What… is that…?
She hesitated.
“Pop—”
“Pop—”
A series of soft popping sounds, and she saw what those red dots were.
Eggs?!
Countless eggs were hatching within the vines and trees behind the girl, small, red insects emerging.
What the… fuck… is this ability?!
Wu Hejun had survived five years in the apocalypse, built a powerful organization, encountered countless zombies and Awakened. Her organization had cataloged almost every type of zombie in central and southern China.
But she had never seen anything like this…
She couldn’t comprehend it.
Even the building-trees were understandable, but these insects…
She aborted her attack; a railgun wouldn’t be effective against such a large number of insects, it would just waste her energy.
“Buzz—”
The insects swarmed towards her.
“Damn it…”
“Boom—”
She unleashed her defensive ability, a series of electromagnetic rings erupting from her body, forming a hemispherical shield of lightning.
Any insect that touched the electric field was instantly incinerated.
“Haaa—”
With a roar, she pushed the electric field forward, the dense web of red lightning advancing, consuming the insects in its path.
“Useless! Useless! Useless! Useless!!!”
“Let’s see!!!”
“What else！！！”
“You’ve got!!!”
“Bitch!!!”
With a furious roar, she accelerated the thirty-meter-radius electric sphere, launching it towards the swarm.
“Crackle—”
“Zzzt—”
The insects were incinerated on contact, the massive electric sphere, seemingly unstoppable, hurtling towards the girl.
“Hahahaha!!!”
Seeing the swarm annihilated, Wu Hejun chuckled, relieved.
See? Just don’t panic.
These abilities… all show, no substance.
Don’t be fooled by the prophecy, its fragmented visions not always accurate, don’t listen to that voice!!!
Her confidence returned, the red glow in her eyes stabilizing.
And someone else, bathed in the emerald green light, also felt a surge of confidence.
Such abundant energy… an endless supply…
This level of power… Lin Jiayao hadn’t felt this even with the B-rank fifth zombie.
And with this… sap… she could amplify Crystal Resonance to B-rank levels!
Just before the electric sphere reached her, she had used [Vascular Network] to connect to the surrounding vines.
The connection had been instantaneous, surprisingly easy.
She had initially thought the Vascular Network just prevented the trees from attacking her, allowing her to create Building-Tree Guardians.
But she had become… the network’s controller. Sharing their abilities, possessing consciousness and intelligence, she had been recognized as… a superior being.
And so, instinctively, the building-trees had poured their energy into her, protecting her from the lightning strike, regardless of the cost.
The protective shield wasn’t her own ability, but theirs.
And after almost thirty seconds of semi-consciousness, she had adapted, strengthening her connection to the network.
Just now, using only a small amount of the tree’s energy, with [Blood Crystal Zombification], she had summoned a massive swarm of red insects.
Although quickly destroyed, it had given her a sense of the trees’ power.
With such abundant energy, she could focus it all on a single ability, amplifying it to B-rank levels.
Like now, facing the approaching electric sphere, Lin Jiayao extended her hands.
Tendril Proliferation. Myriad Tendrils.
“Gurgle—”
A surge of sap flowed through the vines into her body, converting into a massive wave of tendrils that erupted from her hands.
She had become a conduit, a living transformer, absorbing and then redirecting the energy.
“Rip—”
The tendrils burst through her palms, tearing her skin, spraying blood.
Like a cast fishing net, the tendrils, fueled by the tree’s energy, spread outwards, forming a massive blood-red web.
The web caught the electric sphere, halting its advance.
More tendrils emerged, replacing those incinerated by the electricity, pushing back against the electric sphere, forcing it back with their sheer mass.
The probing attack was over.
“Thud—Thud—”
“Buzz—”
Several sharp bone spikes erupted from the back of Lin Jiayao’s neck, extending towards Wu Hejun, accompanied by a loud buzzing as Crystal Resonance, fueled by the trees’ energy, restricted Wu Hejun’s movements, pinning her to the ground.
Wu Hejun coughed up blood, watching helplessly as the bone spikes approached.
“Zzzt—”
Just as red lightning began to crackle around her body, the first bone spike pierced her shoulder.
She froze, as if stunned, her left hand, which had been charging an attack, falling limply to her side.
Warning alarms blared in her mind.
Those spikes… dangerous…
Not ordinary bone spikes!
She struggled to stand, to escape, but as she looked up, despair washed over her.
Countless bone spikes now surrounded her… the one she’d severed earlier, just one of many.
As if the hunter was toying with its prey, the spikes, waiting for her to raise her head, began to close in, one of them piercing her neck, severing her spine.
Instantly, she lost control of her body.
But she was still conscious, watching helplessly as her body stood, pushing aside the bone spikes, walking towards the girl.
No… No… NO!!!
Panic surged through her as she struggled to regain control, but it was futile.
Her body and her mind were now separate entities, trapped within the same shell.
“We… we have no quarrel…” she mumbled, but a bone spike, erupting from her spine, pierced her throat, silencing her.
“No quarrel?”
The bone spikes supporting the girl’s body shifted, bringing her closer to the now kneeling Wu Hejun.
Hearing those words, Lin Jiayao almost laughed.
The arduous journey, the countless near-death experiences, the mental strain of constantly logging into zombies, seeing her sister injured…
And now she was saying they had “no quarrel”?
Lin Jiayao, controlling the bone spikes, paced in front of Wu Hejun, who could only stare at her with wide, terrified eyes, unable to move or speak.
“Yes, no quarrel… no quarrel…” The girl murmured, then, as if suddenly remembering something, stopped pacing and looked at Wu Hejun, a faint smile on her face. “You want to… regain control of your body, don’t you? Alright.”
Wu Hejun watched as the bone spike in her neck was slowly withdrawn.
“Gah… ugh… AAAAAH—”
The excruciating pain of shattering bones made her scream, blood spurting from her mouth.
Even her B-rank mental fortitude couldn’t withstand this; she was about to lose consciousness.
Let me faint… let me faint… death would be a mercy…
But just as darkness threatened to consume her, the girl with the angelic face bent down and cupped her face in her hands.
“Don’t die yet. I still have so much to tell you about our… ‘quarrel.’”
And as she spoke those chilling words, a tendril pierced Wu Hejun’s heart, a surge of blood crystal energy keeping her conscious, preventing her from escaping the pain.
“Let me see… how did our ‘quarrel’ begin…? Let me think…”
The girl closed her eyes, then opened them, a cruel smile on her face. “It started with… that woman, at the first camp we encountered after escaping Guangdong Province.”
“The one the Voodoo Cult took over.”
“What was she like? Hmm… let me describe her to you.”
Four bone spikes gripped Wu Hejun’s limbs and, as she screamed, her voice hoarse and broken, slowly pulled, severing them.
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